Pride is self confident and says, “I’ve got it.” Pride does not see any need to repent or seek outside help. Pride blinds us.
Tag Archives: Dependence
I will wait for the Lord, I will hope in Him
“For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” (Isaiah 8:11–15 ESV)
The people of Judah are afraid of surface level threats because they have no fear of God. They have such a low view of the majestic grandeur of the Creator that they are easily shaken by what is going on around them. We should not fear what others fear, nor dread what others dread for our eyes are fixed on the transcendent majesty of the King of all the earth. He is our strength, protection, hope, salvation and strength. God promises to preserve a remnant of faithful, loyal disciples while the remainder of the people remain stiff-necked and complain against God while they are taken in to exile. A patient trust in God characterizes those whom are part of the remnant. Is our faith really in God, or is it in other things – surface level things that distract us from full devotion? “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.” (Isaiah 8:17 ESV)
Place your faith in the one that providentially plots the course of nations
Ahaz (king of Judah) fears, as do the people when they hear that Israel and Syria are planning to come against them (Isaiah 7:2), but God vetoes human intent and instead tells them that Syria and the northern kingdom will fall – and they did. The people of Judah have an opportunity to hold on to God, but their faith must be firm – there is a tie between stability and faith (Isaiah 7:3-9). In verses 10-17, we see God calling Ahaz to place ultimate faith in him – and even encourages him to ask for a dramatic sign (v11), but Ahaz had placed his faith in human strength – instead of turning to God for help, Ahaz turned to the king of Assyria. He had given gold from the temple treasury to the Assyrians to elicit them to attack the Syrians & the northern kingdom (2 Kings 16:1-9). All that they needed to do was to place their ultimate faith (trust) in the one that providentially plots the course of nations. God prompts Ahaz to place his faith in a far more reliable source – God himself and then goes on to promise the coming of the messiah, the ultimate gift of grace. Ahaz’s lack of faith in God to deliver them came at a cost, in 733 BC the Assyrians overthrew the northern kingdom and the Syrian’s (2 Kings 15:29), but the cost was extreme – in gold and Judah had aligned themselves with a wicked nation and became a servant to the Assyrians. All because they lacked faith in the God who had delivered them and provided for them. Failure of earthly kings, requires the intervention of the King of kings to deliver His promises. God was to be Israel’s king from the beginning, but they wanted an earthly king, like everybody else. Where is your ultimate faith (trust)? In politicians, morality, marriage, religion, relationships, wealth, significance, success – or God. Where do you look for deliverance?
Isaiah is undone in the presence of the Lord
““Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”” (Isaiah 6:3 ESV)
Isaiah is undone in the presence of the Lord as he cries out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”” (Isaiah 6:5 ESV). The prophet recognizes how short he falls from holiness when he is faced with the holiness of God as he stands in His presence. But God provides the only remedy for Isaiah’s (and our) position: grace. God graciously provides and atones for his sinful inadequacy: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”” (Isaiah 6:6–7 ESV). Being in the presence of the Almighty and experiencing His grace moves Isaiah to action and service, ““Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”” (Isaiah 6:8 ESV). Isaiah is called to be a prophet to the people. However, Isaiah’s proclamation will not cause the people to repent and turn to the Lord, rather God had ordained that it would only serve to harden their already darkened and depraved hearts: ““‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”” (Isaiah 6:9–10 ESV). The regenerating faith to respond to God is a gift of His grace, for without it we won’t want Him.
Do You Feel Distant from God?
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Theology Refresh: Sanctification
Desiring God is doing a series of brief interviews with various teachers called “Theology Refresh.” John Piper just did two on sanctification.
Part 1 covers sanctification in general. The progressive nature of becoming more like Jesus, being made more in to His image, becoming more holy in practice.
Listen now or download
Part 2 covers how sanctification works “on the ground;” how it happens in the real world and what role does the gospel plays in our sanctification. Listen now or download
Manipulating God
“When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:15 ESV).
Isaiah 1:10-20 highlights the hypocrisy of the Hebrews. God had setup the sacrificial system and all of its facets to produce repentance and tender hearts toward God and ultimately flowing out to others. It was intended to produce dependance and piety in the people. The people no longer pursued God, but rather went through the motions in an effort to manipulate God and place him in their debt. God utterly rejected their worship because their hearts are far from Him. Though they went through all of the religious motions, God ignored them because their hearts were far from Him.
“Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” (Isaiah 1:5 ESV)
Not even the most difficult circumstances will bring them to repentance. Depravity reigns. Even the decimation of their land and being overthrown by foreign invaders has moved them to repentance (7-8).
“If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9 ESV)
It is only by God’s power and grace is a remnant left in Israel.
God’s Intervention
“You cannot explain that except in terms of God’s intervention. Only God could have done that.”
“What have I seen God do that only He can do?”
Experiencing God (15th Anniversary Edition) by Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King, Chapter 4 Being God’s Servant; © 2004 by Broadman & Holman Publishers All rights reserved. Study questions © 1998 by Broadman & Holman Publishers
The Gospel Propels Us to Live Missionally
“When God’s grace is working on us and in us, it will also work itself out through us. The internal renewal of our minds and hearts creates an external propulsion that moves us out in love and service to others.” page 67
“It is also the answer to your failure to love others, engage the culture, and live missionally. If the gospel is renewing you internally, it will also be propelling you externally.” page 68
“But that sense of ‘should’ has no motivational power. It was law, not gospel. It could show me what I ought to be doing, but it could not change my heart so that I actually wanted to do it.” page 68-69
“Was joyless, mechanical obedience really honoring to Jesus? Did God intend his commands to feel like drudgery? When faced with this dilemma, most people settle for either legalism (obey even though you don’t feel like it) or license (don’t obey at all). But neither of these is gospel! The gospel of God’s grace is the fuel for mission, and when we run low on that fuel, our love and service to others grinds to a halt” page 69
“It means that mission is not duty (something we ‘should do’) but a natural overflow of the gospel’s work inside of us. If you aren’t motivated to love, serve and speak the gospel to people, the answer isn’t ‘just do it,’ the answer is to examine your heart, repent of sin, and discern where your unbelief is short-circuiting the natural outward movement of the gospel. As the gospel renews your heart, it will also renew your desire to move out in faith into relationships and opportunities God places in your path.” page 69
-From The Gospel-Centered Life by World Harvest Mission. Download a free sample of chapter 1 here
The Gospel Grid
“The apostle Peter teaches that a lack of ongoing transformation in our lives comes from forgetting what God has done for us in the gospel (2 Peter 1:3-9). If we are to grow into maturity in Christ, we must deepen and enlarge our understanding of the gospel as God’s appointed means for personal and communal transformation.”
[The gospel] “is not just the means of our salvation, but the means of our transformation. It is not simply deliverance from sin’s penalty, but release from sins power. The gospel is what makes us right with God (justification) and it is also what frees us to delight in God (sanctification). The gospel changes everything!”
“The more I grow in my Christian life, the more I grow in my awareness of God’s holiness and of my flesh and sinfulness.” … “But my awareness of both is growing. I am increasingly seeing God as he actually is (Isaiah 55:8-9) and myself as I actually am (Jeremiah 7:9-10).” … “As my understanding of my sin and of God’s holiness grows, something else grows: my appreciation and love for Jesus.” … “The cross looms larger and more central in my life as I rejoice in the Savior who died upon it.”
“Because of the indwelling sin that remains in me, I have an ongoing tendency to minimize the gospel or ‘shrink the cross.’ This happens when I either (a) minimize God’s perfect holiness, thinking of him as something less than his Word declares him to be, or (b) elevate my own righteousness, thinking of myself as better than I actually am. The cross becomes smaller and Christ’s importance in my life is diminished.”
“We need to identify, admit, and feel the depth of our brokenness and sinfulness.”
“Our hope is not in our own goodness, nor in the vain expectation that God will compromise his standards and ‘grade on a curve.’ Rather, we rest in Jesus as our perfect Redeemer – the One who is ‘our righteousness, holiness and redemption’ (1 Corinthians 1:30).”
-Exerted from The Gospel-Centered Life by World Harvest Mission, pages 8-10. Download a sample of chapter 1 here
The Gospel Centered Life 