Hammer the New Man into Yourself

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

"The whole matter of putting on the new man is in essence the application of truth to ourselves. It is the most important thing that one can ever discover in the Christian life. The real secret of Christian living is to discover the art of talking to yourself. We must talk to ourselves, we must preach to ourselves, and we must take truth and apply it to ourselves, and keep on doing so. That is the putting on of the new man. We have to hammer away at ourselves until we have really convinced ourselves. In other words, this is not something that you wait for passively. If you wait until you feel like the new man it will probably never happen. We must be active in this. There is no greater snare in the Christian life than to entertain the idea of waiting until we feel better, and of then putting on the new man. On the contrary, we have got to go on telling ourselves the new man is already in us. In his Epistle to the Romans the Apostle Paul says, 'Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God' (6:11)." Darkness and Light, An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17, 191-192

Strengthened by the Might of the Glory of God

Paul writes in Colossians 1:11:

"May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,"

Paul prays that the believers would be strengthened with power in accord with the glorious might of God. It's easy to pass over quickly the prayers of Paul because the sentences seem to go on and on, but one when one reads to quickly one misses the punch. This phrase, "according to his glorious might," indeed carries a seriously weighty wallop.

Douglas Moo comments:

"Paul further emphasizes the extent of God's empowering, as well as making explicit its source, with the next description: according to his glorious might...The translations are almost unanimous in using the adjective "glorious" to qualify this divine might...But one might wonder if this interpretation gives appropriate value to the very significant word "glory." This word occurs frequently in Scripture as a very basic characterization of God, signifying his "weighty," overwhelming presence. The English "glorious" is too easily cast loose from this God-focused meaning (as when we speak of a "glorious sunset"). It might, then, be preferable to take the genitive as possessive: the strength that God supplies his people is in accordance with (and is the expression of) his own intrinsic glory." The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, 98.

Paul isn't praying for some casual power to be at work within the believer. He knows that "glory" is no word to be just tossed around. He is asking God to supply his people with such weighty and glorious power that accords with God's own glory. Paul the vigilant proclaimer of God's glory is not afraid to pray that an expression of that glory be imparted to the sons of God.

Paul wants the Colossian believers to know He is praying for them to be empowered by God Himself. In fact, we learn later in Colossians, that God indwells the believer: "To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (1:27). God does not take His own glory lightly (because He does everything for His glory) and the empowerment God gives is energized by His own divine might.

May you be strengthened with the might carrying the force and weight of the very glory of God.

A Remedy for Boredom with God

AW Tozer, speaking to students of Wheaton College, in 1954:

"The great doctrines of the Bible are not timely. When a man comes up to me and says, “Mr. Tozer, that was a timely sermon,” I take it as a doubtful compliment, for the truths of God are not timely (that is, geared into time). The truths of God are eternal. They rise above time, and they were as true when Adam was in the garden as they will be true in the millennium or in the ages that follow.

There are certain great truths: God, God’s creating us, our response and relation to God, human sin, human redemption, the incarnation, the indwelling Christ, the union of the soul with the Triune God. All these are great, eternal truths, true under all kinds of conditions, among all people everywhere and in every age in the world, no less true and no more true because they are absolutely true. Indeed, we will never be where we should be until these become to us the source of thrill. The entertainment of great spiritual concepts will lift us like a song until, brooding upon the great ideas of the Triune God and all He means to us, will thrill us like a stimulant from within.

We will never be where we ought to be until we go back to those old paths and learn to find God. We will cease to be bored with God. We will cease to make His redemptive plan merely an escape from hell and put the thought of hell and all that way behind us in the dim disappearing past. Instead, we will center our affections upon God and Christ, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and become specialists and experts in the realm of the spiritual life.

It is amazing how little outside stimulus we need if we have that inward stimulus. It is amazing how much God will meet our needs. It will not be God and something else. It will be God everything. And then, wisely, we will gear into our times, and we will gear into the gadgets around us, and we will gear into the needs of others, and in a moment we will become as practical as overshoes and as alert to the needs of the world around us as the most keen sociologist. Nevertheless, at the same time our great anchor will be God above. And if at any moment we should be cut off from our environment so that we did not have the stimulation and comfort of what the world provides, we would still be perfectly restful, for God would be enough."

"Is God Enough", Tozer Speaks to Students, in Quick Verse 6.0, Works of AW Tozer (CDROM)

Faith Embraces the Favor - Institutes of Christian Religion Part 10

John Calvin:

"We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favour toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit." The Institutes of Christian Religion, 475.

Faith sees and receives God's favor for sinners in Christ. Faith is not simply understanding that the doctrines of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus happened. Demons understand that cognitively. It is embracing that what God has done in Christ is for you--for me. This kind of faith, in Calvin's words, "cannot possibly be disjoined from pious affection" (476). Faith informs the mind of the truth of what God has done in Jesus and affects the heart with the reality of God's undeserved favor and love.

Daily Sinning Cleansed by One Act of Mercy

Late 19th century Professor James Denney:

"There is one other characteristic of the atonement which ought to be reflected in gospel preaching as determined by it, and which may for want of a better word be described as its finality. Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who believes in Christ and in His death has his relation to God once for all determined not by sin but by the atonement. The sin for which a Christian has daily to seek forgiveness is not sin which annuls his acceptance with God and casts him back into the position of one who has never had the assurance of the pardoning mercy of God in Christ. On the contrary, the assurance ought to be the permanent element in his life. The forgiveness of sins has to be received again and again as sin emerges into act. But when the soul closes with Christ the propitiation, the assurance of God's love is laid at the foundation of its being once for all...

There will inevitably be in the Christian life experiences of sinning and of being forgiven, of falling and of being renewed. But the grace which forgives and restores is not some new thing, nor is it conditioned in some new way. It is not dependent upon penitence, or works, or merit of ours. It is the same absolutely free grace which meets us at the cross. From first to last, it is the blood of Jesus, God's Son, which cleanses from sin. The daily pardon, the daily cleansing, are but the daily virtue of that one all-embracing act of mercy in which, while we were yet sinners, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."

The Death of Christ, 162

Twelve Proverbs from Spurgeon, Part 2

"Make yourself an ass, and everyone will lay his sack on you."

"Man proposes, but God disposes."

"Never cackle till your egg is laid."

"One may say too much even upon the best subject."

"Paddle your own canoe."

"Praise invigorates the wise, but intoxicates the foolish."

"Pray to God, but keep the hammer going."

"Read men as well as books."

"Relatives are best with a wall between them."

"Ugly women, finely dressed, are the uglier for it."

"Zeal is fit only for wise men, but is mostly found in fools. The more's the pity if so it be."

And finally for the sake of Mother's Day:

"Never trust a man who will speak ill of his mother."

Salt Cellars, Volume 2, from the Charles H. Spurgeon Library, AGES Software

*These proverbs were compiled by Charles Spurgeon and not necessarily original to him.

Twelve Proverbs from Spurgeon

"A bad husband cannot be a good man
He fails in the tenderest duties, and must be bad at heart."

"A good husband makes a good wife."

"A fool is never wrong."

"Be low in humility but high in hope."

"Be not everybody's dog that whistles you."

"Be not first to quarrel, nor last to make it up."

"Do the duty that lies nearest thee."

"Even among apostles there was a Judas."

"Fore-think, though you cannot foretell."

"Good fences make good neighbors."

"Good things are often hard."

"If an ass goes a-traveling, he won't come home a horse."

Salt Cellars, Volume 1, from The Charles H. Spurgeon Library, AGES Software.

*These proverbs were compiled by Charles Spurgeon and not necessarily original to him.

Are You a Son of Zebedee or a Son of Timaeus?

Are you a son of Zebedee or a son of Timaeus?

Notice the contrast of response to Jesus' question, in Mark 10, "What do you want me to do for you?" James and John, the sons of Zebedee, respond, "Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory." Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, replies, "Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!"

The sons of Zebedee desire position, power, authority, and glory, Bartimaeus just wants to see. James and John are jostling for authority causing dissension among the disciples. Bartimaeus, in spite of the annoyed crowd, is persistently crying out for Jesus, jumping up to get close to Him, and, simply, wanting to see. James and John are looking for what Jesus can give them. Bartimaeus wants mercy.

The Gospel is not about getting something from Jesus that resembles the kingdom of man--power, glory, authority, you fill-in-the-blank. The Gospel of the kingdom is about trusting Jesus and pursuing Him radically for mercy. Far too often the Gospel is framed in a what's-in-it-for-me principle. This is not the Jesus way, which is one of servanthood and self-giving, nor is it the way to Jesus. The way to Jesus is as a blind man throwing aside what he has and coming to Jesus for mercy.

Are you the blind man of faith looking for the mercy of Jesus doing whatever you can just be near Him or the one who thinks he can already see simply looking for what Jesus can give you?