John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Scripture

Psalm 147:5

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Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord and of great power; his understanding is infinite.

This verse can be rightfully divided into two distinct thoughts. The first thought concerns the greatness of our Lord and His awesome power. The use of the word “Lord” implies that He is our master; but who doesn’t love to serve a “Good” master? The idea of lordship has such a bad connotation in our culture because so many sinful men have abused power, “lording” it over others. But our Lord is great! And He is worthy of adoration and our submission. His power, or strength, is also abundant, mighty and great! The idea of power is that He has the ability to effect His will. He is not a wishful God, hoping people will come through for Him or waiting on the strength of men. Nor is He unable to thwart Satan’s plans, or any man’s plans that are contrary to His own. His power is overflowing; possibly only overshadowed by His own amazing restraint of that power, according to His will.

His understanding is infinite! What does that mean? It’s incomprehensible…simply because our understanding is FINITE. But imagine how quickly we follow the advice of an expert doctor or coach in this life. How quickly we seek teachers to share their finite understanding with us for life’s problems. How much more then, ought we trust in the commands of the Lord. His understanding is infinite, and is not bound by time. Since you know He sees the end already…He knows what is BEST for you always; allow yourself to trust Him today, and lean on Him and not your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.)

Is the Church part of the problem today?

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Let’s assume there is a problem today. The problem is that not a lot of people seem to be getting saved. Can you play along? This article is for Christians only. I want brothers and sisters to consider what I am going to say because I believe it is important. Just thinking about it brings conviction to my soul. To be more specific, it brings me shame and distress. Thankfully, I don’t stay there long as I lay my sin at the foot of the cross and trust that Christ has wiped them away completely, but once in while He gives me an all-too-clear glimpse of my truly disgraceful sin nature and tendency to succumb to the flesh.

The sin I am going to talk about is the worst sin possible. It is the sin of unbelief. In fact, it is the only unforgivable sin, if committed fully against the Son of God, Jesus Christ. But for those of us who have had hearts regenerated by His Holy, Infinite Grace, unbelief still creeps in. Often it occurs in subtle and deceitful ways. In my case, and I believe in many others, it can be spawned by a misapplication of scripture. Not a misinterpretation or misunderstanding in this case, but a mis-applying of the often well-understood, clearly believed Truths.

For now, I need to establish some assumptions I will trust axiomatically for purposes of this post. These are not un-provable, but I’m going to choose not to prove them now. Additionally, if you are of a different ‘camp’ in this often disputed eschatological argument, I’d encourage you to judge the content of the article NOT based on whether you agree with my view of end times, but rather, whether the statements I make do, in fact, logically follow from my assumptions, and whether the application I’ll try to encourage myself and others to employ as the result is actually biblical.

Ok. Long story short. “Too late,” you say? Sorry. 🙂 Let’s begin here. I’m what I believe is commonly called a pretribulational, premillenialist. (I think I got that right) What this means is that I believe that the next event that is to occur, prophetically speaking, is what is called the rapture of the church. I trust it is imminent and that nothing is ‘holding that back’ prophetically that still needs to occur; that is, it could happen at any time. It also means that I believe there will be 7 years of tribulation on the Earth after that event, followed by a literal 1000 year Earthly reign of Christ on Earth. As I said these are oft disputed items that are not to be proved in this article.

Now, what I am going to say is the result of this may also be shared by people of other end-times views. People who share the same views as I do may have different understandings than what I’m about to share as well. I’m just one man, and I may or may not represent the whole of my ‘camp.’ In other words, don’t throw out a baby because I’m in the bathwater!

So what? So I believe this rapture is imminent and the millennial reign is future? Why does that matter? Well, here is why. I believe that the sin cursed world we live in is only getting worse. The degradation of EVERYTHING is continuing without regression. If it had velocity, I’d tell you it was accelerating. At the least, it is not slowing down. The bible declares that scoffers will come in the last days (2 Peter 3:3). It is also clear that not a lot of people will be saved! (Matthew 7:13-14) So what’s my problem? Well, I think that at times, I take these verses and biblical ideas too far! I am shocked when someone wants to talk about Christ. If I hear that God has graciously saved someone, I am sometimes very skeptical! Reminds me of a strange story. The other day I saw I license plate that said, “CYNIC.” I glanced over at the guy and said, “I don’t believe you are a cynic.” LOL, eh?

Anyway, the point is that I think part of the problem is that my focus is NOT on the Power and Glory and Grace of God! It’s like I’ve lost hope and faith that God is really going to work in the hearts and lives of people. Instead of preaching or witnessing, EXPECTING God to perform a miracle, I sometimes realize that I actually EXPECT THE OPPOSITE! I may be doing the right thing, actually in true loving, obedience to my Savior and Lord. But I am not being really faithful that He CAN and WILL save! I chalk it up to, “Well, it’s the end times. We’re just going to get scoffers and mockers and others who will not come to saving faith.”

I’m ashamed. Biblically, before 100 A.D. it was considered the end-times as well. Thank God the men and women of the faith in those times didn’t give up hope, even in the face of GREATER PERSECUTION than I’ve ever seen. Thank God early 20th century preachers didn’t give up just because they could see the end coming. We trust that the Lord could come any day…but do we ever think that maybe He could come 500 years from now? Maybe we are not even getting a glimpse of what “end-times” Christians will experience because the things we lament today will be SO MUCH WORSE years from now, maybe after we’ve gone to be with the Lord. My fear is that our attitude of unbelief is actually contributing to the problem. My sin has consequences in this world still, even if Jesus has paid for them. My sin still hurts people, and myself, as well as being an offense to my perfectly loving and graceful Savior.

Is it too late? It is too late to pray like we believe that God might bring revival to the USA? Many Christians, including me are sure God has taken His protective hand off of us. That the changes we’ve seen in our government lately is an indicator that we’ve already been left to our own sinful desires. EVEN IF THIS IS TRUE, I ASK, DOES THAT MEAN WE OUGHT NOT BELIEVE GOD CAN AND WILL RESTORE US? Isn’t that Israel’s basic problem? Wasn’t God, in the OT, for example, always ready to restore them to Himself? He was waiting for them all the time, inasmuch as you can ascribe the human quality of waiting to our Lord. Let’s just say he was patient, we He not? And how many times did He pick them back up after they fell? And He is going to do it again still! Pray to that end for the USA! Pray for your friends and family, but do it like you believe it. Not because your positive attitude will affect the effectiveness of your prayer, but because it is a display of our absolute TRUST in the Goodness and Faithfulness of the God of creation! It is an exhibition of His Glory when we pray for things that seem impossible!

To ask Him to protect you on your way home from work is perfectly ok, and I trust He does that for any of us that makes it home safely. But really, do you pray that prayer with urgency? And when you do, do you find it improbable in your mind that you weren’t going to make it home anyway? God doesn’t need a head start or a lead! When we pray to God, we can pray for the most unlikely thing, and if it is in His will, it will be done. So be bold! Ask God to save your mom or dad or your brother or sister. Ask Him to regenerate the heart of Barack Obama, because He can, and because you’ve had a heart change yourself, by which you are actually concerned for where our President will spend eternity, not because he annoys you. Do it because you deserve Hell as much as the President, and you will not be going there by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone.

So have you given up hope? Are you like me, a sinner in need of a Savior, not only from the punishment of your sin, but from the bondage of sin? The chains that keep me locked up in the mindset that if a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle in my mind, then it is not happening. With God, all things are possible! Luke 18:27

Dear Christian reader: do not despair, but rather rejoice in the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ! Trust His Sovereign Grace to penetrate the hearts of sinners. And although you know that there are few that will find it, pray to Him knowing He can save more than we may think “a few” is. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!! Truly trust Him, in Him and Him alone. Stop being a part of the problem. Stop looking at every scoffer and mocker as “just an enemy of the gospel,” and start seeing them as sinners, like yourself, who desperately need a savior. And chances are they need a friend like you to introduce them by sharing with them what Christ did for them and why. If you really believe the rapture is coming, you should spend any moment you can sharing the gospel with an unsaved person! Do not misapply the scripture; Christ’s imminent return is cause to “be busy,” (Matthew 24:42,44-46) not be idle. It is a reason to have hope, not give up. As Tony says, “Don’t Quit!”

Romans 5:12

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Romans 5:12 KJV: Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.

What a great verse to hold in your heart! What does Paul mean by “one man sin entered into the world?” This is a reference to Adam’s sin in Genesis 3:6-7. Adam’s sin in Genesis 3 provides the foundation for the reason we live in a sin cursed world and need a redeemer in a first place. Dear Christian, do not throw this away! In the spirit of “modernity,” many have found it necessary to avoid drawing on and trusting the supernatural, particularly creation. Some will say, “It doesn’t matter what I believe about creation, if I have Jesus, that’s all that matters.” God forbid. It does matter. Your view of creation is a reflection of, or rather a manifestation of, your view of scripture itself. And the same author who said “In the beginning,” (Gen 1:1, John 1:1) also said “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). That author is the Holy Spirit; and His authority is absolute and trustworthy. If you don’t believe Genesis 1-3, tell me, at what point do you start believing?

Here in Romans, Paul confirms that in Adam we all sinned. We all have had a death sentence passed up on us. We all are sinners, and we’ve all sinned. (Rom 3:23) None can stand righteous before God. (Rom 3:10-12) This is important to understand! Hold this verse in your heart to remind you that scripture is sufficient: from beginning to end. Your cleverness is unnecessary; in fact, it will destroy the message. No human author would have conceived of a curse like this, nor redemption in Christ alone, by His righteousness alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, for His glory alone. Read Romans 5:6-19 during your devotion …and see the hope that we can offer others, hope that holds no meaning except that it is declared by the Word…the Word to which we must hold fast!

Acts 4:12

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Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for this is none under name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

What’s the biggest obstacle in open-air preaching and evangelism today? I’d say it’s the blatant denial of God and His authority to righteously judge. (Psalm 10:3-4,13) Many folks today, largely due to what is called ‘postmodernism,’ deny the very existence of sin, essentially. No sin means no need for salvation.

What’s the second biggest *problem* I encounter today? What about the LARGE number of people who actually acknowledge sin and, in fact, admit they are sinners? What distinguishes them from those who will not perish? Christ does. John 14:6 (article here).

Why is this important? Because Satan has created counterfeit religious systems; these systems teach partial truths, such as the truth that there is such a thing as sin. Satan is entirely satisfied if you believe you are a sinner, as long as you don’t obey Christ. So false systems have been created which allow men and women to believe they are a sinner, but to deny the truth spoken in Acts 4:12. Neither is there salvation in ANY OTHER (emphasis my own). The apostles not only proclaimed that salvation is available in the Christ, but affirmed Jesus’s own declaration that there is NO salvation in any other. Jesus isn’t an “option.” He is not one of many possible paths to God. He is the only path, and the only path to salvation. Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Church of Christ and Catholicism – these are all religions that deny Christ as the only savior; the only provision for salvation. Christ isn’t one of a number of gods to put on your shelf, He’s God almighty, solitarily! He doesn’t open the door for you to work your way to God, or prove your righteousness to Him; He is the only provision and all the provision!

Does it offend you that I say Christ alone can save? Good! It means you understand the scripture; God has enlightened you to spiritual truths you could otherwise never understand. Praise Him and fall on your knees and beg for His mercy, through Christ alone. If you are not bothered by this it is likely because you are already His; or you are suppressing some truth. (Romans 1:18) You love you sin so you deny its very existence or the power of God. Your pride will not allow you to fully and totally rest on Jesus Christ for your soul’s atonement, because you believe God ought not judge you, or you have a perverted view of God, an idol you worship; usually this is the “God who would never judge.” You make up pithy sayings like, “My god is too big for that” or “My god is love, she would never hate or punish her creatures.”

These statements seem profound in their simplicity from human terms, but they are unscriptural and not based in any truth; they are rooted in “what makes you feel better about yourself.” Christ came to free you from that slavery! The bondage of trusting in an unseen, irrational god. The God of your own reason, or Darwin or Dawkins! Instead you are called to trust in the seen (through the incarnation and revelation through scripture) God, Jesus Christ. You are urged to believe the rational God whose logic is infallible, whose arguments can never lose, whose conclusions are always based on true assumptions and reason.

Dear Christian reader, are you LIVING AS IF you believe this verse? Do you desperately pray for your unsaved family, coworkers, neighbors and acquaintances like they may GO TO HELL ANY SECOND? Do you support other people’s religious activities even if you know they deny salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone? Do you celebrate religious diversity in the name of tolerance and getting along with others, all the while allowing people to be deceived by demons and false teachers? Ultimately, by NOT leading them to the cross, you are, due to your negligence, leading them to Hell. Depraved Indifference is a legal term which we can define as

conduct must be ‘so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime.

For you to say you believe Acts 4:12 is to say you believe that everyone you meet is either going to Hell due to their sin, or on their way to Heaven based on the merit of Christ alone, by His grace alone. For you to approach any individual without the mindset that “this person either LOVES the gospel or NEEDS the gospel” is irrational, based on that belief. So we must always be ready! (1 Peter 3:15) Be encouraged, you carry the most important message ever from the greatest King ever about the most awesome story ever! Share it! Do it with joy, compassion, respect, love and boldness! Everyone NEEDS it or already EMBRACES it, so proclaim it and trust the results to God!

2 Timothy 1:7

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2 Timothy 1:7 KJV For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I’m a KJV guy…not “KJV only” guy, but I often read the KJV, and when I do memory verses I always use the KJV. I have become a big ESV fan lately for reading and studying though. Anyway, the reason I share this is because I would like to show you how studying multiple versions is essential sometimes for proper understanding of the scriptures. It’s also a lot easier for people to do than studying Greek or Hebrew!

So let’s look at 2 Tim 1:7 NASB, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” Now that’s a little different, isn’t it? What if I told you that the word “cowardice” could be used instead of the word “timidity” or “fear?” It is worth noting that the word translated “fear” in this verse is different from the word translated “fear” in the following verses: Rev 14:7, 15:4, 19:5, 11:18, 1 Pet 2:17, Heb 13:6, 11:27. There are several others as well, if you do a word search for G5399 “phobeo.”

My point is this. There are (at least) 2 definitions for fear that we must understand. The first definition, the one used in the verses above that describe a proper fear of God, implies reverence. The word used in 2 Tim 1:7 is a different word. This word has more to do with the cowardice and timidity that people often have out of a desire for SELF-preservation. Let me be clear. God DID GIVE us the SPIRIT OF FEAR and AWE and REVERENCE OF HIM. If you have this, it is from HIM. What God has not given us is the spirit of cowardice that Paul was warning Timothy of in 2 Timothy. If you read the 2 letters to Timothy, you will see that Timothy struggled with the fear of men. He feared persecution for the gospel; I also infer that he was even afraid of some of his own church members’ opinion of him and “his youth.” (1 Tim 4:12) While it is clearly true, and biblical to look up to “elders,” (people of the faith for many years), it is also true that the Holy Spirit may choose to work in any believer’s heart at any rate. Take Paul for example…he wasn’t a Christian for very long before he began preaching and teaching and sharing God’s Word with others! Now he had a lot more special revelation than anyone else, but the concept still applies; the Holy Spirit can and will reveal to a man that which He chooses, and we should test men by what the Bible says, not their apparent reputation, education or age. (Although these factors can be useful!)

Now I’m finally getting to the point of the verse! Paul is telling Timothy that any timidity or fear he had, (as it pertained to his duties as a preacher-teacher-pastor-evangelist), was not the result of God. On the contrary, God had already provided Timothy (as well as all believers) with a spirit of Love, power and self-control, a disciplined mind. Fear of persecution, rejection, or loss of relationships is a self-centered, self-preserving thought, and if captured by your mind and subjected to Christ (Philippians 4:8, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5) you will not be able to remain that way for long. Even if the fear remains, the cowardice or timidity which paralyzes you, and keeps you from acting correctly, (e.g., sharing the gospel), will be overcome by your love for God, the power you know He possesses and will display through you, and the disciplined mind you have cultivated as the result of the fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22-23)! As Tony Miano has reminded me, the cowardly will see the Lake of Fire too (Revelation 21:8), not because works reconcile a person to God, but because if 2 Tim 1:7 is true, then truly regenerate people are no longer “cowards!”

Finally, what are we to conclude about fear anyway? Is it a God-given instinct which aids in preservation of the species? Is there a true fight or flight reaction to external stimuli that God put in us so that we would survive? While this is possible, and there is circumstantial data to show that these phenomenon do seem to occur, I will maintain that biblically we are NOT given a spirit of fear by God. Our sound mind, if anything is that which, and ought to be that which, we use to determine whether to approach a situation, although it does seem we use this to interpret the feelings of timidity we often experience. Let me put it this way. Imagine a person filled with the Holy Spirit, completely trusting that God is sovereign and powerful and Good. Imagine this person believes that every moment of their life is already known by God and every event falls into God’s Holy decree (as the Bible declares). Is it reasonable to believe this person would ever experience self-preserving fear? How many cubits might he add to his stature, (Luke 12:25) or how many years to his own life will he add with this worry? (see Luke 12:22-30) A person who truly trusts the One True God cannot worry! The problem, as always, is a heart problem. We all need to have our hearts turned more toward Him, our focus on Christ as Savior and Lord and Provider, Author and Perfecter (Heb 12:2) of our Faith! It is impossible to worry about self-preservation when you believe that it is God who grants your every breath! It is unreasonable to fear rejection of men when you know you are a child of the King and are but an ambassador on His behalf. None of us, in this life, will ever be fully filled with the Spirit and perfectly live this out, but we can grow in this direction, and trust that the cowardice and timidity we face here will be gone once the curse is lifted. I can say with certainty that Adam did not experience this problem before the fall, and we will not know these terrible emotions after Christ returns. Our world is sin-cursed, and this is just another byproduct of the unholiness we love as sinful men. Praise Jesus for the rebirth of men’s souls, yours included if you are one of His!

If you are finding ministry difficult and fearful, why? Are you actually sharing God’s Word or are you sharing your thoughts and words as the emphasis instead of His? Are you concerned with what people think of you or where they spend eternity and How Christ is magnified? Be unashamed! (Romans 1:16) If there is anything to fear, it would be Christ denying you before His father! (Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 10:32-33) Make sure you are right with Him and then trust Him for every need!

Isaiah 64:6

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Isaiah 64:6

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we are all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Wow, this verse it tough to remember.  I think it is because I have heard so many translations of it…and for a long time I thought it ended at the word “rags!”

Let’s take a look at it and see if that helps us memorize it!  Many evangelists will tell you that this verse should be a memory verse for evangelizing.  The first half basically calls us unclean, and compares our righteousness to filthy rags.  What this is saying is that in God’s eyes, even the things we do which seem to be “right” (or quite possibly do, in a literal sense meet the requirements of the law) are nothing more than a filthy rag to him.  Why is this?  Because our hearts are deceitful and wicked, (Jer 17:9).  Even the things we do that seem “right” are not done out of a pure heart and a love for God.  Our righteousness, when it comes from ourselves is abominable to Him.  Any self-sufficiency we have is downright insulting to the One who holds all things together and provides all.  To believe that we have anything inherent in ourselves to impress God with is unreasonable and, in fact, punishable by death…for it is sin.

Think of the folly of this line of thinking: Do you ever think God looks down at a large skyscraper or a strong weightlifter, or billions of dollars in a bank account and thinks, “Wow, that is impressive!”  Certainly not!  It’s absurd to believe that the Creator of all would be impressed with anything at all that creatures do!  The God that accepts human offerings of sacrifice or religion is an idol, created by the minds of men who deny truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).  Reason with me, please!  If there is a god, he could not be coerced or moved by human will, else he would not be God!  And there is a God – and He is not compeled by men!  He wills and does as he pleases!  (Eph 1:4-5)

How about the second half, maybe that tempers the previous haunting thought a bit…we all do fade as a leaf?  What?  This sounds like we are considered weak, and dying vessels.  Our iniquities (sin, lawlessness) take us away like the wind takes away a leaf.  Think about this, leaves don’t even FIGHT against the wind.  I don’t think I am taking the analogy too far by saying we are no different when it comes to SIN before coming to a relationship with God through Christ.  How powerless we are!  Keep in mind who controls the wind and has power over weather! (Luke 8:24).  Even in Job 1:12,19, you can see that it is the Lord who grants that power to Satan if He sees fit to bring Him glory that way.

What a pride-crushing concept!  How can a man ever please God then?  By being brought In Christ, by the Holy Spirit.  When His righteousness is what shines through us (Mt 5:16, 2 Cor 4:6-7) we cannot help but please Him, because He is perfect, and He is always pleased with Christ, and only with Christ.