The Boundless Love of Christ

This morning I was reading a book by A.W. Tozer called Knowledge Of The Holy. He said something that struck a note with my thirsty soul. He said,

"The mercy of God is infinite, and the man who has felt the grinding pain of inward guilt knows that this is more than academic. 'Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound'(Rom. 5:20). Abounding sin is the terror of the world, but abounding grace is the hope of mankind."

"Against our deep creature-sickness stands God’s infinite ability to cure.The Christian witness through the centuries has been that ”God so loved the world . . .”; it remains for us to see that love in the light of God’s infinitude. His love is measureless. It is more: it is boundless. It has no bounds because it is not a thing but a facet of the essential nature of God. His love is something He is, and because He is infinite that love can enfold the whole created world in itself and have room for ten thousand times ten thousand worlds beside. "

This, this is the God we adore,

Our faithful, unchangeable Friend,

Whose love is as great as His power,

And neither knows measure nor end.

‘Tis Jesus, the first and the last,

Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;

We’ praise Him for all that is past,

And trust Him for all that’s to come.

Joseph Hart (Chapter 8, Knowledge Of The Holy)

Sovereign Grace Ministries (http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/default.aspx) composed a song that embraces the theme of God's infinite, boundless love conquering our finite, limited sin. Click on video and be blessed!

Beholding God's Mercy

This morning God gave me a revelation about Himself that is absolutely worshipful. In Exodus 25:17-20 it says, "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. (J.H.- one cubit equals approx 18 in.) And you shall make two cherubim (i.e. angels who worship and praise God) of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be."

The Strong's Lexicon says this about the mercy seat: "The mercy seat is the golden plate of propitiation on which the High Priest sprinkled the seat 7 times on the Day of Atonement symbolically reconciling Jehovah and His chosen people." The mercy seat was a symbol of reconciliation between God and man. Man needed mercy from a holy, righteous God because of his sin. And God, in His grace, gave mercy.

Beloved, we no longer need a symbol because we now have a Savior. Jesus Christ is our mercy seat who covers us with His sinless blood, giving us PERFECT reconciliation with God. And now we can joyfully embrace the precious promise of Hebrews 4:16; "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."

Now that you have this revelation God desires a response from you. V.20 says that the Cherubim have "their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be." Why are they facing toward the mercy seat? Because as they behold God's indescribable mercy they're filled with overflowing worship and awe. A revelation of mercy will always result in a heart filled with reverent worship. Oh, to the praise of His glorious grace!

If you have repented of your sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ, you now have perfect peace with God. Through Jesus Christ you can enter the holy of holies, the inner place of intimacy with God. Go boldly and worshipfully to the throne of grace today, knowing that you have a Savior who is "seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2).

"Our God Knows and Acts"

Where is God in the midst of pain and despair? At times it can seem as if God is distant and unconcerned about our situations in life. That’s probably how Israel felt when they were in bondage to their terrible taskmasters, the Egyptians. Their oppression and grief and pain brought them to a breaking point. In Exodus 2:23 it says, “...the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.”

Notice that when they came to the end of their rope they “groaned… and cried out for help.” This was an amazing step of faith. Their oppression and grief and pain drove them to their knees. Beloved, will you take your doubt, pain, suspicion, anxiety, and grief and turn it into a sweet smelling cry of lament to God?

There are great promises of God’s deliverance, hope, and grace awaiting you today. Look at how God responded to His beloved bride. Exodus 2:24-25 says, “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (25) God saw the people of Israel--and God knew.”

Four promises for us today:
1. God hears- God has ears that are tuned and attentive to your cries. Your prayers are not in vain because God listens to His children (cf. 2nd Chronicles 7:14).

2. God remembers- God remembers His faithfulness to His covenant promises. God loves to display His faithfulness and therefore we must appeal to these promises in times of trouble. Pray promises like Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” or 2nd Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” or Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

3. God sees- God doesn’t turn a blind eye. He sees every detail of your life. In Luke 12:7 Jesus says, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” God's eye is on every detail of your life.

4. God knows- Your Father in Heaven knows your pain and is able to sympathize with you. Hebrews 4:15 says this about Jesus: “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.” By the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God entered into our pain and grief and struggle with the sin. Therefore, He is not distant or disconnected to you. He KNOWS and sympathizes with your weakness.

But God doesn’t stop at simply hearing, remembering, seeing, and knowing. He also rescues, redeems, and ransoms. He doesn’t sit back with arms tied and a disgruntled look on His face. He acts on our behalf.

For Israel, He raised up Moses to deliver them from their bondage and slavery and grief and pain. For us, He raised up Jesus on a cross and then three days later He raised Him up from death. This is the glorious good news! God enters into our world of sin and pain and grief, AND He rescues, He redeems, and He ransoms by the power of His precious blood.

What an amazing God we have in Jesus Christ. Will you take your situation and go before God with groans and cries? God hears, remembers, sees, knows, and delivers. His strong arms are wide open in Christ!

Modern Evangelism vs. Puritan Evangelism

Is our modern style of evangelism effective and biblical? J.I. Packer does an excellent job of comparing the differences between our modern style of evangelism and the puritans style of evangelism in chapter 18 of "A Quest For Holiness." I'll try to summarize.

Modern Evangelism
1. It is viewed as an "extraordinary and occasional activity" of the church (i.e. Revivals, meetings, special preachers).
2. It is decision driven.
3. It was birthed by Charles Finney in the 1820's who believed in man's ability to chose God. He did not believe in total inability-"the belief that fallen human beings are totally unable to repent, believe, or do anything spiritually good without renewing grace" (pg. 293). Bad theology drives bad evangelism. With this false teaching it is not surprising that his evangelism efforts focused on moving people's will and emotions at the expense of rightly handling the word of truth.

Puritan Evangelism
1. There was a deep conviction that "the conversion of a sinner is a gracious sovereign work of divine power" (pg. 294). The puritans loved using the term effectual calling. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, answer 31, defines effectual calling as: "the work of God's Spirit whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our will, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel." There are three aspects of effectual calling.

• a. It is "a work of saving grace." "It is not something man can do for himself or for another...the elect sinner is brought by the Holy Spirit into a real, vital, personal union with his covenant Head and Redeemer. It is thus a work of free mercy on God's part" (pg. 295).

• b. It is "a work of divine power." Through the preaching of the Word of God the Holy Spirit enlightens and convicts the mind and births new life in the depths of the heart. "Ministers knock at the door of men's hearts, the Spirit comes with a key and opens the door. Grace is irresistible, not because it drags sinners to Christ against their will, but because it changes men's hearts SO THAT they 'come most freely, BEING MADE WILLING by grace" (Pg. 295, emphasis mine). The puritans took seriously the passages that man is "DEAD in sin (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13), spiritually impotent (Jn 3:3, 5; 6:45; Rom 8:7; 1 Cor 2:14), radically depraved, sin's helpless slave (Rom 3:9; 6:20-22)" (Pg. 296).

• c. Effectual Calling is "a work of divine freedom." "Only God can do it effect it, and he does so at his own pleasure" (Pg. 296). Romans 9:16 says, "So then it depends not on human will or exertion, BUT ON GOD, who has mercy" (emphasis mine). Why did God forbid the preaching of the gospel in Asia or Bithynia (see Acts 16:9)? Why did God save Peter and not Judas? Johnathon Edwards defines God's sovereignty as "his absolute right of disposing of all creatures according to his own pleasure" (pg. 297). "The puritans taught that knowledge and conviction of one's sin, in its guilt, pollution, and ugliness, and of God's displeasure of it, must precede faith, since no one will come to Christ to be saved from sin till he or she knows from what sins salvation is needed" (pg. 298). The puritans would never counsel a person to flee to Christ unless there was evidence of a desire to flee from sin and a knowledge of specific sins commited. They were very cautious of creating "gospel-hypocrites." "There must be contrition before conversion can result" (pg. 299).
  

Tract Ideas

Tract Ideas

Last night we met after evangelism and discussed writing a tract. Please comment about any of these and give me feedback. This is just the beginning of writing a tract. May Christ be glorified!
Content of Tract (We want to be faithful to the whole gospel. How can we better articulate and communicate the gospel?)

• Creator-God has rights over our life.
• Man was created in the image of God. We were created to be in an intimate, worshipful relationship with God. Man longs to fill the relational void.
• Sin is a failure to worship God for His goodness.

• A failure to treasure God above all things (The lawyer asked Jesus, “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.” Matthew 22:37)

• The law shows us our rebellion against God. It must be in a tract.
• What is repentance?
• Address the difference between faith and intellectual ascent. What is true faith? Jesus must be presented as more than just a “problem solver.” Is Jesus the treasure in the field that causes us to sell all and buy that field (“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.” Matthew 13:44). Jesus calls us to a life of worshipping him and following him.

• You can’t follow someone you don’t know. (This addresses the relational aspect as well).

• We need to have the righteous life of Christ given to us. Imputed righteousness must be a part of the tract.
• Resurrection (New life, defeat over sin, death, hell, Satan, and the stamp of approval of Christ be God and sinless). Any other ideas?
• Jesus is coming back to judge the world (“But now God commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man (Christ Jesus) whom he has appointed” Acts 17:30-31)

Various Outreach Avenues

• Build a website that has links to tracts. As unbelievers click on these tracts they would get the gospel message and there would also be FAQ’s (what about evolution? Etc.) that would link to websites with answers, like Ravi Zacharias’ site.
• This website would also have links to local churches that are Christ-exalting and bible-saturated. We need to better connect unbelievers to solid churches. This is one way.
• Make business cards with the web address and a verse (“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” 2 Cor. 5:20)

Waiting on the Lord

Waiting on the Lord can be one of the greatest challenges that we face as Christians. Recently God has been helping to find comfort in His sovereignty over my life. Knowing that He is in complete control has helped me to trust Him more. Psalms 37:4-7 says, " Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (5) Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. (6) He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (7) Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself...it only leads to evil!"

It is when we delight in our heavenly Father's will for our lives that we are freed from anxiety and worry. God promises to only give us what is good for us (Romans 8:28). He is a faithful Father who will act on your behalf, even when the path seems so mysterious and dark.

Will you commit your way to Jesus this day? Will you surrender all of your plans into the loving arms of a gracious Savior. If you are born-again by God's grace then God's plan is only good for you. May you cling to God's promises of goodness and mercy.

In Christ's love,
Justin