Justification 19, Humiliation 3

September 18, 2006

For the last two weeks we have been looking at David Brainerd’s quote on the nature and necessity of a person’s being undone in himself which is necessary to a saving faith. David Brainerd used these methods as the basis of his evangelism and for determining true conversion as he went to unreached tribes of Native Americans. As he was close to death, he talked to many people who came to talk to him and it was in light of this that he discoursed on this subject repeatedly. This week we want to look at the part of the statement where he says that there is an “extreme difficulty of being brought to this.” As a reminder, we are looking at justification as the big picture and are trying to see what the biblical teaching of faith will bring to light on this issue.

Especially, I discoursed repeatedly on the nature and necessity of that humiliation, self-emptiness, or full conviction of a person’s being utterly undone in himself, which is necessary in order to a saving faith, and the extreme difficulty of being brought to this; and the great danger there is of persons taking up with some self-righteous appearances of it. The danger of this I especially dwelt upon, being persuaded that multitudes perish in this hidden way; and because so little is said from most pulpits to discover any danger here; so that persons being never effectually brought to die in themselves are never truly united to Christ, and so perish.
(1949 Moody edition of The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, p. 354)

If we look at the New Testament and have it as our authority, we can know that salvation is far harder than many let on. True enough the New Testament teaches that the moment a person has faith that person has Christ and eternal life. But if a person must have humiliation, self-emptiness, and be utterly undone within himself in order to have faith, then the hard part is clear. Jesus taught that one must “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Here is a teaching that many in our day do not know what to do with other than dismiss it. There is a broad way that leads to destruction and there are many that enter through it. Surely, from the context, the majority of people go by the wide gate and the broad way. Whatever else the text teaches, it teaches us that people want the easy way to heaven, though in reality there is no easy way. Then the text teaches us that the gate to life is small and the way is narrow and there are few who find it. Who knows for sure the percentage of people today who have even a modicum of interest in true salvation, but among that percentage it is only a few who actually find it. Surely, then, Brainerd is correct when he says that it is only with extreme difficulty that people are brought to this.

Jesus also taught the same principle in another teaching just a few verses down from the text above. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'” (Matthew 7:22-23). Notice that there are many who will have the correct theology in some sense in that they called Jesus “Lord.” These people preached (prophesied) in His name. These people cast out demons and performed miracles. Yet, whatever else they did, they practiced lawlessness. One can even think of their very actions listed in the text (calling Jesus “Lord,” preaching, casting out demons and performing miracles) as also being lawlessness. This would line up with Isaiah 64:6 which tells us that even our righteous deeds are as filthy garments. Or, in the words of David Brainerd, they were not brought to the point of self-emptiness and the conviction of being utterly undone in themselves. They were simply going around doing these things and yet were not emptied of self.

We can see from another related teaching of Jesus that many people make concerted efforts to be saved. “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24). Many will even seek and strive to enter, but they will not be able. Again, this points to the extreme difficulty of entering the kingdom. But, it might be argued, justification is by faith without works and so how can it be extremely difficult to enter the kingdom since it is all by Christ? That is a good point. However, let us listen to Jesus once more. “Then who can be saved? 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). Salvation is not only difficult to obtain, but is impossible with human beings. Let those words sink into our ears as Jesus said about another of His teachings. Salvation is impossible for human beings.

The doctrine of justification by faith apart from works is not contrary to the teachings of Jesus. David Brainerd did not teach that we are saved by working hard, but that it is hard for a person to give up on self and trust in Christ alone. If I believe that it is my act of faith that saves me, then I have misunderstood the Gospel and have not been humbled, broken from self, and its strength and pride so that I may trust in Christ alone. The person that comes to Christ and trusts in Him alone must of necessity be one as described by Paul in Romans 4: “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works” (Rom 4:5-6). This text, then, sheds great light on the subject of the person that trusts in Christ alone. This person must be one that does not work at all for justification (v. 5).This person believes in God who justifies and does not trust in any work or works that he does or is capable of. This person is one that is ungodly in and of himself (v. 5). This person and this person alone is the one that God credits righteousness apart from works. Why is that? Because this person has no trust in his own work or works and does not trust in himself at all. In Brainerd’s words, this person has been brought to a full conviction that he is utterly undone in himself. This person is humbled and has reached the recognition of his own self-emptiness.

Now if it is true that a person must reach the point of humiliation and self-emptiness and being utterly undone within himself in order to have faith, then it is clear that a person must also reach that point in order to be justified. It is not a system of works that a person goes through to empty himself that saves, but it is the grace of God humbling a person and bringing the person to see how impossible salvation and justification are to his own efforts and works. It is God working to bring the person off of faith and trust in himself to a point where the person is able to trust in Christ alone. It is the teaching of Jesus in Luke 9:23-26 that anyone that wished to follow Him must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him. One must deny self and the many facets of self in order to follow Christ. In other words, a person must desire to follow Christ badly enough to deny self. If a person really wants to follow Christ, self must be denied. This is simply another way to say what Brainerd has been saying.

But why is it so difficult to be brought to this? Why is there an extreme difficulty in this? Clearly, the self that must be denied is loved and pampered by many and so they will not deny self. The self that must be denied is the very self that is blinded by pride and the desire for honor. The self that must be denied is the very self that wants to exalt itself instead of deny itself. The self that must be denied is the very self that is at enmity with God and does not want to submit to Him in all things. The self that must be denied is the very self that thinks highly of itself and all of its own works. The self that must be denied is the very self that has a very strong sense of protection of self. When all of these things are looked at in this way, self is a very formidable foe and is incredibly tough to deny in all of its facets. Self hides itself even in good actions and even very religious actions. Self is hidden from itself by pride. Self does not see its own pride because of its pride. Self does not see anything wrong with itself and so does not want to admit the depths of ungodliness that is in the heart of self. Another way to look at it is that self does not want to put its eternal destiny entirely in the hands of God. That is against its independence, its pride, and its self-seeking ways in its own wisdom and strength.

“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (I Cor 1:18-21). This text and the following text sets out the extreme difficulty of being brought to the point of being entirely undone within one’s own self. “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise” (I Cor 3:18). The major reason that this is impossible for man to do himself is because a proud man will not become foolish in the eyes of others in order to have true wisdom. Another main reason is that a proud and independent man will not become weak in order to have true strength. Man wants to do it himself or at least have something to do himself in order that he may have the smallest thing to boast about. But the Gospel leaves men with nothing to boast about other than the cross of Jesus Christ. Justification by faith without works requires a man to be emptied of himself which he cannot do. This is one reason why faith is the work of God and not man. Man cannot empty himself of self. Self-love will not cast out self-love. God must cast out self in order for there to be faith in Christ alone.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 12

September 17, 2006

“Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” (A.W. Tozer)

Last time we talked about how perverted notions about God lead to the rot of Christianity. However, we did not really look at one word in the sentence as Tozer wrote it. He says that they will “soon” rot the religion in which they appear. The rotting that appears from perverted notions about God does not happen years from the moment that they appear, but it happens soon. One way to look at this is to note that the idea of this notion appears in men before they began to be taught or at least they stop the true teaching about God. So when the notion appears, the actual idea of it has already been spreading its poison. Another way to look at this is to note that low ideas of God rot the religion soon after the idea even takes hold. No man can entertain low ideas of God in reality and not have it seep through to his teaching in some way. Churches must watch out and guard for men who have low concepts of God. We can simply note that in the history of the Church there have been many heresies that have sprouted. It did not take them long at all to bring rot to the Church. Indeed heresies can flourish in terms of numbers for a while as do many new things that excite people, but the root and heart of that teaching comes from a low view of God and God will not honor it with true spiritual vitality. No matter how smart a man is, he cannot fool God or trick God into coming to church in power and glory.

This particular thought should make all who desire for the glory of God in the face of Christ to be on their knees and on their guards. The things that rot religion may not be all that obvious and can come in the forms of educated and charismatic pastors. The things that rot religion can come in packages of orthodoxy and church growth. The things that rot religion may be very attractive in all sorts of ways. The things that rot religion may come in a very conservative package. However, if any of those things have within them (whether a human or a program) a perverted notion of God, the rot is already happening. We must always remember that wolves come to the church in sheep’s clothing. Wolves come in by saying many attractive things and getting people on the side of wolves while appearing orthodox and like sheep. But the rot is already happening.

Notice how easily this could happen in most churches. The people are starved as to the knowledge of God and so really don’t know the difference between a high view of God and a perverted notion of God. In fact, a perverted notion of God might be far more attractive to the vast majority of people who have never really been taught the truth about God. So a man who is nice and easy-going might come in and sweep the people away with perverted notions about God because he has perverted notions about God. The man with the true teaching of God might not be liked because the truth of God is so hard. Sometimes heresies can be much “nicer” than the truth.

One thing to notice is that if a church likes its heretical teachers or those who have perverted notions about God better than the truth about God, the rot has been there for some time. We live in a nation where the “churches” have for years been watering down the truth about God. We live in a nation where perverted notions about God supply and feed the vast majority of notions about God. The truth about God has been swept away in large proportions by liberalism, neo-orthodoxy, harsh conservatives, rationalists, and many other ways. One reason is that people prefer to study the Bible apart from doctrine (impossible in reality) and to live a more moral life than to know God. The hardest thing in the world is to know God and love Him from the heart rather than to love self. In fact, it is impossible and that is why it must come by grace.

As we stand by and watch the Church is rotting away. Indeed there are many buildings that call themselves by the name and there are a few orthodox (in creed) churches left. But where are those humble and broken souls that love the name of God above all else? Where are those who will fight the rising tide of thinking (so-called) that is essentially leaving the true God out of church and religion and bringing in all manners of idols? I believe that the time for being nice and winsome may be over. We must be like men and fight for the truth with boldness. Indeed we are not to do this without love, but perhaps it is time to take the gloves off and call things what they really are. Christianity is rotting away and we are just standing around playing our fiddles as the rot is consuming it. Where are those with the burden of the Lord and the fire burning in their hearts? Are there any left at all?

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 11

September 15, 2006

“Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” (A.W. Tozer)

What is a perverted notion about God? Perverted simply means to twist, change, misrepresent, misuse, or alter. A perverted notion about God, then, is to use His name in vain which is a violation of the 3rd commandment. God’s name is holy and it must not be misused in any way. Believers are to pray, as Jesus taught, for His name to be hallowed, that is, to be treated with reverence and awe or to be glorified (Matthew 6:9). The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our being. Surely it is obvious that a true view of God is necessary to love God and to live up to what Jesus instructed us to pray for. So it should be noted and then driven to the depths of the heart that a perverted notion about God has the greatest of ramifications for the Christian life and Church. Anything that violates the 3rd commandment, violates the Greatest Commandment, and diminishes what Jesus taught for prayer must be deadly serious and truly is that which rots true religion.

How would perverted notions about God rot true religion? Remember, without going back into the situation too much, that wrong notions of God is really idolatry. So perverted notions of God is a misrepresentation of God and that leads to the worship of idols. God hates idolatry and He will draw back and leave that religion to itself in one sense and turn it over to its idols with a hard heart in another sense. Anything that perverts the concept of God of necessity turns it into idolatry and something which is judged by God. Let us look at Romans 1:18 and following for the basic concept of how this works in a church. It is true that the passage in Romans is speaking of unbelievers, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking that there are not a lot of churches in name that are filled with unbelievers. Let us also look at the principles in the text that would apply in all cases.

“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Rom 1:18-25).

The truth that men suppress is the truth about God (vv. 18-20). This can be done in churches or in pagan places, but either way it is the same. When the truth of God is suppressed in unrighteousness by a church or religion in general, it leads to the judgment of God on that church or religion because that church or religion has just been hit with the worst kind of rot. If men are without excuse simply by looking at nature, then how much more are they without excuse when the have the very Word of God? It is abominable for a man to call himself a preacher and teacher of a church and then to suppress the truth about God. Could it be the case that men are suppressing the truth about God in an effort to make their churches more friendly and attractive in order to attract greater numbers? Anytime men suppress the truth about sin they are suppressing the truth about the holiness of God. Paul tells us that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he preached the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27). If men are only innocent of the blood of others because they preach the whole counsel of God, then what does that make them if they suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness? Can it be anything less than the very rot of religion when that happens?

Christianity is God-centered and anything less makes religion rotten to the core. The suppression of the truth of God leads to futile speculations (v. 21) which leads to a darkened heart. This leads to men who think they are wise but are fools and they exchange the glory of God for an image of God. He gives them over to coveting hearts and they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and end up worshipping the creature. That is idolatry in His name.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 10

September 13, 2006

“Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.” (A.W. Tozer)

It is so important to understand that idolatry starts with the mind and in one sense never leaves it. The essence of idolatry always begins with a lowered view of God or with a view of God that is not true. In one sense the extreme legalist and the extreme liberal begin at the same point and both types of idolatry run in parallel directions. Neither of them have a true view of God in their minds and hearts. They both began with a wrong idea of God and ran from that view to end up where they are. Their wrong ideas of God were simply not the same wrong idea.

Let us consider the case of Jonah: “While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8 “Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness” (John 2:7-8). This was the prayer of Jonah while in the belly of the fish. He ran from God because of wrong ideas of God. Here is his concept of that, or at least I think it is clear that he is referring to himself as well in this. In regarding vain idols people forsake God (their faithfulness). To the degree that a person has an idol in the mind, that person forsakes God Himself. Jonah was so wrong concerning several things about God in the book of Jonah, but God taught him and all who will hear about Himself. But Jonah had idols in his mind and so forsook God.

In Hosea 4 we have God complaining about his people: “12 My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.” The people had consulted their wooden idol and they were informed by that. What was that? It was spiritual adultery and it was a departing from God. Idolatry, then, is spiritual adultery and the leaving or departing from God is a violation of the covenant. Throughout the book of Hosea we are told that Israel was in sin because it did not know God and that is committed spiritual idolatry. Another theme throughout Hosea is that of Israel’s spiritual adultery or of spiritual harlotry against God. These two concepts are linked in devastating fashion. Those who are not faithful to God spiritually are those who leave Him for idols. That makes the idolater a spiritual harlot. The idolatry (v. 12) itself leads them astray. In consulting idols people are led astray from the truth and depart from God. But we must always remember that to consult an idol means that the concept of the true God has already changed in the mind.

How does this work out in the churches today? Two texts of Scripture instruct us in at least one way. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col 3:5) and “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Eph 5:5). Churches can become greedy and covetous of many things too. When a church is greedy or covetous for money, it is idolatrous. When a church is greedy for property or buildings, it is idolatrous. When a church is greedy for greater numbers and it waters down the truth in order to get them, this is simply idolatrous. Can that really be true?

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). In the Exodus passage we have instructions on what it means to covet. Coveting property, a neighbor’s wife, or anything that belongs to another is to be guilty of covetousness and is a violation of the 10th command. But Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:5 both tell us that covetousness is idolatry. In other words, churches across the United States are guilty of the great sin of idolatry. We have also seen from the Old Testament that idolatry is considered by God as spiritual harlotry and adultery. What does this make a vast number of churches today? It makes them guilty of idolatry, spiritual harlotry, and spiritual adultery. Is there any wonder that God is judging the United States and the Church too? We may think that the practices of some churches are simply different or not as desirable as others. We need to think this through again. We need to make sure that the true God is in the minds of the churches in order that He is worshipped and not other things or people. Idolatry starts in the mind by lowering the truth of who God is and ends up in coveting many things in the name of its false god. Such is the state of the Church in the United States and other nations.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 9

September 11, 2006

“Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.” (A.W. Tozer)

We will continue on in our thinking through this statement of Tozer and the idea that wrong ideas of God are themselves idolatry and that idolatrous acts flow from idolatrous thoughts. This statement shows the incredible importance of having true thoughts of God. How vital it is for a person to have the truth of God in the mind and to think thoughts after the idea of God. In Genesis 6:5 we see “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Not only the thoughts were evil, but the intents of the thoughts were evil. So we can see that even if we have good thoughts, we must have proper intents for those thoughts. The issue of idolatry is really at the level of the deepest part of man.

Psalm 10:4 tells us that “the wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” However, a few verses later (v. 11) “He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”” The thoughts of this person (as standing for all men) show that the mind constantly reflects on God in one way or another. Before the sin we have Psalm 10 showing us that the person is trying to deny that there is a God. After the sin the person is telling himself false thoughts of God which is idolatry. He is trying to tell himself that God forgets which is a denial of omniscience. He tries to convince himself that God has hidden His face which denies the immutability of God. He tells himself that God will never see it which denies the omnipresence of God. In all of these an idolatrous concept of God is revealed.

Let us reflect on a few verses from Isaiah 55 for a moment: “7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” The unrighteous man must forsake his thoughts in order to return to the LORD. Why is that? One reason is because the thoughts of the LORD are not the thoughts of the unrighteous. Man must learn to think after the truth of the LORD and after His thoughts. No one can return to the LORD who does not forsake his thoughts and begin to think thoughts after the thoughts of the LORD. God can only be known by the thoughts of the mind and heart. If anyone does not repent of thinking wrong thoughts and having wrong concepts of God, then there is no returning to the LORD at all. It is utterly necessary. This is also true of each church. For a church to repent means that each church needs to return to the LORD by forsaking its present thoughts.

Notice the connection between verses 14 and 22 in Jeremiah 4: “14 Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you? 22 “For My people are foolish, They know Me not.”” In verse 14 Jerusalem was told to wash its heart from evil and asked how long its wicked thoughts would lodge within it. Verse 22 tells us one way that they did this. They did not know God and had no understanding. Again, the fact that the people had wicked thoughts is demonstrated or leads to the fact that they were foolish and did not know God. Over and over again we can see this point illustrated in Scripture that wrong thoughts of God is sin and leads to more sin.

We need a New Testament example from Romans 8 to close with. “5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 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.” We can see this same concept set out in this text as well. Things start with the mind and the thoughts. The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. This hostility is not toward a concept only, but is toward God Himself. Whenever the mind is not guided by the truth of who God is, that is, the mind being set on the Spirit, it is hostile to God. Is this true of churches as well? Could it be that churches that are so focused on the things of the flesh and getting numbers are actually hostile to God in their mindsets? It really could be.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 8

September 9, 2006

“Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.” (A.W. Tozer)

Tozer points out that idolatry starts in the mind and this leads to a series of degrading acts that continue to a lower and lower degree the longer the wrong ideas of God are held. Some would hold to the concept that the acts are sinful in and of themselves and the acts alone are idolatrous. But Tozer says that the acts flow from wrong ideas and the ideas themselves are idolatrous. This is a tremendous insight into the way sin and idolatry work into the lives of people. The thoughts are idolatrous themselves and then lead to idolatrous actions. The thoughts that a person has of God, then, are of immense importance. Let me try to explain this.

“God is Spirit and has not a body like men” is what the children’s catechism tells us. The only way we can know God is through ideas of Him. If our thoughts of God are wrong, then we have an idol that we worship and serve. This is why we must be given over to the study and pursuit of the truth of God. This is why we must wrestle with Scripture and seek the answer how that Scripture displays God. The reason for Scripture is not just to make people more moral, but to make people more like God. There is a sense in which morality is not the same thing as holiness. Man is commanded to be holy as He is holy, not be moral as He is moral. Man can only be holy as He is holy to the degree that man knows how holy God is. Men can only grow in holiness to the degree that they grow in their understanding of God and His holiness.

With the contrast of man being holy as God is holy in mind, we can see that man always lives in a way that conforms to his idea of God. The unbelieving person does the same thing. The unbelieving person might not always recognize or admit that his concept of morality is based on his idea of God, but it is. Men always function or operate according to some idea that they have. Men will always have some concept of God in their mind though they might refuse to recognize it as such. In other words, all men have a concept of God that they operate by. Those with idolatrous concepts of God in reality worship a god that has come from their own desires and so in living according to a standard they are living according to their own desires. But it all begins with the thoughts of the mind and how a person conceives what he thinks is God.

In this sense we can see that a person simply imagines things about God and then lives as if those things were true. In reality, everyone does that. Man can strive for nothing higher or lower than the goal that he is striving for. Man can live for nothing higher than his concept of God and in another sense no one can live any lower than his view that he has of what he pretends to be God. The concept of God is what governs the actions and lives of men each moment. Each moment man is commanded to love God with all of his being and man certainly loves something as his primary love each moment of his existence.

Each church needs to be awakened to see this basic truth. Each church is striving to a goal according to what it conceives to be God. While a church may have a Bible that it gives a nod to as its authority, in reality it is bowing to what it conceives of as God. “Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you” (Prov 23:6-7). Notice the principle here. A man may invite you to eat and drink in order to be nice, but his heart is not there. What a man really is, then, is as he thinks. So man is in worship and so each church is. A church is really no more than what it thinks about God. “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life” (Prov 4:23). As each person must watch over the heart with all diligence, so the church must watch over itself with all diligence. What is in the core of the thinking of a person guides his behavior and his worship. The same thing is true concerning what the core thinking of the church really is. Each church has a true concept of God that it is pursuing or it has a false concept of God that it is pursuing. In other words, each church is either growing toward God or is growing away from God. It is not the numbers and programs that show this, but rather if the people really desire and love the true God and His glory more than numbers and programs. The concept of God is not something on the peripheral edges; it is at the core and center of all that people do. Whether a person is idolatrous depends on the concept of God that is certainly there, not if it is there. The same thing is true of each church.

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Justification 18, Humiliation 2

September 9, 2006

Last week we began looking at David Brainerd’s quote on the nature and necessity of a person’s being undone in himself which is necessary to a saving faith. As a reminder, we must remember that David Brainerd used these methods of evangelism as he went to unreached tribes of Native Americans. As he was close to death, he talked to many people who came to talk to him and it was in light of this that he discoursed on this subject repeatedly. Let us look at what this dying man thought was so vital to Christianity.

Especially, I discoursed repeatedly on the nature and necessity of that humiliation, self-emptiness, or full conviction of a person’s being utterly undone in himself, which is necessary in order to a saving faith, and the extreme difficulty of being brought to this; and the great danger there is of persons taking up with some self-righteous appearances of it. The danger of this I especially dwelt upon, being persuaded that multitudes perish in this hidden way; and because so little is said from most pulpits to discover any danger here; so that persons being never effectually brought to die in themselves are never truly united to Christ, and so perish.
(1949 Moody edition of The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, p. 354)

If we take a man’s words as he is close to death and knows that he is close to death as those which he thinks are the most vital things, then we see what David Brainerd thought was the most vital thing for the Church. Notice that he also said that he “discoursed repeatedly” on this subject. In other words, this is what he wanted to talk about when people came to visit him. Over and over again he stressed this issue to those who came to see him for the last time as what he thought was most vital. Taking the statement as a whole, we can see that he believed that multitudes were perishing because they were taking up some self-righteous appearances of faith in Christ. Could this be what is happening today? Could it be that a vast number of people who are coming into the Church today are really taken up with some self-righteous appearance of faith? If people were deceived by the multitudes in Brainerd’s day, what are things like today?

Let us take a mind’s tour of evangelism and the doctrine of justification today. The doctrine of justification is hardly mentioned today and so clearly is grievously misunderstood. But if it is misunderstood, then the Gospel is misunderstood today as well. But there are teachings that are cropping up and sweeping many people away from any pretense to the truth. We have the New Perspective movement, the Auburn Avenue Theology group, the Emerging Church movement, and many others who wish to make justification out to be by baptism, works, or just plain being good. The Gospel is under siege by groups like those and others that want to distance themselves from theology and doctrine. However, if we are to look at what Brainerd says, then there is also a problem within orthodoxy.

Brainerd said that it was a “necessity” for a person to be utterly undone within himself because it “is necessary in order to a saving faith.” Can this possibly be true? Jesus said that a person must believe and that person would be saved. But Jesus also said that a person must be turned and become as a child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:1-4). Jesus also said that a person must be born from above in order to see and then enter the kingdom (John 3:3, 5). Jesus also taught that a person must repent or he would perish (Luke 13:1-5). Jesus taught multiple times that a person must deny himself in order to take up his cross and follow Christ (Luke 9:23-26) and even that one must hate his own life (Luke 14:25-33). Let us compare the teachings of Jesus with that of Brainerd.

Both Jesus and Brainerd taught that people must believe which is to have faith in order to be saved. However, people today do not think that Jesus taught that one must be undone within himself in order to be saved. But if we look at what true faith is and what accompanies it, things may appear different. What does it mean to be turned (passive) and become as a child in order to enter the kingdom? Does this contradict the other teachings of Christ where He said that men must believe? No, it shows what is necessary for true faith. For a man to believe in Christ alone without works that same man must be like a small child that receives all things without thinking that he is the one responsible for it. To be turned and to become as a small child defines one aspect of faith. Man must not be a proud person who seeks things only for himself, but is to be emptied of the pursuits of greatness. As the context teaches, the greatest is the most humble. Jesus gave this teaching when the disciples asked who the greatest was. First, you must be turned to be like a child to even enter. Then, the most humble is the greatest. Brainerd taught the same thing when he taught that a man must be emptied of himself and humbled in order to have faith.

Jesus taught that a man must repent or he would perish. Is faith something distinct from repentance or is repentance, as has been said before, the other side of the coin regarding faith? If one has faith, then one has repented. Yet, if one repents then one has faith. The essence of unbelief is pride and self-centeredness. To repent of unbelief is to turn from unbelief to belief. To repent of pride is to turn from pride to humility. To repent of self-centeredness is to repent of the idolatrous self and be turned to centeredness upon God. To be emptied of pride, then, is surely the self-emptiness and full conviction of being utterly undone that Brainerd talked about. What is this self-denial and hating of our own life if not some form of being emptied of self and being utterly undone within one’s self? As we look at the teachings of Jesus as a whole, He did teach that one must believe (have faith) in order to be saved. However, His teachings as a whole define and set out what that true faith is. David Brainerd was simply teaching what Jesus taught using different words. In order to have saving faith one must be humbled and broken from self-effort and pride. It is also true that a person must be broken from his own efforts at being broken from self-efforts and pride. These things come by grace in the Spirit working in the heart what is necessary for faith.

Let us look at the difference of how Brainerd (and Jesus) approached this with the way things are done in the modern day. The modern way of doing evangelism is to try to get a crowd by using virtually any means and then to give a short presentation or message and then ask for people to make a decision or to pray a prayer. The people are never really informed of anything regarding the doctrine of justification and are not really instructed about the cross or of imputed righteousness. They are not instructed of sin or of repentance which means that the nature of unbelief is not taught at all. Rather, people are simply told that Jesus died and all that they need to do is to pray a prayer and they will be saved. How does that fit with justification by faith alone without works? How does that fit with God justifying the ungodly and those who do not work for justification (Rom 4:2-6)? People are not even told enough about sin in order for people to know what they are saved from. They are not told that they are to be saved apart from anything they do and apart from their own strength in order that it may all be by grace. They are not told of what pride and unbelief really are and so how are they to repent of these things in truth?

The method that Brainerd used (and Jesus) was in accordance with justification. The doctrine of justification must inform us how to evangelize and what faith is as well as the nature of faith should inform us about justification. An evangelism that does not take the Gospel of justification by faith without works is not even a true evangelism since it does not demonstrate what a person is to be saved from and it certainly does not even tell of the Gospel or of what faith really is. In other words, we are living in a day in which the true Gospel has virtually been lost. The Gospel is a brilliant light that shines forth with the glory of God and saves sinners who cannot help themselves in any way. The Gospel is for those who are helpless apart from the life of God raising them from the dead. The Gospel is not about people making a choice to say a few words they call a prayer, the Gospel comes to those who are dead in sins and trespasses and tells them about how God saves sinners by justifying them by grace through faith apart from any works at all. If a person has not been emptied of self and of his own efforts, goodness, or works, he is not ready to believe the Gospel.

How many works can a sinner trust in that is declared just by God apart from works? If justification by faith apart from works is true, then we need to instruct sinners about how they should not trust in themselves or in anything they can do. It takes a full conviction that a person is utterly undone within himself in order to trust only in Christ. A heart that is full of pride and self is blinded to its pride and self by its own pride and self. It thinks that it can trust in Christ of itself. It thinks that it can empty self of enough self. It thinks that God would never send such a nice person to hell. The lost man never really sees just how lost he really is without understanding from the Word and the Spirit. The evangelism that does not take this into account is simply not teaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught that salvation is impossible for man (Luke 18:27) in response to the disciple’s question, “then who can be saved?” We would do well to understand that the Gospel should make men understand that it is impossible for them to be saved apart from the grace and only the grace of God found in Christ. They must understand that the Gospel is not about how they are to look to themselves, but how they are to be emptied of themselves in order to trust in Christ alone. That alone is consistent with the biblical teaching on justification.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 7

September 7, 2006

“Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. “When they know God,” wrote Paul, “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” A. W. Tozer.

It is commonly thought that idolatry has to do with kneeling before wood or metal objects that have some name of a deity attached. This is simply and deceptively false. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col 3:5). When we think that idolatry really has to do with acts of adoration to inanimate pieces of wood or metal with names of deity on them, we have cleared the path to sin without guilt. Colossians 3:5 tells us that greed is idolatry. We can only understand that if we come to the realization that idolatry is primarily spiritual and of the heart. When we are greedy for money or other things, our love is given to those things and we love those things and pay homage to them as more worthy of ourselves than God is. That is idolatry.

If we think of idolatry as being the “entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him, how can we reconcile that thought with Colossians 3:5? Actually, the idolatry in the heart of the person that is greedy for money really consists in lowered thoughts of God. The only way anyone could possibly be greedy is if they traded the concept of the true God for a much lower one. How vile it is for a human being to trust in money rather than God. How vile it is for a human being to give his love to an inanimate object such as money rather than God. Surely, then, the human being has chosen money over God because God was lowered in the mind first.

But what human can be free from idolatry if Tozer’s definition is correct? Who can think thoughts that are worthy of God in His glory? Clearly fallen man cannot have perfectly clear and accurate thoughts of God. However, this is what it really means to be conformed to Christ. Indeed man is to be conformed to Christ in his life, but this can only come when the thoughts of God are growing to be more like God. Jesus Christ was and is the perfect representation of God and His glory on earth. He came to reveal God (John 1:18). The actions of Christ were not just to show us what good works are like, but to show us what God is like. So when we look at an action of Christ, we should learn something of the character and glory of God. After all, Christ was the tabernacle of God and His glory that consisted of grace and truth shone forth from His tabernacle during the whole life of Christ.

The entertainment of ideas of God that are unworthy of Him is a hideous sin but is also the source of all other sin. The serpent in the Garden tried to get Eve to think of God in a way that was unworthy of Him. He insinuated that God was selfish and simply did not want her to be like Him. He insinuated that God did not have her best interests in mind. When Eve began to have unworthy thoughts of God, sinful behavior was sure to follow. The same thing is true of our evangelism, worship, and all that goes on at church and in life. If God has given us all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him (II Peter 1:3-4), then this would require the knowledge to be accurate and true. How would the promises of God come through inaccurate information and knowledge of Him? Whatever God has, then, for His people regarding godliness and life comes through the truth about Him. After all, Jesus is the truth and He is the only way to the Father. The only way to be sanctified is through the truth (John 17:17). God regenerates through the word of truth (James 1:18) and He always uses the truth. Eternal life is defined by knowing God (John 17:3) and so people only have the life of God to the degree that they know God. Can one know God and have unworthy ideas of Him?

It must be a priority in the churches to teach the character of God through Christ in order to deliver the churches from the form of idolatry (the root of all kinds) that consists in unworthy ideas of God. There is a sense in which no one really has low or high views of God, but rather true or idolatrous ones. Each church is determined by whether it is even a church or not in a large degree by whether its ideas of God are true or idolatrous. When a man preaches Christ in truth, he is really preaching the truth about God revealed in Christ. When a man preaches Christ apart from the truth, he is simply committing idolatry and not preaching Christ or God at all.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 6

September 5, 2006

“A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God. “Thou thoughtest,” said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, “that I was altogether such a one as thyself.” Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth” A. W. Tozer.

These words should burn in our hearts and make us approach God in His Word with the utmost care in humility and prayer. A god that comes from a fallen heart will be nothing like the true God. Part of the heart of sin is imagining something about God that is not true. We have seen earlier how this works from Romans 1:18-32. Man is always exchanging something true about God for something that is not in order to be hardened and slide into sin. So when fallen man comes to the Scripture to study it, he needs the help of the Spirit of God in order to be able to understand the truth of God. Man always wants to find a way to sin and get away with it. Man always wants to find a way to make himself feel good about himself. Man always wants to find a way to lessen the glare of the glory of God that shines on him every moment of every day. The only way to do this is to come up with a god that is not like the real one and in man’s arrogance he will determine what is right and true by himself.

The fallen heart hates the truth of the true God and simply wants to be its own god. So it invents aspects of god and attributes those to something it calls “god” and this so-called god is brought into the public consciousness by good and nice people. It is then accepted into the churches and thought of as orthodox because a word or words that the Bible attributes to God is also used of the false god but with a different concept or definition than the Bible uses. This is why man’s concept of God needs to come from Holy Scripture and not from philosophical speculation or cultural thinking.

Once the Church and churches have been infiltrated with the concept of a false god with the terminology or words of the Bible, the deception is hard to expose. What this means, then, is that orthodoxy has taken on the very concepts of heresy and that makes heretical thinking orthodox (in the imagination). This is very deceptive but somewhat common. Can we imagine, then, how many churches in our degenerate day think that they are orthodox in some way while their very worship is an affront to God? If we can picture it like Tozer did our hearts should sink to the pits of our stomachs. God is surrounded by angelic beings who sing to Him about His holiness all day and all night every day. He is perfectly holy and glorious and these beings find their complete joy in singing about His holiness with all of their time and effort. At the same moment some church that has not been careful is trying to sing the same words but is totally off with what those words mean. The dissonance between the angelic worship and that of the church is infinite. What a serious affront to God our worship is if we have based our thinking of Him from our own imaginations though we use terms from Scripture.

We can also know that it is a horrible blasphemy against God to try to form our ideas of Him from ourselves and our society when He has given mankind His perfect image in the outshining of His glory in Christ. Man is to be conformed to Christ in order to be holy as He is holy and yet man ignores the shining of the glory of God in Christ and tries to make God out to be like Himself. The self-centeredness, pride, and self-love of man will do all it can to retain its own godness (self as god) even in the light of the glory of the true God. This is why the true battle in churches, society, and in our own hearts is always for who is really God. Man will not have the true God reign over him and so he resorts to a god of his own imagination. It is truly a battle for God.

What is even more atrocious, however, is that when man worships the god of his imagination which he has made in his own likeness, man is actually worshipping himself. A god begotten from the shadows of the fallen human heart indeed has no likeness to God, but it does have a great deal of likeness to the fallen human heart. So when man pretends to worship God and is in fact worshipping an idol that he has manufactured in his own fallen image, this is nothing but idolatry and the worship of self. This is truly a serious affront to a holy God who will not share His glory with another. What has man become in order to become the object of his own worship instead of God? He has become a truly fallen creature with an idol factory for a heart. Man’s worship and righteous actions are really vile acts before God when he has idols in his heart.

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God-Centeredness & Idolatry 5

September 3, 2006

“Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is-in itself a monstrous sin-and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.” (A.W. Tozer)

We have been discussing the concept of idolatry and how man makes his concept of God after his own likeness. The last sentence in the above quote by Tozer is very interesting and very true. Out concept of God does seem to always follow after the person we either are or want to be. People who want to be nice and kind have a god in their imagination that is just like that. Those who are cruel can imagine a god that wants them to kill other people for religious or political reasons. “Kill the infidels” comes from a distorted view of God. It is truly frightening to think that within each church building there are many different concepts of God and those are most likely based on how each person truly is in the depths of his of her heart.

The mean and intolerant god of many staunch conservative sorts is really a reflection of the god that they have in their hearts. They don’t like to hear of how the loving kindnesses of God are new every morning. The tolerant and indulgent god of liberalism is based on the concepts that come from the hearts of the liberals. All in all, it appears that at some point we develop some concept that we like and want to be like and so we conform our concept of God according to that principle and as we become like that concept we think that we are becoming like Him.

The only real cure for idolatry is to know God in truth. We must come to know God in truth because knowledge of a god that comes from our sinful imaginations and hearts is not God at all. Eternal life is defined in John 17:3 as knowing God and His Son. If people are wrong about God, then they do not have eternal life. This is not to say that people have to have a perfect knowledge of God, but it is to say that one cannot know God apart from knowing true things about Him. I John 4:7-8 tells us that all those who love have been born of God and know God. To know God in an intimate knowledge enough to love Him requires us to know Him in truth.

What does God command His people? They are to love Him with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength. He loves it when His people know Him and hates it when they distort who He is. The Israelites were commanded over and over to know their God. They were not to boast in their learning or their strength, they were to boast in the Lord. There will never be any obedience to God without knowing God and a knowledge of God. It does not matter how moral or religious a person is, that person is an idolater if he or she does not know God in truth. What a job preachers have in trying to stir people up beyond their morality and outwardly good actions. People must see the idolatry that is latent in each heart apart from the Spirit opening a person’s eyes to see the glory of God.

Jesus Christ is the only way to know God. Christ is the perfect image of God and the very outshining of the glory of God. He came and was the temple of the glory of God and as such He revealed the truth of God to all who will turn from their idolatrous ways and turn to Him by grace. Our churches are flooded with people with idolatrous concepts of God and of Jesus Christ. Preachers and teachers must preach and teach with the stated goal of getting people to see their own hearts in the light of His glory. There will be no true revival or true reformation in our land or any other apart from the truth of the glory of God dwelling the hearts through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The idols in the hearts of people now must be torn down and crushed into dust so that the reign and rule of God will be restored.

A church that wants Christ to reign there needs to be as serious about casting out idols from the hearts of the people as King Josiah was about getting rid of idols in the land in his day. Two things never go together and in fact one always grows to the degree that the other falls. Those two are idolatrous hearts and the knowledge of God in truth. Idolatrous hearts must see its idols in false ideas about God and be turned from those in order to have the true knowledge of God living in hearts. We live in a day where the knowledge of God is low and idolatrous hearts are given over to sin. There will have to be a lot of teaching on the glory of God and of true repentance for this to change. We should also be careful not to teach just an academic view of God but to preach and teach the glory of God as that alone sets out the truth of who God is. God will not be mocked.

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