Shepherd the Flock

What is mercy from God? What is punishment or judgment? If you’re like many, you probably just automatically assume that good things in life (financial stability, friends, family, health, happiness) are a sure sign of mercy from God, and that He’s somewhat pleased with you in blessing you with these things. But have we assumed too much? Who decides what mercy really is?

In the excellent work by Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies for Satan’s Devices, Brooks lists several ‘devices’ or ‘schemes’ or ‘lies’ that Satan uses to deceive and to lead us into sin. Upon giving these devices, Brooks then lists several ‘remedies’ in which to help us combat these lies. Of course, scripture is plentiful throughout, and it is one of the most thought-provoking and edifying books I’ve read in awhile.

One of these devices got my attention the other night, and it’s definitely worth a mention here:

“The fifth device that Satan hath to draw the soul to sin is,

Device (5). To present God to the soul as one made up all of mercy.

‘Oh! saith Satan, you need not make such a matter of sin, you need not be so fearful of sin, not so unwilling to sin; for God is a God of mercy, a God full of mercy, a God that delights in mercy, a God that is ready to shew mercy, a God that is never weary of shewing mercy, a God more prone to pardon His people than to punish His people; and therefore He will not take advantage against the soul; and why then, saith Satan, should you make such a matter of sin?”

Before I move on to the remedy, let me just stop and say that there are of course two dangerous extremes in dealing with the issue of God’s mercy. Let us not forget that there are certainly scores of people who do not present God as a merciful and loving God at all, which He most certainly is.

However, in our day, clearly the majority in error favor a God who is all love, all mercy, all compassion, and all benevolent, to the utter detriment of His justice, wrath, jealousy, and even righteous fury. This view of God, that He is somehow incapable of justice and anger even in this life, is what Brooks is getting at when he lists this lie of Satan.

Now the remedy Brooks gives us to combat the lie that Satan whispers, that God is all mercy and is not bothered by our sins:

“Now the remedies against this device of Satan are these:

Remedy (1) The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That it is the sorest judgment in the world to be left to sin upon any pretence whatsoever.

…When God lets the way to hell be a smooth and pleasant way, that is hell on this side of hell, and a dreadful sign of God’s indignation against a man; a token of His rejection, and that God doth not intend good unto him…”

So let’s go back to the original question: what is mercy from God? Who gets to decide?

If left to our own opinion, we’ll be quick to overlook our sins and affirm that God has blessed us/showed us mercy because of such and such good things in our life. In fact, there are preachers everywhere who will tell you this week in and week out –and all it takes to get in these ‘blessings’ is a one-time decision.

But scripture is clear, particular the book of Romans in chapters 1 and 6, that sin, and men being left in to sin as they please, is the worst of judgments upon men in this life, and salvation by God’s grace not only delivers us from eternal condemnation, but it delivers us from sin in this life as well.

So has God showed you mercy? You may have all the friends in the world, the best family, the best job, the best life of ‘blessings’, but do you have holiness? Have you gained continual victory over your sins and corruptions? Have you suffered for Christ so as to rely upon Him more? Have you been humbled and afflicted when you fall into sin? Has sin made you miserable to the point of despair, with greater repentance and holiness the only remedy? If you want to know if God has really shown you mercy, ask yourself these questions. Don’t be fooled by what you see with your eyes and what you feel in your heart; look to the scriptures my friend.

There is nothing as destructive and horrible as sin. How pitiful is it that men puff themselves up and claim God’s blessings/favor because they have a ‘decision’ and a life full of empty and comfortable amusements.

You want real mercy from God? Check your life for holiness and deep repentance. For the surest sign of God’s anger towards you is to leave you in your sins…

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die…

It was John Calvin who recommended that we take periodic walks through the graveyard so that we (and our children) are constantly reminded of the reality of death. To me that sounds like very wise advice.

Death in this society is anything but in the forefront of our minds; real death, that is. Of course Hollywood has its glamorous version of death, as does the every-present 24hour news channels feeding into our living-rooms and PCs. But the fact of the matter is that our society’s infatuation with fun, entertainment, wealth, ease, and comfort betray the notion that the digitalized ‘death’ around us is having any sort of real effect.’Death’ has become a video game, a form of entertainment (in news and in show), and is something that happens to other people; it’s certainly not something many of us think can really happen to us.

I must say, thinking about dying is no fun; it’s actually very depressing. Depressing in the Ecclesiastes sort of way, if you know what I mean. But death is a reality, for the Christian and non-Christian alike, and given the great account we must give at the end of days, death is something that should be vitally important to all of us.

With that in mind, the point of this post is to simply remind you (and myself) of this reality so that we do not forget it or neglect reminding ourselves of it. Let us tremble at the Divine response to the rich man who set aside his soul as ‘having its goods laid up’ (he thought he was right with God) while he pursued earthly endeavors: ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ - Luke 12:20

Thus, consider a sad but necessary reality about death can be found in Ecclesiastes 2:

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Do you realize that you could be replaced at any moment? Have you duly consider the phrase ‘he will be MASTER of all‘? Think about where you’re sitting right now. If you were to die, someone else would fill that chair. Someone else would be using your computer. Someone else would eventually fill your job and do what you are doing for a living. Someone else would take your role in your family –whether that be provider, homemaker, etc., maybe even husband or wife, father or mother. Those jobs would fall to someone, somehow, who would master them as you do right now.

If you were to die, someone else would be driving your car, spending your money, wearing your clothes. If you were to die, someone else would be comforting/loving your husband, or your wife, your children, your family.

Who knows whether that person(s) would be wise or a fool? How would they treat your wife, your kids, your family? What kind of work ethic would they display at your job? What would they spend your money on –the money you toiled to get? How would they treat your things; would they use them for good or evil, for selfish pleasures or for serving?

Of course, immediately after your death there would be a time of mourning –3 months maybe. After that things that you owned and the positions in life that you held would slowly but surely fall into other hands. Your friends and family, though they do love you very much, would start to forget you in day-to-day life, and they would get on with their own lives. The world that’s not immediately around you, things like sports, media, politics, culture, etc., would continue on and not even notice your death unless it was of uncommon circumstances.

That’s reality, folks. And as painful as it may be to write/think about these things, it will do you great benefit to consider them deeply. Life isn’t all about us, even in our own personal world and families. Life can and will go on just fine without you.

Depressing? Sure is. But let us not forget that there are treasures in heaven. There are treasures that you will not lose, that others will not take over, that thieves will not steal and moth will not destroy.

That eternal treasure is Jesus Christ. The treasure are the robs of His righteousness that He grants to all those who come to Him in faith. The treasure is not something we earn on our own, or something that is given to us for our goodness –and I believe the vanity of all this life is shown here in Ecclesiastes to demonstrate that very thing. What is lasting you cannot gain in your own power; what is lasting is not to be found in this physical realm.

You are empty; Christ is full. You are naked; Christ will clothe. You are blind; Christ gives sight. You are deaf; Christ speaks. You are sinful; Christ is righteous. You have broken the Law with your deeds; Christ has perfectly obeyed the Law with His. You are dead; Christ gives life.

I pray that you will read this post and utterly despair at the vanity of all this life has to offer and all that you can produce in your own power. Whatever it may be that you’re living in or living for, it isn’t your’s and you cannot keep it. Someone else will sooner or later be master. Then what will become of you? But I pray, once you’ve despaired of even life itself, and have realized that nothing, absolutely nothing is all about you, look to Jesus Christ. Oh, behold His sympathy and His beckoning calls to give you rest. He has defeated death and all the vanity contained within; seek the Treasure that will not fade away…

In Matthew 5:3 Jesus says:

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Recently, while reading through the minor prophets in the Old Testament, the subject of mourning has intrigued me –for mourning was certainly a common thing in Old Testament Israel. But not only is it common in Old Testament Judaism, it’s also mentioned here by Jesus in the New Testament, and a great blessing is pronounced on the one who mourns. So what is the deal with mourning?

First off, doesn’t there seem to be some sort of stigma in today’s Christian circles when it comes to mourning? We New Testament, American Christians just seem to have trouble with it (excluding, of course, when people mourn over the loss of their outward comforts). We’re supposed to have joy, remember? We’re supposed to be excited for what the Lord has done, right? So goes popular opinion, it seems.

But in a society which mourns very little (for it would ruin the insatiable pursuit of pleasure and revelry), we Christians have sort of adapted to our surroundings. Mourning just isn’t popular; it certainly doesn’t win friends, influence people, and pack out auditoriums. Instead, we’re constantly being told to ‘show unbelievers how happy Jesus has made us‘, and to put on a smile in all circumstances, as if this will cause others to see something different in us. I just don’t get that, from a biblical sense; and I don’t even get it from a logical sense. For anyone with a brain can see right through this kind of facade, which ends up doing even worse damage to the Christian banner. Jesus our Lord and perfect example certainly didn’t put on or teach this type of deception; He was said to be ‘a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief’. We don’t even have a record of Him laughing at all!

It should be clear that it isn’t thought of much in our culture, so what exactly am I trying to get at? What does exactly does it mean to mourn? Well first, it should be obvious that simple tears does not fully capture the idea of mourning. Mourning is much deeper than that; true mourning is when the heart breaks in anguish, with intense sorrow. It isn’t simply shedding tears; it’s anguish of the soul, and an attitude of the heart that will affect how we live.

Consider just two passages with me:

Amos 6:5-6
“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the midst of the stall,
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
who drink wine in bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

I was struck with conviction upon reading this portion of scripture. O how we live as if the Church was not headed for ruin! O how we act as if we can pamper ourselves, entertain ourselves, and live a life of ease while the Truth lies fallen in the street! Is it not so, in this plentiful land, where we have the easiest lives in all of human history? Our conduct clearly communicates that all is perfectly well in the land, and in the Church! Don’t actions speak louder than words?

Consider as well:

Daniel 10:2-3 “In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks.”

Daniel truly mourned. He mourned over his sin. He mourned over the sins of the people. He mourned over the pagan land. And he didn’t pamper himself when his heart was truly broken over it all.

I must confess: I don’t mourn like Daniel. No doubt about it, my sin and the sins of my surroundings are lamented over on a regular basis. But do I really mourn? Do you really mourn? When we rise from our knees, where we just spent a time of mourning over all the wickedness of our hearts and of this land, what do we then do? Go and fill ourselves at the dinner table? Fill our hearts and time with glad songs, distractions, amusements, entertainments, as if all were well?

Sometimes I am broken to nothing, and even though I might pour out my soul to God in private, O how you couldn’t tell from my lifestyle that I really cared one bit. What shame! Is it not true of you as well?

When we truly mourn, we will truly walk with brokenness in all walks of life –all while pouring our hearts out to our only help and refuge: the Lord Jesus Christ, who sympathizes with our weaknesses, having Himself been one acquainted with sorrow and grief.

So if you mourn, mourn with sincerity, in truthfulness, as if your cause for mourning was more than just a passing thought. Jesus Himself blesses you, and promises you comfort in His graces…

“…we should pray that we may learn to be thankful to Him for those mercies we have received from Him. For if God should bestow mercies upon us unasked we would forget them…What we win with prayer, we wear with thankfulness. And what we get without prayer, we spend and use without any lifting up of the heart to God in praising Him, and acknowledging His hand in bestowing it upon us….”

“…There is no day where we do not use many of His blessings and take many of His comforts. Now we may not take any of them without His permission, so that you are bound to ask for them before you take them, and pray a blessing upon them, or else you have no right to them…if we neglect [prayer/thankfulness], we rob God of His mercies. We take them without His permission.” - Taken from The Puritans on Prayer, in the section penned by John Preston

The usage of the word ‘Blasphemy’ is sometimes casually thrown around by Fundamentalists in our day, almost to the point that using it in reference to an evangelical, protestant church has robbed it of its true definition and force. The dictionary defines blasphemy as irreverence, cursing God, or profaneness towards things holy and sacred, etc. Of course, we could research its use in scripture as well.

But one thing I admire about John Piper is the fact that he is not shy about using the ‘blasphemy’ card when necessary; but more specifically, he uses tends to use it in ways we’re not used to hearing. Of course we’ve heard the fundamentalists who says our clothes, hair-styles, or music style is ‘blasphemy’, and I’m not denying that it is possible to blaspheme with those things. But Piper tends to use it in a very profound way; he uses it properly, in my opinion, as he applies it to irreverence towards God Himself even when all of our words and actions seem to be just fine on the surface.

Take the quote below for an example:

“The design of the universe…is very magnificent and shouldn’t be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Albert Einstein had so little use for organized religion…he must have looked at what the preaches said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined…” [Charles Miner quoted by John Piper]

[Piper now]: “The charge of blasphemy is loaded. The point is to pack a wallop behind the charge that in our worship services God simply doesn’t come through for who He is. He is unwittingly belittled. For those who are stunned by the indescribable magnitude of what God has made, not to mention the infinite greatness of the One who made it, the steady diet on Sunday morning of practical how-to’s and psychological soothing and relational therapy and tactical planning seem dramatically out of touch with Reality –the God of overwhelming greatness.” - Let the Nations be Glad!

Not to belabor the point, but I agree with Piper in that there is not a more common form of blasphemy today than churches under the banner of Christ who specifically tailor their ministries with sermons of self-help, moralism, and how-to’s, not to mention the general comedy, entertainment, and gimmicks they rely on to get people to show up. Oh, they will tell you that they believe the bible, rely on the bible, and that they live very sincere lives in their attempt to ‘reach people’ and ‘make a difference in the community’, but it isn’t their specific words (in sermons) and doctrinal statements that are blasphemous, it’s rather a far more serious blasphemy than that.

Are you in touch with reality? –The reality that there is an infinite holy God with infinitely sovereign power who will return to earth infinitely furious with sin? You may say that you believe that, but giving people anything other than the pure milk of the Word and a pleading with them to turn from their sins of moralism, worldliness, indifference, and self-righteousness communicates a drastically different message…namely, a blasphemous message.

It is certainly tough to admit, but there is no doubt that the Christian faith has its hypocrites –even in the most pure of gospel preaching churches. Just as there was one evil Judas in the midst of eleven other righteous men, our churches, both small and great, would probably being doing extremely well if there were only one false convert per every twelve that profess faith. Certainly, some denominations and creeds breed more hypocrites than others, but make no mistake about it, all denominations, all churches, and all confessions are somewhat plagued by this sad reality.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I hate to even think about or discuss hypocrisy. We are certainly all still trapped in this body of sin, so from time to time we manifest hypocrisy to our confession –and that just hurts. But I’ve been thinking about the issue of hypocrisy lately, particularly because I’ve been reading the Puritans, who spoke a great deal on the matter.

Specifically, how can we identify if we are a hypocrite to true religion? Or, what warning signs can we look out for as evidence that we are heading down a path of hypocrisy? There is no doubt that hypocrites are extremely hard to spot, and that hypocrites themselves are often deceived from realizing that they are in fact a false convert (see Judas at the last supper or Simon the sorcerer for an example of this). But nevertheless, there are some things we can watch out for, and I’d like to mention a few of these things today.

Evidence that might suggest a heart of hypocrisy to the Christian Confession:

Lack of prayer, particularly private prayer
Prayer is the essence of true faith: reliance on, worship of, and glorifying in, God the Father through the merits of Jesus Christ. All professors pray when times are hard, before our meals, etc., but what will your private closet testify concerning you? Don’t be deceived by telling yourself that you really are one who prays when your closet-time would testify otherwise. This is probably one of the clearest indicators of hypocrisy.

Lack of continual repentance
We all stumble in many ways. Without confessing and forsaking our sins on a regular basis, our communion with God and the sensitivity of our conscience is severed. If you don’t live in a constant state of repentance, than you’ve probably forgotten your former cleansing, unless you’ve believed in vain.

Lack of worship, particularly private, but public as well
We have been saved to worship; the scriptures are clear in this regard. A lack of worship –through prayer, singing, meditating, serving, and obedience to other duties, both in private and with God’s people, is a clear indication of an unbelieving heart. Honoring the Lord’s Day/Sabbath is certainly at the foundation of this: regular, dedicated worship, and resting from our normal duties do to so.

Little love, humility, patience, kindness, etc., towards others
This might be a little obvious, but hypocrites are sometimes convinced that they can treat family members and other close ones any way they like just because they have an emotional or firm intellectual conviction of faith. How is your attitude at home when there are no outsiders around? What are you inclinations and habits in regards to how you treat others closest to you?

Little or no stance for truth in the face of error
Just as love characterizes the true believer, love and devotion to Christ will lead him to stand-up for, defend, and essentially fight for truth and Christ’s honor in the face of error. Don’t be mistaken, fighting for truth without an attitude of love and humility certainly defeats the purpose, just the same as loving without fighting for truth is also more harmful than helpful. But the true believer will not stand by indifferent to false doctrine.

Use of Free time
The true believer knows how precious time is, and that they have been put on this earth to redeem every moment of it. Again, how do you look like in private in this regard? When you’re left all to yourself, with no obligations to do anything, what do you gravitate towards in spending your spare time? It will testify of your devotion.

Use of Money
Just as your spare time goes to what you’re truly devoted to, how you spend your money testifies to what you’re devoted to. These things are simple and objective! Don’t complicate it by making excuses! Examine your life!

No victory over sin/no care to have victory over sin
This might be coupled with repentance above, but Romans 6 clearly testifies that the one who has died with Christ by faith has real victory over sin. Yes, we are saved from sin in THIS life, as we are saved from sin in the next. Clearly, this message is largely ignored in these times by the watering down/perverting of the gospel. But true believers progress in their sanctification and obtain victory over sin (and care about how their doing!). Hypocrites could care less as long as they are outwardly moral and have no scandalous sins that cause others to doubt their profession.

Secret Sins
“Who you are in private is WHO you really are”.

Love for the world
Pride. Love of self. Love of physical appearance. Love/devotion to material things. Love for sensual pleasures such as sex, food, excitements, distractions, etc. Where is your love for Christ, if indeed you claim He has saved you from the worst of all imaginable miseries?

The lack of proclaiming the gospel
The modern decision-oriented movement has made ‘witnessing’ into nothing more than inviting people to church. That’s not true witnessing; that’s not true evangelism; that’s not a gospel proclamation: it’s rather a cop-out. True believers impress Christ upon the consciences of unbelievers –and though it takes practice, and is often hard to do, they are always thinking/praying/looking for opportunities to do so. Hypocrites, however, are content with cop-outs and just plain silence for fear of offending others.

Lack of faith during trials
Hypocrites get angry towards God when things go wrong. They lack faith when the world falls apart around them and enter into behavior not congruent with the Christian faith. etc.

Lastly, and probably the biggest one:A lack of LOVE FOR CHRIST; lack of Christ-centerdness in religion
Love for His word as it comes from His mouth. Love for His Person and Work. Love for His gifts. Love for His image on others. Love for what He loves. There is a Christ-centeredness in scripture that is often overlooked and forgotten with all of our theology and books, with all of our easy-believism and shallowness, and with all of our distractions and cultural-Christianity. But Christ is all. He is the scriptures, He is the faith, He is our hope, He is our righteousness, He is the focus of our reading, our prayers, our witnessing, our worship, our devotion, our obedience, our singing, our partaking in the sacraments, etc. He is all and is the ultimate end of all things. The hypocrite has no regards for Christ outside of the lip-service necessary to profess faith in Him. Believers will be known by their love for Him, and centering all things in Him.

Conclusion:
These are just a few simple examples that I hope have been beneficial to you. Another big one, in concordance with this blog theme, is failure to disciple others –particularly husbands towards their wives and children, leaders in the church towards young or immature believers, etc. We’re all called to Shepherd; anything else is selfish and contradictory to Christ.

Certainly more ‘evidences’ could be listed, but I hope that these cut your conscience up as much as it did mine in writing this. Nobody is perfect, and you nor anyone else should suspect anything close to perfection (hence the life-long, constant repentance). So just as soon as you examine yourself in these matters, look to Christ who is our complete righteousness. Don’t dwell on yourself too long, and certainly don’t use these as a club to beat over the heads of others who you might ’suspect’ as being a false convert. Christ is a gracious and loving Master, and He welcomes even the worst of sinners.

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

One of my favorite little books is gotta be RC Sproul’s Saved from What? It’s just an easy-to-read but profoundly-in-depth book about the gospel. And I’d strongly recommend it as a gift to unbelievers and/or new believers in the faith.

Sproul’s main thesis essentially surrounds the meaning of the cliche ‘Are you saved?’ or ‘I’ve been saved’. That is, we’ve become so accustomed to using the language ‘I’ve been saved’ that the true meaning behind the term is more often than not lost. Thus, Sproul examines what it means to be ’saved’, and shows from scripture that we are saved:

• From God (from His wrath)

• By God (and only by God)

• For God (for obedience and holiness)

The more and more I contemplate Sproul’s outline, and the scripture he gives to support this framework, the more and more I am saddened by the Church’s seemingly refusal to admit such things.

We don’t want to be saved from wrath; we want to think that God exists to make us happy, to make our dreams come true, and that being ’saved’ is really only fire-insurance and/or saved from a meaningless life.

We don’t want to be saved by God; we want to be saved by our ability and decision-making. Affirming that our nature is dead in sin and lacks any ability to come to God on our own is just too frightening.

We don’t want to be saved for God unless ‘for’ God means that our dreams are fulfilled, life becomes some kind of fun journey, and this ‘for’ gives us meaning and purpose that we could’ve never had without God.

Have we forgotten the very essentials of the gospel message? The message that God is infinitely angry, not with just imperfection, but with every evil and good deed we offer in and of ourselves?

Have we forgotten that salvation is of grace and grace alone, and that because our sin and depravity run so deep that we cannot even glance at the Lord outside of Him granting life?

Have we forgotten that being ’saved’ not only means saved from eternal wrath, but being saved from God’s personal wrath, and being saved from sin in this life as well?

Where do you go to church? Do you go to a church where the gospel is preached? I hope and pray that you do, and that you sit under the pure teaching of the word each and every week. For the essentials of the gospel are just that: they are essential. And the streets are filled with preachers who will do everything they can to steal you soul by offering you happiness, excitement, entertainment, and essentially, a gospel with you and you alone at the very center.

Saved from what? Saved from God’s wrath, saved by God’s grace, and saved from our own sin -in THIS life, not just the next.

All over the news this morning is a new gimmick by the First Baptist Church of Snellville, where a May crusade will give away $500 gas gift cards, and even a Ford Explorer. Apparently, even the secular media recognizes how shameful this is, as it has hit several major news outlets here in the Atlanta area, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

But the reason of this post is not to lament this new gimmick, which undoubtedly undermines the gospel and the work of Jesus Christ in a profound way; rather, the AJC article pointed out something else that has been a hot topic the last few years:

“The church [FBC Snellville, formerly pastored by James Merritt] has about 9,000 members on its rolls, but only about 2,500 regularly attend Sunday morning services, the pastor [Rusty Newman] said. Obviously, that’s something he hopes to change.“

This mega-church trend, particularly in the Southern Baptist Convention, of having very large memberships but significantly lower attendance has been a concern of Tom Ascol’s for many years. This has led to his annual ‘Resolution on Integrity in Church Membership‘, which has continually been met with little support in the Southern Baptist Convention. I’d encourage those not familiar with this resolution to read up on it at Tom’s blog, and give it a prayerful consideration. I support it whole-heartedly, and pray that it receives a much more serious consideration this year at the Convention.

Bu apparently, Rusty Newman and his staff think that gimmicks such as free gas and car giveaways are the solution to the church’s sagging attendance, rather than the deep repentance and return to integrity that Ascol calls for. I personally find this type of logic absolutely astounding given that common sense tells you that gimmicks will bring in many who will never again darken the door when the prizes are gone. As JM Boice once said, “what you win them with is what you win them to.”

My friends, only the objective word of God can decide on such differing opinions such as gimmicks versus deep repentence (opinions that have serious ramifications either way). Let us honor the Name of Christ we profess and hold His word high and above the philosophies, wisdom, and even gimmicks that raise themselves above knowledge of Christ.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…”

I often times find it hard to escape poor theology surrounding God’s love/favor. It just seems to be ingrained in our heads (and in our culture) that material blessings always equal God’s favor towards us.

Take the excerpt below for an example. In the book A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness, the Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs states:

“For example, suppose a man or woman has troubling thoughts about the things of the earth [Material goods or needs]. It may be that, by their inordinate thoughts, cares, and affections about some earthly things [anxiety], they contract much guilt [about being anxious]. Yet after this, perhaps, God gives them that earthly thing [that they were anxious over]. Now when they have it, if they have any light in their consciences, their convicted consciences will then reflect thusly: “I have this indeed, but do I have it with the blessing of God? I have it in my custody, but I got it dearly; it cost me such thoughts and cares and affections [such sinful anxiety]. Now I have it, but I cannot say it comes out of God’s love. I rather fear that God has given it to me in His wrath because I got it in such a way.” - Jeremiah Burroughs

Here’s what I’m thinking: our culture, and our Christian culture, is convinced that decent people are decently blessed with material wealth/provision by God, and that abundant blessings are most often a sign of God’s favor. Indeed, I myself have often had trouble escaping this kind of thinking.

But the words above by Burroughs kind of cut right to my heart: how do we know that our material blessings are not sometimes/oftentimes a sign of God’s wrath against us, rather than His love? I know that thought seems foreign to American Christianity, with its middle-class dominance, TBN, and tithe-fanatics, but we must admit that our thoughts are light-years away from God’s.

Recently I have been thinking about these things, and I’ve been scolding myself for seemingly always believing that material blessings, and even the provision/material wealth that comes after prayer, are always and definitely a gift/blessing from God. Do we ever consider that God may have given us something that makes our lives easier, more comfortable, or more luxurious, simply to chasten us for sin or, in the case of an unbeliever, to poor out His wrath?

So the infinite distance between our thoughts and God’s is unfathomable; it continues to amaze me in every area of life and doctrine. May we ever keep this distance in mind and thoroughly search our hearts and lives when blessings (or curses) come our way, pitting what we find there against the objective Word. Otherwise, when we’re blessed, we’re bound to think that we are right with God –and will thus risk going seriously astray if we’re wrong.

“Consider the dangerous ensnaring temptations attending a pleasant and prosperous condition. Few, very few of those that live in the pleasures of this world, escape everlasting perdition. “It is easier” (says Christ) “for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” “Not many mighty, not many noble are called.”
We have great reason to tremble, when the Scripture tells us in general that few shall be saved; much more when it tells us, that of that rank of which we are, but few shall be saved…So when the Scriptures come so near as to tell us that of such a class of men very few shall escape, it is time to be alarmed…O how many have been wheeled to hell in the chariots of earthly pleasures, while others have been whipped to heaven by the rod of affliction! How few, like the daughter of Tyre, come to Christ with a gift! How few among the rich entreat his favor!“- John Flavel, Keeping the Heart

Recently, the issue of Spiritual Gifts came up in a discussion list that I periodically participate in. The question at hand was something along the lines of “is it possible to possess your spiritual gift before conversion?”. That is, a brother had commented that he believed that his spiritual gift was the gift of teaching, but that he seemed to have this gift even before his conversion/salvation. Similar examples were also discussed in regards to the gift of administration, etc.

Now, please go easy on me if you disagree with me, for I am still growing, learning, and slightly changing my view on ‘Spiritual Gifts’ as time goes on. It should be noted, however, that I believe that the gift of speaking in tongues, the gift of prophecy (new revelation), and the gift of healing are no longer normative in the church, but ended with the death of the Apostles and the close of the canon of scripture.

Nevertheless, I am going to post my answer to the question: “Is it possible to possess your spiritual gift before conversion, and if so, why are many (both continuationists and cessationists) so resistant to this idea?”

I think people are so opposed to this view because they want to see something supernatural when the Spirit is given to us. ‘If your gift of teaching was given to you before the Holy Spirit, then what is so miraculous about it?‘ –so to speak.

This, I believe, is because there is a widespread misunderstanding in our culture about spiritual gifts and/or the miraculous gifts. Personally, I agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones in that I believe the book of Acts teaches that there was a baptism of the Spirit that was different and distinct from the indwelling of the Spirit, but I would disagree with him in that it clearly hasn’t continued since the Apostolic times.

But clearly, a teaching ability before conversion isn’t a ‘miracle’, but we *should* see it as a miracle of the Spirit if this one teaches with love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, Godly wisdom, etc. That is, it is the *fruit* of the Spirit is the *evidence* of the Spirit and the miraculous nature of the Spirit.

People today are just too hung up on seeing something that defies nature. They are so misinformed as to what is true *evidence* of the Spirit, that the *miss* the evidence of the Spirit when it is right in front of them!

Paul, out of that famous passage in 1 Cor, said that speaking with the most beautiful of tongues, prophesying the deepest secrets of the universe, and doing such miraculous wonders as moving mountains is nothing compared to being patient, kind, humble, loving, etc. Our sinful nature is disposed to ‘ooh’ and ‘awe’ at things that defy nature, but if we are truly looking for the moving of the Spirit, there is no clearer picture given to us than love on display.

Thus, the gifts are supernatural in the fruit displayed in the lives of those who teach, preach, administer, etc., but the actual ability to do those things in the physical realm –and do them well, is a matter of God’s normal providence, and could easily show up before salvation.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.