Deuteronomy 6-9 – Warnings – Promises – Gratitude & Obedience to God-Part 4/4

Exodus 32:9-10

Then the LORD said, "I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation."

  

Moses recounted the story in Deuteronomy 9:24-29 “You have been rebellious against the LORD ever since I have known you.  I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the LORD and said, "O Sovereign LORD, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance that you redeemed by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin.  Otherwise, the country from which you brought us will say, 'Because the LORD was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to put them to death in the desert.' But they are your people, your inheritance that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm."

As I read Deuteronomy chapter 9 I fell in love with Moses heart and attitude toward God and prayed that I never depart from what He taught me.  Verses 24-29 touched my heart and even though I know God has already dealt with this part of my heart in how I respond to Him in my daily walk, I felt the need to pray to Him for my preservation.  Here is why.  In these verses, we have a great example of what it means to use the deposit God makes in us to draw close in oneness and intimacy. When we read about Moses in the Old Testament, we have to be completely out to lunch not to see the meekness in this man’s heart, attitude and actions. Even God acknowledged his meekness.  On more than one occasion, God wanted to destroy the Israelites and blotted their names out from under heaven. By the same token, he offered Moses to make him a great and mighty nation. If Moses had accepted God’s offer and promise, he would have been in his right to do so. He would have been entitled to it because God made the offer and He could not have taken it back if Moses answer was “yes”

In the end, those chapters of Deuteronomy that I have been talking about in the past three posts, teach us a lesson that all of us should aspire to. Moses’s attitude and response to God in regard to His offer to make him a powerful nation shows what it means to truly love God and be one with Him. When your heart has been touched by God through His gracious and generous Salvation, and when you understand through the Holy Spirit’s eyes what this walk with Him is all about, you do not see God’s promises to make you something or give you something. You are past that stage so much, it is almost like it has become the last thing on your list. Of course, this comes with Spiritual growth and maturity in the faith. You do not see the fact that He promised you a place in heaven. You do not care about the privileges you are entitled to as the King’s heir. None of these matters to you. All your heart could see is “His glory.” You could care less about all that He can do for you. I keep repeating myself here for a good reason. I want you to see it through your spiritual eyes and I want to pay attention to it.

This kind of growth happens only when we become so merged with Him, regardless how long we have been a Christian, as we live in His Holiness and His righteousness, the self has been annihilated so much, that you are watching yourself not being elated by His promises to give you something especially IF IT IS AT HIS OWN EXPENSES. With the self being dealt with, there is room only for Him to live His life within you so much so, that your answer to Him is always according to what Christ would respond. Hence why, Moses did not want this blessing in Exodus 32:10. I love the fact that there is a paradox there. You would be wrong to think that Moses had the power to refuse something like God promised to make him “a great nation" without God’s grace at work in him. 

When this kind of things happens to you, it is like you are watching someone else doing things within you because you know there is no way on earth you would not go for His offer instead. When things like that happen, you know without a doubt that it is not you who is living this life but Him in you. You are jealous for His reputation and your answer to Him contains the same kind of motive, attitude and love that you see in Moses answer in Deuteronomy 9:28. The funny thing is, when you sort of sit down to think about what just happened there, you cannot help asking yourself why is it there is something in you that is guarding God so jealously that it feels as if you are completely forgetting that God can take care of Himself. Yet, you cannot help it simply because you are living out Galatians 2:20 in full fledge.

 I am not saying that we should not enjoy God’s promises. Oh No! That would be so wrong, I would not know how to describe it. I personally truly enjoy God’s promises and I live with expectancy in my heart. But what I am saying is that His promises are at the bottom of your list when your heart gets hold of Him. When you get what Salvation means, according to His plans, you actually find the next best things are a heart filled with gratitude toward Him, a strengthen faith a need to obey and you are watching His Agape love permeates your heart slowly.  In living out the real Christian life, in spirit, you will find out all these things I mentioned above come way before you even think about what’s in it for you.

This is why I keep saying, if after decades of calling ourselves Christian and we know nothing else about Him except holding on to His promises like a dog with a bone, then we miss the point of Salvation completely.  The Israelites already had this mentality and it did not work for God at all. In the end, God did not fail the Israelites and He did not fail in His promises to them. The truth is, they failed God! When we fail to know God and walk with Him in the way He planned for us, Moses tells us exactly in Deut 9:27, we are there because of our sin, our rebellious heart, and wickedness. Ask yourself, when was the last time you examine your heart to meet with God face to face and deal with your sinful and wicked heart?  Most of us can’t. We do not even accept the fact that we are wicked. We have no problem seeing it in unbelievers while we act as if it is not for us. I noticed whenever I speak about my wicked heart; I offend the people I am talking to. They have a need to correct me and usually they are quick to blame the devil for me feeling this way or even acknowledge that I have a wicked heart.

I could go on for days with what I see in Deuteronomy that we need to apply in our lives today. But I will stop there. I pray that God would touch your heart and that you would be moved to give Him the love and obedience that is due to Him. I pray that you would learn to see that Christianity cannot be compartmentalized, but it is a lifestyle lived out in Him and through Him!

Deuteronomy 6-9 - Warnings - Promises - Gratitude & Obedience to God Part 1

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I have been stuck in Deuteronomy 6-9 for three days now. I read them over and over and each time I am overwhelmed by Who God is. I find myself meditating on Him and His promises, accompanied by warnings.

Deuteronomy Chapter 6 teaches that we have to obey God in order to prosper. I do not care to talk about the prosperity part because we all know what He had in mind for the Israelites. But I get stuck when I read His demands. For instance, Deuteronomy 6:5 says: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” I get stuck because I realized how much God never changes. His requirements of us are always the same. For the first time, it dawned on me how many times He repeated the same thing to us in Mathew, Luke, twice in Mark, and three times in Deuteronomy.

Then in verse 7 He put the responsibility of teaching their children not only to walk a daily righteous walk with God, but also with gratitude in their hearts because they were also bound by the conditions God had imposed on their parents which basically was “obey walk with me or else there are drastic consequences.”  Again, it was not the first time I was reading that but it was the first time I noticed the depth of the reality of His demand as He used the word DILIGENT twice in the same chapter. (v7 & 17) He is telling us not only we have to teach them, but we have to make sure they understand it and incorporate it in their lives.

But the word diligent implied a life completely focus on Him. Diligence demands complete abandon to what our heart is aiming for and diligence consumes everything and every decision and everywhere we turn. The word diligence, forces us to see what we have received from God is our most treasured prize possession. So, as parents, how do we do that with our own children if we have not gone forward with Him for ourselves in diligence so that we can acquire patience, sound judgment, and wisdom and so on.

God also kept telling the Israelite to fear Him. But if you noticed, He never stopped at

"FEAR THE LORD YOUR GOD" He made sure we understand that this fear should be motivated by love and gratitude. Why do you think God bothers to make sure we understand that? Simply because if we do things just out of fear, then there cannot be fellowship with Him, it also means there is no faith.  Fellowship was God’s goal with Israel and it is His goal with us. He said to us: “draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you”  Notice that it seems like He is asking us to take the first step, but in reality He is saying if you truly received what I gave you and it has become your prize possession, then draw near to me. How do I know that? Well, God taught me through Romans 6: If you read Romans 6 with the Holy Spirit’s guidance you will see it all over the chapter. But Paul spelled it out for us in verse 16 when he said: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

So, the word of God tells us that we live life surrendered and near to God or we live surrendered and near the Flesh and Satan.

 Furthermore, look at the way chapter 6 ends with verse 25 “For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the LORD our God has given us.'

The word of God tells us by living with diligence, with is a lifestyle, dedication, abandonment; through obedience, love, gratitude and knowledge of Him bring pleasure to Him. The end result is righteousness.

Part 2, tomorrow!

Faith - Spiritual Knowledge - Part 5

December 8, 1775

My Dear Friend,

......You say, a death-bed repentance is what you would be sorry to give any hope of. My dear friend, it is well for poor sinners that God's thoughts and ways are as much above men's as the Heavens are higher than the earth. We agreed to communicate our sentiments freely, and promised not to be offended with each other's freedom if we could help it. I am afraid of offending you by a thought just now upon my mind, and yet I dare not in conscience suppress it: I must, therefore, venture to say, that I hope they who depend upon such a repentance as your scheme points out, will repent of their repentance itself upon their death-bed at least, if not sooner. You and I, perhaps, would have encouraged the fair-spoken young man, who said he had kept all the commandments from his youth, and rather have left the thief upon the cross to perish like a villain as he lived. But Jesus thought differently.

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I do not encourage sinners to defer their repentance to their death-beds- I press the necessity of a repentance this moment. But then I take care to tell them, that repentance is the gift of God; that Jesus is exalted to bestow it; and that all their endeavours that way, unless they seek to Him for grace, will be vain as washing a blackmoor, and transient as washing a swine which will soon return to the mire again. I know the evil heart will abuse the grace of God; the apostle knew this likewise, Rom. iii. 8, and vi. 1. But this did not tempt him to suppress the glorious grace of the Gospel, the power of Jesus to save to the uttermost, and His merciful promise that whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise cast out. The repentance of a natural heart proceeding wholly from fear, like that of some malefactors, who are sorry, not that they have committed robbery or murder, but that they must be hanged for it; this undoubtedly is nothing worth, whether in time of health or in a dying hour. But that metanoia, that gracious change of heart, views, and dispositions, which always takes place when Jesus is made known to the soul as having died that the sinner might live, and been wounded that he might be healed; this, at whatever period God is pleased to afford and effect it by His Spirit, brings a sure and everlasting salvation with it.

Still I find I have not finished; you ask my exposition of the parables of the talents and pounds; but at present I can write no more. I have only just time to tell you, that when I begged your acceptance of Omicron, nothing was farther from my expectation than a correspondence with you. The frank and kind manner in which you wrote, presently won upon my heart. In the course of our letters upon Subscription, I observed an integrity and disinterestedness in you, which endeared you to me still more. Since that our debates have taken a much more interesting turn; I have considered it as a call, and an opportunity put in my hand, by the especial providence of Him who ruleth over all. I have embraced the occasion to lay before you simply, and rather in a way of testimony than argumentation, what (in the main) I am sure is truth. I have done enough to discharge my conscience, but shall never think I do enough to answer the affection I bear you. I have done enough likewise to make you weary of my correspondence, unless it should please God to fix the subject deeply upon your mind, and make you attentive to the possibility and vast importance of a mistake in matters of everlasting concernment.

I pray that the good Spirit of God may guide you into all truth. He only is the effectual Teacher. I still retain a cheerful hope, that some things you cannot at present receive, will hereafter be the joy and comfort of your heart; but I know it cannot be till the Lord's own time. I cannot promise to give such long answers as your letters require, to clear up every text that may be proposed, and to answer every objection that may be started; yet I shall be glad to exchange a letter now and then. At present it remains with you whether our correspondence continues or not, as this is the third letter I have written since I heard from you, and therefore must be the last till I do. I should think what remains might be better settled viva voce (in personal conversation) for which purpose I shall be glad to see you, or ready to wait on you when leisure will permit, and when I know it will be agreeable; but if (as life and all its affairs are precarious) we should never meet in this world, I pray God we may meet at the right hand of Jesus, in the great day when He shall come to gather up His jewels, and to judge the world. There is an endless diversity of opinions in matters of religion; which of them are right and safe, and will lead to eternal glory, Dies iste indicabit (the day itself will show) I am still in a manner lost amidst more engagements than I have time to comply with; but I feel and know that I am, &c.

Faith - Spiritual Knowledge - Part 4

December 8, 1775

My Dear Friend,

.........On the other hand, there is a sober decent way of speaking of God, and goodness, and benevolence, and sobriety, which the world will bear well enough;-nay, we may say a little about Jesus Christ, as ready to make up the deficiencies of our honest and good endeavours, and this will not displease them. But if we preach Him as the only foundation, lay open the horrid evils of the human heart, tell our hearers that they are dead in trespasses and sins, and have no better ground of hope in themselves than the vilest malefactors in order to exalt the glory of Jesus, as saving those who are saved wholly and freely for His own name's sake; if we tell the virtuous and decent, as well as the profligate, that unless they are born again, and made partakers of living faith, and count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, they cannot be saved; this the world cannot bear. We shall be called knaves or fools, uncharitable bigots, and twenty hard names. If you have met with nothing like this, I wish it may lead you to suspect whether you have yet received the right key to the doctrines of Christ; for, depend upon it, the offense of the cross is not ceased.

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I am grieved and surprised that you seem to take little notice of any thing in the account of my deceased friend, but his wishing himself to be a Deist, and his having playbooks about him in his illness. As to the plays, they were Shakespeare's, which, as a man of taste, it is no great wonder he should sometimes look into. Your remark on the other point shows, that you are not much acquainted with the exercises of the human mind, under certain circumstances. I believe I observed formerly, that it was not a libertine wish. Had you known him, you would have known one of the most amiable and unblemished characters. Few were more beloved and admired for a uniform course of integrity, moderation, and benevolence; but he was discouraged. He studied the Bible, believed it in general to be the word of God; but his wisdom, his strong turn for reasoning, stood so in his way, that he could get no solid comfort from it. He felt the vanity of the schemes proposed by many men admired in the world as teachers of divinity; and he felt the vanity likewise of his own. He was also a minister, and had a sincere design of doing good.

He wished to reform the profligate, and comfort the afflicted by his preaching; but as he was not acquainted with that one kind of preaching which God owns to the edification of the hearers, he found he could do neither. A sense of disappointments of this kind distressed him. Finding in himself none of that peace which the Scripture speaks of, and none of the influence he hoped for attending his ministry, he was led sometimes to question the truth of the Scripture. 

We have a spiritual enemy always near, to press upon a mind in this desponding situation: nor am I surprised that he should then wish himself a Deist; since, if there were any hope for a sinner but by faith in the blood of Jesus, he had as much of his own goodness to depend upon as most I have known. As for the rest, if you could see nothing admirable and wonderful in the clearness, the dignity, the spirituality of his expressions, after the Lord revealed the Gospel to him, I can only say I am sorry for it. This I know, that some persons of sense, taste, learning, and reason, and far enough from my sentiments, have been greatly struck with them.

Faith - Spiritual Knowledge - Part 3

December 8, 1775

My Dear Friend,

...Your comment on the seventh to the Romans, latter part, contradicts my feelings. You are either of a different make and nature from me, or else you are not rightly apprised of your own state, if you do not find the apostle's complaint very suitable to yourself. I believe it applicable to the most holy Christian upon earth. But controversies of this kind are worn thread-bare. When you speak of the spiritual part of a natural man, it sounds to me like the living part of a dead man, or the seeing part of a blind man. Paul tells me that the natural man (whatever his spiritual part may be) can neither receive nor discern the things of God. What the apostle speaks of himself, Rom. vii. is no more, when rightly understood, than what he affirms of all who are partakers of a spiritual life, or who are true believers, Gal. V.

17. The carnal natural mind is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. When you subjoin, "Till it be set at liberty from the law of sin," you do not comment upon the text, but make an addition of your own, which the text will by no means bear. The carnal mind is enmity. An enemy may be reconciled: but enmity itself is incurable. This carnal mind, natural man, old man, flesh, for the expressions are all equivalent, and denote, and include, the heart of man as he is by nature, may be crucified, must be mortified, but cannot be sanctified. All that is good or gracious is the effect of a new creation, a supernatural principle, wrought in the heart by the Gospel of Christ, and the agency of His Spirit; and till that is effected, the to uyhlongggkk, the highest attainment, the finest qualifications in man, however they may exalt him in his own eyes, or recommend him to the notice of his fellow-worms, are but abomination in the sight of God, Luke xvi.15.

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The Gospel is calculated and designed to stain the pride of human glory. It is provided, not for the wise and the righteous, for those who think they have good dispositions and good works, to plead, but for the guilty, the helpless, the wretched, for those who are ready to perish; it fills the hungry with good things, but it sends the rich empty away. See Rev. iii. 17, 18.

You ask, If man can do nothing without an extraordinary impulse from on high, is he to sit still and careless? By no means: I am far from saying, Man can do nothing, though I believe he cannot open his own eyes, or give himself faith. I wish every man to abstain carefully from sinful company and sinful actions, to read the Bible, to pray to God for His heavenly teaching. For this waiting upon God he has a moral ability; and, if he persevere thus in seeking, the promise is sure, that he shall not seek in vain. But I would not have him mistake the means for the end; think himself good because he is preserved from gross vices and follies, or trust to his religious course of duties for acceptance, nor be satisfied till Christ be revealed in him, formed within him, dwell in his heart by faith, and till he can say, upon good grounds, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

 I need not tell you these are Scriptural expressions; I am persuaded, if they were not, they would be exploded by many as unintelligible jargon. True faith, my dear Sir, unites the soul to Christ, and thereby gives access to God, and fills it with a peace passing understanding, a hope, a joy unspeakable, and full of glory; teaches us that we are weak in ourselves, but enables us to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might to those who thus believe, Christ is precious-their beloved; they hear and know His voice; the very sound of His name gladdens their hearts, and He manifests Himself to them as He does not to the world. Thus the Scriptures speak, thus the first Christians experienced; and this is precisely the language which, in our days, is despised as enthusiasm and folly. 

For it is now as it was then; though these things are revealed to babes, and they are as sure of them as that they see the noon-day sun, they are hidden from the wise and prudent, till the Lord makes them willing to renounce their own wisdom, and to become fools, that they may be truly wise, I Cor. i. 18, 19; iii. 8; viii. 2. Attention to the education of children is an undoubted duty; and it is a mercy when it so far succeeds as to preserve them from gross wickedness; but it will not change the heart. They who receive Christ are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, John i. 13.

If a man professes to love the Lord Jesus, I am willing to believe him, if he does not give me proof to the contrary; but I am sure, at the same time, no one can love Him in the Scriptural sense, who does not know the need and the worth of a Saviour; in other words, who is not brought, as a ruined, helpless sinner, to live upon Him for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. They who love Him thus, will speak highly of Him, and acknowledge that He is their all in all. And they who thus love Him, and speak of Him, will get little thanks for their pains in such a world as this:- "All that live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution: the world that hated Him will hate them." 

And though it is possible, by His grace, to put to silence, in some measure, the ignorance of foolish men; and though His providence can protect His people, so that not a hair of their heads can be hurt, without His permission; yet the world will show their teeth, if they are not allowed to bite. The apostles were accounted babblers, and wV perikaJarmata tou kosmou egenhJhmen pantwn periyhma (we are become as the garbage of the world and the offscouring of all things, 1 Cor. 4:13). I need not point out to you the force of these expressions. We are no better than the apostles; nor have we reason to expect much better treatment, so far as we walk in their steps.

Faith - Spiritual Knowledge - Part 2

......You sent me a sermon upon the new birth, or regeneration, and you have several of mine on the same subject. I wish you to compare them with each other, and with the Scripture; and I pray God to show you wherein the difference consists, and on which side the truth lies.

When you desire me to reconcile God's being the author of sin with His justice, you show that you misunderstand the whole strain of my sentiments; for I am persuaded you would not misrepresent them. It is easy to charge harsh consequences, which I neither allow, nor, indeed, do they follow from my sentiments. God cannot be the author of sin in that sense you would fix upon me: but is it possible that, upon your plan, you find no difficulty in what the Scripture teaches us upon this subject? 

I conceive that those who were concerned in the death of Christ were very great sinners; and that, in nailing Him to the cross, they committed atrocious wickedness: yet, if the apostle may be believed, all this was according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, Acts ii. 28; and they did no more than what His hand and purpose had determined should be done, chap. iv. 28. And, you will observe, that this wicked act (wicked with respect to the perpetrators) was not only permitted, but foreordained in the strongest and most absolute sense of the word: the glory of God, and the salvation of men depended upon its being done, and just in that manner, and with all those circumstances, which actually took place; and yet Judas and the rest acted freely, and their wickedness was properly their own.

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Now, my friend, the arguments which satisfy you, that the Scripture does not present God as the author of this sin, in this appointment, will plead for me at the same time; and when you think you easily overcome me by asking, "Can God be the author of sin?" your imputation falls as directly upon the Word of God Himself. God is no more the author of sin, than the sun is the cause of ice; but it is in the nature of water to congeal into ice, when the sun's influence is suspended to a certain degree. So there is sin enough in the hearts of men to make the earth the very image of hell, and to prove that men are no better than incarnate devils were He to suspend His influence and restraint. Sometimes, and, in some instances, He is pleased to suspend it considerably; and, so far as He does, human nature quickly appears in its true colours. Objections of this kind have been repeated and refuted before either you or I were born; and the apostle evidently supposes they would be urged against His doctrine, when he obviates the question, Why doth He yet find fault? Who hath resisted His will? To which he gives no other answer than by referring it to God's sovereignty and the power which a potter has over the clay.

I think I have, in a former letter, made some reply to the charge of positiveness in my own opinion. I acknowledge that I am fallible; yet I must again lay claim to a certainty about the way of salvation. I am as sure of some things as of my own existence; I should be so, if there was no human creature upon earth but myself. However, my sentiments are confirmed by the suffrages of thousands who have lived before me, of many with whom I have personally conversed in different places and circumstances, unknown to each other; yet all have received the same views, because taught by the same Spirit. And I have, likewise, been greatly confirmed by the testimony of many with whom I have conversed in their dying hours.

 I have seen them rejoicing in the prospect of death, free from fears, breathing the air of immortality: heartily disclaiming their duties and performances acknowledging that their best actions were attended with evil sufficient to condemn them: renouncing every shadow of hope, but what they derived from the blood of Christ, as the sole cause of their acceptance; yet triumphing in Him over every enemy and fear, and as sure of Heaven as if they were already there. And such were the apostle's hopes, wholly founded on knowing whom He had believed, and his persuasion of His ability to keep that which he had committed unto Him. 

This is faith; a renouncing of every thing we are apt to call our own, and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness, and intercession of Jesus. However, I cannot communicate this my certainty to you; I only tell you there is such a thing, in hopes, if you do not think I willfully lie both to God and man, you will be earnest to seek it from Him, who bestowed it on me, and who will bestow it upon all who will sincerely apply to Him, and patiently wait upon Him for it.

I cannot but wonder, that while you profess to believe the depravity of human nature, you should speak of good qualities inherent in it. The word of God describes it as evil, only evil, and that continually. That there are such qualities as stoics and infidels call virtue, I allow. God has not left man destitute of such dispositions as are necessary to the peace of society; but I deny there is any moral goodness in them, unless they are founded in a supreme love to God, have His glory for their aim, and are produced by faith in Jesus Christ. A man may give all his goods to feed the poor, and his body to be burned, in zeal for the truth, and yet be a mere nothing, a tinkling cymbal, in the sight of Him who seeth, not as man seeth, but judgeth the heart. 

Many infidels and avowed enemies to the grace and Gospel of Christ, have made a fair show of what the world calls virtue, but Christian virtue is grace, the effect of a new nature and new life; and works thus wrought in God, are as different from the faint partial imitations of them which fallen nature is capable of producing, as a living man is from a statue. A statue may express the features and lineaments of the person whom it represents, but there is no life.