2 Corinthians 5:17 – “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

We’re continuing answering the question – “Am I truly a Christian or just deceived?” today as we look at the second mark of an authentic Christian, being captivated by the grace of God in Jesus.  This is coming after we have discussed the first mark,  maintaining a constant vigilance to put to death sin and increase affections for God, and next time we will discuss pursuing the growth of the Kingdom of God with other Christians.

What do I mean when I say authentic Christians should be captivated by the grace of God in Jesus?  In many ways, it is not so much a point in time captivation, but a captivation that endures, that our souls are so fixated upon, that everything else seems secondary.  Colossians 3:1-4 tells us “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  I included the last verse there because it transitioned from what we’re talking about today, being captivated by the grace of God in Jesus, to the natural overflow of that captivation, which is the putting to death of sin, and bringing to life affections for God and the hope of glory with Him in eternity.

Consider all the things that are occupying your mind today.  Are you setting your mind on the things above, or on the things of the earth?  Are you amazed still that our Lord, Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God, dying in your place to reconcile you to Himself?  Everything in your life is temporal, God is eternal.  The weight of the glory of God in Jesus, should bear heavily on your soul as you consider these things.  None of us is going to walk away and forget the story of the gospel, and that is how many are deceived.  It’s not knowing what happened, its being broken in humble amazement, that our infinitely Holy God who needed nothing from man, willingly chose in love to take all of our sin, past, present, and future, and bear the penalty of infinite eternal wrath in His body, to reconcile you back to Himself.  There was no other way.  God didn’t have to do it, and He did.  Nothing on Earth can compare to what God has done, and nothing on Earth can compare to who God is – there is no greater treasure to seek in life than to seek after God as an overflow of the gospel.  Those who claim to know the gospel, but are not changed and impacted forever by it, are deceived.  It’d be like me giving a poverty stricken person in a remote village $100 million dollars in cash. They had nothing before, and now they have $100 million dollars, but unless they understand and see the worth of what they’ve been given, nothing in their life will change.  They’re more likely to burn the money, than to use it to escape their poverty.  It’s the same with someone who hear’s the gospel, but is not captivated by it.

2 Corinthians 4:3-6 – “if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants[c] for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Do you have True knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?  I hope so, if you do, you’ll never be the same.  Your soul has a longing in it that is meant to be filled with Jesus.  You can never have enough of Him, and there is no end to Him.  We will spend eternity marveling at God in Joy, and after 10,000 years have past, and another 10,000 years have past, and another, and another, and another, we will still be in wonder at the glory of God.  Each day will be like the first day, when there are an infinite number of God’s excellencies to explore.  It will never end.  All of that is yours already in Jesus.  That is the God that redeemed you, and calls you to worship Him for your joy.

My exhortation today, is just to take an honest assessment of whether or not you’re captivated regularly by the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus.  We all need reminding from God’s Word and His people, which is what we’ll talk about next time when we talk about pursuing the Kingdom of God with other believers.  I hope this finds you well, and I hope you will take some time today to consider how great a treasure we have in Jesus.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

I’m still going back to Romans at some point to finish up that, but I’m diverging a bit into other areas, because that’s where God has me right now.  The question that has been pressed into my own heart, and therefore, what I’m going to be seeking to answer through scripture over the next few messages is “Am I truly a Christian or just deceived?”.  I’m going to do that by positing that there are three marks of someone who is genuinely a Christian.  Before I do that, I have to lay the groundwork for why we should seek assurance of our own salvation, even when we have professed Jesus, maybe been baptized, and maybe been in ministry even for a while.  My hope is that in seeking personal assurance of salvation, God will show you where he wants you to grow, and also that you would be encouraged in the genuineness of your faith and the Holy Spirit that dwells in you.

We are called to test ourselves to see if our faith is genuine.  2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”  Being a follower of Christ does not mean that you’re perfect.  Being a follower of Christ does not mean that you’re always progressing in your faith.  There are marks, however, that the Bible tells us give evidence of true salvation, and therefore we should look to them both for encouragement and edification of our faith where our lives and heart’s affections line up with scripture, and to be righteously challenged when honestly our lives and heart’s affections do not line up.  First – Can someone be deceived about their salvation?  Absolutely.  I don’t want to spend too much proving this point, so I’ll limit myself to three examples:

Matthew 7:21-23 – “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”  Jesus’ example here clearly indicates these are people who know God, call Him Lord, and believe they have been doing the work of God in their lives.  They were deceived in believing they were actually saved.

Luke 8:5-15 – ““A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.  And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.  And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.  As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”   Jesus’ parable here lists multiple people who hear the Word of God, and respond in some positive way.  Specifically those persons on the rock and thorns.  Both hear the word of God, respond positively, and even perhaps have some works to evidence their belief, but ultimately both were deceived in believing they were saved.  Both types of persons fell away either over time or during a period of struggle in life.  To be clear, these people heard the same Word of God (the seed), the same gospel, both people proclaimed belief and showed visible signs of that belief, but their faith was fraudulent.  They were deceived.

In Colossians 4:14 we are told -“Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas.”  In Philemon 1:23-24 – “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.” In both of these passages we are told of Demas who is not only a professing believer in Christ, but performing work along with Paul to such an extent that others were aware of him and it was worth noting his name.  Later in Paul’s ministry, however, when Paul was close to being martyred, he wrote this in 2 Timothy 4:10 –“Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”  Demas was deceived.

There are many other examples, but 3 is sufficient to show that there are definitely people who believe they are saved, when in fact they are not.  Now, having shown that, I want to turn to illustrate what I believe are three marks of a true Christian:  1)  Maintaining a constant vigilance to put to death sin and increase affections for God  2)  Being captivated by the grace of God in Jesus Christ  3)  Pursuing the growth of the Kingdom of God with other Christians.  I’m going to take the first one today, and then go through the other two in separate messages.

The first mark of a Christian, is a constant vigilance to put to death sin and increase affections for God.  We’re all sinners, and we all fall to sin from time to time.  It is one thing to fall to sin, it is another to defend that sin, to seek safe harbor for it, to try to justify it and at the same time keep it away from the people of God so that no one can unmask your own deception.  A Christian, with the Holiness of the Spirit of God indwelling them, should feel very uneasy and uncomfortable when they find this type of sin in their life.  By the mercy of God, they will repent of their sin, and seek to put it to death, no matter the cost.  That is the mark of a Christian.

James 4:4 – “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Romans 8:5-8,13-14 – “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” “if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

There is cost to following Jesus, it will cost us those things that we run to for comfort apart from God – those are the idols God is seeking to free us from, and He is able to see us through all trials to do so.

Luke 14:27-30 – “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”

When we turn to trust in Jesus, God begins to work on our hearts.  As He does, we will come to points where God asks reveals sin in us, idols, that are difficult to give up.  The comfort from relationships, the comfort from physical pleasure, the comfort from drugs or alcohol, the comfort of money, the comfort of other’s approval, etc.  I know I hit at least 2 or 3 of those buckets, and my guess is that all of you reading this can find yourself finding comfort in at least one of them still.  When we seek to be comforted by the things in God’s Creation, rather than our Creator, habitually, we’ve exposed an idol in our life.  Now, let’s speak plainly as friends – giving up something that you have found comfort in for a while, maybe a long while is not easy.  This is part of counting the cost of following Jesus per Luke 14 – you always have a choice, who will you follow?  Let me be even more blunt, giving up things you have found comfort in, is going to hurt, badly.  It won’t be easy.  You will have a hole where those things used to be, and you will need fellow Christians brothers (for men) and sisters (for women) to help encourage you through.  As you turn from the things you sought comfort in previously, there will be a hole that needs to be filled.  That is why we must be in the Word of God, seeing and savoring Jesus with the eyes of our heart and mind – finding new deeper affections for Him and comfort from Him.  Christians do not take the easy road in life.  We seek for Jesus above all things, and His Kingdom, no matter the cost, because Jesus is worth it.  He’s worth giving up everything for.

Matthew 13:44 – “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  

We’re all in this together.  We all have our weaknesses, and it will take strength, courage, and faith to step out and be willing to give up those things we have found comfort in previously, to trust Jesus fully.  That’s where we need to go.  You can’t have one foot in your sin, and one foot in the church, following Jesus – sin and Jesus are opposed to each other.  You have to decide which you really want more, and press forward.  My hope is that you’ll press forward with Jesus, trust Him as you venture into waters you have been afraid to previously, to give not just a piece of your heart’s affections to Him, but your whole heart.  You won’t regret it, God is faithful, as you turn to Him, He will run to you.  Luke 15:20-24 tells us a parable about a son who rejected his father for the world, but returned – “he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.  And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” The vigilance to put to death sin and grow your affections for God is a mark of an authentic Christian.  It’s tough, but I know this, that if you trust God, if you put your faith in Him into action, you will never regret it.  He loves you more than you can possibly imagine.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

 

In preparing for today’s Word for the Day message, I was struck about how there was very little if any discussion on this matter by other theologians.  There were many messages and writings on the Biblical mandate for the personhood of Jesus, and evidence for His incarnation, but very little talk about the implications of that.  Specifically, we all know and believe that Jesus took on human flesh and was resurrected in bodily form (he did not go back to being a Spirit) forever, but why?  What does this tell us about God?  God is free to do whatever He wills in as much as it conforms to His nature (such as God is not able to lie, because it would contradict His nature).  God certainly was under no requirement to save, or take on human form, unless He chose to do so, and if He did choose to do so, it says something about His nature that should be encouraging to us.  That is what I want to focus in on today.

Because I mostly want to focus in on the implications of Jesus’s Incarnation (taking on flesh), for brevity’s sake, I will only put for the following Scripture as evidence that Jesus was at one point outside of flesh, and chose to take on flesh.

John 1:1-4 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

John 1:14 – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

People often mistakenly believe that Jesus was God’s “Plan B” after Adam sinned.  This is a mistake.  God ordained man to fall (ordination is different from causation which is a topic for another day).  Jesus was God’s plan A because God created all things for His glory to be manifested and known, and God’s glory shines brightest through Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Ephesians 1:3-10 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

What I want to answer two questions from this passage in Ephesians – when did Jesus choose to come and die?  and then what does that tells us about God’s nature?

The answer to the first is given clearly – “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world”  Before Genesis 1:1, before anything had been made, according to the purpose of God’s will, He purposed to save a people through Jesus dying on a cross.  The answer to part of the second question is also given – “In love he predestined”, “to the praise of his glorious grace“, “In him we have redemption“, and “the forgiveness of our trespasses”.  The incarnation of Jesus tells us about the love of God, the grace of God, God as a Redeemer, and the forgiveness of God.  If I can be bold here, the glory of God, specifically the perfections of His love, His unmerited favor (Grace), His being a Savior, and His forgiving nature, would not be known to us in as full a measure as we know God apart from Jesus taking on flesh to die for us.

Let’s keep going with Philippians 2:5-8 – “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The incarnation of God, tells us about the humility of God, and His servant nature.  Why is this important?  Because for those of us who genuinely know God enough to fear His Holy name, we would rightly tremble at the mere thought of approaching Him apart from Jesus.  This is why we can have confidence in Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Apart from the Incarnation of Jesus, we would not know in as full a measure the humility and meekness of God, and we would not know God’s desire to serve (to draw people to Himself).

Finally, the last passage I want to look at is Hebrews 4:14-16 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The Incarnation of Jesus tells us that our God desires intimacy with us; to know our struggles and temptations, and to be able to offer sympathy and comfort to us.  When we call on God in prayer, we are calling on a God who loves us, who is humble, who sympathizes with us, who offers forgiveness and grace, who redeems, and who always desires to draw us to Himself.  All of this was shown fully in the incarnation of Jesus, and in Him we can have confidence to approach God to receive mercy and grace each day.

My exhortation is to meditate on this scripture.  Sometimes our feelings about God are rooted in “what we think” rather than “what God has revealed” through His Word.  My hope and expectation is that your faith would be edified, that the foundation of your faith in Jesus grows stronger, as you consider how great the love of God towards us truly is in Christ Jesus, who did not need to redeem us, but chose to, and who does not need to receive us now, but desires to.  He has adopted us; we were purchased by His blood.  We are His and He is ours. This was done by taking on flesh to die on a tree for us, so that we could live to know Him and make Him known.  I hope this finds each of you well, and you are taking a step closer to God day by day.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

 

Some of you aren’t going to like what I say today.  I’m going to press hard today, even as God has pressed hard on me recently.  My hope is that in hammering a bit today you would not be broken, but as a precious metal is refined and purified by fire and by hammering out impurities, our souls also would see our own impurities today clearly so that we can be refined, purified by the all consuming fire of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”  

When was the last time you sat down, turned the TV off, and spent time honestly examining your life to see if it lined up with God’s Word and His will for you?  Admittedly, there have been times in my own life when I have gotten so far off track, that when I finally stopped to “look at myself in the mirror” so to speak, I didn’t even recognize the person I was looking at.  I knew the gospel, I could recite scripture, but what did my actions say about what my heart truly valued?  Was I living for myself or was I living to worship my God and Savior?  I’ve been there, so if you find yourself asking yourself these questions and honestly saying – I’ve really been living for myself with God as an afterthought, know that there is grace and mercy from God for you.  It is the love of God that reveals our failings to us, so that we can truly repent and follow after Jesus where true life and peace is found.

How do we examine ourselves?  We’ll start easy.  How do you feel about money and how do you spend it?  Your answer is generally a pretty good indication of what you value.  Matthew 6:24 – “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”  Is money a tool for you to purchase comfort and pleasure, or is it a tool to grow the Kingdom of God and worship His value above all things?  People get hung up on a 10% tithe, if they tithe at all (really if you add up all the tithing in the old testament the number was closer to 25%), but God makes no such claims to a % tithe in the New Testament.  Why?  Because it’s all His.  100% of your money is God’s – He has given it to you to steward as a means of worship and joy.  If you only see it as a means to pursue comfort and pleasure, what does that say about how you value Jesus?  Everything in the Old Testament was pointing towards Jesus, and He summarizes all of the laws of the Old Testament when questioned by in Matthew 22:34-40 – “ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  Does how you view money and how you spend your money reflect that you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?  If so, your giving to grow the Kingdom of God will be a source of great worship and joy for you whether that is 1% or 90%.  If how you spend money does not reflect that, what is it that is taking the place of God?

Second, take time to think about and honestly answer these questions:  What do I love?  What do I think about when I have spare time?  What occupies a majority of my “free time”?  What thing in my life am I pursuing right now?  What would I be devastated about, if it did not happen in my life?  Maybe that’s marriage, maybe that’s a new job, maybe that’s a child, maybe that’s more money, maybe it’s a good family life.  If you are pursuing those things and hoping that God will “make it right” after you have neglected pursuing Him above all else along the way, you are fooling yourself.  Not only will you not have the blessing of God in whatever you accomplish, you very well could lose your soul along the way.  Instead of gaining a blessing in your life and in your fellowship with God, you will lose both.  Jesus says this in Matthew 10:37-38 – “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

Jesus is after our hearts.  In Ezekiel 36:26 we are told – “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”  If Jesus Christ is in you, you have a heart that is able to follow Him – to reject living for yourself, and submit to following Jesus.  He loves you.  He died for you.  Trust Him.  That is what true saving faith IS.  We are so easily deceived, but God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, to give us eyes to see the surpassing value of our Lord and Savior above all things.  No one is coming out of this message clean.  If you are honest with yourself you’re going to have come up with some things in your life that God is calling you to lay down, and doing so may be very difficult for you.  My exhortation is to set your eyes above, fixate and meditate on the depth of our sin and the worth of our Lord Jesus.  We are not our own, we were bought with a price, His own shed blood – absorbing the wrath of our infinitely Holy God to redeem us.  Trust Him.  Stop trying to live for yourself and simply live for Him and trust that as a loving Father He will give you what is good for you in the right timing.

Hosea 6:1-3 – “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.  Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”  

Grace and Peace,

Adam

It is a blessing to have people, men and women of God in your life to tell you when you’re being an idiot.  Proverbs 27:5-6 – “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”   You know who your true friends are?  They’re not the ones who are necessarily the most fun.  They’re not the ones who tell you what you want to hear to make you happy all the time.  No, your true friends are the ones who will tell you something that you don’t want to hear, the one’s who care about you, care about your relationship with God above all else, even the friendship itself, enough to call you to repentance and faith.  Everyone else, wants something from you, maybe companionship or something else, but they are not truly your friend.  A true friend will call you to repentance from foolishness and sin that is separating you from the God you love, and encourage you to hold fast to the promises of God that have been secured in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Those people, are difficult to find.  There is a lot of wisdom in Proverbs 18:24 – A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

I say all of that as an answer largely to what I’m now going to say is the problem; the stubbornness of man and the futility of personal “wisdom”.  If in general you think you “know what’s best” for your life – you’re a fool.  None of us do.  I’m sure you can look back on your life to come up with plenty of examples.  I know I can.  This is why we are called to community.  (Hebrews 10:24-25) For those who would offer up only the wisdom to “follow your heart”, I would offer up Jeremiah 17:9 –“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  What happens when people stubbornly go their own way?  What happens when those voices around them calling them to repentance and faith are shut out?  They are lost.  Jesus laments over such people in Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-39 – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”  In great love, God sent forth prophets to speak Truth to the people of Israel, and what did Jerusalem do?  They rejected their words and killed the prophets.  What happened afterwards – God allowed them to see the full consequences of their rejecting Him and the Truth.  I’ve been on both sides of this.  I’ve rejected Godly wisdom, and have felt the painful consequences of that.  I’ve also been the friend pleading with someone to see that the path they’re on was leading to a lot of pain and separation from God, and I’ve been shut out.  I prayed for them, but there was nothing more that could be said that I hadn’t already said.  Some of those people ultimately went on to completely reject God, evidenced by their life and actions.  Some, in God’s mercy, he allowed to go through painful consequences, but ultimately brought back to Himself.  What I know, is that God is jealous over His people, and His desire is to keep us from the pain and separation that sin creates.

My exhortation today is one of wisdom.  Who are the voices that are speaking into your life?  If they are many, consider whether or not that is wise to divide yourself in that way.  If they are few, but never have hard conversations with you, consider whether or not these are truly friends that will push you closer to God.  I have 4 people in my life, that if they call me to do something I don’t want to do, I defer to their judgment as those whom God has put in my life.  These are people who love God.  They love Jesus, and it’s evidenced all throughout their life, so my trust is well placed.  If we go things alone in this life, we will be lost.  If we reject those God has put in our life to be voices pointing us to God, we are fools, and we will be lost.  Therefore, in humility, consider pursuing those friendships that are closer than a brother, and open your heart to trust them.  It is a blessing of God to you and for you.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Romans 1:18-25 – “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Ephesians 2:1-10 – “you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Man’s nature, apart from God is to reject God, reject their Creator, reject His will for their life, and pursue whatever seems right to them in their own mind, or pursue the lusts of their flesh.  As men and women who are saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that nature is still present, but does not control us.  We are no longer in bondage to sin.  The question God has put on my heart and I submit to you, is “have I truly rejected pursuing my own will, and trust wholly in the God who loved me and died for me?”  So we can dispense self-righteous fecades-let me share that my own answer would be no.  There are a host of areas in my life that I’m still trying to control.  I’m single, I want to get married, so I try to make that happen in ways that aren’t always the most wise.  In my job, I try to take the reigns from God and make sure I do what I think needs to be done to get ahead.  I’m prone to default to my own comfort in situations rather than asking what God’s will is – even if the answer is difficult.  When I consider the anxiety I feel on a regular basis about life – it reveals what is important to me.  What are you anxious about?  What seems to matter most to you right now?  When I consider my own answers to that question, God challenged me with this passage from James 4:1-4 – “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  

For a while, I’ve attempted to take control out of God’s hands, and in the process I have made myself God’s enemy.  For someone who knows the richness of the love of God towards us in Christ Jesus, that is devastating.  Therefore, on the foundation of God’s Word, I’ve concluded this – whenever I seek my will, to control my surroundings even for what seems to be a good thing, like finding a wife, or doing a good job at work, then whatever gain I have is far outweighed by the loss of my fellowship with God.  Further, God will never bless whatever gain I obtain apart from Him.  

When I find myself in a situation like this though, I am comforted that God does leave His children to despair.  Immediately after James 4:1-5, we have the promise of God in James 4:5-10 – “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”  Submit yourself to God.  Resist temptation.  Humbly turn to God to pursue Him, and He will exalt you.  This process is never fun.  It involves brutal honesty with yourself, and making tough decisions to follow Jesus above all else.  It means going to other men (or other women for women) to ask them to give you Godly counsel and follow it.  Simply put, when we do this, we are told to kill ourselves, our self-will apart from God.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian Martyr of Nazi Germany, said it this way – “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  If I proclaim the name of Jesus Christ as Lord (I do and hope all of you do as well), then for me it comes down to this – Am I willing to truly die to myself to pursue God?  In the words of Jesus from Matthew 10:39 – “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  If you are pursuing your own life with God has an afterthought, you will lose your life.  If you lose your life to pursue Jesus, you will find eternal life in Him.  I love each of you as my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I hope this finds you well, and God continues to work mightily in each of you, pushing back darkness and growing the Kingdom of God.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

Friends,

It has been a long drought since I last wrote my WFTDs.  It’s my intention to write more often going forward, so if at any time you no longer wish to be on these emails, please let me know.  My hope is that they will always be encouraging.  If they are helpful, I always like hearing that, and if they are not helpful, or if there is a point you disagree with, I’m always open to hearing from you on that as well.  My ultimate goal in writing is three fold – 1) selfishly, writing helps me organize and solidify the things God is showing me through life and His Word, driving them deeper into my own heart and mind 2) God has promised us in Isaiah 55:10-11 that the Word of God going forth is always fruitful – “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” So my trust is that in writing, specifically putting forth the Word of God in my writing, that we will all be edified, growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and as we see Him in His Word, we will be conformed more and more into His image.  (2 Cor 3:14-18)  “For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.  But when one turns to the Lord,the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 3) My hope is that my writing while theological and doctrinally sound, will put a personal face to the outworking of our faith.  Without exception, everyone of God’s people in the Bible have examples of great faith, but also failure.  There are struggles in life, there are struggles in faith, and following Christ is not a sprint but a marathon.  It’s one thing to say that, it’s another to live it and extend grace to others who are not where they would like to be right now in following Christ.  So I want to be a voice of encouragement who are in that place right now, as a fellow sinner saved by grace, the steadfast love of God is neverending and God’s mercies are new each day. (Lam 3:23-24)  Today is the day of salvation. (Heb 3:14) Forget what lies behind yesterday and press on towards Jesus today (Phil 3:13-14).

With all of that said, today a question I’ve been given to answer is “What is a man of God?”  When I say a “man” of God, know that this applies equally to women and is meant to be gender neutral.  I’m going to quickly give a very high level definition of a man of God from the Bible, and then turn to what does a man of God look like today.

First and foremost, a man of God is chosen, set apart by God for His purposes.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Job, all of the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament, the Disciples of Jesus, and Paul, all were chosen by God for a purpose.  God was the first mover in each man of God, and the man of God responded in faith to action.  Further, that action, in every example of a man of God came with struggle, forgoing comfort in the world to pursue the will of God.  So a man of God, while fallen and imperfect, has a heart that desires and is willing to pursue the will of God above their own desires for pleasure or comfort that the world would offer.  Their soul is satisfied in God.  For brevity’s sake, I will just give one example, but the Bible is full of examples as noted above.  Consider God’s call on Abraham (called Abram before God gave him the name Abraham) in Genesis 12:1-5 – “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.”  Put yourself in Abraham’s shoes.  You’re 75.  Your family was your protection in those days.  God has told you to leave the comfort and protection of your family to go and travel for Ur to Canaan, which in those days was about a 1,100 mile trip.  Abraham has to go to his family and tell them he’s leaving, and then go knowing that he will be traveling will basically 1,100 miles without modern transportation of any kind, without modern medical care, without having any assurance of actually making it there, except that God had told Him to go.  This is faith in action.  Hebrews 11:8-10 speaks of this – “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land,living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”  

As believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a man of God has been granted faith, but that faith is much more than just to believe in a historical fact – that Jesus died on a cross to save sinners.  Satan knows that.  The demons believe that, but they are not saved by their belief.  James 2:18-20 “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” A Man of God’s faith is faith in action.  What does His life say about what He believes?  So what if someone goes to church, goes to a Bible study, etc. –  is their faith in action?  Are they doers of the Word?  James 1:21-22 – “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  A man of God is not perfect.  With the exception of Enoch, every example of a man of God from the Bible has fallen in one way or another.  A man of God, however, is a man of faith – who believes God and His promises and will repent from their sin, and turn again to follow the Living God.  A man of God will not justify sin, or make light of sin for which our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ shed His blood for.  A man of God will not remain in sin, because He cannot, the love of God controls Him, burning his heart for repentance, and drawing him in meekness to follow God in righteousness.  Consider 1 John 3:7-10 – “Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.  Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.  No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”  Tough language, but it is the Word of God.  To minimize it, is foolishness.

My exhortation today for us men, is to ask ourselves the question.  Am I a man of God?  If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, where you fail above, let today be a day of refreshment for you, to draw you to repentance and action.  A second question, to hone in on a singular point – how is your faith in action?  In my own life, I have justified sin, and the mercy of God has always drawn me to repentance and faith to follow Jesus.  This second question was particularly convicting for me, however.  God has made me a teacher, yet how have I exercised that?  How am I willingly forgoing comfort to grow the Kingdom of God?  For me the answer right now is to continue writing, to start a new Bible study with a couple other men of God held in a public place like a coffee shop each week, to serve the homeless and elderly at least once a month, to grow my financial giving to the Lord, among other normal disciplines of Bible reading/prayer/pursuit of personal righteousness in daily living.  Each of you are gifted differently, so what your faith in action will look like will be different, but it should be apparent.  My exhortation to single women is to pursue a man of God if it is God’s will for you to be married.  Part of your faith in God’s promises is that you trust He will bring that man into your life.  Stop trying to “make” it happen with a guy who claims to be a Christian, but where you’re having a lead spiritually in the relationship to bring them to church, pray, etc.  A man of God will be a spiritual leader, you will not have to make suggestions to him for those things.  Too many godly women are hurt by men who claim to be Christian, but are not truly a man of God.  My exhortation to married women is to encourage your husband to be a man of God through encouragement as you see God working in His life, even as your strive to do the same.

Grace and Peace,

Adam