"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling,and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:4-9 ESV
Who or what is precious to you? To call something precious according to Webster’s Dictionary is to say that it is of great value or highly esteemed and cherished. There are many things that are very precious to me: My wife; my four children; my two grandchildren; San Clemente, my hometown; my church that I pastor, the Lighthouse; my favorite surfing break, upper Trestles; The National Parks, especially Yosemite; the Hawaiian Islands, especially Kauai; and the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
Is Jesus precious to you? He was to the apostle Peter. Last week we saw the Apostle Peter share two things about the preciousness of Jesus. The first was His intrinsic worth: “Jesus is precious” (1 Peter 2:4, 6). The second was His worth to those who believe: "To you who believe Jesus Christ is precious" (1 Peter 2:7). Now this week we will discuss the third aspect of His preciousness which is the gladness of those to proclaim His worth.
TELLING OTHERS ABOUT THE PRECIOUSNESS OF JESUS
In verse 9 we read, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light". Your power to give a compassionate witness about Jesus to unbelievers will grow in direct proportion to how precious Jesus is to you. Another good translation would be, "that we might declare his excellencies." The text explicitly says that God chose us and made us his new people for the purpose of telling people about his excellencies, about how precious Jesus is to us.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Jesus shows us that our purpose on this earth is to make known God's identity, to show and tell the world how precious Jesus is! Peter describes it as “declaring His excellencies”.
Is Christ excellent to you? Do you know and understand and see His excellencies? Our power to make that declaration will increase in direct proportion to how precious Jesus really is to us. Evangelism, missions, worship, ministry, and living for His glory will increase in direct proportion that Jesus is to us. As John Piper says, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with Him.” You cannot bear a credible witness to the value of anything if you do not sense or feel its value. Therefore the most important question we can ask ourselves if is: How much is Jesus worth? Jonathan Edwards so profoundly wrote:
“The excellency of Christ is such, that the discovery of it is exceedingly contenting and satisfying to the soul. The carnal soul imagines that earthly things are excellent-one thinks riches most excellent, another has the highest esteem of honor, and to another carnal pleasure appears the most excellent. But the soul cannot find contentment in any of these things, because it soon finds an end to their excellency. Worldly men imagine that there is true excellency and true happiness in those things which they are pursuing. They think that if they could but obtain them, they would be happy. But when they obtain them, and cannot find happiness, they look for happiness in something else, and are still upon the pursuit. But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see him they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in Jesus! It sees that until now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance. It sees that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean!”
If you ponder how much Jesus is worth to you and why, you will have your own personal authentic testimony. That's what the world needs to hear: Why is Jesus so precious?
Does Christ have that most wonderful place in your life where you see him as altogether lovely, your Beloved and your Friend? If not, listen to what the Puritan John Flavel said, “Away with those empty nothings, away with this vain deceitful world, which deserves not the thousandth part of the love you give it. Let all stand aside and give way to Christ. Oh if only you knew his worth and excellency, what he is in himself, what he has done for you, and deserved from you; you would need no arguments to persuade you to love him!”
Jesus is precious. He is the Father’s delight. He is so precious that many have suffered the loss of all things for His sake. He has called us to live our lives on this earth in a way that shows He is precious and that proclaims to the world how precious He is. This Christmas season is a great time to tell someone of the preciousness of Jesus to you.
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
THE VALUE AND WORTH OF JESUS CHRIST!
"As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:"Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling,and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."1 Peter 2:4-9
I am a reformed member of the dog haters club of America South Orange County Chapter. It all started when my son Kai wanted a dog for Christmas. Then my neighbors invited me over to introduce me to their little Bijon puppy because they wanted my family to have her. Of course my initial reaction was an obstinate “No way!” All I could think of was whining, barking, destroying my home, dog doo, hyperactivity, slobber, having to walk it, having to spend money in order to feed it, veterinary bills, etc. But soon with a little of my wife’s unique persuasive skills, coupled with my son Kai’s begging and pleading, I reluctantly agreed to go over and see the dog. Of course, I already decided that there was no way in the world that we would own a dog. That is until I saw her, this little white puppy named Maggie with big brown eyes, long floppy ears, eager to love and please, looking like a living white shag carpet, and having this seeming perpetual wagging tail and big grin on her face. What can I say; I melted at the sight of that little bowser. So, I gave in, the dog moved in, and in the days that followed spending time with little Maggie: watching her, walking her, playing with her, snuggling with her caused her to become very precious to me. I guess you could say I fell in love with that little dog.
To call something precious according to Webster’s Dictionary is to say that it is of great value or highly esteemed and cherished. Who is the most precious above all? To God the Father, to the Apostle Peter, and to a band of Christ lovers (including myself!) for over 2000 years, Jesus is precious! There is nothing in this world more precious to me than Jesus Christ! My life is a continuing and insatiable quest for Jesus to become more precious to me day by day. It is my purpose, my passion, my longing, my battle cry, my compass, and the central theme of my ministry to spread a passion for the preciousness of Christ to all the nations.
Is Jesus precious to you?
The Apostle Peter shares three things about the preciousness of Jesus. The first is His intrinsic worth: “Jesus is precious” (1 Peter 2:4, 6). The second is His worth to those who believe: "To you who believe Jesus Christ is precious" (1 Peter 2:7). The third is the gladness of those to proclaim His worth:"that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him..." (1 Peter 2:9). Because Jesus is precious we are to tell the world about his preciousness. Your power to give a passionate witness about Jesus to unbelievers will grow in direct proportion to how precious Jesus is to you .
JESUS IS PRECIOUS
In verses 4,6 Jesus is likened to a precious stone. The word Peter uses (Greek: entimon), means worthy of honor, esteemed, and of the highest value. Jesus preciousness is spoken of in terms of the Father’s heart towards Him (verse 4) as well as His intrinsic value in Himself (verse 6). How is Jesus precious? Peter does not tell us how precious Jesus is. No wonder. How we even begin to comprehend the infinite worth and value of Jesus. Words cannot begin to communicate Jesus' preciousness. Never the less, we can try. How is Jesus precious? Let me give you a few thoughts to consider.
1. Jesus is precious because He is of Infinite and Ultimate Value Paul calls Him the indescribable gift. (2 Corinthians 9:15)His worth is far greater than all earthly treasures put together. He is precious because of who He is. "For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9)
2. Jesus is precious because He is One of a Kind
There are many “gods” in the world, but there is only one Jesus. Yes, there are many “Jesus’” being preached in the world, but there is only one true Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who “came to save His people from their sins.” In all of Heaven there was only one Jesus Christ, who was able to be the Lamb of God and take away the sins of the world. There was not another in all Heaven, who was qualified to be our savior. Jesus is unique- He is the only Savior; the only door and the only way into Heaven; the only hope of salvation. His Name is the only Name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved! (Acts 4:12). Spurgeon says, Jesus is so precious that He cannot be matched! There is none like Him! The fairest of the fair are unlovely and deformed when compared with Him! You shall find none that can be compared to Him, even if you ransack time and space... If you search eternity, and ransack immensity, there shall never be found one fit to be second to Him, He is so precious.
3. Jesus is precious because He is so Glorious
He far excels all of His creation for holiness, and power, and wisdom, and beauty. He is perfect in every way. There is not the least flaw in His Person, or in all of His marvelous works. In fact, Jesus is the standard of excellence and splendor in all of Heaven and earth. The brightness of His glory is above the brightness of the sun when shining is his strength (Acts 26:13). His glory lights every man that comes into the world (John 1:9). His glory was seem by the apostles (John 1:14) and shines into the hearts of His people (2 Corinthians 4:4), and enlightens them to the way of repentance, and faith in His work of redemption. And His glory will lighten New Jerusalem in the eternal age (Revelation 21:23), so that there shall be no need for the light of the sun! Jesus is most glorious.
4. Jesus is precious because of His Impact and Influence
There has never been a man that has influenced more people, and more nations, throughout the past 2,000 years than the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus is the most influential man ever born into this world. He has touched the lives of millions, and brought millions of men and women, and boys and girls, out of their bondage of sin and death, and has given them forgiveness of their sins, and new lives of true love, true holiness, true peace, and true happiness and joy. And more importantly, He gave them eternal life with Him in glory! Yes, He is influential in the salvation of all of His people.
TO YOU WHO BELIEVE JESUS IS PRECIOUS
Notice what happens when we connect verses 4, 6, and 7. In verses 4 and 6 Christ is chosen and precious in the sight of God. Now in verse 7, he is therefore precious to us who believe. Jesus is not precious because we make Him precious. Hed is precious and the Spirit of God graces us to see how precious He really is. Thus, believers are chips off the Old Block as it were. We choose what our Father chooses. We feel to be precious what our Father feels to be precious. The personal attractions of Jesus are all inviting and irresistible! His love wins us. His glory charms us. His beauty attracts us. His sympathy soothes us. His gentleness subdues us. His faithfulness inspires us. He is the "altogether lovely One!" says Octavius Winslow. He becomes to us, as Jonathan Edwards puts it, "an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies."
Jesus prayed for us in John 17:26 that “the love the Father has for Jesus may be in us.” As Jesus is precious in Himself, as Jesus is precious to the Father, Jesus is meant to be precious to us. When you see Him in all of His excellencies how could He not be anything else but precious to you? Do you see Him? Do you really see Him?
Peter speaks of this experience of seeing Jesus in a way that goes beyond physical seeing to spiritual seeing and its wonderful effect upon all who see Him. “Though you have not seen Him (Physically), you love Him (He is precious to you), and though you do not see Him now (Physically), but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” (1 Peter 1:8). Seeing the preciousness of Jesus causes us for inexpressable joy to beleive Him, trust Him, and love Him. How precious is Jesus to you? Where does he come in your scale of desires?
Jesus once told a parable that describes how precious it really is to inherit the Kingdom of heaven. And since he himself is the King of that Kingdom and the One who makes it valuable, the parable applies to Him also. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it" (Matthew 13:44-46).
Notice well: the man does not sell all that he has begrudgingly; he does it joyfully. The reason is because he sees how precious the treasure is. He knows that, whatever he pays for that field or that pearl it's a steal. Jesus is worth so much more than anything else in all the world, which every loss endured to have more of him, can be endured with joy. Is Jesus your treasure?
Dear Christian what would life be like without Jesus? How essential is Jesus to our satisfaction and happiness? What would this world be like to live in without Jesus? What if Jesus hid Himself from us? What would we do in this world without Jesus? How would you face your days? How would you handle life’s difficulties? What if there was no door of fellowship, friendship, and companionship between you and Jesus? I pray it can be said of you dear reader:
TO YOU, JESUS IS PRECIOUS!
To be continued...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
REMEMBERING THE PAST AND LOOKING AHEAD TO THE FUTURE
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
Psalm 103:1-5 ESV
Every moment in our life is both an ending and a beginning. It is the end of your past and the beginning of your future. If you see your life in a God-centered way like the writers of scripture, you will be able to seize that moment and look through the lens of God and stand inside that world in great humility before Him.
Each moment is a moment where, through the lens of God, all of His works in the past are reasons for us to look back and be grateful. At the same time this moment points us to the future with an opportunity to look ahead with faith in God’s future grace. I really believe that if we learn to “be here now”, to “seize the moment”, and “to be still and know that He is God” that looking back and looking ahead are two great God given means of spiritual growth in our lives.
The Psalmist exhorts himself to look back and to remember what God has done for him in verse 1, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” How often do we forget all of God’s benefits, workings, blessings, providence's, deliverance's, provisions, protections, forgiveness, mercies, kindnesses, and miracles that the Lord has done in our lives? How often because we have forgotten all of His past mercies do we face the present with fear, doubt, anxiety, and unbelief?
When I look back at my own life I see that I have often failed to remember the big things that God has done and made them seem small in my forgetfulness while making the little thing that I faced in my present seem large in my unbelief.
I find it very helpful to see that the Psalmist is preaching to himself to remember all the preciousness of past grace that God has given Him. God in the past had “forgiven all of his iniquity, healed all his diseases, redeemed his life from the pit, crowned him with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfied him with good so that his youth was renewed like the eagle's.”
Preaching to ourselves is very important.
In his book Spiritual Depression Martin Lloyd Jones says,
I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing 'ourselves' to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you.
This is what the Psalmist does to counter this. Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I have something to say to you: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
Jones says,
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.
So we must learn to speak to ourselves and exhort ourselves: ‘Self, remember what God has done for you. The same God who has done for you in the past will work for you in the future, so bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name!”
That is exactly what we must do. Jones asks, "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?"
Let me ask you: Have you realized? Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to this reality, this fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? See, what we have each day is an internal conversation that never ends. It is ceaseless. It continues always within us. And so each day, throughout the day, we have two simple choices: We can either spend the day listening to ourselves, listening to ourselves in our constantly changing feelings and circumstantial interpretations, or we can spend each day talking to ourselves. We can talk truth to ourselves. We can seize each ending to be a moment for gratitude and each beginning to be a moment for faith.
Other characters in the bible did this. Joseph looking back on the past providence of God spoke to his brothers: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). The Proverb writer looked forward on the future providence of God: "The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). David could look ahead and say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6).
Gratitude causes us to see God’s past grace aimed at helping us. When we remember what God has done we can transfer that past working into present faith for God’s future promises aimed at helping us as well. Since every moment is the beginning of the rest of your life, and every moment is the end of the past, every moment should be governed by gratitude and faith. If you see the world in this biblical way - and if you stand inside that biblical world and preach this past grace and future grace to yourself - then every moment will be a point of gratitude toward the past and faith toward the future.
The practical implications of this are great. It will make you humble and bold! Humble, in feeling the preciousness of past grace and an honest memory of mercy; humbly remembering that “every good gift comes from above”; living in deep, dependent, gratitude and worship; knowing that it is the Lord who provided, sustained, protected, healed, delivered, and intervened in the past.
It will also awaken boldness by transferring the benefits of your God governed past into your future! At this moment are you confidently looking ahead to this God continuing to work, bless, provide, deliver, protect, forgive, show mercy, and work miracles in the future? Do you trust His rock solid promises for your future? Oh that we would agree with George Mueller that “The living God has been, is, and will always be the living God!”
At this moment your past and your future are meeting together. May you look back this day with the look of gratitude and may you look continually forward with the look of faith! Remember: Endings are for gratitude and Beginnings are for faith!
Pastor Bill
Psalm 103:1-5 ESV
Every moment in our life is both an ending and a beginning. It is the end of your past and the beginning of your future. If you see your life in a God-centered way like the writers of scripture, you will be able to seize that moment and look through the lens of God and stand inside that world in great humility before Him.
Each moment is a moment where, through the lens of God, all of His works in the past are reasons for us to look back and be grateful. At the same time this moment points us to the future with an opportunity to look ahead with faith in God’s future grace. I really believe that if we learn to “be here now”, to “seize the moment”, and “to be still and know that He is God” that looking back and looking ahead are two great God given means of spiritual growth in our lives.
The Psalmist exhorts himself to look back and to remember what God has done for him in verse 1, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” How often do we forget all of God’s benefits, workings, blessings, providence's, deliverance's, provisions, protections, forgiveness, mercies, kindnesses, and miracles that the Lord has done in our lives? How often because we have forgotten all of His past mercies do we face the present with fear, doubt, anxiety, and unbelief?
When I look back at my own life I see that I have often failed to remember the big things that God has done and made them seem small in my forgetfulness while making the little thing that I faced in my present seem large in my unbelief.
I find it very helpful to see that the Psalmist is preaching to himself to remember all the preciousness of past grace that God has given Him. God in the past had “forgiven all of his iniquity, healed all his diseases, redeemed his life from the pit, crowned him with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfied him with good so that his youth was renewed like the eagle's.”
Preaching to ourselves is very important.
In his book Spiritual Depression Martin Lloyd Jones says,
I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing 'ourselves' to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it. This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you.
This is what the Psalmist does to counter this. Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I have something to say to you: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
Jones says,
The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.
So we must learn to speak to ourselves and exhort ourselves: ‘Self, remember what God has done for you. The same God who has done for you in the past will work for you in the future, so bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name!”
That is exactly what we must do. Jones asks, "Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?"
Let me ask you: Have you realized? Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to this reality, this fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? See, what we have each day is an internal conversation that never ends. It is ceaseless. It continues always within us. And so each day, throughout the day, we have two simple choices: We can either spend the day listening to ourselves, listening to ourselves in our constantly changing feelings and circumstantial interpretations, or we can spend each day talking to ourselves. We can talk truth to ourselves. We can seize each ending to be a moment for gratitude and each beginning to be a moment for faith.
Other characters in the bible did this. Joseph looking back on the past providence of God spoke to his brothers: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20). The Proverb writer looked forward on the future providence of God: "The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). David could look ahead and say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6).
Gratitude causes us to see God’s past grace aimed at helping us. When we remember what God has done we can transfer that past working into present faith for God’s future promises aimed at helping us as well. Since every moment is the beginning of the rest of your life, and every moment is the end of the past, every moment should be governed by gratitude and faith. If you see the world in this biblical way - and if you stand inside that biblical world and preach this past grace and future grace to yourself - then every moment will be a point of gratitude toward the past and faith toward the future.
The practical implications of this are great. It will make you humble and bold! Humble, in feeling the preciousness of past grace and an honest memory of mercy; humbly remembering that “every good gift comes from above”; living in deep, dependent, gratitude and worship; knowing that it is the Lord who provided, sustained, protected, healed, delivered, and intervened in the past.
It will also awaken boldness by transferring the benefits of your God governed past into your future! At this moment are you confidently looking ahead to this God continuing to work, bless, provide, deliver, protect, forgive, show mercy, and work miracles in the future? Do you trust His rock solid promises for your future? Oh that we would agree with George Mueller that “The living God has been, is, and will always be the living God!”
At this moment your past and your future are meeting together. May you look back this day with the look of gratitude and may you look continually forward with the look of faith! Remember: Endings are for gratitude and Beginnings are for faith!
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
READING AND SAVORING GOD'S VOLUME OF CREATION
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Psalm 19:1-6 ESV
On Sunday night I was sitting on a blanket on my Crazy Creek chair watching the sunset in Joshua Tree National Park. My wife and I were eating dinner and looking out the horizon as the sun slowly set and the full moon steadily rose. It was truly a sacred moment for me. You could see the alpine glow on the peaks of the distant mountains as the sunlight gradually faded away. If you looked at the sky you would see an amazing pallet of ever changing colors. The upper half of it in clear blue color and the lower half a light violet. My chair was placed in such a way that in front of me was a Joshua Tree, to the right was a hill covered with big smooth round rocks (unique to this national park) and in the middle between them was a huge rising Harvest moon. At that moment I felt so alive and at peace. Here I was in the presence of such beauty of God's creation, savoring each moment with the woman that I love, and feeling a profound sense of my Creator’s presence and His amazing grace. Here and now nothing else mattered to me in the whole world, it was well with my soul.
As I was basking in the glory of my Maker’s creation my heart began welling up with a deep sense of gratitude to God both for the moment and for the fact that the moon, the sky, the mountains, the rocks, the Joshua trees, and the desert were just there. I was blessed and privileged to drink in of their beauty and glory. I thought of how many moments like this have taken place throughout the created world where no one was there to see and enjoy it but God Himself.
While gazing at the splender and beauty of the moment, wonder and gratitude began welling up inside and out of my lips came deep, heartfelt praise. I exulted in the beauty and wonder of God, His workmanship in the created world, and His creating and sustaining grace over the world that He made. It was simply amazing to me that God is God.
At that moment I realized that God had surprised me with the gift of another gift. He gave me anew the gift of amazement at what I see. He gave me the gift of sight that awakened me to the reality that every day, every moment, if I open my eyes and look, that there is always more to see in what I see.
The Psalmist tells us that Creation is telling us stupendous things about God! “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament declares his handiwork" (Verse 1). Creation is a gift from God (and by creation, I mean all that God has made, not just mountains, birds, and trees). It is meant to display and communicate his glory. The voiceless, visual, universally available knowledge is that behind it all is a glorious God as maker of the world. The world is his handiwork, and he is glorious.
I love what Spurgeon says about the revelation of God in nature,
The Great Master Author has sent forth several volumes; among the rest is one called the "Book of Revelation," and another styled the "Volume of Creation." We have been reading the Word-volume and expounding it for years, we are now perusing the Work-volume, and are engrossed in some of its most glowing pages. Our love for the sacred book of letters and words has not diminished but increased our admiration for the hieroglyphics of the flood and field. That man perversely mistakes folly for wisdom who persists in undervaluing one glorious poem by a famous author, in order to show his zeal for a second epic from the same fertile pen. It is the mark of a feeble mind to despise the wonders of nature because we prize the treasures of salvation. He who built the lofty skies is as much our Father as he who hath spoken to us by his own Son, and we should reverently adore HIM who in creation decketh himself with majesty and excellency, even as in revelation HE arrayeth himself in glory and beauty.
Modern fanatics who profess to be so absorbed in heavenly things that they are blind to the most marvelous of Jehovah's handiwork, should go to school, with David as the schoolmaster, and learn to "consider the heavens," and should sit with Job upon the dunghill of their pride, while the Lord rehearses the thundering stanzas of creation's greatness, until they cry with the patriarch, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." For our part, we feel that what was worth the Lord's making, richly deserves the attention of the most cultivated and purified intellect; and we think it blasphemy against God himself to speak slightingly of his universe, as if, forsooth, we poor puny mortals were too spiritual to be interested in that matchless architecture which made the morning stars sing together and caused the sons of God to shout for joy.
John Piper, one who has taught me much about reading the Volume of Creation says,
God means for us to be stunned and awed by his work of creation, but not for its own sake. He means for us always to look at his creation and say: If the work of his hands is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself! These are but the backside of his glory seen through a glass darkly. What will it be to see the Creator himself! Not his works! Not even a billion galaxies will satisfy the human soul. God and God alone is the soul's end.
I think I can say that I the experience of delighting in some awesome natural phenomena—the moon rise at Joshua tree, a night sky in the clear pollution free Zion National Park, the astonishing Yosemite Falls, or a sunrise over the hills of San Clemente, where I live-is as Piper says, “the prep-school of our affections, readying them to delight in God.”
Christians ought to have better eyes than people in general for seeing the knowledge that every day and night pours forth. We ought to be the kind of people who walk out of the house in the morning with the same sense of suspense and expectancy.
John Piper mentions often the influence of the late Wheaton College professor Clyde Kilby. He says that Professor Kilby “pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature.”
I agree. Oh how nature is God’s great gift to our mental health! The moment on that evening in Joshua Tree I can honestly say that I had virtually no thoughts about myself and my problems because I was drinking in the remedy of God’s presence, His greatness, His glory, His power, His majesty, His beauty, and His peace.
In order to glimpse the glory of God in creation we actually have to engage with creation. It means to intentionally, “BE HERE NOW”. That is in obedience to “Be still and know that I am God.” When I practice “BEING HERE NOW”, I consciously stop, look, and listen to God speaking to me though His Volume of Creation, and quietly become alive to nature, being alive to life, and being alive to Him at that moment. At that moment I experience what is called “Transcendence” where I rise above myself, my life, my problems, my little thoughts, and enter into a world so wonderful, so vast, and so much bigger than little me that God has graced me to be an active part of.
Jonathan Edwards describes one of his experiences communing with God in nature:
As I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.... The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a sweet calm cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the cloud, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature.
Clyde Kilby recommends that we consider nature simply because it is. That is, simply because God has made it. His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things.
"I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence."
I invite you, with Clyde Kilby and myself, to open your eyes and ears, to BE HERE NOW” and to look and listen to the “heavens declaring the glory of God.
Amazed at God again!
Pastor Bill
On Sunday night I was sitting on a blanket on my Crazy Creek chair watching the sunset in Joshua Tree National Park. My wife and I were eating dinner and looking out the horizon as the sun slowly set and the full moon steadily rose. It was truly a sacred moment for me. You could see the alpine glow on the peaks of the distant mountains as the sunlight gradually faded away. If you looked at the sky you would see an amazing pallet of ever changing colors. The upper half of it in clear blue color and the lower half a light violet. My chair was placed in such a way that in front of me was a Joshua Tree, to the right was a hill covered with big smooth round rocks (unique to this national park) and in the middle between them was a huge rising Harvest moon. At that moment I felt so alive and at peace. Here I was in the presence of such beauty of God's creation, savoring each moment with the woman that I love, and feeling a profound sense of my Creator’s presence and His amazing grace. Here and now nothing else mattered to me in the whole world, it was well with my soul.
As I was basking in the glory of my Maker’s creation my heart began welling up with a deep sense of gratitude to God both for the moment and for the fact that the moon, the sky, the mountains, the rocks, the Joshua trees, and the desert were just there. I was blessed and privileged to drink in of their beauty and glory. I thought of how many moments like this have taken place throughout the created world where no one was there to see and enjoy it but God Himself.
While gazing at the splender and beauty of the moment, wonder and gratitude began welling up inside and out of my lips came deep, heartfelt praise. I exulted in the beauty and wonder of God, His workmanship in the created world, and His creating and sustaining grace over the world that He made. It was simply amazing to me that God is God.
At that moment I realized that God had surprised me with the gift of another gift. He gave me anew the gift of amazement at what I see. He gave me the gift of sight that awakened me to the reality that every day, every moment, if I open my eyes and look, that there is always more to see in what I see.
The Psalmist tells us that Creation is telling us stupendous things about God! “The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament declares his handiwork" (Verse 1). Creation is a gift from God (and by creation, I mean all that God has made, not just mountains, birds, and trees). It is meant to display and communicate his glory. The voiceless, visual, universally available knowledge is that behind it all is a glorious God as maker of the world. The world is his handiwork, and he is glorious.
I love what Spurgeon says about the revelation of God in nature,
The Great Master Author has sent forth several volumes; among the rest is one called the "Book of Revelation," and another styled the "Volume of Creation." We have been reading the Word-volume and expounding it for years, we are now perusing the Work-volume, and are engrossed in some of its most glowing pages. Our love for the sacred book of letters and words has not diminished but increased our admiration for the hieroglyphics of the flood and field. That man perversely mistakes folly for wisdom who persists in undervaluing one glorious poem by a famous author, in order to show his zeal for a second epic from the same fertile pen. It is the mark of a feeble mind to despise the wonders of nature because we prize the treasures of salvation. He who built the lofty skies is as much our Father as he who hath spoken to us by his own Son, and we should reverently adore HIM who in creation decketh himself with majesty and excellency, even as in revelation HE arrayeth himself in glory and beauty.
Modern fanatics who profess to be so absorbed in heavenly things that they are blind to the most marvelous of Jehovah's handiwork, should go to school, with David as the schoolmaster, and learn to "consider the heavens," and should sit with Job upon the dunghill of their pride, while the Lord rehearses the thundering stanzas of creation's greatness, until they cry with the patriarch, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." For our part, we feel that what was worth the Lord's making, richly deserves the attention of the most cultivated and purified intellect; and we think it blasphemy against God himself to speak slightingly of his universe, as if, forsooth, we poor puny mortals were too spiritual to be interested in that matchless architecture which made the morning stars sing together and caused the sons of God to shout for joy.
John Piper, one who has taught me much about reading the Volume of Creation says,
God means for us to be stunned and awed by his work of creation, but not for its own sake. He means for us always to look at his creation and say: If the work of his hands is so full of wisdom and power and grandeur and majesty and beauty, what must this God be like in himself! These are but the backside of his glory seen through a glass darkly. What will it be to see the Creator himself! Not his works! Not even a billion galaxies will satisfy the human soul. God and God alone is the soul's end.
I think I can say that I the experience of delighting in some awesome natural phenomena—the moon rise at Joshua tree, a night sky in the clear pollution free Zion National Park, the astonishing Yosemite Falls, or a sunrise over the hills of San Clemente, where I live-is as Piper says, “the prep-school of our affections, readying them to delight in God.”
Christians ought to have better eyes than people in general for seeing the knowledge that every day and night pours forth. We ought to be the kind of people who walk out of the house in the morning with the same sense of suspense and expectancy.
John Piper mentions often the influence of the late Wheaton College professor Clyde Kilby. He says that Professor Kilby “pled with us to stop seeking mental health in the mirror of self-analysis, but instead to drink in the remedies of God in nature.”
I agree. Oh how nature is God’s great gift to our mental health! The moment on that evening in Joshua Tree I can honestly say that I had virtually no thoughts about myself and my problems because I was drinking in the remedy of God’s presence, His greatness, His glory, His power, His majesty, His beauty, and His peace.
In order to glimpse the glory of God in creation we actually have to engage with creation. It means to intentionally, “BE HERE NOW”. That is in obedience to “Be still and know that I am God.” When I practice “BEING HERE NOW”, I consciously stop, look, and listen to God speaking to me though His Volume of Creation, and quietly become alive to nature, being alive to life, and being alive to Him at that moment. At that moment I experience what is called “Transcendence” where I rise above myself, my life, my problems, my little thoughts, and enter into a world so wonderful, so vast, and so much bigger than little me that God has graced me to be an active part of.
Jonathan Edwards describes one of his experiences communing with God in nature:
As I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express.... The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a sweet calm cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon and stars; in the cloud, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature.
Clyde Kilby recommends that we consider nature simply because it is. That is, simply because God has made it. His plea was that we stop being unamazed by the strange glory of ordinary things.
"I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence."
I invite you, with Clyde Kilby and myself, to open your eyes and ears, to BE HERE NOW” and to look and listen to the “heavens declaring the glory of God.
Amazed at God again!
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
THOUGHTS ON CONVERSION Part 2
What is conversion? What makes for a true convert to Christ? What does it mean to be saved? Born again? What is does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? What part does God play and what part does man play in the salvation process? The answers to these questions is what I began discussing last week. Now this week I continue.
John Piper describes conversion in this way Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.
CONVERSION IS A CONDITION OF SALVATION AND A MIRACLE OF GOD
This teaching on the nature and origin of conversion clarifies two things. One is the sense in which conversion is a condition for salvation. Continuous confusion is caused at this point by failing to define salvation precisely.
If salvation refers to new birth, conversion is not a condition of it. New birth comes first and enables the repentance and faith of conversion. Before new birth we are dead, and dead men don't meet conditions. Regeneration is totally unconditional. It owes solely to the free grace of God. "It depends not on will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). We get no credit. He gets all the glory.
But if salvation refers to justification, there is one clear condition we must faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5; 5:1). And if salvation refers to future deliverance from the wrath of God at the judgment and our entrance eternal life, then not only does the New Testament say we must "believe," so that this faith must be so real that it produces the fruit of obedience. There must be faith and the fruit of faith. "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17; cf. v. 26). "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcism counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
When we cry, "What must I do to be saved?" the answer depends on what asking: how to be born again, how to he justified, or how to he finally welcomed into heaven. When we say that the answer is "Become a follower of Jesus Christ," we mean God's work in new birth, our faith in Christ, and the work God in our lives by faith to help us obey Christ. This is the fullest meaning of conversion.
Which brings us to the second thing that has become clear from our discussion of conversion, understood as the coming into being of a new nature (a Christian Hedonist) that will obey Christ, is no mere human decision. It is a human decision-but, oh, so much more! Repentant faith (or believing repentance based on an awesome miracle performed by the sovereign God. It is the breadth of a new creature in Christ. Saving faith has in it various elements. The nature of these elements makes faith a very powerful thing that produces changes in our lives. Unless we understand this, the array of conditions for present and final salvation in the Testament will be utterly perplexing.
Consider the following partial list.
What must I do to be saved?
The answer in Acts 16:31 is "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The answer in John 1:12 is that we must receive Christ: "To all who receive him ... he gave the right to become children of God."
The answer in Acts 3:19 is "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your may be blotted out."
The answer in Hebrews 5:9 is obedience to Christ. Christ "became source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."
Jesus Himself answered the question in a variety of ways. For example in Matthew 18:3 He said that childlikeness is the condition for salvation: "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter kingdom of heaven."
In Mark 8:34-35 the condition is self-denial: "If anyone would come me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For who would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and gospel's will save it."
In Matthew 10:37, Jesus lays down the condition of loving Him more anyone else: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worth me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” The same thing is expressed in 1 Corinthians 16:22: "If anyone has no love the Lord, let him be accursed." And in Luke 14:33 the condition for salvation is that we be free from love of our possessions: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he cannot be my disciple."
These are just some of the conditions that the New Testament says we are meet in order to be saved in the fullest and final sense. We must believe in Jesus and receive Him and turn from our sin and obey Him and humble ours like little children and love Him more than we love our family, our possessions or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. This alone is of life everlasting.
But what is it that holds all these conditions together and gives them unity? And what keeps them from becoming a way of earning salvation by works? One answer is the awesome reality of saving faith-trusting in the word of God, the promises of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, not ourselves. This is the unifying key that not only unites us to Christ for justification, empowers us for sanctification. Yes, but what is it about saving faith that unifies and changes so much of our lives?
CONVERSION LEADS TO THE THE CREATION OF A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST
Jesus pointed to the answer in the little parable of Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in [literally, from] his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." This parable describes how someone is converted and brought into the kingdom of heaven. This is a pretty straight forward description of conversion. The arrival of King Jesus in a life is like discovering ten million dollars in a bucket in a field. And you know the laws that given the field, you get the bucket. You think, “I have somehow, someway got to get this field before anybody else gets it.” So he covers it over and then we see a phrase that will radically change how you understand conversion: “and from or for joy he sold everything he had.”
Do you see what happens? He exercises self denial. He sells everything he had, everything. What emotions do you feel as you sell all your goods? Would it make sense for you to weep and mourn, “Oh, my Lexus! Oh, my in-home theater! Oh, my condo! Oh, my Dell Duo Core Centrino!” No. What emotions did this man feel as he sold all his goods? “Ok, that’s sold! All I need is $2,000 more. There goes the Lexus! Great, take it for $15,000 under blue book, I’ve got the price now! Take all that’s left for a dollar; that home theater system might as well be junk – I’m running off to buy that field!” Sell the wedding ring, sell the sea doo, sell the car, sell the computer, sell the surfboards, and sell the books, Bill. Sell everything. Nothing compares to the value of the field. All that this man once held dear, all he once thought important, all that he once valued, all that he once had worked so hard to attain – all this he now considers rubbish compared to the tremendous worth of the treasure in the field. So he pursued his greatest joy by selling all his possessions and buying the field. When someone becomes a Christian, he values Jesus Christ more than everything else. Jesus Christ is the great treasure, and the joy of knowing Him far outweighs the cost of any sacrifice, of any loss.
Brothers and sisters, too be saved is to have your eyes open to the value of Jesus. Paul says it clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them (it means from getting saved) from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
People get saved when the light goes on in their hearts. What does it mean to be saved? It means the devil is punched by the Lord and eyes go open and the foolishness of the cross becomes wisdom and power. You were looking at Jesus and He was boring. Why would I want to go worship Him? I have the surf, television, golf, fishing, booze, money, girls, you know, the things of life. That’s life, you Christians are so boring. Then suddenly, late at night, light floods the heart and the cross is majestic. It was the sweetest thing a kid ever heard at the age of 22.
The kingdom of heaven is the abode of the King. The longing to be there is not the longing for heavenly real estate, but for camaraderie with the King. The treasure in the field is the fellowship of God in Christ. I conclude from this parable that we must be deeply converted in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and that we are converted when Christ becomes Treasure Chest of holy joy-a crucified and risen Savior who pardons all provides all our righteousness, and becomes in His own fellowship our pleasure.
Jonathan Edwards reminds us “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
Pastor Bill
John Piper describes conversion in this way Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.
CONVERSION IS A CONDITION OF SALVATION AND A MIRACLE OF GOD
This teaching on the nature and origin of conversion clarifies two things. One is the sense in which conversion is a condition for salvation. Continuous confusion is caused at this point by failing to define salvation precisely.
If salvation refers to new birth, conversion is not a condition of it. New birth comes first and enables the repentance and faith of conversion. Before new birth we are dead, and dead men don't meet conditions. Regeneration is totally unconditional. It owes solely to the free grace of God. "It depends not on will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy" (Romans 9:16). We get no credit. He gets all the glory.
But if salvation refers to justification, there is one clear condition we must faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5; 5:1). And if salvation refers to future deliverance from the wrath of God at the judgment and our entrance eternal life, then not only does the New Testament say we must "believe," so that this faith must be so real that it produces the fruit of obedience. There must be faith and the fruit of faith. "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17; cf. v. 26). "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcism counts for anything, but only faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
When we cry, "What must I do to be saved?" the answer depends on what asking: how to be born again, how to he justified, or how to he finally welcomed into heaven. When we say that the answer is "Become a follower of Jesus Christ," we mean God's work in new birth, our faith in Christ, and the work God in our lives by faith to help us obey Christ. This is the fullest meaning of conversion.
Which brings us to the second thing that has become clear from our discussion of conversion, understood as the coming into being of a new nature (a Christian Hedonist) that will obey Christ, is no mere human decision. It is a human decision-but, oh, so much more! Repentant faith (or believing repentance based on an awesome miracle performed by the sovereign God. It is the breadth of a new creature in Christ. Saving faith has in it various elements. The nature of these elements makes faith a very powerful thing that produces changes in our lives. Unless we understand this, the array of conditions for present and final salvation in the Testament will be utterly perplexing.
Consider the following partial list.
What must I do to be saved?
The answer in Acts 16:31 is "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
The answer in John 1:12 is that we must receive Christ: "To all who receive him ... he gave the right to become children of God."
The answer in Acts 3:19 is "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your may be blotted out."
The answer in Hebrews 5:9 is obedience to Christ. Christ "became source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."
Jesus Himself answered the question in a variety of ways. For example in Matthew 18:3 He said that childlikeness is the condition for salvation: "Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter kingdom of heaven."
In Mark 8:34-35 the condition is self-denial: "If anyone would come me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For who would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and gospel's will save it."
In Matthew 10:37, Jesus lays down the condition of loving Him more anyone else: "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worth me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” The same thing is expressed in 1 Corinthians 16:22: "If anyone has no love the Lord, let him be accursed." And in Luke 14:33 the condition for salvation is that we be free from love of our possessions: "Any one of you who does not renounce all that he cannot be my disciple."
These are just some of the conditions that the New Testament says we are meet in order to be saved in the fullest and final sense. We must believe in Jesus and receive Him and turn from our sin and obey Him and humble ours like little children and love Him more than we love our family, our possessions or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. This alone is of life everlasting.
But what is it that holds all these conditions together and gives them unity? And what keeps them from becoming a way of earning salvation by works? One answer is the awesome reality of saving faith-trusting in the word of God, the promises of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, not ourselves. This is the unifying key that not only unites us to Christ for justification, empowers us for sanctification. Yes, but what is it about saving faith that unifies and changes so much of our lives?
CONVERSION LEADS TO THE THE CREATION OF A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST
Jesus pointed to the answer in the little parable of Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in [literally, from] his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." This parable describes how someone is converted and brought into the kingdom of heaven. This is a pretty straight forward description of conversion. The arrival of King Jesus in a life is like discovering ten million dollars in a bucket in a field. And you know the laws that given the field, you get the bucket. You think, “I have somehow, someway got to get this field before anybody else gets it.” So he covers it over and then we see a phrase that will radically change how you understand conversion: “and from or for joy he sold everything he had.”
Do you see what happens? He exercises self denial. He sells everything he had, everything. What emotions do you feel as you sell all your goods? Would it make sense for you to weep and mourn, “Oh, my Lexus! Oh, my in-home theater! Oh, my condo! Oh, my Dell Duo Core Centrino!” No. What emotions did this man feel as he sold all his goods? “Ok, that’s sold! All I need is $2,000 more. There goes the Lexus! Great, take it for $15,000 under blue book, I’ve got the price now! Take all that’s left for a dollar; that home theater system might as well be junk – I’m running off to buy that field!” Sell the wedding ring, sell the sea doo, sell the car, sell the computer, sell the surfboards, and sell the books, Bill. Sell everything. Nothing compares to the value of the field. All that this man once held dear, all he once thought important, all that he once valued, all that he once had worked so hard to attain – all this he now considers rubbish compared to the tremendous worth of the treasure in the field. So he pursued his greatest joy by selling all his possessions and buying the field. When someone becomes a Christian, he values Jesus Christ more than everything else. Jesus Christ is the great treasure, and the joy of knowing Him far outweighs the cost of any sacrifice, of any loss.
Brothers and sisters, too be saved is to have your eyes open to the value of Jesus. Paul says it clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them (it means from getting saved) from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
People get saved when the light goes on in their hearts. What does it mean to be saved? It means the devil is punched by the Lord and eyes go open and the foolishness of the cross becomes wisdom and power. You were looking at Jesus and He was boring. Why would I want to go worship Him? I have the surf, television, golf, fishing, booze, money, girls, you know, the things of life. That’s life, you Christians are so boring. Then suddenly, late at night, light floods the heart and the cross is majestic. It was the sweetest thing a kid ever heard at the age of 22.
The kingdom of heaven is the abode of the King. The longing to be there is not the longing for heavenly real estate, but for camaraderie with the King. The treasure in the field is the fellowship of God in Christ. I conclude from this parable that we must be deeply converted in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and that we are converted when Christ becomes Treasure Chest of holy joy-a crucified and risen Savior who pardons all provides all our righteousness, and becomes in His own fellowship our pleasure.
Jonathan Edwards reminds us “The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean.”
Pastor Bill
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
THOUGHTS ON CONVERSION
The Christian community throws around many words and sayings in regards to salvation like “Believer, born again, faith, repent, once saved always saved, backslider, give your life to Jesus, come forward and give Jesus a chance, Christian, confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, or say the sinners prayer”. But what really constitutes a Christian? What makes for a true convert to Christ? What does it mean to be saved? Born again? What is does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? What part does God play and what part does man play in the salvation process? Today many biblical terms have lost their meaning in the light of 21st century misunderstandings. We live in a day surrounded by unconverted people outside the church and within the church who say and think that they believe in Jesus.
WHAT IS CONVERSION?
Conversion is used in the Bible only once, in Acts 15:3, Paul and Barnabas "passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers." This conversion involved repentance and faith, as the other reports in Acts show.
For example, in Acts 11:18 the apostles respond to Peter's testimony about Gentile conversions like this: "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." And in Acts 14:27, Paul and Barnabas report the conversion of the Gentiles by saying that "God ...had opened a door of faith to the ¬Gentiles."
Conversion, then, is repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation). They are really two sides of the same coin. One side is tails-turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads-head straight for Jesus and trust His promises. You can't have the one without the other any more than you can face two ways at once or serve two masters.
This means that saving faith in Christ always involves a profound change of heart. It is not merely agreement with the truth of a doctrine. Satan agrees with true doctrine (James 2:19). Saving faith is far deeper and more pervasive than that.
CONVERSION IS A GIFT OF GOD
We get an inkling of something awesome and stupendous behind repentance and faith when we see hints in the book of Acts that conversion is the gift of God. "God has granted repentance that leads to life" (11:18). "God exalted [Christ] at his right hand ...to give repentance to Israel" (5:31). God "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27). "The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul" (16:14).
We will never fully appreciate what a deep and awesome thing conversion is until we own up to the fact that it is a miracle. It is a gift of God. The truth is that we not only sin, but we also are sinful-blind, hard, dead, and unable to submit to the law of God. And so when we hear the gospel, we will never respond positively unless God performs the miracle of regeneration. We are all radically corrupt and utterly unable to respond to the gospel left to ourselves.
FAITH IS OUR ACT, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE OF GOD’S ACT
Repentance and faith are our work. But we will not repent and believe unless God first does His work to overcome our hard and rebellious hearts. This divine work is called regeneration or the New Birth. Our work is called conversion. Conversion does indeed include an act of will by which we renounce sin and submit ourselves to the authority of Christ and put our hope and trust in Him. We are responsible to do this and will be condemned if we don't. But just as clearly, the Bible teaches that, owing to our hard heart and willful blindness and spiritual insensitivity, we cannot do this. We must first experience the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
The scriptures promised long ago that God would devote Himself to this work in order to create for Himself a faithful people:
"And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of our offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with a11 your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." (Deuteronomy 30:6)
"I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD), and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart." (Jeremiah 24:7)
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
These great promises from the Old Testament describe a work of God that changes a heart of stone into a heart of flesh and causes people to "know" and we" "desire" and "obey" God. Without this spiritual heart transplant, people will not know and love and obey God. This prior work of God is what we mean by regeneration or the New Birth.
WE ARE CONVERTED (CALLED) THE WAY JESUS CALLED LAZARUS: DEATH TO LIFE
In the New Testament, wee see that God is clearly active, creating converts to Himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk the light. The Bible requires that we speak of God’s call in at least two distinct senses. One is the general or external call that goes out in preaching the gospel. Everyone who hears the gospel is called in this sense. But God calls in another sense to some who hear the gospel. This is called God’s internal or effective call. It is the call changes a person’s heart so that faith is secured. It’s like the call of Lazarus , “Lazarus come forth!” It creates what it demands. The key passage is 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified (General call), to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called (Effective call), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" in Matthew 22:14. Among the "many" or the “generally called” there is a group who are “called” in such a way that they are enabled to esteem the gospel as wisdom and power. The change caused by the effective calling is none other than the new birth or regeneration!
John teaches most clearly that regeneration precedes and enables faith. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. (1 John 5:1) The verb tenses make John's intention unmistakable: "Everyone who goes on believing [pisteuon, present, continuous action] that Jesus is the Chris been born [gennesanta, perfect, completed action with abiding effects] of God." Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it. This is consistent John's whole epistle (cf. 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:2-3; 4:7).
Since faith and repentance are possible only because of the regenerating work of God, both are called the gift of God:
"Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.... By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:5, 8).
"It has been granted(graced or gifted) to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29).
"The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge o the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
To be continued...
WHAT IS CONVERSION?
Conversion is used in the Bible only once, in Acts 15:3, Paul and Barnabas "passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers." This conversion involved repentance and faith, as the other reports in Acts show.
For example, in Acts 11:18 the apostles respond to Peter's testimony about Gentile conversions like this: "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." And in Acts 14:27, Paul and Barnabas report the conversion of the Gentiles by saying that "God ...had opened a door of faith to the ¬Gentiles."
Conversion, then, is repentance (turning from sin and unbelief) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation). They are really two sides of the same coin. One side is tails-turn tail on the fruits of unbelief. The other side is heads-head straight for Jesus and trust His promises. You can't have the one without the other any more than you can face two ways at once or serve two masters.
This means that saving faith in Christ always involves a profound change of heart. It is not merely agreement with the truth of a doctrine. Satan agrees with true doctrine (James 2:19). Saving faith is far deeper and more pervasive than that.
CONVERSION IS A GIFT OF GOD
We get an inkling of something awesome and stupendous behind repentance and faith when we see hints in the book of Acts that conversion is the gift of God. "God has granted repentance that leads to life" (11:18). "God exalted [Christ] at his right hand ...to give repentance to Israel" (5:31). God "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (14:27). "The Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul" (16:14).
We will never fully appreciate what a deep and awesome thing conversion is until we own up to the fact that it is a miracle. It is a gift of God. The truth is that we not only sin, but we also are sinful-blind, hard, dead, and unable to submit to the law of God. And so when we hear the gospel, we will never respond positively unless God performs the miracle of regeneration. We are all radically corrupt and utterly unable to respond to the gospel left to ourselves.
FAITH IS OUR ACT, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE OF GOD’S ACT
Repentance and faith are our work. But we will not repent and believe unless God first does His work to overcome our hard and rebellious hearts. This divine work is called regeneration or the New Birth. Our work is called conversion. Conversion does indeed include an act of will by which we renounce sin and submit ourselves to the authority of Christ and put our hope and trust in Him. We are responsible to do this and will be condemned if we don't. But just as clearly, the Bible teaches that, owing to our hard heart and willful blindness and spiritual insensitivity, we cannot do this. We must first experience the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
The scriptures promised long ago that God would devote Himself to this work in order to create for Himself a faithful people:
"And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of our offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with a11 your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." (Deuteronomy 30:6)
"I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD), and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart." (Jeremiah 24:7)
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
These great promises from the Old Testament describe a work of God that changes a heart of stone into a heart of flesh and causes people to "know" and we" "desire" and "obey" God. Without this spiritual heart transplant, people will not know and love and obey God. This prior work of God is what we mean by regeneration or the New Birth.
WE ARE CONVERTED (CALLED) THE WAY JESUS CALLED LAZARUS: DEATH TO LIFE
In the New Testament, wee see that God is clearly active, creating converts to Himself by calling them out of darkness and enabling them to believe the gospel and walk the light. The Bible requires that we speak of God’s call in at least two distinct senses. One is the general or external call that goes out in preaching the gospel. Everyone who hears the gospel is called in this sense. But God calls in another sense to some who hear the gospel. This is called God’s internal or effective call. It is the call changes a person’s heart so that faith is secured. It’s like the call of Lazarus , “Lazarus come forth!” It creates what it demands. The key passage is 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified (General call), to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called (Effective call), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen" in Matthew 22:14. Among the "many" or the “generally called” there is a group who are “called” in such a way that they are enabled to esteem the gospel as wisdom and power. The change caused by the effective calling is none other than the new birth or regeneration!
John teaches most clearly that regeneration precedes and enables faith. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. (1 John 5:1) The verb tenses make John's intention unmistakable: "Everyone who goes on believing [pisteuon, present, continuous action] that Jesus is the Chris been born [gennesanta, perfect, completed action with abiding effects] of God." Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it. This is consistent John's whole epistle (cf. 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:2-3; 4:7).
Since faith and repentance are possible only because of the regenerating work of God, both are called the gift of God:
"Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.... By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:5, 8).
"It has been granted(graced or gifted) to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake" (Philippians 1:29).
"The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge o the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
To be continued...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
WHEN JESUS PRAYED FOR YOU! Part 2
We learned that the first part of God’s divine love is that He loves us in a way that enables us to see His glory. But that is only half of what Jesus wants in these final, climactic verses of his prayer. I just said we were really made for seeing and cherishing His glory. What he wants is that we not only see His glory, we cherish it, savor it, relish it, delight in it, treasure it, and love it. In short that we would delight in Him; that we treasure Him; and that we would love Him.
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“When God is loved aright, He is loved for His excellency, the beauty of His nature.” What does it mean to love Him? That Jesus would truly be as precious to us as He is to the Father. That we would love Him with a “peculiar love”. So, consider verse 26, the very last verse:
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Let us look at this carefully. Jesus' request to God is that He desires the Father’s love for the Son to be in us in order for us to love Him. Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with love that the Father has for Him? My love is weak and inconsistent. My love is conditional and moody. My love is selfish and prejudiced. My love is limited and finite. My love is human and sinful. Therefore, my love for Him is totally inadequate in loving Him, the God of glory; therefore, it is inadequate and in reality, impossible, for loving others with His love. That is why Jesus asks the Father for his love to be given to us. God makes it possible for me, a sinner, to love such a worthy, glorious being like God in a manner of love that He so richly and worthily deserves! In short, Jesus is praying for the Father to love us in order to help us love Him by making much of him!
How is this possible? First, because of the knowledge of the God of love. "I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." We cannot love a God whom we do not know: a measure of knowledge is needful to affection. However lovely God may be, a man blind of soul cannot perceive him, and therefore is not touched by his loveliness. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God who is so desirable an object for the affections. Brethren, we must know in order to believe; we must know in order to hope; and we must especially know in order to love. Hence, the great desirableness that you should know the Lord of love (1 John 4:8, 16) and His great love which surpasses knowledge.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19).
You cannot give in return love which you have never known. Some of us in our lives have been deprived of love. Perhaps we have never known much love in our earthly relationships. Love for us has been as the song goes “the Elusive Butterfly”. In reality, we all are deprived of God’s love! Not because of Him but because we have never received His love due to our sinfulness. Without the inflow of love, no wonder there has been no outflow of love. So until the love of God has come into your heart, and you have been made a partaker of it, you cannot rejoice in it or return it.
Second, it is possible because the knowledge here spoken of is knowledge which Jesus gave them. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” O beloved, it is not knowledge that you and I pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father: it is knowledge given us by Christ through his Spirit. It is not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone which will bless you; for however much he may be taught of God himself, he cannot preach to the heart unless the blessed Spirit of God comes and takes of the things that are spoken, and reveals them and makes them manifest to each individual heart, so that in consequence it knows the Lord.
This knowledge, dear friends, comes to us gradually. The text indicates this. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known." As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know and the Lord Jesus was resolved to teach them more and more and more and more.
Third, it is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions, namely the emotions and affections of God: the love that the Father has for the Son! It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the love of God the Father. Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Indeed the Holy Spirit may be viewed as the love of God in a Person. To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by a divine love for Jesus. Jesus is simply praying that we may be filled with the Spirit who is the divine Person who expresses the love that the Father has for the Son. Thus we will be filled with the very love with which the Father loves the Son. The result is divine love flowing into your soul and pouring out of your life to God and others. No wonder why Paul speaks of love as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
So what kind of love does Jesus desire for you to have? A peculiar love. “The love with which you have loved me.” This is a kind of love whereby Jesus is as precious, as valuable, to us as He is to the Father in Heaven. There is no greater love in the entire universe than the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity. No love is more perfect, more powerful, more intense, more continuous, more pure, and more full of delight in the beloved, than the love God the Father has for the Son. It is energy of joy that makes atom bombs look like firecrackers. Oh, how the Father delights in the Son! Oh, how precious the Son is to the Father! "This is my beloved Son, with whom 1 am well pleased," God said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God said at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). In the entire universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ. He is loved with perfect, infinite, divine love. That is how precious He should be to us.
Oh how much does the Father love the Son! Is not this a wonderful thing,—that God's own love to Jesus should dwell in our hearts? And yet it is so. The love wherewith we love Christ, mark you, is God's love to Christ: "That the love that You have loved Me may be in them.”
All true love, such as the Father delights in and accepts at our hands, is nothing but his own love, which has come streaming down from his own heart into our renewed minds. Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.
Oh what grace He gives us. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his love and joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my love and joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his.
My capacities for love and joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for love and joy into me, so that I can love and enjoy him with the very love and joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace. We will love and enjoy the Son of God with the very love and enjoyment of his Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
This is what Jesus prays for us: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." May we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. The love of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. Do you want this? Do you desire to be loved by God for God? That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.
When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the United States, a student in seminary supposedly asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “the most important thing that I have learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May we never forget not only that Jesus loves us but also the peculiar and precious way that He loves us: to be free to love Him the way the Father loves Him. There is no greater gift than this.
A PRAYER:
Father, please answer Your Son's prayer for us even now as much as we can bear that the love with which You loved Him may be in us and He in us. We confess that our love for Christ is not all He deserves. We long to love Him more. More purely. More intensely. More consistently. More joyfully. For Your own sake, Father, and for the glory of Your Son, satisfy us with His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“When God is loved aright, He is loved for His excellency, the beauty of His nature.” What does it mean to love Him? That Jesus would truly be as precious to us as He is to the Father. That we would love Him with a “peculiar love”. So, consider verse 26, the very last verse:
“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Let us look at this carefully. Jesus' request to God is that He desires the Father’s love for the Son to be in us in order for us to love Him. Have you ever thought that Jesus wants you to love Him not merely with your love but with love that the Father has for Him? My love is weak and inconsistent. My love is conditional and moody. My love is selfish and prejudiced. My love is limited and finite. My love is human and sinful. Therefore, my love for Him is totally inadequate in loving Him, the God of glory; therefore, it is inadequate and in reality, impossible, for loving others with His love. That is why Jesus asks the Father for his love to be given to us. God makes it possible for me, a sinner, to love such a worthy, glorious being like God in a manner of love that He so richly and worthily deserves! In short, Jesus is praying for the Father to love us in order to help us love Him by making much of him!
How is this possible? First, because of the knowledge of the God of love. "I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known." We cannot love a God whom we do not know: a measure of knowledge is needful to affection. However lovely God may be, a man blind of soul cannot perceive him, and therefore is not touched by his loveliness. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God who is so desirable an object for the affections. Brethren, we must know in order to believe; we must know in order to hope; and we must especially know in order to love. Hence, the great desirableness that you should know the Lord of love (1 John 4:8, 16) and His great love which surpasses knowledge.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19).
You cannot give in return love which you have never known. Some of us in our lives have been deprived of love. Perhaps we have never known much love in our earthly relationships. Love for us has been as the song goes “the Elusive Butterfly”. In reality, we all are deprived of God’s love! Not because of Him but because we have never received His love due to our sinfulness. Without the inflow of love, no wonder there has been no outflow of love. So until the love of God has come into your heart, and you have been made a partaker of it, you cannot rejoice in it or return it.
Second, it is possible because the knowledge here spoken of is knowledge which Jesus gave them. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known.” O beloved, it is not knowledge that you and I pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father: it is knowledge given us by Christ through his Spirit. It is not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone which will bless you; for however much he may be taught of God himself, he cannot preach to the heart unless the blessed Spirit of God comes and takes of the things that are spoken, and reveals them and makes them manifest to each individual heart, so that in consequence it knows the Lord.
This knowledge, dear friends, comes to us gradually. The text indicates this. “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known." As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know and the Lord Jesus was resolved to teach them more and more and more and more.
Third, it is possible because of the new birth. Becoming a Christian means getting a new nature which is given by God. Practically speaking this means that God comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit and begins to give us new affections, new emotions, namely the emotions and affections of God: the love that the Father has for the Son! It is the presence of God the Spirit in our lives that causes us to love Jesus with the love of God the Father. Romans 5:5 says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. Indeed the Holy Spirit may be viewed as the love of God in a Person. To be ruled by the Spirit is to be ruled by a divine love for Jesus. Jesus is simply praying that we may be filled with the Spirit who is the divine Person who expresses the love that the Father has for the Son. Thus we will be filled with the very love with which the Father loves the Son. The result is divine love flowing into your soul and pouring out of your life to God and others. No wonder why Paul speaks of love as the fruit of the indwelling Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
So what kind of love does Jesus desire for you to have? A peculiar love. “The love with which you have loved me.” This is a kind of love whereby Jesus is as precious, as valuable, to us as He is to the Father in Heaven. There is no greater love in the entire universe than the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity. No love is more perfect, more powerful, more intense, more continuous, more pure, and more full of delight in the beloved, than the love God the Father has for the Son. It is energy of joy that makes atom bombs look like firecrackers. Oh, how the Father delights in the Son! Oh, how precious the Son is to the Father! "This is my beloved Son, with whom 1 am well pleased," God said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him," God said at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him” (1 Peter 2:4). In the entire universe none is more precious to God the Father than His Son, Jesus Christ. He is loved with perfect, infinite, divine love. That is how precious He should be to us.
Oh how much does the Father love the Son! Is not this a wonderful thing,—that God's own love to Jesus should dwell in our hearts? And yet it is so. The love wherewith we love Christ, mark you, is God's love to Christ: "That the love that You have loved Me may be in them.”
All true love, such as the Father delights in and accepts at our hands, is nothing but his own love, which has come streaming down from his own heart into our renewed minds. Jesus' longing and goal is that we see his glory and then that we be able to love what we see with the same love that the Father has for the Son. And he doesn't mean that we merely imitate the love of the Father for the Son. He means the Father's very love becomes our love for the Son – that we love the Son with the love of the Father for the Son. This is what the Spirit bestows in our lives: Love for the Son by the Father through the Spirit.
Oh what grace He gives us. And I say it is his grace, because the best thing he has to give us is his love and joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11; see also 17:13). It would not be fully gracious of Jesus simply to increase my love and joy to its final limit and then leave me short of his.
My capacities for love and joy are very confined. So Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but pours his capacity for love and joy into me, so that I can love and enjoy him with the very love and joy of God. This is glory, and this is grace. We will love and enjoy the Son of God with the very love and enjoyment of his Father. God's delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them and therefore our loving them will never die.
This is what Jesus prays for us: "Father, show them my glory and give them the very delight in me that you have in me." May we see Christ with the eyes of God and savor Christ with the heart of God. The love of God is so working as to change you so that you enjoy making much of him forever and ever and ever. And that's the end of your quest. Do you want this? Do you desire to be loved by God for God? That is the essence of heaven. That is the gift Christ came to purchase for sinners at the cost of his death in our place.
When Karl Barth, the famed German theologian, visited the United States, a student in seminary supposedly asked, “Dr. Barth, what is the single most important truth you have learned as a theologian?” Barth replied, “the most important thing that I have learned is this: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” May we never forget not only that Jesus loves us but also the peculiar and precious way that He loves us: to be free to love Him the way the Father loves Him. There is no greater gift than this.
A PRAYER:
Father, please answer Your Son's prayer for us even now as much as we can bear that the love with which You loved Him may be in us and He in us. We confess that our love for Christ is not all He deserves. We long to love Him more. More purely. More intensely. More consistently. More joyfully. For Your own sake, Father, and for the glory of Your Son, satisfy us with His glory. In His name we pray. Amen.
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