Gospel. Culture. Technology. Music.

Month: March 2006 Page 2 of 3


Regeneration

This is a necessary piece of information in understanding how we were saved, and can drastically affect how we worship our Creator. As many have been taught over the years in the church, the passage of John 3:1-15 has been explained to us to say that once you believe then you will be regenerated in your spirit. Jesus could not be clearer in this teaching though that the reverse is true; you cannot do anything (including believe) until you are regenerated (born again) by the Spirit of God. I also believe this teaching is vitally important for understanding the context of John 3:16. Jesus says in John 15:5, “…Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Does this mean we cannot eat and drink, or go here or there? Of course not! It is speaking of doing anything right before the eyes of the Lord, such as believing in Him for salvation. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. And how true this is at all of the levels of salvation! From our deadness in sin prior to Christ, to the end of our life on our death-bed. We cannot be pleasing to God without Christ’s initial intervention to change our awful, spiritually dead plight in sin. In John 6:44 He says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” What is this drawing Jesus is speaking of? No one can come to Christ (believe in Christ, love Christ, draw near to Christ) unless the Father draws the person to Himself. Is it just a wooing of the person to Himself or an actual change performed within the person by the Spirit where they are made alive and now desire to come to Him, whereas they did not before? I would advocate it is the latter of the two. This is regeneration.

It couldn’t be any clearer what Jesus is implying when He says in John 3:6-8, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” First of all, Jesus illustrates a point; flesh is born of flesh, but spirit (a regenerated, born again spirit) is born of the Spirit (capital S, meaning the Holy Spirit); your spirit cannot be regenerated by your flesh; this is an impossible proposition (i.e. man does nothing to affect the regeneration of his own soul). The Holy Spirit alone regenerates or bestows grace upon the dead soul so as to make them alive. Man does not cooperate in this grace, in the regeneration of his soul; God the Holy Spirit alone performs this act.

Then to make it even clearer, Jesus uses the illustration of wind blowing about from here to there in relation to a person being born again (having their spirit regenerated by the Spirit). He says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” What is this illustrating? The Spirit of God is like the wind. We cannot see the Holy Spirit, we do not know where the Spirit comes from or where it is going. It is God’s sovereign choice to do as He pleases and to regenerate whom He pleases. And so in the same way, Jesus says, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” God the Holy Spirit goes about to whom He chooses to go, as planned from the foundation of the world. Can we tell the wind where to go or what to do? No, but who commands it? God. So who commands the Spirit where to go? God, because the Spirit is God Himself. The Holy Spirit alone, first comes on a person to release them from the bondage of their sin, from the deadness of their soul, removing their resistance to Himself, unplugging their deaf ears, removing the blinding scales from their eyes (spiritually) and giving them the ability to “see” Christ as Lord and Savior, seeing His beauty and excellence, and thus believing in Him so as to be saved.

So what does this passage illustrate? How is it we were saved? Did our faith produce our regeneration (flesh giving birth to spirit, which Jesus already said was not the case), or did the Holy Spirit’s regeneration produce faith within us that wasn’t there before? Our faith is a gift of God, not something we contribute to our salvation. Does God the Holy Spirit believe for us though? No. We genuinely believe, but it is only because of the initial regeneration of our souls that we are even able to believe, otherwise we would have never believed, because we were dead (unable and unwilling to respond to the call of God) in our natural state. This passage could not be any clearer as to the point of this teaching. We must be born again to do anything spiritual, to “see” (spiritually) the kingdom of God, to even believe in Christ. Regeneration precedes faith. This is why Nicodemus was so shocked by this teaching and gave his answer, “How can these things be?” Why else would he have been so shocked so as to give a response like that? God’s grace is bestowed upon those He pleases to bestow it, not based on anything within the person, but based purely in His perfect, holy, and sovereign counsel that no man knows (Deuteronomy 29:29). “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” Salvation is of the Lord, by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone, revealed in Scripture Alone, all for the Glory of God Alone.

Excellent resources pertaining to these things:

John 3:1-10, and the Regeneration of the Spirit – C. Matthew McMahon
Regeneration – C.H. Spurgeon

Simul Iustus et Peccator

“At the same time righteous and a sinner.”

There are two senses in which the believer must view himself. In one sense, the Father sees us as He sees Christ. Jesus having fulfilled all righteousness and offering Himself up for us, has now given us His righteousness (an alien righteousness, or a righteousness that we did not produce or merit by “works of the law”). It is His gift, and His to give to whomever He pleases. While we must always see ourselves as the Father sees Christ in His righteousness and glory, at the same time, we must never forget our present position, as still possessing sin. We are sinners. This is the very thing the Jews, particularly in Jesus’ time, had forgotten. They believed that because the Lord had chosen them as His people that they must have been better than the rest. But they were just as unworthy to receive any particular blessing from the Lord as the rest of us. They did not merit it or deserve it. The Lord called Abraham, the father of us all who have believed (Old Testament and New Testament believers), out of the Chaldeans, out of the land of Ur, a pagan land where other gods were worshipped. The Jews are completely unworthy of any of God’s graces, just as we all are. They believed they were clean by obeying the law outwardly, and possessed no sin, and didn’t consider for a moment that they were still sinners. We will not be perfect in this life and will not be glorified until we die and go to be with the Lord forever. And so, at the present time, we still possess sin. In 1 John, we are told that if we claim to be without sin, we make [Christ] out to be a liar! But we do not hone in on this one reality and lose all hope, but we flee to Christ who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Therefore, we consider both of these realities at the same time, that we now possess the very righteousness of Christ because of His work, that the Father sees us as He sees His Son, and we are totally unworthy. We are sinners and still sin, but we must run to Christ, the only One who can cleanse us from all unrighteousness, because He is righteous and makes intercession for us before the Father as our great High Priest.

Simul Iustus et Peccator

Vote For GRO to Open for Bon Jovi in New Jersey!

This is an email sent from Jamey Ice telling us to go and vote for them to open for Bon Jovi again. Let’s make it happen!

———————————————————–

GRO needs YOUR help to open again for BON JOVI!!!!

We were chosen by Mix 102.9 in January to open for Bon Jovi at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Bon Jovi liked GRO so much that they put them us in the runnings to have the opportunity to open for them again at their home town show in New Jersey in front of 60,000 people.

We are the 1 Texas band out of 27 other bands from accross the nation, and we really need YOUR help in sending going to New Jersey. Voting ends next monday!

Please vote for Green River Ordinance at
http://bonjovi.livedaily.com

Thank you so much! We all appreciate you so much for helping!!! This is an absoultely huge oppurtunity for us. You can also vote more than once

Have Killer day,
Jamey
ps if you could forward this on…that would be AMAZING!!!

www.myspace.com/gro
www.greenriverordinance.com

———————————————————–

I Have More Respect for the Construction Profession Now

This weekend I dug up a new flower bed in the backyard and man was it a killer. Apparently when the house builder poured the foundation, some of it spilled in the back and they covered it up with dirt (right where I was digging up the flower bed). Thanks guys. So I had to go to my neighbor across the street, borrow his rock bar (giant steel bar used for digging up rocks underground), and attempted to break it up, which only marginally helped, but did make it a bit deeper than it was before. It was quite a chore. The easiest part of the whole day on Saturday was planting a new bradford pear tree in the backyard. Finally, we have a tree back there. I don’t think I’ve done that much physical labor since either moving or doing work in Guatemala. I do have to honestly say I have more respect for those workers in the construction industry. I’m such a weakling … thank God for creating the computer industry and opening the doors for me to work in it.

Is The Point of the Story The Might of Joshua and Israel, or of God’s Might and Power to Deliver?

Many times when preachers or other teachers of Scripture come to passages in the Old Testament such as Joshua taking the men of Israel to extinguish Jericho or plunder the city of Ai, or when looking at the story of David and Goliath, they will make the point of the story, “Look at the faith and might of Joshua and Israel, or David, and the confidence they had when going into battle. Imitate that faith in the Jericho’s, Ai’s, and Goliath’s of your life.” While that is true at a duty level, there is a big problem if we just make that the point of the story and leave it there. But what’s the problem, you might say? That’s true, right? It’s that there is a much greater point to the story that seems to go overlooked, the most important point I would say. And also, there is a big problem with just making that the point of the story: it is called moralism.

I just have a few questions to maybe give us some clarity on this: what is it that Christ came to do for us? Amongst many many things, was it not to fulfill and abolish the power of the law over those who have faith alone in Christ alone? And the law brings death right? So when a teacher of Scripture states for you to “pull up your boot-straps and git-er done for God, imitating the faith of Joshua and David,” is this not just another law and statement of reliance upon self for faith, for strength to conquer things in your life, instead of reliance upon God alone for strength through Christ? Where did Joshua’s strength come from? What about David’s? David was a weakling compared to Goliath. Goliath was trained for war, but was David? Obviously not, because all he had was a slingshot. But what was David’s response to his father who doubted his ability to win in going before Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:37? “And David said, ‘The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.‘” David’s only hope was not in himself and what he could do to defeat Goliath, but what only God alone could do through him. The focus is not on the strength, faith, and might of David, but on God alone, and David himself makes this clear! Was it not God alone that upheld David with His righteous, omnipotent hand and sovereignly orchestrated all of the law’s of nature (including all of David’s physical movements) so that when David threw that final stone it hit Goliath with such force that he died? So what is the main point of these stories? I believe the key is a few things God says in Joshua, amongst many places, that struck me in particular. For one, in Joshua 6:2, God states to Joshua, “And the LORD said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.'” Only God gives us the strength through the cross of Christ to do anything.

God’s purpose in all things is that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth (Exodus 9:16, Romans 9:17-18). And so everything God does in His actions is to that end. And we know the character of God is to be compared with nothing, because He is infinitely glorious. Therefore, everything He does is right and just, even if we can’t humanly understand why it is He allowed for sin in His universe (and is yet without sin), or sovereignly brings calamity on the world. So the point of these stories is that it is God alone who is just and mighty to save (eternally [salvation] and temporally [in our own personal dealing with indwelling sin and trials]), and we look at how God removed their enemies before them, His glory, might, and infinite power; and all this in order that you not rely in any way on your strength and might in the midst of any and every circumstance, but on God’s alone in Christ’s death and resurrection, living under God’s grace alone in Christ. Most importantly, the point of the story is to say that, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing,” (John 15:5). We have been saved unto God in Christ, not just saved from His wrath. Christ came to abolish the law so that it’s no longer a duty for us, but rather a delight. The Gospel is the antithesis of the law. The law says, “Do this and you will get a good outcome. If you don’t, you won’t.” The Gospel says, “We already have the outcome in Christ’s death and resurrection. And it is very good. Believe in Jesus and He will give You His perfect record, in order that You may be presented to God the Father as perfect, possessing the very righteousness and perfection of Christ.” And for the believer, what is it that produces true, continual life-change? Is it focusing in on yourself and your strength or God’s alone in Christ? We look to the cross and see that Jesus’ death and resurrection is the only thing that produces life-change for the believer. So we are saved through the cross of Christ and changed through the cross of Christ. The application of the Gospel in our lives at every facet and level of our existence (emotionally, mentally, psychologically, spiritually, relationally) is the only thing that will ever produce life-change for the believer. Not the Law. The Law produces death (Romans 7:7-12). Telling people to go do this “law” and that “law” is the very thing the Pharisees were guilty of, to those whom Jesus stated the harshest words! May we take our place with David before this great and mighty, powerful God in Psalm 51:1-3,

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me,”

… and then fall on your knees before our Savior and state with David from Psalm 32:1-5,

“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Only because of Christ’s strength through the cross and His resurrection can you do anything to conquer sin, death, Satan, and hell. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

(Special thanks to the Lord God for using Tim Keller and Jon Dansby in many of these insights into the Lord’s Word)

Fullness in Christ – A Puritan Prayer

O God,

Thou has taught me that Christ has all fullness and so all plenitude of the Spirit, that all fullness I lack in myself is in him, for his people, not for himself alone, he having perfect knowledge, grace, righteousness, to make me see, to make me righteous, to give me fullness; that it is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness, to go to Christ, possess, enjoy his fullness as mine, as if I had it in myself, because it is for me in him; that when I do this I am full of the Spirit, as a fish that has got from the short to the sea and as all fullness of water to move in, for when faith fills me, then I am full; that this is the way to be filled with the Spirit, like Stephen, first faith, then fullness, for this way makes me most empty, and so most fit for the Spirit to fill. Thou hast taught me that the finding of this treasure of all grace in the field of Christ begets strength, joy, glory, and renders all graces alive. Help me to delight more in what I receive from Christ, more in that fullness which is in him, the fountain of all his glory. Let me not think to receive the Spirit from him as a ‘thing’ apart from finding, drinking, being filled with him. To this end, O God, do thou, establish me in Christ, settle me, give me a being there, assure me with certainty that all this is mine, for this only fill fill my heart with joy and peace.

Author Unknown. (2003). Fullness in Christ. The Valley of Vision (pp. 34-35). Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust

Vote For GRO! Dallas Observer Music Awards

Vote for Green River Ordinance and spread the word!!

Dallas Observer Link

—————————————————————————————
Vote for Green River Ordinance in :

-Best Act in town

-Best New Act

-Best Indie-Rock

—————————————————————————————
Vote for Josh Jenkins (Green River Ordinance) in:

-Best Male singer

—————————————————————————————
Vote for “The Beauty of Letting Go” by Green River Ordinance for:

-Best Album

—————————————————————————————
Vote for Brian Kieta

-Best Producer/Engineer

SBC/AT&T Rolling Out New Service in Fourth Qtr.


Alrighty, I have a little insider information that hasn’t been released to the press on Project Lightspeed … On this past Friday night, I went to my mother-in-law’s retirement dinner party and got to speak with her manager who works for SBC (now AT&T once again). I asked him about ADSL2 and when he thought it might be deployed in our area (DFW). To my surprise he said they are working feverishly right now to get FTTN (Fiber-To-The-Node, or fiber to your neighborhood DSL connection distribution point) laid down as fast as possible and that the new service should be deployed some time in the fourth quarter of this year! I didn’t think it would be that soon. Basically with this new service, you will have your TV, voice, and data all come through that one line, and it’s really really fast (apparently like 26 mbps down and 3 – 10 mbps up). From what he said, you will be able to record 4 different TV programs at once and still have enough bandwidth for telephone calls and internet connectivity. Oh man, bring it on …

The Utter Depravity and Wickedness of Man – Part II – Grace Alone

Having described the condition of man apart from the intervening work of the Holy Spirit in my last entry on the depravity of man, it is important to understand that there is a great deal of error amongst those that call themselves evangelicals as it pertains to how we are saved. This error in the minds of these individuals has to do with the “slight” inclusion of human exertion and will in the work of grace, that man somehow cooperates with the work of grace. This is called synergism (or in it’s extreme form, human monergism) and comes in many different forms, from out-right heresy (human monergism), to slight contradictory inclusion of heresy (synergism).

The original debate concerning what role man plays in his salvation originally began between Augustine and Pelagius. The root of the Pelagian heretical error had to do with a dispute on the doctrine of original sin, or the imputed sin of Adam to the entire human race, that when Adam sinned, we all sinned. Pelagius denied this. Pelgius believed all men to be in the same place as Adam before the fall inherently. This heretical error was condemned first by Augustine but then officially condemned at the Council of Orange in 529 AD. This heresy is humanism at its base (or human monergism), that man controls his own destiny and is his own god, and indeed can attain perfection apart from God. And though it was officially condemned as heretical by the church, the Pelagian error began infiltrating the church in the form of synergism, that man cooperates with the work of grace. Throughout church history, this debate has reared its head one way or another, with Augustine and Pelagius, Luther and Erasmus, and Whitefield and Wesley. And the debate is alive and well these days. This “slight” humanistic thinking is prevalent within the church today and removes the only power by which people are saved: God alone. “So then it (meaning the granting of mercy) depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (And here’s the argument by Paul for the former statement) For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.‘ So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills.” – Romans 9:16-18.

One of the results of the Reformation was the Five Solas (Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone as our sole infallible authority; Solus Christus – Christ alone accomplished our salvation; Sola Gratia – God saves by grace alone; Sola Fide – through faith alone apart from works; Soli Deo Gloria – everything is for the glory of God alone). Pertaining to the work of grace in the life of man, Sola Gratia in particular states that it is grace alone that regenerates a soul or causes the new birth which then gives rise to faith within the believer (a gift of God), not grace plus something else (i.e. human choice, exertion, running, will, etc). If our doctrine of the utter depravity of man is true, then no man honestly wants anything to do with God when left to himself. But God must first regenerate our souls and free our hearts from sin to believe in Christ. Because of the dead state of man in his sin, he will never choose Christ when presented with the Gospel, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit alone (i.e. Grace Alone) to regenerate the person who is to be saved. Man will always choose sin by necessity (John Hendryx, great quote!). Why? Because we’re dead in sin! That’s what that means. Our souls our incapable of any moral good, apart from a work of God within us first. Therefore, because of this, the work of grace in the life of the individual who is to be saved is the only thing that will bring to life the heart and soul of a sinfully dead individual, in order that he cannot help but believe in Christ because He is irresistable in His beauty and glory and lovliness.

In Ezekial 36:26, God states that He will come in power and remove His people’s hearts of stone, giving us instead hearts of flesh (removing our resistance to Him, and instead giving us a willing heart). Is this not monergism (the work of Grace Alone) in the life of dead sinners? There is no cooperation with grace, otherwise it is not grace. Grace is receiving something you do not deserve, and I would even add that it is something you don’t even want in your naturally sinful state. We must first be made genuinely willing (regeneration, second birth). “At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). Did we ask for our hearts to be regenerated? No! We naturally kick and scream at such a prospect. We love sin, it’s the best thing humans do. And oh how much energy we use to that end! If we could only harness that energy for the cause of Christ! God freely gives of Himself on His own timing and to whom He pleases. When I came to know Christ truthfully, I was such a rebel against anything holy, and I can honestly say that the only reason I became willing is because God came and changed my heart. I did not cooperate with this grace, but was simply the unworthy recipient. God saved me by grace alone through faith alone, apart from works. This faith even was a gift of God. What do I now have to boast about before God or man? Nothing! If I cooperated with this grace in any manner, then when I walk into heaven, God has me to thank for making the right choice and I would have something to boast about. “Good job, David, you made the right choice man. Way to exert that ‘free will.’ You must have been smarter, more intelligent and more sensitive than the rest of those wicked sinners.” Wrong! Does this in any way sound like the God of the Bible? I think not. I was dead in trespasses and sins, corrupted by own perverse nature, in every facet of my existence, in my mind, will, thoughts, soul, heart, acts, motives, flesh, relationships, everything. He removed my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh, a heart that was sensitive, willing and able to love Him. “We love because He first loved us,” (1 John 4:19) not the reverse. This is the work of grace alone (monergism).

Apart from grace, there is no honest submission to the Gospel, we are unable to submit even. But this does not alleviate your responsibility. If you reject Christ, the Messiah, there will be no one to blame but yourself; you cannot bring a successful accusation against God almighty when standing before the Great White throne after you die. Man is so hopeless apart from the work of God, carried out by the Holy Spirit, provided through the cross of Christ. Throw yourself at His sovereign mercy and pray for Him to change you inwardly, to incline you to Himself. Ask Him to give you the eyes to see His glory through Christ on the cross and the ears to hear the call of God unto salvation in order that you will believe in Him and be saved. God’s sovereignty in salvation is our only hope for being saved at all. It’s God alone that saves, not man alone, or man cooperating with God. We’re dead. Dead means dead. We have nothing else we can trust in but God alone, through Christ alone, His death and resurrection.

Madonna eyes Israel house to await Messiah – AFP

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/0 … imhbg.html

Well, I hate to burst the bubble, Madonna, but the Messiah came 2000 years ago. His name was Jesus. The Jews expected the Messiah to be a mighty warrior that would come in and wipe out all of Israel’s adversaries. But instead, just as we were told in the Old Testament, He came in order to provide a sacrifice for the sins of any who would believe in Him. He came as a servant, the least of all people, despised, a man full of sorrows and grief (Read this: Isaiah 53). The Jews expected Him to come as a mighty King that would establish His rule over the world. And He will do that in the end, but that’s not what He came for the first time. He came to make purification for sins (Hebrews 1:3). And He did that on the cross, bearing the wrath of God on behalf of any who would believe in Him. The next time He comes back, He’s coming to do wreckshop on His adversaries and will establish His rule over this world.

Unforunately, the Jews, as a whole, missed their Messiah. It is very sad (Romans 9:1-8, Romans 10:1-4). The One who would have cleansed their sins is the One they stumbled over (Romans 9:30-33). As a whole, they have been hardened. Now this Kabbalah religion is doing the same thing, but with Jewish mysticism intertwined. And if the Jews, Israel, God’s chosen people missed it, you certainly have missed it. Jesus Christ was the very Messiah you are looking for! Don’t miss it. The most wicked thing to ever have occurred was the Son of God being killed at the hands of wicked sinners (like myself). He was whipped, tortured, beaten, spat upon, insulted, strung up on a cross, His hands and feet pierced with nails, a crown of thorns mashed into His skull. And all of this was not what hurt him the most. What hurt Him the most was the infinite wrath of God being poured out on His soul, the full cup of wrath, mixed in all of its potency. “The deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that justice gave” (Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted). The Messiah has already come, made sacrifice for sins, died, rose from the grave, and has ascended into heaven. He will come back and wipe out all those who deny Him because He is the righteous and holy King. I beg all of you to consider this and look to Christ for your salvation, who perfectly fulfilled the law from our side on our behalf, and made purification for sins. Place your faith in Him and you will be saved and spared from the Lord’s wrath. If you don’t, you won’t.

“The Cross of Christ by C.H. Spurgeon” – ReformationTheology.com

Page 2 of 3

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén