Modern Version of Christianity 8

January 20, 2017

The whole evangelical world is to a large extent unfavorable to healthy Christianity. And I am not thinking of Modernism either. I mean rather the Bible-believing crowd that bears the name of orthodoxy. We may as well face it; the whole level of spirituality is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. Large and influential sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian. They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. (A.W. Tozer)

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!… 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Could it possibly be that the majority (if not vast majority) of professing churches are those that are “sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian. They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost”? Could it be true that what is thought to be Reformed in our day would not have been considered by Calvin and Luther as Reformed? Could it be that we have accepted the husks of Christianity today and have cast off the true fruit?

Again, Tozer was speaking to those who professed to believe the Bible and were even orthodox. Could it be that one can have a solid profession of the Bible, be orthodox, and yet not believe the heart of Christianity? Have the Pharisees in our day, though they speak against the Pharisees in the time of Jesus, have followed stringent rules (like tithing mint and cumin) and yet have broken and violated the greater laws of the heart? Could it be that we have ministers and college and seminary professors who are straining out gnats (being very precise in their morality and doctrine) and yet they are blind guides who swallow camels? Could it be that the most religious people in our day are those who look great on the outside but on the inside they value their salaries, the sales of their books and electronic materials, which make them guilty of self-indulgence?

It is far easier to be a critic of the scribes and Pharisees than it is not to be one. The scribes and the Pharisees were the religious elite of that day and they were the ones that held the respected positions of orthodoxy, wrote the books (scrolls), and blasted the non-orthodox. They were the ones that claimed the history of Judaism and had the scholars on their sides, yet despite their great learning and outwardly holy lives they were haters and enemies of the true and living God. They were precisely like whitewashed tombs which in their man-made religion and man-made rules and laws looked beautiful in the eyes of men and yet their hearts were like a tomb that was full of bones and uncleanness. These whitewashed men, who looked holy and highly educated and orthodox, yet they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. In their stringent ways of keeping the law they were in fact lawless.

The Pharisees were the moralists, the legalists, and the orthodox people of the time of Jesus. In the 1500’s Roman Catholicism had men who were moralists, legalists, and yet were thought to be orthodox. Both had history on their side and pointed to history and their agreement with it as the basis for why they were right. Jesus came and poked huge holes in the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Luther came along and poked huge holes in the self-righteousness of Roman Catholicism. If history has repeated itself in our day, will we be swept along by all the external things and yet are vile in the eyes of God? Will we be content with anything less than the free-grace of God in Christ Jesus? Will we be content with orthodoxy? Will we be content with a version of history? Will we be content with our own self-righteousness? We must have Christ in our hearts in reality or we do not have Christ at all.

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Modern Version of Christianity 7

January 19, 2017

The whole evangelical world is to a large extent unfavorable to healthy Christianity. And I am not thinking of Modernism either. I mean rather the Bible-believing crowd that bears the name of orthodoxy. We may as well face it; the whole level of spirituality is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. Large and influential sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian. They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. (A.W. Tozer)

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!… 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

One of the most obvious things about the modern version of Christianity is the absence of the Spirit. While there may be a fair amount of teaching about the Spirit at times, that is a far different thing than having the presence of the Spirit. Even more, that is a far different thing than relying upon the Spirit to do His work and for us human beings to sink into nothingness before Him. After all, we are told that the reason it is by faith is in order that it may be by grace (Rom 4:16). This should bring many things to mind, but one is that faith is not a work of the self that brings something from God. Faith is not what we do, but instead it is what God does in us. True faith should seek the Spirit and His guidance and wisdom.

If we think of “spirituality” as the things that the Spirit does, we will have a fairly close idea to how Tozer is using the term. One can focus a lot on the work of the Spirit as can be seen in certain circles and yet the real issue is nothing but materialism and self-effort. While the work of the Spirit is given lip-service in certain circles while rationality and moralism is what drives things, in other circles the Spirit is focused on and yet His real work is ignored and perhaps unknown. The real work of the Spirit is to convict sinners of sin, or righteousness, and of judgment to come. The real work of the Spirit is to regenerate sinners and illumine the saints with light. It is the Spirit who opens eyes to the truth and shows the glory of it. It is the Spirit who alone can empower the weak and show the strong their weakness.

What has happened in our day is that we have turned to man-pleasing ways to get people in the doors of the buildings and to extract money from their wallets. If we have attracted people by our man-pleasing ways, then we must keep them by more of the same, but perhaps we have to do things in an ever increasing excitement level to keep them. Those who do not love the true Christ have to be entertained or their false religion encouraged by good works and perhaps orthodox teaching. As we think of what is going on in the professing churches today, what are people doing to attract people? What are people doing to keep people?

But of course the smug person or the smug professing church will say that they teach orthodoxy. So did the Pharisees. Orthodoxy can be taught to the natural man and the natural man will stick around an orthodox place because it pleases self. Let us not think that orthodox churches are not touched by these things, but instead they just use differing ways to get people in the door and then keep them. It is Christ Himself who must be held out and it is Christ Himself and His cross which must be preached. It is only the Spirit who can attract men to the crucified Savior and it is only the Spirit who can keep men attracted to the crucified Savior. While Christ-centeredness is a truth that we can never get away from, let us also remember that a professing church with all the truth in the world is still far from the kingdom apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.

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Preaching Christ 7

January 18, 2017

They doat about the letter of the law, but are strangers to the spirituality of it; and, as far as the glorious gospel of the blessed God, they cannot preach it. They may talk about the one God, about the Holy Trinity, and the trinity in unity; about the divinity of Christ, and the unity of two natures in him; about the ancient settlements of eternity, and preach up what they may call the important doctrines of election and predestination, particular redemption, and effectual vocation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, efficacious grace, and final perseverance, and yet at the same time be as destitute of the gospel of Christ as Satan himself. Men may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and be nothing (I Cor 13:1-2). Yea more, be destitute both of the law and of the gospel; and be no more than the letter of the law and the word of the gospel. But the law is spiritual, and that is more than letter; and the gospel of the kingdom stands in power, and power is more than word. (William Huntington, 1745-1813)

John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

If it is true that apart from Christ, that is, that apart from abiding in Him and Him abiding in the person and so all true spiritual fruit must come from Him, then it is clear that true spiritual preaching is impossible apart from Christ. Now it is true that virtually all people with any semblance of belief in the Bible and of Christ would agree with the previous statement, but that does not mean that they understand what it means. It means that all “preaching” that is not the fruit of abiding in Christ and of Christ abiding in the preacher is not spiritual preaching and has no spiritual fruit. What comes from the preacher is from the preacher rather than coming from Christ.

We know from the Scriptures that no one can come to the Father apart from Christ, yet no one can come to Christ unless the Father is drawing that person. We also know that all those who have truly seen Christ have seen the Father. We can see the clear teaching of this truth from the passages below and many others. Part of this clear teaching below gives us some idea of what Jesus is teaching regarding the Father being the vinedresser and Himself as the true vine.

John 14:8 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 ‘

John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

We must be drawn by the Father to the Son and yet when we truly behold the Son we behold the Father. This is at least part of what it means to preach Christ. In preaching Christ we are to preach Him in such a way where the Father is pointed to as being one with the Son and it is the glory of the Father that is being seen in the shining forth of Christ who was sent by the Father. We are to preach Christ with the view that the Father may draw sinners to Himself through the preaching of Christ. But it must be stressed over and over and in different ways that the mention of Christ and even talking about Christ is not the same thing as preaching Christ. It is not enough to mention the cross, but the cross must be preached. It is not enough to mention the Gospel here and there, the Gospel must be preached.

Once again the point should be clear that it takes Christ to preach Christ. It takes Christ as the vine working in His branches to bear spiritual fruit and there is no other place to obtain spiritual fruit. For there to be true preaching, then, the preacher must have Christ and must know Christ. True preaching does not just require the preacher to intellectually know doctrine, to know stories, and also to be moral; but the preacher must abide in Christ and Christ must abide in him in order for the preacher to preach Christ and bear spiritual fruit. That which is said to be “preaching” and yet is not from the heart of a man who is abiding in Christ and what the man says is not the spiritual fruit that comes from Christ is not true preaching.

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Preaching Christ 6

January 17, 2017

They doat about the letter of the law, but are strangers to the spirituality of it; and, as far as the glorious gospel of the blessed God, they cannot preach it. They may talk about the one God, about the Holy Trinity, and the trinity in unity; about the divinity of Christ, and the unity of two natures in him; about the ancient settlements of eternity, and preach up what they may call the important doctrines of election and predestination, particular redemption, and effectual vocation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, efficacious grace, and final perseverance, and yet at the same time be as destitute of the gospel of Christ as Satan himself. Men may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and be nothing (I Cor 13:1-2). Yea more, be destitute both of the law and of the gospel; and be no more than the letter of the law and the word of the gospel. But the law is spiritual, and that is more than letter; and the gospel of the kingdom stands in power, and power is more than word. (William Huntington, 1745-1813)

John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Preaching Christ is either a fruit of the Spirit or it is a fruit of the flesh. It is clear from Galatians 5 that love, joy, peace, patience and so is a fruit of the Spirit. In other words, if one is to preach with joy and love then one must have the Spirit work those things in the soul. It is not just a matter of preaching sound words or orthodox words, the soul that preaches must preach by the power of the Spirit which is to say with the work and fruit of the Spirit. If the text of Scripture just above (John 15) is correct, then there can be no preaching unless the preacher is abiding in Christ and Christ is abiding in him.

Huntington’s comments above have a powerful implication as well. A person can preach a lot with all mysteries and knowledge, yet be destitute of the spiritual application of the law and of the gospel of the kingdom. This is another way of stating John 15 which teaches us that apart from Christ we can do nothing (spiritual or truly good). In other words, for us to do anything spiritual at all it must come from Christ first. All spiritual fruit is from Christ and that means that true spiritual preaching must come from Christ as well. The preacher can fill the brain with all sorts of information, even if the information is correct and orthodox, but apart from the preaching being the fruit that comes from Christ that preaching is dead.

This should awaken and alarm preachers. They can give themselves to reading history, theology, and to commentaries, but unless their preaching is spiritual fruit which can only come from abiding in Christ and His abiding in them, their preaching is the fruit of the flesh. A sharp mind can figure out many of the external teachings of the Bible, and this can be seen by the Pharisees and by many men who have been ministers for years before they were either converted or they apostatized. It is not that hard to make up speeches from the Bible and about the Bible, but preaching as a fruit of the Spirit is something far different. Preaching that is the fruit that comes from the Vine is something that no natural man can attain.

While it may sound radical and even mystical, it takes Christ to preach Christ. It takes a man who is abiding in Christ and has Christ abiding in him to preach Christ. It takes a man who receives all from Christ by grace alone to truly preach Christ. It takes Christ as the person’s life to preach a true and living sermon. A sermon that is the fruit of the Spirit is a spiritual sermon and is fruit that glorifies God in and through Christ. A sermon that comes from Christ Himself will be to the glory of the Father through Christ. The Lord Jesus was the very manifestation of the Father and strove to manifest and glorify the Father in all He did while on earth. There will no nothing different (in that sense) in the preaching of those He dwells in and works to glorify the Father through. Preaching, then, does not depend on how smart or even how orthodox a man is, but instead it depends on how humbled and broken the man is in order to receive all from Christ so that the preaching is truly Christ Himself working His words and Person in and through the human instrument who is said to preach.

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Preaching Christ 5

January 16, 2017

They doat about the letter of the law, but are strangers to the spirituality of it; and, as far as the glorious gospel of the blessed God, they cannot preach it. They may talk about the one God, about the Holy Tirinity, and the trinity in unity; about the divinity of Christ, and the unity of two natures in him; about the ancient settlements of eternity, and preach up what they may call the important doctrines of election and predestination, particular redemption, and effectual vocation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, efficacious grace, and final perseverance, and yet at the same time be as destitute of the gospel of Christ as Satan himself. Men may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and be nothing (I Cor 13:1-2). Yea more, be destitute both of the law and of the gospel; and be no more than the letter of the law and the word of the gospel. But the law is spiritual, and that is more than letter; and the gospel of the kingdom stands in power, and power is more than word. (William Huntington, 1745-1813)

It is so hard to communicate what it means to preach Christ in our day. Many think that they are preaching Christ when they preach morality because they are preaching what they think is the morality of Christ. Others think that they are preaching Christ when they preach doctrine because they think that they are preaching the truths of Christ. Others think that they are preaching Christ when they are preaching a text of Scripture. Others think that they are preaching Christ when they use the word “Christ” or when they speak of Christ or perhaps mention the cross of Christ at the end of a sermon.

The Gospel cannot be preached apart from the preacher having Christ as his life and of Christ teaching that man in the inward man. It does sound rather mystical to many, but this is simply to say that we must have spiritual knowledge of Christ and be taught of Christ. If that is mystical, then Christianity is mystical. If preaching is as Calvin said, then preaching is really a man that God has prepared to be His mouthpiece and He speaks through that man. When a man that God has prepared to preach and that man preaches, then in one very real sense when that man preaches God is speaking. That does not mean that the sermons are “God-breathed” or inspired as the Scriptures are, but that the man is speaking forth from God.

We can use an analogy to point this out. The work of the Spirit is to illuminate. However, the Spirit must not just illuminate the text; He must bring light into the soul and thus illuminate the person as well as the text. The same thing is true of preaching. The preacher must be taught something of the text, yes, but he must also be taught in the inward man and that only happens by conformity of the soul to Christ. When Christ teaches a man, He does not just teach him what the text says, but He teaches the man a spiritual meaning and in that the man will be conformed Himself. The man who is to preach must know something of the meaning of the text, but more important is that the man be conformed to Christ by Christ Himself.

We can also see this illustrated by the Gospel itself. The Gospel is not just a message as such, but it is the message of Christ and the work of Christ. The Gospel is not just words of Christ and what He does, it is about what He actually will carry out in the soul of sinners that He calls to Himself. We see this in the following text: “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” (2 Cor 4:6). It is not just that God promises light, but He shines in the heart to give that light and be that light in Christ. In order to preach this, then, the preacher must have the light of God in the soul and know something of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ in order to preach the Gospel. The Gospel is not just relating the facts; it is also proclaiming the glory of God from a heart that has had God work those truths in the soul.

Preaching Christ is not just giving a lecture about biblical facts, it is the soul of a man that has been conformed to Christ by Christ and His message declaring the Christ who is his life and declaring that in a spiritual way. Preaching Christ, then, comes from a heart that God Himself has taught in illuminating the text, illuminating the inward part of man, and then teaching the man by conforming the whole soul to Christ. Only the man can preach who preaches his own heart when he is preaching Christ who is his life and also has been conformed to Christ. This is not some mystical way of doing things, it is the work of Christ in the heart. In beholding Christ and His glory a man is conformed to Christ from glory to glory. Preaching, then, is when a man who has been conformed to Christ and His glory is relating the Christ of Scripture and his own heart as he beholds that glory and testifies to it.

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Preaching Christ 4

January 15, 2017

They doat about the letter of the law, but are strangers to the spirituality of it; and, as far as the glorious gospel of the blessed God, they cannot preach it. They may talk about the one God, about the Holy Tirinity, and the trinity in unity; about the divinity of Christ, and the unity of two natures in him; about the ancient settlements of eternity, and preach up what they may call the important doctrines of election and predestination, particular redemption, and effectual vocation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, efficacious grace, and final perseverance, and yet at the same time be as destitute of the gospel of Christ as Satan himself. Men may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and be nothing (I Cor 13:1-2). Yea more, be destitute both of the law and of the gospel; and be no more than the letter of the law and the word of the gospel. But the law is spiritual, and that is more than letter; and the gospel of the kingdom stands in power, and power is more than word. (William Huntington, 1745-1813)

There is “preaching” that is talking about Christ, but there is preaching that is full of Christ. There is “preaching” that is about a false Christ, but there is true preaching that is full of the true Christ. There is preaching that is nothing more than a lecture or an energetic lecture, but there is true preaching that is from Christ Himself. There is “preaching” that is from the religious self, but there true is preaching that is from the life of Christ who dwells in the soul of man. There is “preaching” that is from the fleshly self, but there is true preaching from the spiritual self. This is to say that just because a man stands up in front of people and delivers and orthodox message about the Bible is not to say that the man has truly preached.

While this is most likely repetition from things before, it is still a vital need in the professing Church. A very learned man can stand in front of a congregation and give a very learned lecture on a particular doctrine, and while that may be true and even fine, it is not the same thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified. A man may stand in front of a congregation of professing believers and may give them a heated and even tearful message, but that is not the same thing as the true preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The preaching of Christ is a spiritual message from a spiritual man, that is, from a man who has the life of Christ in him and is preaching by the power of the Spirit of God.

The power of preaching is not the power of a powerful intellect. The power of preaching is not the power of good speaking skills. The power of preaching is not because one lives a moral life. The power of preaching is not because a person has a great knowledge of the Bible. The power of preaching is a spiritual power and nothing less than that. Each and all of the things listed above (and more), except spiritual power, can occur by the speaking of an unbelieving person. There must be a huge difference between the truly spiritual man preaching by the power of the Spirit and the unbeliever preaching by the power of self and self-love.

It should be easy to see, then, that there should be a major difference in the “preaching” of a man powered by the spirit of self and self-love than the one truly preaching by the power of the Spirit of Christ. The doctrines of grace can be preached by the unbeliever and be preached by the power of a vast knowledge and powerful speaking and personality. However, only the true believer who is taught of the Spirit can preach Christ and Him crucified in the midst of these great doctrines of grace. The unbeliever has no true taste or experience of these doctrines in a spiritual manner, but instead can only be guided by his mind, talent and feelings.

The true believer who is under the power of the Spirit can preach out of love for God, for people, and for the truth of God which is what the people of God need to hear. The unbeliever cannot preach out of love for God, His people, and a true love for the truth. The reason for this is that the unbeliever cannot love God because the unbeliever is not born of God and does not know God (I John 4:7-8). When the Spirit works the fruit of love in the preacher then there is a true love for God and a true love for human souls in the preacher and that as a fruit of the Spirit will have the power of love and the power of the Spirit attending the preaching. A powerful personality apart from Christ and His Spirit cannot preach Christ crucified because that person is only moved out of love for self. A powerful intellect cannot truly preach Christ because Christ cannot be known only by the intellect. The true preaching of Christ can only be done when the preacher has been taught of Christ and His Spirit and then preaches by the life of Christ in him and the power of love by the Spirit.

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Modern Version of Christianity 6

January 13, 2017

The whole evangelical world is to a large extent unfavorable to healthy Christianity. And I am not thinking of Modernism either. I mean rather the Bible-believing crowd that bears the name of orthodoxy. We may as well face it; the whole level of spirituality is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. Large and influential sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian. They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. (A.W. Tozer)

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!… 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

The words of Tozer at the top of this page are sobering and accurate. They are perhaps more accurate in our day than in his own. Biblical Christianity appears to be virtually out of sight and out of mind. Various forms of legalism or libertinism seem to have swallowed up all that is pure and holy. While we know that the gates of hell will not prevail in reality, the appearance is a different thing. The modern version of Christianity or the modern presentation of Christianity is all smoke and mirrors. Those who claim to believe the Bible and to be conservative believers are as much opposed to the truth of God as anyone. As Stephen Charnock wrote so long ago regarding practical atheism, people deny certain truths of God in their daily lives. The theology and the practices of so many are a denial of the truth of God and of the cross of Christ.

The professing Christianity of today has several manifestations, but all are apart from Christ being the life of His people and His Church. The only true doctrine is a reflection of the truth and glory of the true God, it is not just an intellectual concept of Him. The only true “morality” is not a Judeo-Christian morality, it is true holiness in which Christ dwells in His people and manifests His glory through them. The only true Christianity is not a compilation of miracles and God giving riches to those who can work up a high enough frenzy, it is a group of people that He prunes and works on to make them branches that bear His fruit.

It has been a terrible thing to watch either in person or by reading about the things that people do in our modern day and still take the name of Christ. People seem to have more faith in their creeds than the grace of the living God. People have more faith in the sacraments than the grace of the living God. People have more faith in church membership than the grace of the living God. People have more faith in the practices that they have dreamed up than the grace of the living God. People have more faith in their historical practices than they have in the grace of the living God. People have more faith in their new theology and new interpretations than they do of the grace of the living God. People have more faith in their external religiosity than they do in seeking the face of the living God who can only be found by free-grace alone. People will do virtually anything in the realm of religion rather than seek God by grace alone. Grace leads to the destruction of self, all the things of religion leaves the self intact.

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Sins Blotted Out by Christ

January 11, 2017

First; Concerning the grace that the Lord is pleased to hold forth to his people here, namely, “The blotting out their transgressions and not remembering their sins.” First, let us consider what it is for the Lord to blot out transgressions; it is an usual phrase in the scripture, and imports much comfort in it. It is an allusion, or an allegorical expression; wherein the Lord is pleased to hold forth his love to man, after the manner of men; to set forth his carriage to men, according to theirs one to another.

It is a phrase borrowed from the practice of men, that keep their debt-books, wherein they cuter, and record the several debts men owe them; that so, for the better helping of their memory, they may find what is due, and know what to demand and call for; I say, the Lord here speaking of “blotting out of transgressions,” hath reference to such debt books, wherein he hath recorded the several debts, or sins, which he enters as men commit them; now the blotting out is nothing else, but that, whereas there were such and such transgressions in the record of God, he draws a blot over them. And that he here hath reference to such kind of dealing, in blotting out transgressions, you may see clearly manifested unto you, in Colossians 2:14, where this phrase of blotting out, is explained: “You being dead in your sins, hath he quickened, together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses;” now, mark what follows: “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances which was against us, and was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” what “the hand-writing of ordinances” there is, you may plainly perceive by the words going before, namely, “All our trespasses, and all our sins.” Now the taking away of sin, is called a “blotting it out,” and expressed thus; “The blotting out of the hand-writing that was against us,” because they were, as it were, written down; but the Lord hath razed and blotted them out.

You are not to conceive that there are really such things with God, that he did indeed keep a book, and enter down in it all the several actions of men, and so calling men to account, will open it, and will read out the several firings there written; but the phrase is only an allusion spoken for our better capacity. And, for this cause, you shall find the scripture frequently makes mention of such books God hath. When the seventy disciples came to Christ, rejoicing that the devils were made subject unto them, he replies, “Rejoice not that the devils are made subject unto you, but rejoice, rather, that your names are written in the book of life.” Here is a book, and the names of the disciples written in it; but, if you will mark Revelation 20:12, you will find, there is not only the book of life, but other books besides, out of which the dead, both small and great, were judged, according to their works that they had done; as if he had said, besides the book of life, there is the book of works, wherein the several actions of men are recorded, by which, at the great day, men are to be judged as they are found in them; according to the several debts that are therein, they are to receive their sentence.

Mark, now, for the better apprehension of our weak capacity, the Lord hath taken up such a kind of illustration of his dealing with men; namely, by recording our debts in books; yet, he tells us for our comfort, that, though there be such books, we need not fear; though they shall be opened, yet whatsoever was written in them, in reference to us, is all crossed and blotted out; and, when we come to account, there shall be nothing reckoned unto us, as a fault (Jude 1:24.).                             (Tobias Crisp, Christ Alone Exalted)

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Christ: The Life of the Believer

January 10, 2017

Mark what the apostle saith, “Our life is hid with Christ in God.” It is true, there is a natural life, that may be destroyed as well as the life of a wicked man; but yet the soul of a believer is not destroyed; it is cannon proof, all the devils in hell cannot destroy it; “Christ himself is our life; now, when he shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory.” So that Christ himself must be killed, before our lives shall be destroyed by the enemies. You that are believers have this advantage of your enemies, the unbelievers; you may take away their lives, but they cannot take away yours; they have but one life, a natural life but they that are believers, have a life in Christ; nay he is their life.

Beloved, the Lord intends only your good in all your changes, and that which is best, he provides for you; though your life be taken away from you, where is the hurt or loss? Consider it well, beloved, death is but the opening of the prison doors to let you out; it is but the arrival of a vessel into the haven of rest. What doth the sword do when it enters into a believer? It makes but a change of immortality for mortality, of life for death, of strength for weakness, of glory for shame, of holiness for sin; it doth but pull down a rotten house of clay, to give possession of mansions of glory; it doth but take persons from a cottage at will, to enter into a lordship of inheritance; for it gives full possession of an eternal one. The sword that enters into the breast of a believer, doth but put him into the chamber of the bridegroom, and consummates the marriage of the Lamb to him; it is the fulfilling of the great cry of the saints, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly;” and, “I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.” It takes the bride into communion with her long looked-for beloved, and gives her possession of those things she longed for.

Mistake me not, I speak not all this while against holiness and righteousness, that becomes a people to whom Christ is a way; for holy and righteous they shall be; Christ will make them holy, and put his spirit into them, to change their hearts and to work upon their spirits; but this is not the condition required to partake of Christ. Christ himself gives himself, and then he bestows these things when he is given. I say, Christ is given to men first, before they do anything in the world; and all they do, they do by Christ present in them; “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” We do not so much live, but by the life of Christ, which is life in us. All the actions of life proceed from the soul, now present; how then comes the actions of the soul to be a condition to partake of the soul, that gives life, and, by its presence, works such actions? Christ is the soul of every believer, that animates, and acts the believer in all things whatsoever. Must not this life, Christ, be put into a believer, before he can actuate life, which is a stream springs from that life? How then can this be a condition to receive, to have Christ.

When Christ is first come, by whom these things, that are called conditions, are afterwards wrought, he himself being present to work them? So, say I, God bestows Christ upon men to be a way to bring them to the Father; he is an absolute and free gift. There is no other motive that Christ should be any one’s saviour, than merely the good pleasure of the Father, the bowels of God himself; “Not for thy sake, but for my own sake; not for thy sake, thou art a rebellious and stubborn people, but for my own sake.” Here is the freeness of Christ, to a person coming to him, when he comes merely for God’s sake; and God merely upon his good pleasure will do it, because he will; “He hath mercy upon whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth; it is not in him that willeth, (saith Paul, Romans 9.) nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy.” So that Christ becomes a way unto them, not out of their will, not out of their disposition, not out of their holy walkings, but out of that mercy that proceeds out of the mere will of God; his own good pleasure is the only fountain and spring of it. (Tobias Crisp, Christ Alone Exalted)

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Modern Version of Christianity 5

January 9, 2017

The whole evangelical world is to a large extent unfavorable to healthy Christianity. And I am not thinking of Modernism either. I mean rather the Bible-believing crowd that bears the name of orthodoxy. We may as well face it; the whole level of spirituality is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone. Large and influential sections of the world of fundamental Christianity have gone overboard for practices wholly unscriptural, altogether unjustifiable in the light of historic Christian truth and deeply damaging to the inner life of the individual Christian. They have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. (A.W. Tozer)

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!… 32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

The world is getting worldlier and the professing Church is as well. There is little difference between the professing Church and the world in many ways. As Tozer saw it, those many years ago, the level of spirituality was low. But again, he was speaking of the orthodox camps and not just those who were in the grips of Modernism. Have things changed since then? Yes, they have, but they have changed for the worse. It is true that things change rather slowly from one day to the next, but in terms of what has happened since the days of Tozer there has been an enormous change. Christianity is moralistic on the one hand and heavily rationalistic on the other. Spirituality, however, is a different story. The things of the Spirit, and that has to do with spiritual insight and spiritual knowledge leading to holiness, is something that is hardly ever mentioned in a positive light.

We are satisfied with an intellectual knowledge of the Bible, an intellectual knowledge of Christ, and an external morality rather than to live by grace alone by the power of the Spirit. The Scriptures teach us very clearly that we are to die to self and our life is to be Christ Himself. We are not to live by our own reason even if it is knowledge of the information of the Bible and of a moral life. The Pharisees had vast amounts of knowledge about the Bible and lived a very moral life if judged by the externals. It does not appear that many people are seeking the face of God in our day. It does not appear that many people are living coram deo, that is, in the presence of God. Instead, professing Christianity has become nothing more (in many ways) than another way of self-help.

Self-help (professing) Christianity is much in vogue. Instead of being centered upon God and seeking His face to know Him and glorify Him by grace alone, man is now the center of his own attention and affections. Man wants to hear of a “gospel” (so-called) that enables him to be fulfilled and to make his life easier and better. God is really nothing more (in man’s conception) than a little help when you need and perhaps a cheerleader in the sky. Instead of man seeking God for higher levels of spiritual growth, man now seeks God to give man higher levels of worldliness. The so-called leaders in the professing Church seem to have bought into this and instead of denouncing it; they seem to be going along with it to some degree.

What used to be thought of as ridiculous is now accepted as orthodoxy. Now men seek self-esteem rather than Christ-esteem. As one Puritan writer put it, “the only self-esteem you have is that which you have stolen from Christ.” The self must be denied in order to truly seek Christ. There can be no seeking of self while one is seeking Christ with the whole heart. One cannot love self in the worldly sense if one is to love God with all of the being. One cannot love the world and God at the same time, but now it seems as if God not only gives people permission to seek and love the world, but it appears that all of the Christian practices are to be done in order to get God to give people worldly things. When the level of spirituality is low, the whole of Christianity is changed from seeking God to seeking the world. Orthodoxy is no longer used for godliness and spiritual growth; it is used for personal fulfillment. We have fallen to great lows in our day. Only God can deliver us from it and yet we will not seek Him for Himself, we only want Him to obtain worldly things and to keep us from hard things which deny us the world we love.

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