WALKING IN THE WAY

John 6:40 7:17

⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 7:17

¹⁷ If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.

How does one know the will of God?  Is this some mystical secret that must be received after dedicated agony and denial in seeking it?  When we look at Jesus’ words in John 6:40 it does not seem so great a mystery.  It appears as if it is as easy as believing the Gospel.

Three requirements for spiritual life are fulfilled when Christ is received by Gospel faith.

A.     John 1:12, 3:16, 6:40 and others.  Salvation is received.  The person who believes Jesus, is a child of God.  This is the clear statement of Scripture.  The only way this can be doubted is either the Scripture is not known or doubt clouds the mind.

Doubt or unbelief is the great enemy of Christians.  Lack of fellowship with God, personal sin without repentance, and ignorance of grace are the most fruitful causes of doubt.

The relief for unbelief is the knowledge of Christ.  His person, work, and present intercession are our only true source of assurance.  The three words of Christ, “It is finished” are doubt removers.

B.      John 5:29, I John 3:23, 5:1-5.  Obedience as the practical test of faith is certain.  There is not faith where the Law of God is not loved and obeyed.  The statements of I John 2:3-4 are far too clear to bother denying and I fail to see that this scripture needs any explaining.  ³ Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

With the same exactness that we are informed of our salvation by grace, Ephesians 2:8-9, we are taught that our being is given for the purpose of “good works” Ephesians 2:10.  The Biblical Calvinist might at times be justly accused of being a legalist.  But it is absolute nonsense to accuse him of ignoring or denying God’s Law.

C.      I John 1:3, 3:11, 14-16.  We find in I John 3:23 the first table of the Law is satisfied by faith in Christ.    And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

So the second table remains.  It seems as if the “faith” is easy to fake.  But this love that extends to our life itself is far more difficult.

Because it is so seldom that life is the issue, John in I John 3:17 gives a far simpler and more common example. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

The issue is not will you give a kidney, but will you take a bag of groceries to the needy in your community?

Let me try a personal illustration.  I was ready to go to Africa but my health prevented it.  I looked forward to the work and the people but I was not able to go.  I began a voluntary ministry in a Texas prison near us.  Here the real test came.  Could I be faithful to a simple, non-rewarding, but burdensome, and most often unfruitful ministry?  Or would I  say, “God bless you brothers” and stay at home?  I can tell you truthfully I came to love those prisoners with a passion but the trip never became easy.

Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know

Ask ye what great thing I know,
That delights and stirs me so?
What the high reward I win?
Whose the Name I glory in?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

What is faith’s foundation strong?
What awakes my heart to song?
He Who bore my sinful load,
Purchased for me peace with God,
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

Who is He that makes me wise
To discern where duty lies?
Who is He that makes me true
Duty, when discerned to do,
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

Who defeats my fiercest foes?
Who consoles my saddest woes?
Who revives my fainting heart,
Healing all its hidden smart?
Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

Johann C. Schwedler, translated by Benjamin H. Kennedy

A SIMPLE GOSPEL

Galatians 1:4-5

“The one who gave Himself concerning the sins of us, so that He might deliver us out of the present age the evil one according to the will of God the Father of us, to whom the glory be unto age upon age.  Amen.”  A personal translation.

I heard a man say the Scripture above is the shortest, purest statement of the gospel in Scripture.  I concur.

There are some simple truths in it which are required to constitute the content of what the gospel really is.  It is to our advantage to review these truths.

1.       “Christ gave himself.”

a.        His life was not taken from Him but it was a voluntary death.  There was neither the requirement of law nor the power of man that could take His life from Him            (John 10:18).

b.      The giving in this statement is the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.  Smeaton, commenting on John 3:16 writes, “When used in connection with the death of Christ….When the Son is said ‘to give Himself’ the language must be understood in the sacrificial sense.”  The Doctrine Of  The Atonement As Taught By Christ Himself, George Smeaton, pg 45.

The Gospel always is summed up in either one of two facts, the cross or the resurrection.  The cross is completed in the resurrection and the resurrection is the victory of the cross.

2.       “Concerning our sins” is the purpose of Jesus’ coming, of His holy life, and of this sacrificial death.  As Paul can say “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” he says with equal effectiveness His donation was for sins.  There is no real difference in these statements.  To save this people was for Him to put away their sins. 

(Romans 6:23).

And it must be understood the object of His action was specific.  It is the “sins of us”.  This is either only the sins of Paul and his companions or all who are included in the deliverance that follows.  It is not empty and aimless.  We were the objects.  The benefit accrues to us only.

3.      “Deliver us out of the present evil age”.

a.        This deliverance is as certain as the sacrifice.  As it was “Concerning” us so it delivers us.  The argument about sanctification of Christ atoned for people is a straw man to muddle the fact that those who believe the elect alone are the objects of Christ’s death and they alone are the objects of Christ’s death and they alone receive the benefits never denies the desire and effort of holiness.  (Ephesians 2:10)

b.      “present evil age” addresses the world with its influence.  This includes people, things, and life itself.  John writes, “if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.  Paul tells us “Demas loved this present evil world”, (II Timothy 4:10).

This is the world from which believers are delivered.  Do not be deceived about yourself.  If you have such an attachment to this age that it furnishes you pleasure and satisfaction you have not experienced this deliverance.

4.       “According to the will of our God and Father”.

a.        This single free will is named here.  There is no free will other than God’s.  His will alone determines the end of His creation.  We find any Christian will try to attribute all manner of major occurrences in the world to God--but put man off limits.    

When we call the overarching environment of our existence creation, we cannot exclude man.  It is beyond human comprehension that God in some way or for some reason gives away His sovereignty over His human creation.  If His will rules in anything, it rules in all things.

b.      It is with the greatest joy that we read it is the will of a Father that we have to do.  All that word portends, love, provision, protection, mercy, and grace are there for faith to receive.

5.       “To whom is the glory”.

This is the summum bonum for the saint.  When I look back at the cross, I see redemption to His glory and when I look forward there is only His  glory.

DAY OR NIGHT:  WAKING OR SLEEPING

Psalm 139

“What can I say?  Just a few quotes and an outline is enough said.

“Nowhere are the great attributes of God—His Omniscience, His Omnipresence, His Omnipotence—set forth so strikingly as they are in this magnificent Psalm….Man is here the workmanship of God, and stands in the presence and under the eye of One who is his Judge.  The power of conscience, the sense of sin and of responsibility, are felt and acknowledged, and prayer is offered to One who is not only the Judge, but the Friend; to One who is feared as none else are feared, who is loved as none else are loved.”

The Book Of Psalms Vol. 2,  J.J. Stewart Perowne, D.D. pg 438

“Omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience are often used as expository language…But it must be done with care lest this conceptualization become a knowing God without a being known, accompanied, created and sustained by God.  Devotion and confession must not be reduced to metaphysics.”

Interpellations; Psalms , James Luther Mays, pg 427.

“The notion of God’s relation to the psalmist transcend the psalmist’s understanding what he knows, he knows he does know.  His knowing is an unknowing; its achievement is wonder, and its only certainty is ‘I am with you….

‘The second part of the Psalm (vv19-24) has always posed the sharpest problems for interpreters.  But…In the worldview of the psalms, the wicked and their dangerous threats to those who base life on God are an important part of the reality in the midst of which faith must live….the wicked do not seem a personal threat to the psalmist’s life.  They are described rather as the enemies of God. That is there!  They are a part of the society in which the psalmist lives who by their moral and religious conduct oppose and ignore God.  Ibid, pg 428.

“The way everlasting is the existence that is not shaken or brought to an end as the way of the wicked will be.  The psalmist wants God to be his judge so that god may be his shepherd.”  Ibid, pg 429.

Calvin writes on vs 17 “O God!  How great the sums of them.”  ‘To the same effect is what he adds that the ‘sums’ or aggregate of them were great and mighty;…The explanation made by the psalmist suggests to us that they were men not so dull of apprehension, or rather so senseless, they would be struck by the mysterious ways of God and would humbly and tremblingly set themselves before His tribunal instead of presumptuously thinking that they could evade it.”

Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. II Psalms 93-150, John Calvin, pg 219.

PSALM 139  AN OUTLINE

Vv 1-6    The certainty of God’s foreknowledge and human responsibility are a mystery.

Vv 7-12  The Spirit of God is omnipresent in the world.

Vv13-16  Man is the perfection of creation.

Vv 17-18  God’s self- revelation is infinite.

Vv 19-22  God’s enemies are my enemies.

The poet is a fit close for me.

Be Thou My Vision

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –

Thou my best thought, by day or by night;

Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

            Ancient Irish poem, translated by Mary E. Byrne, 1905