What do you think about all day? And does the answer to that question reveal much about your spiritual state? Is the content and focus of our thoughts a fruit, or sign, of whether or not we are alive to God?
At the moment of conversion the person who was once blind and deaf to God, dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), is miraculously "made alive" - regenerated by the Spirit of God, born again, awakened to the living God, given eyes to see and ears to hear in the spirit - it's a glorious, creation-work of God! The born-again child of God is indwelt by God's own Spirit and is suddenly AWARE of God, Christ, and spiritual things. He begins to see the unseen, and commune with God.
God is now the focus of thought for the convert. While this happens naturally, as the Holy Spirit works within, the believer has a responsibility to cooperate with God in this relationship. As believers we have the privilege and the duty to meditate on the things of God; to think upon the Lord and his revealed truth. The Lord gives us strength within, depth of thought, peace and joy and awareness of God as we meditate on his truth!
Yet the enemy (and our own flesh) recognizes the danger of the Christian who is constantly thinking upon Christ, and provides countless distractions. In our age it is becoming more and more difficult to "be still and know" that he is God (Psalm 46:10). But this is vital for our growing communion with God.
When we talk of meditating on the Lord, we mean that these focused thoughts on truth are done IN THE PRESENCE of the Lord (before the Lord) in an attitude of prayer and worship. We are not speaking merely of thought. There is an awareness in our meditation that we are sitting before the Lord, communing with him as we fill our minds with his truth, revealed in Scripture. What a glorious thing! How sweet and satisfying; how deep and rich and lovely to walk with God!
J.I. Packer, in his classic book Knowing God, describes the practice of Christian meditation:
We turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God... Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consicously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God... It's effect is ever to humble us as we contemplate God's greatness and glory and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us - "comfort" us, in the old, strong, Bible sense of the word - as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ. (chapter 1)
Christian, what a privilege is yours to walk with God and KNOW him! What a delight to meditate on the Lord! Be diligent to fix your thoughts on the glory of Christ in prayer, praise and meditation. "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:2-3, ESV).
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Diligence in the Means of Grace
God's will for Christians is that we grow up. Physically we're born and then we grow up. Spiritually we are born again and then we grow up. God's will is not comfort and ease for the believer. He'll send trials to test our faith. He's chipping away what doesn't look like Jesus. Our society, more and more it seems, produces wimps. God wants warriors.
"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." 2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:13 (ESV)
We grow up the same way we were born: God miraculously working in us, through faith in Jesus. But God has chosen certain means through which he grows us up in Christ. Historically they've been known as the means of grace. This doesn't mean that these things save us, but that God has chosen to work through them in the life of the believer to bless and grow and strengthen us. We don't hear much about them these days. It's all about how to be happy and successful. God wants us holy.
God is sovereign in his use of the means of grace. But the Christian is responsible. What is our duty toward the means of grace? Our duty is to be DILIGENT in them, looking past the means of grace to Jesus Christ. JOYFUL DILIGENCE.
What are the means of grace? They are all found in the church, the assembly of the saints. Historically they've been identified as the preaching of the word of God and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Others throughout the ages have added prayer to the list. Wayne Grudem has a longer list. He takes a more general view, calling all the things God uses in the church to bless his people the means of grace.
I take Grudem's viewpoint. My list has 10 means of grace:
1. Proclamation of the Word.
2. Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
3. Assembly of the Saints.
4. Prayer.
5. Evangelism and Good Works (acts of mercy).
6. Financial Giving.
7. Ministry in the Body (anointing w/oil, laying on hands, spiritual gifts, etc)
8. Submission to Authority.
9. Mortification (war on sin).
10. Suffering (not seeking it out, but receiving it when God sends it).
Our duty is to apply ourselves to these things with JOYFUL DILIGENCE, looking past the means of grace to Jesus Christ and him crucified. God will use these means to grow us up!
Because all the means of grace are found in the expression of the local church, to isolate yourself from the church is to commit spiritual suicide. It would be like someone refusing to breathe but saying they are trusting God to stay alive. God in his wisdom has appointed the means of air to keep us alive. Spiritually, God designed it so that we need committed connection to the saints!
How about you? Are you growing in grace? Are you applying these means of grace with all diligence and joy in Jesus?
I'll close with a few quotes on the means of grace.
To persevere in grace we must seek to use all the means of grace that can assist us—not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; not neglecting either private or public prayer; using what grace we have if we expect to get more; doing what we can for God, as we expect him to do all for us; in fine, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. If these things be in you and abound, they shall be the means of preserving you, and you shall be among. the happy number that shall sing, " Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before his presence with exceeding joys unto him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Charles Spurgeon, (http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3504.htm)
“And in the mean time, the sure and general rule for all who groan for the salvation of God is this, — whenever opportunity serves, use all the means which God has ordained; for who knows in which God will meet thee with the grace that bringeth salvation?” John Wesley,
(Wesley, Means; 266)
I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.
God has given us means of grace. ...If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, there spiritual are means of grace.
John Piper, (http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2008/3468/)
"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." 2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." 1 Corinthians 16:13 (ESV)
We grow up the same way we were born: God miraculously working in us, through faith in Jesus. But God has chosen certain means through which he grows us up in Christ. Historically they've been known as the means of grace. This doesn't mean that these things save us, but that God has chosen to work through them in the life of the believer to bless and grow and strengthen us. We don't hear much about them these days. It's all about how to be happy and successful. God wants us holy.
God is sovereign in his use of the means of grace. But the Christian is responsible. What is our duty toward the means of grace? Our duty is to be DILIGENT in them, looking past the means of grace to Jesus Christ. JOYFUL DILIGENCE.
What are the means of grace? They are all found in the church, the assembly of the saints. Historically they've been identified as the preaching of the word of God and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Others throughout the ages have added prayer to the list. Wayne Grudem has a longer list. He takes a more general view, calling all the things God uses in the church to bless his people the means of grace.
I take Grudem's viewpoint. My list has 10 means of grace:
1. Proclamation of the Word.
2. Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
3. Assembly of the Saints.
4. Prayer.
5. Evangelism and Good Works (acts of mercy).
6. Financial Giving.
7. Ministry in the Body (anointing w/oil, laying on hands, spiritual gifts, etc)
8. Submission to Authority.
9. Mortification (war on sin).
10. Suffering (not seeking it out, but receiving it when God sends it).
Our duty is to apply ourselves to these things with JOYFUL DILIGENCE, looking past the means of grace to Jesus Christ and him crucified. God will use these means to grow us up!
Because all the means of grace are found in the expression of the local church, to isolate yourself from the church is to commit spiritual suicide. It would be like someone refusing to breathe but saying they are trusting God to stay alive. God in his wisdom has appointed the means of air to keep us alive. Spiritually, God designed it so that we need committed connection to the saints!
How about you? Are you growing in grace? Are you applying these means of grace with all diligence and joy in Jesus?
I'll close with a few quotes on the means of grace.
To persevere in grace we must seek to use all the means of grace that can assist us—not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; not neglecting either private or public prayer; using what grace we have if we expect to get more; doing what we can for God, as we expect him to do all for us; in fine, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure. If these things be in you and abound, they shall be the means of preserving you, and you shall be among. the happy number that shall sing, " Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before his presence with exceeding joys unto him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Charles Spurgeon, (http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3504.htm)
“And in the mean time, the sure and general rule for all who groan for the salvation of God is this, — whenever opportunity serves, use all the means which God has ordained; for who knows in which God will meet thee with the grace that bringeth salvation?” John Wesley,
(Wesley, Means; 266)
I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.
God has given us means of grace. ...If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, there spiritual are means of grace.
John Piper, (http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2008/3468/)
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