Statutes and Ordinances: not so quick thought.

This is not a complete thought and opinion on the meaning of Statues and Ordinances, but just a not so quick thought on how God’s gift of Statutes and Ordinaces benefited me today.

Ezekiel 20:11

Also I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

Psalm 119:145,149

I cried with all my heart; answer me, O LORD!

I will observe Your statutes.

Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness;

Revive me, O LORD, according to Your ordinances.

I want to retract a statement that I said in my previous post (and which I quickly edited with the assistance of a helper)

I said (and I do feel yuck for saying this)

But my hope rests on my works to be an example of my faith

This statement is a straight antithesis to my contention against Pelagianism in the first place. Oh the irony.

I must have acted capriciously at the moment to feel that I had any power to do works on my own in order to show the world my faith through my own power. It certainly is a flawed statement.

What I did mean by it though was that I hope the world around me. Or at the my social sphere. Would be able to see my faith through my works. But why?

Why Why Why??? Do I want to show people my faith in the first place.

I believe Ezekiel 20:11 makes clear of why there is a pursuit of good works and obedience to God. And that pursuit as God puts it, is so that “they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” Throughout Ezekiel 20 God emphasizes a couple more times in v.38 and v.44 that God does will do (insert event here), “then you will know that I am the LORD.”

As the famous quote the purpose of life is to “Know God and make Him known”

Deuteronomy 7:9 also exhorts us to know God

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations

God Himself is what causes mankind to “know” Him. He can do so by using people like you and me, through books, through nature, and etc. However one thing is definite. Which is, God is the one who hardens or softens and He is also the one who prepares good works and allows good works to be done and if God allows it, He lets the works affect the people surrounding the one in practice of good works. God is sovereign and in control. He sets and prepares statues, ordinances, and good works beforehand so that He may be known. Once I think  my hand caused an affection. I become proud.

My prayer is that I will not become proud and be thankful that God demonstrates His divine grace through undeserving man. And for that I am thankful because through His delineations God allows me to see His testimonies and gives opportunities to understand his ways.

Thank You God and sorry for my foolishness and pride.

-alexyi

Pelagianism: My will be done?

Wikipedia defn of Pelagianism:

Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius (ad. 354 – ad. 420/440). It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid.

R.C. Sproul on God’s Sovereignty and Salvation

This is the issue: Is it a part of God’s gift of salvation, or is it in our own contribution to salvation? Is our salvation wholly of God or does it ultimately depend on something that we do for ourselves? Those who say the latter, that it ultimately depends on something we do for ourselves, thereby deny humanity’s utter helplessness in sin and affirm that a form of semi-Pelagianism is true after all. It is no wonder then that later Reformed theology condemned Arminianism as being, in principle, both a return to Rome because, in effect, it turned faith into a meritorious work, and a betrayal of the Reformation because it denied the sovereignty of God in saving sinners, which was the deepest religious and theological principle of the reformers’ thought. Arminianism was indeed, in Reformed eyes, a renunciation of New Testament Christianity in favor of New Testament Judaism. For to rely on oneself for faith is no different in principle than to rely on oneself for works, and the one is as un-Christian and anti-Christian as the other. In the light of what Luther says to Erasmus there is no doubt that he would have endorsed this judgment.

And yet this view is the overwhelming majority report today in professing evangelical circles. And as long as semi-Pelagianism, which is simply a thinly veiled version of real Pelagianism at its core — as long as it prevails in the Church, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I know, however, what will not happen: there will not be a new Reformation. Until we humble ourselves and understand that no man is an island and that no man has an island of righteousness, that we are utterly dependent upon the unmixed grace of God for our salvation, we will not begin to rest upon grace and rejoice in the greatness of God’s sovereignty, and we will not be rid of the pagan influence of humanism that exalts and puts man at the center of religion. Until that happens there will not be a new Reformation, because at the heart of Reformation teaching is the central place of the worship and gratitude given to God and God alone. Soli Deo gloria, to God alone be the glory.

So… what is the fine line defining God’s Sovereignty in the midst of our gift of freedom. Or rather. What is our gift of freedom in the midst of God’s Sovereignty.

I certainly do not believe in fatalism*, for Scripture gives sufficient evidence that we are “appealed” to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice.”

If we are then to meditate on doing good works to obey and to live by the Spirit by walking in the Spirit. Is that wrong?

If it is completely by God’s divine aid why should we think about disciplines and cultural norms (worldy matters) and character and such and such in the first place. Should we not always be in desperation for more and more grace.

But God graciously (haha) led me to stumble across James 4:4-7

5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The rest of James chapter 4 may give even further evidence of this truth. That God certainly gives grace to the humble (a human character implored to exhorted to take on seen in James 4:9-10), but it is only through divine inspiration and assistance. Rather it is a complete assistance shown in the form of opportunities and revelation whether it’s through a general one or a specific one (scripture). I see this most clearly in Ephesians 2:10 where Paul writes this significance truth to define such a balance:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

These good works. These opportunities for good works and discipline. Will never enhance my salvation (in the way where we are MORE saved). I hope this does not come out to be misconstrued. But my hope is that the works which God produces, through His continuing sanctification in me, may be an exemplification of His irresistible grace and His divine aid in sanctification in order for His glory to be made known. As my faith grows, which God prepares beforehand and certainly by His grace alone, my joy and anticipation in the Lord will grow beyond the extent in which I perceive plausible. For this joy will be a joy in the Lord (again by His grace alone).

The NASB translates James 4:6’s “But he gives more grace.” to “But he gives a greater grace.” Personally “a greater grace” sounds more appropriate, because His immeasurable grace is what leads us to humility in the first place. This grace is a grace is not measured by a quantitative measure, but rather a qualitative measure that is incomprehensible to human nature for the human nature is unfamiliar with such Divine graciousness. This passage of Scripture is a means to open my eyes to such a holy revelation so that I may pursue a humility and submission to God. Before the throne of God above, I hope not to be a cause of my God’s jealous yearning, but an example of one, undeserving of such a gift, cleansed by the blood of the lamb to become qualified to share in the inheritance of saints.

I am thankful. By this the Good News of the glory of God through Jesus Christ is the centrality of the balance between freedom and sovereignty, yet my works, which God prepared beforehand, will define my life affected by the Gospel.

-alexyi

Quick Thought

I hope that, in my lexicon, divine grace will never ever ever ever be synonymous to human graciousness.

I benefitted much from this. Read with Discernment.

Thoughts on Credobaptism.

http://tinyurl.com/5a9gc6

Mark Dever says something really interesting regarding paedobaptism.

Soooo…. it made me think.

To what seems like a secondary issue. At least in light of the major and crucial doctrines of the Gospel, Trinity and such, why is Baptism so hotly debated?

So I’m not going to really express my opinion here (but if you do want to know you can ask), but I did want to post the URL uptop as it benefitted me by giving me evidence in scripture of the purpose of baptism and scriptural evidence of baptism being instituted unto disciples of the LORD.

Matthew 28:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

John 4:1

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

My hope though, is that, regardless of these school of thoughts, I will circumscribe these issues within the Gospel and have my heart set on loving God with all that I am, but more so, constantly reflecting upon the glory of the living God.

The Lamb of God pt.2

Leviticus 23:9-14 is a mind-blowing, earth-shattering, gravity-defying passage.

Leviticus 23

Feasts of the Lord

23:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.

The Sabbath

3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.

The Passover

4 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8 But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”

The Feast of Firstfruits

9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The Feast of Weeks

15 “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord. 18 And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And you shall make proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

22 “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

The Feast of Trumpets

23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.”

The Day of Atonement

26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. 32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

The Feast of Booths

33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths [4] to the Lord. 35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 36 For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.

37 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, 38 besides the Lord’s Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

39 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. 41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

44 Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.

Interesting…

I am thankful that God is faithful to His promises.

Even when he does not need to make those promises in the first place.

I am thankful that God is God and always will be God.