Glorifying God 6

September 2, 2016

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4).

God does not seek His own glory because it makes Him happy, to be honored and highly thought of, but because He loves to see Himself, His own excellencies and glories appearing in His works. He loves to see Himself communicated and it was His intention to communicate Himself that was a prime motive of His creating the world. His own glory was the ultimate motive. He Himself was His end, that is, Himself communicated. The very phrase “the glory” seems naturally to signify this. Glory is a shining forth, an effulgence. So the glory of God is the shining forth or effulgence of His perfections, as effulgence is the communication of light. For this reason, that brightness whereby God was wont to manifest Himself in the wilderness, and in the tabernacle and temple, was called God’s glory. As the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars is called their glory, so the glory of God is the shining forth of His perfections. The world was created that they [His perfections] might shine forth, that is, that they [His perfections] might be communicated.             Jonathan Edwards

When God does all He does in order to manifest His own glories to Himself, to heavenly beings we don’t know about, and then to human beings; He does this (in and through human beings) by communicating Himself and His glories to the minds and hearts of human beings. He does not dwell in human beings because they are worthy for Him to do so, but He dwells in them because He has cleansed them and desires to glorify Himself in and through them. It is by a free and sovereign grace that He dwells in human beings. It is also be a free and sovereign grace that He glorifies Himself in and through human beings. This, once again, shows us the utter worthlessness of human works apart from what Christ works in the soul. When the human being does works apart from Christ, even if they are very religious works and very “Christian works” in a sense, the only thing to see is the glory of man. God does not behold His own glory in those works and as such He is not pleased. The glory of God will only shine forth in Christ and Christ only dwells in the humble.

What we can begin to see, then, is the beauty of true and biblical Christianity. The true Christian does not pursue holiness and good works out of a fear of hell and out of seeking to be holier than thou, but instead the true Christian pursues holiness in order that the glory of God would shine through Him or her. The true Christian does not see any problems with seeking the face of God out of a pure love and in order that God may be glorified. This is what the heart of one that loves God loves and seeks out of that love. Indeed no one (but Christ) can do this perfectly or even close to perfection while on earth, but the person that is seeking the Lord will seek Him knowing that God is glorified by Christ and the blood of Christ in forgiving that person’s sin. It is because of Christ purifying the person’s heart that He may dwell in it and because of His continuing life in the soul that a person is enabled to do good works and delight in the fact that those works are coming from God and are to His glory.

When a true Christian “hears” the command to glorify God, s/he can know that the command to glorify God has the ultimate motive of the glory of God. The believer is an instrument of the glory of God and thus has no ability to obtain righteousness in anything that the believer does. The believer delights to know that s/he is that instrument of glory and that what the believer needs to glorify God comes from God. The greatest love of the believer is God Himself and as such the true believer loves the glory of God and not self, though indeed this is far from perfect. However, the true believer longs to be free of self and of pride that s/he may glorify God more and more perfectly. How lovely and beautiful it is to be a partaker of the glory of God by having Christ as our life and how wonderful (beyond words to express) it is to glorify God and behold His glory shining out in others and in ourselves. The glory of God is His own ultimate motive and His glory becomes the ultimate motive of the believer as well. The believer wants to glorify God because the believer loves God and longs for God to be pleased with beholding His own glory. All things for to be for His glory and pleasure. He beholds His own glory and is pleased.

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Glorifying God 5

September 1, 2016

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4).

God does not seek His own glory because it makes Him happy, to be honored and highly thought of, but because He loves to see Himself, His own excellencies and glories appearing in His works. He loves to see Himself communicated and it was His intention to communicate Himself that was a prime motive of His creating the world. His own glory was the ultimate motive. He Himself was His end, that is, Himself communicated. The very phrase “the glory” seems naturally to signify this. Glory is a shining forth, an effulgence. So the glory of God is the shining forth or effulgence of His perfections, as effulgence is the communication of light. For this reason, that brightness whereby God was wont to manifest Himself in the wilderness, and in the tabernacle and temple, was called God’s glory. As the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars is called their glory, so the glory of God is the shining forth of His perfections. The world was created that they [His perfections] might shine forth, that is, that they [His perfections] might be communicated.        Jonathan Edwards

The language of Edwards is so full and descriptive in this paragraph, but it must also be admitted that one has to read the context over and over to get at the issues involved. We should not get weary of hearing of the God we love and His pursuit of His own glory, as indeed that is what we were created for and that is what we are to do (seek His glory) in all things. We must love the thought or grow to love the idea that God loves to see Himself and His own perfections and glory being manifested in and through His works. The fact that God loves Himself and seeks His own glory is His holiness rather than being a failure on His part. There is no greater glory and no greater Being to seek the glory of and so if He is going to seek the glory of the greatest Being He must seek His own.

He loves to see Himself communicated and it was His intention to communicate Himself that was a prime motive of His creating the world. His own glory was the ultimate motive. He Himself was His end, that is, Himself communicated.

The three sentences above are enormously important at understanding what Edwards meant regarding how God seeks His own glory and how that relates to us. It is because of that importance that I have set it apart and repeated it in this short post. God seeks His own glory and that is right and holy and good. It is the chief end of man as well. But how God seeks to glorify Himself and how man is to glorify God must meet at some point and that point is right here. It is not that God created trees and then leaned back to admire His glory in the trees, though indeed His glory shines in those as well. But God created human beings in His image and He did so that they would glorify Him, but not just glorify Him in any old way. They are to glorify Him by receiving from Him or by receiving Him.

It is another vital point to see and even savor that Edwards says that God “loves to see Himself communicated.” This is not the same thing as God loves to see something of Himself communicated, but God loves to see HIMSELF communicated. When a person communicates with another, we think of that as passing information from person A to person B. However, if the information passed along was not understood in the same way by person A and person B, communication did not happen. But again, God communicates HIMSELF. As a spiritual Being God can communicate Himself by giving Himself to others, though again in His communicating to others it must be the truth of Him (Christ) who is communicated and as a God of love He must communicate that love (the Spirit of love) so that it is the same truth and the same love.

Jesus the Christ is the very Word of God and as such He shines forth as the glory of God. Jesus Christ, as the Word of God, is the manifestation of the mind of God and the perfections of God. If we have seen Christ we have seen the Father. God communicates Himself to the soul by means of Christ and by the work of the Spirit of Christ. Jesus Christ dwells in the heart of the believer and it is His desires and His thoughts that are worked into the believer and it is His thoughts and His desires that are the very communications of God HIMSELF to the believer. We think His thoughts and love what He loves when He communicates Himself to our soul and overcomes the sinful loves and desires of our hearts by giving Himself and working Himself in us. When God has communicated Himself to us in and through and by Christ, He beholds His glory in us (the body of Christ, the Church).

In this we are getting at the heart of what it means to glorify God. We must receive from God what truly glorifies God. It is Christ who glorifies God in that He is the very shining forth of the glory of God. When the believer has Christ, who is the kingdom of God in the believer, the believer is now an instrument through which the glory of God will shine. The believer cannot shine forth the glory of God more than the believer receives the communications of God. Not only are we utterly and totally dependent upon Him for grace in justification, we are that dependent upon Him each moment for what it takes to glorify Him in what we do.

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Glorifying God 4

August 31, 2016

1 Cor 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4).

God does not seek His own glory because it makes Him happy, to be honored and highly thought of, but because He loves to see Himself, His own excellencies and glories appearing in His works. He loves to see Himself communicated and it was His intention to communicate Himself that was a prime motive of His creating the world. His own glory was the ultimate motive. He Himself was His end, that is, Himself communicated. The very phrase “the glory” seems naturally to signify this. Glory is a shining forth, an effulgence. So the glory of God is the shining forth or effulgence of His perfections, as effulgence is the communication of light. For this reason, that brightness whereby God was wont to manifest Himself in the wilderness, and in the tabernacle and temple, was called God’s glory. As the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars is called their glory, so the glory of God is the shining forth of His perfections. The world was created that they [His perfections] might shine forth, that is, that they [His perfections] might be communicated.         Jonathan Edwards

There are some basic and foundational truths that we must never back away from. God does not seek to glorify Himself because it makes Him happy. God does not seek His own glory in order for frail and sinful human beings to honor Him and for Him to be highly thought of by them. God seeks His own glory because He loves to see Himself manifested. In other words, the fruit that the believer bears comes from Christ first and foremost and it adds nothing to God. The spiritual fruit of the true believer is so that God can behold Himself and His glory in Christ by working it in and through the believer. When the fruit of the vine comes from the branch, which is true of all spiritual fruit, it is not of the works of the flesh of men that God is pleased with, but it is His own work manifested that He is pleased with. This is why we must work in His strength and for His glory.

When we think of the point of the works of men is not for men to make God look good before others and it is not something God needs, but this is a great blessing of grace that God brings men and shines Himself through them. God loves to see Himself, that is, His own excellencies and glories, and this is why men are to seek the glory of God. In being those who love God and being used by Him to bear spiritual fruit, the glory of God shines out of men because of the life of Christ in them and God beholds Himself and His own glory in the spiritual fruit of men. The image of something should look like the reality of that something. Man, being made in the image of God, should shine forth the glory of God in a way that God can behold Himself in those works.

If it is correct to say (with Edwards) that God seeks His own glory because He loves to see Himself and His glory shining out and appearing in the world He created, then we see that men are to eat and drink and all other things that they do so that God may behold His glory shining from them and through them. In this is love that we receive from God and it is toward God as well. We want God to behold Himself and His own glory in our works and lives and in doing that our reward is to be in communication with God and enjoy His glory. There is no merit in this but it is love for God and we receive all from Him. In this there is no righteousness earned and there is nothing (if we were perfect in attitude and intent) we want but God Himself. If we seek to glorify God as if it is a work, then we miserably fail in many ways and as such we sin in that we are really seeking ourselves rather than God.

It is a foundational thought in the theology of Jonathan Edwards, which I cannot imagine that anyone would disagree with other than (perhaps) some particulars, that the glory of God cannot be added to in any way. No man can add to the glory of God, but by the grace of God (in which He beholds His glory) He works His glory in (shares with man, makes man a partaker of) man and it is His own glory that He beholds in man. Oh how men should seek humility and a broken heart before God. How this teaching should break men of pride and self in that they cannot please God by anything they do unless that receive it from Him first. True Christians should give up all hope of doing things for God and seek Him to do things through them. The greatest reward of the Christian is to behold the glory of God and delight himself or herself in him with the delight in Him being from God Himself. This delight is also His own delight worked in the soul and as such the pure delight of the believer in God is itself a shining forth of His glory.

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Glorifying God 3

August 30, 2016

1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’

“As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4).

God does not seek His own glory because it makes Him happy, to be honored and highly thought of, but because He loves to see Himself, His own excellencies and glories appearing in His works. He loves to see Himself communicated and it was His intention to communicate Himself that was a prime motive of His creating the world. His own glory was the ultimate motive. He Himself was His end, that is, Himself communicated. The very phrase “the glory” seems naturally to signify this. Glory is a shining forth, an effulgence. So the glory of God is the shining forth or effulgence of His perfections, as effulgence is the communication of light. For this reason, that brightness whereby God was wont to manifest Himself in the wilderness, and in the tabernacle and temple, was called God’s glory. As the brightness of the sun, moon, and stars is called their glory, so the glory of God is the shining forth of His perfections. The world was created that they [His perfections] might shine forth, that is, that they [His perfections] might be communicated. Jonathan Edwards

If it is so vital to glorify God in terms of it being the chief end of man, then we should know what this means at the heart level and then what it means to do this in terms of the very essence of it. It is such an impressive statement about what it means to be human that we should not take this lightly, but perhaps it is as important as our daily food. The chief end of man is not to live, it is to glorify and enjoy God forever. The chief end of man is not to do all he can do to keep from dying, but instead it is to glorify and enjoy God forever. When I Corinthians tells us that whatever we do we are to do it to the glory of God, that is a universal statement. There is nothing that we do or don’t do that is free from the command and privilege of glorifying and enjoying God. We must, simply and absolutely must, know something of what it means to glorify God.

As we think of John 15:4 above, it should tell us very clearly and without any question regarding the matter that there is nothing spiritual that we can do in our own ability and power. We are completely and absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ for any spiritual fruit that we are given the power and ability to bear. The command and privilege, then, to glorify God is something that is utterly beyond the power and ability of a human being to do. This throws us completely upon Christ and His grace to give us this. We don’t deserve to be instruments that God uses to glorify His name. We don’t deserve anything but His wrath on and in us. The glory of God is only shown to sinners by grace and we can only glorify Him by grace as well.

Glorifying God is no so much of a commandment that we are to keep as it is an aspect of eternal life. Yes, it is a part of the Great Commandment, but as with any and all commands of God we can only keep them if He gives us grace to keep them. If God gives us grace to keep them, we should view that as sharing in His life rather than our obeying commands. This may seem harsh to some, but to those who have spiritual taste buds this is a great part of life. We live totally upon Christ and we live in Christ and He lives in us. The commands of God should be viewed in the New Covenant as aspects of eternal life rather than do this or that or you will be punished. It is hard to imagine how a believer who has Christ as his or her life would view the Great Commandment as anything but the ache of his or her soul in wanting to be like God in love to God.

We simply must see that glorifying God is not something we can do in our own strength, but this is what we do when Christ lives in us by His Spirit and the Spirit of love works this love for God in us. This working the love for God and of God in us is really a sharing in the life of the God who loves Himself as triune. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, and the Spirit is the Spirit of love. There is a perfect love within the Trinity and no one can share in that love but by His free-grace alone. Loving God is a sharing in the life of God (II Peter 1:4-5) or being made a partaker of the Divine nature. Strong words, yes, but they are straight from the Bible. However, we must know for certain that we are not divine, but God shares Himself with His people and in that way we share in the Divine nature. Behold the privileges of being a child of God! Behold the wonders of free-grace in that God makes His people partakers of His Divine nature! This is at the heart of what it means to glorify God.

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The Church 10

August 29, 2016

Eph 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

Ephesians 3:10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 3:21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Eph 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

The language of the day about “Church” or ‘church” is that of the externals and of churches being based on business models. Some church growth gurus even talk about how they learned their church growth methods from business models. This is sure evidence that men have no idea of what the true Church is and that they have no concept of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ cannot be brought about by the wisdom of the flesh and of the wisdom of men, but instead it is about the power of God. It does not matter how many people the wisdom of men can get into the door and can get to join the group and become more moral, what matters is the living God regenerating souls and dwelling in them.

How is the body of Christ built up? The Lord gave the churches leaders to teach them. The churches are built up when the know Christ, are built up in doctrine, and the members of the body love God and each other. The churches are not built up by greater numbers in and of themselves, but by those in the church becoming stronger in the faith and by Christ living in the soul. The churches are actually weaker when people give themselves to watered-down forms of evangelism as this brings in false converts and this is like bringing the things of the devil in to the churches. Evangelism must be God-centered first and foremost and as such it will be the true Gospel given out from the pulpits and the Bible studies of true churches.

Mat 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Here we see the Great Command or the Great Commission given to the Church. Where is the command to go out and water down a little message with a few points in it and ask people to pray a prayer? Where is the command for the Church to be devoted to evangelism (so-called) and virtually nothing else? The command is to make disciples of the nations. Yes, it is to make disciples, baptizing them, and then teaching them. However, disciples are baptized and disciples are to be taught. But notice that these people are to be disciples of Christ. They are not to be taught with little programs here and there, they are to be taught all that Christ commanded them.

Without going into John 17 where Jesus set out some wonderful teachings about unity and the oneness of His disciples and those who would come after Him with Him, we should not water down the Great Commission either. It would appear that it is necessary for the people to know the truth about the Trinity (though not in great detail, necessarily) before they are baptized. After all, they are to be baptized in the NAME of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The name of God is really all that God is. When we are talking about being baptized into the name of another, one should know something of God (perhaps a lot) before s/he is baptized. Surely we are to know the One we are being baptized in the name of. The teaching ministry of each church should be focused on the nature of God and what Christ taught. It is true that the teaching ministry of Christ was carried on by His apostles, so His teachings are in the epistles as well. What does Paul teach us about the Church? The Church is the body of Christ. This is so fundamental and so basic and yet the churches are thought to be nothing but tax exempt organizations now. Christ is all and in all His people!

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Musings on Sovereignty 9

August 28, 2016

The late deservedly celebrated Dr. Young, though he affected great opposition to some of the doctrines called Calvinistic, was yet compelled, by the force of truth, to acknowledge that “there is not a fly but has had infinite wisdom concerned not only in its structure, but in its destination.” Nor did the late learned and excellent Bishop Hopkins go a jot too far in asserting as follows: “A sparrow, whose price is but mean, two of them valued at a farthing (which some make to be the tenth part of a Roman penny, and was certainly one of their least coins), and whose life, therefore, is but contemptible, and whose flight seems giddy and at random; yet it falls not to the ground, neither lights anywhere, without your Father. His all-wise Providence hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch on, what grains it shall pick up, where it shall lodge, and where it shall build; on what it shall live, and where it shall die.” Our Savior adds, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. God keeps an account even of that stringy excrescence. Do you see a thousand little motes and atoms wondering up and down in a sun-beam? It is God that so peoples it, and He guides their innumerable and irregular strayings. Not a dust flies in a beaten road but God raiseth it, conducts its uncertain motion, and, by His particular care, conveys it to the certain place He had before appointed for it; nor shall the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any further. Nothing comes to pass but God hath His ends in it, and will certainly make His own ends out of it. Though the world seems to run at random, and affairs to be huddled together in blind confusion, and rude disorder, yet, God sees and knows the concatenation of all causes and effects, and so governs them that He makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming jarrings and discords. It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well established in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth, that whatsoever comes to pass, be it good or evil, we may look up to the hand and disposal of all, to God. In respect of God, there is nothing causal nor contingent in the world.         Augustus Toplady

If God is truly sovereign and the extent of His sovereignty is indeed to the extent and degree as the people above said, then things must change in the local churches and in our lives as well. We basically live in a Pelagian world with the thinking guided by man-centeredness and the works and efforts of men. The attempt of men to practice scientific thinking in many ways is nothing but the outworking of a Pelagian system of thought. It is to remove the true center of all true science and remove the true center of man and focus those things in other directions. We are inundated with man-centeredness in all areas of life, and that includes the professing Church. We have taken the concept of God (rather than the absolute reality of God) and have made Him useful to our programs and our schemes for large buildings and income. We have made pitches to men and women for them to donate and to commit themselves to the work for God, but we have almost forgotten about God at all other than to expect His blessings if we work hard enough.

If God is sovereign over every destination of the fly and every movement of the fly, then He is sovereign over every act of every human being. If even the lowly sparrow has every event in its life planned by God and sovereignly superintended over, then how much more does He do the same over men? If it is God who is sovereign over the dust and how each speck of dust rises in the wind or by a tire and then he is sovereign over its every motion and where it lands, then how much more shall His people have comfort that He is sovereign over them. God cares for and nourishes His Church and His people can know that the earth and all things in it were created by Him for His own glory. There is no need for the Church to worry or be anxious; it is right where it is because of the sovereign hand of God. Yes, we should pray and seek the Lord and His face, but we should do so knowing that we are to seek for His sovereign will to be done.

The people of God must learn to rest more and more upon Him and His sovereignty. When hard things happen, and they will and they will happen often, we must know that it is His sovereign will being carried out. We can know that there is nothing that happens to us that He has not brought to pass and it came through His heart of love. The greatest thing for His people is to be contented with His presence knowing that He is our greatest good. The living and true God is perfect in all ways and who are we to argue and fret about His plan that is made with infinite wisdom? Surely our comfort is not a greater good than His glory? Our hope is in Him and His glory in Christ and not for our own physical welfare and riches. Our prayers for our welfare must always fall down the list in importance to His glory, His kingdom, and His will. He is sovereign, we are not.

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Musings on Sovereignty 8

August 27, 2016

The late deservedly celebrated Dr. Young, though he affected great opposition to some of the doctrines called Calvinistic, was yet compelled, by the force of truth, to acknowledge that “there is not a fly but has had infinite wisdom concerned not only in its structure, but in its destination.” Nor did the late learned and excellent Bishop Hopkins go a jot too far in asserting as follows: “A sparrow, whose price is but mean, two of them valued at a farthing (which some make to be the tenth part of a Roman penny, and was certainly one of their least coins), and whose life, therefore, is but contemptible, and whose flight seems giddy and at random; yet it falls not to the ground, neither lights anywhere, without your Father. His all-wise Providence hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch on, what grains it shall pick up, where it shall lodge, and where it shall build; on what it shall live, and where it shall die.” Our Savior adds, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. God keeps an account even of that stringy excrescence. Do you see a thousand little motes and atoms wondering up and down in a sun-beam? It is God that so peoples it, and He guides their innumerable and irregular strayings. Not a dust flies in a beaten road but God raiseth it, conducts its uncertain motion, and, by His particular care, conveys it to the certain place He had before appointed for it; nor shall the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any further. Nothing comes to pass but God hath His ends in it, and will certainly make His own ends out of it. Though the world seems to run at random, and affairs to be huddled together in blind confusion, and rude disorder, yet, God sees and knows the concatenation of all causes and effects, and so governs them that He makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming jarrings and discords. It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well established in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth, that whatsoever comes to pass, be it good or evil, we may look up to the hand and disposal of all, to God. In respect of God, there is nothing causal nor contingent in the world. Augustus Toplady

The God that the authors quoted above wrote about is really the only possible true and living God. The true God can be nothing but sovereign, and as such a denial that God is sovereign is really a denial of the true God. We cannot deny necessary attributes of God and still hold on to the true God. If we deny that God is a God of love (in the biblical sense), then we have denied the true God. If we deny that God is a thrice holy God, we have denied the true God. If we deny that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, then we have denied the true God. Why is it so hard to come to the conclusion, then, and recognize that the denial that God is sovereign is a clear denial of the true God?

A God that is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient can be nothing but sovereign if you think about it. If God is truly omnipotent, then there is no real power but His. If God is truly omnipresent, then truly He is everywhere there is a where. It should also be added that He is not just present, but He is all present in all places that He is. If God is truly omniscient, then He knows all things from eternity past to eternity future and nothing can take place apart from His knowledge and wisdom. That means that anything that happens can only happen if God allows it to happen or brings it to pass. Whatever the case, it means that He is the sovereign of this universe.

The description the authors above give of God, then, is not just some intellectual point of doctrine that is not all that important, but they are striving to set forth the biblical truth of the living and true God. This is not just some small point of difference, it has to do with the most important aspects of truth and that is the truth of who God is. It is not acceptable to deny the greatness and vastness of the love of God, and as such it is not acceptable to deny the greatness and vastness of the sovereignty of God.

The one and true God has declared that He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. Fallen men have and still assert that God will be gracious to those who choose Him to be gracious to them. The one and true God declares that men are born from above not by the will of any man and not according to the blood line of men, but instead by the will of God. Yet fallen men have and still insist that God regenerates those who will choose Him by a prayer or by an act of faith. Man fell from God when man wanted to trust in his own wisdom. Now men want to trust in themselves for salvation rather than the sovereign God. Fighting the sovereignty of God in life and in the heart is really what fallen men do, but Christians seek God for all He is and love Him and His sovereignty because that is who He is.

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Musings on Sovereignty 7

August 26, 2016

The late deservedly celebrated Dr. Young, though he affected great opposition to some of the doctrines called Calvinistic, was yet compelled, by the force of truth, to acknowledge that “there is not a fly but has had infinite wisdom concerned not only in its structure, but in its destination.” Nor did the late learned and excellent Bishop Hopkins go a jot too far in asserting as follows: “A sparrow, whose price is but mean, two of them valued at a farthing (which some make to be the tenth part of a Roman penny, and was certainly one of their least coins), and whose life, therefore, is but contemptible, and whose flight seems giddy and at random; yet it falls not to the ground, neither lights anywhere, without your Father. His all-wise Providence hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch on, what grains it shall pick up, where it shall lodge, and where it shall build; on what it shall live, and where it shall die.” Our Savior adds, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. God keeps an account even of that stringy excrescence. Do you see a thousand little motes and atoms wondering up and down in a sun-beam? It is God that so peoples it, and He guides their innumerable and irregular strayings. Not a dust flies in a beaten road but God raiseth it, conducts its uncertain motion, and, by His particular care, conveys it to the certain place He had before appointed for it; nor shall the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any further. Nothing comes to pass but God hath His ends in it, and will certainly make His own ends out of it. Though the world seems to run at random, and affairs to be huddled together in blind confusion, and rude disorder, yet, God sees and knows the concatenation of all causes and effects, and so governs them that He makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming jarrings and discords. It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well established in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth, that whatsoever comes to pass, be it good or evil, we may look up to the hand and disposal of all, to God. In respect of God, there is nothing causal nor contingent in the world. Augustus Toplady

It is so striking how fundamentally different the thinking of the men above was as compared to the thinking of today. In the modern day men start with everything from a man centered point of view and God is thought to be in the service of man. In the past (with the men above and others in that day as well) men thought of God as the starting point and that everything followed from there. They thought of God as being centered upon Himself and not man. They thought of God as gloriously do all for Himself and His own glory.

The doctrine of the sovereignty of God permeates the whole of the doctrine of God and all the doctrines of Scripture. When Moses cried out for God to show him His glory, the Lord declared that He would be gracious to whom He would be gracious. That is sovereignty and it is an aspect of the divine glory. Indeed, it is a brilliant aspect to that glory and it is a beautiful aspect to that glory. This doctrine of sovereignty is at the heart of what it means to be God. This doctrine of sovereignty is at the heart of the Gospel of grace alone. However, in our day men want to water the sovereignty of God down and make it out to be less than what sovereignty really is. They do so in order to be popular with men and to climb the ranks of denominations.

When men water the sovereignty of God down, they are attacking the very nature of God and the very glory of God. If the sovereignty of God is watered down, then the so-called sovereignty or freedom of man is lifted up and exalted to the throne of God. The Gospel is changed from the Gospel of grace alone to the gospel of mostly grace but a little of the acts of men. This simply cannot be tolerated as it is a different Gospel and a different God. We cannot expect for God to come down and show Himself in glory if we are going to water the truths of Him down. We cannot expect God to use the message from our lips to truly convert sinners if we are not going to preach the truth of God and the truth of grace.

Many claim to be seeking revival today, but apart from standing on the full sovereignty of God there will be no true revival. There may be false things rise up, but when the truth of God is not declared we cannot expect revival to happen. No, it is not because God is waiting on us to get the message right, but He is not making hearts in ministers and so-called ministers with the right message. We must cry out to the sovereign God to give us hearts that love Him and His sovereignty and His sovereignty in Jesus Christ. If we don’t really want that, then we must seek Him to give us that desire. There will be no real revival until ministers are broken from self and pride and they seek the glory of the sovereign God in truth from the heart.

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The Church 9

August 24, 2016

Eph 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

Ephesians 3:10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 3:21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Eph 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, or so the Westminster Shorter Catechism says. It never gets around to saying what the chief end of the Church is, but we cannot imagine that the answer would be any different. The chief end of each man is to glorify and enjoy God forever, so surely that is the chief end of the Church. This is not just an idle point in a larger speculative type of reasoning; it is the very reason for the Church. If we look at what the Church is in light of the Scriptures, and then what the Scriptures tell us regarding what the Church is to do, it should be clear that the modern professing Church has lost its way.

The Great Commission is mentioned over and over in certain circles, but the focus is on evangelism. In other circles there is a lot of talk about discipleship, yet it seems all too human. The chief end of the Church is to glorify God and that should teach us a lot about the Great Commission. The Church is the body of Christ and that should teach us a lot about the Great Commission. This is to say that what the Church is and the chief end of the Church should drive what is done and also how it is done. The true Church is not about huge buildings and building programs, it is about building the body of Christ. The true Church should not be about great numbers and baptisms; it is about proclaiming the glory of God in Christ. The true Church should not be about programs of discipleship, it should be about men and women growing in Christ in reality and not just in outward things.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The eternal Word took human flesh and tabernacled among people. We are told that the physical body of Christ was the very tabernacle of the glory of God. Without even attempting to show that the present tabernacle of God is the Church, we can see that the dwelling place of the glory of God now is the Church. Each person is in some way a temple of the Holy Spirit and yet the Church is the dwelling place of God. There is no contradiction in saying that the Church is the very body of Christ and also the very dwelling place of God. This is a basic truth that we should and must go no further until this is driven home into our hearts. When people think of the Church (or church) in terms of a business model, they are far from the biblical truth. The buildings can be filled with religious people who are deceived about being a church, but that is not what it means to be a church at all.

Jesus Christ has really and truly been resurrected. Jesus Christ really and truly dwells in His people and the people are His body. Jesus Christ is alive and will be alive forevermore. Jesus Christ is the Lord of His Church and they are to follow Him as Lord and as their life. The Church must follow Christ in all ways AND have His intents, motives, and loves. It must not turn to humanistic methods in order to reach humanistic goals, but it must follow Christ regardless of all those other things. The hands and the feet must follow the head or the person is thought to be spastic at best. The body of Christ (the true Church) must follow Christ at all points. His glory is the true goal of the Church and we cannot make up ways to glorify Him and pretend to glorify Him when all we are doing in reality is to seek self.

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Musings on Sovereignty 6

August 23, 2016

The late deservedly celebrated Dr. Young, though he affected great opposition to some of the doctrines called Calvinistic, was yet compelled, by the force of truth, to acknowledge that “there is not a fly but has had infinite wisdom concerned not only in its structure, but in its destination.” Nor did the late learned and excellent Bishop Hopkins go a jot too far in asserting as follows: “A sparrow, whose price is but mean, two of them valued at a farthing (which some make to be the tenth part of a Roman penny, and was certainly one of their least coins), and whose life, therefore, is but contemptible, and whose flight seems giddy and at random; yet it falls not to the ground, neither lights anywhere, without your Father. His all-wise Providence hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch on, what grains it shall pick up, where it shall lodge, and where it shall build; on what it shall live, and where it shall die.” Our Savior adds, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. God keeps an account even of that stringy excrescence. Do you see a thousand little motes and atoms wondering up and down in a sun-beam? It is God that so peoples it, and He guides their innumerable and irregular strayings. Not a dust flies in a beaten road but God raiseth it, conducts its uncertain motion, and, by His particular care, conveys it to the certain place He had before appointed for it; nor shall the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any further. Nothing comes to pass but God hath His ends in it, and will certainly make His own ends out of it. Though the world seems to run at random, and affairs to be huddled together in blind confusion, and rude disorder, yet, God sees and knows the concatenation of all causes and effects, and so governs them that He makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming jarrings and discords. It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well established in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth, that whatsoever comes to pass, be it good or evil, we may look up to the hand and disposal of all, to God. In respect of God, there is nothing causal nor contingent in the world. Augustus Toplady

The natural eye of man sees things as happening according to luck or perhaps a series of random events. The natural eye of man does not see anything but confusion in terms of the acts and events of men in the world. The natural eye cannot see anything but what happens and the natural mind cannot behold the sovereign hand of God working all things according to His purposes. The natural man has no ability to behold the sovereign hand of God in the small events, though he may understand something when large “natural” disasters strike. The spiritual man, that is, the one with the eye of faith, is able to “see” the hand of God working in these events.

We know that unpleasant things befall most if not all of men. The natural man thinks that it is bad luck or perhaps that God has it out for him, but the spiritual man (though it may take a while) knows that God is in control and nothing can happen to him apart from God’s will. The spiritual man will eventually come to the point where his heart will submit to that sovereignty as God works His softening work in the heart of that person. When we fight events and happenings in our hearts, what we are really fighting is God’s right to rule over us and to do with us as He pleases. The spiritual man understands this at some point, but the natural man ridicules spiritual things.

Every effect has a cause or perhaps a series of causes. The natural man thinks of these things as random, but every single cause and effect is governed by God and is the outworking of His plan which is a beautiful harmony of effects and causes. The wisdom of men cannot see this at all, but that is not because the wisdom of God is less than that of men, but it is because men cannot rise to the level of God’s wisdom. His ways are not only higher, they are a lot higher. The quicker that the heart learns this principle the quicker the heart learns what God is doing to humble it and break it from self.

The heart must learn to rest in this great truth as a basic fact or it will be wavering all over the place. Regardless of what happens in the world or to each individual soul, regardless of what “comes to pass, be it good or evil, we may look up to the hand and disposal of all, to God.” While this is absurd and even crazy in the thinking of the natural man, this is what brings the spiritual man great comfort and abiding peace. God does not behold the world as if there are causes and effects that do not flow from Him, but instead there is nothing caused and nothing is truly contingent other than Himself. This is God’s world and He reigns and rules all things in accordance with His eternal plan. Oh how delicious this is to the soul that is taught of God to bow and know that if the Lord did it, then it is for a holy and good reason.

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