This and That 090912 Justified – period!

One afternoon I listened to Alistair Begg’s sermon, After Darkness Light.  I am so blessed by his teaching and almost all of his sermons are free at www.truthforlife.com. 

This particular sermon dealt with justification.  I know – big word and one we can get so used to that we cease to really hear it.  But we need to get a grasp on the power in that term and make good use of it in our lives

Paul writes:

Rom 8:30-31  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.  (31)  What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Justification is done.  It was done on the cross and proclaimed by the words:

Joh 19:30  . . . . "It is finished," . . . .

In that majestic and horrible moment God,

2Co 5:21  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As I listened to Alistair I thought, “this was a perfect execution of justice in an unjust execution.”  That is, He who did not deserve this punishment took this punishment and the punishment is done.  So, Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We must, even if we struggle, to accept that,

1Pe 2:24  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

I like to say that if one is going on a journey, the most important thing they have to know is where they are.  If we have that wrong, then not maps, compasses or anything else will be of use to us.  If we enter the wrong coordinates as our starting point, we will have a much harder time getting to our goal.

Praise God, however, that unlike a journey we make, in Him it is a journey He takes us on.  Praise God, our skills at navigation are not necessary for He intends to get us to our journey’s end and nothing can thwart that.  But the quality of that journey, the security of that journey is something in which He calls us to be a part.

This is the importance of you and me standing firm on His, “It is finished.”  This is the point from which we begin our journey, whether we begin daily, hourly or minute by minute.  To start any place else will only get us diverted and make our journey arduous and painful. 

Paul writes,

Php 1:6  And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Why can Paul be so sure?  Because the beginning of that good work was our justification. 

No, do not think as some do that it is “just as if I” had died for my sins.  It is not.  The holy and righteous Son of God died for our sins and our dying for them would only have gotten us to hell.  You dying for your sins would be you dying in your sins and what is the consequence of that?  You and I could never, even by our deaths, satisfy the demands of God’s justice.

But the gracious and intentional acceptance by a holy and righteous redeemer could and did. 

And so, it is indeed finished.

And so, it is indeed begun.

Michael Sanders, Chaplain

ms@tc2v1.com

www.tc2v1.com

Walk with P & me 12

Walk with P & me  12

Another weekend of net mending and To Do’s.  But what’s new is prayer. 

We had been remiss in our prayers together and had been talking about fixing that and we did.

Patti is a silent prayer and I, being used to offering public prayer, am not – but I can be.  So we hit the middle ground.  We discuss what we have on our hearts and then we kneel together and pray silently yet simultaneously.  It’s a meaningful time for us and it’s without struggle.  We are blessed.

I have just finished reading Let Us Pray which is a book of articles from various sources like R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur and John Piper.  It has been a real blessing is getting my focus back on prayer and back in prayer. 

The one thing that really stands out is that all the authors touch on the model prayer.  Now I know this isn’t news to most of you and it wasn’t “new’ to me but reading through this work crystalized a very important point.  It is the context set in that model that needs to be in our minds as we pray.

It begins with “Our Father in heaven.”  That’s the “to.”  He’s the one to whom we take our prayers.  I know – duhhhh.  But I had never thought of praying about that short phrase and it meaning and import.  So I began to take time in prayer to actually pray about my Father in heaven. 

It is interesting to me how all the “needs” on the list want to get out in front of doing that.  It takes work – at least for me – to focus on Him and tell my “needs” to hang on.  But it has been a great help in calming my head and heart and focusing on all the blessings I have.  Doing this even brings one to the point where in light of all the blessings I’ve enjoyed and in some cases abused I am a little abashed when I get to my “needs.”

Next I pray about, “Thy Kingdom come.”  That’s kind of a two pointed prayer.  It brings to mind His Kingship in and over me as well as the promise of being in His eternal Kingdom for real one day.  This too brings thanksgiving and conviction.  Thanksgiving for the eternal security I have in Him and conviction concerning my struggle to live as a good citizen of His Kingdom.

Finally I pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Here I am amazed at the conundrum of His will being done.  Greatly thankful for His sovereign will,  I struggle against my flesh wanting my will to be done or at least His will to be done my way in my time. 

Through this I find I am able to get myself out of the way and then pray without pretext.  I am able to yield (?) – yeah, yield my petitions to Him knowing He know and will do what is best.  Don’t get me wrong, I still make suggestions but He and I don’t pretend they are right –  they are just my ideas – or struggles.

I am growing more convinced that we can never pray too much and we tend towards doing way too much.  I used to read of the old saints and the time they spent in prayer and thought they were – well, kind of weird, kind of monkish.  But I am growing more and more jealousy of time to pray – to sit and shut out everything and take the cares on my heart for His people and His work to Him and have a talk.

Well, that’s where we are in net mending – pray we will grow more and more jealous of time to pray and that we will indeed stay in Him as we do so.

Here’s a prayer that I find very helpful when I have too much on my mind to pray well.

From:  Puritan Prayers

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ.  Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction.  Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

Anonymous (2010-07-01). Puritan Prayers (Kindle Locations 5-15).  . Kindle Edition.