Means of Grace - Lesson 4

Giving (Continuation of Worship Discussion)
Giving of material blessings is part of our worship as we acknowledge that God provides for us in abundance so we can give things away to bless others. We can’t view this as a way to “obtain the gift of God with money” (Acts 8:20) or we’ll be subject to correction as Simon the Sorcerer was. You can’t buy God’s blessing. However, God does bless us as we give to others. It gives us a chance to be like our Father by giving to others.

You need to participate joyfully and not under compulsion (2 Corinthians 9:7) for this Means of Grace to provide the benefits in your life that you would like. God gives joyfully and without compulsion and so should we. God also sends His rain on the just and unjust and a portion of our giving can be to people who don’t necessarily deserve it. I still remember a non-Christian who told me that he wouldn’t give blood because the might give it to a crook or some other undeserving person. I think he was just scared to give blood but I’m glad God doesn’t only give to the deserving since there are none righteous and no one deserves salvation. It is good to give when others don’t know that you gave. We have lots of chances to be generous to family, friends, and strangers. It is an attitude adjustment that we are continually challenged with. Our sin nature will drift us toward selfishness and the Holy Spirit will graciously change us so that we are more like our Father.

This week, in addition to your giving this morning in the worship service, give something to someone else and, if possible, do it in a way that they will be unable to figure out who gave the gift. Do this to worship God who gave to you when you didn’t know Him.

Church Discipline
I guess I’d just as soon dodge this topic because I’ve rarely seen Church Discipline work as a Means of Grace. However, it promotes holiness and therefore, by definition, it is a Means of Grace. Pascal really hit the nail on the head when he said, “Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness (Blaise Pascal; 1623-1662). This difference between piety and goodness becomes intertwined with any discussion of church discipline and typically the piety part starts to poison the process.

What is supposed to happen is that when the church stands up for righteousness and calls sin as sin then the sinner in their midst, in response to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, experiences “godly grief” that leads to salvation without regret (2 Corinthians 7:10). I’ve only rarely been in a position in which I’d guess that things were done rightly with regard to discipline. Sometimes things go on behind the scenes and that is good and I don’t know about it. However, no “good” comes of church discipline unless the Holy Spirit is moving in the lives of both the folks called on to stand for righteousness. When the motive is piety (in the sense used by Pascal) then only friction and trouble result. The problem is in both those who believe themselves to be pious and those who are sinning (and probably consider themselves pious as well).

God makes it clear that we are simply participating with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 5:4 and 4:19–20; Matthew 16:19 and 18:18–20). It isn’t an option for us to consider but this is something we are called to as a church. It would be best if we didn’t think of it as something we dread and avoid with all the energy we can muster. 

We have found it much more comfortable to focus on not being judged (Matthew 7:1) that we have forgotten what the verse means because justifying sin is more comfortable than confronting it. This is not an irrelevant topic for Baptists. We’ve (a few hundred years ago) known how to deal with these Scriptures. At one time what the Bible said about right and wrong was used for biblical correction, encouragement, rebuke, and even excommunication or dis-fellowshiping. We tend to argue about church style and avoid sin and doctrine. That is not typical on a historic basis for our denomination. We are currently in a culture that tends to allow each individual to interpret biblical commands as they see fit and minimizes or eliminates any corporate confessions of faith (Like the London Baptist Confession in 1689).

Now we don’t like conflict but discipline has positive connotations too. For example, discipline and discipleship are joined. We have our memory scriptures as a discipline to train our minds. Bible study and prayer are disciplines.

It is the negative forms of discipline that we don’t care for and that require some confrontation with sin. They include warning, rebuke, admonition, and disfellowshiping someone in response to sin. Both the positive disciplines and negative disciplines are Means of Grace in the way they affect the Church and individuals within the Church. The objective of the Holy Spirit is always for the good of the Church and never to create a piety that festers into self righteousness. We also never are in the position of condemning a person’s soul (Jesus’ point when He said, “Judge not”).

Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I won’t be scared because of His rod (of correction) and staff (of direction). God will correct me. He will discipline me. He will use the church most of the time (I hope since I’d prefer that to direct confrontation with Him). All of God’s correction is redemptive in nature.

Not only is the individual redeemed but the fellowship is to be purified. If I am ever convicted of a crime (like murder or theft or even willfully lying on my tax return) then I am hoping that you as a fellowship will take away my membership. Even if I am innocent I will be disappointed in you as a fellowship if you don’t remove me from membership. It is a purity issue for the local Church. After I make restitution and show evidence of repentance for a suitable period of time (years I expect) then I’d hope that you might reconsider my membership.

A positive corollary to redemption of the individual is the protection or restoration of the corporate witness of the church in the community after being soiled by a publicly known sin committed by a church member.

Hebrews 12:5-8
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“ My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is
treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

God encourages us to take discipline seriously and remember that God’s motivation is love. That encouragement would apply to both the positive and negative aspects of discipline and we should certainly be humble and cautious when God has us in the role of either recipient or administrator of discipline.

Hebrews 12:9-11
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Lack of discipline within a family is not love. This Scripture actually states that discipline is a means of Grace since it is in our lives so that we can share God’s holiness and since it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Hebrews 12:12-16
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Therefore is a key word for understanding the flow and context of Scripture. In this case it joins discipline as a Means of Grace to hope and actions to purify our life. Peace and holiness are goals for the Body of Christ and we are to guard against bitterness towards others and against immorality and unholy behavior. Discipline is supposed to be the foundation for these works of Grace in our lives.

Matt 18:15-17
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

I’ve seen this Scripture applied once in a fellowship where I was. The Pastorate had a case of sexual immorality that progressed to the point at which the person was asked to stand up and the congregation was told they were living in sin and that they were to break off fellowship with the person. This was an act of love since this person was in a very dangerous position. It was certainly a mild correction compared to the correction that God would eventually bring in the life of a Christian or the judgment waiting someone who dies without Christ.

Of course the “piety” versus “good” issue will raise it’s head if we are not submitted to the Holy Spirit. If we remember that our righteousness is as filthy rags then we will consider our own hearts and keep them with diligence. I think we easily forget when we are being used to correct someone that the temptation to our heart is less likely to be to the sin we are correcting than to the sin of pride and self righteousness. When I or my brother were sinning against our father (and on the rare occasion we were not in cahoots) all I could really do was tell my brother what I knew was right (and he did too) and remove myself from his presence if he was going to continue. I could try to stop him by force but then we’d generally both end up subject to discipline from my father.

If you love a brother in Christ you’ll break fellowship if they are in unrepentant sin. You must not give the impression that sin is OK or you’ll be making crooked paths for your feet and that which is weak will be damaged. A whole fellowship can be subject to discipline if they neglect to identify sin.

1 Corinthians 5:1-2
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

We need to see the sin as a corporate problem and not just a personal failing. Lack of dealing with sin is a cause for mourning not pride.

1 Corinthians 5:3-8
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul was in a position with regard to purity and goodness (not just a self righteousness) that he could state that they needed to act on his behalf to deliver the person for discipline for the sinners good. We also covered the Lord’s Supper as a Means of Grace and you can see how it is polluted by ignoring sin.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

This makes it pretty clear where we are supposed to see purity. Rather than seek purity and holiness in the unsaved we are supposed to seek in it, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Church (Duh!). Even someone who is neglects the Gospel to the extent that they do not accept Biblical teaching is to be treated as a wayward brother and we are to separate from a person like that (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). Our diligence is supposed to have a positive impact on such a person. We are also supposed to be cautious with divisive individuals (Titus 3:10-11).

So what is church discipline? You can divide it into the aspects that are designed to develop and create a strong church (teaching, preaching, and organization) and aspects that are designed to correct sinfulness (correction).

So on the one hand we try to prepare hearts proactively by preaching and teaching the word, modeling and mentoring the Christian life, and being responsible about who joins the church.

On the other hand we correct behavior reactively when sin is present within the Body of Christ by exercising judgment for behavior that is unacceptable for a member of the Body according to Scripture. We warn someone about sin, we hope to correct wrong attitudes, we may be called on to rebuke a sinning person, and we may have to dis-fellowship or treat another person as if they were not part of the Body of Christ if they persist in sin. That would include removal from membership roles.

In the midst of the reactive process, motives that satisfy our flesh can’t be driving the process. We must only be motivated by a sincere concern for the one who is in sin, for the purity of the Body of Christ, and for our own hearts so that we keep them with diligence before, during, and after the issue of sin in the church has been handled.

We really must deal with these things so that members know what it means to be a Christian living a life rightly as a member of the local church as well as providing a faithful representation of what it means to be a Christian to the world around us.

The reasons for not practicing corrective church discipline are sins of the flesh in the Body of Christ. We take the easy route and we can be more popular if we ignore sin and please people. Of course that process is only effective for a while and then blows up in our face … by the Grace of God.

My Mind and the Enemy of My Soul

Richard Dennis is an old friend from Raleigh and when we were discussing God’s sovereignty and providence I stated that Satan can’t read our mind. Richard rightly called the question on a Scriptural basis and asked how I could know that from Scripture. So I started to ruminate on that and look at Scripture to see if I had a biblical reason for my assumption.

One of my first reactions was simply to associate this ability to know human thoughts with God’s omniscience. God’s omniscience is one of His incommunicable attributes of God so you could argue that the ability to know human thoughts is off limits on that basis. However, you could also argue that knowing human thoughts is much more limited than omniscience and therefore outside that argument. I think that Richard was really just questioning Satan’s ability to read our minds if he is in the same time and place that we are. So we really need to think further about how Scripture addresses this topic.

David encouraged Solomon to, “know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought (1 Chronicles 28:9) . So here Scripture is affirming that God searches all hearts and knows every thought. I don’t think we’d see Scripture stressing this ability of God in this way if it was as skill shared with His creatures. However, perhaps you could still argue at this point that while God knows all hearts and knows every plan and thought we may still have creatures like fallen angels who can know hearts, plans, and thoughts when they are in the same time and place that those thoughts are being thought of.

In Psalm 64:6-7 when speaking of evil men who plot injustice in secret, Scripture indicates that although, “the inward mind and heart of a man are deep!” God is aware and “God shoots his arrow at them; they are wounded suddenly.” But are they too deep for other creatures to know or are they just exceptionally difficult to know? We don’t pray for other creatures to search us and know us but could we if we were ill advised. In prayer we cry, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24)! This is a prayer of surrender since Scripture (even in this Psalm) makes it clear that our hearts and minds are transparent to God (Psalm 139:1-6).

Scriptures further clarifies God’s position with additional clarity is found in Jeremiah 9-10. God first tells us in verse nine that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick: who can understand it?” This begs the answer that no one can know it. However, God continues and declares “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” In my opinion it is hard to argue at this point that God would stressing His ability in knowing hearts but that He also gave this ability to creatures in a lesser way. You would have to say that the answer was incomplete and that the question should be answered that some angelic creatures can understand hearts. God repeats this declaration of His ability in indicates that it is a sign in the Book of Revelation stating, “And all the churches will know that I am He who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve (Rev 2:23). So Scripture seems to repeatedly use this ability to search hearts and minds as an attribute of God.

Jesus was able to know the thoughts of another but Jesus had both a human nature and a divine nature (Matthew 9:4; 12:25; Mark 2:8; Luke 6:8; 11:17). Two complete natures without mixture or confusion. Jesus divine nature was clearly able to know the heart of anyone. I think it is also important to consider that the result of one of the Gifts of the Spirit like a Word of Knowledge in which God reveals something we could not otherwise know. This doesn’t mean that we know the heart of another directly but simply that God has revealed something to us. Jesus could know the thoughts of another since Scripture says, “But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in our hearts? (Matthew 8:4). We see the disciples in a situation with a similar need when confronted with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). However, it seems the Holy Spirit told Peter what he needed to know but it does not look like the ability to know the heart of another creature or to read another’s mind was given to Peter.

I think an example from Daniel’s life is the most instructive. When Nebuchadnezzar wanted to know his dream those who served anyone but God could not do it.

Daniel 2:20-23
Daniel answered and said:
“ Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.
To you, O God of my fathers,
I give thanks and praise,
for you have given me wisdom and might,
and have now made known to me what we asked of you,
for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”

Daniel says wisdom belongs to God and that He gives wisdom and knowledge. He reveals the deep and hidden things. God is the source of wisdom and knowledge. If the enemy of our souls could know anything of what is in our heart or dreams it would have to be revealed to the creature by the Creator. Daniel went on to say that “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show the king the mystery that the king has asked” and this could not be true if Satan could read minds. If he could read minds it would be a trivial matter to monitor the king’s dream and report it to a enchanter, magician, or astrologer.

The enemy of our souls is a good observer and knows the evil in men from thousands of years of observation but our thoughts are known to God and not to him.

Means of Grace - Lesson 3

3a. Prayer

Most of us are probably guilty of the sin of prayerlessness at least some of the time. It is a Means of Grace and a discipline that I struggle with. Our lives become crowded and we can allow urgent things to take the time that should be spent on important things like prayer that rarely have a great sense of urgency associated with them. We see prayer as a Means of Grace mentioned as such in Hebrews 4:16 when Paul says, “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.”

Prayer is vital to our lives as a way of growing in the Grace of God. Instead of thinking of prayer as a Means of Grace we tend to take the Janis Joplin view and think of prayer as a means of getting stuff. Janis sang, “Oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?" Now Janis sang the song tongue in cheek and I’m not sure she was a Christian so I’d cut her some slack for theological fuzziness. The problem is that many Christians approach prayer in this manner. We often pray as if we are the builders and God is a delivery truck to bring us what we need to do what we want. Those who are “spiritual” among us may actually consult God to get His input prior to developing and pursuing a plan of action and then we expect Him to deliver what we need on time so that we can do something for Him. That method really doesn’t work well. In fact, although it is a common method, it is a painful way to proceed. God is patient and faithful to correct us and allow us to eventually reflect on the importance of working under His Lordship.

Ambrose (339-397) pointed out the importance of getting the Lordship of Christ central in our life before praying:

Jesus is our mouth, through which we speak to the Father; He is our eye, through which we see the Father; He is our right hand through which we offer ourselves to the Father. Unless He intercedes, there is no intercourse with God.
... Ambrose (339-397)

Without the Holy Spirit we’ll pray unwisely but God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us. Romans 8:26 tells us that we don’t know how to pray as we should but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Not only that but verse 27 tells us that God in His omniscience searching our hearts within the context of the Trinity knows us and therefore the Holy Spirit’s intercession is informed by our needs and God’s will. It is once again an Amazing Grace that what should rightly cause us to tremble before God (His knowledge of our hearts) instead results in perfect intercession for us.

We have the great privilege to cooperate in prayer allowing the Holy Spirit to direct us. This is a Means of Grace that can grow us up in the Lord if we learn to pray with a right heart realizing that we aren’t delivering a shopping list and that we are in submission to the Lord and not He to us.

A.J. Gossip (1873 – 1954) was a Scottish theologian and preacher who has been widely quoted. One thing he said about prayer was that:

Of course, it all depends upon what we are praying for. If we are whimpering, and sniveling, and begging to be spared the discipline of life that is sent to knock some smatterings of manhood into us, the answer to that prayer may never come at all. Thank God! Though, indeed, it is not easy to say that, with honesty. Still, it may never come at all, thank God. … if you are not bleating to get off, but asking to be given grace and strength to see this through with honor, "the very day" you pray that prayer, the answer always comes.
... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope
[1944]

Once we have our heads on straight about who is Lord of our life then we need to never forget that we have been commanded to ask (Matthew 7:7). However, even when we are commanded to ask we are reminded that our Father will not give us something bad for us. Answered prayers will be good for us (Matthew 7:11). The Book of James challenges us by asking:

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. (James 4:1-4, ESV)

So our attitudes and prayer are closely linked but this is in part just another way of saying that prayer is a Means of Grace. The process of praying is purifying. If you are unhappy with God you may as well tell Him and pray about it. It will not be news to Him.

Now Jesus specifically stated that we were to pray in our rooms individually with the doors closed (Matthew 6:5-6) and that we should not repeat ourselves (Matthew 6:7). Every so often someone will get really dogmatic about these Scriptures. However, using Scripture to interpret Scripture as we are supposed to do and engaging our brain at the same time we realize that Jesus is talking about private prayer. If you decided to take your quiet time to the streets so that everyone could see what a spiritual giant you are and wish they could be like you then you’ve got a problem. Jesus was not addressing the issue of corporate prayer found in other Scriptures (Acts 4:24-30; Acts 12:5)

Prayer

1) Our Father in Heaven
I praise You God for taking me out of the kingdom of darkness and placing me into the Kingdom of Your Dear Son.
"Our Father" reminds me that I'm part of the Church and I pray for those in the Church under persecution & for unity in the Body of Christ
I confess that I was lost and without hope when You, by grace alone, saved me.
I thank You for the incomprehensible Love that speaks the command to call You Father and the unbounded grace that makes it so.

2) Hallowed be your name
I pray your Holiness would bring a conviction of sin in my life.
I pray that love for your holy name would bring true and lasting repentance in my heart. I pray I would hate sin and especially the sins remaining in my life.
Help me not grieve the Holy Spirit in my actions or in my thought life.
Let there be no idols in my physical world or in my emotional world that compete for the place that is yours far above all else and even life itself.

3) Your Kingdom come
Help me yield my will to you.
Grant me the grace to participate in the establishment of Your Lordship in my life.
Help me not struggle to remain lord of my life. Help me trust You in everything and grant me the grace to yield to Your rule rather than struggle against it.
Even so, come quickly Lord.

4) Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Establish righteousness in the earth
Let all my actions be in accord with Your will
Especially I pray for:
a) Secular Government
b) My Employer/es
c) Family
d) Church Family
e) Church Leadership
f) The lost I meet each day & divine appointments

5) Give me each day my daily bread.
Let me remember that all my needs are supplied by Your hand.
Every bite of food and every stitch of clothes is given to me by You.
Please don't let me trust in the strength of men or in my ability to "take care of myself".
Please help me be a good steward of all the material & spiritual blessings you give me.

6) Forgive me for my sins for I also forgive everyone who sins against me.
Father I confess that my heart is often far from You and that in light of the mercy and grace You have poured out on me that I am in need of forgiveness again
Thank you God for the mercy that You have shown me.
Let mercy be part of my character that others can see You in me.
However, give me the grace to forgive without regard to the attitude of others.

7) Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from the evil one.
Father I am still prone to wander and I long to be free of my sin nature.
I confess that I need the Holy Spirit to keep me from temptation and be my preservation.
You are the One True God who keeps me and nothing take me from your hand.

8) For Yours is the kingdom & the power & the glory forever. Amen.
Today Your name is at stake in my life
Your Kingdom is first today
My answer to You Lord is yes & amen

3b. Worship

It is natural for us to worship God in response to His revelation to us in Scripture and in nature. The worship is to be “in spirit” (John 4:23–24; Phil. 3:3) so simply showing up without being engaged in the process is not what we are commanded to do.

God often uses times in which we worship to minister to us. For example, Paul and Barnabas were set apart by God (Acts 13:2) after a worship service and even in the Old Testament the Temple was filled with God’s glory following worship (2 Chron. 5:13–14) and we are told that God will draw near to us as we draw near to Him (James 4:8).

One odd error that seems to have resulted in a number of odd problems in the modern church is the way in which worship has become a commodity for consumption by the congregation rather than an offering of worship to God. Partly this is because we perceive all things as commodities that we pass judgment on. We focus on worship style and forget the focus isn’t on our preferences it is on God. I’ve been in worship services that have ranged from contemporary to classical music that have been mountaintops or valleys depending on the hearts of those worshiping. I guarantee that it is not the style that creates worship. That means you aren’t scared of new songs since God continues to give new songs but that your worship isn’t sanctified by old songs. Content is lacking in some worship songs and you should always evaluate the theology of the songs your singing. Some contemporary songs lack content some hymnal music lacks content. There isn’t anything wrong with singing, in essence, “I love Jesus” over and over but God is to be praised and worshiped and there is great depth in His revelation to us. If God has revealed that all blessings flow from Him, if God has revealed Himself in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost then why not use a hymn that Baptists have for over 300 years?

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. (Thomas Ken, 1674)

This is the last verse of a longer hymn. That has wonderful verses full of content.

For example here are three verses:

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

In conversation be sincere;
Keep conscience as the noontide clear;
Think how all seeing God thy ways
And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say,
That all my powers, with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite.

When this hymn was written only Scripture could be sung as hymns. It was considered sinful and/or blasphemous to write new lyrics for use in church. This hymn and several others were written for the young men at Winchester College with strict instructions that they only use them in their rooms for private devotions. It is really ironic that the last verse is known as the Doxology and is arguably the most commonly used piece of music in public worship.

We have got to keep the heart attitude right. Otherwise we argue from a consumer’s point of view about right and wrong worship with focus on style rather than substance. New isn’t better because it is new and old isn’t better because it is old. Whole churches can be built to serve consumers with content ignored until they collapse like a house of cards. I’ve already been there and done that. The character of revival is a God centered worship service.


Giving
Giving of material blessings is part of our worship as we acknowledge that God provides for us in abundance so we can give things away to bless others. We can’t view this as a way to “obtain the gift of God with money” (Acts 8:20) or we’ll be subject to correction as Simon the Sorcerer was. However, God does bless us as we give to others. It gives us a chance to be like our Father by giving to others.

You do need to participate joyfully and not under compulsion (2 Cor. 9:7). God gives that way and so should we. God also sends His rain on the just and unjust and a portion of our giving can be to people who don’t necessarily deserve it. I still remember a non-Christian who told me that he wouldn’t give blood because the might give it to a crook or some other undeserving person. I think he was just scared to give blood but I’m glad God doesn’t only give to the deserving since there are none righteous and no one deserves salvation. It is good to give when others don’t know that you gave.

This week, in addition to your giving this morning, give something to someone else and, if possible, do it in a way that they will be unable to figure out who gave the gift. Do this to worship God who gave to you when you didn’t know Him.

Means of Grace - Lesson 2

2a. The Sacraments - Baptism

Since we are Baptists we are pretty big on baptism. Jesus told us to baptize (Matthew 28:19) so it is logical to assume that we’d be blessed in the process of baptism.

At some point after our salvation it is natural to obediently follow Jesus’ instruction and be baptized. It can happen fast (like the Ethiopian Eunuch) or it can not happen at all (like the thief on the Cross).

Baptism is something that we participate in with clear Scriptural meaning.

Romans 6:3-4
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Colossians 2:12
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

God gives us a way to participate in a physical way in a sacrament that mirrors what happened in a spiritual way. There is nothing magical about the water in the baptismal and yet God uses the process to minister Grace.

Acts 8:39
And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

Acts 16:30-34
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

If we over react to the idea that Grace is automatically imparted apart from faith (a la Roman Catholic teaching) then we’ll start teaching that nothing special happens in baptism and that would be a shame and we would not really be in submission to Scripture. We don’t need to under value tradition in order to submit to Scripture. Since we are part of the larger Body of Christ we value tradition highly but we recognize that it must be measured against God’s revelation in Scripture (like the noble Bereans). In fact, tradition has a large role in our interpretation of Scripture.

Alister McGrath, writing in The Science of God, develops 2 important aspects of tradition in the Church. They are:

1) Considered as a process of transmission, the notion of tradition embraces far more than the mere oral transfer of ideas from one individual to another. The process of inter-generational transmission of the faith has been institutionalized.

2) Considered as transmitted reality, tradition includes institutions, practices, systems of symbols, values and beliefs. It is unacceptable to limit the notion of tradition merely to ideas; what is passed on from one generation to another are ways of thinking, existing, seeing, living, belonging, and behaving."

We need to focus back on the rest of Christ’s Body as we formulate our statement of what we believe is true about our expression of baptism as Baptists. We must acknowledge that God has been directing the Church through the centuries. This is, in part, what gives tradition value in our lives as Christians. The knowledge that most of the Church throughout most of the Church’s existence has practiced paedobaptism means that Baptists should approach believer’s baptism with great humility rather than hubris. It also means that I must have a view of baptism that is consistent with the rest of the Church. If I formulate a view of baptism that places me in the position of arguing that the baptisms of most of the Church throughout most of history are invalid then I would be arguing that God left the Church in an unacceptable position with regard to baptism for centuries. To insinuate that those individuals whom God has used to build up the Church, establish sound doctrine, and encourage fidelity to Scripture were not saved because of the method of their salvation is absurd. In fact, it strains credulity to think that we denominationally new kids on the block, by the Grace of God, have been given a more appropriate means of baptism; however, that is what I believe based on my reading of Scripture.

So, as a supporter of believer’s baptism, I can’t argue that paedobaptism is invalid. I can argue that I think Scripture supports believer’s baptism and therefore I think believer’s baptism is an application of the sacrament that is more consistent with the truth provided by revelation in Scripture. If a person were to desire to join our fellowship who was baptized as an infant would we then “require” or “recommend” baptism as an adult believer? We as a congregation of believers require baptism for membership but we don’t mean to infer that we think that believers who follow a different tradition are not saved.


2b. The Sacraments - Lord’s Supper.

Like baptism, the Lord’s Supper is given to us as a Means of Grace but the believer’s faith is a necessary part of the sacrament. So we reject the idea that the sacrament works apart from faith but we don’t want to fall into the other error of thinking of the sacrament purely as a ritual we just participate in.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

There is a real spiritual fellowship with Christ in His divine nature during communion and it is therefore dangerous to take communion without following the biblical directions for spiritual purity.

1 Corinthians 11:27-32
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

We expect God to minister to us in Communion if we are thinking rightly. So we should be expectant as we partake Communion. It is not just a ritual. Notice that really even those who are weak and ill and those who were called home were the recipients of Grace since God did this to discipline the Church so that the Church would not be condemned with the world.

This topic also begs a brief discussion of the historic discussion on the nature of Christ’s presence in communion. I’ll try to cover the range of interpretations this morning. The Roman Catholics had drifted gradually by tradition into a belief called transubstantiation. The belief has some roots in Aristotle’s philosophy. Aristotle thought that each “thing” had and essence or substance that was the real thing and then it had an accidens or the perceivable qualities of a “thing” and normally the substance and accidens are in agreement. Aristotle would say my beagle has probably has both the substance and accidens of a beagle but we can’t tell for sure and of course there is the perfect essence of a beagle and she is a particular representation of a particular beagle but of course she has some odd quirks. So why would I be talking about this on Sunday morning? Well I like beagles but Aristotle’s idea after a thousand years influenced the church in a bad way and brothers of ours were killed over some of these ideas. The Roman Catholic Church teaches what is called transubstantiation with regard to communion. In the Roman Catholic view, during communion, the substance or essence of the wine and wafer become the physical body of Christ but the accidens remains wine and wafer. So they teach a double miracle, the wine and wafer are miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Christ but miraculously the accidens (perceivable qualities) remain the same. So when they lift up the elements they worship the elements. So I’d be uncomfortable as an reformed or old school Baptist taking communion in a Roman Catholic Church since they worship the elements and actually teach that a new real sacrifice of Christ to God is made.

Luther struggled with this as he waded among alligators and tried to come up with a better understanding of what Scripture taught apart from Aristotle. Unfortunately Luther never really got to think it through in detail and settled on what has been called consubstantiation although Luther didn’t use the term and Lutherans don’t like it. Luther rejected the Aristotelian formulation in the communion that Roman Catholic doctrine but he still taught that there was a true corporeal (or physical) presence but that we don’t perceive it. So he made a baby step away from a confused doctrine but only a baby step.

The real problem with Luther’s idea was that he taught that Christ was present physically in more than one place at a time. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD clarified the Biblical teaching that Christ has 2 complete natures, fully God and fully Man, without mixture or confusion. Well to be physically present in two places would require a mixture of Christ’s physical and spiritual natures.

I think the Biblical context would have eventually have corrected Luther if he had more time to think about it. When Jesus re-signified the Passover Supper into Communion it seems obvious to me that Christ’s presence in the elements is spiritual rather than physical. He is sitting there in front of the disciples and says that the bread is His body and that the wine is His blood but obviously it isn’t physically His body or blood because He is the one passing it out and he hasn’t lost any blood or body parts.

Calvin stressed the problems that Luther’s ideas resulted in and taught that Christ was present spiritually in communion. This, for me is why Communion is such a vital Means of Grace. It is a real thing for me.

Now I need to mention that some Baptists have followed the teaching of Ulrich Zwingli. He taught that Communion is a memorial meal but is only a memorial and that Christ is not really present in the elements. I think Zwingli goes to far at least in the way his ideas are typically presented today. Jesus didn’t say that Elements were to remind us or testify of His blood and body. Jesus said the Elements were His body and blood. In addition, to partake unworthily of the Elements is a dangerous thing that can result in illness and death. Now that could be God’s judgment independent of a spiritual content of the Elements but then you would expect similar warnings and Scriptural evidence in baptism and yet we don’t really see the same type of warnings.

In communion we are told that “anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” So you ask God what that means and make sure that you’re in agreement with Scripture when you take communion.

Means of Grace - Lesson 1

What are the Means of Grace?

The Means of Grace are those things in our lives that God uses to give additional blessing. We are expected to participate in our sanctification and God calls us to make our lives holy and pleasing to Him. Consequently any means of facilitating the process would seem to be naturally attractive to us. However, our sin nature and the enemy of our souls may provide effective obstacles to what would be a natural pursuit for an otherwise rational being.

For example, if you were in a war you would naturally want to know what weapons were available to you and what practices would keep you safe and make you stronger. Only someone whose pride made them think they were fully equipped or who was distracted and maybe forgot they were in a war would neglect the pursuit of being “fully equipped” for every battle.

Everything we have as a blessing in our life is fundamentally undeserved. Grace means an undeserved blessing or gift from God. We are saved by Grace and perfected by Grace and yet God gives us some means or methods that will put us in a place to get more of what we don’t deserve. So while it isn’t rational to neglect these things we often do.



How many Means of Grace are there?

The Holy Spirit certainly uses many different things in our life to bless us and each time it is not because we deserve it. But in the context of making lists it is typical to list the Means of Grace with special reference to Fellowship in the Body of Christ. In short, most people relate them to the church.

Some people have limited their list to preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. Charles Hodge adds prayer to that list. However, Grudem has a longer list and I’ve combined some of his topics that seemed similar to me to make a different list. I think sometimes it depends on how short of a list you like and I’m sure that a person’s biases creep in. However, if we realize that all we are doing is forming a framework for thinking about these things then I think we won’t worry so much about having the right list as we will about finding those things God uses and ordering our lives to cooperate with God’s Grace.

I’ll also try to discuss both things found in fellowship with the Body of Christ and those things that are of private use. Of course things that are of private use such as prayer and bible study also have use in fellowship with other believers.

So my list has five topics and is as follows:
1) Teaching of the Word (including Evangelism and Bible Study)
2) Sacraments (Baptism and The Lord’s Supper)
3) Prayer and Worship (including Giving)
4) Church discipline
5) Fellowship (Including Spiritual gifts and Ministry to Individuals)

The Holy Spirit works within each of these activities to pour out Grace in our lives.

As an aside … technically Roman Catholics view the Means of Grace as means of salvation. So in the Roman Catholic view the means make a person more fit to receive justification. Remember that Scripture teaches that we are justified by Christ’s Blood once for all when we are first saved and so the Roman Catholic teaching is a tradition that developed as a departure from Scripture. In addition, the Roman Catholic view would restrict the Means to the Sacraments and limit them to the clergy. Another teaching that I find particularly odd is that technically the Roman Catholic doctrine is that the sacraments impart grace whether or not there is faith on the part of the minister or the recipient. We do not follow that teaching and teach that the person receiving Grace by these Means of Grace has their “lights on” and “somebody is at home”.


1. Teaching of the Word (including evangelism and Bible study). In the Scriptures that follow listen to what the Word says about the Word.

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

1 Corinthians 1:22-24
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

James 1:18
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

1 Peter 1:23
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

2 Timothy 3:14-17
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Acts 20:32
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Matthew 4:3-4
And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3).

Deuteronomy 32:47
For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

2 Peter 1:19-21
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 19:7-8
The law of the Lord is perfect,reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

Isaiah 55:10
“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.

Jeremiah 23:29
Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Scripture calls the Word a sword (Ephesians 6:17) and says

Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The word is so important to the life of the Church that Scripture often refers to the growth of the Church as the growth of the Word (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 13:49). The importance of the Word can’t be overstated in keeping us from standing on the traditions of men and keeping us standing on the Rock.

Remember that these effects are not just effects from “official” preaching and teaching. These effects range across all the ways God’s word exists in the world today.

Evangelism is also associated with moves of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4 with vv. 14–36; 4:8, 31; 9:17 with v. 20; 13:9, 52). So evangelism is a means of grace for both those who minister and those who the Holy Spirit makes alive in salvation.

God's Sovereignty and Providence

D.S. Fisher (July 1, 2007 at Gateway Christian Fellowship, Raleigh, NC)

Introduction
Scripture tells us that God is in complete control of all things and that would include things that are hidden and things that I don’t like. The way in which God integrates His will with a world in rebellion to maintain sovereign control and providentially care for me is complicated. You might reasonably ask why we should think about these things. What profit is there when we know that ultimately it is beyond our understanding? Well one reason that should be sufficient is that God tells us these things. So we should respond by paying attention to what scripture tells us about God. He has good reasons for telling us these things and I couldn’t sleep at night or have peace in my life without knowing all things are subject to God.

How has the world attacked this doctrine?
We really don’t have time to take an exhaustive look at the way in which the world has attacked the doctrine of God’s sovereign control of all things be we should mention some of the main responses.

First of all the world may be viewed as a machine. At one time this was a popular world view among scientists. The world was viewed simply as a machine and the way things are on an atomic scale was viewed as determining the way things would be on an atomic scale and then, as an inevitable result, on a macro scale. This results in the “God is Dead” argument because if the world were this way then the concept of God would be dead because we’d just be living in a clockwork universe ticking along without meaning and deterministically. Of course the thing I found shocking about this idea was not that God might be dead because He is big enough to take care of Himself. I found it shocking because it meant that I was dead or at least my concept of myself. If I was a machine then meaning in love and right and wrong were just illusions. However, I know I am because I think and this world view didn’t ever really make much sense to me. Those who embrace this philosophy embrace a deterministic view that results in no meaning and no hope of changing anything since they are just cogs in a machine.

Particularly with the advent of quantum theory the deterministic world view has become somewhat less popular as a fundamentally random universe has been embraced. When this is an atheistic approach it leaves a person without any real meaning in their life. This might be attractive to some folks who tend toward existentialism but meaning is lost and a firm foundation for morals is lacking except from a purely utilitarian point of view. This isn’t really satisfactory but it does give someone with this world view a way to think that they have a real “will” since those with a deterministic world view don’t really have room for a “will” and must consider it an illusion.

How have Religious people stumbled over this?
Religious people have also stumbled over the doctrine of God’s sovereign control and providence in our lives. Deism has been around for a long time and teaches that God created the world and then left it running. This error accepts God as our creator but teaches that God doesn’t have any continuing interaction with creation. Of course this is in direct conflict with God’s revelation in Scripture.

Another popular error is pantheism. In this false teaching, God is viewed as being, in part or in whole, within creation. Consequently, creation would not be able to pass away without diminishing God. This mistake actually makes creation at least partly God and vice versa. However, this is an error and while the heavens declare the glory of God they are not essential to God.

An error that has recently been proposed is that of the “Open God” heresy. Otherwise Bible believing people have stumbled on the idea that God is sovereign and begun to teach that God has a plan but that He doesn’t know for sure what is going to happen. These folks stress certain Scriptures and ignore many others in order to keep the future “open” rather than fixed. In a subtle error they became confused and decided that if God knows the future then it must mean that they don’t really have a will to exercise.

A Key to Remember
I have noticed a problem in presenting Scriptural truth about God’s sovereignty that seems to confuse a large number of individuals. It seems that one key that needs to be kept clearly in mind is that God is both transcendent and immanent. We need to think about these words and the meaning these words have in a theological sense.

Notice that I used the word immanent and not eminent. Eminent would be a person of great stature. Like an eminent philosopher who was a leader and great thinker. But that isn’t what I’m saying. I’m saying immanent. Think of immanent with the name for God as Emanuel. Emanuel means “God with us”. God is immanent. He is with us in the moment. When we suffer a loss God doesn’t just pretend to suffer with us. On the contrary, He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. He is God cooking fish on the side of the Sea of Galilee and making breakfast for His disciples. He lives with us in time throughout our lives as the People of God. We are pretty comfortable with this aspect of God because we live in time and relate to God in a moment by moment way.

God’s transcendence gives us more trouble. In fact, it is so hard to imagine that some folks just stop confessing that God is transcendent. To link this aspect of God to one of His names think of “I am”. When He took the name “I am” he was stressing His being. He is apart from anything thing else. We are dependent for existence on Him. I only exist because God continues my existence. In contrast God exists and is not dependent on anything or anyone for His existence. For example, in the error of pantheism God exists in the universe but God is above and beyond the universe and it could pass away and God would not be diminished. God in His transcendence is not even subject to time. Remember that He created time and is not bound to it. He sees the end from the beginning. He doesn’t “predict” the end from the beginning. He sees the end from the beginning. So when we think of prophecy as a prediction we are simply being anthropomorphic. It is a way for us to relate to God’s foreknowledge but we must remember that God’s Word is sure because He sees it done not because He is predicting the future or we may head off into the “open God” heresy.

Jesus is revealed in Scripture as being fully God and fully man. He has two complete natures without mixture or confusion. So what if I wanted to play chess with Jesus. If I played chess with Jesus in His human nature it would be a fair game. I’d probably make it to about the 10th move and lose interest as is my habit and start to day dream but He would make moves and I would make moves and we would have a game.

However, if Jesus didn’t promise to play in His human nature then I might have a problem. If He was in His transcendent nature he would see the end from the beginning and every move I would make. Although each of my moves would be made freely God would still see them all as if they were done and He would make me lose. At the 10th move, He could even draw me up into His transcendence and show me all my moves beginning to end all freely made and all ineffective against a God who knows all contingencies but knows nothing contingently. That is to say that God knows everything that could happen but He also knows for sure what will happen because He sees it.

Our primary concern should be to make sure that we affirm those things that Scripture affirms. If we find ourselves believing something that is not taught by Scripture or not believing something that is taught by Scripture then we have a problem. One of our most fundamental privileges is to be corrected by God through Scripture and grow in fidelity to His word.

I’ll cover three things that are affirmed by Scripture

1) Preservation – All things continue to exist with God given properties

Christ is causing all things to continue to exist in time (Hebrews 1:3; Nehemiah 9:6; Colossians 1:17) and Scripture uses a word that means to carry or bear along. The word is used for those who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus and of those who brought wine that Jesus had made at the wedding in Cana. In is important to remember that this word is not just a passive permitting to exist but requires an activity on the part of the “carrier”. So God is actively keeping us and all our stuff in existence. In addition he keeps water being water, and people being people, and beagles being beagles. God is so faithful in this that we don’t generally even thank Him for this aspect of his sovereignty. Science is based on this character of God since we assume that the pattern and consistency we see in the Universe is so fixed that we can study it and use the results to predict behavior of parts of creation in the future.

One of my favorite Bible guys is Elihu. He speaks in the book of Job just before God speaks. He gives a “right” answer and, as an aside, his comments to Job are worth studying. He was not one of Job’s comforters that God threatened to judge. Elihu pointed out that about God that, “If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14–15). We take existence a little too much for granted and don’t realize who dependent we are for each moment.


2) God cooperates with all created things in every action (Concurrence)

Not only does God sustain all things but He also must permit or concur with all things. This is a subtle difference but we need to affirm that all things are in God’s control. Scripture tells us that God “accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11).” We don’t see this in a natural way since we simply see natural processes clunking along all around us but Scripture tells us this. Consequently it is by faith in the revelation of Scripture that we understand this.

We can begin to understand the extent of God’s providence by thinking about it in various arenas.

1. Inanimate Creation.

God tells us that He causes things we think of as “natural” to occur. For example, fire, hail, snow, frost, lightning, and storm winds are said to fulfill His command (Psalm 148:8; Job 37:6–13). God directs the stars in the heavens (Job 38:32) and even says that He directs the coming of the morning (Job 38:12; Matt. 5:45). God tells us these things for our comfort. Things happen that are hard to understand and things happen that we don’t want to happen but God assures us that nothing is outside His controls. We can walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death because His rod (weapon) and staff (correction) comfort us.

2. Animals and Plants

God also says that He controls and causes plants to grow (Psalm 104:14) and that in spite of the natural processes in play God is still in control. God also says that He feeds and is aware of the details of wildlife (Psalm 104:27–29; Job 38:39–41; Matt. 6:26; Matt. 10:29). What we see in Scripture is that, even though there are natural processes at work that we can measure and use to explain cause and effect, God still reveals that He is providentially in control.

3. Seemingly “Random” or “Chance” Events.

Mankind has developed statistical procedures to measure and understand “random” and “chance” events and yet God claims control of these events as well (Proverbs 16:33). I still remember taking a statistics class that was taught by a believer who paused one day and said, “You don’t have to believe that the world is random for these things to be useful constructs for understanding the world.” I was shocked because usually we didn’t discuss philosophy as we worked toward a doctorate of philosophy (PhD). Again we see that although we find useful ways of understanding the way things work we still much acknowledge that God is in control. Just because we can think of a natural cause or demonstrate a statistical distribution does not mean that God did not cause it.

6. All Aspects of Our Lives and the Affairs of Nations

It would be hard to overstate the level of dependence that Scripture teaches for us. We are told to ask each day for God to feed us (Matthew 6:11). This is really difficult for us since we work for our food and think of ourselves as feeding ourselves using what we have learned about the world. Only as a result of the Holy Spirit working within us would it make sense to say “my God will supply every need” (Philippians 4:19). God says He was aware of every detail of our lives before our birth (Ps. 139:16).

It naturally isn’t just the individual that is under God’s sovereign control but Scripture also teaches that God controls all the details of human societies Job 12:23; Psalm 22:28; Acts 17:26).


What About Evil?

If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and transcendent and He affirms it by stating that He does cause everything then what is His relationship to evil? Scripture affirms that God can use or cause evil to work for His purposes. God will use an evil man according to his evil nature to accomplish His purposes. However, exactly how God does this is never easy for us to understand and eventually we can only affirm what Scripture affirms. The evil that God uses indirectly is acted out by those who freely oppose God’s commands and God Himself. Many Christians avoid thinking about how God uses evil. Joseph confessed to his brothers that what they meant for evil was used by God for good (Genesis 45:5 and 50:20). His brothers sinned and were subject to God’s judgment and yet they were used by God.

Pharoah is another example of a man who set himself against our transcendent God and was simply used to glorify God. God says that He will harden Pharoah’s heart even before Moses makes it back to Egypt (Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:20; 10:27; 11:10; 14:4; 14:8). It is true that Pharaoh participated in the process (Ex. 8:15, 32; 9:34) but God really hammers away at our proud expectation that we have a will that is able to oppose God in some effective manner.

God will use men to accomplish His purposes. Jonah (who needed lessons from me in procrastination and made a mistake I would never make by running and giving God a moving target) is an illustration of a man who was chucked off a boat by men (Jonah 1:15) but he acknowledged it was God (Jonah 2:3). Both things are true. The men needed to pray that God would not judge them for throwing Jonah overboard. However, Jonah knew what was happening through the willing choices of men.

Even, or especially, the horror of crucifixion of Christ was not outside the sovereign control of God. All the details were ordained by God. We each are responsible for the Christ’s presence on the Cross. Love kept him there. On the Cross Christ prayed for those crucifying Him (Luke 23:34) and the impact of His prayers are seen in the demeanor of His crucifiers as they left Golgotha (Luke 23:48). The church at Jerusalem recognized that all that happened was ordained by God (Acts 4:27).

So to maintain a high fidelity to Scripture we need to affirm that;
1) God uses all things to fulfill His purposes and even uses evil for His glory and for our good (Romans 8:28),
2) God never does evil and is not to be blamed for evil (Luke 22:22; Matthew 26:24; Mark 14:21; Matthew 18:7; James 1:13-14). Calvin (in his less than concise manner) heads a chapter, “God So Uses the Works of the Ungodly, and So Bends Their Minds to Carry Out His Judgments, That He Remains Pure From Every Stain.”
3) God is right to blame us and judge us as moral creatures for the evil that we do (Isaiah 66:3-4; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 9:19-20)
4) Evil is real and not an illusion so we must never do evil since it will harm us and others (Matthew 6:13; James 5:19-20; 1 Peter 2:11; Romans 3:8),
5) We can’t use evil for as Augustine says, “There is a great difference between what is fitting for man to will and what is fitting for God....For through the bad wills of evil men God fulfills what he righteously wills.”
6) It is OK that we can’t fully understand how God can ordain that men carry out evil deeds and yet hold men accountable for them and not be blamed Himself (in part this is because of God’s transcendent nature).

Do We Have “Free Will”?

We are not making decisions under compulsion while God in His transcendence, omniscience, and omnipotence maintains providential control over all events. The answer to the question revolves around how you define “free” will. We always choose according to our strongest inclination at the time but perhaps we should avoid the use of free will as Calvin did in most cases. The problem is that our will apart from the Holy Spirit will not enable us to good works. Good must be in accord with the will and timing of God with no other thought than for His glory. That is a high standard and we don’t clear that hurdle apart from Grace. Calvin says, “Man will then be spoken of as having this sort of free decision, not because he has free choice equally of good and evil, but because he acts wickedly by will, not by compulsion. Well put, indeed, but what purpose is served by labeling with a proud name such a slight thing?”


3) Causes all things to fulfill His purposes (Government)

In addition to God preserving or causing to continue to exist and His concurrence in agreeing that each cause may exist, Scripture also teaches that God’s providence has a purpose in all He does. He rules over all (Psalm 103:19; Daniel 4:35; Romans 11:36; 1 Corinthians 15:27; Ephesians 1:11). We can affirm that God causes all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28) because we see God’s providence extends to a purpose and plan. God’s will is not divided but we do see God’s revealed moral will in Scripture (such as the 10 Commandments) but disobedience to His moral will does not defeat His providential will in the world. Only a small part of His will is revealed to us.

The Importance of Our Human Actions
While affirming the providential government of God and His use of human actions we must not depart from Scriptural teaching on the importance of our actions. We are still responsible for our actions and our actions have real results and we can change the way things otherwise would be. For example, prayer has results and changes the course of events (James 4:2; John 16:24). We must act in obedience to Christ. To become a determinist is to depart from sound doctrine and to disobey scripture. We know God’s power to save and to neglect our participation in that process through prayer and preaching is to fail in God’s command to us (2 Timothy 2:10).


At some point as we meditate on these things we’ll find them hard to understand how God’s providence fits will other Scripture. Listen to what Calvin said about this:
Let those for whom this seems harsh consider for a little while how bearable their squeamishness is in refusing a thing attested by clear Scriptural proofs because it exceeds their mental capacity, and find fault that things are put forth publicly, which if God had not judged useful for men to know, he would never have bidden his prophets and apostles to teach. For our wisdom ought to be nothing else than to embrace with humble teachableness, and at least without finding fault, whatever is taught in sacred Scripture.

Calvin makes some vital points here. First, our flesh is fast to refuse things we find hard in Scripture. Second, God wants us to know these things so they must be good for us if understood rightly. Third, we must bow our knees to Scripture.


Summary

We must do away with fear and trust God. We should be thankful for all good things whether large or small. We must confess that there is no such thing ultimately as luck or chance but we don’t let this move us to superstition but instead trust God and obey Him fully.

In the end we still will find our minds staring in awe and without real understanding at our transcendent God. He created a universe with creatures living in time that make real decisions and interact with Him by His Grace without giving up His sovereignty.