Petty Wars Over Abstruse Points and Unimportant Questions 2/2

I resisted as much as I could yesterday not to make any comments on my blog post of August 3rd because it was from Charles Spurgeon and I kept saying to myself that it is complete, in need of nothing, especially from me.

But, this morning during my devotion time, I realized the same thing that God had put on my heart to add to the post yesterday was not only right there but had to come out. God confirmed it for me as I read Oswald Chambers devotion for August 4.  A few lines I read from the daily devotion, reminded me of what God taught me about man being caught up in unimportant questions arising from His doctrines, when in reality we have no business wasting precious times on earth, trying to decipher things that we understand mainly from our own point of view. Things that truly make no difference who’s wrong, who’s right just as long as we are living out the Christian life through  the Spirit and in God’s will.

A few years ago, when God was teaching me the abiding process, as usual, I was in a hurry and went before Him. I came across a controversial subject about whether Christians had two natures or one. Lots of eminent writers and pastors wrote about the subject. Apparently, the controversy started somewhere between fifty to sixty years ago. There is a group who believes that Christian have only one nature and another group who believes Christians have two natures. Because this was closely related to what God was going to teach me, I was getting immersed in reading as much as I could so that I could understand better how I am to walk with Him.

Those who believe that Christians have one nature writes their books from the point of view that all Christians should walk in the new nature that God has given us at the time of Salvation and some complex terminology of the word "nature".  Of course it makes sense, otherwise why would we need to be born again? Those who advocate that a Christian has two natures they based it mainly on Romans 7 where Paul was struggling with his two natures. Guess what? They are right too, because as long as we remain plain human beings, and God has not put His last touch on us to make us perfect, we will always have two natures.

God, realizing that I was wasting precious time to understand these two sides, felt the need to teach me the futility of trying to decipher who’s wrong and who’s right. Oswald Chambers said: “ The most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the surrounding influence and qualities produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to give our attention to, and it is the one thing that is continually under attack.” He then said to me, does it really matter whether you find out you have one or two natures? Let’s say you finally settle the issue, what do you get out of it if your life is not right with me? Before I could answer He showed me the vanity of the head knowledge that I would possess that would make for great debates? Then, He showed me how both parties were right.

My dear brethren, I could try to explain it, but would never get it right because one would have to see the old nature and the new one we all possess on the inside, then see how Christ calls us to live out this life in the new nature to truly put it all together.  Suffice to say that both parties are right. As long as we are imperfect people, we will have these two natures. While there are books out there well written about how Paul who vacillated and struggled between the two natures in Romans 7, but, years after that, Paul learned to live in the spirit in the new nature, by faith. There he found peace and rest in his Saviour, hence the life in the Spirit we found being the theme of Romans 8.

Here is why both parties arguing about the one or two natures are wasting precious time.

ONE NATURE

Christians truly have one nature which is the new one God put into us at the moment of Salvation. God also knows as long as we are on this earth, we will fail Him and we will step out of the new nature to contend with the flesh. God showed me the purity of the new nature contains His very holiness and cannot be blemished with even the smallest sin. We need to be cleansed of our sins with the blood of Christ each time we walk away from Him and reconnect us to the oneness we have with Him.

TWO NATURES

As for those who argue about a Christian has two natures, they are also right, but in their mind, they do not understand that Paul had truly found rest and Romans chapter 7 was a part of his life that he left behind as he matured spiritually and learned to live in the Spirit. He also showed me that some Christians are so keen on living in the flesh, they found solace in Romans 7 and they do not want to let go, hence they enjoy knowing that Paul had the same problem too.

He taught me that it does not matter what I believe, as long as I step out of the new nature that I received when I was regenerated, there in the flesh, I am not walking with Him. There in the flesh I have taken a detour. There in the flesh, I could become so comfortable and let go of Him while I find comfort in backsliding. The new nature has been given to us to live in it. It is in the new nature that we find peace, rest, power, provision for the journey, strength to endure and so on. There in the new nature, we learn from the Spirit as we walk in faith, in Spirit. In the new nature, that is where the triune God dwells. There is a mystery that belongs only to God which explains the separation that takes place in us each time we sin.

Spiritually speaking, once you step out of your oneness with Him, through sinning, it looks like you are disconnected from your oxygen and your lungs need to get use of breathing the regular polluted oxygen that we breathe naturally every day. But, this polluted oxygen, instead of the air we breathe; spiritually speaking, it is us in our flesh as we fall back to the old nature.  He showed me the awareness we have when we first separate from Him, and how easy it is to get used to the flesh without Him. Explaining this experience in human words can never do justice to anything that we experience with God, we can only attempt to convey our spiritual experiences with human words.

The key thing He told me that should matter in my journey with Him is found in Matthew 6:33 “But, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." 

OSWALD CHAMBERS AUGUST 4TH DEVOTION

Spiritual Fruit - Part 3 Last One

Preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on September 2, 1858, by Philpot

"From Me is your fruit found." Hosea 14:8

What is this fruit then? It is faith, hope, love, godly fear, submission to God's will, tenderness of conscience, love and esteem for the brethren, self-denial, putting off the old man, putting on the new—and I might stand here until midnight and then not exhaust the catalogue. These are set forth by the Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians, where he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance—against such there is no law." Here are all the fruits of the Spirit penned down by the Holy Spirit himself; but you may examine it for yourselves, and indeed compare what is in your soul with it; then you will confess how short you come of bearing that fruit—the bearing of which stamps the Christian indeed—but we shall never bear fruit to God, until we are brought to see that our fruit comes from God.

III. How this fruit is from the Lord—"from me is your fruit found." How positively and clearly is this set forth in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of John's Gospel, where the Lord says, "Without me you can do nothing." "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abides in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me." So you see that union with Christ is indispensable to the bringing forth of fruit; for as the sap flows out of the stem, so it is with the believing soul and Jesus—only so far as Christ flows into his soul is he able to bring forth fruit unto God. "Abide in me and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abides in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me." Then there is a being in Christ by vital union, and an abiding in him by faith, prayer, hope, and love, and a receiving grace for grace out of his fullness—so that from him is our fruit.

Now, as we begin to feel day by day our barrenness, and as our wrinkles arise in our face, we begin to see that from Jesus only is our fruit. Let us then raise our souls up out of our miserable selves, and fix our eyes upon him at the right hand of God and beg of him to communicate his grace to our souls, and send down the influence of his Spirit that will bring forth fruit in us—which is peace, praise, and honor to God. No one can bring forth fruit without a conflict with self—self checks the crop like the ivy clinging to and strangling the vine.

I have a grape-vine in the front of my house, and almost the first thing I noticed when I returned home yesterday was that every leaf was struck with mildew—in fact the whole tree has been struck, as it were, with the same withering disease. What an emblem of a poor, withered professor! There will never be a cluster either fit to be made into wine or eaten as dessert. Now, when we see what we are in ourselves we see nothing but mildew. As the grape-vine seems to have more enemies than any other fruit, because, as it is said, it cheers the heart of God and man, and we are represented in Scripture as branches of the vine, therefore we need the grace of God in order that we may overcome these enemies. Though I have not sufficient skill to cure the mildew on my vine—yet the Lord has skill to cure the mildew in our souls, for his grace can and does and will sanctify the sinner's heart.

Therefore whatever despair I might feel about having any fruit from the vine on my trellis, there shall be no mildew upon the trellis of your soul, for he can send a shower to wash off the mildew, and put forth his hand to knock off the insects that feed upon the fruit of the vine. The Lord says, "From me is your fruit found." The fruit flows forth—the spirit of thankfulness, of brokenness, and godly sorrow for sin. And yet there will be times and seasons when we sink very low, and when we feel or fear that there never was a spark of grace in our heart. But your very feeling of your unfruitfulness, is in itself a fruit. Your mourning over your unfruitfulness and your being cast down into dejection—these very things are spiritual fruit, for they are produced by the same Holy Spirit that brings forth the blossoms of faith, hope, and love.

III. There is the FINDING of this fruit. In a vine some of the richest clusters are found under the leaves. Leaf and fruit go very much together, for where there is a leaf full of mildew, you find nothing but a cluster of rotten fruit. Well, so in grace—if there be little fruit there will be a withered profession, because the 'leaf' represents the 'profession'. The world can see what you profess, and they will see the mildew spots upon it. "O," they say, "that man talks about religion—but he is just like us. You who have to deal with him know how he deals, how he can laugh and giggle like other men, and how angry he is if anything crosses him. It is only a profession—he goes to chapel, but we all know what he is."

Here is a profession with the mildew upon it. "See," they may say, "that man was drunk last night—yet he goes to church on Sundays." If the 'leaf' is so bad, what must the 'berry' be? If the man's profession is such, what must be the man himself? So if the mildew has struck the leaf you may be sure the mildew has reached the clusters.

We find that the best clusters sometimes grow on the lowest bough; so it is in grace—the humbler a man is the more fruit he will bring forth. The same sap that feeds the branch nearest the stem feeds the branch farthest off. "From me is your fruit found." Your soul may be often cast down, and you may say, "Was there ever any sinner like me?" but your complaints do not take you into the world again—you are not telling lies or joking and gossiping with your neighbors—but you are mourning and groaning that you are not bringing forth fruit unto God.

Now, the Lord may speak these words to encourage his saints—"Come out of the world. From me is your fruit found. Not from the world. Do not be carried away with the things of time and sense. Not from worldly-mindedness, not from family distress is fruit produced—but from me, out of my fullness by the communications of my grace."

If you don't get it from that source you will get it nowhere, and every branch that does not bear fruit, he hews down. So that we come to one of two things—you must either be a branch that bears fruit from Christ—from the communications of Christ's love to your soul—or else one that bears not fruit, which the Father takes away. There is no intermediate state whereby we have part from ourselves and part from Christ, for "from me," says the Lord, "is your fruit found."

Spiritual Fruit

Spiritual Fruit

Preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on
September 2, 1858, by Philpot

"From Me is your fruit found." Hosea 14:8

Man unites in himself what at first sight seem to be completely opposite things; he is the greatest of sinners—and yet the greatest of Pharisees. Now, what two things can be so opposed to each other as sin and self-righteousness? Yet the very same man who is a sinner from top to toe, with the whole head sick and the whole heart faint, who is spiritually nothing else but a leper throughout, how contradictory it appears that the same man has in his own heart a most stubborn self-righteousness.

Now, against these two evils God, so to speak, directs his whole artillery—he spares neither one nor the other; but it is hard to say which is the greatest rebellion against God—the existence of sin in man and what he is as a fallen sinner; or his Pharisaism—the lifting up his head in pride of self-righteousness. It is not easy to decide which is the more obnoxious to God—the drunkard who sins without shame; or the Pharisee puffed up with how pleasing he is to God.

The one is abhorrent to our feelings, and, as far as decency and morality are concerned, we would sooner see the Pharisee; but when we come to matters of true religion, the Pharisee seems the worst—at least our Lord intimated as much when he said the publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before them.

Now, in this Book the Lord seems sometimes to knock Ephraim to pieces and then to put him together again. Sometimes we find denunciations against his backslidings, and then when Ephraim is broken to pieces the Lord seeks to raise him up, as he says in the 13th chapter, "When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel." When he was humble and broken down—broken so as to tremble at the majesty of God—he exalted himself—that is, God exalted him, for God exalts the humble; "but when he became guilty of Baal worship, he died"—the life of God seemed to be extinct in his soul. Now, in this last chapter the Lord speaks very comfortably, and he says, "O Ephraim," that is Israel, "return unto the Lord your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity."

Never think to stand upright by your own self-righteousness—you have fallen by your iniquity, and now you must humble yourself before the Lord your God. Turn to the Lord your God and say unto him, "Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips"—that is, we will sing and praise your holy name. "Asshur shall not save us," that is the king of Assyria, "we will not ride upon horses," that is the devices of men, "neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods"—our idols are self and self-righteousness—"for in you the fatherless finds mercy."

Well, I need not go on with the chapter. Ephraim shall say, "What have I to do any more with idols?" Here is Ephraim brought away from his idols—"I have heard him and observed him; I am like a green fig tree;" and then the words of our text, "From me is your fruit found," as though he would show Ephraim this—"Ephraim, though you are a sinner, let not that cast you down, so that you shall think there never can be any fruit in you—look upward and not to yourself for this fruit."

In opening up these words I shall with God's blessing show—

I. What is the fruit called here "your fruit."
II. How this fruit is from the Lord, "from me is your fruit found."
III. How this fruit not only is from the Lord but is found also to be such, and made manifest, for we not only have it from the Lord, but it is found to be from the Lord—"From me is your fruit found."

I. What is the fruit? Now, I sincerely believe that wherever God the Spirit has anything to do with a man's soul—(and oh! if God the Spirit has nothing to do with a man's soul, what a dreadful condition it is in!)—in his quickening and regenerating operations upon it, his communications of life and grace to it, there will always be a desire to bring forth fruit unto God. No child of God can be an Antinomian, especially when God first begins to work upon the heart. If he has been years in the work, there may be a leaning in his wretched heart to this weakness, to this carelessness—but no beginner has any leaning toward, or is ever upset, by this Antinomian devil. On the contrary, his longing is to work out his own righteousness. He is trying to keep the law, working hard to please God by a life of obedience—he is seeking to be holy, and endeavoring to overcome the wicked passions of his heart. So that you never find a child of God under the first teaching who has any leaning towards Antinomianism—it is his desire to please God by his own acts and words.