Seeking God’s Face 1

October 21, 2014

Psalm 27:4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.

Deuteronomy 4:29 “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

2 Chr 7:14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 12:14 He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.

Psalm 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.

The state of Christianity in the modern world is hardly recognizable when one looks at it in light of Scripture and in the times when the Church was godly. Modern professing Christianity is run like a business, looks like a business, and appears to be little more than a business. Pastors are thought of as CEO’s and their so-called sermons are little more than encouragements to success in the world by means of God’s blessing or perhaps they make people feel good in their seeking after morality. In many ways the liberals and the modern evangelicals (so-called) can join hands in seeking after morality in forms of humanism. The “churches” prepare to get people in the door and then beat on the people to be more moral and give more money for building projects and missions projects. It is do and do and then do some more.

Are there any men of God left in our day? Are there pastors who can cry out as David did (in Psa 27:4) that their one desire is to dwell in the house of the Lord in order to behold the beauty of the Lord? Is this seen in the study? Is this seen in the teaching? Is this seen in the preaching? Where are those who long for their people to behold the beauty, glory, and delightfulness of God? Mere expositional preaching cannot do this, though one can do expositional preaching and strive to be a means of shining forth the beauty and glory of God. Mere doctrinal preaching cannot do this either, though doctrinal preaching can be a means to setting forth the beauty of God.

The teaching and preaching of the Bible, even though it may be orthodox, apart from seeking the face of God is nothing more than what the Pharisees did. When men stand up in the pulpit and preach the words of Scripture, yet they have not sought God in their studies and are not seeking God in preaching, they are doing evil. If a person is not seeking God while preaching, then that person is seeking something or someone else. When men stand in the pulpit and do not desire the people who hear them to seek the face of God and be in His presence, they are doing evil then as well.

When people are not seeking the face of God, that is, if we listen to the Scriptures above, then they are not seeking the Lord at all and will not find Him. When people are not seeking the face (presence) of God, they are not praying as they are told to pray. When people are not seeking the face of God and His presence, they do evil. When people are not seeking the face of God and His presence, they do not trust in the Lord. While it appears so many are concerned with evangelism, they seem to have forgotten what it means to love God and to seek His face. If that is true, and I would argue that it is, then evangelism is an idol that is put before seeking the Lord of glory. When people build buildings and do not seek the Lord with their whole hearts, then those buildings are an idol as well. Seeking the Lord is not doing things for Him, as if we could do anything for Him, but instead it is bowing to Him in emptiness and poverty of spirit asking for grace that we may behold Him in His glory. Where is that being done?

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The Promises of God

October 20, 2014

God has not promised
skies always blue

Flower strewn pathways
All our lives through

God hath not promised
Sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

But God hath promised
Strength for the day,

Rest for the labor,
Light for the way,

Grace for the trials,
Help from above,

Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.

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The New Birth is Vital

October 18, 2014

Men are carried away with the notion that through religious instruction, training and favorable opportunities, children of men are made Christians; that men enter the kingdom of God through teaching and moral persuasion….A man does not have to be born again in order to be religious; he may be infatuated with religion, and be taught to observe most rigidly forms and ceremonies, and to subject himself to the strictest discipline; to mutilate his body and deprive himself of all earthly comforts; to yield perpetual obedience to priestcraft; to pray three times a day and give tithes of all he possesses; take up the sword in defense of his religion, or lay down his life in testimony of his zeal; but except he be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. A man must be born again in order to receive Christ, or embrace His doctrine in truth and reality.   H.M Curry

There is no more important event, which occurs in our world, than the new birth of an immortal soul. Heirs to titles and estates, to kingdoms and empires, are frequently born, and such events are blazoned with imposing pomp, and celebrated by poets and orators; but what are all these honors and possessions but the gewgaws of children, when compared with the inheritance and glory to which every child of God is born an heir!

The implantation of spiritual life in a soul dead in sin, is an event, the consequences of which will never end. When you plant an acorn, and it grows, you expect not to see the maturity, much less the end of the majestic oak, which will expand its boughs and strike deeply into the earth as roots. The fierce blast of centuries of winters may beat upon it and agitate it, but it resists them all. Yet finally this majestic oak, and all its towering branches, must fall. Trees die with old age, as well as men. But the plants of grace shall ever live. They shall flourish in everlasting verdure. Archibald Alexander

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The Sovereignty of God

October 17, 2014

He has created all things for Himself, and for who pleasure alone all things are, and were, created. He does His pleasure in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth. The scepter of whose authority He sways over all things, all worlds, and all events, with irresistible power, and unerring wisdom and righteousness. His absolute providence and decrees embrace the very hairs of our heads, unalterably fixes the number of them, and makes it perfectly impossible that one of them can fall from our head without an order from His throne. Life, death and hell, and worlds unknown, Hang on His firm decree…
Our troubles come not up unbidden out of the earth, nor do our afflictions come on us by chance…Disease and the consequences resulting are as fully appointed as all other causes and results are. We cannot perceive that any of the human family ever came to their death by any other than the means appointed. A sparrow cannot fall, nor a hair from our heads, without our Heavenly Father. God cares for sparrows as He cares for worlds. Our hairs are all numbered, as are the days of our pilgrimage on earth, so that we cannot pass our bounds. Nor can we by any possible care or foresight of ours add to our stature one cubit, make a hair black or white, or lengthen or diminish from the number of days which God has allotted us upon His footstool. When men die suddenly, human theology says they go unprepared to the bar of God; but divine revelation teaches us that “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Jesus says “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out (John 6:37).” No accident, casualty or fortuitous event can interrupt the execution of the counsel of God; and he who falls in death by a thunderbolt, if an heir of salvation, will as certainly reign in glory with Christ, as though he were translated like Enoch or Elijah; and if not a subject of God’s saving grace, would be no nearer to heaven, or likely to be saved if a thousand years were added to his days.
Plauges and death around us fly,
‘Til He bids, we cannot die;
Not a single shaft can hit,
‘Til the God of grace sees fit.

God is immutable in His counsel, of one mind, and none can turn Him; and it therefore becomes us to “Be still and know that He is God.” Gilbert Beebe

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Gospel of Grace Alone 52

October 15, 2014

Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Romans 15:19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

1 Corinthians 9:12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,

1 Thessalonians 3:2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith,

The Gospel is the Gospel of Christ and it is the grace of Christ. Yes, the same theme being hammered on over and over can get dreary and uninteresting for some. However, the Gospel must not and cannot be distorted to anything but the Gospel of Christ and the grace of Christ or it is no longer the true Gospel and is nothing but another gospel. The glorious Gospel of Christ is the good news of what Christ has done and accomplished for the glory of God and His people in history, but it is also what He does in the present day as a result of what He accomplished in history. Again, and to be repetitive, the good news is of Jesus Christ and it is not what man can do by his or her own so-called “free-will.” We have the power of the Gospel and it is not in the power of the human will, but it is in the power of the resurrected Savior or in the same power that resurrected Christ.

I don’t think that it can be stressed too much that the Gospel is a full Gospel of grace that is free of conditions and causes in man and of what man can accomplish in his own strength. The Gospel of Christ is all about Christ and is not about the efforts of man or the choices of man, but instead it is about the efforts of Christ and the choices of the Father of Christ. The Gospel is all of what Christ has done and continues to do and all He has done or will do is always by grace and grace alone. What man does in his own strength and power is the works of the flesh and the only thing that can come from the flesh is fleshly works, but what Christ does is from His holy love for the Father and by the power of the Spirit. Man must have faith and all things come from Christ by grace or faith will come from the fleshly nature of the natural man.

Oh how the Gospel of grace alone must be preached and declared in all the glories of Christ! If grace alone is to be preached in truth, then Christ alone must be preached alone in truth. The Gospel is all about the Person of Christ and His taking human nature to Himself and as such He was the very tabernacle of God on earth. The Gospel is about what Christ accomplished on earth in His miracles and in His teachings because He was putting the glory of God on display through Himself. Eternal life is to know God and Christ is the way to know God. This is why we have the Gospel of Mark starting off like this: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The Gospel is about Christ and all that He was and did.

2 Timothy 1:10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

The very idea of life and immortality are brought to life and reality through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the grace that is in Him. Knowing God is brought to light and reality through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have in the Gospel a way of knowing God (not just knowing about Him) and knowing God is eternal life, it is not just a matter of the human will. This is by grace and grace alone. We must be given knowledge of God by grace alone or we are brought to knowing God by acts of the human flesh. The glory of grace alone is beautiful as it shines out in the glory of Christ. The gospel of grace alone ravishes the soul as it beholds the sovereign God who gives grace.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 51

October 14, 2014

Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

We must know that the Gospel of grace alone has many things to teach us that are ignored in the modern day. If the Gospel of grace alone teaches us that Christ brings faith, then we must preach Christ in a way that teaches sinners to look to Him for faith rather than teaching sinners to look to faith to bring Christ. We must preach and teach sinners that faith cannot be had in their own strength and power, but true faith must come to them by grace alone as well. True faith can only come to sinners if Christ brings it and gives Himself to sinners along with faith. If sinners can have faith in a way that is not by grace alone and Christ alone, then it is utterly inescapable for the Gospel to be something less than grace alone and Christ alone. But again, the Gospel is without doubt by grace alone and Christ alone so faith must come to the sinner by grace alone and come by Christ alone as well.

We must also think of the fact that a sinner cannot have true faith apart from having Christ. A person cannot be said to have true faith unless a person has the object and subject of true faith. Surely this shows us that having true faith and having Christ cannot be separated. So why do people argue that a person must have faith in order to have Christ? Why can’t we argue that a person must have Christ in order to have faith? What is so wrong with thinking that Christ (grace incarnate) must give sinners faith along with giving Himself? Can dead sinners have faith apart from having life? Can it be that sinners can have life before they have Christ? No, sinners with life believe and so sinners who have Christ who is their life believe.

We are told that the sinner who hears and believes has eternal life. How can sinners hear Christ unless they have life and have Christ? Surely sinners who hear are those who spiritually hear, but this just teaches us that sinners must be spiritually alive in order to hear Christ call them. The person who hears and believes already has eternal life versus the modern day teaching of how a person must have faith in order to have life. Surely we can also see that seeing and hearing are spiritual acts and for a person to hear Christ or to see Christ means that a person has spiritual life. If faith is a spiritual faith, then a person must be a spiritual person (having the Holy Spirit) in order to spiritually believe.

The Scriptures are quite clear (in the words of Jesus) that a person must be born from above in order to see or enter the kingdom. If seeing is a spiritual seeing, then once again it is quite obvious that a person must have spiritual life in this new birth in order to have faith. But can a person have spiritual life apart from Christ who is life Himself? If a person must be born from above in order to have faith, then surely we can see that a person must have Christ who is life in order to have faith. The nature of faith is that it is a spiritual act and for a person to exercise a faith which is a spiritual act that person must have the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ.

It should be easily seen, then, that if the new birth is by grace alone, then faith must be by grace alone. If regeneration precedes faith, and regeneration is life in the soul, then we should be able to see the wonder and glory of Christ bringing faith with Him in the soul. True faith will always have Christ as the object and source, and all spiritual blessings are obtained in Christ, so it is really no wonder that Christ will cleanse a soul, then take up His residence in that soul and bring faith with Him as a gift to give. The Gospel of grace alone is set forth as the shining forth of the glory of God when we see that Christ brings faith with Him. If we have to believe in order to have Christ, as if it came from us, then the Gospel would be left as having at least one part that is not pure grace. But if the soul is regenerated by the Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ and in that regeneration the soul lives by the life of Christ and so is given the gift of faith by Christ, we see that the Gospel is all of grace and that at all points and in all ways. Oh how poor sinners should be taught that while they must have faith, it is Christ who gives it to them.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 50

October 13, 2014

Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news about the Person of Christ who is the shining forth of the glory of God and of what He has done and is doing. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a canned message that mentions the cross and then gets people to pray a prayer or walk an aisle or sign a card, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of what Christ will do not based on what He has done to save sinners. It is not just that people need to believe that there was a person in the past named Jesus, but they must have as their central and core belief that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Gospel is not just that people must come to intellectually believe the facts that Jesus Christ died on the cross, but that God in human flesh had the sins of all who would ever believe imputed to Him and that His suffering was in their place and that the wrath of God was satisfied.

The Gospel of grace alone has to do with the fact that God sent the Son because of who He is and not because of anything desirable about sinners. The Son came out of love for the Father and not because there was anything worthy or meritorious about sinners. The Son purchased the Holy Spirit for His people because in this the glory of God is manifested. The One God who exists in three Persons manifests the glory of His grace in saving sinners. This is really, really good news. The Gospel is all about the glory of God shining forth in Christ and how Christ has accomplished the salvation of sinners from beginning to end. The Gospel is how Christ has purchased the Holy Spirit who applies salvation to sinners from beginning to end. For all those poor sinners who see that they have done nothing but sin their whole lives and have never had anything close to one perfect work, it is great news to see that the whole Gospel is of grace at all points and in all ways.

The Gospel of the glory of God that is all of grace teaches us that sinners must not even try to work up faith in order for Christ to come and save them, but instead this Gospel of grace alone teaches us that Christ brings faith to sinners in and of Himself. The modern day seems to think that it is acceptable to have the sinner have faith and then have Christ, which means that the sinner must come up with faith without Christ and then receive Christ on the basis of that faith. But can one have faith without having Christ? We are really left with two choices in the matter. Either faith brings Christ or Christ brings faith. When it is put that way, it would seem as if there is really only one of those that protects and sets out the Gospel of grace alone.

If we are to contend for a Gospel of grace alone that (by definition must be to be by grace alone) is free of all merit and conditions to be fulfilled by men in their own strength, then we must also contend for a Christ who brings faith with Him. If we are to speak of effectual grace and irresistible grace in a biblical sense, then we must speak of an effectual Christ and an irresistible Christ. The Gospel of grace alone is also the Gospel of Christ alone and the Gospel of the glory of God alone. If we are to have a Gospel that fits with exquisite beauty and glory with those vital teachings of Scripture, then we have a Gospel where faith comes to sinners by Christ and in Christ. This is a Gospel where we can tell poor sinners that Christ will bring them faith rather than sinners needing to have faith to bring to Christ.

The Gospel of Christ alone and grace alone to the glory of God alone is a Gospel where God shines forth in His self-sufficiency and His self-sufficient grace. This is a Gospel where nothing is needed from the sinner except to be a sinner that has realized his or her own utter insufficiency and inability to do anything. Therefore, this sinner can do nothing but plead for mercy and grace. As Jesus taught, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Indeed, poor sinners who have no strength in themselves can have great hope for faith because Christ brings faith by grace alone. There is no boasting of anything but boasting in Christ and in His grace.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 49

October 11, 2014

Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

The utterly glorious Gospel of grace alone and how it correlates with the Five Sola’s of the Reformation and the Five Points of Calvinism (so to speak) seems to point at how this is a major point of Holy Scripture. Indeed God does all for His own glory, so of course the Gospel is to the glory of His name and so the Gospel is all about His grace which manifests His beauty and holiness in and by grace. The Gospel of grace alone sets out the beauty and loveliness of Christ Jesus because all grace is found and obtained in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Himself is the very radiance of His glory which is to say that the Lord Jesus is the very shining forth of His glory (Hebrews 1:3). When God shines forth out of Himself, the Lord Jesus is the perfect image of God and He can behold His perfections in Christ as they shine forth. This is how God beholds His perfect image. The Scriptures (John 1:14-18) also tell us that when the Word took flesh, it was in that flesh that the glory of God tabernacles and in that tabernacle of human flesh the glory of God was beheld in grace and truth. The glory, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, was full of grace and truth. It was of His (Jesus Christ) fullness that we have received grace upon grace (John 1:16). It was in Christ and through Christ that grace and truth came into reality or came in the form of Jesus Christ to this planet. Thus, we can easily see that when God does something for His own glory He is doing it by Christ alone. When God saves sinners by grace alone for His glory alone, He is doing this through Christ alone.

While human beings may be able to make distinctions between glory, grace, and Christ, they must not separate those three teachings at all. In God these are all one. The Lord Jesus is the only place where there is saving grace and He is the only One who can purchase grace. As the very shining forth of the glory of God which is a glory that is full of grace and truth, when Scripture says that God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace, He is speaking of Christ because Christ is the shining forth of His glory and Christ is grace to His people.

When the Scriptures tell us (as Galatians 1:6-9) that we are not to preach a gospel contrary to what Paul taught to the Galatians, we are also to understand this that people are not to teach anything but a Gospel by which Christ alone saves sinners by grace alone to the glory of God alone. The riches of the Gospel comes to sinners by grace, but all of that is through Christ alone who is the shining forth of the glory of God. When sinners come to understand something of this great mystery which was hidden from the past generations, they come to understand that their very hope of glory is Christ in them. Their very hope of seeing and tasting of this glory of God is because of Christ who was and is the very shining forth of the glory of God dwells in them. Their hope of grace for the next moment and the next day is because of Christ who shines forth from God as the very glory of God which consists of grace and truth. God’s glory is seen in grace and truth and Christ is that grace and truth. The Gospel is the Gospel of grace alone because it is always to the glory of God alone and that glory is Christ shining forth as the perfect image of God. A distortion of the Gospel of grace alone (Gospel of His Person, works, and His shining forth as the perfect image of God) is a distortion of Christ and of His Father. Let us drink at the wells of eternal glory by grace as we receive Christ Himself.

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Musings 54

October 10, 2014

KJV Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

NAS Ephesians 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

We are commanded to love God with our whole being (heart, mind, soul, and strength) all of the time and we are commanded to be holy in all we do. Jesus spoke of the sinful thoughts of others and we are also told that the Word judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Ephesians 5:16, given in two translations above, tells us how we are to use our time. The word for “redeeming” or “making the most of” is a word that can mean redeem or purchase, but also use something in the best way. It is also true that Christians have freedom, but is this freedom from holiness or are they now free to seek holiness? I would argue the latter.

Every human soul is headed for an eternity filled with everlasting and indescribable torment or one filled with Christ and His joy. How is a soul headed for eternity to live? Hopefully this will not appear legalistic, and even more the hope is that it is not, but can those who strive to love God have lives filled with sports, movies, reading novels, and television shows? Can spending hours a day or week doing those things make a person holy and can they be part of a life set on living to the glory of God?

We are told that we should be rounded people and we are to be part of society and all the things of the world so that we may relate to the world, but was that how Jesus and His disciples did things? Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom and that we only have one true master. What if the way we spent our time told the truth of our hearts and who our true master is? I would wonder, though not really, if people spend more time in communing with God or with the entertainment of the modern day? I wonder if professing believers spend more time talking about and thinking about things of the world (though perhaps not bad in and of themselves) than they do of Christ? If so, wouldn’t that be a sign of a person being part of the world rather than having the life of Christ in him or her?

We only have so many hours in a day when we are awake and are supposed to seek God with all of our beings. Do we take these things seriously in our day? Could it be that the world is so familiar to us that we no longer recognize that it is taken over and we spend hours each day in the world and of the world? How much of what we read and what we watch is of benefit to the soul and if seriously considered could be considered as being done out of love for God? I Corinthians 10:31 teaches us that whether it is eating or drinking or whatever we do we are to do it to the glory of God. Does this really sink in to the modern professing believer? If the believer can be seen by love for Christ and holiness (being set apart for Christ), are modern professing believers distinguished by true love for Christ and true holiness? It sure seems that there is a far greater love for the world than for Christ in modern professing Christendom, but that is making a judgment based on what people speak of and what people watch and read. Holiness, it seems, has been lost.

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Examining the Heart 88

October 8, 2014

A slighting spirit will turn a profane spirit, and will sin and pray too. Slightness is the bane of real religion, if it be not rooted out of the heart, by constant and serious dealings with, and beholdings of Christ in duties; it will grow more strong, and more deadly, by being under church-ordinances. Measure not your graces by others’ attainments, but by scripture trials. Be serious, exact in duty, having the weight of it upon your heart but be as much afraid of taking comfort from duties as from sins. Comfort from any hand but Christ is deadly. Be much in prayer, or you will never keep up much communion with God. As you are in private prayer, so much you will be in all other ordinances.   Thomas Willcox

It is hard to overstate the importance of the statement that “comfort from any hand but Christ is deadly.” He did not say that it was unhealthy or even dangerous, but deadly. This should be taken into account and be dealt with very, very seriously. From speaking with people and hearing people talk (either in person or various forms of communication) it appears that finding comfort in something or even someone other than Christ is rampant. Finding comfort in things other than Christ is not just the majority, but it appears as if it is the vast majority.

It seems as if people find comfort in an orthodox creed, the means of grace rather than grace itself, the doctrine of Christ rather than Christ Himself, the church rather than the Head of the Church, and works and morality. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it is an effort to show how so many conservative and orthodox churches (by profession) can be looking to something other than Christ for comfort. The statement by Willcox also includes those who look to a false Christ and those who look to rigorous orthodoxy in the name of Christ and yet not to Christ Himself. It would appear that so many use so many things, even good things, that makes them think that they are looking to Christ and yet those things are being used to blind them and deceive them.

It is a wonderful thing to be in an orthodox church (by profession), but is it so wonderful if that orthodoxy was used to deceive people? Can it be that orthodoxy can be trusted in rather than Christ Himself? Can it be that orthodoxy can be a means of pride and so people are really trusting in themselves as they proudly think of themselves as orthodox and therefore converted? Here we see that there can be a great distinction or difference between those who hold to a form of orthodox belief. One group sees that the orthodox doctrine teaches them the truth of Christ and so they look to Christ, but the second group (appears to be larger by far than group one) looks to orthodoxy as a sign of faith and so they don’t die to self and their pride and so they look to their creed or orthodoxy rather than Christ Himself.

This can happen that when a person questions his salvation in his heart (despite the external confidence) he will look to his creed or his orthodoxy and think of himself as a believer in the truth. The devil knows what is true (in that sense) and believes it is true as well. Having an orthodox creed is nothing more than the devil has, or at least in one sense. The devil uses orthodoxy and biblical truth to blind people and to deceive them. He even used Scripture in an effort to deceive Christ. An orthodox creed can be as dangerous to a person as open sin if the creed is used to gain comfort by rather than Christ Himself. The orthodox creed is meant to be biblical truth that points to Christ rather than something that points to itself. The orthodox creed is meant to be a way to tell the truth about Christ who is to be trusted in and rested upon, but when it is trusted in and rested upon it becomes a wicked sin of pride and self. Finding comfort in a creed or a statement of orthodoxy is a very, very dangerous thing and when one finds comfort in a creed that creed is being used to blind a person to the Gospel of Christ alone.

It is a necessary thing to examine the heart for its deepest beliefs and its deepest comforts. While it may be widely taught in our day for people to simply profess a creed and live a moral life, the Scripture knows nothing of such a thing. It teaches us that we must have Christ as our life and we must rest in Christ alone. A slighting spirit in a person will keep them from a blood earnestness that is necessary to examine the heart to find its deepest comforts and what it rests upon in fact and reality. If we are not earnest and serious about the things of God and the Gospel, we have yet to understand the reality of eternity and of holiness and grace.

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