Almost Christian

There is a famous quote by puritan Richard Rogers, that goes: “I am so precise, because I serve a precise God.” I have often heard it argued, by both professing Calvinists and non-calvinists alike, that the puritans, the westminster divines, if taken as literally as the neo-puritans take their works today, is too strict, too rigid, it doesn’t tie in with their idea of a gracious and merciful God to have such high standards for holiness, and such high requirements for the Christian life, for them to have the mark, stamp and seal of being true Christians, the seal given by having the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, who enables us to perform with delight and a cheerful heart, what we would otherwise find a burden, and still feel like those of the Old Testament under the yoke or burden of the law, because without the Spirit of God to enable us to meet those high standards and holy requirements of the Christian life, we are left in exactly the same position as those of the Old Testament, never being justified before God, so never given the grace to perform what God requires of us.
God does not leave His elect people, unable to fulfil his requirements and having to do it in their own strength. That falls back to exactly the Old Testament way, because on our own strength we never will live up to the Christian calling or have a hope of entering heaven; only on the strength of Christ’s imputed righteousness, and the work of a thorough conversion by the Spirit of God, working in us, and enabling and wiling us to do God’s will, to obey his moral law to live up to His standard, in our own strength or power we are left hopeless, so the only reserve left to us in that situation is to lower God’s standard to meet our abilities of our own strength, rather than striving after seeking God with all our heart and not giving up knocking at the door till He gives us the grace we need to not have to lower his standard because it is too precise, too strict, for us to ever have a hope of every living a holy life, and the righteous standard, we need to lower God’s standard so our consciences can sleep, because if we lower the standard we may at least pass some semblance of living a holy or righteous life and the Biblical standard.
God is a God of grace and mercy, but the gait is narrow and few will enter in, because his standard is much higher than many professing believers ever believe or will adhere to or even try to seek out the truth for themselves. Those who think that God has lowered his standard on the account of the love of Christ from the Old Covenant to the new, do not know the character of God at all well. He is a God who stands on the small things as well as the big. As Richard Rogers so aptly put it, I am so precise because I serve a precise God.
Now don’t mistake this for perfectionism, as even the best of Christians fall far short of ever being anywhere near perfect, or keeping the law perfectly. But it is for those who strive after doing so, and recognize the standard and just how high God’s standard is, but in our human frailty still mess up and get it wrong, and are disobedient at times, those are the sins that Christ’s blood was shed, for His elect people, because God knew that no mater how hard the most earnest of Christians strive to do HIs will and be obedient children, we will never be perfect in this life, but they do recognize the standard nonetheless and seek and strive after it, but imperfectly. We need Christ’s blood, to cover our imperfections.

Again, like a post last week, this is not a blog post about the fourth commandment, but again I will use it as an example. If setting the whole day aside for religious duties and sanctifying the day completely to God, denying ourselves our livings, (paid labour), our recreations, or doing the things we do on the other six days for our own pleasure and delight, is burdensome, wearisome, and something you say is not a requirement of God, that it is too strict, too precise, we are back again to lowering the standard so that our consciences may sleep, and we may make some semblance of respectability among like-minded Christians. Yet if that is the case, since Heaven is an everlasting Sabbath, how do you think anyone who finds setting one day aside per week for the performance of devotions and praise and religious duties, aside from the works of necessity or mercy, will belong or fit in or enjoy an everlasting Sabbath in heaven, when one has so defiled and despised the Sabbath day in this world?
If God lowers his standard to the standard that would suit many people, then God would be a sinner, his word would be a lie, and there would be no standard of righteousness to meet. But there is.
If you find keeping the whole of the Lord’s Day set aside for religious dutie burdensome, then why would you want to even go to Heaven for the everlasting Sabbath when it is so distasteful to you here? It makes no sense.
And yes, people plead ignorance on the fourth commandment because it is not a clear, thou shalt not do this or that, or thou shalt do this or that command, but then that reflects sloth and lack of diligence on their part; we need to know the mind of God, as much as we can by being diligent in the Word of God. Ignorance will never be an excuse that justifies oneself before God that he gives leave to be “Okay” for the Christian to remain ignorant about the fourth commandment or any other aspect of import in the Christian life.

Joseph Alleine wrote on ignorance:

(Hos. 4:6). O how many poor souls does this sin kill in the dark, while they think verily they have good hearts, and are all set for heaven. This is the murderer that dispatches thousands in a silent manner, when they suspect nothing, and do not see the hand that destroys them. You shall find, whatever excuses you make for ignorance, that it is a soul ruining evil (Isa. 27:11; 2 Thess 1:8; 2 Cor 4:3). Ah, would it not have grieved a man’s heart to see that dreadful spectacle when the poor Protestants were shut up in a barn, and a butcher came, with his hands warmed in human blood, and led them one by one, blindfold, to a block where he slew them one after another by scores, in cold blood? But how much more should your hearts bleed to think of the hundreds that ignorance destroys in secret and leads blindfold to the block. Beware that this is not your case. Make no plea for ignorance; if you spare that sin, know that it will not spare you; and would a man keep a murderer in his bosom?

You see if you have been a Christian many a year, and are still pleading ignorance over the fourth commandment or any other important matters of Scripture, then you have real cause to doubt your conversion, because there is no excuse; ignorance really is a choice; but when ignorance reigns in the heart about what God has left us to tell us how he wants us to live, His standard for the Christian, His Holy Word, it can only be because we chose to spend our time on other things, of much less importance, to spend our time on trvials because they were more pleasing to our flesh than spending the time it takes to seek out what God says, about this subject or that subject, until we are sure in our mind, and have been taught by the Holy Ghost Himself straight out of the pages of Scripture, and have been like the Bereans and searched the Scriptures, not taken what Calvin said, as the last word, or our pastor or learned friends, only what God teaches us Himself by our diligent study of the Bible is living real faith, anything else is the same thing as the implicit faith of the papists, because this man or that man or woman says so we believe it, without knowing what God says about it HImself. Unless our beliefs be firm and sure, and we are convicted that this is what GOD HIMSELF teaches, then we will remain a loose canon who can easily be talked out of such and such a belief by someone else as equally learned as the first person who talked us into the belief in the first place. The patristic fathers, our learned friends are all good helps and aids for our study, but they should never be the final authority, the only final authority should be an appeal to Scripture and what does God say.
Every soul is heaven born, though we all enter this world at enmity with God, we are God’s prized creation for we alone bear his image in us; Yet we live so often in ignorance of what God says and of lowering His standard, to our level, rather than us upping our game to Biblical Christianity and seeking him with all our hearts souls and minds; and what a travesty and tragedy to see the lords of this lower world preferring the husks in the sty like the prodigal, rather than feeding on manna from heaven.
Does anyone believe God left us His written word, and preserved it through all the persecutions of the past, and brought the greatest event since the Apostolic age about in the Protestant Reformation to set it free again, for us to remain ignorant of what He says in it?
Yes, I agree, the Westminster divines, and Calvin’s brand of Calvinism, which is often not the same Calvinism we frequently see today, and the puritans did have strict, precise standards, and it was exactly as Richard Rogers says, that he was so precise, because he served a precise God. Like the true neo-puritans of today, they recognized just what the standard of righteousness and holiness is for us required by God, and did not try to lower it, to meet their humanity, but upped their game as they matured in their faith, to rise higher and higher though still imperfectly, but knowing it was the only rule for righteousness and the only standard acceptable to God.
I shall close this blog post with another quote by Joseph Alleine, on something that he heads as: “A secret Enmity against the strictness of religion.”

Many moral persons, punctilious in their formal devotions, have yet a bitter enmity against strictness and zeal and hate the life and power of religion. They do not like this forwardness, nor that men should make such a stir in religion. They condemn the strictness of religion as singularity, indiscretion, and intemperate zeal, and with them a zealous preacher or fervent Christian is but a wild enthusiast. These men do not love holiness as holiness (for then they would love the height of holiness) and are therefore undoubtedly rotten at heart, whatever good opinion they have of themselves.
—Joseph Alleine

And was not as described like many of the Reformed it has been my dark providence to know who come under the label of the Frozen chosen.  If those folks I Have known, are truly chosen, then they will not remain frozen, if they do, however,  then I fear for their eternal future.

That blog post created some controversy, though I also had some positive feedback about it away from this blog site itself, but it was not my declaration that all Calvinist’s are the frozen chosen, in fact, it was my contention that to be so, is the most uncalvinistic and even more, unchristian outlook one can have. One filled with self and not with God.

Calvin himself, the man of whom Calvinists take their name, though not their faith, but he was the man who after a thousand years of popish darkness set forth the true religion once again, by his immaculate writings that could have only come from the mind of a genius.  From his first edition of the Institutes in 1536, he never varied  from those doctrines, even though he was a young convert at the time.  By the time the last edition was published however, in 1559, he had expanded on them enormously, because his first edition was only six chapters, and he wrote it for the french refugees and Protestants of France as a simple manual or summary of Christian doctrine.  His last edition however,  was more of an introduction to Scripture for any student of God, and particularly of pastors. Since his final edition has over 7,000 Scripture references in it, it can be truly said it is an introduction to Scripture and Biblical doctrine.

I plan to start a series on Calvin, to again debunk many of the myths, fables, and in some cases downright malicious lies that have existed and been handed down the centuries about him, as a monster or the dictator of Geneva.  There is more than ample proof to prove these literary pieces that started the ball rolling in the time of Calvin was nothing more than malicious propaganda and a fulfilling of Isa.:5:20

But going back to my post on Calvinist’s should not be the frozen chosen, the very point of that post is that to be a Calvinist and yet act like the frozen chosen towards the brethren, is an oxymoron. And those who do, shame the name of Calvinism, and it’s noble heritage and this short quote by B.B. Warfield shows how the man himself of who Calvinist’s take their name from was nothing like that.  I have had the dark providence to know many who were not one iota like Calvin, but  I have the good providence in more recent times, to have new Calvinist friends, among many are not like those I formerly knew.

Calvin was a man of letters, no one can dispute that. HIstory bears it out and the works he has left us, about which only half thus far have been translated into English.  But much of his writing comprised of letter writing. The ones that have remained, fill four full volumes of works, and its a sure dunk that many didn’t stand the test of time and got lost. Most of the Reformation itself, and the very real spiritual war that was going on, was conducted by letter.  People who criticize the use of email don’t seem to know their history very well,  as email is just another form of letter, and in those days when it could take a whole year for a single letter to arrive somewhere, it seems to me with the technological tools we have today, we should also be able to conduct our own reformation with much more power because we are not in those primitive times.

B.B Warfield writes:

Of one other product of his literary activity, however,  a special word seems demanded. Calvin was the great letter-writer of the Reformation age. About four thousand of his letters have come down to us, some of them almost of the dimensions of treatises, many of them practically theological tractates, but many of them also of the most intimate character in which he pours out his heart. In these letters we see the real Calvin, the man of profound religious convictions and rich religious life, of high purpose and noble strenuousness, of full and freely flowing human affections and sympathies. In them he rebukes rulers and instructs statesmen, and strengthens and comforts saints. Never a perplexed pastor but has from him a word of encouragement and counsel; never a martyr but has from him a word of heartening and consolation. Perhaps no friend ever more affectionately leaned on his friends; certainly no friend ever gave himself so ungrudgingly to his friends. Had he written these letters alone, Calvin would take his place among the great Christians and the great Christian leaders of the world.
Benjamin B. Warfield Calvin and Calvinism Vol 5 of the Works of B.B. Warfield.

You see Calvin was not the frozen chosen, he knew how to be a friend to those in need. And he accomplished his labours not only in primitive times, but in the worst of circumstances that anyone could have.  And anyone claiming to be a Calvinist who acts like the frozen chosen is an oxymoron. To be the frozen chosen is to be an antinomian, because if you do not love one’s neighbour as oneself, then the whole of the law is broken, and the whole sum of the law, and one’s love to God questionable. As only when we love God aright, will we also love our fellow man aright also.

This is a series that will be continued on Calvin uncovered.

If any reader has ever read, Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of sinners, one of the most annoying things about it, is that you are never sure when he is converted. He seems to go through several conversion experienes, and each one seemed to lead him a little more on the pathway to heaven, but most people do agree of the occassion he spoke of in that autobiography of what was the defining moment of conversion. However, this post is not about Bunyan, so I am not going to quote what seems to have been his defining moment in conversion.
But I also went through a similar path. Of thinking myself converted, wanting to do the right thing, yet always, always failing dismally. I never felt saved, though feelings are never to be trusted wholly. But I confided from the start to my closest friend I didn’t believe I had been converted, even though I had made two professions already by that time at different times. I went through torment and anguish in this spiritual battle, akin to both that of Bunyan and Martin Luther, and it wasn’t a few weeks or months, but six long, hard painful years. The hardest ever of my life. And the last time I made a profession, which would be around 18 months ago, in hindsight I’m still not sure that was my defining moment, but like Bunyan each one led me further on the path to heaven, and I know that sometime in the last 18 months it happened for real. Because the difference I found, in the worst of circumstances and a belly full of afflictions, my perceptions to cope with it, and rise above it in faith, what I always wanted to do, but never could, was suddenly there. YOu cannot be in this much affliction and fake it. But the difference was, when this started to happen, is the power of godliness that Scripture speaks of.

The chains fell off and at once I
was like Bunyan’s Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress:

What a fool I have been, to lie like this in a stinking dungeon, when I could have just as well walked free. In my chest pocket I have a key called Promise that will, I am thoroughly persuaded, open any lock in Doubting-Castle.” “Then,” said Hopeful, “that is good news. My good brother, do immediately take it out of your chest pocket and try it.” Then Christian took the key from his chest and began to try the lock of the dungeon door; and as he turned the key, the bolt unlocked and the door flew open with ease, so that Christian and hopeful immediately came out.—John Bunyan

Bunyan spoke of the often painful experience of conversion in his excellency of a broken heart, And he spoke from experience and it is one I can so relate with. That kind of torment and angush may not be common to everone’s conversion experience but it is to some.

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think . . . . It is wounding work, of course, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving. . . . Where there is grafting there is a cutting, the scion must be let in with a wound; to stick it on to the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back, or there will be no sap from root to branch, and this I say, must be done by a wound. —John Bunyan

Faith, and expeirmental religion, is not just a word its a whole man change and all at once. Yes, someone can be a babe in Christ, and yet the whole man is still changed, and a new convert there most pleasing hours will be spent on meditating on the lovliness of Christ and our best endeavours to please him by being obedient children, will be driving us on to grow in grace and holiness and the power of godliness. Except for it was somewhere in the last 18 months I cannot say when, but I know the change took place. So that my sufferings, and the hauntings of a painful most incredible past, don’t control me, or bring out behavour in me that does not belong in the life of a Christian. The power of godliness is real, and alive, and you cannot fake it in this much affliction, tho that may not be true for most average folks, and even so I still lack assurance, and yet when I read things that is speaking of examining our own hearts, I don’t just feel the checklist kind of thing like I used to do, that never be so blatant for me to say I didn’t pass the questions, there was room for doubt, now even though I am a poor doubting Christian in many respects, I know by every bit of my fibre, that the change God has wrought in me was supenatural and only by the power of godliness could I now rise above this furnace that is seven times hotter to praise God even when in the hottest part of it. Sometimes, despite how ill I am, and how alone in that awful amout of illness, I spend hours thinking about God’s providence and the change he has wrought in me and how he did it. I don’t do it to feel pleased about myself, but his love is so manifest in it, so wondrous to me how he did it, in such extraordinary circumstances, when I did not have the aids, benefits and encouragments or even teaching as other folks get, and with cognitive impairment to boot, I marvel at his works at how wondrous they are, and how nothing can stop him from make those he chose from before the foundation of the world his blessed childen; no hindrances, obstacles, stumbling blocks, or the plagues of our own hearts will stop him, and he will go to extraordinary or unusual means to make this happen if ordinary means are not available. Because God is all powerful and nothing can thwart hsi will. When I think about where I’ve been, what I’ve seen, and lived through, and what a life of terrible affliction I am still left with and yet feel so blessed and so content despite it, that it can only be the power of godliness and I rejoice in my Lord for making it so. I would live a hundred years in this condition if He willed me to, rather than the last six preceding it, where in temporal terms I was actually richer, because God alone is my portion and what a wondrous God he is, to stoop so low to someone like me; the one the world rejected from the day I was born. It makes me weep, but not with sadness, but at the love of a perfect Saviour, for someone who was so rebellious and denied his goodness for so long, because of my afflictons, it makes me weep, that he stooped so low, despite myself. And when the going gets tough, I remember how but for amazing grace, I could be in hell now. Or tomorrow or next week, and remember the wickedness of my own heart and how in such utter torment, I hurt the people I loved most of all. Yes I am forgiven, but I will never forget. Because what such affliction in the middle of the spiritual anguish of never quite closing with Christ had never been part of my personality before, and I loathe what came out of my heart, towards the people who were kindest to me, and least deserving of it. I think its very true that when we are hurting, we really do hurt the ones we love, not because we get pleasure out of it, but because we don’t know how not to.
I was on a roundabout that I couldn’t get off and so wanted it to stop, but I didn’t know how to make it stop, until the power of godliness was put in me by God giving me a through conversion. And yes, this life can be hard, and awefully lonely, but I never weep for my afflictions in any longer without also weeping for my sins.
I had Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures to my student’s come the weekend, and he wrote this:

People go to their place of worship and sit down comfortably and think they must be Christians, when all the time all that their religion consists in, is listening to an orator, having their ears tickled with music, and perhaps their eyes amused with graceful actions and fashionable manners; the whole being no better than what they hear and see at the opera.–not so good, perhaps, in point of aesthetic beauty, and not an atom more spiritual. Thousands are congratulating themselves, and even blessing God that they are devout worshippers, when a the same time they are living in an unregenerate Christless state, having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. He who presides over a system which aims at nothing better than formalism, is far more a servant of the devil than a minister of God.
—Charles Spurgeon

Though aimed at ministers it applies to all professors of Christ. People often make rash judgements over another’s soul on the silliest pretext, yet, sometimes judgements can be made and should be made, righteous judgments. If someone has Christ, they will have the power of godliness. They will be living to serve God and not themselves, and following the commandments he gives us in the moral law to stay within his will and keep his favour. What child likes to displease or be out of favour with a parent? If the power of godliness is not there, and you have someone who practices antinomianism, because they do not have the power of godliness to follow the commands of God required of his chosen people, there is a time for either thinking their profession is in vain, or stepping back and thinking it likely they be unsaved despite their profession, but be in wait and see mode, to see if they grow in godliness and if the power of godliness comes through in their lives. If it doesn’t, then there is little reason or rationale to consider them true believers. The power of godliness is not empty or weak or vain. It’s power is saving, its power is changing, and its a power that the believer will be consumed by, even though we all have our dry seasons or seasons of lethargy.
Let us pray we have the power of godliness and do as much as lies in us, to hold onto it, by caring for our souls as carefully as we should, and not being reckless, as often it just takes one small step out of the right way, for you to find yourself completely out of the way. Let us pray for God to keep us, and to give us the power to do, all we need to do, to be true servants of his, truly joined to him, and not only by a profession, without that power of godliness ruling our lives and God and the authority of Scripture being our first and last measure of eveyrthing in life.

Matthew Henry writes this on 2 Peter 1:3

1. An account of the way and means whereby grace and peace are multiplied–it is through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ; this acknowledging or believing in the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, is the great improvement of spiritual life, or it could not be the way to life eternal, Joh 17:3.

2. The ground of the apostle’s faith in asking, and of the Christian’s hope in expecting, the increase of grace. What we have already received should encourage us to ask for more; he who has begun the work of grace will perfect it. Observe, (1.) The fountain of all spiritual blessings is the divine power of Jesus Christ, who could not discharge all the office of Mediator, unless he was God as well as man. (2.) All things that have any relation to, and influence upon, the true spiritual life, the life and power of godliness, are from Jesus Christ; in him all fulness dwells, and it is from him that we receive, and grace for grace (Joh 1:16), even all that is necessary for the preserving, improving, and perfecting of grace and peace, which, according to some expositors, are called here in 2Pe 1:3 godliness and life. (3.) Knowledge of God, and faith in him, are the channel whereby all spiritual supports and comforts are conveyed to us; but then we must own and acknowledge God as the author of our effectual calling, for so he is here described: Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Observe here, The design of God in calling or converting men is to bring them to glory and virtue, that is, peace and grace, as some understand it; but many prefer the marginal rendering, by glory and virtue; and so we have effectual calling set forth as the work of the glory and virtue, or the glorious power, of God, which is described Eph 1:19. It is the glory of God’s power to convert sinners; this is the power and glory of God which are seen and experienced in his sanctuary (Ps 63:2); this power or virtue is to be extolled by all that are called out of darkness into marvellous light, 1Pe 2:9. (4.) In the 2Pe 1:4 the apostle goes on to encourage their faith and hope in looking for an increase of grace and peace, because the same glory and virtue are employed and evidenced in giving the promises of the gospel that are exercised in our effectual calling. Observe, [1.] The good things which the promises make over are exceedingly great. Pardon of sin is one of the blessings here intended; how great this is all who know any thing of the power of God’s anger will readily confess, and this is one of those promised favours in bestowing whereof the power of the Lord is great, Nu 14:17. To pardon sins that are numerous and heinous (every one of which deserves God’s wrath and curse, and that for ever) is a wonderful thing, and is so called, Ps 119:18. [2.] The promised blessings of the gospel are very precious; as the great promise of the Old Testament was the Seed of the woman, the Messiah (Heb 11:39), so the great promise of the New Testament is the Holy Ghost (Lu 24:49), and how precious must the enlivening, enlightening, sanctifying Spirit be! [3.] Those who receive the promises of the gospel partake of the divine nature. They are renewed in the spirit of their mind, after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; their hearts are set for God and his service; they have a divine temper and disposition of soul; though the law is the ministration of death, and the letter killeth, yet the gospel is the ministration of life, and the Spirit quickeneth those who are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. [4.] Those in whom the Spirit works the divine nature are freed from the bondage of corruption. Those who are, by the Spirit of grace, renewed in the spirit of their mind, are translated into the liberty of the children of God; for it is the world in which corruption reigns. Those who are not of the Father, but of the world, are under the power of sin; the world lies in wickedness, 1Jo 5:19. And the dominion that sin has in the men of the world is through lust; their desires are to it, and therefore it rules over them. The dominion that sin has over us is according to the delight we have in it. MHWBC

I am posting these quotes tonite, as a forerunner to a post I hope to get to in the coming week, looking at instances of this in Scripture.  I have lots of pet-peeves, as any long-term regular readers may know. One of them is folks who speak nice sounding words, yet the words are empty, shallow, meaningless.  I am not saying all folks who do this, are hypocrites before God, but people who do so, when their word sare empty, shallow, meaningles,s, or they say these nice sounding words while harbouring hate or malice in their hearats and are quite contrary to what they are actually thinking, at the very best, lack integrity I believe; and yet, because they sound “nice” they keep a good opinon of themselves by others.  And yet people who are outspoken for the truth, and the truth is not always pleasant and doesn’t always tickle the ears, but it is at least honest, will often be ill-thought of and juidged because of it. It is a type of hypocrsiy, to say one thing, while thiking another thing quite opposite. But the point of the quotes below, is whether it in merely the above, or whether its secret sins,  or those within the church who are enemies of Christ yet put on a fair show of profession,  God knows the secrets of all our hearts, thoughts and motives.  And while an outward  show may get us well thought of by men, God is not impressed one iota. It’s more a case of winning the world and losing one’s own soul as the cost. But God knows everything. And he is always with us, closer than often time we have in mind.  His omniscience makes for that.  But the real meat of what I want to say, from a Biblical perspective will follow (DV) during the week. This quote by Wilhelmus â Brakel from The Christian’s Reasonable Service is food for thuoght in advance of that.

This quote forst  by Ezekiel Hopkins says why I believe false professors are such a plague upon the church.

The wound religion receives from hypocrites is far more dangerous and incurable than that inflicted on it by the open and scandalous sinner. For religion is never brought into question by the enormous vices of an infamous person; all see and all abhor his sin. But when a man shall have his mouth full of piety and his hands full of wickedness, when he shall speak Scripture and live devilish, profess strictly and walk loosely, this lays a grievous stumbling–block in the way of others; and tempts them to think that all religion is but mockery, and that the professors of it are but hypocrites.
EZEKIEL HOPKINS

Since God’s omniscience extends to past, present, and future, and all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do, how the ungodly ought to tremble! For,

(1) God perceives and knows your heart and its spiritual frame. He knows what is concealed in it as well as what can issue forth from it. He knows your thoughts, vain imaginations, and contemplation upon both habitual and spontaneous sins. He is cognizant of the motives of all your actions—whether it is your objective to end in yourself, to get your own way, or to harm your neighbor. He is aware of the hatred and contempt you foster for your neighbor, your wrathful emotions, as well as your envy regarding your neighbor’s prosperity. In sum, God truly perceives all that transpires in your heart even though you may neither discern it nor be conscious of it.

(2) God is cognizant of your immoral inclinations, adulterous eyes, licentious words, secret promiscuity, fornication, immoral conduct, as well as all the persons with whom you have engaged in such activity.

(3) God is cognizant of your inequitable behavior, deceptive business practices, trickery whereby you seek to make the belongings of your neighbor your own, dishonest billing practices, idleness, as well as all your other acts of thievery.

(4) God is cognizant of your gossiping, slandering of your neighbor, defamation of his character, and the delight you have in hearing and speaking about these things.

(5) He is cognizant of your pride, ostentatious behavior, promenading in front of the mirror, and how self–satisfied you are.

(6) The Lord is cognizant of your dancing and revelling, your gambling and card–playing.

(7) He is cognizant of your hypocrisy within as well as outside of the realm of religion.

Be aware that,

(1) God records all the aforementioned much more accurately than if someone were to be continually in your presence recording with pen and ink all your thoughts, words, and deeds, along with the location, day, month, and hour when they occurred. As there is a book of remembrance before God’s countenance on behalf of His elect (Mal. 3:16), there is likewise a book before the Lord’s countenance in which the guilt of the ungodly is recorded. How conscious you ought to be of this!

(2) Be aware that the books will once be opened and you will be judged according to all that is recorded in them (Rev. 20:12). Be assured that the Lord will set all things in order before your eyes (Ps. 50:21).

(3) Consider it as an utmost certainty that God, the righteous Judge of heaven and earth who by no means will clear the guilty and whose judgment is according to truth, will punish you for all your sins (Ps. 7:12-13; 50:21). Not only will He pronounce the curse upon you with which He threatens transgressors of the law and say to you in the last day, “Depart from Me, ye cursed” (Mat. 25:41), but He will also assign you eternally to the lake of fire which burns with sulfur and brimstone if you do not make haste to repent. You are presently not concerned whether God sees you, as long as people do not see you, but how frightful it will be for you when the Lord Jesus shall appear as Judge and will summon you before His judgment seat, examining and reexamining you with His eyes which will be as flames of fire! How dreadful will that day be! “But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?” (Mal. 3:2); “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Mal. 4:1).

Therefore, repent before it is too late. May you presently fear the all–seeing eye of God, so that in that day you will not be terrified before His flaming eyes
Wilhelmus â Brakel.

And the teachers of it, such as Joel Osteen and other seducers of his kind, what the Bible often refers to as lying spirits.  In John Bunyan’s classic allegory of the Christian life, his chapter which features Mr. Byends, describes what a false gospel the prosperity gospel, which more popular than ever in our day seems to be.  And yet, I have known some folks who would verbally speak against the prosperity gospel, while also clinging to and behaving in ohter ways like Mr. Byends. Of going so far, but not the whole way. Of being willing to do this what God commands and not that what God commands. And who would call other folks who though very imperfectly, and with all the flaws of sinful mankind and every infirmity, try to go the whole way, believing half-measures doesn’t do, too strict just like Mr. Byends branded Christian and hopeful.

And what method does Bunyan use to expose the deceit of the prosperity gospel?:

Mr Byends question:

Suppose a man, a minister ,a tradesman or such should see before him the favourable possibility of getting good things from this life. And suppose there is no way he can obtain them without at least in appearance becoming extraordinarily zealous in the points of religion with which he has no experience. May he not use this means to attain his end and yet remain a perfectly honest man?

Christian’s Answer:

Even a babe in religion may answer ten thousand such questions. If it’s unlawful to follow Christ to obtain loaves, as shown in John six, how much more, how much more abominable is it to make of Him and religion a stalking-horse to get and enjoy the world? Nor do we find anyone but heathen, hypocrites, devils and sorcerers who hold this opinion.

Those names are what Bunyan is calling Joel Osteen and other teachers of the prosperity gospel, and even more sadly, those who buy into it and have been seduced by lying spirits.

God knows if we are sincere in our hearts towards him; if we be hypocrites it maybe indiscernble to those we share fellowship with, but God knows.  And if that be the case it is not doing us one iota of good, and maybe sealing our eternal damnation. When it comes to men and each other, we also can often tell when people are insincere towards us; actions always speak louder than words. We can also often tell if we are being flattered falsely with no depth or sincerity behind the words.  Sometimes cirumstances make it obvious; an acquaintance of such briefness and little time speaking if someone tells you what a wonderful person you are, they cannot have that knowledge in any shape or form, so it is obvious there words lack depth and is false flattery.  To have either a high or low opinion of anyone, we need to at least have some sustained acquaintance with them.   Other ways can be someone suddenly praising you, or being nice to you, who has made it plain till just recently they couldn’t stand the sight of you. Their motives can range and be wide, but whether towards God or each other, it all boils down to hypocrisy and insincerity.  I don’t know about you, but I find insincerity in the above kinds of ways, (and other ways too) well lets just say it is one of my major pet peeves.   I have made gaff after gaff at times in relationships, done the wrong thing, hurt others and also hurt myself by it. Yet, it was a case of the opposite of the above, that I will always call anything as I see it, to a persons face, and certainly won’t  speak nice or pleasant sounding words to their face while harbouring resentment, hurt or malice towards them secretly. Because that to me would compound the things I feel by being insincere, its just one sin upon another.  People often do not like you speaking your mind, you often appear worse than those who speak nice words without any depth, but if you do deal plainly and honestly with folks. then everyone knows where they stand, and are not on tenterhooks for suddenly being stabbed in the back or betrayed. Yet if we speak pleasing sounding words to one another, and flatter one another falsely, we look good to onlookers, yet if we do it when there is no depth or sincerity to the words, to my mind that is just dishonest and lacking integrity.
Let us strive to be like Job, as Joseph Caryl wrote of him:

Job was a simple man, (not simple as put for weak and foolish, but simple is put for plain-hearted; one that is not a double-minded man). Job was a simple minded man, or a single minded man, one that had not a heart and a heart, he was not a compound, speaking one thing, meaning another, he meant what he spake, and he would speak his mind. So that to be a perfect man, is to be a plain man, one whose heart you may know by his tongue, and read the mans spirit in his actions. Some are such jugglers, that you can see little of their spirits in their lives, you can learn but little of their minds by their words;

How we deal with people over a long period time leaves lasting impressions. The Christian i respect the most, love more than any other mortal, who for sake of privacy I shall merely refer to analogically as Lady Erskine, (that is not her name of course) held her heart in her hand, and it left a lasting impression on me, made a big impression upon me, and her integrity, when I had witnessed so much unchrist like behavour and experienced hurt after hurt by other Christians of my acquaintance in my manifold afflictions, made an impression that kept me listening, where the other witnesses had been such bad witnesses, to know one Christian who exactly fit the Biblical description of such, and dealt honestly with folks, including me and with integrity, kept me listening where at the time because of the poor witness and the afflictions I had been left to by unbiblical behaving Christians, if not for her witness I may have given up before I was saved. God uses the instruments that he will. But, I have seen her also be ill thought of, because she doesn’t speak nice words while harbouring anger or other things in her heart about something that may have happened with someone else. As like Job she said what she meant and meant what she said, and I think I am likewise in that respect. And at times I too get ill thought of, or look the “bad guy” because people may witness it, as I don’t say nice things publically while saying differntly privately, that is being double midned and the hypocrisy and insincerity that I speak of, yet because you try to deal with integrity with folks, either for good or ill, you do end up looking the “bad guy” which probably says a lot about how we value the wrong things. Peace and harmony between the brethren is sweet, and sweet fellowship is awesome. But to have that by only speaking insincere words, is a false peace that will often come back to bite you. Peace is good, but not at the cost of truth.
As William Secker wrote:

Good words without the heart are but flattery; and good works without the heart are but hypocrisy. Though God pities stumbling Israelites, yet he punishes halting hypocrites.
It is reported of Bishop Cramner, that after his flesh and bones were consumed in the flames, his heart was found whole. A gracious man is clothed with sincerityin the midst of his infirmities.

Let us all strive to be like Job and dealing with God, without hypocrisy and with sincerity; and dealing with each other, in an upright and sincere fashion. Let our yes be yes, and our nay be nay. But not let us utter false nicities to each other, to win applause for ourselves or to win over someone in that kind of under-handed double-minded way. It can and will only end in tears if we do. Either we will win them over, and one day soon, the things we harbour in our hearts secretly against them, will implode upon the relationship and one or the other or both will feel or be betrayed, because one of you believed what the other person said was really what they thought. Or we will do our own souls harm, by not being honest and dealing with integrity with people; and if we will do that with people of our acquaintance, friends, family, brethren etc, can we be sure we are not doing the same with God and are full of hypocrisy as far as our professions go there too?
William Secker again:

How ill fair-faced, gilded professors appear, when they shall be found no better than hell’s freeholder’s? How will they appear, when the painted sepulchre shall be opened, and the dead men’s bones disclosed? They will not be judged by the whiteness of their hands, but by the blackness of their consciences. The black hand must then part with its white glove. That solemn day will be too critical for the hypocritical. all those who now colour for shew, will then be shew in their own colours.

Scripture tells us to number our days and to redeem the time profitably. Dealing falsely with God, and/or with men is neither of those things. We are just acting a part in a play in the one, or other or both. Yet God knows right now, if our hearts be sincere towards him or not. We cannot hide our most secret thought from God or the inmost workings of our heart. As our brethren may gather around us, praising us and encouraging us in the faith, I wonder how God views such spectacles of display and how it may have brought the hearts of sincere professors off their own lives of faith, toi waste time on someone who is a wolf among the sheep.
While there is life there is hope. It is one of the reasons that self-examination is such a profitable means. Because if we believe we are acting the part, and do not have true faith and are in fact hypocrites, there is still time to turn off this road and get onto the highway of holiness, and our professions be sound and pleasing to God, and we are not draining the resources of the church by them wasting energy, time, money, on people they believe to be brethren, yet are the wolves amongst us. We do and can often easily fool each other in this way. God is not fooled in the least though. And when we deal with each other, in a way that lacks sincerity or integrity, often times that is as obvious to each other, as the former is to God. Let these things not be laid to our charge on the day we finally stand before the Judgment seat of God.

Reading Archbishop James Usher’s Body of Divinity, he writes thus as regards Original Sin.

Q: Is not the substance of the soul corrupted by this sin?

A: No: But the faculties only depraved and deprived of Original Holiness. For first, the Soul should otherwise be mortal and corruptible. Secondly: Our Saviour took our nature on him without this Corruption.

Q: To come then to the special Corruptions of the Five Faculties of the Soul: show first, how this sin is discerned in the understanding.

A: The mind of man is become subject to, First, Darkness, Blindness in heavenly matters, and ignorance of God and his will, and of his creatures, 1 Cor. 2:1. Eph. 4:17, 18, 19. Secondly incapableness, Unableness and Unwillingness to learn, though a man be taught, Rom8:7; Luke 24 45. Thirdly, unbelief and doubting of the Truth of God taught and conceived by us. Fourthly: Vanity, Falsehood and Error, to the embracing whereof, Man’s nature hath great proneness, Isa. 44:20; Jer. 4:22; Prov. 14:12 &16:25. [pp. 129 of James Usher's Body of Divinity]

What struck me as I was reading this section of the aforementioned book, is how it is speaking of man in his natural, sinful estate, sons of Baal, which we all start out as as we enter in this world, but actually how much of the visible church of folks I have known it would also describe! None of us have perfect sight and vision to know all things. If we had a million lives of each a million years long, we would still never unfold all the mysteries of God. We do not have the capability. Even the best of Christians are left with unbelief, especially it can come to the fore more, during testing times, trials of afflictions. But those are natural infirmities, for which Christ’s blood cleanses us from. But digging into a little more of it: Ignorance of God and his will. How much of the church in our age, is filled with antinomianism? How much of the visible church believes, that Christ’s blood paid for all or any sin, and that we are no longer under law, but under grace, so they do the opposite of to which Paul says, of letting sin abound, because they believe grace will abound if they do, and its not of their concernment or any worry to them. To repeat Paul’s statement about that. May it never be! Christ’s blood was shed for those of his people who through natural infirmity, or even a time of backsliding if they fall into sin, and YET, return unto him, and become obedient children of him again, but not for the error and mistaken notion, that pleasing ourselves so that grace may abound, will ever happen or has one shred of basis in Scripture. It’s sad that the church has fallen so far. It is even sadder when one thinks it is the majority. As while many of these people may be learned in what the Bible says and the ways of God, and will do good unto others by their learning, though it is often the case when that be so, that they do others more good in this life by it, than they will themselves in the next. Yet, on the other hand, you have the many professors, which really stand out as stark and there is no way they can even be entertained as being part of the Church triumphant, at least at the present time, and they harm the cause of Christ and his religion, by giving it a bad name of claiming Christ as their Saviour, and dragging it through the mud by no internal, let alone external change. As while many people maybe able to fool anyone because of their external actions, when internally they may remain as unregenerate as they ever could be; those who externally don’t even exhibit a credible profession, and actually shame the Name of God, by professing to be his yet doing things so contrary to anything that God would think pleasing, they are the ones who do most harm to the Gospel message I believe. Because one thing is clear. We should be different to the world. Those who are learned etc, at least externally will appear so, so that one really cannot discern between the tares and wheat in many cases; But those who actually fit right in with the world, and stand out as a sore thumb among Christians, by their behaviour, conversation, pursuits or just about everything and anything, really tells the world, that the Gospel is a lie, because if it were true, even the world knows that what they see exhibited in the person with not even any external conformity, is far removed from Christ’s teachings. So it just makes them suspicious, and if that be the only example of a Christian they see day to day or week to week in the life, they are no doubt left with the impression, that Christianity is a myth, and anyone who claims any different is a mere hypocrite.

Usher’s words were addressing man in our natural state. But what a tragedy that in one way or the other, it also applies to the majority of the visible church!

Respectfully, the latter group, please do not profess to be a Christian or claim the Name of Christ as your own, unless you are at least prepared to  have external conformity, and make that much effort at least;  because you defame the Gospel and shame the Name of Christ by doing so. It may make you feel good about yourself, and have some status, but it does the opposite to glorify God, which should be every single person’s aim.  Please do not make God appear a liar, and His Word untrue which is what such do so. It’s a sham and a disgrace to do so.  My hope and prayer for you would be, that you go beyond external conformity and turn to God and be saved.

James Usher--Body of Divinity

Though it is not the mind or memory or brain, physically or otherwise that is usually the problem in the way of below, it is the unsoundness of heart.

Psalms 119:93 I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

Men of the world, however, with accurate recollections of all matters, connected with their temporal advantage, are remarkably slow in retaining the truths of God. They plead their short memories, although conscious that this infirmity does not extend to their important secular engagements. But what wonder that they forget the precepts, when they have never been quickened with them–never received any benefit from them? The Word of God is not precious to them: they acknowledge no obligation to it: they have no acquaintance with it. It has no place in their affections, and therefore but little abode in their remembrance.
–Charles Bridges, “An Exposition on Psalm 119″ pp. 237

Psalms 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

The world and all it’s vanities, all the world had to offer that I could not have, dazzled me more blindly than if I could have feasted upon it till I had my fill. Those supposed pleasures as I saw them, those comforts were vain, yet so enticing that I almost sold my soul for them, because rather than my afflictions drawing me towards God, which were great already by any stretch of the imagination, the pleasures I supposed that would make them lighter, easier to bear, drew me away from Him, a heart frozen in vain desire and need; I thought my need was in the world, in people, and relief from the prisoner my body held me trapped within it. Wanting some relief from such great physical suffering, seemed the most natural thing in the world. But my real binds, was not in seeing my need, not seeking God with all my heart, but only going so far then standing still, demanding God supply my need and prove his love and kindness and mercy and compassion. But the fill I wanted and demanded was from His creation, not from the Creator, and how I mourn now those years of bondage, those years of longing for the vanity that the world had to offer to others, how the blessings of others especially those who had added to my lot needlessly or thoughtlessly fuelled my desire for a world full of vanities.

I loved, I laughed, I cried, felt tormented and tortured and I railed against the God of heaven against the providence that had brought my life to this. We think that being with people will relieve our loneliness and longing of the soul our inner hungers and fill the emptiness and voids we feel. We believe that our joy, our liberty and freedom, comes by being enabled by being comfortable and prosperous and popular — finding purpose in our own self-reliance –  being important in however a minute a way in the big scale of things that sense of import means to us.

We rely on ourselves to find a way out of the hole we are in–if we are helpless to do so, we rely on others to. The natural man doesn’t see his need, his want. He sees his want, but what we want is not always what we need. That verse of David from Psalm 119, refers to his illicit affair with Bathsheba; he wanted her in a fleshly, lustful desire, his want and lust became his need in his mind–it was the thing that burned inside of him, stronger and with more passion than anything else. Even if it meant departing out of the will of the God that he had served since he was a shepherd boy. (2 Samuel 12:24)

When the child that Bathsheba conceived in adultery with David was born and was ill, as the Lord had threatened that the child would die, and that the sword would never depart from David’s house from that time on. (2 Sam 12:10-18) David prayed and fasted and wept, and sought the Lord with all of his heart. He knew that sometimes the Lord’s threatening’s could be averted by pleading and intercession and prayer. (Joel 2:13). David’s devotion to God during the time of his infants illness, by fasting, prayer and tears of penitence was a great humiliation for his sin. It was a sure sign of his sincerity for sinning against God with Bathsheba. Commonly, when men beget a child by a mistress, they detach or turn away, in these days they may even persuade the mistress to have an abortion, in order to keep the child conceived in sin a secret to protect their own comfort zone; to keep the calm peace and tranquility of their home life with their wife. The child being murdered on the abortionists table cannot witness against men as a living child and evidence of their sin and indiscretion can. In some cases, they would rather murder their off-spring, rather than their sin be found out. David, aware that his own sinful actions had brought this about, in a truly penitent spirit, begged God to spare the child’s life, even knowing if the child lived it could bring him great shame and reproach, as a living child was evidence of and would testify against him in the case of his adultery. It would have been a terrible shame for God’s anointed to bear. But he begged, prayed fasted and wept for the life of his child, willing to pay the consequences that the reproach of a living child could bring down upon his head, because he owned his sin and was truly penitent for it and contrite.

When the infant died, his calm composure, putting on fresh clothes to go meet with God out of a holy reverential fear and honour of going to meet with the Living God,  to worship Him, knowing that the child’s death was God’s divine disposal and he could not now do a thing to change it. By his going to worship he practiced what Job spoke in “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the Name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)  He had tried with his whole heart to avert the threatening of God as concerned the child when he was still alive, knowing that where there’s life there is hope, but once the child died, he accepted it in quiet resignation knowing it was final and there was nothing more he could do. He went to worship God, thankful that God had had mercy on him and spared him, and also pardoned him for his adulterous act. It is widely thought that after Nathan left David, after reproaching him, that is when David penned Psalm 51. When he says, his sin will be ever before him, and asks for the Lord to purge him like hyssop, he was not really talking of the external ceremonies of the law, but to purge him, make him clean. Purging from the Lord normally comes by way of affliction. And when he says in  Psalms 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. he is clearly alluding to this affair.

You see in David’s longing, his lust was for a beautiful woman, he was over-whelmed by temptation in what he saw in her. Things pleasing to our senses particularly the eyes have a power in the way of temptations and are more alluring to us.

My Bathsheba was the world outside my window and all that lay out there that I could never taste or partake of. My isolation and sense of abandonment by both God and man made me hunger and yearn after it more than anything I have previously known. I was already sick unto death, yet the afflicted state of my body and inability made it all seem the most  natural thing in the world that anyone in my shoes would want if it was them. Why? Because I knew not God nor myself. About a year or so ago things got worse still, though not by my own making, yet I was suddenly alone with God. Very alone. Totally alone–still sick unto death.

I even said goodbye to some folks of my own choosing, feeling that in all I felt by being so very alone, even more so, that to continue on in friendship of a kind, would be more destructive than cutting those ties, because it was like throwing crumbs to the starving, a little taste but not near enough to fill a belly that had been empty so long, and  made me hunger more and feel more alone than ever and more hurt over my lot in life, and when hurting so much already, they could only wreak more destruction. I chose finally, to go it alone with God, and turned my ear and heart to learning, by the sound advice I had been given repeatedly by someone of, the only way I was going to find life tenable, was to live a more spiritual life.  I also put other similar counsel into practice. I started pouring over eternity, reading such things as Baxter’s Everlasting rest. I started to know God better, and in doing that, alone with God, I started to know myself. I started to understand the actions of people I esteemed that had sometimes been a confusion to me. As I got to know both God and myself better, the penitential tears and a contrite and broken spirit started to be wrought. Yet, unlike in previous times of grief and mourning, like David, they were tears of repentance for past things that I found pierced me, and even to this day when I feel my afflictions I weep anew, not because I don’t believe I am forgiven, but because I know that before I was afflicted so severely, I went astray, and those times of mourning and grief and penitential sorrow are times of cleansing and purging even further. My aims and goals are not any longer to be rid of my sufferings or find relief at any cost–to sell my soul for relief from this great affliction– but live out my life to the glory of God. Yet I believe that there will likely always be times of great penitential mourning, because sometimes everywhere I look in Scripture reminds me of how I rejected the Word of God and God Himself, and how He had to bring me so low, that I could finally see Him for who He is, and in that he raised me  up for his honour and gave me the dignity I longed for, that I felt had been taken away from me by the actions of people I had known, that I thought I could get from the world, yet it was alone with God it was given to me. God is my portion alone as far as people, day in day out, even when in this condition physically, and yet I am fuller than ever before in a multitude of ways.  He is the strength of my countenance, and I know that, because He is my portion Alone when sick unto death. If I was surrounded by comforts and loved ones it is likely I would not be so sure of that, because it can be a very fine line about what or who we have as our chief portion, where our comfort and delight comes from if there are multiple channels of it coming to us,  and the lines can easily become blurred. Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. The world is still outside my window, with all its streets of gold, yet it’s a gold that will turn to rust, and inside this room, alone with God, He and me with his strength and by His grace, are building an incorruptible treasure that can never be taken from me and will never rust in the least. In a million years time in eternity, The Lord and His heavenly treasure will still be as shiny and dazzling,  even more so than now, when all the streets of gold have long rusted and corroded and  long been forgotten by those who ever walked on it along with those who walked on it also long forgotten.

The treasure any of us need, first and foremost, whatever our place in life, however rich or poor our estate, is the Living God and the treasures He has to offer,  yet it can be so easy to indulge in the world and its pleasures at the cost of falling short of the mark. Pleasures and recreation are not sinful in themselves, it’s only where we place them on our priorities or how much time we indulge in them that makes them so, if we are intemperant.

I may have more to say on the David and Bathsheba affair, as it’s such a rich history with so many strands. One final note on this however, for now, is Proverbs 31. The virtuous woman. The woman all godly women long to be, was also told to Solomon by his mother, Bathsheba, and she had obviously also repented of her sin with David. Because she warns her son against the very things happening to him by taking a bad course, that had come about upon David’s house, because of her and David’s adulterous affair. (Proverb 31:1-3)