April 2003 Archives

While not wishing to go into a long monologue, I am saddened by the lack of care concerning such passages of Scripture as Ephesians 1-2, Romans 9-11, and John 6, just to name a few. Any time a discussion of sovereignty or depravity or election comes up, it's like some people immediately give up with the excuse: "It's a deep thing of God. He just wants us to live for Him." I would say yes to both statements. They are deep things of God, and He wants us to live for His glory. However, He's given us something called the Bible. And in the Bible, such things are talked about with the express purpose of enabling us to live for His glory.

Part One: Sovereignty

"Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. "Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1-2)

"Comfort My people," He says. Isaiah will go on to comfort Israel with the thought that man is just grass that God blows on and we wither (6-8), that God rewards and cares for His own (9-11), that He is in need of nothing from man in any way, and anything man has is from God (12-17), that He is sovereignly in control of all things (18-26), and as such, we may trust in His promises (27-31). So what is Isaiah really told to comfort the people with? The whole chapter is about God's sufficiency in Himself, and His need for nothing. This is what should comfort the Israelite, and I daresay the saint. That God rules and reigns and needs nothing I can provide Him is a stunning thought. In fact, anything I do offer only comes from Him. This gives me the strength to wake up in the morning with great and exceeding joy. He will not be thwarted! The nations are like a speck of dust on the scale, they are nothing before Him! And if the Almighty Sovereign God of Isaiah 40 is for me, who can be against me? Who? Who indeed! It's a ludicrous thought. Paul has this in mind in Romans 8:31.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

There is much to say about predestination/election from that verse, but in this limited entry, I seek to highlight the sovereignty aspect only. "He is always full and overflowingly energetic for the sake of His people who seek their happiness in Him," says John Piper. That God is utterly sovereign was also Job's confession and joy, even though God had allowed many evil things to befall Job. Never was Satan permitted to go further than God allowed. In other words, what I'm saying is, and what I believe the Bible is saying is, God's absolute sovereignty may be a deep thing, but it is the foundation of our living a life for Him. We neglect it at great peril for our joy and faith. If God didn't want us to dwell on His absolute sovereignty, then He wouldn't have comforted Israel with it in Isaiah 40, and Paul wouldn't have used the same passage to express his delight in God in Romans 11. Theology is practical because the Bible is practical.

There comes a time in your life when what you've been preaching must be practiced in a very real way, when a concept changes from philosophy to practice. I don't mean that I haven't been practicing what I've been writing. Most of the stuff I put on here is not just a sitting down and playing an intellectual "game;" it doesn't just originate in my head. In other words, I'm not just looking at how I think someone else ought to respond if I were in such a circumstance, but I am most often the one in the middle of it and I'm preaching to myself. A Scripture passage that is meaning a lot to me right now is found in Job 23:10-17, which says:

(10) "But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. (11) "My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside.

(12) "I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. (13) "But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. (14) "For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him.

(15) "Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence; when I consider, I am terrified of Him. (16) "It is God who has made my heart faint, and the Almighty who has dismayed me, (17) but I am not silenced by the darkness, nor deep gloom which covers me."

Despite all of Job's righteousness (that is, his valuing supremely the Supremely Valuable), a holy and good God had seen fit to inflict on Job suffering that none of us can comprehend. Job recognizes God's sovereignty especially in vv. 13-14 and 16. Even this suffering was not outside God's control, and whatever He desires, He does. In that, I cease my anxiousness and rest. Though weeping may last for the night, yet a shout of joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5) This is true. I have no cause for doubting, no cause for worry or for fear. For as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. (II Cor. 1:20) So instead of moping or beating myself up, I may, with newfound strength, rise in the joy of the Lord. Isn't it funny that in the midst of our suffering or frustrated plans or disappointed expectations we think it's the end of the world, and that God can't meet the deepest needs in our hearts? He holds me in His hands, and I'm actually very excited that He has led me down the path He has ordered for me, so on Monday morning, God will not let me out of His grip. He has indeed captured me, and all I can say is that I would never wish to be anywhere else. Just some thoughts.

This is an excerpt from a rather lengthy devotional I recently did on despondency. Spurgeon struggled with what he called “causeless depression” where, for no good reason, he would cry like a baby for an hour, and when he was through, he didn’t even know why. While most may not be suffering from causeless despondency, the point Spurgeon makes and Piper’s highlight is worth noting.

“Causeless depression cannot be reasoned with, nor can David’s harp charm it away by sweet discoursings. As well fight with the mist with this shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness… The iron bolt which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back.”

Yet he did fight. He saw his depression as his “worst feature.”

“Despondency,” he said, “is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God.” (p. 301)

Spurgeon saw, and Piper will emphasize, that there is no remedy for despondency like a “holy faith in God.” The whole point of Faith in Future Grace is that saving faith and sanctifying faith are one and the same thing, and it’s important to know that Piper defines faith in the following manner:

Justifying faith is not only a trusting in the past grace of God, but also a trusting in the future grace of God, secured by the past grace of Christ’s death and resurrection. Justifying faith embraces embraces the finished work of Christ’s atonement, in the sense that it rests in all that this atonement means for our past, present and future….

The essence (though not the sum total) of justifying faith is being satisfied with all that God is (and promises to be) for us in Jesus… And this embracing is not a mere intellectual assent to a teaching, but is also a vital heartfelt satisfaction in God. (p. 27)

So a “holy faith in God” is roughly equated with “being satisfied with all that God is (and promises to be) for us in Jesus.” Key word: satisfied. While some people use the “chair” example for faith, you know, that you (1) see the chair, you (2) know the chair is meant to hold you up, but the key moment is when you (3) trust the chair to hold you up. I like this example but trust is still too nebulous for my liking, or maybe it’s so overused it’s lost its meaning. I trust my chair to hold me up, but I have no feeling for it. It’s just a chair. I’d sooner liken it to cheesecake. :o) You (1) see a slice sitting there, with cherries on top and falling down the sides, you (2) know it’s got to taste good, but until you (3) eat or partake of the cheesecake, it does no good to you. And the eating or partaking implies delight. In that sense, there is a trust that the cheesecake will be good, and this is equated with being satisfied in the cheesecake to meet your cravings.

So it is with God. “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). All that God promises to be for us in the Bible receive their “Yes, this is true, and Amen, I will make it happen” through Jesus Christ. I needed to explain all this so that the rest of what Piper says about fighting despondency will make as clear sense as possible.

He says:

Without denying the complexity of our emotions and their hereditary and physical and family dimensions, what I want to show is that unbelief in future grace is the root of yielding to despondency.

He explains in a little more detail that it’s the fight he’s concerned with, not the onslaught of temptation to despair. Some people will be more naturally inclined to despair than others, due to the “complexity of our emotions and their hereditary and physical and family dimensions.” But we’re all to fight against it, no matter what the natural inclinations will be. For others, their patterns of sin are not going to the same as mine. I have a natural bent towards certain sins, and they do, as well. But we must all fight against it, not by our willpower, but by recalling promises in the Word that are truthful and delightful to us. As an example, Proverbs 5 contains the great contrast between an adultress and the “wife of your youth,” with such exhortations to let the physical aspects of the marriage relationship be more satisfying than illicit ones, and they are! When I’m tempted to sin, such statements are being questioned by my sin, and the question is, which one do I believe or delight in? That’s the fight of faith, and that’s where the Holy Spirit empowers us.

All righty. Into despondency. Piper puts it so well in several paragraphs that my paraphrasing of him would butcher the idea, so here goes:

In Psalm 73:26 the psalmist says, “My flesh and my heart may fail.” Literally the verb is simply, “My flesh and my heart fail!” I am despondent! I am discouraged! But then immediately he fires a broadside against his despondency: “But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” The psalmist does not yield. He battles unbelief with counterattack.

In essence, he says, “In myself I feel very weak and helpless and unable to cope. My body is shot and my heart is almost dead. But whatever the reason for this despondency, I will not yield. I will rust God and not myself. He is my strength and my portion.”

The Bible is replete with instances of saints struggling with sunken spirits. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” This is a clear admission that the soul of the saint sometimes needs to be revived. David says the same thing in Psalm 23:2-3, “He leads me beside quiet waters; He restores my soul.” The soul of the “man after God’s own heart” (I Sam. 13:14) needs to be restored. It was dying of thirst and ready to fall exhausted, but God led the soul to water and gave it life again.

God has put these testimonies in the Bible so that we might use them to fight the unbelief of despondency. Wherever despondency might come from, Satan paints it with a lie. The lie says, “This is it. You will never be happy again. You will never be strong again. You will never have vigor and determination again. You will never be strong again. Your life will never again be purposeful. There is no morning after this night. No joy after weeping. All is gathering gloom, darker and darker. This is not a tunnel, it is a cave, an endless cave.”

That is the color Satan paints on our despondency. And God has woven His Word with strands of truth directly opposed to that lie. The law of God does revive (Psalm 19:7). God does lead to springs of water (Psalm 23:3). God does show us the path of life (Psalm 16:11). Joy does come with the morning (Psalm 30:5). So the psalms illustrate for us the truth that unbelief is the root of yielding to despondency; but faith in future grace takes the promises of God and throws them against despondency. “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26) (pp. 302-303)

Wow! Bill Gothard’s “Stronghold Diagram” really comes through making much more sense to me. Towers of truth are what we need. It’s the shield of faith! When attacked, we defend with faith (delighting in God’s promises) and counter with the Word, and the enemy flees. Weeping may last for the night, but joy does come in the morning. And to say it won’t is to say that God is a liar.

You can see why I’m so concerned with this.

I can at least paraphrase the next section, which is about Psalm 42. Remember where the psalmist says, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence”? Piper’s heading for this section is “Learning to Preach to Ourselves.” In moments of despondency, we need to talk to ourselves, not allow ourselves to talk to us. Piper highlights Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ amazing statement:

I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing “ourselves” to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? I suggest that the main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts and that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now [the Psalmist’s] treatment was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “What art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you… Why art thou cast down? ? what business have you to be disquieted?…” And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who He is, and what God is and what God has done, and what has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance!” (p. 304)

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of Christ,” Paul in Romans 10:17 says. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me.” (John 14:1) But even Jesus had to fight despondency in Gethsamane. He didn’t give into it, but Matthew 26:38 tells us that Jesus said: “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” The key is, Jesus did not give into the despondency, but fought it.

The temptation is to think, “Well, Jesus was perfect so He couldn’t give in.” This is true. He was perfect, but it’s important to note that He was perfectly satisfied in God the Father, yet He was still tempted to despair. But He perfectly confronted that grief in the following ways:

First, He chose some close friends to be with Him. (Matthew 26:37) Second, He opened his soul to them. (v. 38) Third, He asked for their intercession and partnership in the battle. (v. 39) Fourth, He poured out his heart to His Father in prayer. (v. 39) Fifth, He rested His soul in the sovereign wisdom of God. (v. 39) Sixth, He fixed His eye on the glorious future grace that awaited Him on the other side of the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

When something drops into your life that seems to threaten your future, remember this: the first shockwaves of the bomb are not sin. The real danger is yielding to them. Giving in. Putting up no spiritual fight. And the root of that surrender is unbelief — a failure to fight for faith in future grace. A failure to cherish all that God promises to be for us in Jesus.

Jesus shows us another way. Not painless, and not passive. Follow Him. Find your trusted spiritual friends. Open your soul to them. Ask them to watch with you and pray. Pour out your soul to the Father. Rest in the sovereign wisdom of God. And fix your eyes on the joy set before you in the precious and magnificent promises of God. (p. 307)

So, to fight against despondency is to fight to be satisfied in God. And every moment you and I are not satisfied with what God promises to be for us, we are sins waiting to happen. When sin offers to satisfy us in whatever form it takes in our lives, if we do not have our eyes fixed on Him, battling sin is going to be even more unpleasant than it ought to be.

I think back to 1 John 3:2-3:

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

“Has this hope fixed on Him….” I take that to mean just what it says, to fix our eyes on all that God promises to be for us in Christ. Though the soul may be in distress for a time, this must be battled by faith in the grace of God that is there for us in every temptation, for every minute of today.