Hello everybody,
Grace and peace to you. I just wanted to add one last comment, which is just an observation. Not too long ago, my wife and I were attending a local church where the Pastor was both a nice guy and theologically sound. I think that he had his training from J. MacArthur's school, and you won't find many preacher/teachers as sound as MacArthur (though I still disagree with some interpretations that require mental gymnastics and ignore what scripture plainly says.) Brother John is an amazing scholar just the same, and in that respect I don't hold a candle to him. But, this local Pastor, sound as he is in doctrine, gets more than a little self righteous at times, and most definitely has unresolved personal issues. In the past, this guy was a motocycle mechanic, a bit of a biker, and an excellent percussionist. I don't know what else the man went through in the world, but it's left noticeable scars in his behavior and in his preaching. We all tend to carry baggage from our life before salvation, and some more than others. That church had a relatively small congregation that met in the main sanctuary and another Hispanic congregation that met in the basement. The division was due to language, but I noted that the traditional sanctuary, the more comfortable one, was used by those who came first with respect to the historical founding of that congregation. It takes time for the Spirit of God to heal and renew our minds, this is a big part of what sanctification is about. If the Lord allowed us to see ourselves as we are in the depths of our sin all at once, it would be more than a little difficult to handle.
We left that particular church because the preaching was starting to give my wife doubts in her salvation and in the character of God. While a good Preacher must point out sin, he should also offer grace and mercy through the gospel of salvation in Christ Jesus. We may grow tired of hearing gospel messages at times, but if you bind someone's conscience with the law, you must also offer freedom through the grace of Christ, Who did not come for our condemnation, but for our redemption. I would never suggest softening the truth, as hell and condemnation is a reality, but Jesus suffered and died to spare us the eternal consequence of our sin, and His love is far more effective in bringing wayward sheep back into the fold. However, unregenerate hearts don't desire the love of God, because they are at enmity with God. As beautiful as Jesus may appear to us, He frightens those on the outside and rightly so. If people in the world have no fear of Christ, its because the Lord has been misrepresented to them. We are called to be ambassadors of peace, but an ambassador of peace is uneccessary where there is no war, so our very existence proves the point. We are able to see the Lord as entirely lovely, because we have been made alive spiritually by His own breath, and in this respect our eyes have been renewed before our minds. There is a verse that I read years ago and pondered about for a while: With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward Psalm 18:26. This quote is from the King James version (and I don't believe that the translation itself is more inspired than another,) and the reason that it caught my attention was that I didn't have a clue what the word "froward" means. I didn't have Bible study software or multiple translations at my finger tips, but I think I'd already received the gift of an old secondhand copy of Strong's concordance from the Pastor at the church where I publicly confessed my faith and was baptised. The concordance wasn't a great help with this verse. As I don't read Greek and Hebrew, I use the New American Standard for some study as some people claim that it is the most faithful to the original languages (I couldn't say one way or another.) A footnote tells me that the Hebrew word translated as "froward" litterally means "twisted." This causes some theological problems, especially to the eyes of the unregenerate. God does not change and His character is only good, so if He shows Himself one way to one person, then He must show Himself the same way to another. The problem with our understanding here is that some people see God entirely differently than others and this has to do with our eyes being good or evil (regenerate or unregenerate.) Consider this rebuke in the scripture:
21 These things you have done, and I kept silent;
You thought that I was altogether like you;
But I will rebuke you,
And set them in order before your eyes
Psalm 50:21
New King James Version (NKJV)
People have always created their own gods in their own images, and the same is true when unregenerate eyes read the scripture, even when "Christian" commentaries are available. There is one God, One begotten Son, and one Holy Spirit, but unless you receive the Son, and are quickened by His Spirit, you can never grasp what He's like, regardless of the amount of study you might do or resources that you might have. If you haven't yet known Him, this is the time to confess your sin to God and trust Him for your salvation, through the blood of His Son, shed on your behalf, and ask Him to lead you and guide you through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. The Lord Himself will guide you through His word, to do what is right, but our righteousness is never from what we do (other than confess Him with our mouth and beleive that He is risen from the dead.) It comes from the risen Christ in whom we believe. The Old Testament Scripture calls Him The Lord our Righteosness and indeed He is. We have nothing to offer Him but our obedience and even this is of His grace. Amen.
Well, I missed the first half of the Jets game, so I'll say goodbye for now. May the Lord bless you richly in understanding and give you growth in His grace. Amen.