A Thanksgiving Acrostic: “H” is for Holiness

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Wayne Davies

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“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
Psalm 136:1

The holiness of God is reason to celebrate Thanksgiving!

 

Today I’m thanking God for holiness – His holiness.

For me, one of the most moving passages in the Bible has always been Isaiah 6. Here we read that the prophet Isaiah “saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).

He also saw seraphs, six-winged angelic beings, who “were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory’” (Isaiah 6:3).

What a scene! What an experience! To see God on His throne – wouldn’t that be incredible?

What I find most intriguing are the words of the angels. They could have said many things about God. “Loving, loving, loving is the LORD.” Or “Merciful, merciful, merciful is the LORD.” Or “Forgiving, forgiving, forgiving is the LORD.” And they would have been correct.

But the holiness of God is center stage.

First and foremost, God wants us to know that He is holy. So let’s spend some time reflecting on this glorious attribute of the triune God. Our Father is “the Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 71:22), the Son is “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24), and Spirit is “the Holy Spirit (numerous verses in Scripture!).

What does the Bible mean when it says God is holy? “God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology).

God has been and always will be without sin, morally pure and perfect. Let the weight of this truth boggle your mind. The concept of sinlessness is so far from our own experience, it is difficult to fathom either its meaning or its significance.

A.W. Tozer has this to say about the holiness of God:
“Neither the writer nor the reader of these words is qualified to appreciate the holiness of God. Quite literally a new channel must be cut through the desert of our minds to allow the sweet waters of truth that will heal our great sickness to flow in. We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of.

God’s holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine” (Knowledge of the Holy).

And so as we ponder the holiness of God, we are blown away by the simple fact that God is infinitely different than us. He is holy. We are not.

I started this post by saying how thankful I am for the holiness of God. But how can I thank God for something that is so difficult to grasp? Here’s why I thank God for His holiness.

His holiness leads me to worship Him.

When I consider the holiness of God, I am awe-struck and dumbfounded. Mentally and emotionally, I stagger in amazement. And I lift up my soul in adoration! God can be worshipped for many reasons. For me, this is Reason #1 – He is holy. No one else in the universe can make that claim or even come close.

“Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is.”  (A.W. Tozer)

His holiness leads me to understand my sin.

What was Isaiah’s reaction to his encounter with God? “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5).

When confronted with God’s purity, we see our own impurity like never before. This will be painful. And it should be. This is the beginning of the godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).

Tozer again has a good word for us:
“The sudden realization of his personal depravity came like a stroke from heaven upon the trembling heart of Isaiah at the moment when he had his revolutionary vision of the holiness of God. His pain-filled cry, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts,” expresses the feeling of every man who has discovered himself under his disguises and has been confronted with an inward sight of the holy whiteness that is God. Such an experience cannot but be emotionally violent.”

His holiness leads me to experience His forgiveness.

God did not leave Isaiah in his state of ruin. He saw God’s glorious holiness. He saw his own utter depravity. And then he experienced God’s mercy. “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and you sin atoned for’” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

We, too, must regularly see our own sin for what it is. And the longer we follow Jesus, the more evident our sin will be. Spiritual maturity brings a greater awareness of sin. We recognize it more quickly and will therefore repent more frequently and more intensely.

But the biblically informed believer will not remain in the state of repentance indefinitely. Once we have confessed and forsaken our sin, we must then allow God to enthrall us with the joy of our salvation and the bliss of His forgiveness.

This is the cycle of the genuine Christian life. Seeing the holiness of God causes us to see our own sin, which leads us to the cross of Christ and the amazing kindness of a God who is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” (Psalm 103:8).

Oh God, for your incomparable holiness, we give you thanks!

NOTE: For the other posts in this Thanksgiving acrostic, visit Click Here.
To date, there are 6 posts in this series, one for each letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

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A Thanksgiving Acrostic: “A” is for Answers

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Wayne Davies

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Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
Psalm 136:1

The answers of God are reason to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Today I’m thanking God for answers – His answers.

The Bible is full of reasons to thank and praise God. These reasons fall into one of two categories: His attributes and His actions. Or, His character and His conduct. Or, what He is like and what He does. Psalm 86 is a great place to see these two categories and how they are often inseparably linked in Scripture.

Let’s consider a few verses that praise God for His attributes:

“You are kind and forgiving, O Lord,
Abounding in love to all who call on you.”
Psalm 86:5

“But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
Slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
Psalm 86:15

God is kind and forgiving and compassionate and gracious and patient and loving. These are characteristics of His nature. This is the way He is, the way He has always been, and the way He will always be.

But note how David praises God for His actions as well as His attributes.

“Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
No deeds can compare with yours.”
Psalm 86:8

“For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
You alone are God.”
Psalm 86:10

And here’s one of my favorite verses than praises God for both what He is like and what He does:

“For great is your love toward me;
You have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.”
Psalm 86:13

God is love, and He repeatedly showed His love to David by delivering him from his enemies. As chronicled in 1 and 2 Samuel, David was often on the move, literally running for his life. His psalms are filled with prayers for physical salvation because “The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life – men without regard for you” (Psalm 86:14). These “ruthless men” included King Saul and, later, after David become king, his own son Absalom.

Time after time David poured out his soul to God and pleaded for deliverance. Psalm 86 begins with a plea to God for an answer to this request for physical salvation:

“Here, O LORD, and answer me,
For I am poor and needy.
Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.
Have mercy on me, O Lord,
For I call to you all day long.
Psalm 86:1-3

It is in this context of running for his life that David praises God for his attributes of kindness and love and faithfulness. And it is in this context that David is asking God to take action and do something. David is desperate for God to provide answers to these prayers.

“In the day of my trouble I will call to you,
For you will answer me.”
Psalm 86:7

Of course, we know how these stories end. The Bible tells us that God did indeed answer David’s prayers. He escaped from both Saul and Absalom and many others. He was close to death on numerous occasions, but God saved Him every time.

God answered David’s prayers by taking action in accordance with His character. This is the story of David’s life.

And it is the story of every believer, is it not?

As I think back over my own life, I’m filled with gratitude for God’s answers to my prayers. After spending 10 years trying to follow God, I became increasingly frustrated with the Christian life. Finally, I gave up. At age 26, even though I had graduated from Bible college and seminary, and was working in a church as an assistant Pastor, I walked away from Jesus. More accurately, I ran away from Him, as fast as I could and as far away as I could.

I spent the next 20 years ignoring God and living as a practical atheist. As far as I was concerned, He didn’t exist. I wanted nothing to do with Him, His Word, or His people.

For many years I enjoyed this godless existence. I become quite proud of myself and my accomplishments, creating a life for myself in pursuit of the American Dream. I found a new career as an accountant, got married, bought a house, raised a family, and starting saving for retirement. Life was good! Isn’t this what it’s all about?

God let me wander off into this spiritual no-man’s land, but eventually He began to work in my life and tug at my heart. After 20 years of ignoring Him, I found myself mysteriously drawn to Him again. I was baffled by this. But I found myself wanting to attend church and read the Bible and spend time with Christians.

During this time of renewed faith, I started to pray, “God, if you are real, please make yourself known to me.”

Over a period of several months, I prayed this prayer many times. And thanks be to God, He answered my prayer! Another prodigal son came home to his Father, and I’ve been following Jesus for the past 11 years.

David’s words became reality for me:
“Hear my prayer, O LORD;
Listen to my cry for mercy.
In the day of my trouble I will call to you,
For you will answer me.”

David asked God to deliver him from his enemies. And God answered that prayer. I prayed that God would deliver me from my enemies of doubt, unbelief, and rebellion. And God answered that prayer.

This is a prayer that God loves to answer: “God, please make yourself known to me!”

God delights to answer our prayers for salvation – whether physical or spiritual – because He is the God of answers.

Today, I am thanking and praising the Father for His answer to my prayer to know Him as the one true God He claims to be.

Again, David’s words are my words:
“I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me;
You have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.”
Psalm 86:12-13

How about you? As you reflect on your own life, what prayers has God answered?

Please join me and give thanks to our great God, for He is the God of answers!

NOTE: For the other posts in this Thanksgiving acrostic, visit Click Here.
To date, there are 6 posts in this series, one for each letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

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A Thanksgiving Acrostic: “N” is for Name

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Wayne Davies

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“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
Psalm 136:1

The name of God is reason to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Today I’m thanking God for His name.

Our God is indescribably great. Yet He has seen fit to give us a book, the Holy Bible, which contains hundreds of pages devoted to the task of describing the One who defies description.

One way that God reveals Himself is through His name. While Scripture ascribes many names to God, there is one name that stands out – “The LORD.” This is by far the most frequently used name for God in the Bible, occurring 6,828 times in the Old Testament. (By comparison, the word “God” occurs about 2,300 times.)

In most English translations, when the word “LORD” is used with all capital letters, this is the Hebrew word “Yahweh”. (When you see the word “Lord” with lower case letters, that is the Hebrew word “Adonai”.)

The Meaning of Yahweh

In Bible times, a name was much more than a label. A name had a specific meaning. To find the meaning of “Yahweh,” let’s go to Exodus 3 and the story of Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush.

After spending 40 years in the desert, God wants Moses to return to Egypt. “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10).

But Moses is reluctant to accept this assignment and says, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13).

God responds with this pronouncement: “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, “The LORD, the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you.” This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation” (Exodus 3:14-15, emphasis added).

As the NIV footnotes indicate, the Hebrew word “Yahweh” (LORD) sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for “I AM”. So whenever you see the name “LORD” in the Old Testament, this word “Yahweh” can also be translated “I AM”. It has the idea of “the One who is” or “the One who exists.”

The Self-Existence of God

When we think of God, many wonderful and terrible things come to mind. Central to our thinking should be the concept of the self-existence of God. He exists, and He has always existed. He, and only He, is the eternal One. Moses grasped the significance of God’s self-existence when he wrote in Psalm 90, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2, emphasis added).

Have you ever pondered the mind-blowing truth that God has always existed? Let it take your breath away! Let it drive you to your knees in worship and adoration of the One who is unlike like everything else and everyone else in all creation.

All else in the universe has a beginning. But God has no beginning, because “I am who I am.”

It’s a simple fact: God always was. Yet it has huge implications for us, because the One who always was is also the One who always is and always will be. The self-existence of God is reason to praise Him today and forever. And it is also the source of infinite joy and comfort for the believer in the I AM.

The Presence of God

The self-existence of God has beneficial implications for us of the most practical kind. Since God always is, I can count on Him to be with me every moment of every day. God’s being is much more than a fact. It is also a promise – the promise of His presence.

God told Moses to lead His people out of Egypt; Moses expressed his lack of self-confidence to do this task by saying, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

How did God respond to this objection?

“I will be with you” (Exodus 3:11).

This is a promise we find repeatedly throughout Scripture. The God of eternity past is the God of the present. He is with us, and this should be the source of great encouragement to us in any situation. Whether we find ourselves fearful or alone or sick or discouraged, God is saying to us, “I will be with you.” The presence of God is the antidote to any negative emotion we may have.

God loves to repeat the promise of His self-existent presence. Not only do we find it in the Pentateuch, in the story of the exodus, we also find it in the Psalms.

“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.”
Psalm 46:10-11

We also find it in the Prophets.

“So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

And we find it in Jesus.

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel – which means, ‘God with us.’”
Matthew 1:23

Jesus did many things that infuriated the Jewish religious leaders. He went into the temple, overturned tables and threw out the merchants, bringing this profane money-making machine to a screeching halt. And he broke the Pharisees’ legalistic interpretation of the Mosaic law by harvesting grain and healing the sick on the Sabbath.

But what Jesus said was much more provocative that what He did. He claimed to be the Son of God, “calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

Yes, Jesus claimed to be the eternal, self-existent God of the burning bush. He told the Jews that “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

Their response: “You are not fifty years old . . . and you have seen Abraham!”

“I tell you the truth . . . before Abraham was born, I am!”

“At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (John 8:56-59).

Jesus’ claim to be the everlasting God of Exodus 3:14 is what, humanly speaking, put Him on the cross. He was executed as a criminal, and the crime was blasphemy, His mind-bending declaration of existence as the God of eternity past.

And this same Jesus, who was crucified for telling the truth about His identity, was raised to life three days later, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father, building His church and praying for His people, empowering us to be His ambassadors in a world bent on dragging His name in the mud.

What is His promise to you and me?

“And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:10).

NOTE: For the other posts in this Thanksgiving acrostic, visit Click Here.
To date, there are 6 posts in this series, one for each letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

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A Thanksgiving Acrostic: “K” is for Knowledge

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Wayne Davies

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“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
Psalm 136:1

The knowledge of God is reason to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Today I’m thanking God for knowledge – His knowledge.

The knowledge of God is mind-boggling, for the simple reason that God knows everything. Let the weight of this glorious attribute rest on your soul today.

A.W. Tozer has this to say about God’s knowledge, which he calls “the divine omniscience.”

“To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn. The Scriptures teach that God has never learned from anyone.”

Wow! What an incredible thought: God knows everything and He has always known everything. There was never a moment when God did not know everything.

And this means that God has never been a student. He has never been taught or mentored or instructed. He has never been to a counseling session. He has never said, “I’m not sure what to do or how to do it.”

Isn’t this why Isaiah asks a series of rhetorical questions in Isaiah 40:13-14?

“Who has understood the Spirit of the LORD,
Or instructed him as his counselor?

Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him,
And who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge
Or showed him the path of understanding?”

The answer to each of these questions, of course, is “no one.”

Tozer says this about Isaiah’s words:

“Could God at any time or in any manner receive into His mind knowledge that He did not possess and had not possessed from eternity, He would be imperfect and less than himself. To think of a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even though that teacher be an archangel or a seraph, is to think of someone other than the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth.”

Now that we’ve seen what Scripture says about the perfect knowledge of God, what effect does it have on you?

Keep in mind that because God knows everything, that means He knows everything about you. This is why theology (the study of God) is the most practical of all subjects. When done properly, reflecting on the character of God moves us from the esoteric to the personal.

God’s omniscience will cause either of two responses. It will terrify you, or it will thrill you. Again we go to Tozer for insight.

RESPONSE #1

“That God knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man who has something to hide – some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed against man or God.”

The person who has yet to receive God’s forgiveness of sin will tremble at the perfect knowledge of God, and well he should. Until your sins have been nailed to the cross of Christ, God’s knowledge of your iniquity is Exhibit A in the courtroom of heaven, and the divine wrath hangs justly over your head, for “whoever does not believe (in Jesus) stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18).

Yes, “whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36)

RESPONSE #2

“And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely.

No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.”

For the forgiven sinner, God’s knowledge becomes precious beyond words. He knows me perfectly, yet because of the work of Christ, he loves me perfectly and has taken all my sins and cast them “into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

The divine omniscience is the source of indescribable terror or unspeakable joy.

Which is it for you today?

NOTE: For the other posts in this Thanksgiving acrostic, visit Click Here.
To date, there are 6 posts in this series, one for each letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

ALSO NOTE: The quotes by A.W. Tozer in this post are from his book The Knowledge of the Holy.

 

Posted in Attributes of God, Thanksgiving | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A Thanksgiving Acrostic: “S” is for Salvation

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Wayne Davies

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“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”
Psalm 136:1

The salvation of God is reason to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Today I’m thanking God for salvation – His salvation.

Allow me to ask you a personal question.

Do you know what your name means?

Go ahead and “google” your first name right now and see if you can discover the meaning of your name. Search on “meaning of YourFirstName.” For me, that will look like this: “meaning of Wayne.” (The quotation marks are optional.)

Ready? Go for it!

How did it go? Did find out the meaning of your name?

I did. One website says my name comes from an occupational surname meaning “wagon maker.”

SOURCE: http://www.behindthename.com/name/wayne

So I’m a wagon maker!

I know for a fact that my becoming a wagon maker was the furthest thing from my parents’ mind when they named me. I was born in 1957. John Wayne was a popular actor then, so my parents gave me this name because they liked him.

People rarely give names these days because of the meaning of the name. We pick a name because it sounds nice or because someone else in the family has that name. Or we name our child after someone famous.

In Bible times that wasn’t the case. 2000 years ago names had great significance, and names were picked because of the meaning behind the word.

Do you know the meaning of the name “Jesus”? The Bible tells us. In Matthew 1:21, the angel said to Joseph, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus means “The Lord saves” or simply “Savior.”

Jesus’ name communicates the purpose of His incarnation. He came to save us. Is this not the clear teaching of Scripture?

John writes, “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14)

Paul says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15)

And Jesus Himself proclaimed, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

There are many passages in the Bible that explain salvation. One of the Bible’s clearest verses about Scripture as the source of the salvation message is 2 Timothy 3:15.

“From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Bible gives us the wisdom we need to understand, receive and apply God’s message of salvation, the gospel of Jesus.

The word “salvation” is a rich word, filled with significance. It simply means deliverance or rescue, and can be used of both physical salvation (such as being healed of an illness) and spiritual salvation (being saved from sin and all its devastating consequences, including the wrath of God poured out on Judgment Day and eternal punishment in hell).

My favorite way to explain salvation is to use a threefold outline that sees salvation as a past event, a present experience, and a future hope. This approach assumes that you are a Christian and you are looking at your salvation from the perspective of time: past, present and future.

  1. Salvation is a past event known as “justification.”

The Bible says you already have been saved. It’s a done deal. It happened on the day God granted you faith and repentance. Some Christians can remember the exact day and time. Other believers do not know the specific date, and that’s OK, too.

The point is this: We have been saved from the penalty of sin. God has rescued us from His wrath. He has delivered us from hell. Praise God for that! Because the Father poured out His wrath on the Son, His justice has been satisfied and His anger has been spent – on Jesus, who died in our place and took upon Himself the punishment we deserve.

The Bible describes our salvation from sin with the word “justification,” a legal term that comes from the courtroom. It means to “declare righteous.” God the Judge pronounces the guilty defendant righteous because the righteousness of Christ has been credited to his account.

Many passages teach that salvation is a past event. Note the tense of each verb in the following verses.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.” (Ephesians 2:8)

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.” (Titus 3:4)

  1. Salvation is a present experience known as “sanctification.”

The Bible also says that we are being saved (every day) from the power of sin. Even though God has forgiven our sins and wiped the slate clean through justification, we still have a sin nature and must fight a daily battle against the evil within.

From the day we are born again to the day we die, we need God to save us from the power of sin – everything from lust, anger and greed to lying, stealing and fornication. Temptation will continue to rear its ugly head at us, and the goal of Christian living is to live a life of increasing Christ-likeness and decreasing impurity. This is called “sanctification,” another word packed with meaning.

“Sanctification” simply means “holiness.” It means to be unique, to be set apart — from sin and unto God. Of course, only God is perfectly sanctified and holy. But we are to obtain a measure of his holiness through the lifelong journey of sanctification. God tells us, in no uncertain terms, to “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15).

Note the following passages that teach salvation is a present experience that occurs daily.

“By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:14). Note that this verse mentions both justification (God has made us perfect by declaring us righteous in His sight because of Jesus) and sanctification (we are being made holy by becoming more and more like Jesus).

“By this gospel you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.” (1 Corinthians 15:2)

“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” (2 Corinthians 2:15)

  1. Salvation is a future hope known as “glorification.”

One day we will die and be transported immediately into the presence of Christ. “To be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Oh what a wonderful day that will be!

This is our hope – to spend eternity with King Jesus. Paul describes the incredible glory of heaven in one of the Bible’s most precious passages:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)

Interestingly, Paul uses the past tense to describe our future hope of glorification. “Those he justified, he also glorified.” Because our inheritance in heaven is based on the promises of God, we can speak of it as if it has already happened!

Other passages use the future tense to describe the final phase of our salvation:

“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!” (Romans 5:9)

“We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 15:11).

To summarize . . .

Salvation is a past event. “God saved me.” I have been saved from the penalty of sin. That’s justification.

Salvation is a present experience. “God is saving me.” I am being saved from the power of sin. That’s sanctification.

Salvation is a future hope. “God will save me.” I will be saved from the presence of sin. That’s glorification.

And how do we know all this? Because God has revealed the gospel of salvation in His Word. Without the Scriptures, we would be clueless regarding our lost condition and God’s remedy for it.

We must read and study the Bible so we can know, understand and apply the message of God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

Think about this: What would the world be like today if there was no Bible? Fortunately, God has not left us in the dark about our sinful condition and His solution to our #1 problem. Not only did He send Jesus to provide salvation from sin, He then miraculously guided His closest followers to record the life, death, resurrection and teachings of Jesus in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

After Jesus ascended to heaven and the early church began to grow, God then directed Luke to write the book of Acts, so we would know how the message of salvation was proclaimed in “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

During these formative years of the church’s existence, God also led Paul, John, Peter, James and Jude to write letters to the new Christian communities springing up throughout the Roman Empire. God saw fit to preserve some of these “epistles” so that by the end of the first century, there were 27 “books” (4 gospels + Acts + 22 letters) that became our New Testament.

Oh, may we never take the Word of God for granted! Many have died for this book. When you pick up your Bible, you are holding the world’s most precious possession in your hand – the inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God.

This is no ordinary book. It contains the words of eternal life. Without it, we are lost forever. By reading this book, God can teach us how to find salvation from the penalty, power and presence of sin through His Son Jesus Christ.

For this wonderful gift of salvation, we give thanks to God today and every day!

NOTE: This post is an except from the book, Top 10 Reasons to Read the Bible Today, by Wayne Davies.

ALSO NOTE: For the other posts in this Thanksgiving acrostic, visit Click Here.
To date, there are 6 posts in this series, one for each letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

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What Happens When We Ignore God’s Wrath?

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Wayne Davies

In chapter 15 of Knowing God, J.I. Packer indicts the church for ignoring the wrath of God.

heaven-hell-signs-115393__180“To an age which has unashamedly sold itself to the gods of greed, pride, sex and self-will, the Church mumbles on about God’s kindness, but says virtually nothing about His judgment. How often during the past year did you hear, or if you are a preacher, did you preach, a sermon on the wrath of God? The fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo in modern society, and Christians by and large have accepted and conditioned themselves never to raise the matter.”

This assessment is sad yet true. My own experience confirms it. During the past year I’ve heard nothing about God’s wrath from the pulpit. In fact, over the past eleven years I can only remember one sermon devoted to the topic. How about you?

We love to talk about heaven, but whatever happened to hell? It is conspicuously absent from the pastoral ministries of many evangelical churches.

So I’ve been thinking about the unfortunate effects of this trend. When the church ignores God’s wrath, we do so at our own peril. Here are five tragic consequences.

  1. We condone a distorted view of God’s character.

Packer blew me away with this quote from A.W. Pink’s The Attributes of God: “A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness.”

Oh how we love to say “God is love.” But to focus on God’s love to the exclusion of His wrath is to worship a false God, a God that we’ve created. Yes, the Bible says “God is love.” And it also says, “God is a consuming fire.”

In John 3:16, how many times is heaven mentioned? How about hell? (These are not trick questions. The answer to both is one.) How would the preaching in our churches change if pastors followed this pattern?

  1. We stand in judgment over Scripture.

If Pink’s statement is true, then to ignore God’s wrath is to place ourselves above God’s Word. We decide what parts of the Bible to teach and which parts to discard. Oh may such an attitude never be ours!

Paul told the Ephesian elders that “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). When we minimize God’s wrath, does not our shrinking become a shirking of the God-given responsibility to teach everything found in Scripture?

  1. We devalue God’s love.

Many evangelicals focus on God’s love to the virtual exclusion of His wrath. The end result is a sentimentalizing and cheapening of His love. This approach backfires and causes the very thing we emphasize to lose its preciousness.

Do you want to increase your gratitude for God’s love? Then study His wrath. Doing so will heighten your appreciation for the magnitude of His grace and mercy toward you.

May we never forget that to be saved is to be delivered from sin and all its devastating consequences both in this life and the next.

When you reflect on the miracle of salvation, what comes to mind? Shouldn’t rescue from hell be near or at the top of your list of salvation’s blessings? If not, we’re missing out on one of God’s most precious promises.

  1. We allow the false teachings of universalism and annihilationism to prevail.

When we fail to teach the wrath of God, our silence on the subject allow false doctrine to prevail. There are two teachings in particular that continue to spread like wildfire throughout Christendom. The first is universalism, the belief that ultimately all will be saved. Without realizing it, ignoring God’s wrath provides greater opportunity for the proponents of this heinous doctrine to succeed.

The second is annihilationism, the belief that non-Christians do not actually spend eternity in hell, they just cease to exist. In other words, eternal life lasts forever, but eternal death is only temporary. In effect, after Judgment Day, God “snuffs out” the non-believer. I am saddened by the fact that an increasing number of evangelicals subscribe to this viewpoint. (For an excellent discussion of this issue, please read J.I. Packer’s article, “Evangelical Annihilationism in Review.”)

When we minimize God’s wrath, are we not walking on the slippery slope of doctrinal compromise?

  1. We preach a truncated gospel.

Paul warned the Galatians, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7).

Paul was battling the heresy of the Judaizers, who taught that the gospel needed to include adherence to the Law of Moses. Such teaching was “a different gospel,” and those who propagate such a gospel should be “eternally condemned” (Galatians 1:8). Strong words indeed!

When we leave God’s wrath out of the gospel, are we guilty of preaching “a different gospel”? Certainly it is an incomplete gospel. And to the extent that our gospel is incomplete, it is false. To offer the promise of heaven without the warning of hell is to proclaim a severely diminished gospel.

May we return to the gospel of Christ and the apostles, the gospel of the New Testament. Jesus preached on the wrath of God repeatedly, and so did the early church. May we do the same.

I’m sure my list of consequences is not exhaustive. If you can think of any others, please add them in the comment box below.

If you’d like to read other posts about J.I. Packer’s book Knowing God, Click Here.

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Do You Have A “Butterfly Mind”?

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Wayne Davies

monarch-butterfly-931632_1280According to J.I. Packer, “People nowadays are not encouraged to think systematically and at length about anything or anybody.

Our culture encourages us all to have butterfly minds, flitting from one thing to another without going deep into anything.”

What do you think of this indictment of modern society?

I’m the first to admit that at times I have such a “butterfly mind.” How about you?

And what is the antidote to this?

To hear what Mr. Packer says we can do to overcome the “butterfly mind,” check out this video in which Mark Jones interviews J.I. Packer. They discuss topics such as Cultivating Awe in the Presence of God, Christian Meditation and Knowing Christ.

Click Here to watch the interview.

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The Staggering Truth of God’s Love for Sinners

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Wayne Davies

KnowingGodPackerI remember the sermon well. It was Christmas Eve and the sanctuary was packed. The children sang and the grown-ups cackled.

Then the preacher said something I’ll never forget. “God sent His Son to earth to die for you. This proves how worthy you are of God’s love.”

I agreed with the first sentence. But what about the second?

God loves me because I’m worthy of His love? In other words, I should be taking credit for His love?

Then I stumbled across a little booklet by John Piper, entitled “For Your Joy.” Here’s what I read:

“I have heard it said, ‘God didn’t die for frogs. So he was responding to our value as humans.’ This turns grace on its head. We are worse off than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with the contempt of being inconsequential in our lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great only divine sacrifice can pay it.

There is only one explanation for God’s sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is ‘the riches of his grace’ (Ephesians 1:7). It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth. In fact, that is what divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his infinite beauty.”

So here we have an explanation of God’s love that is significantly different from what many of us have been taught: God’s love is not an acknowledgment of our worth. Rather, it is the proclamation of God’s infinite worth.

J.I. Packer would agree with John Piper. In his book Knowing God we find these comments in chapter 12 on “The Love of God” –

staggering-love-packer-1280“God’s love is an exercise of His goodness towards sinners. As such, it has the nature of grace and mercy. It is an outgoing of God in kindness which not merely is undeserved, but is actually contrary to desert; for the objects of God’s love are rational creatures who have broken God’s law, whose nature is corrupt in God’s sight, and who merit only condemnation and final banishment from His presence. It is staggering that God should love sinners, yet it is true. God loves creatures who have become unlovely and (one would have thought) unlovable. There was nothing whatever in the objects of His love to call it forth; nothing in man could attract or prompt it.”

Yes, God’s love for us is staggering. We did nothing to deserve it. In fact, all we are and all we have done merits only God’s wrath.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8).

Paul’s says nothing here about our value and worth, does he? Rather, he describes us as “powerless,” “ungodly” and “sinners.”

The love of God is all about God, not us.

Why does God love us? According to J.I. Packer, God loves us for the same reason He does everything: “God’s end in all things is His own glory – that He should be manifested, known, admired, adored.”

“It is staggering that God should love sinners; yet it is true.”

To quote John Piper again, “Let it take your breath away.”

Note: This is one of a serious of posts on the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer. For details on how to join me, blogger Tim Challies and hundreds of other Christians on this journey, click here. To read the other posts in this series, click here.

Final Thought: If you only had one word to describe God’s love, what would it be?
Please post your answer in the comment box below. Thank you!

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God Only Wise (Thoughts on Chapter 9 of Knowing God)

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Wayne Davies

KnowingGodPackerWhat is wisdom? Here’s how J.I. Packer defines it.

“In Scripture wisdom is a moral as well as an intellectual quality, more than mere intelligence or knowledge, just as it is more than mere cleverness or cunning. To be truly wise, in the Bible sense, one’s intelligence and cleverness must be harnessed to a right end. Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.”

There is a sense in which only God is wise. “[Wisdom] is found in its fullness only in God. He alone is naturally and entirely and invariably wise.”

Packer goes on to say that, fortunately, “God’s wisdom is allied to omnipotence. Power is as much God’s essence as wisdom is.”

And here’s my favorite part of this chapter about divine wisdom:

“Omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom, is a basic biblical description of the divine character.  . . Wisdom without power would be pathetic, a broken reed; power without wisdom would be merely frightening; but in God boundless wisdom and endless power are united, and this makes him utterly worthy of our fullest trust.”

And so I come away from chapter nine filled with awe and wonder at our God. I’m thankful that God taught this man how to describe God so gloriously. This is a gift from the Creator: that I can sit here and read these words and watch my spirit soar in adoration of the One who is perfectly wise and all-powerful, and who displays His wisdom and might for His glory and our good.

NOTE: This is one of a serious of posts on the book “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer. For details on how to join me, blogger Tim Challies and hundreds of other Christians on this journey, click here. To read the other posts in this series, click here.

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Eight Chapters, Two Responses, and One Amazing God

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Wayne Davies

KnowingGodPackerWhile reading chapters 1-8 of Knowing God by J.I. Packer, I find myself repeatedly bound by a two-fold response: repentance and worship.

Could this be one reason that Paul said we are “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10)? I am sorrowful because of my sins, which Packer unveils with pinpoint accuracy. And I am rejoicing in the worship of the great and wonderful God of Scripture, who Packer describes with the biblical wisdom of a gifted pastor-teacher.

Here’s a recap of the sins of which I’m guilty and the excellencies for which I praise Him.

Chapter 1: The Study of God
Repentance: I confess that I have pursued theological knowledge for its own sake, leading to pride and conceit. I have viewed myself as better than other Christians because I think I know more than they do.
Worship: I praise you, Father, because you have spoken to man, and the Bible is your Word, “given to us to make us wise unto salvation.”

Chapter 2: The People Who Know Their God
Repentance: I have often failed to grasp the difference between knowing about God and knowing God, making an idol out of the former to the exclusion of the latter.
Worship: I praise you for granting the gift of contentment to your people. Thank you for making peace with God possible through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Chapter 3: Knowing and Being Known
Repentance: I confess that my faith has often consisted of nothing more than “maudlin self-absorption.” There have been days when I treat God as merely the means to meeting my need for comfort and happiness.
Worship: I praise you for your “initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling and preserving” your people. I thank you that “what matters supremely . . . is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – that fact that He knows me.”

Chapter 4: The Only True God
Repentance: I confess that I have often thought of myself “free to think of God as I like” to think of Him, and have thereby broken the second commandment.
Worship: I extol you, O God, for you have spoken in your Son, and therefore “the light of the knowledge of His glory is given to us in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Chapter 5: God Incarnate
Repentance: I wasted many years by not only disbelieving the gospel, but by ignoring it altogether.
Worship: O God, how amazing is your grace! You saw fit to reveal yourself through your Son. I praise you for the mystery of the incarnation, that God the Son became Man without ceasing to be God!

Chapter 6: He Shall Testify
Repentance: I have consistently ignored the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Worship: I thank you, God, for teaching me that “were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit, there would be no gospel, no faith, no Church, no Christianity . . . no New Testament . . . in short, no Christians.”

Chapter 7: God Unchanging
Repentance: I have read the Bible and believed the lie that I must resign myself to “following afar off . . . neither seeking nor expecting for myself such intimacy and direct dealing with God as the men of the Bible knew.”
Worship: I praise you, O God, for you are immutable. “God does not change.” Your life, your character, your truth, your ways, your purposes and your Son do not change. May the glory of your immutability continue to make my soul soar to new heights of wonder!

Chapter 8: The Majesty of God
Repentance: I confess that my God is too small.
Worship: I praise you, O God, for your majesty and greatness. “You are eternal, infinite and almighty. You have us in your hands; but we never have you in ours. Like us, you are personal; but unlike us, you are great.”

NOTE: This is one of a serious of posts on the book “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer. For details on how to join me, blogger Tim Challies and hundreds of other Christians on this journey, click here. To read the other posts in this series, click here.

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