My Utmost for His Highest - October 17 - Greater Works

"and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." - John 14:12

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a common-sense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God's work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not. 

Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought--"I am of no use where I am;" because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. "Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do (John 14:13)." We won't pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labor along the line of God's direction, and He says pray. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest (Matthew 9:38)." 

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring man's work, but it is the laboring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the laboring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labor at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ. 

My Utmost for His Highest - October 16 - The Key to the Master's Orders

"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." - Matthew 9:38

The key to the missionary problem is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer not work, that is, not work as the word is popularly understood today because that may mean the evasion of concentration on God. The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilization or education or even evangelization. The key is prayer. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest." Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary common-sense point of view.
There are no nations in Jesus Christ's outlook, but the world. How many of us pray without respect of persons, and with respect to only one Person, Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced by distress and conviction of sin, and this is the harvest we have to pray that laborers may be thrust out to reap. We are taken up with active work while people all around are ripe to harvest, and we do not reap one of them, but waste our Lord's time in over-energized activities. Suppose the crisis comes in your father's life, in your brother's life, are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, one who is not above his Master (John 13:16), one who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls to no special work: He calls to Himself. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer circumstances and thrust you out.

My Utmost for His Highest - October 15 - The Key to the Missionary Message

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. I John 2:2

The key to the missionary message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus. Take any phase of Christ’s work--the healing phase, the saving and sanctifying phase; there is nothing limitless about those. "The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary message is the limitless significance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is one who is soaked in that revelation.

The real key to the missionary’s message is the “remissionary” aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. “…repentance and remission of sins should be preached…to all nations…” (Luke 24:47). The greatest message of limitless importance is that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins….” The missionary’s message is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals; it is “for the whole world.” When the Holy Spirit comes into me, He does not consider my partialities or preferences; He simply brings me into oneness with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. He is not to proclaim his own point of view, but is only to proclaim “the Lamb of God.” It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

-- Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

My Thoughts

Propitiation means that Jesus Christ atones or returned man to a right standing with God. By man sinning, he was sent out from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:23). Jesus brought us back. He averted God's wrath from man by God Himself presenting Himself (in Jesus Christ) as that which will turn away His righteous wrath against our sin. In Greek mythology, propitiation has the idea of present a gift to the gods, so as to turn away the displeasure of the gods. 

I John 4:19 - Is Grace Resistible?

I John 4:19
We love, because He first loved us.

Message: Is Grace Resistible?

Time: The author of this epistle never identified himself by name, but Christians since the beginning of the church have considered this letter authoritative, believing it was written by John the apostle. A date of about AD 90, with John writing from his exile on Patmos, ends up being the best proposition. John focused on three issues: the zeal of the believers, standing firm against false teachers, and reassuring the Christians that they have eternal life.

What the Lord is Saying:

Is Grace Resistable? Is it possible to resist God's grace?

The western church condemned Pelagius and his teaching at the Second Council of Orange in AD 529. Also struck down was semi-Pelagianism. Augustine, Pelagius and the French monk John Cassian lived during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. John Cassian and semi-Pelagianism steers a middle ground between Augustine's view of grace alone and Pelagius view of works. This view affirms grace as a need for salvation, yet still denies original sin and the depravity of man. Thus, grace is necessary but humans take the first step toward God. People need grace to be saved, but this grace does not take the initiative in salvation. Augustine meanwhile says that no sinner can seek God of their own accord. The only people who seek Him are those who He first sovereignly and effectually are drawn by His sovereign grace.

Thus, the dividing line is whether there is synergy in divine grace - God and human beings working together toward regeneration. But John Calvin and Augustinians say that divine grace is monergistic in regeneration where only God brings about the new birth of believers. We love, because He (God) first loved us. God guarantees that His elect will love Him. He will overcome their resistance to Him.

Promise: If God reveals his love to man then they can't reject him. There is glorious love and beauty of our Creator.

Prayer: Thank you for loving me God. Thank you for calling me to be with You, to be Yours for all time.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines celebrating the 500th year of the Reformation. The month of April is about salvation by grace alone. March was about the sovereign providence of God; February was about the doctrine of revelation and the various aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that sola Scriptura seeks to preserve; January is about the doctrine of God.

Genesis 3:6-7 - The Loss and Restoration of Liberty

Genesis 3:6-7
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Message: The Loss and Restoration of Liberty

Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.

What the Lord is Saying:

These passages are mirroring a series that RC Sproul did called Willing to Believe available here. I purchased the complete series for only $5. Currently, he is looking at Pelagius, a 5th century monk that taught that Adam's sin didn't mean that all people are sinners. Instead, people are basically good and grace is not necessarily needed as each person is able to follow the Lord's commands and make themselves worthy before God. This was in opposition to Saint Augustine and his words of the necessity of grace for salvation. I have also been listening to a sermon series by Tommy Nelson on Galatians where he mentions that this entire book is focused on the idea that grace is invalid if anything is added to it.

The following are my notes on RC Sproul's message - The Loss of Liberty.

Augustine coined the term sola gratia which means salvation is by grace alone. We have a fallen condition and a bondage to sin and only grace can set us free. On the subject of free will, Augustine made a distinction between liberium arbitrium (free will) and libertas (liberty). His point was after the fall man still had free will, but what he lost was his liberty. According to Augustine, liberty is the freedom to do good and to do evil. It is the power to embrace the holy things of God.

Man was created with a mind and the ability to think and he was created with the faculty to make choices. At the fall, something was lost. Paul talks about the human mind being darkened (Ephesians 4:18). The Noetic effect refers to how our mind is effected of sin. Thus, our cogitation (thinking deeply about something) has been affected just as our bodies have been affected as they are subject to disease and death. The mind has also been weakened. We also are impacted now by bias or prejudice.

Man did not lose his mind after the fall. We still have the ability to think. What Augustine is getting at is even though the fall has affected our volition (the power of using one's will), to our choices and decision making - it has not destroyed the will. And this will still has a choice and that will is not forced into action by an external agency or power. Thus, he is saying that before and after the fall, man still has a will and is free from external coercion.

The word freedom needs to be looked at is it is a term that is thrown around a lot. For Americans, freedom was a hallmark of the revolutionary war in that freedom has allowed us to do certain things without being hindered by an external authority. President Franklin Roosevelt redefined freedom as it being freedom from external things such as freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom from starvation and that sort of thing.

Augustine says that man still has the ability to make choices according to our desires. Yet, he would argue that after the fall, the will is free, but the will is now evil. We have free will but our desires are only wicked in respect to the things of God. Thus, man has lost the desire to please God, to have God in his thinking, to seek after God. Thus, we will not choose God because we do not desire Him. Thus, he is spiritually dead and lacks liberty. He lacks the freedom to do good and to do evil.

In Latin is the term posse peccare. Posse is where we get power or possibility and peccare is the infinitive form of the Latin word meaning "to sin." Thus, if something is impeccable then it is without sin. Posse peccare is the ability or power to sin. Man had the ability to sin so prior to the fall man had the posse peccare. And he also had the posse non peccare or the power to not sin. This was Adam's structure of free will. Pelagius felt that both before and after the fall, man retained the power to sin or not to sin. The humanist and pagan thought today agrees that that man equally has the ability to choose good or evil and there is no bias or prejudice toward one or the other.

Adam does not have the non posse peccare or the inability to sin. This is something you would ascribe to God. God lacks the motive to sin because he is always about righteousness.

The biggest problem has been non posse non peccare. This means it is not possible to not sin or it is impossible for a person to live without sin. Augustine says we have lost our righteousness so it is impossible for us to live a sinless life. Today we call this moral inability. I do not have the power to choose God by myself because I have no desire to choose God by myself. Without the power I will not choose that which I do not want or do not desire.

The dilemma is then how can I be held responsible for sinning when it is my nature to sin. The fall was a judgment on the human race. Thus, we are living in the Fall. We are living in the judgment of the human race.

Summary - I have struggled to digest this message. Liberty is a term thrown around in our land. There is the proclamation in the Declaration of Independence of 1776, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" which proclaims the ability to do as one pleases. In this lesson is the contrasting views of Pelagius and Augustine. Pelagius made no distinction between free will and liberty. Free will is the ability to make choices according to my desires. Liberty is the freedom to do good and to do evil. The point of this lesson was to consider how we have been affected by the Fall (Original Sin). Before and after the Fall man still has a will. What man lacks after the Fall is the ability to choose good in relation to the things of God because after the Fall man only wants to please himself. Only God has the inability to sin. For man, it is not possible for us to live a sinless life. Pelagius disagrees.

Promise: By eating of the fruit, man knew he was naked, thus he knew that he would always be a sinner on this earth.

Prayer: Father, thank you always for the truth of Your Word. You continue to help me understand the nature of sin and what transpired from sin and how your grace is needed. I am not worthy and this world continues to make cloudy your message of grace. Help me to proclaim your message well. Help me to honor you.

Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines celebrating the 500th year of the Reformation. The month of April is about salvation by grace alone. March was about the sovereign providence of God; February was about the doctrine of revelation and the various aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that sola Scriptura seeks to preserve; January is about the doctrine of God.

Jeremiah 13

I was very much moved by this passage from Jeremiah 13 because it amazes me, though I suppose it should not, when I see how relevant the word of God is to the time of today. As I read these words and study them I am amazed that they are so relevant to today. As a reminder, I have been working on reading the Bible daily, - following the M'Cheyne Reading Plan "Secret." Yet, I struggle and fail often. It takes time for me to study and my time gets displaced often. But, I am thankful for coming back to the Word. Today I read from Jeremiah 13 and I have prepared this outline based upon my thoughts from Enduring Word.

TWO WARNING SIGNS

The Sign of the Linen Sash

Hiding the linen sash - verses 1-5

• Lord tells Jeremiah - Get a sash (decorative belt) and put it around your waist (1)
• Sash was a priestly garment for High Priest and Regular Priest - a sign of dignity and nobility
• Go to Euphrates (not sure if this was actual journey or vision) for if it would have been a 3 month journey that would have alarmed people of Anaathoth (4)
• Hide the sash in a rock (4)
• The direction of the Euphrates was where Babylon would be coming from to destroy Judah

Finding the Decayed, Useless Sash - verses 6-7

• Go to the Euphrates and retrieve the sash (6)
• It was still there, but had deteriorated and was ruined, good for nothing (7)

Ruining the Pride of the People - verses 8-11

• In the same manner of the sash, the pride of Judah and Jerusalem will be ruined (9)
• These people would be taken to the Euphrates and beyond
• 3 main sins of Judah (10)
• Refuse to hear God's words (Not reading His Word)
• Follow the dictates of their hearts (trusted in themselves, looked to self instead of the Lord)
• Walked after other gods to serve them (trusting in themselves, they were led to idolatry)
• As the sash clings to a man, so we are to cling to God
• But they would not listen (11)

The Sign of the Wine Bottle

Every bottle filled with wine - verse 12

• Every bottle shall be filled with wine echoes the proverb - Everything will fulfill its purpose

The people of Judah drunk and destroyed - verses 13-14

• Wine breaks people and God's rebellious people would be in a state of stupor and stupidity, drunk with wine (13)
• The people would be dashed against one another (fighting among themselves - we are really seeing this today like never before) (14)

How to Respond to God's warnings

Humble yourself and give glory to the Lord - verses 15-16

• We are told of the biggest problem we have for not listening to God - our pride (15)
• "For the Lord has spoken" - as he speaks we have a choice on how we will respond - yea or nay
• Thus, give glory to God before darkness is all we know (16)

The price to be paid for not heeding God's warnings - verses 17-20

• Jeremiah didn't merely observe, he experienced weeping and tears because judgment was coming (17)
• And so he keeps pleading "humble yourselves" (18)
• It should begin with the leaders - King and Queen (18)
• The invaders are coming for the beautiful sheep (20)

The guilt of those whom the Lord punishes - verses 21-23

• When the punishment actually happens, the people were incredulous that such calamities had overtaken them (21), just as a woman in labor would exclaim "Why have these things come upon me?" (21,22)
• Them (enemies) are taught to be lords (chieftans) over them (21)
• Your skirts have been removed (22)
• Judah commits spiritual adulteries and they would be terribly and tragically violated by their conquerors
• "Lift up the skirt" is a euphemism for sexual attack both here and elsewhere in the OT
• Can the Ethiopian change his skin or leopard his spots? (23)
• God changes/transforms the nature of man

The determination of the Lord to scatter His people - verse 24-25

• Their lot was to be scattered across the Babylonian empires (24)
• And because you have forgotten Me and trusted in Falsehood (25)

The exposed shame of God's people - verses 26-27

• For not humbling oneself, a greater shame results (26)
• The Lord exclaims that they still are not clean (27)

Promise: In this chapter is the promise that the primary sins of Judah can also be sins of our day and they are not reading God's word, trusting in ourselves and in turn trusting in idolatry.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the truth of your word and showing me continually the importance of listening to you and keeping my focus on You. Not on You means it will be on me and I will find fulfillment instead with me. Lord, I pray that I will humble myself and I would get out of the way from what you are teaching me and accept it.

Jeremiah 12

I have been starting to read the Bible through - following the M'Cheyne Reading Plan "Secret."

Today I read from Jeremiah 12 and prepared this outline based upon my thoughts from Enduring Word. 

What the Lord is Saying:

JEREMIAH'S QUESTION AND GOD'S ANSWER

Jeremiah's question to God - verses 1-4

• You are righteous God (1)
• Why does the way of the wicked prosper (1)
• The wicked have fruit which you plant (2)
• These wicked know God (speak it) but far from Him (their mind) (2)
• But, you Lord know me (3)
• Prepare the wicked for slaughter (judgment) (3)
• Because meanwhile the land mourns as this seemingly unfairness continues (4)

God's answer to Jeremiah - verses 5-6

• The Lord points him to the real issue - namely he has asked Jeremiah to do something and his response is to look around at the wicked and question their fruit (5)
• The Lord points out that Jeremiah is therefore questioning this present challenge, so how will he fare when the Lord asks him to do something else (5)
• The small challenge was adversity from family (11:21), the larger challenge will be adversity from those outside of family (6)

JUDAH AND HER ENEMIES

God abandons His People to their enemies - verses 7-8

• Jeremiah speaks to the future when God will give his dearly beloved into the hand of their enemies (7)
• Lord - "My people roar against me" - they rebel so God rejects them for a time (7)
• Judah will be as conspicuous as a speckled bird to its enemies and will provoke their opposition (8)

The mournful harvest of the Land - verses 10-13

• As judgment comes the land will be desolate (10-12)
• But the enemies (Babylonians) should take no pleasure because their harvest is because of the fierce anger of the Lord (13)

A promise of retribution and a promise of restoration - verses 14-15

• Even though God used Babylon as an instrument of His judgment, He would nevertheless judge them for their free will evil and brutality against Judah (14)
• Then he will have compassion on Judah (15)

A merciful promise to the nations - verses 16-17

• The Lord extends his grace even to the opposing Babylonians (16)
• Turning to the Lord is great blessing; Turning from the Lord is great judgment (17) 

Summary: I thought this was an interesting reading, namely because it starts with a question many people voice and that is, why do the wicked prosper. But the Lord's response is to not answer the question, but instead wonder why the question was asked and is concerned for Jeremiah and if he is asking this question now, then how will he handle future challenges. Jeremiah then speaks of the Judah being given over to the Babylonians and the judgment which will come from Judah's rejection of God. Eventually, he will have compassion, but Babylon will be the instrument of his judgment, and yet he still holds them accountable for their actions. The Babylonians can return and embrace the Lord. 

Promise: Even though God used Babylon as an instrument of His judgment, He would nevertheless judge them for their free will evil and brutality against Judah.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the way in which Your word speaks. Questions that we think are new are not. Keep my eyes focused on You. Bring healing to the enemies of God. Draw them to you. Thank you for saving me and providing me compassion. Help me to be faithful to that call.