tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47007105179872580182024-03-19T03:55:53.008-07:00Contending for HIS Fame"...what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory He has displayed?"
Jonathan EdwardsJosh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-39129853640460285372015-02-24T19:16:00.000-08:002015-02-25T18:15:07.868-08:00True Spirituality Pt. 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br />Q. 19 How is God’s spirituality our delight? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A. God’s spirituality is our delight because we are always in His presence; if we ascend to heaven He is there, if we make our bed in the grave, behold He is there. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">How amazing this one attribute can at the same time be a treasure for the saint and yet a horror for the sinner. Because God is Spirit, there is no where we can flee from His presence. Proverbs 15:3<i> “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” </i>This answer finds it’s anchor in Psalm 139. King David, a man after God’s own heart, comforted His own spirit with the thought of God’s Spirit. Psalm 139:7-10 <i>“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” </i>Heaven, hell, sea, land, there is no place, no dimension, no amount of darkness that can cover us from the Spirit of God. God is always present with us no matter where the waves of this world toss us. Just as the sun visits every part of the planet with it’s light, so God’s presences is simply inescapable. He is necessarily with us. Yet, as glorious as the light of the sun is, it can be overcast, it will set in the evening, it will not penetrate the deepest waters nor can it be seen from the grave. But God’s presence has no such limitations. <i>“If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” </i> His Spirit is present in more places than man has never seen. Man has barely left the confines of this atmosphere, yet God is present on the edges of the universe. “The whole essence of God is here, is there, and everywhere.” </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">“God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">As one saint has said “...He is in the world, yet not confined by it; He is out of the world, yet not debarred from it; He is above the world, yet not elevated by it; He is below the world, yet not depressed by it; He is above all, equalled by none; He is in all, not because He needs them, but they stand in need of Him...” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">For God’s spiritual presence to cease to be with us, He must cease to be God. <b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><b>It is true that God’s omnipresence is necessary in regard to the perfection of His nature, however that He is omnipresent for our good is voluntary and an expression of His love.</b> Because we are bound in covenant to Father by the blood of Christ, God is always with us, watching over us, sanctifying us in every cross and every blessing. There is no where we could ever be where God’s Spirit is not there working for our highest happiness in Him. He hems us in behind, and before, and He lays His hand upon us. Even in the midst of the greatest dangers and tribulations that we will pass through in our pilgrimage to heaven, God promises to be near to us. Isaiah 43:2 <i>“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” </i>Even in the flames of the hottest furnace, the three Hebrew boys were accompanied by the omnipresent God retarding the heat of the flames so that they would not be consumed. There is nowhere that God is not. Through depression, misery or abandonment, God the Spirit was there before we arrived. Psalm 27:10<i> “...my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” </i>God is not just <i>present</i> in our calamities, He is said to be <i>very</i> present “<i>God is our refuge and strength, a </i><b>very</b><i> present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. “ </i>Psalm 46:1-3</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><b>God being Spirit is His “most precious” attribute. </b> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Can there be a greater treasure than the omnipresence of God? Can there be a more precious truth than God is Spirit? Now this can and will be said about every one of God’s attributes. All are a treasure unto themselves. Yet this attribute brings all the others to us! Because God is omnipresent, we are in the presence of all of His other attributes. His wisdom has been brought near to us. <i>“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” </i>James 1:5<i> </i>Because God is Spirit, His power has been brought near to us:<i>“...greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” </i>1 John 4:4 Because God is Spirit, His holiness has been brought near to us. <i>“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”</i> 2 Cor. 3:18 Because God is Spirit, His justice and righteousness have been brought near us. <i>“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” </i>2 Cor. 5:21 Because God is Spirit, His goodness has been brought near to us. <i>“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction...” </i>2 Cor. 1:3-4 Because God is Spirit, His truth has been brought near to us. <i>“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;”</i> John 16:13</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Because God is Spirit, all His attributes have been brought near to us, His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. Truly God’s Spirituality is the highest delight to our soul. </span></span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-47551916427104159912015-02-19T18:55:00.001-08:002015-02-19T18:55:10.145-08:00True Spirituality Pt. 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Q. 18 What is our duty in light of God’s spirituality?</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A. Because God is a Spirit, we are obligated to worship Him in spirit and truth, and are forbidden to give worship to images.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The naked fact that God is, and that He necessarily is, obligates us to worship Him. All peoples of all nations for all times are obligated to seek after God, and adore Him and order their lives in pursuit of His pleasure. Because we exist, as contingencies, we are compelled by the very order of nature to offer Him worship. Psalm 100:3 <i>“Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;” </i>1 Cor. 8:6 <i>“...there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”</i> We were created for worship. It is the greatest treason to refuse Father the very end for which He made us. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The first part of our catechism shows us what God requires. <i>Because God is a Spirit, we are obligated to worship Him in spirit and truth. </i>These are the words of Jesus in His conversation with the Samaritan woman. [The Samaritans had forsaken Jerusalem back when Jeroboam took Israel from Solomon’s son (approx. 971 b.c). He established his own altars and recruited his own priests and made the people to worship on Mt. Gerizim as opposed to the mount in Jerusalem. cf. 1 Kings 12:25-33 ] When the Samaritan woman figured Jesus to be a prophet, she asked Him to settle the dispute between the two places of worship. John 4:20-22 <i>“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”</i> Here Jesus made two important points. He said that the Samaritans had forsaken the true worship <i>“You worship what you do not know.” </i>They had long abandoned the true worship of Yahweh and so they worshiped falsely. But he also said that <i>“the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”</i> The religious Jews had also long forsaken the spiritual worship of Yahweh supposing that the essence of worship was contained in ceremonies. Isaiah 29:13 <i>“...this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me”</i> The Samaritans failed to worship in truth, and the Jews failed to worship in spirit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> Jesus rejects both of these types of fractional “worship.” If our worship is fractional, it is not worship. He continues in v.23-24 <i>“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”</i> Let’s take those components one at a time. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><b>Truth</b> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This is not a generic truth that Jesus speaks of, but the evangelical gospel truth. No one can be said to worship Father unless they have been created a new by the gospel. Stephen Charnock has said “We must find healing in Christ’s wings, before God can find spirituality in our services. All worship issuing from a dead nature is but a dead service.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> Approaching God on any ground other than the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ is to approach God in falsity. Christians are very often guilty of this. I have been guilty of this. Of approaching God in prayer or song, or sermon listening, or going to work with an attitude of entitlement. Entitlement springs from a heart that is convinced of it’s own merit. This can be buried deep into our subconsciousness. The flesh will want to call this confidence. If we approach God with a confidence of how we performed this week, we are not approaching God in truth. Our best performances have enough corruption in them to condemn the entire world. When Jesus said <i> “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,”</i> He was not limiting truth to initial salvation. As if, after we are saved, we can approach the Father through how well we measured up this week. If we don’t approach Father through blood and righteousness every time, we don’t approach Him. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> </span></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><b>Spirit </b><i> </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>“Those who worship him must worship in spirit</i>...” No doubt this has a reference to the posture of our spirit, however the primary understanding must be the Holy Spirit. Again Charnock says “God tastes sweetness in no service, but as it...hath the air of His own Spirit in it; they are but natural acts, without a supernatural assistance; without an...influence [of the Spirit], we cannot act from spiritual motives, nor for spiritual ends, nor in a spiritual manner...the choicest acts of worship are but infirmities without His...help.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> We should be people who are constantly beseeching the Lord for a fresh outpouring of His Spirit. Recognizing that in every act, secular or religious, if the Spirit is not breathing into it, we are committing idolatry. All of life is either worship or idolatry. That’s the meaning of 1 Cor. 10:31<i> “...whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”</i> If something is not done for the glory of God, it is idolatry. Oh the desperate need for the Spirit to superintend every action that we put our hand to!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Trinitarian worship</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Is it any wonder that what Jesus is really teaching us here is that worship must be a Trinitarian enterprise? The <i>truth</i> being gospel truth rooted in the Son; the<i> spirit</i> being the Holy Spirit that animates our offerings making them acceptable to God. Nobody can approach God without a dependency on the sprinkled blood of Jesus, and the pure cleansing water of the Spirit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The engagement of our souls</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b>Worshiping God in spirit in truth also demands that our whole soul be engaged in the task. God is not honored when we hold back parts of ourselves in the offering. Our whole soul: the understanding, the affections, and the will are required to give God the Spirit His proper due. <b>1) We must engage our understanding.</b> If we offer God our senses, but hold back our reasoning, we offer to God nothing better than what the animals offer God. If our mind is not engaged with God the Spirit, “...we offer Him a dead sacrifice.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> <b>2)</b> <b>We must engage our affections. </b> If we offer God worship that is absent of adoration, or that is dead to delight, we do no better than the demons. Without our heart being engaged, all our worship is but <i>mere</i> motions of our bodies. Pure carnality. <b>3) We must engage our wills.</b> <i>“Faith without works is dead.” </i>James 2:26 Without the fruit of good works springing forth from our soul, we show that there is no root. True spiritual worship combines all of the soul: the understanding, the affections and the will. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">What God forbids</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The second part of the catechism shows us that because God is Spirit He forbids that we would give worship to images. This is the second commandment (Exodus 20:4-6). From everything that has been said under our doctrine question, it is should be obvious why giving worship to images is to reduce God to our level. How could we possibly take that which is contingent and full of corruption—an image—and pay devotion to it? I love what Thomas Watson says here “If an one should make images of snakes or spiders, saying he did it to represent his prince, would not the prince take it in disdain? What greater disparagement to the infinite God than to represent him by that which is finite; the living God, by that which is without life; and the Maker of all by a thing which is made?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> Oh how easy this commandment is for us ‘modern civilized people’ who aren’t given over to the superstitions of more ancient times. Right? Wrong. We live in the most affluent country in history, and materialism is the reigning worldview. There is no greater idol factory than the soil we walk on and the air we breathe. To the degree that our devotion or happiness resides in our material possessions is to the degree that we worship images. Every created thing is an image. That title is not reserved for statues and totem poles. Our jobs are images. Do we worship them? Our family is an image. Do we worship it? How would we know? Ask yourselves, if I lost any of these things would I be devastated? That question uncovers our idols. God forbids that we answer yes to anything other than Him.</span></span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-20050494198637885342015-02-17T07:33:00.003-08:002015-02-17T09:44:32.021-08:00True Spirituality Pt. 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Bell MT'; font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Last time, we claimed that an undefined God is an undervalued God. When God is not sought after to know, He is not cherished. Knowing<i> who</i> God is critical to enjoying Him. So now we move onto the task of defining God. We are going to start by unpacking each of those attributes of God that we saw from last time.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> Each attribute has three parts to it as far as it concerns us: <i>doctrine, duty & delight. </i>There is a <b>doctrine</b> of each attribute—meaning a description of <i>who</i> God is. There is a<b> duty</b> that each attribute demands from us—because God is like <i>this</i> therefore we are to be like <i>this</i>. Finally there is a <b>delight</b> that each attribute is to our soul—each attribute is an infinite treasure of pleasure and delight. <i>"In Your presence there is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever."</i> (Psalm 16:11) Doctrine, duty, and delight. Puritan Stephen Charnock puts it this way. “We should never think of the excellencies of the Divine Nature without considering the duties they demand and gathering the honey they present”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> [Stephen Charnock <i>The Existence and Attributes of God Vol. 1 </i>(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, Reprint 1979), pg. 500]. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">First we begin with the doctrine of God being a Spirit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Q. 17 What does it mean for God to be a Spirit?</span></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A. Being a Spirit means God does not have a body; He is a pure Being, invisible, everywhere present, filling both heaven and earth and yet unable to be contained by them. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">First our catechism says that God <i>does not have a body.</i> As Jesus Christ testified to the woman at the well <i>“God is Spirit.”</i> John 4:24 God has no mixture of matter. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">God has no physicality. The Puritan Stephen Charnock has said “If we grant that God is, we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal, because a body is an imperfect nature.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="font-size: medium;"> </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">[</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic;">ibid</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> pg. 181]</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Physicality in all forms possesses an imperfect nature. Even at glorification, our bodies will be imperfect in the sense that we will be limited, or bound. Our bodies will still command us “thus far shall you go, and no farther.” But for such a limitation to be set on God would be to nullify His deity. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;">Next, t</span>he catechism goes on to say that God <i>is a pure Being, </i>or we could say a <b>necessary Being</b>.<i> </i></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A being is <i>necessary </i>if it's non-existence is a contradiction</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">In many of our contemporary systematic theologies, we have sadly lost the idea of God being a necessary being (e.g. Grudem's <i>Systematic Theology</i>) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This is tragic because God’s necessity is a great part of His glory. It belongs to the perfection of His being. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>“I AM who I AM”</i> as He told Moses (Exodus 3:14). God is necessary. To suppose Him not to be is the greatest of all contradictions, and the most ridiculous of all absurdities. It is not as though this reality happens to include the existence of a God, but another reality could have existed in which there were no God. There is no possible world in which God could not exist. There are many possible worlds in which we don't exist, because we are not necessary beings. We are contingent beings.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A being is <i>contingent</i> if it is dependent upon on another for it’s existence. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">All the universe is in a state of contingency, it is all dependent upon something else. We can very easily imagine the non-existence of all contingent beings. <b>However </b>we cannot suppose that all beings are contingent, including God, because that is a contradiction. There cannot be an infinite regress of contingent beings for the same reason there cannot be an infinite regress of time. A dependent being argues the necessity of One whom it depends on, just as time argues the necessity of eternity. There must be a necessary Being that depends upon no other, that brings all contingencies into existence. As Jonathan Edwards has said “God is a necessary being, because it’s a contradiction to suppose him not to be.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">[</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Michael McClymond & Gerald McDermott <i>The Theology of Jonathan Edwards</i> (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012) pg 111] </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">God is necessary<i> not </i>simply because we see effects and reason back to the necessity of a cause. “God’s existence does not depend upon that of the universe.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> [W.G.T. Shedd <i>Dogmatic Theology 3rd Edition </i>Ed. Alan W. Gomes (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing 2003) pg.217] </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.” </i> Psalm 50:12 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Even if there were no effects, God would be necessary because the <i>existence of nothing</i> is the greatest of all contradictions. The moment we object and argue that <i>"there may be nothing" </i>we are contradicting ourselves because we are ascribing <i>being to nothing.</i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This fact of God's necessity necessitates that He is also infinite, eternal, omnipresent Spirit. Otherwise nothing exists in some other being or some other time or in some other place which is a contradiction. If nothing is a contradiction here and now, it has always been a contradiction. If nothing is a contradiction in this place, it is a contradiction in all places. If nothing is a contradiction in some being, it is a contradiction in all beings. Which means that some Being must have eternally existed, infinitely existed, omnipresently existed, and spiritually existed. That Being is God. He is pure Being, as the catechism says, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">because He alone is necessary. And let us not fail to see that<b> this is part of His glory: </b><i>His necessity.</i> He alone is necessary while all other beings are contingent and dependent and creaturely. He alone is essential while all others non-essential. He alone is full of glory while all others merely reflect His greatness. <b> He alone is that Being that defines all of reality.</b> Isaiah 45:5 <i>“I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God;”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Next the catechism says that because God is Spirit He is<i> invisible</i>. John 1:18 <i>“No one has ever seen God”</i> 1 Timothy 6:15-16 <i>“...he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”</i> (cf. 1 Timothy 1:17) Invisibility is an essential quality of being Spirit, and it is also a mark of God’s glory. We have the absurd notion that physical things are the most real, but it is exactly the reverse. Physical things are the most needy, and the most impoverished things. The things that we apprehend by our senses are transient, but the things that are invisible are eternal as Paul states in 2 Cor. 4:18. Jonathan Edwards argues “from hence we may see the gross mistake of those who think material things the most substantial beings and spirits more like a shadow, whereas spirits only are properly substance.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> [Jonathan Edwards <i>The Philosophy of Jonathan Edwards From His Private Notebook </i>Ed. by Harvey G. Townsend (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock 2009) pg. 8]</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The catechism finishes by saying that God is <i>everywhere present, filling both heaven and earth and yet unable to be contained by them.</i> As David asks rhetorically <i>“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”</i> Psalm 139:7 Because God is Spirit, there is nowhere He is not. All the world lies naked before Him because all the world is inescapably in His presence. Jeremiah 23:24 <i>“Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.” </i>Yet this filling of heaven and earth is not to be thought of in some physical sense. He transcends physicality. 1 Kings 8:27 <i>“Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you...” </i>W. Shedd comments “God is said to be beyond the universe, not in the sense that there are spaces beyond the universe which he fills by extension of substance, but in the sense that the universe does not exhaust his immensity or is equal to it.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">[W.G.T. Shedd <i>Dogmatic Theology 3rd Edition </i>Ed. Alan W. Gomes (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing 2003) pg.277]</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This is true spirituality: God. As a Spirit, He dwells in unapproachable light, and as a Spirit, He dwells within our hearts. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">He is both transcendent and immanent. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Because God is spirit, He is King, friend, and full of infinite glory.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">[NOTE: This post was the <b>doctrine</b> of God being a Spirit. Next we will see the <b>duty</b> that we have <i>because </i>God is a Spirit]</span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-45845058103113358162015-02-13T06:17:00.003-08:002015-02-17T06:59:26.208-08:00An Undefined God is an Undervalued God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you had to define who God is, how would you begin? In the post-christian West, the answer to this question could <i>not</i> be of more importance. An undefined God in an undervalued God. As A.W. Tozer said over fifty years ago :</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us...We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God...The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God...unless the weight of that burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> [</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">A. W. Tozer <i>The Knowledge of the Holy </i>(New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1961) pgs. vii-3]</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">An undefined God is an undervalued God. I remember when I was first asked to define God several years ago, I was surprised by my own inability to articulate an answer. I had been a Christian my whole life and yet when pressed I couldn’t actually provide a definition. When the Westminster assembly was formulating the shorter catechism over 350 years ago, they had to answer this question. This was their answer:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Q. 1 Who is God?</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The catechism is not infallible, nor is this answer perfectly comprehensive—no definition of God would be. However this answer does provide us with a basic framework that is accurate and Biblical. This answer not only provides us with God’s essential attributes but it also teaches us the basic simplicity of God. God is His attributes. God’s attributes are not additions to His being, nor are they parts that can be taken or left. If any one attribute is taken away, you lose God. (If God is all love but not righteous in exercising His wrath, how can He be said to be God. A god who is not wrathful against evil, is not a god of love.) Who is God? God is His attributes. Choose one attribute, any attribute, and it will imply, demand, and prove all the rest. As we peer into the mystery of God’s attributes, we are gazing into His glory. <i> “Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." </i>Jeremiah 9:23-24</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Notice what God is delighting in there? His own attributes. The knowledge of Himself. His glory being displayed for all the world to enjoy and benefit from. Who is God? That is the most important question we can ever hope to answer. A failure to answer this question just is an undervaluing of God.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">[NOTE: This is part one in a series. Next up: defining God as Spirit]</span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-77690635232486994452015-01-26T10:15:00.001-08:002015-01-26T10:38:03.846-08:00Idaho: Totalitarian State?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is the testimony I prepared for the hearing on <a href="http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2015/H0002.htm">House Bill 2</a> here in Idaho. It proposes to amend the current civil rights bill and will<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Monaco; font-size: 11px;"> "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">PROVIDE THAT DISCRIMINATION BECAUSE OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION OR GENDER IDENTITY IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE." Please read the bill if you in order to see what this means for citizens. </span><br />
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I oppose House Bill 2 on the grounds that it proposes legalized discrimination and intolerance against the citizens of Idaho. My argument does not depend on the debate about sexual orientation or even my view of Scripture. My argument is simply a defense of the first amendment of the constitution, specifically the free exercise of religion, the freedom of speech and the freedom of assembly. </div>
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My opposition to HB2 has very little to do with sexual orientation or gender identity.(Although to be clear I absolutely affirm the Biblical position with no equivocation) But my point, is that those words only provide the occasion for something far more sinister. This bill represents the loss of the right of conscience. The conscience is not a thing that the state has the right to command. The state is not the Lord of my conscience, nor is it the Lord of yours. A conscience is that moral faculty within all of us that judges our actions to be right or wrong. I have a particular conscience, and you have a particular conscience. The church, the state, our friends, our family are all agents that can help persuade our consciences of the rightness or wrongness of any particular thing. I’m not denying that right of persuasion to anybody. Persuasion is good. What I am denying is the right to compulsion. Nobody has the right to use force to get me to adhere to a particular morality. Make no mistake, this bill is trying to force a morality on it's citizens. <br />
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As a pastor it would be wrong for me to force the people in my congregation to obedience to some moral truth. That would be legalism. All I can do is seek to inform their mind and persuade their conscience. Likewise it is wrong for the state of Idaho to force the people to obey something that violates their conscience. Now I’m not one of those people that would deny the right of the state to impose speed limits on highways, or other things of that nature that are legitimate concerns to public safety. But I am denying that HB2 attains any threshold that would pertain to the public safety. HB2 is legislation that seeks to police our thoughts. In the church the policing of thoughts is called legalism, in the public square it is called tyranny. </div>
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It is tyrannical for any government to reach into the hearts of it’s citizens and tell them what they must believe to be right and wrong when it comes to the issue of religion. That is exactly what HB2 seeks to accomplish: an establishment of religion. It seeks to establish the religion of radical egalitarianism where every view point is equally true and valid. This is the statist religion of the newly re-defined tolerance. Tolerance use to mean the act of enduring or putting up with differing points of view. Our culture has re-defined tolerance as that virtue that holds that all views as equally true and valid. But friends, that view of tolerance is a contradiction! Under that definition, if I believe that homosexuality is wrong, then even my opponents must accept my view as equally true and valid though they think homosexuality is good and right. By that logic, if my viewpoint is not validated, then my opponents are intolerant. But that is not what tolerance is. Tolerance in the public square means I live civilly with others who disagree with me. That’s what being a grown-up means. I don’t use the state to force others to believe what I believe. This would be to destroy the 1st amendment to the constitution: </div>
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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”</blockquote>
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Some may object that this bill does not compel conscience, it simply forces businesses to treat people equally in public accommodations. But where is the line between public accommodations and private property? This bill says it is in the means that you and I use to put food on our table. That is invasion of conscience. Our founding fathers went to war over this. Read the <a href="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html">declaration of independence</a>. This bill makes it a criminal offense to operate a business according to one’s conscience if one holds that sexuality is a fixed moral reality. The <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/04/protecting-religious-liberty-in-the-state-marriage-debate">court cases</a> across the country show how those involved in the wedding industry are being compelled to violate what they believe marriage is, in the name of this new so-called tolerance. Think of the ramifications of this. Think of all the professional counseling businesses that exist. In providing counseling, the counselor must attempt to persuade his client of a morality. With the passing of this bill, these businesses would be forced to hire employees that potentially don’t agree with their morality. If these business owners don’t adopt the morality of the state, they face the certainty of a lawsuit or closing their doors.</div>
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This bill is about the unjust use of force. It is unjust to force individuals and businesses, and eventually churches to endorse beliefs that offer violence to their conscience. Individuals and businesses and churches should have the right to say to possible patrons or congregants “I don’t agree with that, and I’m not doing that here.” That’s what it means to be able to practice the free exercise of religion and speech and assembly. To take that away from the citizens of Idaho is to make war on the very constitution that established this state. To take away that right is to discriminate against all religions that hold views contrary to this bill. This bill will not just affect Christians, but anybody with a working conscience, Muslims, Jews, and atheists alike. To pass this bill is the height of intolerance and one step closer to a totalitarian state.</div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-9586673399828622312015-01-19T06:50:00.001-08:002015-01-19T06:50:13.072-08:00The Treasure of Unceasing Prayer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When many of us think about Heaven, our minds often go in many different directions imagining the glories of that place. We will be re-united with loved ones who have been separated from us. We will have glorified bodies, no longer able to feel sorrow or pain, or fear death. There will never be jealousy, or envy, or a secret contempt in Heaven. Only ever-increasing joy. We will walk the streets of gold under the brilliance of God and His throne, for He will be the light in that place. We never hear the word "no" because we would never ask a question that would warrant that response. We will get to meet and talk with Moses, Ruth, David, Mary and Paul. The glories of Jesus will be our constant companion, and we will live in a state of perfect spiritual happiness with each other and with God for ages without number </div>
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But the best thing about Heaven will be unceasing prayer. The best thing about heaven is that there will be unbroken communion with God. No more veil. No more distance. No more obscurity. Only intimate communion—which is what the Bible calls prayer. We will ever live to pant after God in prayer, and He will ever live to communicate His glories to us. The saints will enjoy such a communion with God that they will never have any desire to stop speaking with Him. We will forever feast off the abundance of His house, and drink from the river of His delights (Psalm 36:8). There will be no boredom, no indifference, and no unfulfilled longing. Only continual communion with the possessor of our souls. </div>
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But that is then. What about now?</div>
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The good news, is that we don't have to wait to get to heaven to have that constant communion with God! Paul encourages us <i>now</i> to<i> "...pray without ceasing"—</i>1 Thessalonians 5:17. It's true that on this side of eternity, our prayers will be accompanied with thorns, and the dullness that comes from our flesh, and the corruption that comes from our sin. But we are encouraged nonetheless to pray without ceasing. God offers Himself now to the thirsty soul. </div>
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But this is exceedingly hard. Perhaps impossible. So how do we do this? Is there a way that we can posture ourselves, even in our busy schedules, to pray without ceasing? I believe the answer is yes. Joel Beeke and Diana Kleyn wrote a great children's book <i>How God Used a Thunderstorm </i>(Scotland: Christian Focus, Reprint 2012)<i> </i>where they tackle this verse. They tell a story of a meeting between several ministers who were discussing difficult theological questions. The verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 came up, and they were stumped. They were unable to imagine how it is possible to pray without ceasing. A young maidservant was in the room and she assured them that this was one of the easiest and best verses in the Bible. One of the ministers responds</div>
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"Well, well, Mary," said an old minister. "What do you know about it? Can you pray all the time?" "Oh, yes, sir!" "Really? How is that possible when you have so many things to do?" "Why, sir, the more I have to do, the more I pray." Indeed! Well, Mary, how do you do it? Most people wouldn't agree with you." "Well, sir," said the girl, "when I first open my eyes in the morning, I pray, 'Lord, open they eyes of my understanding,' and while I am dressing, I pray that I may be clothed with the robe of righteousness. While I am washing, I ask to have my sins washed away. As I begin to work, I pray that I may receive strength for all the work of the day. While I kindle the fire, I pray that revival may be kindled in me. While preparing and eating breakfast, I ask to be fed with the Bread of Life and the pure mild of the Word. As I sweep the house, I pray that my heart may be swept clean of all its impurities. As I am busy with the little children, I look up to God and pray that I may always have the trusting love of a little child, and as I...." </blockquote>
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It's here where the minister cuts her off. He gets the point. Hopefully, so do we. Everything that God places in our path down here can be used as an opportunity to pray. Which means that every moment of the day, broadly speaking, can be used as a moment to commune with God. Our dressing, our eating, our quite time, our busy time, our sleeping time, our working time, every "time" can be a time where we are availed the opportunity to open up the treasure of unceasing prayer. </div>
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As God told Abraham <i>"I am your exceeding great reward"</i> Genesis 15:1. When we open our hearts heavenward in prayer, we are rewarded with God Himself. Oh..the treasure of unceasing prayer!</div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-12750336976638800932015-01-06T08:58:00.000-08:002015-01-06T08:58:10.119-08:00The Great Need of Experimental Bible Reading<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As many of us are seeking to re-new Bible reading in our day-to-day lives at the beginning of this new year, it's critical to keep in mind the importance of experimental reading. If our reading is not experimental, then all we are accomplishing is moving our eyes over the words much like a blind person would move their fingers over braille. God is not aiming at eye movement. He's aiming at heart movement. Every time we sit down to read the scripture, we have a new opportunity to renew our love for God and our fellow man. Reading scripture, meditating on scripture, studying scripture, talking about scripture can be means to stoke the fire in our souls. Or, paradoxically, they can be means to quench that fire. Jesus Himself said to the religious elite in His day <i>"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."</i> (John 5:39-40) We must feel the weight of this verse in our bible reading. The Pharisees' reading of scripture promoted hardened legalistic hearts when they read. They did not come to Messiah when they studied. They were ultimately studying themselves, and finding justification for their lives when they opened up the sacred texts. We must come to Jesus when we are searching the scriptures! If we are not encountering Him on some level, then we are no better than those who He rebuked. Our reading must be experimental reading</div>
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Experimental reading is the type of reading that undresses our hearts in the light of Scripture. We do not read in order to posture before the Lord. We read as a <i>means</i> to know Him even as we are known. This requires exposure. Experimental reading puts our hearts on trial before the Judge and Husband of our souls. Our hearts are tested (<i>thus experimental</i>) before the Lord of glory. For Christians, this is not a pass/fail test. Those who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ cannot fail to be brought to Him. But it is the type of test that continually reminds us of our fallen condition, and thus the great mercy of Christ Jesus. Experimental reading takes us the the very edge of our souls to show us the vanity of human existence apart from Jesus. Experimental reading allows sentences to be more than <i>mere </i>sentences. When we read experimentally, sentences flex their muscles on our spirits and we submit to their strength. In that submission we come alive to God. <i>"My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned."</i> (Psalm 39:3) Experimental reading is a composite of meditation, prayer, praise, study, interpretation, and delight. In short, experimental reading is communion with God. We should expect to experience God in our reading, like we experience our spouse in conversation. Oh that we would plead with God to open our hearts like Lydia of old. <i>"And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul."</i> Acts 16:14 We need to be experimental in our Bible reading, because that is the only type of Bible reading that will transform us<i> "...from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."</i> 2 Cor. 3:18</div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-12169549344207662572014-12-31T08:09:00.001-08:002014-12-31T08:11:56.473-08:00The Best New Year's Resolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Many of us see the new year as a kind of reset switch so that we can start practicing good habits. I would like to suggest to you one such habit: the regular reading/meditating/praying over God's word. The Psalmist says </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>"Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You." </i>Psalm 119:11 </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our minds would be less chaotic, our hearts less troubled, our wills less torn, if we could simply <i>"Be still </i>[before God's word]<i> and know that He is God."</i> Psalm 46:10</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ligoneer put together a list of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1155cc;"><a href="http://www.ligonier.org/blog/bible-reading-plans/" style="color: #1155cc;">Bible Reading Plans</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">that any one of us could use, including our children. How great would it be to start getting our reading age children on a simple bible reading! Some plans only take 5 minutes a day. How great would it be to to have our teenage kids reading and starting to inculcate that discipline of discerning God's voice on their own before they leave our homes! </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">That being said, I would like to offer 5 tips for reading the Scriptures successfully. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">1. <b>Always pray.</b> Even if it's a ten second prayer: "Father, please help me understand your Word. I want to know you more and your Son whom You sent for me. Please give me your Spirit that I may have the mind of Christ." </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">2. <b>Never give up!</b> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Don't worry about the date on the plan. Bible reading plans were made for man, and not man for bible reading plans. If you get behind, ignore the date, and just pick up where you left off. It's infinitely more important to take in God's Word, than to be on the "right day."</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">3. <b>Go slow.</b> If you just finished a paragraph but your mind wandered and you can't remember what you read—stop. Pray. Start over. This happens to me all the time. I just finished a paragraph and my mind was thinking about something else, while my eyes merely hovered over the words. I have to use those moments to plead with God for help. The Scripture is the most difficult book to read on planet earth, because it is wholly spiritual. If God the Spirit, does't help us, then we will fail. So don't get discouraged if that happens to you often. It happens to me all the time. Use those moments to push into another quick prayer, and ask God to fix your attention on His Word.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">4. <b> Affections are critical.</b> If you find yourself reading something like <i>"Be glad in the LORD, you righteous ones"</i> (Psalm 97:12) and you don't feel glad in the LORD—stop. Pray. Ask God to give you affections like the Psalmist. Ask Him to give you spiritual sight of what the Psalmist sees so that you can be glad in the LORD. God loves to answer those type of prayers. You see, reading God's word is not simply an exercise in reading. In is an exercise of reading/meditating/praying over/delighting it. The only way that can happen in us, is if God fills us with His Holy Spirit. So pray and hope to that end in all your reading. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5. <b> Obedience is essential.</b> If we read God's Word and then don't apply it to our lives, we are just like the man in the book of James. <i>"For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." </i>James 1:23-25<i> </i>Notice that James says that obedience brings liberty and blessing. Those are the two pillars that hold up all of our spiritual happiness. That is how we should view obedience, as a means to our happiness in the LORD. Sometimes this obedience can be triggered very easily by meditating on what you read in the morning throughout the day. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ultimately, in encouraging you to read/meditate/pray over God's word, I'm encouraging you to<i> "taste and see that the LORD is good."</i> Psalm 34:8 God is a infinite treasure chest of immeasurable pleasure. When we delight ourselves in Him, we discover that He is the greatest desire of our hearts. </span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-52545627032375325572014-12-23T07:05:00.002-08:002014-12-23T07:05:48.608-08:00Thinking About Christmas 100 Years From Now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Bell MT'; font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Christmas <i>means</i> something different to almost everybody. To the religious, it is a day where we remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. To the non-religious, it may take on the meaning of family time, or a much needed vacation, or good will towards man. Regardless of which camp you fall into, Christmas means something to most people. My question to you today is this: what does Christmas <i>mean</i> to you? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">More importantly, what will Christmas <i>mean </i>to you 100 years from now? </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Certainly when we pass from this life, all things—including Christmas—will come into their full meaning. 100 years from now when you are thinking about the birth of the Savior, what will your thoughts be? Will they be thoughts of rejoicing or regret? Will the idea of Christmas 100 years from now be the foundation of all your joy, or the monument of all your ruin? Puritan Stephen Charnock imagines the thoughts of those immortals in not-so-distant future:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">"Do but consider those souls that are in the possession of an unchangeable God, that behold His never-fading glory! Would it not be a kind of hell to them to have their thoughts starting out to these things, or find any desire in themselves to the changeable trifles of the earth? Nay, have we not reason to think that they cover their faces with shame, that ever they should have such a weakness of spirit when they were here below, as to spend more thoughts upon them than were necessary for this present life; much more that they should any time value and court themselves above God? Do they not disdain themselves that they should ever debase the immutable perfections of God, as to have neglecting thoughts of him at any time, for the entertainment of such a mean and inconstant rival?"</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Now Charnock is limiting his imagination to the saints in heaven. What kind of regret and horror can be imagined by those souls in hell whose thoughts turn to this life? Don't get me wrong, thinking about Christmas <i>rightly</i> doesn't save anybody. My point is this: God has ordained that Christmas be a monument, at least at this point in human history, to remember the birth of the Savior. To remember that we <i>need</i> a Savior. To remember that we were born sinners. To remember that our 'good' works can never earn us access to Father. To remember that apart from the Savior being born, we could never have a Savior who went to the cross. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">And the truth of the matter is, we just will all have those thoughts 100 years from now, regardless if we are in heaven or in hell. We should always live in light of eternity. We should let the thoughts that we will have 100 years from now govern the thoughts that we have at this very moment. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">God sent His Son into the world as a testimony of our need for a Savior. That’s what Christmas means to God. What does it mean to you?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><i>“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” </i> Matthew 1:21</span></span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-80854336735773696422014-12-16T07:14:00.001-08:002014-12-16T07:14:15.356-08:00Failing to Glorify God in Our Fight Against Sin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This might seem like an odd concept, but it is entirely possible to hijack God's glory in our "fight" against sin. I stumbled upon this thought by the Puritan Thomas Brooks in his book <i>Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. </i> There, Brooks spoke about the different ways in which the saved and the unsaved struggle against sin. </div>
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"A saint conflicts against sin universally, the least as well as the greatest; the most profitable and the most pleasing sin, as well as against those that are less pleasing and profitable. He will combat with all, though he cannot conquer one as he should, and as he would. He knows that all sin strikes at God's glory, as well as at his soul's comfort and peace...Oh! but now the conflict that is in the wicked is partial; they frown upon one sin and smile upon another; they strike at some sins yet stroke others; they thrust some out of doors but keep others close in their bosoms; as you may see in Jehu, Herod, Judas, Simon Magus, and Demas. Wicked men strike at gross sins, such as are not only against the law of God, but against the laws of nature and nations, but make nothing of less sins; as vain thoughts, idle words, sinful motions, and petty oaths. They fight against those sins that fight against their honor, profits, and pleasures, but make truce with those that are as right hands and as right eyes to them."</blockquote>
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The difference between these two approaches to sin can be discovered in how each party defines sin. The world defines sin (if it does at all) in a very man-centered way. Sin is inhibiting some one else's choice, or doing something that causes shame, or judgment or pain to another human being. But that is to miss what God says about sin. <i> "For although they knew God, they did not <b>honor Him as God or give thanks to Him</b>, but they because futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." </i>(Romans 1:21) God does not define sin <i>merely</i> as a particular action, such as lying, stealing, or adultery. Those are the fruit of sin. Not the root of sin. The root of sin goes much deeper than the sound wave that carries a lie or the hand that conceals it's theft. The root of sin goes deeper than homosexuality considered in itself, or socialism considered in itself, or failing to show mercy considered in itself. </div>
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<b>The root of sin is this:</b><i> failing to value God above all other things. </i></div>
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Sin is always a God-ward directed thing. The reason why the unsaved fail to glorify God in avoiding sin, is because they do only in reference to themselves. They are not doing it because God is their highest treasure. They are doing it because they want to avoid the pain that that sin will bring. God has attached certain consequences to certain sins, and these consequences are what deter the wicked, not the glory of God. Thomas Brooks continues to lay out the motivations behind the saint and the sinner:</div>
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"The conflict that is in a saint, against sin, is maintained by several arguments: by arguments drawn from the love of God, the honor of God, the sweetness and communion with God...from the blood of Christ, the glory of Christ, the eye of Christ, the kisses of Christ, and the intercession of Christ...from the earnest of the Spirit, the seal of the Spirit, the witness of the Spirit, the comforts of the Spirit. Oh! but the conflict that is in wicked men is from low, carnal, and legal arguments, drawn form the eye, ear, or hand of the creature, or drawn from shame, hell, and curses of the law"</blockquote>
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God is not aiming at the <i>mere</i> absence of sin in our lives. He's aiming at His glory in how we fight sin. Not <i>merely</i> the absence of pain, or the avoiding of unpleasant consequences. That is to gut the glory out of sin fighting. God wants us to be motivated because of the love of His Fatherly heart, the sacrifice of His precious Son, and the grace of His indwelling Spirit. He wants us to fight sin, because we value Him more than we value our sin. </div>
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Now don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that God in His wisdom restrains evil men even through their wrong motivations. But let us not fail to grasp the application aimed at our own hearts. Why do we fight against sin? Is it so that others won't think poorly of us? Is it because we know we will feel guilty? Or is it because we are are so compelled by the love of God, that we don't want to dishonor His grace? In the former we maybe avoiding the sin, but we are also missing the glory. In the later, we are avoiding the sin, and displaying the greatness of our God. </div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-26164490741891617562014-12-09T06:39:00.002-08:002014-12-09T06:39:50.926-08:00Imputation: Our Only Hope For Heaven<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Doulos SIL', Gentum, 'TITUS Cyberbit Basic', Junicode, 'Aborigonal Serif', 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Chrysanthi Unicode'; font-size: x-small;"><b>Impute</b> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Doulos SIL', Gentum, 'TITUS Cyberbit Basic', Junicode, 'Aborigonal Serif', 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Chrysanthi Unicode'; font-size: 13px;">/imˈpyo͞ot/ verb - to reckon to one what does not belong to him</span></div>
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Much debate throughout the history of the church orbits around this one word: imputation. The doctrine of imputation asserts that at salvation, when you or I as a sinner trusts Jesus Christ alone for salvation, all our our sin is reckoned—imputed—to His account, and His righteousness is reckoned—imputed—unto our account. So that in the same act, Jesus on the cross became the greatest sinner by imputation, and we became the righteousness of Christ by imputation. 2 Cor. 5:21 "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." As saved sinners we stand before God Almighty not on the merits of our own righteousness, but on the merits of Jesus Christ alone. This imputation is not infusion. Infused righteousness is the Roman Catholic doctrine that acknowledges that righteousness is given to the believer as a gift from God. A gracious gift even. However, that righteousness only inheres in the believer to the extent that they maintain it and cooperate with it. The problem with this, is that it confuses justification—the judicial act of having our sins forgiven and being declared righteous by faith alone, with sanctification—the progressive act where we are renewed in the whole man dying unto sin and living unto righteousness. These are two distinct things, and to combine them together is to lose all hope of ever seeing our Heavenly Father's face. There is no gospel (good news) if imputation is not a reality</div>
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If eternal life with God is in the balance, waiting to see if I cooperate with His righteousness in order to be accepted in the beloved, I am ruined. That is not hyperbole. There is absolutely no hope for my soul if ultimate salvation depends on my my contribution of righteousness As the Psalmist has said <i>"Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you."</i> Psalm 143:2 Our God is not a God who will accept the smallest degree of unrighteousness. Anything less than perfect righteousness<i> is</i> spiritual pollution and that is exactly what we possess <i>"All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment." </i> Isaiah 64:6 This is part of the gospel that many of us modern Christians fail to see. God requires absolute perfection in order for us to be received into His heaven. The standard is not softened simply because we cannot achieve that perfection. God does not grade on the curve. If He were to bend the eternal law of righteousness and receive into His family persons who were polluted, He would be denying His own glory. God cannot be good at the same time while calling evil good. He must judge righteously or else He is not righteous. </div>
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This is why the cross is so central to Christianity, and more specifically imputation. If Jesus didn't die for all of my sins, I will be judged for the remaining ones. This is bad news. James tells us that the smallest sin is a violation of the whole law (James 2:10). So if Jesus didn't pay for every single sin, it is as if He didn't pay for any. Likewise if Jesus' righteousness is not imputed to my account completely, so that the Father sees His merits when He looks at me, I will be an abomination to His glory. I have hidden faults in all my best deeds. My most spiritual moments have dark closets and undisclosed motives and insincere intentions actively working through them. Should God accept those? Should God be so easily pleased that I simply put forth my best effort and call it good after that? Brothers and sisters, that is the Mormon gospel. That is the gospel of Islam, the gospel of Rome, the gospel of this world. If God were to accept that type of righteousness, He is not God. Any god who doesn't require the defendants in his courtroom to be acquitted completely and to be declared absolutely righteous is a god who is not worthy of worship. That god despises his own worth-ship so how could he be worthy of our worship? The doctrine of imputation then is not just our only hope for heaven, it is the only hope for God to remain God. Not only do we lose the gospel if we shed imputation, we lose the glory of God. </div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-22197839327644087612014-12-05T09:02:00.002-08:002014-12-05T09:02:54.246-08:00The Temptation in Pastoral Ministry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>"Behold now, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably."</i> 1 Kings 22:13</blockquote>
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These are the words that the messenger spoke to Micaiah, the prophet of the LORD, as he fetched him to appear before the king. All the other prophets were saying the same thing 'Go up oh king, and the Lord will give you success.' In this account, king Ahab was seeking counsel on whether or not he should go up and fight against the king of Aram. Four hundred 'prophets' were giving him identical counsel, and even invoking the name of the Lord in doing so. When this messenger came to fetch Micaiah, he told him which way the wind was blowing: <i>"Behold now, the words of the prophets are uniformly favorable to the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably."</i> As the story continues, Micaiah refuses to be blown about by the wind of the so-called prophets and he tells the king that certain judgment is coming if he goes to battle. The king doesn't listen, and his blood is washed out of the bottom of his chariot near the pool of Samaria the next day. </div>
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This story is recapitulated over and again down to this very day (although admittedly the details are different). There is a wave of 'prophets' claiming that the Lord is speaking to them, and telling us to take some action, to try some new scheme, to test out some new method. Whether it be the 'prophets' of the papacy in the 16th century, or the 'prophets' of the social gospel in our times. The pressure is always on the 'prophet' behind the pulpit to tow the line. 'Come on, this is what all these other 'godly' men are doing, let your words be like their words.' Now don't get me wrong, there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors-Proverbs 15:22. God has not left his church with out a witness. There is a remnant of Godly men whose voices very often are in agreement. However in this account of Micaiah, there were four hundred men who spoke in the name of the LORD, and all of them were deceived. All of them were more motivated to speak what the king wanted to hear rather than what the KING wanted them to say. This is always the temptation in pastoral ministry. We can crown our congregants and begin to speak in ways that we know will please them, as opposed to speaking in a way that we know will please HIM. Paul tells us there there is a whole group of prophets who do this very thing. <i>"...the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." </i>2 Timothy 4:3<i> </i>Mark this beloved: these teachers will deceive in the name of the Lord. Joel Osteen speaks in the name of the Lord. Social gospel proponents speak in the name of the Lord. Prosperity gospel preachers speak in the name of the Lord. Legalists speak in the name of the Lord. Liberals speak in the name of the Lord. </div>
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What is the antidote for this mass confusion? How do we know whether or not we are listening to Micaiah or to one of the four hundred? The answer is so simple that we can despise it: the Scripture. We must become people who not only own a Bible, but actually read it, meditate on it, pray through it, be convicted by it, and be transformed because of it. We have the greatest weapon against those four hundred false prophets, and it can never be defeated. The question is, do we use it? It's so frustrating to watch those super hero movies where the hero chooses not to use His super power at some decisive moment and as a result the enemy gains a foothold. We see that and scoff at the lack of wisdom the hero displayed, realizing that more evil was perpetuated because of it. How much more so is this true in reality? We have the greatest weapon against the kingdom of darkness in the Scriptures. He knows this, and so he sends his messengers against us to speak in the name of the Lord. How do we combat this? By testing what they say against what God says--2 Thes. 5:21. Even the Holy Spirit tells us to test Him, because not all spirits are from God--1 John 4:1 We must become people who know and love and treasure God's Word. We must become people like Charles Spurgeon who if you pricked him anywhere, he would bleed bibline. His very soul was intoxicated with God's Word, and as a result He stood against the four hundred prophets of his day who were all speaking what the 'king' wanted to hear. Can anyone recall the names of those false prophets? No. These are the men that history forgets-Ecc. 9:5. Just like the false prophets of Micaiah's day. Just like the false prophets of our day. They may strut around with all their pomp and their following, but they will go to the grave and not be remembered. </div>
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So here is the challenge for all of us: Will we listen to the the messenger sent to Micaiah? Will we be blown about by the wind of the majority? Will have itchy ears and scratchy pulpits? Or will we listen to the messenger sent from His Word, and say "thus says the Lord" no matter what it costs us? </div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-15065668154080033532014-12-01T06:31:00.001-08:002014-12-01T06:31:14.585-08:00Why God's Eternity is Our Delight<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Psalm 90:1-2</blockquote>
Every single one of God's attributes is an infinite treasure chest just waiting to be explored and delighted in and strengthened by. God's eternity is no different. It is a pure wonder to the soul that God had no beginning. In fact, philosophically speaking, "beginning" has no reference point in God. The word "beginning" has reference to time, but God is wholly outside of time-"from everlasting to everlasting you are God." There is no "beginning" in God just like there is not a succession of moments within God, for both of those things are properties of time, and not eternity. <br />
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Our God does not live within the chains of minutes and hours and days. That prison cannot contain Him. The implications that flow from this spill into our very souls. A.W. Tozer reflecting on this says<br />
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"How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves."</blockquote>
Our God never hurries. He is never anxious. He is never double-booked, or overwhelmed, or in need of a break. That is the God that reigns over this earth and over His saints. <br />
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Beyond those delights, the most delightful thing about God's eternity is that it is accompanied by God's love. If God is eternal, so are all His other attributes, not least of which is love. God is love <i>eternally. </i>He was love before He laid the foundations of the earth. He was love in the garden, during the conquest of Canaan, during the Babylonian captivity. He was love from Genesis to Malachi. He was love when He turned away from His Son on the cross, and He will be love when He pours out His judgment on the earth. God's love is from everlasting to everlasting. And that is good news for those in Christ. God never began loving His people. God could no more "begin" to love us any more than He could "begin" to be God. Nothing can "begin" in God. His love is an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3). It is indestructible, invincible and infinitely intimate. It is the answer to all our longings, and will be our constant companion long after the sun and the moon run it's course. God is our dwelling place in all generations. </div>
Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-26844005028812944242014-11-18T06:42:00.002-08:002014-11-18T06:42:45.280-08:00The LORD Loves the Gates of Zion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of my favorite psalms is found in Psalm 87:2-3 where the LORD speaks of His violent affections for the church. <i>"The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah."</i> The "selah" here is especially important. <br />
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To read over this too quickly would be to miss the marrow of this passage.<br />
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Israel was the church in the O.T. She was a shadow of the church to come. She was the church <i>and</i> a sign pointing to the future church who surpassed her in glory. Just as the exodus was a real deliverance that Moses secured for Israel <i>and</i> <i>at the same time</i> served as<i> </i>a sign pointing to the true deliverance that Jesus Christ secured for all the people of God; so Israel is the church in the O.T <i>and a sign</i> pointing the church in the N.T. (cf. Acts 7:38; 1 Cor. 10:1-4) The O.T. is banquet table full of signs pointing to the greater reality in the N.T. It serves as <i>"...a copy and shadow of the heavenly things..." </i>Hebrews 8:5. It was<i> "...only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things..." </i>We must adopt this view of the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments if we are going to understand what the Psalmist is saying, <i>ultimately. </i><br />
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No doubt when the psalmist originally spoke of the <i>"..gates of Zion"</i> he had a physical reality in his mind. But we must ask: what did that physical reality represent to him? It represented the corporate worship of the living God. The gates of Zion was where the gathered people of Israel worshipped the one true and living God. It was more special than all the other dwelling places of Jacob, because this was the place of sacred communion. This was the place where the ancient church gathered to offer their hearts, their minds, their souls, their strength to the Lord of hosts. That is why the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all other places. The community of believers joined with the community of the Trinity, and loved and adored and delighted in God together!<br />
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This verse equally applies to the church today. Sure we have our private devotions, and we gather the family to worship, and we commune with God throughout the week. But more than these, the Lord loves the gathering of the church—the gates of Zion. He loves the "place" where His people corporately gather to receive fresh grace from Him. <i>"Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God."</i> God loves the Lord's day more than all the other days (although all equally belong to Him) because it is on that day where His church gathers, militant and triumphant, to fellowship, to pray, to praise, to preach, to listen, to love, to learn, to heal, to be made holy, and to prepare for that Day when we will meet the Bridegroom. What a treasure the "gates of Zion" is. The LORD loves it more than all other dwelling places. <br />
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Is that your heart for the church? Are you a person who longs for the gates of Zion, and aches for the place where God's special presence dwells? I hope so friend. To discover this truth is to discover heaven on earth. </div>
Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-41124354118174556602014-11-03T06:54:00.001-08:002014-11-03T06:54:45.664-08:00Heaven is a World of Love<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the things that has struck me about the differences between this life and the next is that in this life everything is mixed. With the sweet comes the bitter. With the joy comes the sorrow. There is never a time on this side of Jesus' return where there is a full consummation of love and joy and peace. It is true that our Heavenly Father often gives us glimpses of that type of consummation. Seasons where love for God is ardent, and the fellowship with the saints is sweet, and compassion for the lost is violent. But these are just glimpses. There is no sustained, unbroken harmony with those experiences because of the remaining corruption in all of us. But in heaven, all mixture disappears. There is only a pure concentration of love, joy, peace, harmony, holiness and happiness. We will be in the presence of God Himself. The air of that place will be a fragrance of perfect enjoyment with no mixture of envy or enmity. There will not be the slightest feeling of discontent. Those are things that belong to this world. That world will have no mixture of sweet with bitter. Only perfect sweetness, perfect harmony, and perfect love. Jonathan Edwards in his sermon entitled "Heaven a World of Love" puts it like this...<br />
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"In heaven all things shall conspire to promote their love, and give advantage for mutual enjoyment. There shall be none there to tempt any to dislike or hatred; no busybodies, or malicious adversaries, to make misrepresentations, or create misunderstandings, or spread abroad any evil reports, but every being and everything shall conspire to promote love, and the full enjoyment of love. Heaven itself, the place of habitation, is a garden of pleasures, a heavenly paradise, fitted in all respects for an abode of heavenly love; a place where they may have sweet society and perfect enjoyment of each other's love. None are unsocial or distant from each other. The petty distinctions of this world do not draw lines in the society of heaven, but all meet in the equality of holiness and of holy love."</blockquote>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-82799504224279883132014-10-14T08:01:00.000-07:002014-10-14T08:01:00.062-07:00Justification is a Friend to the Heart and to Holiness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Many have charged the doctrine of imputed righteousness of producing an antinomian spirit. If, it is reasoned, there is nothing left for the believer to do in order to inherit eternal life, then there is no motive for holy living. Therefore this doctrine can't possibly be the correct doctrine regarding our justification. Sure we must believe, they say, but we must continue to be righteous in order to maintain our right standing with God. However, the shoe is on the other foot. It is a denial of imputed righteousness that actually produces the antinomian spirit.<br />
A couple of questions must be asked at this point. 1) What type of righteousness does God demand from the christian? 2) Can that type of righteousness be achieved by a christian? To the first, it is clear that they only type of righteousness that God will accept is a perfect one. He is holy and cannot look upon even the slightest whisper of unrighteousness with approval (Hab. 1:13). To accept a less than perfect righteousness is to profane His name and to deny His glory (2 Tim. 2:13). Secondly, it is clear that a <i>mere</i> mortal cannot achieve this. Even if we were to grant that all sins are put away with at the type of conversion to Christ, and that the slate is clean moving forward, all the works of righteousness that we perform are continually shot through remaining corruption. <i> "All our righteousness is as filthy rags"</i> Isaiah 64:6. Filthy rags is not a currency that God recognizes. Only the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed (credited) to the believer at the moment of faith and repentance. A denial of this produces an antinomian (anti-law) spirit. It denies part of God's law (i.e. that part that demands perfect obedience) and replaces it with it's own standard (i.e. a standard that accepts imperfect and corrupt obedience). A denial of imputed righteousness produces antinomianism in the form of legalism. However to accept imputed righteousness is to find all the reason we need to pursue holiness from the heart. We are freed from comparing our selves amongst ourselves for the righteousness that God demands and instead we look to Christ. Herman Bavinck remarks on this point:<br />
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"To correctly assess the benefit of justification, people must lift up their minds to the judgment seat of God and put themselves in his presence. When they compare themselves with others or measure themselves by the standard that they apply to themselves or among each other, they have some reason perhaps to pride themselves in something and to put their trust in it. But when they put themselves before the face of God and examine themselves in the mirror of his holy law, all their conceit collapses, all self-confidence melts, and there is room left only for the prayer: "Enter not into the judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you." (Job 4:17-19; 9:2; 15:14-16; Ps. 143:2; 130:3), and their only comfort is that "there is forgiveness before you, so that you may be revered." (Psalm 130:4) [Herman Bavinck <i>Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 4 Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation </i>(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic 2008) pg. 204</div>
Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-65490905900182737532014-09-29T08:46:00.001-07:002014-09-29T08:46:33.558-07:00It is More Difficult to Disobey Than to Obey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is a vain charge that men bring against God's law, that it is rigorous, sever, and difficult. Besides the fact that this contradicts Jesus' own testimony that "My yoke is easy," and that "My burden is light," it also contradicts plain reason and experience. Is it not more difficult to be vicious, covetous, violent, cruel, than to be virtuous, charitable and kind? What does Satan and the world engage us in, but those things that are full of molestation to the soul and hazardous to the body? Is it a sweet thing to continually combat against our own conscience, and resist our own reason, and to always argue against inward voice, as we do when we sin? What does God require of us but to "do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 Those things work to the honor of God and the welfare of the world, and the security of our own souls, and are easier to practice than acts of disobedience. Do not men disown God when they walk in ways hedged with thorns, wherein they meet with the arrows of conscience, at every turn, in their sides; and slide down to an everlasting punishment, sink under an intolerable slavery, to contradict the will of God; when they prefer a sensual satisfaction, a violation of their reason, gnawing cares and weary travels BEFORE the honor of God, the dignity of their natures, the happiness of peace and health, which might be preserved at a cheaper rate? No, it is far more rigorous and sever and difficult to disobey rather than obey.<br />
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[adapted from Stephen Charnock's<i> The Existence and Attributes of God Vol. 1</i> (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Publishing, Reprint 1979] pg. 111-112</div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-14705656627547102322014-06-07T14:16:00.003-07:002014-06-07T14:16:42.682-07:00Is Your Church a "Third Way Church?"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you have not heard this phrase yet, it has become the new nomenclature for "churches" that have refused to be either gay affirming nor gay denying, but instead have discovered a third way in which neither of these positions is adopted. If that sounds problematic from the beginning, you are thinking rationally. Only by embracing multiple instances of double speak can one walk away after hearing this position thinking it is anything but completely absurd. This is yet another sign that both post-modernism and the "new tolerance"have made a mockery of rationality and Christian ethics. Recently Ken Wilson of the Ann Arbor Vineyard has embraced this ludicrous model in his blog found <a href="http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2014/03/31/what-c-s-lewis-marriage-can-tell-us-about-the-gay-marriage-controversy/31512">here</a>. The problem with this position, other the the clear Biblical calls to repentance and holiness, is that it is intellectually dishonest. Which is the nice way of saying that pastors who embrace this position are liars and are seeking to make merchandise of the sheep. They are the ones who Paul warned us about in Acts 20:29-30 <i>"...after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them."</i><br />
The fact of the matter is that there cannot be a third way. It defies all logic. The basic claim borrows on a principle that if carried to it's end would deny it's existence. It says that "we don't have to be gay affirming(so that we don't offend real Christians), nor do we have to be gay denying(so that we don't offend the world)." It seeks to create an atmosphere of radical non-confrontational non-judgmentalism. Yet, ironically, in doing so it is judging the two other positions as being incorrect, which violates it's own principle. If it were sane in any possible world to embrace a third-way philosophy, then it would also be sane to embrace a <i>fourth-way </i>philosophy which would claim that it is "...neither gay denying(way 1) nor gay affirming(way 2) nor is it gay denying nor gay affirming(way 3), BUT instead it is a church that is gay denying and gay affirming." But then of course there could be the fifth way which adopts the archaic "don't ask don't tell" policy that was dumped by the military. Or for that matter the 6th way where gender is completely denied as an ontological reality. <br />
It is sad that such an argument against third way even has to be made. Any non-judgemental stance towards sin is an endorsement and acceptance of the sin. This is unavoidable. When Eli of old tried to embrace a third-way with his two sons Hophni and Phinehas, God dismantled his family (cf. 1 Samuel 2:27ff). This type of theology is the epitome of man-centered absurdity. Even the radical liberal Tony Jones who is wrong on probably 95% of his theology <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/tonyjones/2014/05/20/why-theres-no-third-way-on-gay-marriage/">agrees</a> that no third way is possible. <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">My wish is this, that churches(and by that I mean the small hand full of men that are on the leadership team) would simply show their cards. If they are going to embrace the culture's deviant lifestyle as a viable path to holiness, then let them be men and do so. They who walk the fence on this issue are cowards. If you are under a leadership team that is unwilling to declare their position because they are in "process,"you can be certain that they are just waiting for the wind of culture to show them the way they should go. Those type of men are not leaders, nor are they interested in the glory of God; they are are pawns of Satan, and are deceiving others in order to pad their bank account.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #363030; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 22px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain." 1 Tim. 6:3-5</span></blockquote>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-67379340431209664862014-06-06T08:50:00.003-07:002014-06-06T08:50:48.804-07:00What Are The Real Subjects In Education?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now once our proper end in education is determined, this informs what the real and proper subjects are. So what are the <i>real</i> subjects in education? Reading, writing, arithmetic? Or perhaps history, philosophy, science, the languages, civics, and the fine arts? Actually no. Those subjects simply provide the occasion to study the real subjects. Those are the shadows. The real substance of education lies behind them. The real subject of education is God. He is the chief thing that we are studying. So in each particular subject, what we are actually studying is one or more of His attributes. This shouldn’t at all surprise us. Psalm 145:10 says <i>“All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you!” </i>This is not just referring to speaking creatures such as human beings and angels. It is speaking about every <i>thing</i> God has made, visible and invisible. All of God’s works will praise Him. The only way this can be accomplished with a non-speaking thing is by how it reflects God, in the way that it was made. In other words, the subjects act as mirrors reflecting God’s attributes to the cosmos. A clear example of this is the subject of astronomy. Psalm 19:1-4 <i>“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” </i>The heavens speak. How do they speak? Non-verbally. What do they speak about? The glory of God. How do they do that? By reflecting His attributes. What attributes do astronomy show? Astronomy shows the <i>wisdom</i> of God in His arrangement of the galaxies. Astronomy also shows the <i>self-sufficiency</i> of God in the life-span that He gave stars. Astronomy shows the <i>infinity</i> of God, in the seemingly endless nature of the universe. In all these things and numberless more Astronomy’s chief speech is about God. Now this is true of all of God’s works, including every other subject in school. Because every other subject is a shadowy reflection of God’s attributes. Let’s take a look at another syllogism, with the subject of math. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P1. All subjects are reflections of God’s attributes</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">C. Math is a reflection of God’s attributes</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What does math speak about God? One recent blogger, Joe Carter, tackled this question in a piece entitled <i>What Does 1 + 1 = 2 Mean?</i>—<i>Why Christianity Matters For Math(and Everything Else)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: xx-small;">. </span></i></span>In it he provided different perspectives weighing in on this simple math problem. First he provided atheistic philosopher John Stuart Mill’s answer. Mill “...believed that all that we can know to exist are our own sensations -- what we can see, taste, hear, and smell....Mill claims that 1 and 2 and + stand for sensations, not abstract numbers or logical classes. Because they are merely sensations, 1 + 1 has the potential to equal 5, 345, or even 1,596. Such outcomes may be unlikely but, according to Mill, they are not impossible.”</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Next he gave John Dewey’s answer, the father of the modern education. Dewey believed “...that the signs 1 + 1 = 2 do not really stand for anything but are merely useful tools that we invent to do certain types of work. Asking whether 1 + 1 = 2 is true would be as nonsensical as asking if a hammer is true. Tools are neither true nor false; they simply do some jobs and not others. What exists is the physical world and humans (biological entities) that are capable of inventing and using such mathematical tools.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> This is why I said at the beginning that the modern educational system only produces workers, not thinkers. In other words it’s aim is to produce slaves, utilitarian tools useful only for the advance of the state. And this is seen in their philosophy of 1 + 1. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The right view was put on the lips of Leibniz, who was one of the inventors (discoverers) of calculus. When [he] was asked by one of his students, "Why is one and one always two, and how do we know this?" Leibniz replied, "One and one equals two is an eternal, immutable truth that would be so whether or not there were things to count or people to count them."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Those are God’s attributes. Eternal. Immutable. Truth. Like God, the answer to 1 +1 is an eternal answer. Psalm 90:2 <i>“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” </i>Like God, the answer to 1 + 1 is an immutable answer. It will never change. Malachi 3:6 <i>“I the LORD do not change...”</i> Like God, the answer to 1 +1 is a true truth, even if all the world decided it be something else. Romans 3:4 <i>“Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,”</i> Any other view is not only lying about math but more importantly it is lying about God. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I’m not saying that atheists or non-Christian religions can’t believe in 1 + 1. I’m just saying that they can’t believe in consistently. Their worldview doesn’t justify the truth of 1 + 1. And if left to themselves they will eventually unravel. And if left in charge, they will unravel others. Case in point is the Common Core. Teachers have now been instructed to give their students at least partial credit even when they get their math problems wrong, as long as they show their work. In other words, as long as they are sincere it getting it wrong, they can be partially right! Sincerity, rather than truth is the new currency of modern education. The only problem is, that sincerity means nothing without truth. If the meaning of sincerity is not an eternal, immutable truth, then it is nothing at all. What might be sincere to you, could be totally different than my definition. And so what we are left with is complete relativism. This is the fall of western civilization. The only antidote to this inescapable reality is to teach the subjects from a Biblical worldview. This means that we need to give our children a christian classical education. In other words, we need to disciple them the way the Scripture informs us. We need to educate in such a way where we demonstrate that God speaks to all the subjects and all the subjects speak back Him. </span></div>
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<li>God speaks to history, and history speaks about God. Acts 17:26 <i>“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place...”</i></li>
<li>God speaks to civics and civics speak about God. Romans 13:1, 3-4 <i> “...there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”</i></li>
<li>God speaks to the languages, and language speaks about God. In Scripture, Jesus is called Word of God. John 1:1 <i> “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”</i> </li>
<li>God speaks to philosophy, and philosophy speaks about God. Colossians 2:3 tells us that in Christ <i>“...are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” </i></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the same thing can be said about every other subject under the sun. God commands every subject to reflect His attributes, so that every subject speaks about Him. <i>“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” </i> Romans 11:36 </span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-82966789663667616112014-06-05T07:42:00.002-07:002014-06-05T07:43:41.677-07:00The Ends and Means of Education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Bell MT'; font-size: 14px;">When we are speaking about ends and means, we are speaking about the goals and the processes by which it takes to achieve those goals. Mortimer Adler in his book <i>Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind</i> says this about approaching any particular thing that we set our hand to do:</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“In the solution of every practical problem, the basic terms are ends and means. The end of medicine is health; the means are the various procedures of prevention and therapy. We solve a practical problem, so far as thinking goes, by determining the ends to be achieved and the most efficient means for achieving them....Now since the means are to be chosen and used for the sake of the ends to be reached, the ends are the first things we must think about in the order of practical thinking, even though they are the last things we reach in the order of action itself.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px;"> [Mortimer Adler <i>Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind</i> Ed. Geraldine Van Doren<i> </i>(New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing, 1977]</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That last part is critical! The <i>means</i> can only, and should only be determined by the <i>ends</i>. The <i>means</i> exist for the sake of the <i>ends</i>, and not for the sake of themselves. In other words, we start with the end in mind in order to determine our starting point. Once we determine those things, our path to proceed, or our means are illuminated. So we need to ask: <i>What is the proper end of education? </i>What is the end of this accumulation of knowledge? Is it just so that our children can gain a good career? So that they can be producers in society? So that they can take care of their future families? Those may seem like high ends, but they are in fact circular. ‘We educate in order to perpetuate society, in order to raise the next generation in order to educate them, so that they can in turn do the same.’ That is circular. This is to confuse subordinate ends with the ultimate end. Subordinate ends are those things we aim at in order to get to a higher and more ultimate end. Take the cross of Christ for instance. What would you say is the ultimate end of the gospel? It is not Jesus hanging on the cross. That is subordinate to the ultimate end which is to bring us into perfect fellowship with Him.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Education is no different. We do want our children to have good careers and to help perpetuate society and to raise up the next generation. But those are not ultimate ends, they are subordinate. What is the ultimate end in education? Many answers have been given. Unfortunately some have even come out of the modern classical movement that have not been good. One book that has been touted as an apologia for classical education is <i>Climbing Parnassus</i> by Tracy Lee Simmons. Mr. Simmons gives his answer for the proper end of education in this manner: </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Knowledge is to be sought for its own sake, irrespective of immediate and material gain. Any other attitude to knowledge betrays the servile mind...“Such is the constitution of the human mind that any kind of knowledge, if it be really such, is its own reward.” For only “liberal knowledge...stands on its own pretensions, is independent of sequel, expects no complement, refuses to be informed...by any end,”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px;"> [Tracy Lee Simmons <i>Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia For Greek and Latin</i> (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2nd Paperback Edition 2012), pg. 35]</span></div>
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That is a sad view. <i>‘Knowledge is to be sought for it’s own sake, and refuses to be informed by any end.’</i> That view of knowledges makes it god. It specifically makes our knowledge god. Not only is this view of education entirely too small, it is blasphemous. (Consider how Paul refuted this view to the secular philosophers in Acts 17:16-34)</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The only proper end of knowledge or education, is simply this: praise. Praise is the ultimate end of knowledge. We put knowledge into our minds in order to fuel our hearts for worship. Knowledge finds it’s end, it’s ultimate end, in praise.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> The founding verse for our academy is Psalm 111:3 <i>“Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.” </i> We acquire knowledge on every subject under the sun because they display the works of God. In studying the works of God, we find ourselves studying Him. And when we study Him and delight in what we see, this brings Him glory. So we could say that the proper end of education is for the glory of God. Consider this syllogism.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P1. All things were created for God’s Glory (Rev. 4:11)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P2. Education is a thing.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">C. Education was created for God’s Glory.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If God’s glory is the proper end of education, then it must inform our means. God’s glory must be the chief determining factor in how we choose what subjects to teach, how we determine curriculum, and how we integrate it all together. If the glory of God is the proper end of education, then it must control every aspect of how we do our education. We must resist the temptation to be informed by any other end. Whether that end is smuggled in by the culture, or whether by our own anxieties that seek to dominate our hearts. There is no other ultimate end in education, than the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-53421094909574177512013-11-25T15:05:00.001-08:002013-11-25T15:08:23.201-08:00How Animals can be more Human than Humans<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(This post was generated from my sermon <i>Lusty Old Men</i> found <a href="http://www.thewellboise.com/sermon/lusty-old-men/">here</a>)</span></div>
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The Puritan Ralph Venning illustrates this very sharply from his book <i>The Sinfulness of Sin.</i> When a man gives himself over to sensuality(Ephesians 4:19) it...<b>1)</b> It makes him like a animal, <b>2)</b> It makes him like the worst of animals, <b>3)</b> It makes him worse than the animals. </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>1) Sensuality makes man like an animal</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is primarily seen in the mind. In 2 Peter 2, Peter is warning the church about false teachers. v. 3 says that <i>“...many will follow their sensuality..”</i> False teachers have given themselves over to sensuality, and they attempt to deceive other to follow them it it. Because of this, Peter says they are like animals. 2 Peter 2:12 says that <i>“...these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant...”</i> The person who has given them self up to sensuality is like an animal. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">[FYI: </span>Sensuality deals with the senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. God did in fact make our senses very good(Genesis 1:31). He made them for us to enjoy and to think about Him. Sensuality, however, turns the 5 senses into a religion. Sensuality is only concerned with how to make our senses feel pleasure. It is a complete focus on our natural instincts, and our physical appetites. It is a devotion to indulge in them in order to secure happiness. When a person gives himself up to sensuality, he’s giving himself up to everything and anything this planet has to offer. Except for God.]</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>2) Sensuality makes man like the worst of animals.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Whenever sensual men are compared to animals in the Scripture, it is never to gentle and innocuous animals, unless it is to point to their stupidity(cf. Prov. 7:22) They are always compared to ferocious or dangerous animals. Sensuality makes man like the worst of animals. Proverbs 28:15 <i>“Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people.” </i>The wicked sensuous man is like a roaring lion because he has no pity. Likewise, Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:33 <i>“You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” </i>These leaders weren’t compared to serpents because of their wisdom but rather because of their venomous hatred toward God. That is what sensuality does, it makes those who have given themselves up to it like the worst of animals. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>3) Sensuality makes man worse than the animals.</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Venning says here that the sensual man is worse than animals because <i>“...the beasts do not transgress the law of their nature, but man has done and does so over and over again.” </i></span>You see animals only do that which God designed them to do. They do not break his moral boundaries. Man, on the other hand constantly trespasses the moral boundaries that God has established. Venning goes on to say that<i> “It is no sin in an animal to be sensual, but it is so in man, who although created for higher ends and purposes, is so degenerated as to be in many </i>[ways] <i>more sensual and carnal than the animals are. Sin has made man so unsociable and cruel that bears are more kind to one another than men are. Proverbs 17:12 “Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.” </i>If you are thinking that maybe a fool would be better to meet than a bear about to rip you apart, you’re not letting that word air out it’s full meaning. It’s not speaking of the class clown here, it is speaking about those fools who actually have the power to press their folly upon you. The Mao Tse Tung’s of the world. “[Sensual]<b> </b><i>man is more hurtful to man than the animals are to man.”</i></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The human being is who has given himself up to sensuality is not only like an animal, and like the worst of animals, but he is worse than all the animals.</span></div>
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The solution to this problem that <b>all people share</b> is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please listen to the above linked sermon to here this good news. </div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-12050168155648656942013-05-20T08:07:00.002-07:002013-05-20T08:09:24.317-07:00All Things Were Made Through Him<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Here's a <a href="http://www.thewellboise.com/sermon/all-things-were-made-through-him/">link</a> to listen to the sermon. </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.</i> John 1:3</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is an extremely incredible verse considering what we’ve seen so far. Two weeks ago we looked at the intimate fellowship of the Trinity, how God the Father has always beheld and enjoyed His own perfections. Those perfections were beheld in His only Son, whom He has always exulted over. He was daily His delight. [Prov. 8:30] The Son likewise has always rejoiced before his Father. [Prov. 8:31] We saw this when John said <i>“The Word was with God.”</i> They have been together since before the creation of the world. The Father delighted in seeing His image in His Son, and the Son delighted in being in the Father’s presence. And this mutual ecstasy and mutual delight for each other proceeded forth in an infinite and sacred love...who is the person of the Holy Spirit. Three persons, one God. One God who delights in the perfect fellowship of the Trinity. This God who is never bored, never lonely, never tired, but always perfectly happy. He is the happy God. This God is self-sufficient and doesn’t need anything. He doesn’t need the angels, He doesn’t need the heavens, He doesn’t need the earth, and He doesn’t need humanity. You and I need things. We need water, and shelter, and clothing and air. God needs nothing! Acts 17:24-25 <i>“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not...need anything.” </i> He doesn’t need anything outside of Himself to continue His existence and He doesn’t need anything outside of Himself to bring Him pleasure. God is pure pleasure. He is the fountain of all pleasure! 1 Timothy 6:15-16 says <i>“...He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”</i> Our God is a perfectly thrilled at being God, and He lacks nothing, including creation, in order to sustain His joy. So we should ask ourselves, why v. 3 here? If this is all true, that God is self-sufficient and infinitely thrilled with being God, then why create at all? Here’s the best answer that I have found. God is the fountain of all pleasure. What do fountains do? They overflow. In this case the overflowing of God’s pleasure in Himself is the creation. Meaning that the heavens and the earth and all things visible and invisible and all of mankind are the result of God’s happiness in Himself overflowing. God’s joy in being God spilled over, and that over spilling is creation. Thus John says <i>“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now as we are looking at verse, God the Son is still on center stage in John’s mind here. v. 3 flows from v. 1-2. This <i>Him</i> here is the <i>Word</i> who is Jesus Christ. If we were to insert His name in this verse, it would read this way “<i>All things were made through Jesus, and without Jesus was not any thing made that was made.”</i> This verse is ultimately about the supremacy of Christ. This verse is ultimately about the glory of Jesus Christ in the work of Creation. </span></div>
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<span style="font: 18.0px 'Book Antiqua'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Big Idea..</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">.The glory of Christ is seen in creation and providence. </span></div>
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I. The Glory of Christ in Creation<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">II. The Glory of Christ in Providence</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Explanation</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I. The Glory of Christ in Creation</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is the pre-incarnate Son in this verse. Meaning that, this was the Son of God before He put on flesh. This verse like the last two verses, declares that the Son of God is God Himself. The last part of the verse says </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“...without him was not any thing made that was made.”</i> Consider two proofs from this verse showing that Jesus is God Himself. <b>1)</b> A created being cannot create <b>all</b> things that have ever been created, because that would mean <b>He</b> would have to self-create. Self creation is a contradiction. A <i>nothing</i> cannot become a<i> something</i> on the strength of it’s own power, because a <i>nothing</i> doesn’t have power, it is nothing! Jesus made all the created things, and not even one thing that was created was done so apart from Him. This means that Jesus was uncreated. And if He is uncreated, than He is eternal God Himself. Jehovah’s witnesses, Mormons, and others who try to continue to use the Bible, but deny that Jesus is God, are in grave danger. This verse flatly contradicts their position. <b>2)</b> This verse proves that Jesus is God, because, according to the rest of the Scriptures, only God has the power of creation.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Genesis 1:1 <i>“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” </i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Psalm 102:24-25 <i>“O my God,”...Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>and the heavens are the work of your hands.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Revelation 4:11 <i>“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So if God alone has the power of creation, and Jesus is said to create, then the invincible conclusion is the Jesus is God. Any who would deny this reality are trying to steal away the glory of Christ. And this is the most dangerous ground that one could stand on. For the Scripture says that He will not give His glory to another. Isaiah 40:8 <i>“I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other...”</i> Any who try and undermine this King is the offspring of Satan. He attempted the same rebellion thousands of years ago, and now he and his demons await the judgment of eternal damnation. Jesus is God, and therefore He is glorious in the work of creation. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now <i>“All things </i><b><i>were</i></b><i> made through </i>Jesus<i>...,” </i>but I would not want to leave you with the impression that the Father and the Holy Spirit did not participate in creation also. Creation is a Trinitarian word. Notice this verse uses the word “through” here. <i>“All things were made </i><b><i>through </i></b><i>him...” </i>Jesus was the means or the vehicle through which creation was accomplished.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> In Genesis 1:1 we read, <i>“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”</i> How did God create? By speaking. What did God use when He spoke? He used words. He used the <i>Word.</i> This <i>Word</i> that we are looking at in John 1. So it was “through” the Word, as our verse declares, that God the Father created all the world. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Holy Spirit was also involved in creation. Genesis 1:2 says <i>“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”</i> The Spirit was there hovering over the created chaos like a bird hovers over it’s brood; sustaining, protecting, and perfecting it. All three persons of the Trinity are responsible for the creation. It is the Father who begins by speaking, the Son who establishes by being spoken, and the Spirit who perfects by hovering over. Psalm 33:6 <i>“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“The Father speaks, and on His Breath his Word is heard.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Father speaks His Word(which is His Son) and He goes forth on His Breath(which is His Spirit).<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Corollary</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lets consider now how the glory of Christ is seen in this creation. What is included in creation? Colossians 1:16 helps us out: “<i>For by him all things were created, </i><b><i>in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities</i></b><i>—all things were created through him and for him.” </i>All things in heaven and earth. Is there any other place? No, that means He created all things in every place. All visible things and all invisible things. Are there any other kind of things? No. That means that He created the spiritual and the material world. All things whether they be thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. Is there anything high and lofty and above us that He has <b>not</b> created? No, even the most marvelous archangel, which if we saw, would cause our heart to be in terror is under God’s creating power. The highest and most lofty thing that is not God, was created by God, and specifically through His Word, through Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>This is an awesome thought if you just consider it for a moment. You and I have never created anything in our lives. Nor, for that matter has any other human being, or angel. Mankind only have the power of manipulation. We take pre-existing matter and shape it into objects for our uses. But we have never created<i> ex nihilo</i>, meaning, “out of nothing.” Let your mind consider that. Think of anything in this room or outside of this room for that matter. Cars, computers, t.v. sets, jewelry, books, clothing, anything that you can think of. All of those things came from the original creation. Out of the ground, or from animal and plant life. This pulpit, those chairs, this concrete, your home. All of these things were made through Christ, and man merely manipulates and shapes them. King David humbly declared 1 Chronicles 29:14 <i>“For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.”</i> All things come from God and when we give back to Him, it is His own stuff that we are offering. All glory be to the Father. All glory be to the Son. All glory be to the Spirit. <i>“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”</i> [Romans 11:36]</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">II. The Glory of Christ in Providence</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Providence is a word that has been lost in our culture, and I hope to regain it at this church. Providence is God’s preserving and governing all His creation. Q.11 in the Shorter Catechism, which we we be getting to in a few weeks on Tuesday nights reads <i>“God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions.” </i>So let’s break God’s providence down into two parts: <b>1)</b> It is God’s Preserving and <b>2)</b> It is God’s Governing. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Glory of Christ is seen in His sustaining all things. </b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus Christ sustains, or preserves, or upholds all the creation. Hebrews 1:3 says that <i>“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he </i><b><i>upholds</i></b><i> the universe by the word of his power.”</i> Jesus does not just simply create and then walk away from His creation, He upholds the creation, meaning He nourishes it, and carries it, and keeps it alive. He is the invisible power that stops everything from flying apart. Colossians 1:17 says<i> “...in him all things hold together.” </i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My information may be outdated, but the last time I checked, quarks are the smallest things that scientists discovered that make up atoms. Atoms are the basic building blocks of existence. They are made up of protons, neutrons, electrons, and a nucleus. Quarks are the smaller components that make up those parts. Now, do you want to know what is in between those quarks? Nothing. Empty space. What is holding the quarks together? Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:17 <i>“...in him all things hold together.” </i>That is the glory of Christ in providence! When John tells us that <i>“All things were made through him,”</i> He doesn’t mean to tell us that Christ walked away from that creation after He made it. Creation does not have the power to sustain itself. Self-existence or self-survival is not a characteristic that creation has or can have. That is a power that belongs to God alone. And not even God can give this power to His creation. God alone has the power of self-existence. He cannot give this power away any more than He could make another God. It is a contradiction to create something that has self-existence. The moment it is created proves that it cannot be self-existent or even self-sustaining. All of creation depends on God As Job 34:14-15 says <i>”If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”</i> Christ’s glory is seen in the fact that we are not disintegrating at this very moment back into nothing. He is sustaining us, for it is through Him that all things are made. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Glory of Christ is seen in His governing of all things.</b> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>John in our verse says that Christ made all things. Let me ask a question: are actions or events things? According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary they are. The very first definition of a thing that is listed is </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“an event or action.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> It comes from the Latin <i>evenio</i>, which you can even hear the word event in that word: <i>evenio</i>. So the definition of a thing isn’t limited to material things, or even spiritual things, but it also includes events and actions. Which means that John here is including here the idea that Jesus made all events as well. Consider these verses:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Isaiah 48:3 <i>“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.”</i> What came to pass? Events. Events that God declared from before the beginning. Events that God made through Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Isaiah 46:9-10 <i>“...I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’”</i> Christ’s purpose is not only seen in creation but also in every event that has ever transpired underneath the sun. There is not one thing that you can conceive of that was not pre-planned, and purposed by Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Consider, have you ever been outside in the winter when giant snowflakes were falling? And then you looked up and was in wonder of all those billions and billions of snowflakes falling in every direction. Every one of those snowflakes that travels from the heavens to the earth is an event. Which means that the exact path that they take is a path that Jesus Christ determined before the creation of the world. <i>“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.”</i> [Isaiah 48:3] Is that too wonderful for you to fathom?<i> </i>When King David considered things like this, he declared. <i>“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”</i> [Psalm 115:3]</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What about events that includes human beings? Events that seem to happen by chance? In the O.T. there is a story of a wicked king named Ahab. A prophet of the Lord told him that he was going to die in battle for his wickedness. Ahab decided to disguise himself so that the enemy would not know who he was. Do you think that that thwarted God’s purposes for him? 1 Kings 22:34-35 <i>“...a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” And the battle continued that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, until at evening he died.” </i>So picture, this random guy, shot, at random, an arrow, and struck the king in the only place where his armor would allow the arrow to go through. That was an event. That took place because Jesus made all things. <i>“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.” </i>[Isaiah 48:3] The glory of Christ is that He is the Word that is spoken by God that declares all things before they happen. The Father announces them through His Son and they were created, and then they come to pass. Nothing happens apart from Jesus Christ, and this is His crown and this is His glory. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Application</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b> These truths are for comforting the godly.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. “</i> Recall that at the beginning I said that creation is an overflow of God’s happiness in being God. This should be the source of your everlasting joy, that God is supremely happy in being God, and He has made you to be supremely happy in Him. God is for the happiness and comfort of His creatures, when this happiness is found in Him alone. When we are happy in our Heavenly Father, we are most like Him. As we behold Him, we become more and more like Him and we conform to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 3:18 says <i>“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.”</i> So we fulfill God’s purposes for creation when we find all our joy and fulfillment in Him alone plus nothing. The happiest Christian is the one who can lose everything, but know that they have everything when they have Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>These truths are for gravely warning the sinner. </b> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. “</i> One of the things that Christ has made are the wicked. Proverbs 16:4 says <i>“The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”</i> This verse tells us that God through Christ made the wicked for a purpose. They were not an accident, or an oversight. If He wanted to, He could have withheld creation from them since He knows all things. But He didn’t. God created the wicked for the express purpose of showing Himself righteous, in judging and punishing them. It is more important in the mind of God that His justice be displayed than not. God had the choice to either not display His justice by withholding creation from the wicked, or to display His justice in the everlasting punishment of them. He chose the second. That truth should make us fear the Lord and repent if we have not yet done so. We are all commanded to repent of our treason for hating this Christ who made all things. We are all commanded to repent of our ignoring this Christ who made them for His glory. There is a glory in Christ accomplishing all of these things, and He wants us to see it and enjoy it and praise Him for. The wicked hate this obligation and in rebellion turn away from it. Be warned those of you who are turning away from the Lord. On top of everything else that Christ made, He has also made a day of judgment. Romans 1:16 says that there is a <i>“...day...when God will judge the secrets of men through Jesus Christ.”</i> On that day there will be weeping and gnashing teeth, for judgment will be exact and vengeance will be the Lord’s. In that day a new creation will occur. Both the wicked and the righteous will have new bodies made for them, by Christ. The righteous will have new bodies to enjoy heaven, but the wicked will have new bodies given to them so that they can endure the unspeakable horrors of hell. If you are wicked, turn from your wickedness and live that you will not be given such a body for such a purpose. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>These truths are for encouraging the doubting.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. “ </i>Christ has also made the day of salvation. 2 Cor. 6:2 says <i>“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”</i> I don’t think I’ve shared with you that I have lived in G.C. 10 + years. Years that I have been addicted to drugs, to sex, and to hatred of God. The darkest years of my life. In fact if you want to know where I lived, just go down to 44th and Adams, and you will see an empty lot there. I lived in the shed in the front. They were dark years where I was in bondage to Satan, and I loved my sin. Christ Jesus delivered me from that. He created a day of salvation for me and He offers that to everybody here as well. The Scripture tells us all repent of our sin, which means that with grief and hatred of our sin we turn from it towards God. It means, that, with as much energy as you spent loving your sin, you not hate it all the more energy. And then by faith alone, you receive Jesus Christ as the treasure of your life. It means that you trust Him. It means that you believe that His sacrifice on the cross is enough to pay for your crimes against God. It means that you believe that nothing that you do will ever satisfy God’s justice except for the sacrifice of Christ alone. It means that you love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God Himself, who made all things for His glory. And it means that you live a life where you spend your time pursuing Christ either until He returns or until you die. Trust Christ for that. Believe that He can make your sins whiter than snow. Even your sins that you are so ashamed of, and that nobody knows about. Christ already knows about them and He has created a day in which you can be saved. <i>“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”</i> </span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-75834319800342645442013-05-05T20:17:00.000-07:002013-05-05T20:17:12.983-07:00In the Beginning was the Word Pt. 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Here's a <a href="http://www.thewellboise.com/sermon/in-the-beginning-was-the-word-pt-2/">link</a> to listen to the sermon.</b></div>
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<b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. </i>John 1:1-2</span></b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Last week we started the gospel of John and we looked at the first two verses.<i> “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” </i>This <i>Word </i>that John spoke of is clearly Jesus Christ. We saw this from v. 14 <i>“And the </i><b><i>Word</i></b><i> 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.” </i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our big idea from last week was that this <i>Word</i> is eternal, this <i>Word</i> is personal, and this <i>Word</i> is God Himself. Under the <b>first point</b>, we said that Jesus Christ is eternal. Time is a created thing, but Jesus is not. He was <i>in </i> the beginning with God, meaning that when time began, Jesus was already there. Therefore we discovered that Jesus is eternal. The <b>second point</b> we looked at is that this Word is personal. v.1 says the Word was <i>with</i> God and v.2 calls this Word a <i>He</i>. This is a <i>Personal Word</i>. Jesus has always and forever shared intimate fellowship with His Father. The <b>third point</b> that we looked at is that Jesus Christ is God Himself. He is not a god amongst other gods, and He is not a created being. He is God! The end of v. 1 says “<i>the Word was God.” </i>So John declares unashamedly that Jesus is God. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But John is not alone in this declaration. Jesus Himself affirmed over and over again throughout this gospel that He is God. In John 5:17-18, Jesus said <i>“‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”</i> Later in John 10:31-32, we read <i>“The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.’”</i> So without hesitation or fear of misinterpretation, the Bible declares that Jesus is God! </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So here is the problem. Our text declares that Jesus <i>is</i> God and that Jesus is <i>with </i>God; and yet the Bible is very clear that there is only one God. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Isaiah 45:5 says <i>“I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God...”</i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Isaiah 45:21 <i>“Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.”</i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hosea 13:4 <i>“But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.” </i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Isaiah 44:6 <i>“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god...”</i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And the verses could go on and on. There is only one God. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And yet...the Bible says more than that. It says that the Father is God(John 20:17), the Son is God(Rev. 1:8) and the Holy Spirit is God(Acts 5:3-4). These three are the persons of God. They are distinct or separate persons, yet each one is fully God. This is called the Tri-unity of God., or we know it as the Trinity. Tri meaning 3, unity meaning 1. There is a plurality(3) in the unity(1) of who God is. If this is confusing to you, what do you expect? You’re not God! You’re not infinite. You’re not eternal. You are finite and you are a creature of this God. God doesn’t need your permission or your understanding for Him to be who He is. He is God. <i>“Who is like me? </i>[asks the Lord]<i> Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me...”</i> Isaiah 44:7 <i>“To whom will you liken me</i> [says the Lord]<i> and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?”</i> Isaiah 46:5 If anyone dismisses the idea of the Trinity for the reason that they don’t understand it, because isn’t like anything they have ever even thought of, God agrees with you. He just asked <i>“To whom will you liken me?” </i>There is no one like Him in the heavens above or the earth below. Not in eternity past, nor in the present, nor in the ages to come. He is uniquely and extravagantly God. This is part of the delightful mystery that John uncovers for us in these first two verses. So let’s look at our big idea and then we we hopefully dive into some of this mystery in a way that makes us adore and admire Him more. </span></div>
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<span style="font: 24.0px 'Book Antiqua'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Big Idea</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">...<i>the Word was with God</i> <b>means</b> that the Father and Son have eternally loved each other through the person of the Holy Spirit. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Remember I said last week that there is a very intimate flavor to this book. I believe the big idea reflects this. This type of loving language is found all over this book. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In John 3:35, Jesus says <i>“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In John 5:20, Jesus says <i>“...the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In John 14:31, Jesus says <i>“...but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In John 15:9 Jesus says <i>“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So this theme of the Father lavishing His love upon Jesus and His people will continue to come up again and again as we proceed through this gospel. Our task tonight is to look at the nature of this Triune God. Or as John says it, this <i>“...Word </i>[who]<i> was with God, and...</i>[this]<i>...Word </i>[who]<i> was God.” </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">I. Who is God?</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Let me ask you this: how do you approach God? What I mean is, how do you primarily define Him? Creator? Ruler? The Almighty? One Christian author says that’s a big mistake. He says </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“...if I start there, with that as my basic view of God, I will find every inch of my Christianity covered and wasted by the nastiest toxic fallout.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Hmm... those are strong words. Are they called for? Well consider. “Josh, who is your wife?” you ask. If I answer “dishwasher,” or “baker,” or maybe something more dignified like “educator,” we know that something is wrong. That response would be tragic on so many levels. Defining her by what she does rather than who she is reduces her to a tool. She is not defined by <i>what she does</i>, but rather <i>by who she is</i>. The same mistake can be made with God. God does create. He does rule. He is almighty, but does that mean he is primarily some sort of cosmic police officer? To define God like that, primarily, is to approach Him in very alien terms than what is found in Scripture. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Who is God? Maybe a question that will help illuminate His essence is to ask: What was God doing before creation? That question was asked to Martin Luther once and he responded by saying </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“Making hell for those cheeky enough to ask such questions.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> As funny as that is, I think in this case his witty comeback has done the church a disfavor. It’s actually a good question, and the reason why we know it’s a good question is because Jesus Himself addresses it. He pulls back the eternal curtain, as it were, and lets us see what the triune God was doing from all eternity. In John 17:24 Jesus says <i>“Father...You loved Me before the creation of the world.”</i> (NIV) Father. God is essentially or primarily Father. God’s identity is Father. He doesn’t do fatherhood, His being is wrapped up in fatherhood. This is how Jesus, who is the <i>Word</i> of God, defines who God is. Father. What is a father? Well a father necessarily has a child. In this case, a Son. His only begotten Son. And this Father Loves His Son. And that is the Trinity. That has to be our starting point in approaching God. The Trinity ought not to be something we are embarrassed about, nor shy away from because we don’t understand it, it should be the very heart of our Christian faith, because it is the very heart of THE Christian faith. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">II. Who is the Son?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Consider this picture of the Trinity. Now this is an attempt to understand some of the Scriptures in the Bible. But remember that the Trinity is the most profound of all Divine mysteries and even after a billion millennia of ages we will still not perfectly understand fully who He is. But we do have some great clues now. Let’s consider these facts. (This is largely adapted from Jonathan Edwards conception of the Trinity found in his essay on the Trinity)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>God is infinitely perfect. Contained in that infinite perfection is an infinite beauty, an infinite love, and an infinite holiness. That is a sight to behold! There is nothing more stunning than to gaze upon infinite beauty, and love, and holiness in that one Being. Not only it is stunning to gaze upon that sight, but it also results in an unimaginable happiness. So God has gazed upon His own perfections for all eternity. And He perfectly enjoys this view or this image of His own excellencies. Furthermore God has always had this perfect image of Himself, because He is eternal. Therefore this perfect image of Himself has been an eternally perfect image of Himself. <b>That eternally perfect image of Himself is the Son.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Consider these Scriptures and listen for Jesus being called an image. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2 Corinthians 4:4 speaks about <i>“...the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the </i><b><i>image of God.”</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Colossians 1:15 says that <i>“He is the </i><b><i>image</i></b><i> of the invisible God...”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hebrews 1:3 <i>“He</i>[Jesus]<i> is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact</i><b><i> imprint </i></b><i>of his nature...” </i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It’s clear from these Scriptures that Jesus is the exact image that God has of Himself. The Son is the infinite beauty, and love, and holiness that God views in Himself as His image. That image stands outside of Himself as His own person in the Son. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Another way to say this is that Jesus is the perfect idea that the Father has of Himself. So follow me here from the last point: if Jesus is the image that God has of Himself, then that is the same as saying that Jesus is the idea that God has of Himself. Certainly God has a perfect idea of who He is. This </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“...idea which God has of Himself is absolutely Himself.” </span>So much so that God’s idea of Himself stands outside of Himself as His own person with all the same attributes or characteristics of God Himself. Consider these Scriptures and listen for Jesus being called the idea that the Father has of Himself. </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 Cor. 1:24 says that <i> “...Christ </i>[is]<i> the wisdom of God.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What is the wisdom of God except the very thoughts of God Himself? This verse says that Jesus is the thoughts of God. Or the perfect idea that God has of Himself. He’s more than that, because He is an eternal distinct person. But He is not less than that.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Colossians 2:2-3 says that <i>“God’s mystery...is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”</i> This verse is acknowledging that this is mysterious. Christ is God’s mystery! “God’s mystery...is Christ...” Then this verse goes on to say that in Christ is all wisdom and knowledge. Meaning that Christ, who is the eternal Son, and second person in the Trinity, is the very thoughts begotten by the Father Himself.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Proverbs 8:12 speaks about the wisdom of God. In this place wisdom is personified. That means that wisdom is given personal traits or characteristics. <i> </i></span><span style="font: 11.0px 'Book Antiqua'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>12</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,and I find knowledge and discretion. </i></span><span style="font: 11.0px 'Book Antiqua'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>22</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up,at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #fe0000;"><i>I was brought forth, </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #fe0000;"><i>I was brought forth, </i></span><span style="font: 11.0px 'Book Antiqua'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>30</b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>then I was beside him, like a master workman, and </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #fe0000;"><i>I was daily his delight,</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #fe0000;"><i>rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his</i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.”</i> [Proverbs 8:12; 22-25; 30-31] There are three important things to notice here. <b>1)</b> This wisdom is a person. It is the Son of God. The Word of God. Jesus Christ.<b> 2)</b> This person was brought forth. Twice the text says that He was<i> “brought forth.” </i> This is the language of being <i>begotten</i>. The Son was begotten of the Father. The N.T. in several places records the Father saying<i> “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’”</i> [Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Heb. 5:5] The difference between a human father begetting a human son and the Divine Father begetting the Divine Son is that the Divine begetting is an eternal begetting. Jesus was eternally begotten of the Father. He never began to exist. <b>3) </b>This begotten Son was the delight of Father, and He always overflowed with joy in the Father’s presence. v. 30 says <i>“...then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always...”</i> The Son is here exclaiming that He has eternally been the Father’s delight. The Father has always admired His Son. He has always taken perfect pleasure in His company. The Son returns this love by saying that He was always rejoicing before Father. The Son loved being the Son. He has forever been full of joy because of His relationship with the Father. Being close to the Father was the foundation of the Son’s eternal happiness. <b>They shared an all-powerful and unimaginable love from all eternity. </b> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">III. Who is the Spirit? </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Who is the Holy Spirit? We don’t see the Holy Spirit explicitly in John 1:1-2, but He is there implicitly and He is very present in the rest of the Scriptures. Where does He fit into this relationship between the Father and the Son? Quite simply, He is that all-powerful and unimaginable love that flows from the Father to the Son, and from the Son from the Father. The Scriptures tells us that the Son proceeds forth or is begotten from the Father, which is why we call Him the Second Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is called the Third Person of the Trinity because He proceeds forth from both from the Father and Son.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> He is the Divine love that proceeds from the Father to the Son; and the Divine love that proceeds from the Son to the Father. This Divine love is so identical to the Father and the Son that it also stands forth as His own person with all the same attributes or characteristics of God Himself.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Consider these Scriptures and listen for the Holy Spirit being the very love of God.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">John 3:34-35 says <i>“For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” </i>John here is telling us that Jesus can speak God’s words because the Father sent Him the Holy Spirit. The Father and has given Him the Holy Spirit without measure. Then John declares that the Father loves the Son. How do we know that? Because the verse says that He has given all things into His hand. But what is the highest token of the Father’s love for the Son? The previous verse says it is the Holy Spirit who was given to the Son without measure. That is how we know the Father loves the Son. Because the Divine love, the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Father and rests upon the Son. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1 John 4:12-13 says <i>“...if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” </i>Here we see the same argument in both verses. In v.12 He says that if we have love in us, it is because God is dwelling in us. In v.13 He says that this love is God’s Spirit. In other words, the love that God sends His people is His Holy Spirit. That is the Third Person of the Trinity. That Divine love that is ever flowing between the Father and the Son. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Romans 5:5 says <i>“...hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” </i>This verse says that two things have been given to us, God’s love and the Holy Spirit. But as we read the verse we find that God loves us by giving us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s love sent to us. <i>“...hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Trinity is an infinite ecstasy of love. Jesus excitedly proclaimed to the Father <i>“Father...You loved Me before the creation of the world.”</i> [John 17:24] The Father loved His own image, which was eternally His Son. And that love that they mutually shared together was the eternal person of the Holy Spirit. The Word was with God. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Application</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">One author has said this about the Trinity: </span> <span style="color: #003bff; letter-spacing: 0px;">“The Triunity of God is the secret of His beauty.” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">(Michael Reeves <i>Delighting in the Trinity</i>) </span>When we press into the Trinity we will discover a beauty that transcends all the world. When we press into the Trinity we will sing with David when he said <i>“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”</i> [Psalm 27:4] The Triunity of God is the secret of His beauty. The Triunity of God is the secret of all satisfaction. What does it mean to be satisfied? To be satisfied means to have your desires fully gratified.</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Trinity can satisfy your soul. The Trinity can gratify your soul. The deepest parts. The most hungry and thirsty parts. The Trinity is the true object of all enjoyment. There is no higher delight, no greater enjoyment, no superior satisfaction than that of the grace of the Father, the beauty of the Son, and the love of the Spirit. How can there be a higher delight than the Trinity? The Father with all His infinite strength, power, and wisdom did not create something in order to make Him happy in His eternal state; He already possessed infinite happiness. He had perfect joy in the person of His Son, and He lavished upon Him the love of His Spirit. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“He did not need to create the world in order to satisfy himself...The divine majesty of this God is not dependent on the world. The Father, Son and Spirit ‘were happy in themselves, and enjoyed one another before the world was.’ But the Father so enjoyed his fellowship with his Son that he wanted to have the goodness of it spread out and..shared with others. The creation was a free choice borne out of nothing but love.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Trinity is not some useless appendage added on to the Christian faith. It is the very heart of the Christian faith. The Athanasian Creed says this <span style="color: #003bff; letter-spacing: 0px;">“Whosoever will be saved...it is necessary that he hold the</span><span style="color: #003bff;"> [orthodox] </span><span style="color: #003bff; letter-spacing: 0px;">faith; which faith </span><span style="color: #003bff;">[if not kept]</span><span style="color: #003bff; letter-spacing: 0px;"> whole and undefiled </span><span style="color: #003bff;">[by the individual]</span><span style="color: #003bff; letter-spacing: 0px;"> without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the </span><span style="color: #003bff;">[orthodox] </span><span style="color: #003bff; letter-spacing: 0px;">faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.” </span>Now why is this the case? Because the Trinity is who God is! If you don’t worship the Trinity, you worship a different god, which is no god at all but rather a demon. The Trinity is the identity of God Himself. Even if God were to allow wrong ideas about the Trinity to be accepted, the fact of the matter is, if He is not Trinity He cannot save us. In order for God to remain righteous, He must punish all sin. Every sin will be punished. No exception. The problem is, if all sin is punished on all humans, then all humans will suffer everlastingly in hell. The only way that the Father can save some humans, like you and I is if He punishes a substitute in our place. He chose to punish His Son, who took on human flesh and suffered on behalf of all those who would believe on His name and ever repent of their sin. Now that cannot happen if God is not Trinity. If the Son is not equally God, the cross counts for nothing. Other religions who have a Jesus on a cross whom they do not believe is God cannot save them. Jesus said in John 8:24 <i>“...unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”</i> That is unless you believe that He is God, you will die in your sins. God must be Trinity in order for any sinners to be saved. The way to that salvation is to repent of your sins. That means to be grieved and hate your sins and turn towards God. Then you must believe in Christ, which means you receive forgiveness for your sins, because of His sacrifice on the cross. Believing in Christ means that you receive Him as a treasure. Matthew 13:44 says <i>“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.”</i> Christ is the treasure in that field. Saving faith is receiving Him as a Treasure. When that happens we are promised to enter into eternal life with this Trinitarian treasure for all eternity. </div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-13366100386405368702013-04-28T21:28:00.002-07:002013-04-29T06:14:47.190-07:00In the Beginning was the Word Pt. 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's a <a href="http://www.thewellboise.com/sermon/in-the-beginning-was-the-word-pt-1/">link</a> to listen to the sermon...<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. </i>John 1:1-2</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Introduction to the Gospel of John</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This book that we are starting this evening is “The Gospel of John” or “The Gospel According to John.” The word gospel means good news. So this book is the good news according to John. Who is John? What is this good news that he brings? John was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, who later became an Apostle. He referred to himself throughout this book as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He did not say this out of arrogance or conceit but rather because he knew the love of the Savior and he knew he was loved by Him. During the last supper, the gospels record that John was <i>“...reclining on Jesus’ bosom.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> So picture these men around a table, perhaps after the meal is over, and John was resting his head on Jesus’ chest. And it wasn’t strange. Jesus didn’t rebuke him for it, and John obviously was ashamed of it. He loved Jesus, and was confident that he was one <i>“whom Jesus loved.”</i> So the flavor of this book is book is very intimate. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But what is this good news or this gospel that he brings? The briefest description that can be given about the gospel is this, it is the <i>Gospel of the Glory of Christ</i>. In other words, John brings us good news about the glory of Jesus Christ. There is a glory or a splendor or a magnificent beauty that belongs to Jesus Christ, and this glory is more valuable then the entire universe. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales...All the nations are as nothing before </i><b><i>Him</i></b><i>, they are regarded by </i><b><i>Him</i></b><i> as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you liken </i><b><i>God</i></b><i>? Or what likeness will you compare with </i><b><i>Him</i></b><i>?...Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is </i><b><i>He</i></b><i> who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. </i><b><i>He</i></b><i> it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely have has their stock taken root in the earth, but </i><b><i>He</i></b><i> merely blows on them and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble. “To whom then will you liken </i><b><i>Me</i></b><i> that </i><b><i>I</i></b><i> would be his equal? says the </i><b><i>Holy One</i></b><i>.”</i> [Isaiah 40]</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jesus Christ is this Holy One that Isaiah speaks of. He is the glorious one, of whom, this gospel is about. This gospel of John is <i>the Gospel of the Glory of Christ.</i> This gospel is a portrait of His life, His death, and His resurrection. This gospel is a portrait of His person, meaning He is fully God and fully man in one person forever. This gospel is a portrait of His soul, and His burning passion to always do His Father’s will. This gospel is a portrait of Jesus esteeming the honor of His Father in everything that He does. All of these things that John’s gospel show us point towards one thing: <i>the Glory of Christ, </i>the worth of Jesus Christ, the unimaginable treasure and delight of Jesus Christ. John shows us these things,<i> and</i> He points the way for us to enter into that treasure. John 20:31 says <i>“...but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” </i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So although our goal at this church is to make Jesus Christ famous in Garden City, John’s aim is to make Jesus Christ famous in all the universe. Because the truth is, is that He is already famous, we just need new taste buds, and new eyes in order to <i>“taste and see that the Lord is good.”</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font: 18.0px 'Book Antiqua'; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Big Idea...</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the beginning was the Word; this Word is Eternal; this Word is Personal; and this Word is God Himself. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First of all, who is this <i>Word</i>? We know that it is a person because v. 2 calls this <i>Word</i> a <i>He.</i> v. 2 says<i> “He was in the beginning with God.” </i>So who is this <i>He</i> or who is this <i>Word</i>? This Word that we are talking about is Jesus Christ the Son of God. v. 14-17 makes this crystal clear: <i>“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of </i><b><i>the only Son from the Father</i></b><i>, full of grace and truth...For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” </i>So this Word from v. 1-2, is the Son sent from the Father-v.14, and the man Christ Jesus in v.17. That is the <i>who</i> John is speaking of when He refers to <i>Him</i> as the <i>Word</i>. So if we were going to read it in this light, it would say <i>“In the beginning was </i>the Son<i> and </i>the Son<i> was with God, and </i>the Son<i> was God. He was in the beginning with God.”</i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Now it does mean that, but John doesn’t say that. He says <i>“In the beginning was the </i><b><i>Word</i></b><i>, and the </i><b><i>Word</i></b><i> was with God, and the </i><b><i>Word</i></b><i> was God. He was in the beginning with God.”</i> So why does John use this language here? Why does He call Jesus Christ the <i>Word</i>? I’ll give a short answer this evening and we’ll go deeper next week when we look at the Trinity. Basically, Jesus is called the <i>Word</i> here, because, a word <i>is </i>a revelation of the mind. When we speak words, we reveal to others what is in our mind. Revelation just means <i>“the making known of the unknown.” </i> So words, make known the hidden or unknown thoughts of the mind. Words bring-out-into the-open the thoughts that were previously hidden. Our words in this way imitate the Word, because, Jesus <i>the Word</i> makes known the unknown God. This is what v. 18 says <i>“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”</i> Why? Because He is the Word. He is the revelation of God the Father. Jesus reveals who God is, because He is God’s Word. He is the announcement of God, or the vision of God, or as John says it, <i>the Word of God.</i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I. This Word is Eternal</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“In the beginning was the Word...”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We need spiritual eyes to see what John is saying here. Because our natural eyes with either fail to understand what’s He’s saying or they will trick us into thinking that John is simply reporting facts about God. As if these are just neat and tidy pieces of information about God. But we must resist the temptation to think about God as merely neat pieces of information. This is everlasting God that John is reporting to us! <i>“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”</i> Psalm 90:2 Or Job 36:26 <i>“Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.”</i> No, these words that John opened up his gospel with were not intended for us to causally read and be unaffected by. They were intended to grip us, in the inner most part of our being, and cause our hearts to burn with passion for this everlasting God. These two verses let us in on the reality that God has always been. He is independent. He is in need of nothing. He is God! So John says...<i>“In the beginning was the </i><b><i>Word</i></b><i>...” </i>Let’s compare two different things. Let’s compare the universe with this <i>Word</i> that John is speaking of. When we speak of the universe, we say that<i> </i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“...the [universe] was <b><i>from</i></b> the beginning, but the Word was <b><i>in</i></b> the beginning.”</span></div>
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Do you hear the difference between <b><i>from</i></b> and <b><i>in</i></b>? <span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“The [universe] was <b><i>from</i></b> the beginning, but the Word was <b><i>in</i></b> the beginning.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Meaning, the universe <i>began</i> to exist <b><i>at</i></b> the beginning. <b><i>From</i></b> the beginning until now the universe has existed. <b>But</b> the <i>Word</i> existed <b><i>in</i></b> the beginning. It was already there before the universe had a beginning. This means that the Word is eternal. He never, ever had a beginning. He always was. This beginning that John is speaking of in v. 1 is the beginning of all created things, including time. Time had a beginning. Before creation, time did not exist. There was not a “then” before creation. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“There was no ‘then’ when there was no time.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> If time always existed, then John could not say <i>“In the beginning”</i> because there is no beginning to time if it has always existed. This is part of the deep wonder and mystery about God. God’s </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #003bff;">“...years neither come nor go...God’s years stand all at once...His years are one day...with Him today is eternity.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i> </i>The Bible testifies to this truth when it says <i>“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”</i> 2 Peter 3:8</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> This Word that John speaks of is eternal. This Word has never not existed.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">II. This Word is Personal</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“...and the Word was with God...</i>”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Think about your own words for a moment. Think about how there is an invincible and intimate connection between the words that you speak and the thoughts that you think. There is a closeness and an intimacy that words share with thoughts. Ideas are buried in the very heart of words. Ideas are the souls of words. That means that words are always <i>with</i> thoughts. The same thing is true about this Eternal Word. v. 1 says that <i>“...and the Word was </i><b><i>with </i></b><i>God...</i>” This Eternal <i>Word</i> has always shared intimate fellowship <i>with</i> God. This Eternal <i>Word</i>, who is Jesus Christ, spoke this way about this intimate fellowship that He shared with God. <i>“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”</i> John 17:5 Jesus Christ, the Eternal <i>Word</i>, shared in God’s own presence before the world existed! This Eternal <i>Word</i> is personal. Meaning, He is a person. That is what John calls Him in v. 2 <i>“</i><b><i>He</i></b><i> was in the beginning with God.”</i> John personalizes this Eternal <i>Word</i> by calling him a He. The Eternal <i>Word</i> is personal, meaning He is a person! He’s not a concept, or merely an idea, or a theory. He is a very real Eternal Person. And since He is an Eternal Person, that means He is more real than you or I are or ever will be. He always was, he never became like you and I. That means that He is more personal than you or I will ever be. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The scandalous thing is that this Word has come and has decided to share this intimate fellowship with His creatures. Listen to how John describes this Eternal <i>Word</i> in his letter in 1 John 1:1-2 <i>“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” </i> Did you hear what He said about Him? He said that he heard Him. How? Because this Word is a person who speaks ! He said that he saw Him with his eyes. How? Because this Word is a person who revealed Himself to the world. He said that he touched Him. How? Because this Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This Eternal Word, became very personal with His creation. And now John wants to share that with us! He continues on in v. 2 <i>”..the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us...” </i>So John’s is desire is to preach to us this Person, this Life, this Word. Why? To what end? For what purpose? He tells us these things, just as I am telling these things to you now so that you can have fellowship or intimate relationship with Him. He continues on in v. 3 <i>“that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”</i> In other words, he’s saying that the highest thing that we can achieve in life to have personal intimate relationship with this Personal Word. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">III. This Word is God</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“...and the Word was God.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here’s where the world becomes very violent against the Bible. We can talk all day long about how compassionate and how loving Jesus was. We can talk all day long about how patient He was when He was being attacked by his enemies. We can talk all day long about how wise He was. But...when we say that this Jesus, this Eternal <i>Word</i> <b>is God</b>, people lose their minds. Perhaps one of the oldest heresies that the early church had to fight against was the denial of Jesus’ Deity. Meaning, that there were those who denied that Jesus was God. This heresy, or false teaching, was condemned by the whole church in those days but it has made it’s way back into the main stream in the form of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and other smaller groups. These groups started inside of the church and went out to the world, so it’s very important to address this idea inside of the church. What some of these groups say is that this phrase <i>“...and the Word was God” </i>should actually read <i>“...and the Word was </i><b>A</b><i> God” </i>In other words, Jesus was just another god, but not the supreme God. Well you could prove that it doesn’t say that in the Greek, which is what the original Scriptures were written in, but you don’t even need to do that. It is impossible that there be more than one God. It is impossible in any possible world. Consider that one of the names for God is the Almighty, meaning that He has all power. You can’t have two gods who each individually have all the power. Either one god has all the power, and the other god doesn’t; or the other god has all the power and the first god doesn’t. But they both can’t be all powerful at the same time. This is a contradiction and it is impossible now, and it has always been and always will be impossible. But the objection might evolve at this point and say that God made Jesus to be a god. This is also impossible. A quality that God must have in order to be God is that He must be eternal. That belongs to His God-ness. God can’t make another being God because He can’t create another being who always was. It is a contradiction to say that God created something that always existed. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>John’s text is perfectly clear and offers no contradictions <i>“...the Word was God.”</i> Make no mistake about it. Without apology, without hesitation, without fear of misinterpretation, Jesus Christ is God! This was John’s unmistaken description of Jesus. Jesus said this about Himself, over and over again in this book. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’</i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”</i> John 5:17-18</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“‘Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”</i> John 8:56-59</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.’” </i>John 10:31-32</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>“My Lord and my God!”Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” </i>John 20:28-29 Thomas called Jesus God, and Jesus did not correct him. And yet everywhere else in the Bible when things like this happen, the person is corrected because it is blasphemy to accept this title, unless you are God. That is who Jesus is. God. He says this in Revelation 1:8<i> “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”</i> This is who Jesus is. “<i>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” </i> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This Word is Eternal; this Word is Personal; and this Word is God Himself.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Application</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>1. These truths are for comforting the godly.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you are in Christ, what do you have to fear? He is the Word sent from the Father for you. He has eternally been the Word, meaning that He never grows old and becomes too weak to help you. He never becomes feeble in mind or senile, so that He cannot give wisdom to you. He has eternally been the Word and that means He never changes. Though this world is constantly changing for the worse and things are growing increasingly evil, He never changes. He is, and was and always will be perfectly holy, and He knows how to protect those who are His. 2 Peter 2:9 says that <i>“the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials.”</i> Furthermore this Christ, this Eternal Word is Personal. He intimately knows you and your situation even if all else fail you. King David prayed to this Personal Word and said: <i>“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”</i> Psalm 139:17-18 <i> </i>If you are in Christ, then He personally loves you. And since this Eternal, Personal Word <i>is</i> <b>God Himself</b>, <i>then</i> His personal love for you is invincible. Paul declares in Romans 8:35-37 <i>“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?...</i><b><i>No</i></b><i>, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”</i></span></div>
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2. <b>These truths are for gravely warning the sinner. </b> <span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This Eternal, Personal, Word who is God will exact revenge on His enemies. Psalm 2:12 speaks of Him saying <i> “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.”</i> There will be a time when this Eternal Word will come back to the earth, and this time He will unleash His anger on His enemies. This Psalm says that His wrath is quickly kindled. Meaning, that the fire of His anger will surely come to pass. And it will come like a thief in the night, so that sinners will not be ready for it’s appearing. That is how God warns those who have despised His glory. That is how God warns those who live their lives completely ignoring the majesty of this Eternal, Personal Word. Ezekiel 33:11 says<i> “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die?...”</i> Oh wicked person, turn from your wickedness. Forsake your evil ways, and run to Christ. God takes no pleasure in your death...but make no mistake, if you do not repent of your sins and turn to Jesus Christ you will perish everlastingly. Those whose sins have not been paid for, will have this Eternal, Personal Word as their immortal enemy. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>3. These truths are for encouraging the doubting.</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This Eternal, Personal, Word who is God Himself freely offers pardon to sinners right now. As we go through this gospel, we will find that everywhere Jesus is offering forgiveness to god-hating criminals like you and me. He says things like this <i>“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”</i> John 7:37-38. Only by coming to Jesus naked and despairing of our own self-righteousness can we be saved. Only by coming to Him in simple faith, in the simple faith of a child can we be saved. Only by recognizing that we are thirsty for Him, and knowing that He alone can forgive us by His perfect life and His death on the cross can we be saved. Jesus lived and died in order to bring home more sons and daughters for His Father. 2 Peter 3:18 says <i>“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”</i> He suffered on the cross so that all who would repent of their sins could be saved. Repentance means that you see the mercy of God in Christ, and you with grief and hatred of your sin, turn from it unto God. And then you simply believe on His name. You receive Him as a treasure, believing on Him. If that happens to you, you’re saved, and you will desire to spend the rest of your life chasing after Him and desiring to please Him in all that you do. You will live a life of continual repentance over your sin, asking God forgiveness for those things that you do that grieve Him. And you will experience this Eternal, and Personal Word as your Lord and Your God. </span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4700710517987258018.post-31739184979038382752013-03-27T18:10:00.000-07:002013-03-28T13:47:19.336-07:00Setting Hyper-Libertarians Straight on Objectivism: What's at Stake in the so-called Gay Marriage Debate?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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(This post is a response to my friend and Christian brother Jacob at his blog <a href="http://thechristianegoist.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/setting-christians-straight-on-gay-marriage/">here</a>)</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I do not intend to address every point that Jacob brought up in his post, just a few that I think are the most critical ones. I entitled this post as I did because I see a movement among passionate libertarians who are seeking to correct the abhorrent and fascist views of this current government.(As well as heretical views in the church) And for that I applaud them! However, it is often the tendency of human beings to over react to a certain error to the extent where they produce their own. For example: hyper-calvinists refuse to preach the gospel to people unless those people are showing signs of being elect. They reason that it wouldn’t be a genuine offer to them because unless God chose them they are incapable of believing. Do you see what they have done? They have turned out to be full blown Pelagians because of their over-reaction and non-objectivist thinking when it comes to the gospel. In seeking to distinguish themselves from all theological error, they adopted the very thing they opposed.(By the way, Jacob is the first one who showed this to me:) Thank you my friend.) This is the very thing that is happening amongst many in the libertarian movement.(I distinguish them as hyper-libertarians, because I’m actually not sure if all of them think this way). In seeking to limit the government’s power, they are actually giving them more power. In seeking to keep the government out of our personal lives, they open the door wider. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I believe this is what is happening in Jacob’s post. In his first paragraph under the heading “The Abomination of Outlawing Gay Marriage--Correcting the Church,” he argues that initiating force is an abomination. For this issue at hand, I couldn’t agree more!! Unfortunately...that is the very thing that is being defended: the right for the government to initiate force. They are initiating force against “thing-ness.” They are attempting to re-define a thing, and in doing so are initiating force against all the laws of logic. A no longer equals A and in fact can contradict it whenever it pleases. Before force is initiated in the physical realm, it must first be initiated in the meta-physical realm. Marriage means something, just like every other “thing” means something. All “things” that exist have an essence(logically) before they have an expression in the material world. This is what objectivism sets forth. The government is filled with people that are anti-objectivists. It was forty years ago this year, that the government was allowed to change the definition of another “thing,” and that was human life. 70 million abortions later we have still not learned our lesson. Christian non-objectivists were arguing similar things back then as well. Although they personally thought abortion was wrong, they argued that the government had no right to tell them what to do with their body. That is an equivocation to the matter at hand. First of all, the government(justly) tells us many things that we can and can’t do with our body. We can’t use our body to hurt other people. So the argument fails before it gets out of the gates. But pressing on, the argument doesn’t address the other body that is being dismissed as a non-person. Is that “thing” in the womb a person? ‘Well no..’ Really? Who determined that? The government. The government did when they were allowed(by the people) to initiate force against “thing-ness”. This is the irony that belongs to hyper-libertarians. In seeking to re-establish order and bring back the power to the people, they often concede more power to the government. Unfortunately this will come at great cost. This is already being tested out in so called “transgender” cases. In Massachusetts, the state school board initiated force against human sexuality(metaphysically) so that people can define themselves, sexually, however they want. What’s the fallout? Initiation of force in the physical realm by those same school officials who force normal girls to share locker rooms and bathrooms with boys who identify themselves as a girls. Who are the victims? The real little girls who will be treated as the bullies by school officials if they do not adhere to these newly re-defined transgender persons. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mark my words...the government will initiate force against anyone who will not accept their (soon to be) re-defined view of marriage. So called “gay marriage” IS an initiation of force. It is an initiation of force against “thing-ness,” and this will translate to an initiation of force against people who disagree with them. It will enforce this new definition and press it to the point where we lose our freedom of speech. Our neighbors to the north have already tasted this bitter fruit. It will initiate force so that we are penalized through creative civil fines, as seen in the Hobby Lobby case. In the end those who disagree with their initiation of force against marriage will be deemed dangerous to society and incarcerated. One only needs to do a google search to see that this is not hyperbole. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When the government is allowed to initiate force against the definition of thing-ness, it will initiate force physically against those who disagree. </span></div>
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Josh Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13439168558613623942noreply@blogger.com6