Infinite in Wisdom

How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
(Psalm 104:24)

God is infinitely exalted above all created beings in wisdom. How little do even the wisest of men know! How frequently are they deceived and frustrated, their wisdom turned to foolishness, and their schemes undermined! But when did God's wisdom ever fail? When was He frustrated from accomplishing His purposes, even though all the bleak army of hell continually tries to overturn His will? When was it that God altered His mind and purpose or took a wrong step in His rule of the world?

Solomon realized he needed uncommon and extraordinary wisdom to rule such a kingdom as he had; but what wisdom, what vast knowledge and infinite insight must He have who rules and governs every being in the world? How great is the wisdom of Him who rules every thought, every purpose, every motion and action, not only of angels and men but of every creature, great and small, even to every atom in the whole creation -- and that forever and ever! What infinite wisdom and knowledge is necessary in order to do this!

But this is exactly what God does. This He has done and this He will do. All the changes that occur in all the world, whether great or small, He knows them completely, even to the tiniest insect that crawls upon the earth or the dust that flies in the air.

But God's wisdom and omniscience shine clearest of all in His perfect knowledge of Himself. We miserable worms are confounded by the idea that He is eternal, that He has existed from everlasting to everlasting -- yet He clearly understands it with the greatest of ease, in one simple view. He also fully comprehends His own infinite greatness and excellency, which no one can do without infinite understand.

--Jonathan Edwards

The Conversion Experience

Converting influences commonly bring an extraordinary conviction of the certainty of the great things of religion. Of course, in some people this is much greater some time after conversion than it was at first. They see and taste of the divine excellency of the Gospel, which more effectively convinces them than reading many volumes of arguments about it. It seems to me that in many instances, when the glory of Christian truths has been set before a person and he has at the same time seen and tasted and felt the divinity of them, he is as far from doubting their truth as he is from doubting whether there is a sun when his eyes are open under a clear sky.

Indeed, the strong blaze of God's light overcomes all objections. And yet many of these people, if we were to ask them why they believed those things to be true, would not be able to adequately express or communicate a sufficient reason to satisfy our inquiries. Perhaps they would give no other answer except that they see that God is true. Even so, if someone were to have a deeper conversation with these new converts, he would be satisfied that, by their answer, they mean to say that they have intuitively seen and immediately felt the most glorious works and the powerful evidence of divinity in them.

In this way, some are convinced of the universal truth of the Gospel and that the Scriptures are the Word of God. Others set their minds more specifically on some particular doctrine of the Gospel, or on some particular truth that they are meditating on or reading about in some portion of Scripture. Some have such conviction in a much more remarkable manner than others. And there are some who never before had a special sense of the certainty of divine things impressed on them with so extreme a degree of inward evidence and strength.

The latter also have very clear displays of grace -- love for God, repentance, and holiness. And if they are more particularly examined, they appear to have been inwardly convinced of the reality of divine things, though they were not quite so persuaded of these things before their conversion.

Those who have the clearest discoveries of divine truth in the manner that has been mentioned cannot always have them in view. When the sense and relish of the divine excellency of these things fade, when the Spirit of God seems to withdraw, they do not have their conviction of the truth at command. In a dull state of mind, they cannot perfectly recall the idea and inward sense they had; things appear very dim when compared with how they looked before. There still remains a strong, habitual persuasion in them, yet not to such a degree that temptations to unbelief are excluded or that all possibility of doubting is erased.

But, then, by God's help, the same sense of things revives again at particular times, like fire that lay hidden in ashes. The grounds of such a conviction of the truth of divine things are just and rational; yet God makes use of the minds of some much more obviously than He does in others. Oftentimes, people have (as far as others can tell) received the first saving conviction from reasonings that they have heard from the pulpit; and often in the course of such reasoning, they are led into their own meditations. The arguments are the same ones that they have heard hundreds of times, but the force of the arguments, and their conviction by them, is altogether new. The words come with a new and previously unexperienced power. Before, they heard it was so, and they allowed it to be so; but now they see it to be so indeed.

--Jonathan Edwards, The Surprising Work of God (pg. 86-89)

Authority

I just finished the book Authority by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It is broken up into three sections:

1. The Authority of Jesus Christ
2. The Authority of the Scriptures
3. The Authority of the Holy Spirit

The question of authority is one of the most important problems facing us today. People contend, "Is there such a thing as objective truth? Can truth be known? Can it be defined?"

"Truth is so great and marvelous that it cannot be defined and therefore you cannot say definitely that this view is right and that view is wrong," one may argue. One man wrote a book in which he set out to question the Christian faith and its authority. In the end, he suggests that truth cannot be defined in creeds and confessions and that the situation is something like this:

A man has been told that if only he climbs to the top of a certain mountain he will obtain a magnificent view. Very well, the man is excited to see this. He begins to climb and goes on and on. The sun beats down on him and the ascent becomes so steep that he has to get down on his hands and knees. Despite his struggles, he keeps going and at last he arrives at the summit, and there, behold, is the grand panorama. What does he do about it? Does he try to reduce that view to prepositions and state it in theorems? Impossible! The view is too grand and too magnificent and he just stands there with his eyes and mouth wide open in wonder and amazement. He cannot write out all he has seen and felt, nor define it. It's something that can only be experienced and felt.

It's with this backdrop that Martyn Lloyd-Jones approaches the topic of this book. Yes, there are different ways of getting to the summit and the experience differs from person to person, but the view itself and the magnificence of it is unmistakeably true. In the book Authority, the truth and authority of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit is asserted as the evidence is broken down in this outline:

1. The Authority of Christ

• God can be known -- He has revealed Himself
  
• The Central Fact of Christ - The whole Bible is about Him. History revolves around Him.
• The Witness of the Gospels and other Writers
  
• The Lord's own claims, actions, and direct assertions
• The Lord's death, resurrection, and ascension

2. The Authority of the Scriptures

• The context of the New Testament message - understood by expounding the Old Testament Scriptures
• Liberalism - man decides what is true
• The Right Approach
  
• Scripture must be viewed as a whole, matter of faith (Word of God is inspired through the Spirit of God)
• Truth is to be asserted not defended (There is no need for you to defend a lion when is is being attacked. All you need to do is to open the gate and let him out. --C.H. Spurgeon)
• The whole Bible is the Word of God
• The Uniqueness of Scripture - the manner of speech in the Bible is profound, simple, clear and brief. It is the power of God unto salvation.
• Scripture's own claims of authority - "The Word of the Lord came... God revealed... The Lord said..."
• The Lord Jesus Christ's Teaching - "It is written!"
• The New Testament view of the Old - "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..."
• The authority of the apostles recognized by the early church

3. The Authority of the Holy Spirit

• Test the spirits
• The Holy Spirit takes His own Word, illumines it, and takes our minds and enlightens them.
• The Church's attempts to recapture authority by rational arguments and worldly wisdom have by in large failed.
• The authority of the Spirit in the life of the Lord - "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me."
• The authority of the Spirit in the life of the believer
• The work of the Spirit in conversion
• The work of the Spirit in assurance
  
• The work of the Spirit in giving understanding
• The work of the Spirit in defense of the truth
• The work of the Spirit in evangelism
• The authority of the Spirit in the church

I'll conclude with excerpts from the last few paragraphs of Authority:

"I very rarely hear any Christians today praying for revival. What do they pray for? They pray for their own organized efforts, either at home or in various other lands. We should do that but the trouble is that we start with ourselves and our efforts and ask God to bless them. We are guilty of forgetting the authority of the Holy Spirit. We are so interested in ourselves and in our own activities that we have forgotten the one thing that can make us effective. When God sends revival He can do more in a single day than in fifty years of all our organization. That is the sheer history which emerges clearly from the long story of the Church. This is the greatest need today, indeed it is the only hope. Let us decide to spend our time before God pleading for revival. But foolish as we are, we will never do so until we come to the end of ourselves. We will do so only when everything else has failed and we have come to see what our Lord spoke in simple truth when He said, 'Without me you can do nothing' (John 15:5). Let us wait upon Him, let us plead with Him, let us learn to agonize in prayer and let our one prayer be:

Revive Thy work, O Lord, Thy mighty arm make bare; Speak with the voice that wakes the dead, And make Thy people hear. 'O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy' (Habakkuk 3:2)."

I'm currently reading The Surprising Work of God by Jonathan Edwards. In this book, Pastor Edwards recounts and outlines the miraculous events of the Great Awakening in which thousands of hearts from his town and far reaching regions were transformed, experiencing the insuppressible joy of Christ, trembling before the justice, holiness, and righteousness of God, and receiving the grace and mercy with deep humility and inexpressible ecstasy. This is the great revival that Martyn Lloyd-Jones pleaded for. This is the revival that we need today.

Quotes about the Bible (Part 7)

"After reading the doctrines of Plato, Socrates, or Aristotle, we feel that the specific difference between their words and Christ's is the difference between an inquiry and a revelation."
Joseph Park (1830-1902)
English Congregationalist Preacher and Bible Commentator

"Have your eyes ever been opened to see the glorious excellency of Jesus Christ? Has the light of the Word of God ever shined into your hearts so as to see the excellency of the Word that teaches Christ and the way of Salvation by him? Has the Word of Christ been sweeter to you than the honey on the honeycomb?"
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
American Theologian
"What is Meant by Believing in Christ"
1752 Sermon to Mohawk Indians

"The Bible has been so many words to us -- clouds and darkness -- then all of a sudden the words become spirit and full of life because Jesus re-speaks them to us in a particular condition. That is the way God speaks to us, not by visions and dreams, but by words. When a man gets to God it is by the most simple way of words."
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
Scottish Evangelist and Writer
"My Utmost For His Highest"

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God narrated by Max McLean

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is considered the most famous sermon ever preached in American history. Jonathan Edwards delivered this message on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. Many who heard it trembled and cried out for mercy. Others fainted. Five hundred people were converted that day. This audio recording is an abridged reading of the sermon, narrated by Max McLean.