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What comes to mind when you think of God?

Seriously…

Who is this God we are growing to know? Oftentimes our understanding of God needs to be untangled from the mix of ideas commonly shared about Him. Let’s go to His Word and write what is said about who God is:

Exodus 3:5-6

 ^“Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”

Exodus 34:6-7

“Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the LordGod, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; ⁷ who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Psalm 25:8

“Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.”

Psalm 90:1-2

“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
² Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

Psalm 102:12

 “But You, O Lord, abide forever,
And Your name to all generations.”

Psalm 113:5-6

“Who is like the Lord our God,
Who is enthroned on high,
⁶ Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in heaven and in the earth?”

Psalm 145:17

“The Lord is righteous in all His ways
And kind in all His deeds.” 

Isaiah 6:3

“And one called out to another and said,

Malachi 3:6

 “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

Romans 8:35-39

 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Willtribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, ornakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written,

³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer throughHim who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 11:33-36

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ³⁴ For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? ³⁵ Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? ³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the gloryforever. Amen.”

Colossians 1:15-17

 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Hebrews 13:8

 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

James 1:17

 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

1 Peter 1:3

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whoaccording to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

1 John 4:8

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 

Rev 4:8

“And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and nightthey do not cease to say,

Look back over these descriptions of our God. As His children, we see evidence of His character in the ups and downs of our lives. Here are just a few more texts that help us see more of the fullness and awesomeness of God. Read these slowly and thoughtfully.

1 Samuel 2:6-10

 “LORD, You are the One who kills and makes alive…this is difficult for me to understand. You alone are God. I recognize your absolute power over life and death. I praise You for life! …”

Isaiah 40:28-31

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. ²⁹ He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. ³⁰ Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, ³¹ Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

This is the GOD that we have the privilege to serve! This is the GOD who has graciously caused us to know Him through His creation and through salvation! This is the GOD who seeks that all people would know Him. He has entrusted us with the responsibility to speak the Gospel into the lives of those around us.

May our hearts beat with His; may we be His hands, His feet, His voice that all may truly know Him.

The first thing to do when seeking to put a sin to death is this:

Consider Whether Your Lust Has These Dangerous Symptoms Accompanying It

He goes on to list several of those dangerous symptoms.

Inveterateness (hardened or deep-rooted). Here is what he says: “If it has lain long corrupting in your heart, if you have suffered it to abide in power and prevalency, without attempting vigorously the killing of it and the healing of the wounds you have received by it for some long season, your distemper is dangerous. … When a lust has lain long in the heart, corrupting, festering, cankering, it brings the soul to a woeful condition. In such a case an ordinary course of humiliation will not do the work: whatever it be, it will by this means insinuate itself more or less into all the faculties of the soul, and habituate the affections to its company and society; it grows familiar to the mind and conscience, that they do not startle at it as a strange thing, but are bold with it as that which they are wonted unto.”

Secret pleas of the heart for the countenancing of itself without a vigorous gospel attempt for its mortification. He offers two ways in which this may happen:

• “When upon thoughts, perplexing thoughts about sin, instead of applying himself to the destruction of it, a man searches his heart to see what evidences he can find of a good condition, notwithstanding that sin and lust, so that it may go well with him. For a man to gather up his experiences of God, to call them to mind, to collect them, consider, try, improve them, is an excellent thing—a duty practiced by all the saints, commended in the Old Testament and the New. … But now to do it for this end, to satisfy conscience, which cries and calls for another purpose, is a desperate device of a heart in love with sin.”
• By applying grace and mercy to an unmortified sin. “There is nothing more natural than for fleshly reasonings to grow high and strong upon this account. The flesh would fain be indulged unto upon the account of grace, and every word that is spoken of mercy, it stands ready to catch at and to pervert it, to its own corrupt aims and purposes. To apply mercy, then, to a sin not vigorously mortified is to fulfill the end of the flesh upon the gospel.”

When a man fights against his sin only with arguments from the issue or the punishment due unto it. “This is a sign that sin has taken great possession of the will, and that in the heart there is a superfluity of naughtiness [James 1:21]. Such a man as opposes nothing to the seduction of sin and lust in his heart but fear of shame among men or hell from God, is sufficiently resolved to do the sin if there were no punishment attending it; which, what it differs from living in the practice of sin, I know not. Those who are Christ’s, and are acted in their obedience upon gospel principles, have the death of Christ, the love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, a deep-grounded abhorrency of sin as sin, to oppose to any seduction of sin, to all the workings, strivings, rightings of lust in their hearts.”

Here’s a helpful explanation of what he means:

Try yourself by this also: When you are by sin driven to make a stand, so that you must either serve it and rush at the command of it into folly, like the horse into the battle, or make head against it to suppress it, what do you say to your soul? What do you expostulate with yourself? Is this all—‘Hell will be the end of this course; vengeance will meet with me and find me out?’ It is time for you to look about you; evil lies at the door [Gen. 4:7]. Paul’s main argument to evince that sin shall not have dominion over believers is that they ‘are not under the law, but under grace’ (Rom. 6:14). If your contendings against sin be all on legal accounts, from legal principles and motives, what assurance can you attain unto that sin shall not have dominion over you, which will be your ruin?

When your lust has already withstood particular dealings from God against it. God oftentimes, in his providential dispensations, meets with a man, and speaks particularly to the evil of his heart, as he did to Joseph’s brethren in their selling of him into Egypt. This makes the man reflect on his sin, and judge himself in particular for it. God makes it to be the voice of the danger, affliction, trouble, sickness that he is in or under. Sometimes in reading of the word God makes a man stay on something that cuts him to the heart, and shakes him as to his present condition. More frequently in the hearing of the word preached—his great ordinance for conviction, conversion, and edification—does he meet with men. God often hews men by the sword of his word in that ordinance, strikes directly on their bosom-beloved lust, startles the sinner, makes him engage unto the mortification and relinquishment of the evil of his heart. Now, if his lust has taken such hold on him as to enforce him to break these bands of the Lord and to cast these cords from him—if it overcomes these convictions and gets again into its old posture; if it can cure the wounds it so receives—that soul is in a sad condition.”

This post was originally an article on www.challies.com. You can read the article in it’s entirety here. 

The following is the third part of a series written by one of our members, David Carrico. Previous parts can be found at the links below:

Part 1

Part 2

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” 

Matthew 6:9

As we meditate through the Model Prayer, we come next to “…hallowed be Thy name…”

Hallowed…a very odd sounding word to the modern American ear.  Sounds kind of old-timey, doesn’t it?  That’s because it is old-timey.  The dictionary calls it archaic and obsolete.  And you’ve got to admit, this isn’t a word that just pops up in everyday conversation.

That explains why we see it in books dating back to the 16^th and 17^th centuries, like the King James translation of the Bible.  But why do we see it in modern translations like the New American Standard?

Well, that has to do with a deficiency in modern English.  For all its flexibility in communication; for all that most of the world seems to have adopted English as a universal communication tool; for all that some of the grandest written works in human history have been rendered in or into English, it’s not perfect.  It has a few flaws.

One of those flaws is there is no verb form of “holy” in modern English.  We can say “be holy” or “make holy” or “is holy”, but we can’t say “God holied” something.  But to handle the Greek correctly, translators sometimes have a need to be able to say “to holy” someone/something when translating the New Testament.  And that is why modern translators will sometimes use “hallowed” in translating this verse; because this archaic word is a form of a Middle English word that basically means “to holy” something or someone, and it allows them to correctly translate the Greek word.

So in “hallowed be” what we have is a prayer that something be “holied”.  And what is the object of that desire?  The name of God.

As a child in Sunday School, way more years ago than I care to think about, this phrase never made much sense to me.  I had the idea back then that “hallowed” somehow meant something like “praised”.  And that sort of made sense to me.  Even in my early years as a believer, I understood enough to know that God deserved praise from His children.  But “praise the name of God” statements never made much sense to me.  What was so special about the word “God” that made it something that should be praised?

Even if I had known that “hallowed” meant “holied”, it still wouldn’t have made much sense to me.  You see, in our modern culture names are only labels.  The label most people know me by is “David”.  Now that name has meaning—it means “beloved” in Hebrew—and I know that my mother chose it for me with intent.  But in our society, we don’t think about names the way the people of the Bible did.  I sure didn’t in my earlier years.  And we especially don’t understand that when the Bible talks about “the name of God”, it is talking about so much more than a mere divine label.

You see, in the Bible, when one of the writers talks about “the name of God”, the word “name” is being used in a very particular way.  It’s not a reference to any of the thirteen names of God found in the Old Testament:  Yahweh, Elohim, El Elyon, Yahweh-Yireh, El Shaddai, Yahweh-Shalom, etc.  Those names all express characteristics of God, true:  creator, possessor, provider, peace, etc.  But that is different from what one of those writers says when he writes “the name of God”.  The ancient Jews believed that the name of God encompassed the essence of God, His power, and His glory.  Take a look at the following verse.

Some boast in chariots, and some in horses; 

But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.

Psalms 20:7

They weren’t talking about boasting in a label.  “The name of the Lord/God” wasn’t just a label to them.  That phrase was filled with meaning and import.  When they used it, they were invoking the power and might and glory and majesty of God: the God who always has been, is now, and always will be; the God whose mind held the plan of the universe and of history before He said “Let there be light”; the God who will draw all creation to an end and then create a new heaven and a new earth.

That’s not a God that you just stick a label on and believe you understand Him.  That’s a God who is beyond our ability to comprehend.  Yet the Bible still gives us glimpses of Him.  And one persistent theme in the Bible, particularly among the Old Testament Prophets, is that God is holy.  Many times He is called “The Holy One of Israel”.

What is holy?  Well, the Greek word means pure, clean, without blemish, flaw, or taint.  So in a spiritual application, it means to be morally and spiritually pure, without a touch of sin at all, anywhere, at any time.  God is holy.  You could also say God is holiness.  Holiness is such a part of God’s nature that it can’t be separated from Him.

In recent years I’ve come to believe that holiness is the preeminent characteristic of God.  I know a lot of people, including very learned commentators, would disagree with me and put forward the idea of “God is love” as being the most important aspect of God for mankind.

The problem I have with that is if God is not holy, then everything else about Him is meaningless.  Of what value is the justice of a God who is not holy?  Of what value is the power of a God who is not holy?  Of what value is the love of a God who is not holy?  And ultimately, of what value is a salvation offered by a God who is not holy?

Everything that we know about God, everything that we value about God, everything that we cherish about God flows out of His being holy.  Regardless of which metaphor we pick—cornerstone, keystone, core—it is the holiness of God that is the beginning and end of who God is.  All the other characteristics of God are not necessarily secondary, but must be seen through the lens of God’s holiness.  God is peace because He is holy.  God is the righteous judge because He is holy.  God is love because He is holy.

So let’s come back to our prayer.  If God is holy, then what does it mean to pray “hallowed be Thy name”?  I mean, it does sound a bit silly for us to pray for God to be holy when He already is holy, when holiness is such a part of Him that we can’t separate the two.

Well, I think there are a couple of things at work here.

First, the prayer acknowledges the holiness of the almighty God.  We need to be constantly reminded of that holiness.

Second, I believe there is a prayer for personal application implied here:  “God, You are holy.  Let Your holiness be evident—in me.”

Holiness should be the goal of each believer.  In fact, we’re commanded to it.

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” “

1 Peter 1:14-16

It should be our desire, individually and collectively, to be holy.  Not “holier than thou”, not self-righteous, not judgmental.  Simply holy.  And our prayers should reflect that desire, because we can’t be holy on our own.

Peace and grace to you.

David

The following is an article from Tim Challies. You can fin out more from him and his ministry here.

Jerry Bridges was talking about preaching the gospel to yourself and being gospel-centered long before it was cool to do so. One of the great burdens of his ministry has long been to have Christians understand that “the gospel is not only the most important message in all of history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experiencing the joy of living by it. … Christians are not instructed in the gospel. And because they do not fully understand the riches and glory of the gospel, they cannot preach it to themselves, not live by it in their daily lives.” In other words, we teach people just enough gospel to get saved, but then move on to other things. Bridges wants us to understand that we never move on from the gospel.

In the third chapter of The Discipline of Grace, Bridges provides a powerful, thorough review of the gospel and does this by looking at Romans 3:19-26. He offers an exposition of that passage and through it leads to this imperative: Preach the gospel to yourself. Let me provide an extended quote that gives some of the how and the why:

To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.

To preach the gospel to yourself means that you take at face value the precious words of Romans 4:7-8: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

It means that you believe on the testimony of God that “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). It means you believe that “Christ redeemed [you] from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for [you], for it is written ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). It means you believe He forgave you all your sins (Colossians 2:13) and now “[presents you] holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22).

Turning to the Old Testament, to preach the gospel to yourself means that you appropriate by faith the words of Isaiah 53:6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and theLORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

It means that you dwell upon the promise that God has removed your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), that He has blotted out your transgressions and remembers your sin no more (Isaiah 43:25). But it means you realize that all these wonderful promises of forgiveness are based upon the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

It is the death of Christ through which He satisfied the justice of God and averted from us the wrath of God that is the basis of all God’s promises of forgiveness. We must be careful that, in preaching the gospel to ourselves, we do not preach a gospel without a cross. We must be careful that we do not rely on the so-called unconditional love of God without realizing that His love can only flow to us as a result of Christ’s atoning death.

This is the gospel Bridges wants the Christian to preach to himself day-by-day. “When you set yourself to seriously pursue holiness, you will begin to realize what an awful sinner you are. And if you are not firmly rooted in the gospel and have not learned to preach it to yourself every day, you will soon become discouraged and will slack off in your pursuit of holiness.”

To learn very practically about how Bridges preaches the gospel to himself, click here for a short quote from his book Respectable Sins.