1 Samuel 7:1-14 - 3 Things that Secure Your Hope in the Gospel

Hi,

Below are the notes to a sermon I preached at the prayer meeting last night.


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Stepping Stones: 3 Things That Secure Your Hope that the Gospel Saves




Text: 1 Sam. 7:1-14





Introduction: A man arrives at a hospital to have his chest examined, having recently felt a bit peeky, and is greeted at the desk by a helpful receptionist. The receptionist, upon hearing that the man desires his medical fitness established, takes one look up and down the length of him and declares confidently, “You look fine to me, you can go.” The man is momentarily confused – who does this high-and-mighty receptionist think she is, declaring with all the qualifications of a paper bag his bodily wellness from merely looking at him? He insists, quite reasonably, that he be allowed to see a doctor. He is permitted to his doctor's office a quarter of an hour later (or more, 15 mins is a pretty charitable judgment) and his doctor declares him suffering from an infection in his chest. This causes him to get hold of some strong antibiotics from the pharmacy on the way out, and returns home to winge to his wife.



Now the man in our story was very correct in insisting the he be inspected by a doctor. The receptionist, though I'm sure very sincere, was simply unqualified to make a medical assessment of the man, and was infact quite incorrect.



As we come to God's Word today, I want us to insist we meet with the great physician. We're going to look at three reasons from 1 Samuel 7:1-14 why you can be hopeful, and sure, that the Gospel is trustworthy – that it saves. What is it that makes our faith reliable? Why do we believe that our sins are forgiven? On what basis do we presume to say that we are going to enter heaven?





1.The Promise of Deliverance



The place we find ourselves in the storyline of the book of first Samuel is a fairly critical one. Thus far in the book, the people of Israel have been portrayed far from glamourously.



> The leadership is weak and corrupt (1 Sam. 2:12-36) – Eli, his sons and the rejection of Eli's house

> The people are irreverent and self-centred (1 Sam. 4:3-11) – Treating God and the Ark as mere means for their own self-preservation: lack of concern for His holiness and His right to be worshipped



The Ark of God had been captured by the Philistines, and God had thundered fearful and terrible judgments against them, and revealed in their midst His greatness and power – if the people of Israel would not fear the Lord through His goodness, the Philistines certainly would through His wrath.


But the Ark was returned to the people, and there has been something of an awakening again to the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the great need they have of acceptance with Him.

Something I want to point out here is that this episode is God's dealing with His people. We are the “Israel of God” now (Gal. 6:16). Let us not assume that just because we are Christians, therefore we have nothing more to learn in the way of rightly worshipping and serving the Lord. Our saving faith and repentance and secure our hope of heaven, but with those comes the necessity of growing in holiness (Heb. 12:14), and that growth must begin with and be characterized by what we read in 1Sam. 6:20 and 7:2 – a recognition of our sinfulness and a lamenting, mourning, longing after Him.



But on what basis do the people of Israel presume that they can return to God? They've been pretty rotten, let's face it. Their God has delivered them from Egpyt, brought them to the promised land, raised up judge after judge to deliver them from the hands of their enemies, and yet time after time in the history books of the Old Testament, the people are moaning, complaining, and turning their hearts away from the Living God.



Why should God accept them back? There is absolutely nothing in them that requires Him to accept them.



The answer is in His Grace. In the text before us, God extends to them the promise that if they repent, He will receive and deliver them (v3)



The God the people of the Israel served was a God of extraordinary graciousness, goodness and patience. And here again, He offers to them a precious promise of deliverance from their enemies, if they will again turn to Him.



You remember our story of the man at the hospital? The receptionist is like the world – the world will take one look – one very uneducated, unqualified, very superficial look – and tell you, “You're ok. You go to church a lot maybe, you don't murder anybody, you pay your taxes – you're a good guy. You're a nice person.”



But who are they to tell you what you're really like? Did they make you? Do they order the events and happenings of every day of your life? Do they know everything about you, including your motives and the hidden sins you commit is the darkness and silence? Of course they don't.



But God does. And His judgment of you is far less positive. That is why He requires from you this word “repentance”. He wants you to turn around. He knows your ways – He knows that truly you are self-serving, self-seeking, self-worshipping. He knows that you gossip and slander, judge and condemn, idolize and belittle. He knows what you've done, where you've been, who you've been with, why you did what you did last night. He knows what internet sites you visit, what dvd's you watch, what thoughts you think about her or him. But He knows most deeply what your problem is – you belittle and minimize Him.



Have you lowered God in your affections and understanding? Have you become like the Israelites in 1 Sam. 4, and stopped worshipping God for His glory and are only pretending to for His blessings? He is not fooled by you. He sees through your sand-castle service and your recycled prayers. Are your prayers seasons of meeting with the living God, or are they now a shopping list of things you need God to get for you today? This passage calls to you, my friend – turn from this abhorrent way of living and looking at God, and lament after Him – come back to Him with all your heart (v3) and lay the false god of self-worship you have erected in His place.



And I proclaim with great happiness that He will accept you. The Lord does not abandon His people when they sin, but devises ways that they will return to Him. The promise He makes to these Israelites, though specific to their situation, finds meaning for us in the Gospel, because it's founded upon the fact that God does not change. It echoes out still that if you return to the Lord – if you repent of the sins that fill your heart and mind and come to Him – He will forgive, receive and deliver you. He can't lie, and He promises that if you repent and return, He will receive and forgive.



You see the doctor of the man in our story went to see was honest about his condition – he diagnosed the condition. But he prescribed the cure, because he was qualified to. He knew what was needed, and so the doctor told him what to do. So also, God commands a wholehearted repentance.

So the first reason you can be sure that the Gospel is the means by which you are and will be accepted by God is that it is based upon His unchanging, gracious character. He promises to accept all who will come to Him.



But what then is means by which we will be accepted? How does God does this, mechanically speaking? Where's the way into the presence of God?




2.The Passion of the Christ


Every problem has a solution, and even in normal earthly things, the solution usually happens through something – there's a means by which the problem is solved, there's something you can use to get it fixed. For example, a tyre is flat. The solution is put on the spare. The put on the spare, you return to the boot to get some kind of tool – both to get off the old one and put on the new one. The tool in the means by which you solve the problem of the flat tyre.



The problem of sin is actually no different. You see, God accepts us upon repentance and upon turning toward Him, and away from idols – but as Christians in the New Testament, that's all focussed upon the Cross of Christ.


In the Old Testament, people approach God through the sacrifical system – and through His promise that somehow, He forgives sins. For them, they trust the hazy promise of the coming one who would undo the work of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden; the prophet who would arise, greater than Moses – the real sacrifice necessary for sin.

When the people of Israel in our text had heard Samuel going around proclaiming this message of repentance, they responded, but they recognised their need of someone to intercede. This word intercede is a very important word in the Bible – it's a theme cropping up over and over again. Here we see that the people appeal to Samuel as their “intercessor”, and this means he is a kind of representative before God – someone to ask for God's favour upon them, on their behalf. Someone to appear before Him instead of them. The priests of Levi are intercessors in this way. Samuel here puts himself forward as their intercessor, verse 5, “I will pray for you”.



But their need of an intercessor deepens. The Philistines draw up to attack the people of Israel. Their reaction this time is the proper one, different to their former reaction of self-reliance, and then human superstition – they go to God, through the mediator He has provided, for deliverance. They turn to Samuel and say, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may deliver us from the hand of the Philistines.” (v8).



But this came from them recognising their condition. Verses 6-7 reveal that there has been, as we've already seen, a national recognition of their sin.

Their sin makes them unfit to approach God – they are rebels. How shall they appear before Him? How shall they come to Him, when He ought to destroy them, as He has already demonstrated He is prepared to at the end of chapter 6, and the death of some of the men of Beth-Shemesh?
They're still all gathered there at Mizpah, in their communal repentance when the Philistines appear on the scene. But their reaction this time is to turn to God. And they turn to God through Samuel.

It's just like the car wheel. Problem: flat tyre. Solution: New tyre. Means: tool for the wheel. Problem: Philistines. Solution: God's favour and deliverance. Means: Samuel's intercession.
They have faith now, this demonstrates. They turn to God, and not to themselves, for help. And they turn through the mediator He has provided.



Of what relevance is this to us? Well, the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that we too have a mediator (1 Tim. 2:5) and He ever lives to make intercession for us. Through His work on the Cross, we are made right with God, and by His continued help, we are sustained in the life of faith. We escape the judgement we deserve, and even know power to defeat sin in measure in this life – right now.


When the New Testament says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us – to pray for us on our behalf before the Father – on what basis do you think He presume to ask the Father to bless us? What's His reason? How on earth and in all heaven can He ask Almighty God to bless, protect and save sinners? Because of His Blood! Problem: Our Sin and it's coming judgement. Solution: God's forgiveness. Means: The Cross of Jesus Christ.



Christian, you have here a very steady second reason for hope that you are accepted with the Father. You have here, in the blood of Jesus, every reason to be confident in prayer. You have in His death the firmest foundation for hope-and assurance-of God's forgiveness. Jesus and His work on the behalf of His people mirrors the actions of Samuel in our text beautifully. Samuel performs a sacrifice and then pleads for the people for whom he has offered it before the Lord. Does not our Lord Jesus do the same? Does He not first die on behalf of His people, securing their everlasting salvation, and then plead His precious blood before the Father's Throne? And if the prayer of Samuel, who though a great man was still only a man, availed for the people of Israel, how much more will the prayer of Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, be powerfully effective to save and deliver and empower you?

So that's the second reason you can be confident of Gospel, and it's power to save. We have two stepping stones. What is our third?


3.The Power of God


But ok, we've talked means. We've talked God's promise, we've talked God's means – what s the actual act? What's gunna take place? What do these things lead to, on God's part? What's He doing with this, where's He going? If according to His promise, He will accept us in our repentance; and through the means He provides, He will achieve our deliverance, my question is this: What is our deliverance?


Consider our Israelites in this passage. They are away from their homes, in congregation. It's possible, but I'm going to assume that they have no come dressed for war. There is a dirty great army of infamous Philistine soldiers nearing, filled with malice and rage at their very existence. What hope have they? Statistically, we're with the Philistines, right? We're putting the chances in favour of them


But have we considered rightly? Have we taken into account the full picture here?
There is a real, noticable and I think intentional difference between the portrayal of the Israelites we read here, and they way they responded to this same situation earlier on in chapter 4. In chapter 4, they treated God like he was just a cosmic sword they could wave around at the Philistines. They took God's promises of military blessing and ignored all the conditions about spiritual obedience and carefulness to please Him. They made God into an “it” and forgot that He is a “He”.

The Israelites we see here are Israelites with nothing left to lean on but God's promised mercy, and the intercession of His prophet. They respond with real, death-defying faith, instead of arrogant, plastic religion and lip-service.


It was well said that 1 man plus God is a majority. The Israelites here, though humanly speaking in a very weak position, are actually here at their strongest, and God does not fail to answer the cry of the Psalmist, “Let God arise and His enemies be scattered!” The Lord comes in sovereign power and with great might and majesty, to turn the tide and deliver His people through His superior power.

But the wrong thing for me to say would be that this means for you, that if you pray hard enough, God s gunna thunder down on your hard circumstances and make everything easy-peasy-Christian-living for you. That is not, as I understand things, the intended meaning of this passage of scripture.
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Let's put this in New Testament words. If Christ is the Prophet Samuel, and We are the people of Israel, and God is – well, God – What is the “thunder”? What is the “mighty sound” that scatters the great enemies of God's people?



Let's say the Philistines are our sins, the world, the flesh and the devil. Let's have them represent all that threatens the survival of our faith, just as the Philistines threaten the survival of Israel – what is the loud crashing sound that God thunders forth to their defeat?



It is the Gospel! The Gospel “is the power of God to the salvation of all who believe”! When we come to the Lord in repentance, trusting humbly is His promised deliverance through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel as it were comes to life and saves us. God, by His Spirit and through the Gospel, makes us alive, with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. “he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom. 8:11). The key to spiritual strength, and growth, and power, is not some new secret technique or mystical experience, it is the Gospel.



Why should you be at all confident that God can save, and that He will save you, continue with you? Because the Gospel thunders forth against all the drags that you to Hell and keeps you from Him, and they are routed before it. God's Gospel, concerning His Son, has greater power than any loud noise that Philistines heard; it pierces deeper than any sword, slashes fiercer that any blade – it entirely defeats and subues it's enemies and gives eternal victory to all who believe in it.



And friends, as we go home from this meeting later on, let's remember again all that the Lord has done for us.



Ebenezer. In verse 12, we read that Samuel sets up this stone – a kind of memorial to God – and calls it “Ebenezer”. The word in Hebrew means “Stone of Help”. After having seen the great deliverance that God performs for them, they remember it in this monument, and I am sure the sight of it was a joyful one. When you look back at a photo album of times past in which you had good experiences, you look upon them and are freshly stirred to joy and happiness. How much more then when we look at what the Lord has done for us, should we be freshly stirred to thanksgiving and praise, with joy?



When the Lord performs a work our lives, and as He continues with us in our walk with Him, we ought often to be recalling His mercies – saying grace at the table is a form of this, remembering and thanking God for His provision. Thanking Him that He continues to sustain us.



But ultimately? We should be thanking Him for the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom every single mealtime is another reminder of. The greatest thing we must thank God for are these three stepping stones to peace, both with Him and within ourselves, that we have spoken of together today.



Thanking Him for His promise, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and that He will receive the repentant. Thanking Him for Christ, who stood in our place at the Cross and stands in heaven still to plead what He has done, on our behalf. And thanking Him therefore for what sums up both of these things – Thanking Him for having brought the Gospel to life and saving us, and the hope we have in Heaven.





Applications





1.Are you in a state of true repentance? Do you mourn after God, and hate your sins? Are you casting down your idols and loves, that He might be first in your heart?

2.Do you trust in Christ, and Him alone, everyday, as the means by which you are accepted before God?

3.Have you seen the Gospel, this Gospel I have proclaimed, change your life and heart? Do you truly believe that it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe, and that it has come alive in you?

4.Work this out practically by living a life that treasures Him and obeys His commandments.

Serve the Lord with Gladness!

In Jonathan Edwards' sermon, "The Folly of Looking Back", an exposition of Genesis 19 and Luke 17:32, he lists a series of reasons why it is foolish to look back upon our former lives in the world, and upon worldly things, desirously. One of his points was this: "There is nothing in Sodom worth looking back upon."

It is terrifyingly too easy to refrain from sin out a sense of moral duty. At first, you may have found that statement confusing. Surely refraining from sin is a moral duty, after all "Sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). But hear me out. If the only reason you refrain from sin is because you're "supposed to", rather than because there is at least a part of you that wants to, you may still be looking back at Sodom anyway. Dry moralism sends as many to Hell as homicide does.

God is not interested in hands-only religion. The Lord commands the worship of more than our mouths, or our heads, but our hearts (Deu. 6:5). The conversion of a person is the change of their desires; where once you would have been like Lot's wife, and looked back upon Sodom with longing remembrance of all you enjoyed there (as much as eating dung can be called 'joy'), you are now "looking unto Jesus" (Heb. 12:2). You look at the treasures of Egypt and consider Christ of greater wealth (Heb. 11:24-26). You count all things as DUNG (a far more literal rendering of the greek word than "rubbish" -- too british) for the sake of knowing Him (Phil. 3:7-11). You look at life and eternity and consider knowing God to be the sum total of all you possess (Ps. 73:25-26). Knowing Him is your hope in suffering (Rom. 5:1-4) - and He is what you're thirsting for (Ps. 63:1-4). Your desire is not merely to serve Him from an unwilling sense of obligation - to submit to Him is your desire, because He satisfies more than anything this present world can possibly offer you.


"Serve the Lord with gladness!" (Ps. 100:2).


In Christ, whom to know is life eternal (Jn. 17:3)



Arron

Serve the Lord, Whatever the Weather

The Christian life is one of seasons. There are ups and downs. There are good times and bad patches.

The truth of it is that the Christian life is supposed to be one of trial and difficulty. What soldier ever hopes that he will have peace and ease in the midst of an enemy land? Such talk is foolish. A soldier lives to fight, and runs the daily risk of sacrifice.

I think I've forgotten this. I do not mean that my head was not aware of the Biblical theology of sacrifice, but that my heart was not in it. I have been quietly seeking a comfortable existence, whilst imagining myself to be a "radical" Christian. The only think radical about me is how slow I am to learn the same lessons I have been learning for years. But, God is patient, and He has excercised His love towards me.

Of late, I have been under the increasing sense of being under the loving discipline of my Heavenly Father. My comforts have been removed (by which I mean the peaceableness of my frame), and I have begun to slowly regress in several areas of sanctification. Prayer, which has for a long time been a treasured joy and privilege, is becoming a dry and troublesome experience. My Bible study, though daily and consistent, is simply not travelling the distance from my head to my heart. I already know everything I'm reading, yet I clearly do not know it at all. I have complex strings of theological nuance in my mins - and have little knowledge of the living God.

And there is no "quick fix". There is "answer" - this is Christianity. God is training me to trust more in His objective promise than in my subjective experience. The truth is, that through faith in Christ, I am justified (Rom. 3:21-16), free from condemnation (Rom. 8:1), in possession of eternal life (Rom. 6:23) and adopted as a son of God (Rom. 8, Gal. 3-4, Eph 1). I am saved from sins and their consequence (Matt. 1:21) and I am blessed (Eph. 1:3-4). Whether I feel those things to be true or not is irrelevent to their veracity. They are the case. I do not lose my salvation, even when I feel like I do.

This is the love of God. God does not want us to live on the juices of experiential highs and visions, and dreams, and prophecies, and sensations - He wants us to live on Him, and upon the truth of Who He Is in His Glory. The panorama of His perfections ought to engage our entire beings, and eternal life is to know Him (John 17:3).

Father, Thankyou that you see these words. I pray that their truth would again stir and move my soul. Forgive me my many sins, according to your promise (Ps. 103:12, 1 John 2:1-2, Jn. 3:18, 3:36, 6:35, 6:44, 10:10-11, 17:3, Rom. 3:21-26, 5:1-4, 6:23, 7:25, 8:1, 8:28, 9:11-18, 10:13-17, Acts 4:12, 1 Cor. 15:1-11, 2 Cor. 3:18-4:4, Gal. 1:1-2, Col. 3:2, Phil. 1:6, 2:12-13), and help me to obey the scripture which says, "Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!" (Ps. 100:2). In Jesus Name, Amen.



How you feel is not irrelevant -  you have a duty to be joyful (Phil. 4:4). But how you feel is not the source of your salvation - Jesus is. Walk on with Him, even in the hard times, and do not give upon chasing after Him. "Fold the arms of thy (in waiting), but fold not the arms of thy action. Heed not thy feelings; do thy work."

Serve the Lord, whatever the weather.


Lord it is my chief complaint,
That my love is cold and faint;
Yet I love Thee and adore:
O for grace to love Thee more!

- William Cowper



Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,




Arron

Him-ocracy, or Hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy is pretending to be something you aren't. It's usually about saying you are something to others, that in truth you are not, as revealed (generally) by your conduct. Jesus warns most strongly against hypocrisy (Luke 12:1) and whenever He calls someone a 'hypocrite' they are usually a very religious person -- and He certainly doesn't mince His words on such occasions, indicting them even of the fires of Hell (Matt. 23:15).

For the Lord Jesus to speak so seriously about such a topic means that we certainly ought not to avoid it, lest we fall into it! I assume that many of the people who read this blog are 'religious', in the general sense that they have some form of religious adherence, mostly Christian. In this post, I want to write just a few of my own personal observations about the nature of hypocrisy in the life of the false professor of salvation, and in the true saint.


So let's begin with that then.

Number 1: Hypocrisy is present in the heart of the true believer.

To be free from hypocrisy is to be in heaven already. The greek word for hypocrite means an actor wearing a mask. To some degree, in each and every true Christian, there is hypocrisy. We all wear masks of various colours and sizes - church masks, preacher masks, prayer masks, devotional masks, all sorts - few to none of us are wholly open about our weaknesses and shortcomings, and all of us are tempted to cover it over with a nice mask of evangelical smiles and reformed clichés. This is due to our continuing condition of fallenness. Though redeemed, we are certainly not perfected, and neither am I persuaded we can be in this lifetime - not to minimize a striving after it, of course, and the great and powerful resources we possess in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Every Christian must confess himself unable to do fully all that he wishes he could for the Lord, and therefore that his personal profession to know Him is tainted by a life that does not perfectly reflect that which he ought to be.

Brothers and sisters, I do not write this to condemn you, but to remind you. Do not hide your weaknesses, especially from the Lord (as if you could). Confess your shortcomings, and so be free from bondage to paper-thin fellowship with others and slapstick personal worship. As one has said, "If hypocrisy is your complaint, it is not your affliction." If we are honest and open about this issue, we go most of the way to defeating it.

Number 2: The true hypocrite is unmoved by his hypocrisy.

The part about the condition of the hypocrite that is most saddening, is his uncaring attitude towards his hypocrisy. Most hypocrites, at one time or another, are prompted either by conscience or by the observations of others, that their profession lacks reality. But, except that God's sovereign grace intervenes in his condition, the hypocrite here merely works harder to be convincing in his act. He would rather deceive  all successfully (but not the Lord), than repent of his woeful lack of heart-religion. The true hypocrite may put on evangelical tears, or raise his hands at public worship and sing the loudest, but rarely will you find him in the secret place, wrestling with God as Jacob did, or hiding a good work from another man. The prayers of the Pharisee in the parable that Jesus tells are made stood up and "by himself" - that is, rather than private for others, for all to see. And his prayers, rather than being filled with the exaltation of God's marvellous grace, are centred upon himself (Five "I's", Luke 18:11-12). O, how the Pharisee loves the street corner, so that he might be "seen by others" to be a praying man - and their recognition before men is all they shall get (Matt. 6:5), before they are thrown into Hell.

Number 3: The true hypocrite has only a social shame for his sin.

Most hypocrites call themselves sinners. And they are right. But they add to their sins in that their very confession of sinfulness is hypocritcal. What I mean by this, is that they are ashamed that their sins are known to men, and put on the guise of remorse, but their remorse is usually because they have been exposed, rather than because they are repentant toward God. Quickly compare Saul, Judas and David. The first two profess sinfulness and do not change. The latter writes and lives out Psalm 51. Is it not true that Saul said, "I have sinned." (1 Sam. 26:21)? Is it not true that Judas said, "I have sinned." (Matt. 27:4)? But of these three, only David said, "I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Sam. 12:13). To the hypocrite, sin is his secret pleasure and he is ashamed when it is exposed before men, from sheer embarressment at having been caught, and his act having been spoiled. His remorse is not repentance, it is regret that he was seen to be what he really is. True repentance is firstly a private confession and remorse to and before God alone, for as David writes, "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgement." (Ps. 51:4).

Number 4: The true Christian fights hypocrisy, whereas the true hypocrite cultivates it.

The Christian life is likened by many parts of scripture (Eph. 6:1-18) and many well known songs ("Onward Christian Soldiers" (written in Horbury, just a few miles from where I currently sit) ) to a battle, or a war. We make war on our flesh, seeking to subdue and defeat our sinful sinful passions and desires, through the crucifixion of them with Christ, and a heart growing in desire for the sweetness of Him, and the display of His glory in the beauty and splendor of holiness (1 Chr. 16:29). But the hypocrite knows nothing of this battle, for he does not seek to subdue his passions, merely hide, deny or sanctify them. The Christian is at work to "put to death what is earthly" in them (Col. 3:5), whereas the hypocrite is at work to paint what is earthly in them with a floral pattern! They may call their fits of rage "zeal for their Father's house" as long as they like, but they do not possess the sinless humanity with which Jesus is described in that manner in the Gospels. They might call their unforgiveness and lack of compassion "a desire to protect the holiness of the church", but God isn't fooled by their haughty imaginings of superior holiness. Let them sing of their being "a shining light amidst the darkness", but they are, in reality, simply glow sticks in the morning sun; they looked impressive at night, but when compared with the brightness of day, they are simply transparent plastic filled with foul-smelling chemicals.

Number 5: The hypocrite is, at root, without the fear of God.

I do not believe that one can truly believe in the future judgment of God against sin, and remain in a condition of hypocrisy. The thought of the reality of God's terrifying judgment upon the gracious and elect soul is to lead them to the deep considerings of where they stand, and though the road to assurance may have significant bumps, they chase after a right standing with God, that they may know Him and live to His glory. The hypocrite, if he really does believe in the coming wrath of God, most be the most stupid of men. The hypocrite lacks the fear of God, and possibly any genuine conviction of His existence.

Finally...


I have dealt in this post with the conscious hyocrite; that is, one who intentionally pretends at Christian conversion. There are some, and many hypocrites, of a different kind. These are those hypocrites who are thoroughly persuaded that they are real Christians, and are on the brink of Hell. They will have many if not all of the above conditions (perhaps exempting number 5), but with the addition of one final condition, that is peculiar to them, and which makes their condition the most fearful of all... they think they have a living relationship with God, and do not. They assume that a relationship with God consists merely of good feelings about Christian things, occasional private prayer times, lots and lots of church activities and the confirmation of others that they are a Christian. Brothers and sisters - let us examine ourselves carefully to see if we are in the faith. Have we, in our hearts, a living desire to please and glorify the living God, because He deserves it? Have we come into that fellowship of the Holy Spirit, whereby we share with other true Christians an almost inexplicable spiritual kinship, upon meeting? Have we living fellowship and communion with Christ, rather than "done it, read it, prayed it", slapstick devotions? Do we meet with Him, or do we pretend that some god is there as we seek to make him do whatever we want to do? Is Our God free to master us, use us, shape and change us, rule us, love us, destroy us, and so on, or are we really the masters in control of our god (who therefore is no god)? Do you live under a Him-ocracy, or in Hypocrisy?




I commend your reflection.



My love in the Lord Jesus,


Arron



P.S. I intend to condemn no-one with this post that the Lord does not, and I ask your forgiveness if my words overmuch and wrongly disturb you, as a child of the Living God. May the Lord remove from me such things. I myself have been given cause for much reflection having written this, and I urge you to get in touch with me if you have anything you would like to share and/or talk about in this area.

God's Glory, in both Experience and Magnification as the Object of True Happiness

God's Glory, by which I mean the perceivable manifestation of the perfection of His attributes, is the highest end and most central motivation of the heart that is truly saved. God's passion for His own glory is screamed from almost every page of the Bible. But the Apostle Paul explicitly commands this:

"So whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

(1 Cor. 10:31).

What that means, I believe, is that everything we do, say, think, feel, believe, and... everything, is to be centred upon, and because of our desire, to experience and portray the glory of God. We are the only beings "made in God's image", and therefore, I believe, have the maximum potential of any created thing to display His glory. We are His masterpiece; His artistry, His brilliance in perceivable form. That is why the fall of man is so drastically abhorrent - the fallen human is like the Mona Lisa covered in graffiti. We are the Effiel Tower, split in two and on it's side. We are the grand canyon, but filled in with dirt. There is enough in our form to see that we were once very great; but such drastic and detrimental change has happened to our original state, that we are now of next to no beauty compared to what we have been.

Redemption changes all this. With renewed natures and the future hope of perfected faculties, spirits and bodies, we regain (in measure now, in fulness then) the power to actively live, think and act in such a way that glorifies the living God. And so Paul exhorts it, in all of every aspect of our lives - down even to our eating and drinking. Was the last mouthful you took to the glory of God? In your heart, do you ascribe to Him the praise for the provision, creation and nourishing power of it? A large part of glorifying God in the more mundane this is thankfulness in them.

What bearing does this have on our happiness? The human soul is created, naturally desiring to be happy. This is not wrong; it is natural. It is part, in fact, of being in God's image, for He is happy. He lives in the eternal acquiesence of beholding His perfections in the person of His Son, and is happy. I have written more on the happiness of God in this post.

Happiness finds it's moral direction in that to which it is directed. For example, being happy with pornography is happiness - but it is illicit, dirty, sinful happiness, because it displeases the One who defines right and wrong, and Who is Himself the deepest well of happiness that the human soul can draw from. To direct your happiness (by which I mean desire therefore) to anything, or anyone else, except to God, is the essence of the sin of idolatry. Idolatry is sinful not just because God verbally prohibits it, but because it involve the inward dethroning of God through attempting to create something else to fulfill you, which cannot, becuse He created you to find fulfillment in Him. (Jer. 2:13).

Ok. Here's the crunch point at which this article will weave together the things above, that are seemingly a little disjointed:

Is there a way to (by profession only) confess Christ, that is motivated by happiness, and is still not saving?


My answer is yes. This might seem a strange question to ask, but I have a friend wrestling deeply with this very question, believing that he himself my be exactly the kind of person the question asks regarding the existence of.

There is way to claim to trust in Christ, that is motivated by a desire to be happy, but is entirely worldly and will send you to Hell. And as you live it out, you will appear for all intents and purposes to be a real Christian - but will not be. Let me explain.

If you wanted to marry someone because they will keep your house clean, but had no desire to become 'one flesh' with them in spirit, mind, being, body, experience and attitude (I wanted to use the greek word "phronema" here, as it is a fuller concept that "attitude" but english doesn't have a word for it that is quite right), can you truly say to that person that you love them? Could you say to her, "I love you." Would you love be genuine? Is it them that you love, or merely what they do for you, in keeping your house clean? Is it them that you love, or what they do for you? Is it that they are useful to you, rather than precious to you? I believe it would be so.

Take another example. When you have a row with a friend, or spouse, or parent, or sibling that you love, why is it that you want to reconcile with them? Is it because they need to continue to perform their fuction as spouse, sibling, friends etc? Is it because you are required to reconcile because to reconcile is right? No, it isn't that dry. It's that you want them. You want your wife back! You want your friends back, you don't like the coldness in the air, and the stiffness of company, or the back turned at the sink. They, themselves, for who they are, not what they do, are what you want.

This is the first principle of true faith. That you love God firstly because you love Him. That sounds like a silly thing to say, but the reason I say it is because no one can create in themselves love for God, He Himself must make it, so I cannot tell you how it come about; my own love for God in who He is was put in me, and how that happens is an invisible mystery of the Holy Spirit, through the Word of the Gospel. But the point stands that it must be for who God is rather than what He does, that I love Him.

You might ask, "How far can I separate what God is from what He does?" I would answer only insofar as you love that He, from His nature does it, and through it you see Him, rather than what He does being the end of your desires. This has bearing upon how we view the Cross. Is the Cross merely functional to you? Do you only want forgiveness of sin, so as to have freedom from Hell? Is your only motivation for claiming the Cross and it's power for yourself, that you yourself might benefit? If that is the only reason that you claim the Cross, you have no part in it. In the Scriptures, the Cross is a means to an end, not the end. The Cross, (my justification) is about knowing Christ (my reconcilation). The reason I need the Cross is that my sins keep me from Him!! And I want Him!!

The prosperity gospel is a terrifyingly relevent example of this principle of selfishness. "Jesus will give me a new house? Yeah, I'll take Jesus!" It's the house (and therefore yourself and own prosperity) that you love, not Jesus! And therefore you do not know Him!! This prosperity gospel makes me angry.

So let me state it positively. The true Christian wants their sins forgiven so that they can get to God. They trust that the Cross saves them, forgives their sins, justifies and redeems them, according to God's promise, in order that they may know Him. It is God that they want, not freedom from Hell and heavenly stuff. "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And on earth, there is nothing that I desire besides You." (Ps. 73:25).

Does this mean that in the true Christian heart, there can be no place for wanting to escape Hell, because Hell is a horrible reality? No! We are commanded to "flee from the wrath to come", and no man could be happy in Hell, the very definition of the place is the absence of all sources of happiness. There are no smiles in Hell. But what I am saying is that if fleeing from Hell is your only and/or chief motivation for what you perceive as your "coming to Christ", and have within you no desire to know God, or appreciate, behold and magnify His inherent beauty and glory, you are not saved.

Another ramification is that if your conception of God's love for you is the only reason that you desire Him, it is not Him that you love but yourself. Whilst, for the true believer, it is true in the fullest and most effective sense that God's loves you, His love for you is far from all that draws you to Him, He is beautiful in Himself! If the God you conceive of loves you very much, but your conception of Him has no room for His wrath, justice, burning holiness, righteousness, freedom, sovereignty, power, creatorship, lordship, and so on, He is not the true God, He is a creation of your imagination. This does not mean that the true saint takes no delight in God's love for him - of course he does, and he must! - but in his thinking and conceiving of God, God's personal love him as an individual is not what defines His worth, but merely one way in which He reveals it. God is glorious, and beautiful, and desirable, and good, whether or not I am loved in an eternal salvation way by Him. My thinking must allow Him to be this, or it is not Him that I know and love. I love that He is free to be Himself in His perfection, and my interest in His saving work is proved and assured to me in my ability to see that. That's a strange way of coming at it, but that is the point I am making here.


The learned (or confused) among you, will know that I am paraphrasing (and attempting to clarify) the writings of Jonathan Edwards, particularly his thoughts in the books "Religious Affections" and "The Nature of True Virtue". My prayer is that God will use his very piercing thoughts, in my not much more clear words, to assure you of your right standing before Him, and to encourage you to desire Him more.




Do you love Christ because He gives you loaves to eat (John 6:26), or because He is the Bread of Life (John 6:35)?



Love in Christ Jesus,




Arron

"The Scripture says..."

I've noticed that there are several, very common exegetical fallacies that are gaining ground again in evangelical thought. I'm going to point them out, and explain why they're incorrect, in the hopes that you might be free from them and read the Bible better! :D Woo!



1. "Biblical Principles"

There are an awful lot of legalistic ideas and theologies that sneak in to evangelical thought and practice, under the very godly guise of "biblical principles". These are ideas and practices that look and sound like they would be biblical from the outset, but when the scriptures are examined more closely, they don't hold any weight. This means that we can find ourselves very passionately defending a particular viewpoint, and when we go the text for evidence, we can only scrape together a few, half-understood and entirely incorrected applied texts to back up our position.

Example: Women should cover their heads when they pray. Text appealed to: 1 Cor. 11 Better exegesis: Christians should not intentionally blur gender distinctions, or compromise their marital fidelity, through their clothing or actions.

2. "The godly examples in Scripture"

This is when someone appeals to the actions, doings or sayings of someone in the Old Testament narratives and histories in order to substantiate their own course of action in the present day as "biblical" or to formulate a doctrine. The reason this is faulty is firstly because, we put our selves arbitrarily in the position of determining which actions of the character in questions were godly, and which were not - and we can't always be sure, as the text very rarely tells us about the motives of the characters. Secondly, because the main point of the Old Testament narratives and histories is not to instruct us doctrinally, but to show to us the history of God's dealings with His people, and to draw lessons concerning Him from the narratives.

Example: Esther is an example of godly biblical womanhood. Text appealed to: Esther 4:16. Better exegesis: Esther, though sinful and compromising, is used in the deliverance of God's people from destruction, revealing His mercy, grace, faithfulness and patience.

3. Missing the change of covenant

A very significant theological shift takes place in the Bible with the coming of Jesus Christ. Although the Old Testament scriptures are perfect and infallible, and fully inspired, and written for our instructions, whenever we read the Old Testament, we must be filtering it through the New Testament. If we fail to apprehend the key changes between the Old Covenant and New Covenant, we will tie ourselves up in all kinds of problems.

Example: Christians cannot work on sundays. Text appealed to: Exodus 20. (The Ten Commandments). Better Exegesis: Jesus is now our sabbath, having won us entrance through His blood into the everlasting rest of God (Hebrews 4).

4. Biblical Silence

This is where we try to "fill in the gaps" of what "God says" when in fact, He does not say. This is when we, usually in sincerity and honesty, go beyond what the scriptures have prescribed for our Christians holiness and obedience. But we must not do this. If God has chosen not to speak on a particular topic, we ought to be very careful about prescribing too strongly where He has not. There are of course some issues where we need to apply the wider teaching of Scripture in an intelligent way (for example, the Bible says nothing about formal written contracts of employment, or terms and conditions, but we apply the teaching of Romans 13 that we are to be law abiding citizens). However, we should not try to make major doctrines, and especially not moral prohibitions, where the Bible does not.

Example: Guitars must not be used in Christian worship. Reason: It is irreverent, and we are commanded to be reverent. Better exegesis: Because the scripture does not forbid the use of guitars, neither can we. Instead, the manner in which they are played and the use of them ought to be about the worship of God, rather than man. It is arbitary, and foolish, to assume that a guitar is inherently irreverent.





So those are just few. Next time someone says, "The scripture says...", make sure they prove it, and prove that they've understood it rightly.


Until the whole world hears,



Arron

It's Love, Jim, But Not As We Know It...

Most human experiences can be divided into either pleasurable or painful. Imagine it like a sliding scale, with pleasure at one end and pain at the other. All experiences fall at some place on that scale - maybe somewhere near the middle are boring, nonchalant, insignificant things that you would identify as neither painful nor pleasurable (like putting socks on for example - depending upon the socks and their condition), but generally speaking, your experiences can be divided into either painful or pleasurable.

All things come from God. I have been at length in other posts to establish the absolute sovereignty of God in all things that occur, and make no depart from that line of doctrine here. "From Him, through Him and to Him are all things; to Him be glory forever and ever, amen." (Rom. 11:36). So what are we to make then of God's sovereignty in pleasure and pain?

The unregenerate man, thinking of himself as essentially good with occasional bad behaviour, views pleasure as what he deserves and pain as an abnormality. I believe this might be left over from our pre-fall condition of blessedness -- we are correct in sensing that pain that is 'unnatural', in the sense that it proceeds from a fallen state of being, in a fallen creation. However, the mistake lies in that the fallen man deserves quite the opposite; pain only, and no pleasure at all. The great injustice of the universe is not that man suffers, but that he enjoys anything at all. Indeed, were it not that God bought every sunrise the wicked enjoys, and every meal for every human at the Cross of Christ, by delaying His wrath and purchasing common grace, then God might be open to the charge of being wildly unjust in "giving them their food in due season." (Ps. 145:15).

The poor spirited Christian, suffering under the abject condition of bad doctrine can think that all good things come to him from God, but all bad things are the work of the devil and the fall. Whilst there is no denying the great part the latter two play in the sufferings of Christians in this present age, neither of those is beyond the sovereign decree and reign of God. Indeed, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise you" (Ps. 76:10), the psalmist writes of God's sovereign power to make the hatred of man and his sin turn for the purposes of God. "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20).

The truth is that both gladness and grief are the sovereign work of God's all loving hand. And as I have meditated this evening, I have seen that both are intended to make us love Him more. Let me explain.

Pleasure

Pleasure makes us love God in the way one chocolate makes us want another one. The purpose of pleasure is for us to desire more of it - and I do not think this is inherently wrong, only corrupted by our fallen nature. When taken within a sanctified framework, and working within the boundaries of biblical morality, God is the chief and highest pleasure that any man can know. Hence, whenever we experience a smaller pleasure, we are to allow that to point us to greatest one - knowing, serving and worshipping Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself makes an argument similar to this one as to why the unbelieving ought to come and believe in Him. "

"So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

-- John 6:24-35

Jesus has just performed the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fish. These folk have come seeking Him, and He explains why, knowing their hearts. They haven't become because they saw a sign (which is what was supposed to happen), but because they enjoyed the bread! Jesus just fed thousands of people with a small boy's packed lunch and the only thing they're interested in is more bread! They want another miracle, another sign, more bread. This proves that they missed the sign altogether. What is a "sign"? It's a big piece of metal sticking up out of the ground that points you somewhere else. Imagine you're going to London, and you see a sign for London near Liverpool, and decide to stop there and camp out! That's ludicrois! The point of the sign is to keep you travelling towards where it's pointing. The reason Jesus performed the miracle of the bread and the fish is to tell them that He will satisfy their deepest hunger; spiritually. He is their deepest need, not another fish sandwich. Hence He bursts out with the dramatic conclusion to His dialogue, "I am the bread of life! Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst!"

The lesser pleasure of the bread and the fish, was to make them seek the greater -greatest- pleasure, of Jesus Christ and faith in Him.


Pain


Christians regularly experience pain, and that is the normal pattern of things for them. "Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God." (Acts 14:22). But painful providences are often the hardest ones to view as being God's love towards us. The temptation is to think that if God loves us, He wouldn't let us suffer. But the reality is that the enrapturing and all-encompassing love of God towards His chosen children is sometimes expressed in very painful (humanly speaking) ways. But God intends these sufferings and pains and trials to increase our faith and strength and closeness to Him, not the opposite. And very simply, the way that pain does that is that it makes you pray.

Take a child for example. When a child plays outside in the dirt, they might be out there for hours, and never see their father, or speak with him at all. As they play on, enjoying their time and leisure, they feel no need to speak to daddy. But as soon as our young illustration cuts himself or falls over, what happens? They go running to daddy. They are in need of his inspection, protection, healing and love. And so, in the midst of their pain, their first reaction is to flee to his arms.

So it is with the Children of God. Often, God's deepest-reaching and most effective way of assuring us of His love, growing us in grace and conforming our lives to the image of Jesus Christ, is in causing us enough pain and distress to make us run to Him for aid. We are never stronger than when we are empty of our own strength, and dependent upon His. We are never tougher than when we are weak in ourselves, and immersed in His power. God knows what to bring into our lives that will cause us to seek Him afresh; often He might rejuvenate a tattered prayer life with a particularly painful providence, where one is brought to such a wits' end that there is nowhere else to turn but to heartfelt prayer. Of course, we ought always to be praying in a heartfelt way, but sometimes God uses pain to keep us reaching and lifting our hands towards Him.

Let us take a look at an example from Paul.

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

-- 2 Cor. 12:7-9

Paul has been explaining about the incredible revelations of Jesus Christ he has had in the course of his call to and experience of Apostolic ministry. However, he then writes down these three verses as a powerful testimony to a chief point that he has been communicating throughout the letter - through suffering, and pain, we know God more. He specifically says that a "thorn", which was a "messenger of Satan" was given him. From whom? I think there can be no doubt it is God, given that it is God with whom he pleads and God whom answers him. Notice that Paul's suffering drew out repeated prayer ("Three times"), and a deeper knowledge and understanding of God's grace and power. Don't we all want that?



So my conclusion is this - in pleasure, or in pain, there is no mistake. God loves you, and is working out the best for you, and turning it all for His purposes.


"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




Love in Christ Jesus,



Arron