TheosGuy

Here are some “Cannots” adapted from F.E. Marsh’s 1000 Bible Study Outlines¹. They are from readings numbered 84-86.

THINGS the sinner cannot do.

1. Cannot reverse what God does. “I cannot go beyond the Word of the Lord” (Numbers 22:18).
2. Cannot find God by Himself. “I cannot perceive Him” (Job 23:8-9).
3. Cannot supply what is lacking. “What is crooked cannot be made straight” (Ecclesiastes 1:15).
4. Cannot please God (Romans 8:8).
5. Cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5).
6. Cannot be where Christ is. “Whither I go ye cannot
   come” (John 8:21-22).
7. Cannot pass the gulf which divides the saved from the
   unsaved in the next life (Luke 16:26).

“Cannots” in John’s Gospel.

1. The natural man “cannot see” or “enter the Kingdom of
   God” (John 3:3, 5).
2. The sinner “cannot come” or “go” where Christ is, as
   long as he is unsaved (John 7:34, 36; 8:21-22).
3. The unregenerate “cannot hear” Christ’s Word (John 8:43).
4. The “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
5. The world “cannot receive” the Holy Spirit (John 14:17).
6. The believer “cannot bear fruit” of himself (John 15:4).
7. Conditions often limit Christ’s revelation to us, so He has
   said, “Ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).

Some Things God Cannot Do.

1. He cannot break His Word. “Scripture cannot be
   broken” (John 10:35).
2. “God cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).
3. “God cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
4. “God cannot be tempted of evil” (James 1:13).

1. 1000 Bible Study Outlines, Marsh, F.E.

Tags: Marsh, Teaching Ideas

BODY OF FAITH¹

1. Eyes of faith, to see-Hebrews 11:1.
2. Ears of faith, to listen-John 5:24.
3. Hands of faith, to grip-John 1:12.
4. Feet of faith, to walk-John 10:27.
5. Mind of faith, to think-Philippians 2:5.
6. Heart of faith, to love-Romans 10:9.
7. Taste of faith, to appreciate-1 Peter 2:3.

Reading number 70 from 1000 Bible Study Outlines, Marsh, F.E.

Tags: Marsh, Teaching Ideas

Quote from Martin Luther:

God hides His power in weakness,
His wisdom in folly,
His goodness in severity,
His justice in sin,
His mercy in His wrath.¹

It is interesting that in the cross we see displayed both the mercy of God and the justice of God. The mercy given to God’s people who by faith come to Him. The justice, His wrath placed upon His Son, the sacrifice for sin. I am very glad for this duality (at least) of the Cross. Otherwise, the wrath would have to be placed upon me. But thankfully, God has given me not only mercy, but imputed to me the very righteousness of Jesus Christ, my Savior.

The wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us
from the wrath of God without compromising the justice of God.²

_____________________________

Footnotes:
1. As quoted in, Farley,William P. Outrageous Mercy. (Phillipsburg, PN:P & R Publishing, 2009), 8.
2. Piper,John. Desiring God. 2 ed. (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2003), 59.

Tags: Christ, Cross

Following is a quote from Spurgeon in the May 15th morning devotion (from Morning and Evening):

The believer in Christ receives a present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit by-and-by, but now. So far as justification is the result of faith, it is given to the soul in the moment when it closes with Christ, and accepts Him as its all in all.

I quote this as further exhortation to not chronologically separate salvation and faith. I believe the Bible unequivocally links justification as a result of the exercising of personal faith. And I do not see how one can speak of salvation apart from justification.

I believe the heated battle of which precedes which when talking of regeneration and faith is quite heated but with little benefit. For regeneration apart from salvation doesn’t mean a lot to me. Every single writer of the New Testament with the exception of Matthew exhorts us to believe (or have faith) to receive justification (in a narrow sense) or salvation (in a broader sense). By “in the broader sense” I mean that while we all know that salvation encompasses more than justification, it does seem strange to think of salvation without justification.

We seem to argue over things that are not significant. To speak of salvation as anything but grace from God would seem to be unwarranted. To speak of receiving salvation apart from human exercising of faith would be unbiblical. Which precedes which is not as important to me as to know who is responsible for what. God is responsible for providing salvation, and man is responsible for receiving it.

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia–remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, [from] a good conscience, and [from] sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. (1 Tim 1:3-7 NKJV)

Tags: Faith

Following an explanation of John Piper’s acronymn APTAT. The excerpt is from an article at Desiring God.

• A – I acknowledge that without Christ I can do nothing (John 15:5; Romans 7:18).
• P – I pray that God would make me love as Jesus loves, and work in me all that is pleasing to him (1 Thessalonians 2:12; Romans 5:21; Hebrews 13:21).
• T – I trust the promise of God’s help and strength and guidance (Isaiah 41:10; James 1:5-6).
• A – I act in obedience to God’s word. Doug Heil asked me last Sunday if Philippians 2:12 fit my acronym: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”? I said yes, because look at the ground clause which follows: “for it is God who works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.” Yes! Yes! We act. We obey! But what keeps this action from being a “work of law” is that we have acknowledged our helplessness, prayed for enablement, and trusted that precisely in and under our working and willing it is God who does the work! Therefore our act is a fruit of the Spirit not a work of the flesh.
• T – I thank God for whatever good comes. I give him the glory (1 Peter 4:11).

Tags: Living, Prayer

Ray Ortlund, posted this interesting study about the Book of Philippians. I only reproduce it here so that in case it ever leaves the blogosphere, I can come back and review it and study it further. But all credit is given to Ray Ortlund.

A recent study in Philippians prompted me to wonder, what if this one brief book were our only available Bible? How much would we have to believe and live off of? At least this:

• He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (1:6);
• We are all partakers of grace together (1:7);
• We will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ (1:10);
• Human opposition, far from defeating the gospel, is serving to advance the joyous spread of the gospel (1:12-18);
• Should life be lost, Christ is gained (1:21);
• Temporary survival is gospel opportunity (1:22);
• To depart and be with Christ is far better than this life (1:23);
• The further we go with Christ, the more joy we experience (1:25);
• The gospel of Christ is an uplifting power (1:27);
• Opposition to gospel witness presages the doom of the opponents and the glorious destiny of the faithful (1:28);
• It is a God-given privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ (1:29);
• Union with Christ brings encouragement, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, affection and sympathy (2:1);
• Christ Jesus himself is living proof that the arrogance of this world is doomed and that gospel humility is the path of great reward (2:6-9);
• Jesus is King, and he will have every rational creature in the universe know it and own it, to the greater glory of God the Father (2:10-11);
• We do not need even an apostle always present to lead us by the hand; God himself is deeply at work in us (2:12-13);
• Knowing Christ Jesus the Lord redefines all trophies of self-exaltation as “rubbish,” for he gives true righteousness and participation in his death and resurrection; he is so superior to all things in this world that, whatever path we may take into the resurrection of the dead, the price to be paid is small (3:7-11);
• In conversion, Christ Jesus takes eternal possession of us (3:12);
• The call of God in Christ Jesus offers a prize far beyond this world, worthy of our all (3:14);
• To whatever extent we struggle to grasp the upward call, God will reveal all that we need revealed (3:15);
• To settle for the rewards of this world is to make oneself an enemy of the cross of Christ and to make a god of one’s earthly appetites, which is the path of destruction and the reversal of a truly human life (3:18-19);
• We who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh also find our citizenship in heaven, from which we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will raise our “vile” (KJV) bodies into his immortal glory by his power over all things (3:3, 20-21);
• Our names are written in the book of life (4:3);
• The Lord is at hand (4:5);
• God receives our prayers and sends his overruling peace to guard our hearts when the circumstances of life would have us frantic (4:6-7);
• As we follow the apostolic example of lovely heavenly-mindedness, we experience the presence of the God of peace (4:8-9);
• Christ strengthens us to accept with contentment whatever life may bring (4:11-13);
• When we support the ministry of the gospel, the fruit increases to our own credit (4:17);
• God receives our gospel partnership as a sacrifice pleasing to himself (4:18);
• God is committed to our own needs with all his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (4:19);
• In it all, God will get glory for himself forever and ever (4:20);
• And in the meantime, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will steadfastly be with our spirit (4:23).

Makes me wonder, how much more is there in this Bible which I hardly know?

Tags: Teaching Ideas

Here are some verses talking about enjoying our God!

(Psa 43:4 NKJV) Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.

(Psa 37:4 NKJV) Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

(Psa 42:1-2 NKJV) To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

(Psa 63:1 NKJV) A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.

(Psa 36:8 NKJV) They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.

(Psa 34:8 NKJV) Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

(Psa 119:103 NKJV) How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

(Psa 16:11 NKJV) You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

John Piper has a new book, Finally Alive on various aspects of regeneration. Piper has made some startling comments (at least to me) on the relationship between faith and regeneration. Why are they startling? Because knowing Piper’s strong Calvinism theology, he has made some strong statements regarding the necessity of faith in regeneration.

Here is how John puts them together in his First Epistle: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4). “Born of God” is the key to victory. “Faith” is the key to victory. Both are true because faith is the way we experience being born of God. Being born of God always brings faith with it. The life given in the new birth is the life of faith. The two are never separate.

Or consider how John says it in 1 John 5:11-12: “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Therefore, when Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63), and, “You must be born of the Spirit” (John 3:5, 8), and, “Believing you may have life” (John 20:31), he means: In the new birth, the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith. For Jesus is life.

Therefore, when answering the question What happens in the new birth? never separate these two sayings of Jesus in John 3: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3), and, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (v. 36). What happens in the new birth is the creation of life in union with Christ. And part of how God does that is by the creation of faith which is how we experience our union with Christ.[1]

Immediately preceding this section, Piper wrote the following:

And from our side, the way we experience this is that faith in Jesus is awakened in our hearts. Spiritual life and faith in Jesus come into being together. The new life makes the faith possible, and since spiritual life always awakens faith and expresses itself in faith, there is no life without faith in Jesus. Therefore, we should never separate the new birth from faith in Jesus. From God’s side, we are united to Christ in the new birth. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. >From our side, we experience this union by faith in Jesus.[2]

To me there is not really anyway to get around the fact that Piper is saying faith and regeneration are simultaneous. God is the initiator, Yes! Man responds, Yes! But if there is no separation of time, then by definition they are simultaneous. I agree, or I should say Piper finally agrees with me!

You might think I would say that we have no involvement in it [regeneration], because we are spiritually dead. But the dead are very much involved in their resurrection—after all, they rise! Here is an example of what I mean. When Jesus stood before the grave of Lazarus who had been dead four days, Lazarus had no part in imparting his new life. He was dead. Jesus, not Lazarus, created the new life.

In John 11:43, Jesus says to the dead Lazarus, “Lazarus, come out.” And the next verse says, “The man who had died came out.” So Lazarus takes part in this resurrection. He comes out. Christ causes it. Lazarus does it. He is the one who rises from the dead! Christ brings about the resurrection. Lazarus acts out the resurrection. The instant Christ commands Lazarus to rise, Lazarus does the rising. The instant God gives new life, we do the living. The instant the Spirit produces faith, we do the believing.

So that’s why I am asking two questions, and not just one question, when I ask How are we born again? I am asking: What does God do in our new birth? How are we born again from God’s side? And I am asking: What do we do in our new birth? How are we born again from our side? [3]

Consider verses 23-25: “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” Notice: The new birth happens through the word of God. Verse 25 says that this word of God “is the good news that was preached to you.” [4]

And when the Spirit connects you to me by faith, you experience new birth. [5]

The answer continues like this: Your act of believing and God’s act of begetting are simultaneous. He does the begetting and you do the believing at the same instant. And—this is very important—his doing is the decisive cause of your doing. His begetting is the decisive cause of your believing.[6]

(Eph 1:13 ESV) “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
(Col 1:5 ESV) “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel.”[7]

It is our new birth. It involves our believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why I say that my new birth does not take place without me believing. In believing we are acting out the new birth, we are breathing in the new life.[8]

What then does this mean for us?…
1. It means that we must believe in order to be saved. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved” (Acts 16:31). The new birth does not take the place of faith; the new birth involves faith. The new birth is the birth of faith.[9]

Footnotes:
[1] Piper, John. Finally Alive. (Fearn: Christian Focus), 2009), 33.
[2] Ibid., 32.
[3] Ibid., 79.
[4] Ibid., 83.
[5] Ibid., 92.
[6] Ibid., 102.
[7] Ibid., 104, footnote 14.
[8] Ibid., 105.
[9] Ibid., 107.

Tags: Faith, Salvation

Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature, but it is not the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. (2/20)

Everything the devil does, God over-reaches to serve His own purpose.
(5/14)

The great need is not to do things, but to believe things. The Redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it.(5/28)

The above quotes are from Run Today’s Race, Copyright © Oswald Chambers Publications Association Ltd. The reference in the parenthesis refers to the day of the year noted in said work.

Tags: Quotes

Here are some quotes, from some Christians, that I enjoyed.

Worship is the normal employment of moral beings.—A.W. Tozer

This quote is from his book, Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church. In context, Tozer was noting that fallen man could no longer worship God as when he was created, That man needed Jesus Christ to restore the ability to properly worship Him.

I believe in Christianity as I believe in the rising sun; not because I see it, but by it I can see all else.—C.S. Lewis

It is the Holy Spirit that truly illuminates. The physical sun does not allow us to see the spiritual world, but the Son of God does. His gift of salvation, allows us to be regenerated, made anew!

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.—D.L. Moody

And so the question is are we willing do do what God calls us to do, when it only glorifies Him. I remember a friend telling me that he would answer God’s call to minister in the field of technological ministry. But he felf he would NOT answer the call if it was to go into the mission field to do His ministry. I found that very sad, and have always remembered it.

I need to make sure that I am not doing the same in an area to which I am spiritually blind.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.—Jim Elliot

Self-explanatory. I always forget the exact wording, so I thought I would memorialize it for myself.

Consider Him. Look to Jesus. Someone has said that this is the simplicity of our faith, and I agree with that, but there is a danger of oversimplification under the evangelistic methods which are being used today. I have a little book which I have entitled Faith Plus Nothing Equals Salvation because I believe this is true. Faith alone can save. However, today we have an epidemic of easy believism. Many folk have made salvation a simple mathematical equation: If you can say yes to this, yes to that, and yes to a half-dozen questions, then you are a Christian. This type of approach leaves no room for the work of the Holy Spirit and for the conviction of sin. It just means a nodding assent, a passing acquaintance with Jesus. It does not mean that you are born again.

There is a word that is being overworked today: commit your life to Christ. What kind of life do you have to commit to Christ? If you are coming to Christ as a sinner, you don’t have any life—you are dead in trespasses and sins. The Lord Jesus is the one who said, “I have come that you might have life.” You do not commit a life, but He committed His life for you and He died for you. You are dead in trespasses and sins, and He has life to offer to you: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

We also hear people say, “Give your heart to Jesus.” Well, my friend, what do you think He wants with that dirty, old heart? Read the list of things He said come out of the heart (see Matt. 15:19). They are the dirtiest things that I know. He didn’t ask you to give your heart to Him. He says, “I want to give you a new heart and a new life.” We need today the conviction of sin, to know that we are sinners. We have made salvation a very jolly affair. An evangelistic crusade today is just too ducky; it’s so sweet, and it’s so lovely. I don’t see people come weeping under conviction of sin.—J. Vernon McGee (Commentary on Hebrews 12)

A good quote on the easy believism we so often see.

Churches are so good at devouring people if they’ve stumbled. We should be quick to say – ‘Let me help you stand – I’m here for you – what do you need?’—Bill Foote, Pastor, Saving Grace Community Church, Lake Forest, CA

How true this statement is. Lord, change me so that I am more like you and minster grace to the Body of Christ.

Tags: Quotes