For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 ESV
The more I read the scriptures, the more I am amazed at its depth. Growing in maturity causes us to learn to let God be God and let His word speak for itself, even when it proposes two seeming contradictions in passages such as Hebrews 10:14. Think about it. God has already perfected us because of Christ, yet God is also perfecting us who are perfected because of Christ. This is not easy to understand, much less savor and glory in at first glance. It might be easier for some of us to quickly pass over a passage such as this because of its seeming difficulty.
But oh, the loss of great blessings and encouragement! The apostle Paul gives us a great exhortation in 2 Timothy 2:7. "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." He says think, reflect, muse, ponder, meditate and the Lord by His Spirit will enable us to understand. In short, we are to think and God will help us through the means of thought to apprehend spiritual truths.
With this in mind, Hebrews 10:14 is well worth pondering. The first blessing here is that Christ has already perfected His people.
"For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Now consider this wonderful truth. This is in the perfect tense, meaning Jesus Christ has perfected His people. It is complete and finished forever.
What is hard to grasp here is that if this is true, then why am I so imperfect? How can He say I am perfected when I have sinned already several times this morning? Because of what He says in the next clause
"For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Who has been perfected? Those who are being sanctified or those who are being perfected! This is in the indicative tense meaning continuous action. So those who are "being sanctified" are not yet fully sanctified in the sense of perfection in this life and ceasing from committing sin. Otherwise they would not need to be ongoing sanctified.
So here we have the both shocking and awesome combination. The very people who are perfect are the very ones who are being perfected! By the work of the cross "for by a single offering"there is total, complete forgiveness (read Hebrews 10:15-18). When He looks at us, He does not impute any of our sins to us-past, present, or future. He does not count our sins against us. In eternity Christ sees you as already perfect, and thus we stand before Him perfected. We can stand before Him with the assurance that you are perfected and complete in the eyes of God.
But in this present time those who are perfect are being perfected. The very reality of our imperfection gives us assurance that we are in this life time are progressing towards our perfection purchased and guaranteed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
God is making us into what He already sees us as being and our experience testifies to it as we trust in this reality by faith and move away from our imperfections and move closer and closer in this lifetime to perfection. Oh what encouragement in our imperfection and what motivation for holiness. Hebrews 10:14 says that you can be assured that you stand perfect in the eyes of God not because you are perfect now, but because in your present imperfection you are being perfected.
Oh reader, consider these promises and let them encourage you today and reinforces Hebrews 10:14 to you. Take heart and fix your eyes on the one who perfected you once for all time and is perfecting you day by day.
Philippians 1:6, "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 2:12-13, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."
Amazed and full of joy,
Pastor Bill
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
GOD'S PECULIAR GRACE Part 2
According to the American Heritage Dictionary the word “peculiar” means something or someone distinct from all others. Belonging distinctively or primarily to one person, group, or kind; special or unique. That is why I have been speaking of “A Peculiar Grace”, because God is peculiar, unique, and in a category all His own. Therefore, everything about Him and everything He does is “peculiar”. When we begin humbly listening to the Word of God and humbly receiving its truths we learn to live with paradox, unanswered questions, mysteries, assurance, security, and a deep faith in His awesome nature.
This has been my story. For a long time I was like a man who had a tree in his back yard and deep down in that same yard was a buried treasure unknown to him. So, he was content with racking the fallen leaves off the tree making sure the yard looked good. Well, the yard looked good, but the treasure was untapped! Then I read John Piper’s Desiring God and realized that there was a treasure of infinite proportions buried in my backyard that had always been there while I had been raking up the leaves of weak theology, popular teaching, doctrinal pride, and my own immature understanding for so many years.
Then a breakthrough came in my life when God showed me that it was time to go back to the scriptures and to see it with new eyes and hear it with new ears. This blog is a testament of deep devotion. It was birthed during a course of the past few years in my spiritual journey where I experienced major shifts in my theological understanding of God and the Christian life. I heard God speak through the scriptures and the writings of deep thinking, God-saturated, Bible bleeding men of great spiritual insight and devotion. Men like Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, C.S. Lewis, and John piper. How thankful I am for God liberating my thinking and feeling by His grace and mercy.
I am calling for a challenge, a call, a pastoral plea for a fresh hearing from God from His divine perspective concerning His own “peculiar” truths. The Apostle Paul says, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7).
My blog is meant to provoke worship. I have discovered that there is a kind of hearing that leads to worship or as John Piper calls it “exaltation”. When the mind is engaged with the spirit of God, when reflection is joined with divine illumination, worship results. Jonathan Edwards puts it like this:
God glorifies Himself towards the creatures in two ways: 1. By appearing…to their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying in the manifestations which He makes of Himself…God is glorified not only by His glory being seen, but in its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God will be more glorified than if they only had seen it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both in understanding and by the heart.”
I have discovered that there are two components to real worship. First, there is a kind of seeing God like Paul teaches, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 ) Second, there is a supreme valuing of what you see of God. When the face is unveiled and God shows Christ for His exceeding great worth, beauty, preciousness, and supremacy; we value or treasure Him. You must truly see God in order to value Him. The fact is you cannot truly see God without savoring Him. It would be like seeing a Kauai sunset and thinking about the ghetto. To see God without savoring Him would be a gross insult to His glory.
True worship involves understanding with the mind and feeling a passion of the heart. For most of my Christian journey I had been taught the importance of orthodoxy, which is right doctrine; orthopraxy, right practice or living according to right doctrine; but I had never been taught, orthopathos, having a right passion based upon the truth revealed in Christ. I’ve discovered that Christianity involves thinking and feeling, study and reflection, understanding and affections. That is why the Bible commands us to think, consider, understand, and meditate, on one hand, and to rejoice, fear, mourn, delight, feel, and be glad on the other hand. Both are critical for true worship.
my blog is therefore, about Orthopathos, gaining a right “peculiar” passion; the kind of passion that glorifies God and gladdens the soul. Oh how God wants to inspire a kind of passion that revolutionizes lives, churches, nations, and history. The kind of passion that sends out devoted men and women to sacrifice everything for the glory of Christ and the salvation of the nations. A passion that comes when a person falls in love, or discovers buried treasure, or the cure for AIDS. It is the passion that was the oxygen in the souls of men like the Apostle Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairveux, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, John Owen, David Brainerd, John Newton, John Bunyan, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Charles Simeon, John Paton, Charles Spurgeon, Richard Wurmbrand, Jim Elliot, Mary Slessor, Amy Carmichael, R.C Sproul, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, and a vast number of ordinary, devoted men and women. These are the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1).
May this blog light a passion within you like it has for me. Please take a new fresh look at the peculiar grace of Jesus Christ. First, I would like to stir you to see God in ways perhaps you have never seen Him. Second, I long to see you moved to cherish God for all He really is and to enjoy God with fresh experiences of delight in Him. Finally, I pray for you to be a fountain of God’s peculiar grace to a graceless, hungry, and thirsty world.
May Christ get all the glory and you get all the joy!
Pastor Bill
A Prayer
Day by day, Day by day
Oh Dear Lord Three things I pray:
To See thee more clearly
To Love thee more dearly
To Follow thee more nearly Day by day
This has been my story. For a long time I was like a man who had a tree in his back yard and deep down in that same yard was a buried treasure unknown to him. So, he was content with racking the fallen leaves off the tree making sure the yard looked good. Well, the yard looked good, but the treasure was untapped! Then I read John Piper’s Desiring God and realized that there was a treasure of infinite proportions buried in my backyard that had always been there while I had been raking up the leaves of weak theology, popular teaching, doctrinal pride, and my own immature understanding for so many years.
Then a breakthrough came in my life when God showed me that it was time to go back to the scriptures and to see it with new eyes and hear it with new ears. This blog is a testament of deep devotion. It was birthed during a course of the past few years in my spiritual journey where I experienced major shifts in my theological understanding of God and the Christian life. I heard God speak through the scriptures and the writings of deep thinking, God-saturated, Bible bleeding men of great spiritual insight and devotion. Men like Augustine, Jonathan Edwards, C.S. Lewis, and John piper. How thankful I am for God liberating my thinking and feeling by His grace and mercy.
I am calling for a challenge, a call, a pastoral plea for a fresh hearing from God from His divine perspective concerning His own “peculiar” truths. The Apostle Paul says, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7).
My blog is meant to provoke worship. I have discovered that there is a kind of hearing that leads to worship or as John Piper calls it “exaltation”. When the mind is engaged with the spirit of God, when reflection is joined with divine illumination, worship results. Jonathan Edwards puts it like this:
God glorifies Himself towards the creatures in two ways: 1. By appearing…to their understanding. 2. In communicating Himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in and enjoying in the manifestations which He makes of Himself…God is glorified not only by His glory being seen, but in its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God will be more glorified than if they only had seen it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both in understanding and by the heart.”
I have discovered that there are two components to real worship. First, there is a kind of seeing God like Paul teaches, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18 ) Second, there is a supreme valuing of what you see of God. When the face is unveiled and God shows Christ for His exceeding great worth, beauty, preciousness, and supremacy; we value or treasure Him. You must truly see God in order to value Him. The fact is you cannot truly see God without savoring Him. It would be like seeing a Kauai sunset and thinking about the ghetto. To see God without savoring Him would be a gross insult to His glory.
True worship involves understanding with the mind and feeling a passion of the heart. For most of my Christian journey I had been taught the importance of orthodoxy, which is right doctrine; orthopraxy, right practice or living according to right doctrine; but I had never been taught, orthopathos, having a right passion based upon the truth revealed in Christ. I’ve discovered that Christianity involves thinking and feeling, study and reflection, understanding and affections. That is why the Bible commands us to think, consider, understand, and meditate, on one hand, and to rejoice, fear, mourn, delight, feel, and be glad on the other hand. Both are critical for true worship.
my blog is therefore, about Orthopathos, gaining a right “peculiar” passion; the kind of passion that glorifies God and gladdens the soul. Oh how God wants to inspire a kind of passion that revolutionizes lives, churches, nations, and history. The kind of passion that sends out devoted men and women to sacrifice everything for the glory of Christ and the salvation of the nations. A passion that comes when a person falls in love, or discovers buried treasure, or the cure for AIDS. It is the passion that was the oxygen in the souls of men like the Apostle Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Bernard of Clairveux, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, John Owen, David Brainerd, John Newton, John Bunyan, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Charles Simeon, John Paton, Charles Spurgeon, Richard Wurmbrand, Jim Elliot, Mary Slessor, Amy Carmichael, R.C Sproul, C.J. Mahaney, John Piper, and a vast number of ordinary, devoted men and women. These are the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1).
May this blog light a passion within you like it has for me. Please take a new fresh look at the peculiar grace of Jesus Christ. First, I would like to stir you to see God in ways perhaps you have never seen Him. Second, I long to see you moved to cherish God for all He really is and to enjoy God with fresh experiences of delight in Him. Finally, I pray for you to be a fountain of God’s peculiar grace to a graceless, hungry, and thirsty world.
May Christ get all the glory and you get all the joy!
Pastor Bill
A Prayer
Day by day, Day by day
Oh Dear Lord Three things I pray:
To See thee more clearly
To Love thee more dearly
To Follow thee more nearly Day by day
Thursday, October 18, 2007
GOD'S "PECULIAR GRACE" Part 1
In the beginning God…
Genesis 1:1
The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
Psalm 103:6-7
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen. Romans 11:33-36
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3-4
“There is no more important issue in life than seeing Jesus for who He really is and savoring what we see above all else.”
John Piper
It has been said that in the beginning God created man in His own image and that man has been returning the favor ever since by creating God in his own image. In my own Christian journey I have discovered a huge chasm between the God who is revealed in the Bible and the God whom I was taught of in church and seminary. Too often instead of learning by hearing from Jesus and the scriptures, we have brought our views of God from outside of the Bible into the Bible.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote:
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
In his oracle the prophet rebukes every facet of man’s pride of self-reliance, self-centeredness, and self-sufficiency manifested in glorying in his wisdom, might, and wealth. Instead, he commends the man who glories in one key thing: that he understands and knows the Lord. But what is this knowing that Jeremiah spoke of? There is a kind of knowing that comes out of logic, reason, philosophy, and religion that is rooted in man’s own pride and self-exaltation. It is a knowing rooted in man’s own intuition, reasoning, worldview, and feeble attempts apart from grace, to understand infinite and multidimensional realities. It would be like a two dimensional being trying to understand from its own extremely limited reasoning and his two dimensional world, three dimensional realities. The only frame of reference it would have is to project its reality upon these higher or different realities.
Fallen man constantly tries to tame Jesus Christ. We revise Him according to our image to fit Him into our religion, lifestyle, philosophy, or political platform. We trivialize Him, attempt to tame Him, control Him, contain Him, neuter Him, create arguments in order to explain Him, apologize for parts of Him that make us uncomfortable, redefine Him, argue His existence, Unfortunately, all of man’s attempts fall exceedingly short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Without God’s help man will always come up with a perspective of God who is dramatically less than God.
But with God, there is another kind of knowing that comes from His passion, desire, and willingness to reveal Himself as He is and His world truly as it is. God has given man a path to knowing Him. The Apostle Paul described it in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6:
“The god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
It is God who does a work in men’s hearts to be able to comprehend “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” He makes this path possible by His Holy Spirit and the portrait of Him through the Scriptures. (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; John 1:14, 18; Hebrews 1:1-2). God not only reveals Himself, but also enables us to see, hear, and receive the glory and worth of what He has revealed. This is called illumination; God’s gracious enabling of His creation to see what is really there.
No wonder the Psalmist prayed,
“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”
Psalm 119:18
The Psalmist knew that without God’s help, he would not be able to see “wondrous” things; that is to say, the “peculiar” things of God and His world. How else could he describe God as anything but “wondrous”?
Hudson Taylor said that “The great need of every Christian is to know God. Indeed, this is the purpose for which he has given us eternal life.”[i]
Jesus himself said:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent…Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:3, 24-25
I am convinced that we need a fresh understanding of God’s nature as revealed in scripture. What pleasure there is in knowing Him by seeing His exceeding beauty and greatness, savoring His ultimate worth and preciousness, being satisfied in Him alone, and showing His glory to all the nations, thus fulfilling His eternal purposes. In short, what we need is a fresh infusion of God’s “peculiar grace”. According to John Piper, this “grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.”
The grace that comes from God is a kind of “peculiar” grace that frees and empowers us to enjoy Him by making much of Him. This grace comes directly from his world, the biblical world. This grace cannot be found or replicated by man. All attempts end up with a Christianity that makes much of man and little of God.
When we receive this “peculiar grace” something wonderful happens within a person’s soul. Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
We begin “seeing” Jesus for who He really is and as we begin seeing Him, a miracle begins to take place and we progressively become like Him. A change takes place that comes from a gaze, a look, a beholding. We fall in love with the Beautiful One and our lives change. The beholding doesn’t change us; it is the beauty and glory of the One whom we behold. We are not transformed by an idea or a concept. We are transformed by beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Someday when Christ finally appears, we will see Him not only in the fullness of his beauty and glory but forever and ever. And the Bible makes us a wonderful promise:
Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when He comes we will be like Him, for we will see him as He really is.
1 John 3:2 NLT
One day we will be completely transformed and it will be the glory of Jesus that does it. On earth His glory is often eclipsed, dimmed, blurred, fleeting, and distorted when we are left to ourselves and our vision. But God gives us “peculiar grace” to slow us down and see His wondrous glory.
To be continued...
Genesis 1:1
The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
Psalm 103:6-7
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen. Romans 11:33-36
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3-4
“There is no more important issue in life than seeing Jesus for who He really is and savoring what we see above all else.”
John Piper
It has been said that in the beginning God created man in His own image and that man has been returning the favor ever since by creating God in his own image. In my own Christian journey I have discovered a huge chasm between the God who is revealed in the Bible and the God whom I was taught of in church and seminary. Too often instead of learning by hearing from Jesus and the scriptures, we have brought our views of God from outside of the Bible into the Bible.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote:
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
In his oracle the prophet rebukes every facet of man’s pride of self-reliance, self-centeredness, and self-sufficiency manifested in glorying in his wisdom, might, and wealth. Instead, he commends the man who glories in one key thing: that he understands and knows the Lord. But what is this knowing that Jeremiah spoke of? There is a kind of knowing that comes out of logic, reason, philosophy, and religion that is rooted in man’s own pride and self-exaltation. It is a knowing rooted in man’s own intuition, reasoning, worldview, and feeble attempts apart from grace, to understand infinite and multidimensional realities. It would be like a two dimensional being trying to understand from its own extremely limited reasoning and his two dimensional world, three dimensional realities. The only frame of reference it would have is to project its reality upon these higher or different realities.
Fallen man constantly tries to tame Jesus Christ. We revise Him according to our image to fit Him into our religion, lifestyle, philosophy, or political platform. We trivialize Him, attempt to tame Him, control Him, contain Him, neuter Him, create arguments in order to explain Him, apologize for parts of Him that make us uncomfortable, redefine Him, argue His existence, Unfortunately, all of man’s attempts fall exceedingly short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). Without God’s help man will always come up with a perspective of God who is dramatically less than God.
But with God, there is another kind of knowing that comes from His passion, desire, and willingness to reveal Himself as He is and His world truly as it is. God has given man a path to knowing Him. The Apostle Paul described it in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6:
“The god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
It is God who does a work in men’s hearts to be able to comprehend “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” He makes this path possible by His Holy Spirit and the portrait of Him through the Scriptures. (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; John 1:14, 18; Hebrews 1:1-2). God not only reveals Himself, but also enables us to see, hear, and receive the glory and worth of what He has revealed. This is called illumination; God’s gracious enabling of His creation to see what is really there.
No wonder the Psalmist prayed,
“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”
Psalm 119:18
The Psalmist knew that without God’s help, he would not be able to see “wondrous” things; that is to say, the “peculiar” things of God and His world. How else could he describe God as anything but “wondrous”?
Hudson Taylor said that “The great need of every Christian is to know God. Indeed, this is the purpose for which he has given us eternal life.”[i]
Jesus himself said:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent…Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:3, 24-25
I am convinced that we need a fresh understanding of God’s nature as revealed in scripture. What pleasure there is in knowing Him by seeing His exceeding beauty and greatness, savoring His ultimate worth and preciousness, being satisfied in Him alone, and showing His glory to all the nations, thus fulfilling His eternal purposes. In short, what we need is a fresh infusion of God’s “peculiar grace”. According to John Piper, this “grace is the pleasure of God to magnify the worth of God by giving sinners the right and power to delight in God without obscuring the glory of God.”
The grace that comes from God is a kind of “peculiar” grace that frees and empowers us to enjoy Him by making much of Him. This grace comes directly from his world, the biblical world. This grace cannot be found or replicated by man. All attempts end up with a Christianity that makes much of man and little of God.
When we receive this “peculiar grace” something wonderful happens within a person’s soul. Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
We begin “seeing” Jesus for who He really is and as we begin seeing Him, a miracle begins to take place and we progressively become like Him. A change takes place that comes from a gaze, a look, a beholding. We fall in love with the Beautiful One and our lives change. The beholding doesn’t change us; it is the beauty and glory of the One whom we behold. We are not transformed by an idea or a concept. We are transformed by beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Someday when Christ finally appears, we will see Him not only in the fullness of his beauty and glory but forever and ever. And the Bible makes us a wonderful promise:
Yes, dear friends, we are already God's children, and we can't even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when He comes we will be like Him, for we will see him as He really is.
1 John 3:2 NLT
One day we will be completely transformed and it will be the glory of Jesus that does it. On earth His glory is often eclipsed, dimmed, blurred, fleeting, and distorted when we are left to ourselves and our vision. But God gives us “peculiar grace” to slow us down and see His wondrous glory.
To be continued...
Thursday, October 11, 2007
SAVORING THE "GODNESS" OF GOD
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” Hebrews 11:18-19
Do you believe in the Godness of God? Do you believe in a God like Abraham’s God? When you are put to the test, when adversity comes, when the bottom falls, your theology will be the only thing left. And it will either be the life preserver that keeps you afloat or it will be the weights under your feet that pull you under.
The story of Abraham is a story about God and a man who learned to trust in Him as God. Abraham to leave his family and his home, and to follow God to a new place, God’s place. Would Abraham trust Him? Abraham did, partially. He left Ur of the Chaldees, but he took his father with him, settled in another place until his father died, and then proceeded on with his relative, Lot. Through all of this, God was trying to teach Abraham how to believe in His provision. God promised Abraham an heir. But then God waited for years without fulfilling that promise. Would Abraham trust God? He did, partially. But he also tried to help God fulfill God’s promise. He and his wife devised a scheme whereby Abraham would bring forth an heir through Sarah’s handmaiden. Thus, Ishmael was born. But that was not the child of God’s promise. God said that He would, through Abraham and Sarah, bring forth an heir. This was a lesson in trusting God’s provision for them. Finally they saw that promise fulfilled in the birth of Isaac.
But then in Genesis 22:2 we read, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Now, God was asking Abraham to give up the son who was the very answer to his prayers. It must have seemed illogical, but then, what had seemed logical was not always God’s will. Had Abraham learned to trust in God’s promise more than in his own logic? Had he learned that if he would trust in God’s word, God would take care of all his needs? This, I believe, was the real test Abraham faced. It was a test of faith.
Abraham had come to the place in his faith where he trusted that God was even able to raise Isaac from the dead. God would provide. Abraham had come to believe this. Why? Because we read in Romans 4:17-18 that Abraham believed in God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." and that Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:21).
Believing that God could do the impossible; Abraham did the unthinkable and obeyed. There is something else that he factored into the equation. He considered that God is "able." The word translated "able" is "dunatos," from which we get our word "dynamite." The power of God blows away the tension between the promise of God and the command of God. It obliterates seeming contradictions and makes the impossible possible.
Oh brothers and sisters for us to arm ourselves in every situation in life we need to know the truth of and to trust in the reality of the truth that if God is God, than as Jesus said, nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 17:20; 19:26; Luke 1:37). What are your impossible situations?
We all reach points like Abraham where the devil tells us it is hopeless, there is no way forward, it won’t happen, it can’t change, or it won’t get better. You have to have a view of God that brings like Abraham’s, a view of a God who brings out of that which is not that which is. There is no human way out. But if you are a true believer in the living God, than you believe in supernatural realities. You believe that there is a God who brought the universe out of nothing and if God is God than nothing is impossible!
God’s Godness creates a future where there is none. Nothing you can tell me about you, your circumstances, or your life, can change God’s Godness to make something out of nothing. God’s Godness creates a future where there is none. An irreparable marriage? Nothing is impossible with God! A wayward child? Nothing is impossible with God! A fruitless ministry? Nothing is impossible with God! A defeated life? Nothing is impossible with God! Nothing you can tell me would make me say this is impossible. You may feel absolutely hopeless and powerless but God has the power to bring something out of nothing.
If God cannot bring to bear on this world a supernatural reality that breaks through our impossibilities than we might as well close the doors of our churches and go home. Oh dear readers God is God, He will break in! Now think of every situation in your life and speak to it right now: NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!
Savoring His Godness,
Pastor Bill
Do you believe in the Godness of God? Do you believe in a God like Abraham’s God? When you are put to the test, when adversity comes, when the bottom falls, your theology will be the only thing left. And it will either be the life preserver that keeps you afloat or it will be the weights under your feet that pull you under.
The story of Abraham is a story about God and a man who learned to trust in Him as God. Abraham to leave his family and his home, and to follow God to a new place, God’s place. Would Abraham trust Him? Abraham did, partially. He left Ur of the Chaldees, but he took his father with him, settled in another place until his father died, and then proceeded on with his relative, Lot. Through all of this, God was trying to teach Abraham how to believe in His provision. God promised Abraham an heir. But then God waited for years without fulfilling that promise. Would Abraham trust God? He did, partially. But he also tried to help God fulfill God’s promise. He and his wife devised a scheme whereby Abraham would bring forth an heir through Sarah’s handmaiden. Thus, Ishmael was born. But that was not the child of God’s promise. God said that He would, through Abraham and Sarah, bring forth an heir. This was a lesson in trusting God’s provision for them. Finally they saw that promise fulfilled in the birth of Isaac.
But then in Genesis 22:2 we read, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Now, God was asking Abraham to give up the son who was the very answer to his prayers. It must have seemed illogical, but then, what had seemed logical was not always God’s will. Had Abraham learned to trust in God’s promise more than in his own logic? Had he learned that if he would trust in God’s word, God would take care of all his needs? This, I believe, was the real test Abraham faced. It was a test of faith.
Abraham had come to the place in his faith where he trusted that God was even able to raise Isaac from the dead. God would provide. Abraham had come to believe this. Why? Because we read in Romans 4:17-18 that Abraham believed in God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." and that Abraham was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:21).
Believing that God could do the impossible; Abraham did the unthinkable and obeyed. There is something else that he factored into the equation. He considered that God is "able." The word translated "able" is "dunatos," from which we get our word "dynamite." The power of God blows away the tension between the promise of God and the command of God. It obliterates seeming contradictions and makes the impossible possible.
Oh brothers and sisters for us to arm ourselves in every situation in life we need to know the truth of and to trust in the reality of the truth that if God is God, than as Jesus said, nothing is impossible with God (Matthew 17:20; 19:26; Luke 1:37). What are your impossible situations?
We all reach points like Abraham where the devil tells us it is hopeless, there is no way forward, it won’t happen, it can’t change, or it won’t get better. You have to have a view of God that brings like Abraham’s, a view of a God who brings out of that which is not that which is. There is no human way out. But if you are a true believer in the living God, than you believe in supernatural realities. You believe that there is a God who brought the universe out of nothing and if God is God than nothing is impossible!
God’s Godness creates a future where there is none. Nothing you can tell me about you, your circumstances, or your life, can change God’s Godness to make something out of nothing. God’s Godness creates a future where there is none. An irreparable marriage? Nothing is impossible with God! A wayward child? Nothing is impossible with God! A fruitless ministry? Nothing is impossible with God! A defeated life? Nothing is impossible with God! Nothing you can tell me would make me say this is impossible. You may feel absolutely hopeless and powerless but God has the power to bring something out of nothing.
If God cannot bring to bear on this world a supernatural reality that breaks through our impossibilities than we might as well close the doors of our churches and go home. Oh dear readers God is God, He will break in! Now think of every situation in your life and speak to it right now: NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!
Savoring His Godness,
Pastor Bill
Thursday, October 4, 2007
THE JOY BROUGHT FORTH BY THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE
When it comes to the doctrines of grace. I want to show you how personally these biblical truths mean to me. I am a pastor ravished with the extraordinary sovereignty of joy that belongs to and comes from God alone. I have discovered grace as the free gift of sovereign joy in God that frees us from the bondage of sin. I think my understanding of salvation so has brought to me inexpressible joy and delight. Let me explain how it works.
The way John Piper has taught me to look at total depravity is that it is not just badness, but blindness to beauty and deadness to joy. Like a blind man in the presence of a Hawaiian sunset who cannot even fathom the glories of the horizons pallet of color. Deadness to joy meant deadness to feelings for God. Pathetic misplaced passions for food, sex, power, drink, and trivial pursuits. This terrible truth of our total depravity puts me in a humble position to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of the work of God
Unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed. God thought of us and loved us and planned before time pleasures evermore for His elect. He loved me in spite of me and all He knew I would do in my sinful rebellion towards Him; all of my misplaced and fleeting pleasures that I would chose over Him. Yet in this knowledge He planned inexpressible joy for me.
George Whitefield wrote:
I know Christ is all in all. Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure.
Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for us by the blood of the covenant. God really means to accomplish, through the atonement, the conversion of His elect.
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
I do not believe we can preach the gospel...unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the Cross
Irresistible grace is the commitment and power of God's love to make sure we don't hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the sovereign power of superior delights. It is His joyful pleasure to enable us by His sovereign grace to see and savor His beauty in an irresistible and compelling way. It is like a man who would never think of going to Hawaii, but instead enjoys going to downtown Watts for his pleasure, who is given a free ticket to Hawaii and going to Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai and enjoying the view. John Piper says you don’t go to the Grand Canyon and look out at its majestic panorama to evaluate what psychological categories you fit into. You are enraptured by its glory and grandeur! That’s irresistible grace.
Augustine wrote:
I have no hope at all but in thy great mercy. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt. Thou dost enjoin on us continence...Truly by continence are we bound together and brought back into that unity from which we were dissipated into a plurality. For he loves thee too little who loves anything together with thee, which he loves not for thy sake. O love that ever burnest and art never quenched! O Charity, my God, enkindle me! Thou commandest continence. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt.
These are the words of a man who loved the truth of irresistible grace, because he knew he is utterly undone without it
The perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God to keep us through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of pleasures at God's right hand forever. It is God’s patience and perseverance with us in all of our weaknesses and His sovereign power to enable us to finish our lives in triumphant joy. These truths make me sure that God will triumph in the end in my life. Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand that I will accomplish all my purpose'"
J.I. Packer gives me the precious kind of evangelistic appeal these doctrines make. Read it carefully and repeatedly.
To the question: what must I do to be saved? The old gospel [Calvinism] replies: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To the further question: what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? its reply is: it means knowing oneself to be a sinner, and Christ to have died for sinners; abandoning all self-righteousness and self-confidence, and casting oneself wholly upon Him for pardon and peace; and exchanging one's natural enmity and rebellion against God for a spirit of grateful submission to the will of Christ through the renewing of one's heart by the Holy Ghost.And to the further question still: how am I to go about believing on Christ and repenting, if I have no natural ability to do these things? it answers: look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry to Christ, just as you are; confess your sin, your impenitence, your unbelief, and cast yourself on His mercy; ask Him to give you a new heart, working in you true repentance and firm faith; ask Him to take away your evil heart of unbelief and to write His law within you, that you may never henceforth stray from Him. Turn to Him and trust Him as best you can, and pray for grace to turn and trust more thoroughly; use the means of grace expectantly, looking to Christ to draw near to you as you seek to draw near to Him; watch pray read and hear God's Word, worship and commune with God's people, and so continue till you know in yourself beyond doubt that you are indeed a changed being, a penitent believer, and the new heart which you desired has been put within you.
("Introductory Essay to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ," p. 21).
Let Charles Spurgeon lead you in prayer:
Join with me in prayer at this moment, I entreat you. Join with me while I put words into your mouths, and speak them on your behalf— "Lord, I am guilty, I deserve thy wrath. Lord, I cannot save myself. Lord, I would have a new heart and a right spirit, but what can I do? Lord, I can do nothing, come and work in me to will and to do thy good pleasure.
Thou alone hast power,
I know,To save a wretch like me;
To whom, or whither should I go
If I should run from thee?
But I now do from my very soul call upon thy name. Trembling, yet believing, I cast myself wholly upon thee, O Lord. I trust the blood and righteousness of thy dear Son...Lord, save me tonight, for Jesus' sake." (From Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973], pp. 101f.)
Happy in sovereign joy!
Pastor Bill
The way John Piper has taught me to look at total depravity is that it is not just badness, but blindness to beauty and deadness to joy. Like a blind man in the presence of a Hawaiian sunset who cannot even fathom the glories of the horizons pallet of color. Deadness to joy meant deadness to feelings for God. Pathetic misplaced passions for food, sex, power, drink, and trivial pursuits. This terrible truth of our total depravity puts me in a humble position to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of the work of God
Unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed. God thought of us and loved us and planned before time pleasures evermore for His elect. He loved me in spite of me and all He knew I would do in my sinful rebellion towards Him; all of my misplaced and fleeting pleasures that I would chose over Him. Yet in this knowledge He planned inexpressible joy for me.
George Whitefield wrote:
I know Christ is all in all. Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure.
Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for us by the blood of the covenant. God really means to accomplish, through the atonement, the conversion of His elect.
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
I do not believe we can preach the gospel...unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the Cross
Irresistible grace is the commitment and power of God's love to make sure we don't hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the sovereign power of superior delights. It is His joyful pleasure to enable us by His sovereign grace to see and savor His beauty in an irresistible and compelling way. It is like a man who would never think of going to Hawaii, but instead enjoys going to downtown Watts for his pleasure, who is given a free ticket to Hawaii and going to Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai and enjoying the view. John Piper says you don’t go to the Grand Canyon and look out at its majestic panorama to evaluate what psychological categories you fit into. You are enraptured by its glory and grandeur! That’s irresistible grace.
Augustine wrote:
I have no hope at all but in thy great mercy. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt. Thou dost enjoin on us continence...Truly by continence are we bound together and brought back into that unity from which we were dissipated into a plurality. For he loves thee too little who loves anything together with thee, which he loves not for thy sake. O love that ever burnest and art never quenched! O Charity, my God, enkindle me! Thou commandest continence. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt.
These are the words of a man who loved the truth of irresistible grace, because he knew he is utterly undone without it
The perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God to keep us through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of pleasures at God's right hand forever. It is God’s patience and perseverance with us in all of our weaknesses and His sovereign power to enable us to finish our lives in triumphant joy. These truths make me sure that God will triumph in the end in my life. Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand that I will accomplish all my purpose'"
J.I. Packer gives me the precious kind of evangelistic appeal these doctrines make. Read it carefully and repeatedly.
To the question: what must I do to be saved? The old gospel [Calvinism] replies: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To the further question: what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? its reply is: it means knowing oneself to be a sinner, and Christ to have died for sinners; abandoning all self-righteousness and self-confidence, and casting oneself wholly upon Him for pardon and peace; and exchanging one's natural enmity and rebellion against God for a spirit of grateful submission to the will of Christ through the renewing of one's heart by the Holy Ghost.And to the further question still: how am I to go about believing on Christ and repenting, if I have no natural ability to do these things? it answers: look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry to Christ, just as you are; confess your sin, your impenitence, your unbelief, and cast yourself on His mercy; ask Him to give you a new heart, working in you true repentance and firm faith; ask Him to take away your evil heart of unbelief and to write His law within you, that you may never henceforth stray from Him. Turn to Him and trust Him as best you can, and pray for grace to turn and trust more thoroughly; use the means of grace expectantly, looking to Christ to draw near to you as you seek to draw near to Him; watch pray read and hear God's Word, worship and commune with God's people, and so continue till you know in yourself beyond doubt that you are indeed a changed being, a penitent believer, and the new heart which you desired has been put within you.
("Introductory Essay to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ," p. 21).
Let Charles Spurgeon lead you in prayer:
Join with me in prayer at this moment, I entreat you. Join with me while I put words into your mouths, and speak them on your behalf— "Lord, I am guilty, I deserve thy wrath. Lord, I cannot save myself. Lord, I would have a new heart and a right spirit, but what can I do? Lord, I can do nothing, come and work in me to will and to do thy good pleasure.
Thou alone hast power,
I know,To save a wretch like me;
To whom, or whither should I go
If I should run from thee?
But I now do from my very soul call upon thy name. Trembling, yet believing, I cast myself wholly upon thee, O Lord. I trust the blood and righteousness of thy dear Son...Lord, save me tonight, for Jesus' sake." (From Iain Murray, The Forgotten Spurgeon [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1973], pp. 101f.)
Happy in sovereign joy!
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE
There are wonderful implications on election. I want to give you some that I have taken from John Piper's seminar on the doctrines of grace.
The doctrines of grace mean:
1. We Were Dead and Unable to Believe So That Life and Faith Had to Be Given to Us.
Ephesians 2:4-9, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
2. Election is the Cause of Obtaining Salvation, not the Effect.
Romans 11:1-8, "Do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE.” But what is the divine response to him? “I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.”
3. Election is not Based on Foreknown Faith, Faith Happens Because of Election.
Acts 13:48, "When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."
4. We do not Belong to God Because We Come to Jesus, We Come to Jesus Because We Belong to God.
John 17:6-9, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. . . . I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours. "
John 6:37-39, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day."
5. We are not Jesus’ Sheep Because We Believe, We Believe Because We Are His Sheep.
John 10:24-27, "The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
The doctrines of grace mean:
1. We Were Dead and Unable to Believe So That Life and Faith Had to Be Given to Us.
Ephesians 2:4-9, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
2. Election is the Cause of Obtaining Salvation, not the Effect.
Romans 11:1-8, "Do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE.” But what is the divine response to him? “I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.”
3. Election is not Based on Foreknown Faith, Faith Happens Because of Election.
Acts 13:48, "When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."
4. We do not Belong to God Because We Come to Jesus, We Come to Jesus Because We Belong to God.
John 17:6-9, "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. . . . I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours. "
John 6:37-39, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day."
5. We are not Jesus’ Sheep Because We Believe, We Believe Because We Are His Sheep.
John 10:24-27, "The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
6. Evangelism is not Making Sheep, it is Gathering Sheep.
John 10:16, "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd."
7. World Missions is not Begetting Children of God, it is Gathering Children of God?
John 11:50-52, "[Caiaphas said,] “it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. "
Acts 18:9-10,"And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”
8. God does not Choose Us Because He Knows We Will Come, We Come Because He Chose to Give Us the Will to Come.
John 6:44, 65, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. . . .” And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
Acts 16:14, "A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul."
9.Election is not Based on Foreknown Faith, Faith the Effect of Election.
Romans 8:28-33, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies."
10. Election is Individual and Unconditional and Dealing with Eternal Destiny.
Romans 9:1-23, "I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory."
Basking in these truths,
Pastor Bill
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