"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..."
2 Peter 3:18 ESV
As anyone who reads this blog knows, Jonathan Edwards is one of the greatest influences in my life. He lived from 1503-1558 in New England as a pastor in nothhampton for 23 years, a missionary in Stockridge for 7 years, and seminary president at Princeton for three months till his untimely and tragic death. He was the prime mover and shaker in the Great Awakening from 1734-1749. I love this man. His works are well worth reading for their inspiration, for his piety, his understanding of God, and his keen theological acumen.
When he was 19 he wrote 70 resolutions for his life. In his 28th resolution he wrote,
Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
Notice Edwards resolved three things. To study the scriptures: Steadily; Constantly; and Frequently. How did he want to do this? In such a way that as time goes by he could look upon himself as having grown in the understanding of scripture. Edwards would have been very dismayed if after a year of reading and studying the scripture he didn't have a years better grasp on the counsel of God in the Bible that he had the year before.
I wonder if today few of us think in terms like Edwards who really thought in terms of Peter who said in 2 Peter 3:18, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..."
It is not an option for us to think that we can know enough, have read enough, done enough, or have experienced enough of the Word that we no longer need to grow or that we have arrived.
Edwards wanted to study the scriptures in a way that he could perceive that he was growing.
Listen to his 30th resolution:
Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
What a challenge for us all. Edwards could say "I have an understanding of God this past month and I can say that I have a love and affection for Christ that corresponds with this new knowledge that I have gained that I didn't have a month ago." He was passionate to be sure to be growing and progressing every single day
Edwards 6th resolution was:
Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
His 5th resolution:
Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
How many of us coast in our lives. Where is the passion to redeem and buy up time and fill it with productive growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Paul says in
Ephesians 5:15-16, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time (literally:buy up the time), because the days are evil.'
Edwards would fight against coasting by resolving in his 61st resolution:
Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it-that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc
Edwards himself studied 13 hours a day. Now that would get him totally fired from any church today, and we would think that overtly extreme; but however you may think of that, we are all blessed with the fruit of his labor.
Can you and I say that we are growing? Are you thoughts deeper; your love more passionate, your faith stronger than it was last week? Are your affections for Christ proportionate to the knowledge that you have gained of Him? If you asked others, would they speak of your maturing and progressing in the faith?
May we live in obedience to Peter and may we follow the example of Jonathan Edwards who wrote in his 48th resolution:
Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.
Longing to grow daily and to be able to perceive and enjoy it for the glory of my Savior,
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
THREE WAYS TO MAXIMIMIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE ON SUNDAYS AT CHURCH
Charles Spurgeon used to call the church “the dearest place on earth”. I am convinced by scripture and by experience that he was right. Even in these postmodern times, most Christians still see Sunday morning as important. So I am passionate and concerned about what you experience on Sundays and that you are enjoying the fullness of what God has for you. I want to help us to lose some harmful attitudes, to throw out some bad habits, to leave behind some old assumptions, renew our vision, and take practical steps to change the way that you and I go to church so that together we might participate not casually, mechanically, but passionately and that Sunday morning would be the dearest time of the week in the dearest place on earth. There are three practical ways that we can enjoy Sunday mornings to the fullest.
1. Thoughtful preparation
Charles Spurgeon once said, “There should be some preparation in the heart in coming to the worship of God. Consider who He is in whose name we come to gather, and surely we cannot rush together without thought. Consider whom we profess to worship, and we shall not hurry into His presence as men rush into a fire. …There should be no stumbling into the place of worship half asleep, no more roaming here as if it were no more than going to a playhouse. We cannot expect to profit much if we bring with us a swarm of idle thoughts and a heart crammed with vanity. If we are full of folly, we may shut out the truth of God from our minds.”
If we are really going to come to worship wouldn’t that motivate us to prepare. What can I do on Saturday to maximize my participation on Sunday? How about going to bed at a decent hour. Waking up on Sunday morning to give yourself enough time to get ready for church, perhaps to get in the word beforehand, to pray, or to pray with your family. What about other intrusions? How about not bringing up issues before church? What is more important your issues or the worship of God? Just a thought! How about turning off the cell phone. Don’t let the urgent rob you of what is important! Are there distractions that you have made a habit or that you are vulnerable to on Sunday morning? Consider what you are doing on Sunday morning. Prepare your heart for maximizing your time on Sunday morning for encountering and communing and giving and hearing and serving God. Amos said it well, “Prepare to meet thy God!”
2. Purposeful participation
Don’t come in casually. Come ready to worship and come on time! Turn off the cell phone. Get focused and centered on the purpose for your being here. Don’t wander around the building while God is being honored. Something is happening of eternal consequences. This isn’t happy hour. Prepare to meet thy God! Don’t wander around or engage in conversations in the library of outside. Come around prowling like a lion for care, love, and encouragement. Come around with your antennas up who to seek out, care for, and grace! Remember that God is observing and receiving your worship. In the light of all that He is, give Him your all.
3. Diligent application
The puritans called Sunday “the market day for the soul”. By that, they meant that Sunday was a day of stocking up for the week ahead. Ask what you can do to stock up more successfully because Monday will come up sooner than you think. Don’t let Sunday morning fade away and go into your distant memory. Go though the notes. If God is addressing you then there is a response required. When you go have lunch discuss what God said and did. What effect does God have upon my life, work, marriage, and family?
Brothers and Sisters the One who sought us and saved us from sin extends His invitation to draw us near to Him together through the work of His Son. He invites us o capture the passion of Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!"
All over the world this Sunday millions of Christians will gather together in the open air, in mud huts, in rented theaters, in homes, in schools, and in multimillion dollar facilities. But beloved, the places we gather in are of little consequence. What matters is the One we have come to worship and enjoy TOGETHER. What matters is that we will be really together with Him on this day. I hope that you will be there to…with all of your heart and that Sunday would become the best time of the week in the dearest place on earth.
Pastor Bill
1. Thoughtful preparation
Charles Spurgeon once said, “There should be some preparation in the heart in coming to the worship of God. Consider who He is in whose name we come to gather, and surely we cannot rush together without thought. Consider whom we profess to worship, and we shall not hurry into His presence as men rush into a fire. …There should be no stumbling into the place of worship half asleep, no more roaming here as if it were no more than going to a playhouse. We cannot expect to profit much if we bring with us a swarm of idle thoughts and a heart crammed with vanity. If we are full of folly, we may shut out the truth of God from our minds.”
If we are really going to come to worship wouldn’t that motivate us to prepare. What can I do on Saturday to maximize my participation on Sunday? How about going to bed at a decent hour. Waking up on Sunday morning to give yourself enough time to get ready for church, perhaps to get in the word beforehand, to pray, or to pray with your family. What about other intrusions? How about not bringing up issues before church? What is more important your issues or the worship of God? Just a thought! How about turning off the cell phone. Don’t let the urgent rob you of what is important! Are there distractions that you have made a habit or that you are vulnerable to on Sunday morning? Consider what you are doing on Sunday morning. Prepare your heart for maximizing your time on Sunday morning for encountering and communing and giving and hearing and serving God. Amos said it well, “Prepare to meet thy God!”
2. Purposeful participation
Don’t come in casually. Come ready to worship and come on time! Turn off the cell phone. Get focused and centered on the purpose for your being here. Don’t wander around the building while God is being honored. Something is happening of eternal consequences. This isn’t happy hour. Prepare to meet thy God! Don’t wander around or engage in conversations in the library of outside. Come around prowling like a lion for care, love, and encouragement. Come around with your antennas up who to seek out, care for, and grace! Remember that God is observing and receiving your worship. In the light of all that He is, give Him your all.
3. Diligent application
The puritans called Sunday “the market day for the soul”. By that, they meant that Sunday was a day of stocking up for the week ahead. Ask what you can do to stock up more successfully because Monday will come up sooner than you think. Don’t let Sunday morning fade away and go into your distant memory. Go though the notes. If God is addressing you then there is a response required. When you go have lunch discuss what God said and did. What effect does God have upon my life, work, marriage, and family?
Brothers and Sisters the One who sought us and saved us from sin extends His invitation to draw us near to Him together through the work of His Son. He invites us o capture the passion of Psalm 122:1, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!"
All over the world this Sunday millions of Christians will gather together in the open air, in mud huts, in rented theaters, in homes, in schools, and in multimillion dollar facilities. But beloved, the places we gather in are of little consequence. What matters is the One we have come to worship and enjoy TOGETHER. What matters is that we will be really together with Him on this day. I hope that you will be there to…with all of your heart and that Sunday would become the best time of the week in the dearest place on earth.
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
GOD WILL HELP YOU!
"Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them -- those who are mistreated -- since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Hebrews 13:1-6
One of my great joys in reading scripture is how God gives us new and fresh understanding every time we come to the Word. I had this experience on Monday in Hebrews 13. In the opening verses of Chapter 13 we are exhorted to love each other (v. 1), to be hospitable (v. 2), to be compassionate to the oppressed and needy (v. 3), to pursue sexual purity both inside and outside of marriage (v. 4), and perhaps most difficult of all, not to love money but to be content (v. 5). I don't know about you but this is a very formidable task for me!
Have you ever thought about the things that God expects us to do? Some of us try to do it and utterly fail. Others try and fail but think they are doing it anyway. Others don't even try because they know that they can't. How is it can God possibly expect such behavior from people who cannot behave in these ways?
The answer, in verses 5b-6, is found in a promise that God Himself makes to every one of us: "'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" So we can confidently say,"The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?"' There is a deliberate double negative is present in the Greek text of our passage. The statement is quite emphatic and could be literally translated, 'not not will I leave you, neither not not will I forsake you,' or better still, 'I will never, by no means ever, leave you; neither will I ever, by no means ever, forsake you.'
When I read this text I discover that if if this promise is true, there is no valid reason why you should ever again experience fear or apprehension about your relationship with God or your life. That doesn't mean you won't experience such fear. It does mean there is no valid reason why you should.
What that means, practically speaking, is that you and I never, by no means ever again, have any excuse for being afraid of what others can do to us. We never, by no means ever again, have to try to do something alone that we know God wants us to do. Why? Because God, our omnipotent helper, is always and forever with us.
Think about it: since God is really and truly forever and always right here with you, other people cannot control or shape or determine your life. Some of you hear this statement in Hebrews I3:6—'What can man do to me?' and you say: 'Good grief, are you kidding? They can do a lot to me and they have throughout my life! They can criticize me, abandon me, reject me, lie to me,beat me up, rob me, slander me, sue me, even kill me!'
But God knows that. He said it explicitly in Hebrews I0:32-34, "But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven." and in 11:35-38, "Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented -- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. ".
Look right here in our passage at verse 3! Our writer isn't stupid. He knows that people can do a lot of really bad things to us. So what could he possibly mean in verse 6? Why does the promise `I will never leave you or forsake you' cause him to feel so confident in verse 6 that he an declare that no man can do him harm?
There are at least three answers:
1. No human can do anything to separate you from the love of God-
Romans 8:35-37, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ". Notwithstanding the worst imaginable physical torment or emotional distress or financial disaster, you and I are forever safe in the arms of God.
2. God is able to cause all things people do to us, even the bad things, to work together for our good-
Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." This isn't to say that all things are good, but that God can orchestrate the evil into a symphony of glory.
3.God enables us to respond with everlasting joy to whatever we do, by reminding us that we have `a better possession and an abiding one'
Hebrews 10:34, "For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. "
The promise of Hebrews 13:5b-6 follows immediately after the five exhortations not to love money, I believe our author intends for us to understand that this is how we fulfill all five exhortations! We can love each other because God is always with us as our helper. We can be hospitable to strangers because God is always with us as our helper. We can find the energy and resources to help the oppressed and needy because God is always with us as our helper. We can live in sexual purity because God is always with us to help us. And we can break the power of money over our lives because God is always with us to help.
If these promises is true, the way to be free to live verses 1-5 and all of God's commandments is to know and believe and be satisfied by the promise of God summed up in `I will never leave you nor forsake you.'
If God really means that, then I am loved in such a way that I am overflowing with His helping love to love my brothers.
If God really means this than I am helped to do unto the least what He has done to a wretched sinner like me and be excited with the possibility and discernment that I may be serving even an angel in disguise!
If God really means this than I am helped to identify with the hurting, bound up, and the suffering and help them with the very comfort that Jesus has given to me.
If God really means this than I am helped to be the faithful, pure, serving, and devoted husband that God has called to be.
If God really means this than I am helped don't need to crave after money as the source of my security and identity and pleasure but instead to crave after Christ the source of true security, identity, and pleasure!
Where do you need help today? Remember the promise of Jesus in Hebrews 13:5: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Therefore you can say and pray Hebrews 13:6: The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" Wherever, whenever, and what ever you fear would you put this promise into your place of need and trust? Lord in this area_______I am asking for Your help. Amen!
Trusting in His kind promises to help me,
Pastor Bill
Hebrews 13:1-6
One of my great joys in reading scripture is how God gives us new and fresh understanding every time we come to the Word. I had this experience on Monday in Hebrews 13. In the opening verses of Chapter 13 we are exhorted to love each other (v. 1), to be hospitable (v. 2), to be compassionate to the oppressed and needy (v. 3), to pursue sexual purity both inside and outside of marriage (v. 4), and perhaps most difficult of all, not to love money but to be content (v. 5). I don't know about you but this is a very formidable task for me!
Have you ever thought about the things that God expects us to do? Some of us try to do it and utterly fail. Others try and fail but think they are doing it anyway. Others don't even try because they know that they can't. How is it can God possibly expect such behavior from people who cannot behave in these ways?
The answer, in verses 5b-6, is found in a promise that God Himself makes to every one of us: "'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" So we can confidently say,"The Lord is my helper, I will not fear; what can man do to me?"' There is a deliberate double negative is present in the Greek text of our passage. The statement is quite emphatic and could be literally translated, 'not not will I leave you, neither not not will I forsake you,' or better still, 'I will never, by no means ever, leave you; neither will I ever, by no means ever, forsake you.'
When I read this text I discover that if if this promise is true, there is no valid reason why you should ever again experience fear or apprehension about your relationship with God or your life. That doesn't mean you won't experience such fear. It does mean there is no valid reason why you should.
What that means, practically speaking, is that you and I never, by no means ever again, have any excuse for being afraid of what others can do to us. We never, by no means ever again, have to try to do something alone that we know God wants us to do. Why? Because God, our omnipotent helper, is always and forever with us.
Think about it: since God is really and truly forever and always right here with you, other people cannot control or shape or determine your life. Some of you hear this statement in Hebrews I3:6—'What can man do to me?' and you say: 'Good grief, are you kidding? They can do a lot to me and they have throughout my life! They can criticize me, abandon me, reject me, lie to me,beat me up, rob me, slander me, sue me, even kill me!'
But God knows that. He said it explicitly in Hebrews I0:32-34, "But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven." and in 11:35-38, "Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented -- of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. ".
Look right here in our passage at verse 3! Our writer isn't stupid. He knows that people can do a lot of really bad things to us. So what could he possibly mean in verse 6? Why does the promise `I will never leave you or forsake you' cause him to feel so confident in verse 6 that he an declare that no man can do him harm?
There are at least three answers:
1. No human can do anything to separate you from the love of God-
Romans 8:35-37, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ". Notwithstanding the worst imaginable physical torment or emotional distress or financial disaster, you and I are forever safe in the arms of God.
2. God is able to cause all things people do to us, even the bad things, to work together for our good-
Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." This isn't to say that all things are good, but that God can orchestrate the evil into a symphony of glory.
3.God enables us to respond with everlasting joy to whatever we do, by reminding us that we have `a better possession and an abiding one'
Hebrews 10:34, "For you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. "
The promise of Hebrews 13:5b-6 follows immediately after the five exhortations not to love money, I believe our author intends for us to understand that this is how we fulfill all five exhortations! We can love each other because God is always with us as our helper. We can be hospitable to strangers because God is always with us as our helper. We can find the energy and resources to help the oppressed and needy because God is always with us as our helper. We can live in sexual purity because God is always with us to help us. And we can break the power of money over our lives because God is always with us to help.
If these promises is true, the way to be free to live verses 1-5 and all of God's commandments is to know and believe and be satisfied by the promise of God summed up in `I will never leave you nor forsake you.'
If God really means that, then I am loved in such a way that I am overflowing with His helping love to love my brothers.
If God really means this than I am helped to do unto the least what He has done to a wretched sinner like me and be excited with the possibility and discernment that I may be serving even an angel in disguise!
If God really means this than I am helped to identify with the hurting, bound up, and the suffering and help them with the very comfort that Jesus has given to me.
If God really means this than I am helped to be the faithful, pure, serving, and devoted husband that God has called to be.
If God really means this than I am helped don't need to crave after money as the source of my security and identity and pleasure but instead to crave after Christ the source of true security, identity, and pleasure!
Where do you need help today? Remember the promise of Jesus in Hebrews 13:5: "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Therefore you can say and pray Hebrews 13:6: The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" Wherever, whenever, and what ever you fear would you put this promise into your place of need and trust? Lord in this area_______I am asking for Your help. Amen!
Trusting in His kind promises to help me,
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
KILL ANGER BEFORE IT KILLS YOU!
John Owen once wrote in his book On the Mortification of Sin in the Believers Life, "Be killing sin, before it kills you." Sin is the great destroyer of a life. Specifically, the sin of anger is a killer of our soul and life. Anger is a terrible enemy. Anger can have many faces: Rage, hatred, aggression, revenge, bitterness, cynicism, resentment, frustration,feeling that life is out of control and helplessness, tears, silence, picky criticism, it may strike out at persons that have nothing to do with its origin, it may strike out at a petty thing when inside it rages against a larger thing. It will often feel warranted by how wrongly it has been treated. After all, Jesus got angry (Mark 3:5), and Paul says, "Be angry and do not sin" (Ephesians 4:26).
I must confess that in my own life good anger is seldom in my life. Oh how I want to have good anger and not sinful anger. I have learned allot about my own sinful anger as a pastor. I have been angry at God for disappointing me, for not fulfilling my hopes and dreams, for seemingly not caring about me, for seemingly blessing those who are carnal or evil and giving much difficulty to the good, and for His plans for me. I have been angry at life for being hard, transient, short, constantly changing, fragile, I have been angry at people who have hurt me, lied to me, left my church for trite and trivial reasons, who have been dishonest with me, who have been ungrateful and disloyal, who spoken bad things or lies behind my back, who have erased themselves from my life with no closure whatsoever,who have used me or the church for what they could get and than thrown us away. In short, in my flesh, I have been very vulnerable to the heinous sin of unrighteous anger.
That's why James says, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires" (James 1:19-20). And Paul says, "Men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling" (1 Timothy 2:8). "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you" (Ephesians 4:31).
Therefore, one of the greatest battles of life is the battle to "put away anger," not just control its expressions. To apply what John Owen said, "Kill anger, before it kills you." Let me show you some scriptures that I use to combat this deadly enemy of mine. I am grateful to John Piper who has convicted me and helped me greatly in this area.
1. Ponder the right of Christ to be angry, but how He endured the cross, as an example of long-suffering. Ponder how Christ has been so long suffering towards you in your sins against Him. "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
2. Ponder how much you have been forgiven, and how much mercy you have been shown. "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). John Newton wrote, "The 'wretch' who has been saved by grace believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him a habitual tenderness and gentleness Spirit. Humble under a sense of much forgiveness to himself, he finds it easy to forgive others."
3.Ponder your own sinfulness and take the beam out of your own eye. "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:3-5).
4. Ponder how harbored anger gives place to the devil. You do not want to make room for him or invite him into your life. "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27).
5. Ponder the foolishness of the numerous detrimental effects of anger to you. Oh what folly! There are spiritual effects that harm my fellowship with Christ. There are mental effects such as depression, despair, hate, bitterness, resentment, and a victim self pitying mentality. There are physical effects. There are numerous relational effects. "Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones" (Proverbs 3:7-8).
6. Confess your sin of anger to some trusted friend, and, if possible, to the offender. This is a great healing act for your soul. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James 5:16).
7. Let your anger be the key to unlock the dungeons of pride and self-pity in your heart and replace them with love. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
8. Remember that God is going to work all your frustrating circumstances for your good as you trust in His grace. God is even using the one who has hurt or wronged you for your good. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces stead-fastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4).
9. Remember that God will vindicate your just cause and settle all accounts better than you could. Either your offender will pay in hell, or Christ has paid for him. Your payback would be either double jeopardy or an offense to the cross. "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, `Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord' (Romans 12:19). "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting [his cause] to him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23).
So let us all kill anger so that it doesn't kill us. For his name sake, for His glory, for the sake of others, and for our soul's satisfaction. I love God's patience toward me.I love it that God describes Himself as slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Oh, I want to be more like Him! Don't you my friend? May God have mercy on our easily angered hearts! May He forgive our many peeves and murmuring. I pray for us that we would be utterly and fully saturated with merciful, forgiving, long suffering, and contented grace. May we learn to submit to the place God has us and adopt to the pace He is working in our lives. May we show it to others as we desperately need it for ourselves.
Pastor Bill
I must confess that in my own life good anger is seldom in my life. Oh how I want to have good anger and not sinful anger. I have learned allot about my own sinful anger as a pastor. I have been angry at God for disappointing me, for not fulfilling my hopes and dreams, for seemingly not caring about me, for seemingly blessing those who are carnal or evil and giving much difficulty to the good, and for His plans for me. I have been angry at life for being hard, transient, short, constantly changing, fragile, I have been angry at people who have hurt me, lied to me, left my church for trite and trivial reasons, who have been dishonest with me, who have been ungrateful and disloyal, who spoken bad things or lies behind my back, who have erased themselves from my life with no closure whatsoever,who have used me or the church for what they could get and than thrown us away. In short, in my flesh, I have been very vulnerable to the heinous sin of unrighteous anger.
That's why James says, "Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires" (James 1:19-20). And Paul says, "Men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling" (1 Timothy 2:8). "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you" (Ephesians 4:31).
Therefore, one of the greatest battles of life is the battle to "put away anger," not just control its expressions. To apply what John Owen said, "Kill anger, before it kills you." Let me show you some scriptures that I use to combat this deadly enemy of mine. I am grateful to John Piper who has convicted me and helped me greatly in this area.
1. Ponder the right of Christ to be angry, but how He endured the cross, as an example of long-suffering. Ponder how Christ has been so long suffering towards you in your sins against Him. "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
2. Ponder how much you have been forgiven, and how much mercy you have been shown. "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). John Newton wrote, "The 'wretch' who has been saved by grace believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him a habitual tenderness and gentleness Spirit. Humble under a sense of much forgiveness to himself, he finds it easy to forgive others."
3.Ponder your own sinfulness and take the beam out of your own eye. "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:3-5).
4. Ponder how harbored anger gives place to the devil. You do not want to make room for him or invite him into your life. "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27).
5. Ponder the foolishness of the numerous detrimental effects of anger to you. Oh what folly! There are spiritual effects that harm my fellowship with Christ. There are mental effects such as depression, despair, hate, bitterness, resentment, and a victim self pitying mentality. There are physical effects. There are numerous relational effects. "Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones" (Proverbs 3:7-8).
6. Confess your sin of anger to some trusted friend, and, if possible, to the offender. This is a great healing act for your soul. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James 5:16).
7. Let your anger be the key to unlock the dungeons of pride and self-pity in your heart and replace them with love. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
8. Remember that God is going to work all your frustrating circumstances for your good as you trust in His grace. God is even using the one who has hurt or wronged you for your good. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces stead-fastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4).
9. Remember that God will vindicate your just cause and settle all accounts better than you could. Either your offender will pay in hell, or Christ has paid for him. Your payback would be either double jeopardy or an offense to the cross. "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, `Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord' (Romans 12:19). "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting [his cause] to him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23).
So let us all kill anger so that it doesn't kill us. For his name sake, for His glory, for the sake of others, and for our soul's satisfaction. I love God's patience toward me.I love it that God describes Himself as slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Oh, I want to be more like Him! Don't you my friend? May God have mercy on our easily angered hearts! May He forgive our many peeves and murmuring. I pray for us that we would be utterly and fully saturated with merciful, forgiving, long suffering, and contented grace. May we learn to submit to the place God has us and adopt to the pace He is working in our lives. May we show it to others as we desperately need it for ourselves.
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
HOW GOD CONVERTS THE LOST Part 4:God Uses Faithful Proclamers of the Gospel As the Means to Open the Eyes of Sinners!
“I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:18
I have been discussing this incredible account of Paul's commissioning by Jesus as an instruction to us on how God converts lost sinners. I mentioned that He uses people:ordinary clay pots sent out for a task; and oh what an extraordinary task it is: "To open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins"! We need to understand the fundamental problem in evangelism and conversion: The condition of lost people is Spiritual blindness!
This makes the call of evangelism seem so radical. God is calling you and sending you out to do an utterly impossible task! To open the eyes of blind, lost, hardened sinners. At first glance it seems as if He is sending us out into certain failure and defeat. Yet Christ says it with such certainty, “I send you to open their eyes”.God’s Himself has a remedy to man’s spiritual blindness-It is a sovereign and supernatural work Christ tells us in this text that He aims for this blindness to be healed and the deception broken. He aims to give sight. That's the goal of evangelism and missions. But we ask; "How can you and I open the eyes of the blind?" The answer of course is that in ourselves we can't.A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives
This is what true biblical salvation is—having our eyes opened so that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ shines into our hearts, and we see it and savor it and treasure it. This is a glorious and wondrous work of God alone
So how does God accomplish this amazing work of opening the eyes of the spiritually blind? He uses means. In Acts 26:18 says that Christ sends Paul to do it: "I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." “So the exact reversal of satanic blindness and spiritual darkness comes from Christ’s messengers.
God alone says to the dead and dark human heart: Let there be light! And there is light. God alone can raise the dead. God alone gives spiritual light. God alone makes Christ appear true and beautiful and desirable. But God wants us to be His agents. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth”. Seed must be planted, cultivated, watered, and protected. But the miracle of life is God’s alone to give.
In the moment of our greatest sense of helplessness, we must remember that God sends messengers “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.” God does not look at the inner city, Europe, and Orange County, and wring His hands in defeat. He sends us to do what only he can do and He intends to do it. This is a very high and a very humbling calling. One night when Paul was discouraged about the seemingly close door to preach in pagan Corinth, God came to visit him with a word of great encouragement for evangelism in Acts 18:9-10, The Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." Do you hear that? God says “I HAVE MANY WHO ARE PRESENTLY BLIND IN THAT PAGAN CITY WHO ARE MY ELECT. GO PAUL, PREACH THE GOSPEL AND I WILL OPEN THEIR EYES TO SEE AND WILL BRING IN MY ELECT.”
What did Paul do to bring them in? What are we to do that will cause people to see and be born again?” Tell them the good news of Christ. Proclaim the gospel. When you do that, God does a divine supernatural call, just the same as in the beginning of the world when his call to the light created the light. Just as when He called Lazarus to rise out of the tomb. He causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ through the proclamation of the gospel. Christ will no longer be a stumbling block or foolishness. He will be to us "the power of God and the wisdom of God." And we will come to him and cleave to him and love him and trust him.
1 Peter 1:23, 25, “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God…This word is the good news that was preached to you.” James 1:18, “God brought us forth through the word of truth”.
People see and are born again through hearing that news, and never born again without it. “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? …Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:14-15, 17). The preaching of the gospel is God’s the work of missions for you. It is the means that God uses through each one of you to penetrate the kingdom of darkness and give sight to the spiritually blind.
I say to you what Jesus said to Paul in Acts 26:18: "I send you to open their eyes." Don’t stop because you can’t. Of course you can’t. John Piper says, But the fact that you can’t make electricity or create light never stops you from flipping light switches. The fact that you can’t create fire in cylinders never stops you from turning the car key. The fact that you can’t create cell tissue never stops you from eating your meals. So don’t let the fact that you can’t cause the new birth stop you from telling the gospel. That is how people are born again—through the living and abiding word, the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed by those He sends out.
That is what I am pray for you. Lord, fill us with a passion to open the eyes of the blind. Fill us with faith to believe that God saves sinners and that He desires to use us and His gospel as the means to save. Give us faith in the power of your gospel. O what great, eternal things God aims to do through you us as you go and tell about the truth of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Bill
I have been discussing this incredible account of Paul's commissioning by Jesus as an instruction to us on how God converts lost sinners. I mentioned that He uses people:ordinary clay pots sent out for a task; and oh what an extraordinary task it is: "To open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins"! We need to understand the fundamental problem in evangelism and conversion: The condition of lost people is Spiritual blindness!
This makes the call of evangelism seem so radical. God is calling you and sending you out to do an utterly impossible task! To open the eyes of blind, lost, hardened sinners. At first glance it seems as if He is sending us out into certain failure and defeat. Yet Christ says it with such certainty, “I send you to open their eyes”.God’s Himself has a remedy to man’s spiritual blindness-It is a sovereign and supernatural work Christ tells us in this text that He aims for this blindness to be healed and the deception broken. He aims to give sight. That's the goal of evangelism and missions. But we ask; "How can you and I open the eyes of the blind?" The answer of course is that in ourselves we can't.A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives
This is what true biblical salvation is—having our eyes opened so that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ shines into our hearts, and we see it and savor it and treasure it. This is a glorious and wondrous work of God alone
So how does God accomplish this amazing work of opening the eyes of the spiritually blind? He uses means. In Acts 26:18 says that Christ sends Paul to do it: "I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." “So the exact reversal of satanic blindness and spiritual darkness comes from Christ’s messengers.
God alone says to the dead and dark human heart: Let there be light! And there is light. God alone can raise the dead. God alone gives spiritual light. God alone makes Christ appear true and beautiful and desirable. But God wants us to be His agents. Paul talked about this in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth”. Seed must be planted, cultivated, watered, and protected. But the miracle of life is God’s alone to give.
In the moment of our greatest sense of helplessness, we must remember that God sends messengers “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.” God does not look at the inner city, Europe, and Orange County, and wring His hands in defeat. He sends us to do what only he can do and He intends to do it. This is a very high and a very humbling calling. One night when Paul was discouraged about the seemingly close door to preach in pagan Corinth, God came to visit him with a word of great encouragement for evangelism in Acts 18:9-10, The Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people." Do you hear that? God says “I HAVE MANY WHO ARE PRESENTLY BLIND IN THAT PAGAN CITY WHO ARE MY ELECT. GO PAUL, PREACH THE GOSPEL AND I WILL OPEN THEIR EYES TO SEE AND WILL BRING IN MY ELECT.”
What did Paul do to bring them in? What are we to do that will cause people to see and be born again?” Tell them the good news of Christ. Proclaim the gospel. When you do that, God does a divine supernatural call, just the same as in the beginning of the world when his call to the light created the light. Just as when He called Lazarus to rise out of the tomb. He causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ through the proclamation of the gospel. Christ will no longer be a stumbling block or foolishness. He will be to us "the power of God and the wisdom of God." And we will come to him and cleave to him and love him and trust him.
1 Peter 1:23, 25, “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God…This word is the good news that was preached to you.” James 1:18, “God brought us forth through the word of truth”.
People see and are born again through hearing that news, and never born again without it. “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? …Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:14-15, 17). The preaching of the gospel is God’s the work of missions for you. It is the means that God uses through each one of you to penetrate the kingdom of darkness and give sight to the spiritually blind.
I say to you what Jesus said to Paul in Acts 26:18: "I send you to open their eyes." Don’t stop because you can’t. Of course you can’t. John Piper says, But the fact that you can’t make electricity or create light never stops you from flipping light switches. The fact that you can’t create fire in cylinders never stops you from turning the car key. The fact that you can’t create cell tissue never stops you from eating your meals. So don’t let the fact that you can’t cause the new birth stop you from telling the gospel. That is how people are born again—through the living and abiding word, the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed by those He sends out.
That is what I am pray for you. Lord, fill us with a passion to open the eyes of the blind. Fill us with faith to believe that God saves sinners and that He desires to use us and His gospel as the means to save. Give us faith in the power of your gospel. O what great, eternal things God aims to do through you us as you go and tell about the truth of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
HOW GOD CONVERTS THE LOST Part 3:God Opens The Blind Eyes of Sinners!
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' Acts 26:17-18
I have been discussing this incredible account of Paul's commissioning by Jesus as an instruction to us on how God converts lost sinners. I mentioned that He uses people:ordinary clay pots sent out for a task; and oh what an extraordinary task it is: "To open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins"! We need to understand the fundamental problem in evangelism and conversion: The condition of lost people is Spiritual blindness!
1 John 3:6, "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." 3 John 1:11, "Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God." Probably the best description what Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God."
This makes the call of evangelism seem so radical. God is calling you and sending you out to do an utterly impossible task! To open the eyes of blind, lost, hardened sinners. At first glance it seems as if He is sending us out into certain failure and defeat. Yet Christ says it with such certainty, “I send you to open their eyes”.
God’s Himself has a remedy to man’s spiritual blindness-It is a sovereign and supernatural work Christ tells us in this text that He aims for this blindness to be healed and the deception broken. He aims to give sight. That's the goal of evangelism and missions. But we ask; "How can you and I open the eyes of the blind?" The answer of course is that in ourselves we can't.
A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives. Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon in 1734 on this called A Divine and Supernatural Light.He writes, "There is such thing as a spiritual and divine light, immediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from any that is obtained by natural means."
2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." It is God who created light in the beginning with an omnipotent, "Let there be light!" And it is God who now can open the eyes of the spiritually blind. The God who created light in the beginning does the same thing in the human heart. Only the light this time is not physical light, but “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Or as verse 4 calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” God does a divine supernatural call, just the same as in the beginning of the world when his call to the light created the light and it is powerful and effective. He causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ.
Edwards says that God gives "a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and the reality of them." There is "a real sense of the excellency of God, Jesus Christ, and the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God as revealed by the gospel...He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He doesn't merely believe rationally that God is glorious, but has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart.'
Just as God says to the creation "let there be light" so he speaks to blind sinners "let there be light" and "I give you sight" and sinners see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Jesus prayed and acknowledged that God immediately gives such knowledge, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him "(Matthew 11:25-27). The Psalmist prayed for this in Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Jonathan Edwards writes, "Spiritual wisdom and grace is the highest and most excellent gift that God bestows upon any creature...this light... changes the nature of the soul" 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.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. "
Edwards comments, "This knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of good, and to choose Him for their only portion. This light, and this only , will bring the soul to a saving knowledge of Christ."
And when we see him for who he really is, we receive him for who he is Savior and Lord. John 6:40, "Everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 17:6-8, "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. "
This is what true biblical salvation is—having our eyes opened so that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ shines into our hearts, and we see it and savor it and treasure it. This is a glorious and wondrous work of God alone. "The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes!"
Sola Dei Gloria
Pastor Bill
I have been discussing this incredible account of Paul's commissioning by Jesus as an instruction to us on how God converts lost sinners. I mentioned that He uses people:ordinary clay pots sent out for a task; and oh what an extraordinary task it is: "To open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins"! We need to understand the fundamental problem in evangelism and conversion: The condition of lost people is Spiritual blindness!
1 John 3:6, "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." 3 John 1:11, "Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God." Probably the best description what Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God."
This makes the call of evangelism seem so radical. God is calling you and sending you out to do an utterly impossible task! To open the eyes of blind, lost, hardened sinners. At first glance it seems as if He is sending us out into certain failure and defeat. Yet Christ says it with such certainty, “I send you to open their eyes”.
God’s Himself has a remedy to man’s spiritual blindness-It is a sovereign and supernatural work Christ tells us in this text that He aims for this blindness to be healed and the deception broken. He aims to give sight. That's the goal of evangelism and missions. But we ask; "How can you and I open the eyes of the blind?" The answer of course is that in ourselves we can't.
A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives. Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon in 1734 on this called A Divine and Supernatural Light.He writes, "There is such thing as a spiritual and divine light, immediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from any that is obtained by natural means."
2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." It is God who created light in the beginning with an omnipotent, "Let there be light!" And it is God who now can open the eyes of the spiritually blind. The God who created light in the beginning does the same thing in the human heart. Only the light this time is not physical light, but “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Or as verse 4 calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” God does a divine supernatural call, just the same as in the beginning of the world when his call to the light created the light and it is powerful and effective. He causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ.
Edwards says that God gives "a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and the reality of them." There is "a real sense of the excellency of God, Jesus Christ, and the work of redemption, and the ways and works of God as revealed by the gospel...He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He doesn't merely believe rationally that God is glorious, but has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart.'
Just as God says to the creation "let there be light" so he speaks to blind sinners "let there be light" and "I give you sight" and sinners see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Jesus prayed and acknowledged that God immediately gives such knowledge, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him "(Matthew 11:25-27). The Psalmist prayed for this in Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Jonathan Edwards writes, "Spiritual wisdom and grace is the highest and most excellent gift that God bestows upon any creature...this light... changes the nature of the soul" 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, "But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.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. "
Edwards comments, "This knowledge will wean from the world, and raise the inclination to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of good, and to choose Him for their only portion. This light, and this only , will bring the soul to a saving knowledge of Christ."
And when we see him for who he really is, we receive him for who he is Savior and Lord. John 6:40, "Everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 17:6-8, "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. "
This is what true biblical salvation is—having our eyes opened so that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ shines into our hearts, and we see it and savor it and treasure it. This is a glorious and wondrous work of God alone. "The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes!"
Sola Dei Gloria
Pastor Bill
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
HOW GOD CONVERTS THE LOST Part 2:The Blindness of the Lost
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' Acts 26:17-18
Last week I wrote on this incredible account of Paul's commissioning by Jesus as an instruction to us on how God converts lost sinners. I mentioned that He uses people:ordinary clay pots sent out for a task; and oh what an extraordinary task it is! The second thing Christ aims to accomplish in our witness is the opening of the eyes of unbelievers. “. . . To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." (Verse 18b).Now this is a radical call isn’t it? God is calling you and sending you out to do an utterly impossible task! Opening the eyes of the blind? Spiritually blind? At first glance it seems as if He is sending us out into certain failure and defeat. Yet Christ says it with such certainty, “I send you to open their eyes”.
We need to understand that fundamentally the condition of lost people is Spiritual blindness! Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God." People who don’t believe in Christ are spiritually blind. That is why they don’t believe. Lostness is blindness to spiritual light, the light that really shines out from the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. 2 Corinthians 4:3: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.”
We all know people like this. It is like trying to describe a sunset to a man who has been blind his entire life. No matter what you try to tell about your experience of a sunset, he just can't relate. He has no category or experience of light and color to appreciate what you are trelling him. At best, he could understand the facts of what you are trying to describe, but he has no ability to experience the facts nor savor the facts. After all, he is blind!
It is the same in sharing the gospel with lost and blind sinners. We pour out our heart to them and tell them about their sin and how Christ is the only person in the world who has died for sin and risen from the dead. We tell them about how beautiful and great is His love and wisdom and power and justice and meekness and humility and sovereignty. And they listen, and they hear the facts. They may even believe the facts of history. But they see no glory, no beauty, and no treasure. They can’t see Christ as supremely valuable; they see Him as offensive, foolish, boring, irrelevant, and worthless.
That is why this calling "I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins..." is no empty commission. The fact is that the eyes of the nations are blind and need to be opened; they need to turn from darkness to the light; they need to escape the power of Satan and come to God; and they need the forgiveness of sins. Conversion to Christ is at stake! Eternity is at stake! The souls of men and women are at stake!
To be continued...
Last week I wrote on this incredible account of Paul's commissioning by Jesus as an instruction to us on how God converts lost sinners. I mentioned that He uses people:ordinary clay pots sent out for a task; and oh what an extraordinary task it is! The second thing Christ aims to accomplish in our witness is the opening of the eyes of unbelievers. “. . . To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." (Verse 18b).Now this is a radical call isn’t it? God is calling you and sending you out to do an utterly impossible task! Opening the eyes of the blind? Spiritually blind? At first glance it seems as if He is sending us out into certain failure and defeat. Yet Christ says it with such certainty, “I send you to open their eyes”.
We need to understand that fundamentally the condition of lost people is Spiritual blindness! Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God." People who don’t believe in Christ are spiritually blind. That is why they don’t believe. Lostness is blindness to spiritual light, the light that really shines out from the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. 2 Corinthians 4:3: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.”
We all know people like this. It is like trying to describe a sunset to a man who has been blind his entire life. No matter what you try to tell about your experience of a sunset, he just can't relate. He has no category or experience of light and color to appreciate what you are trelling him. At best, he could understand the facts of what you are trying to describe, but he has no ability to experience the facts nor savor the facts. After all, he is blind!
It is the same in sharing the gospel with lost and blind sinners. We pour out our heart to them and tell them about their sin and how Christ is the only person in the world who has died for sin and risen from the dead. We tell them about how beautiful and great is His love and wisdom and power and justice and meekness and humility and sovereignty. And they listen, and they hear the facts. They may even believe the facts of history. But they see no glory, no beauty, and no treasure. They can’t see Christ as supremely valuable; they see Him as offensive, foolish, boring, irrelevant, and worthless.
That is why this calling "I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins..." is no empty commission. The fact is that the eyes of the nations are blind and need to be opened; they need to turn from darkness to the light; they need to escape the power of Satan and come to God; and they need the forgiveness of sins. Conversion to Christ is at stake! Eternity is at stake! The souls of men and women are at stake!
To be continued...
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