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Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Doxology: Coming April 19, 2011
And he hath put a new song in mouth, even a praise unto my GOD: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD... Psalm 40:3 The Doxology is an album of lyrical worship. In it, Emmaus has attempted to express their passion for the person and work of the Triune-GOD of scripture; with hopes of enlightening the minds and evoking the hearts of the hearers to love and worship the Saviour. The album begins with a demonstration of worship (Holy One, Glorious Name, Ode to CHRIST). Then it transitions to an exposition of how we worship (Psalm 51 -by being clean, Work It Out-by living our faith, Prayer for the City-by interceding and intervening in the world, etc.). Enjoy!
Track List:
- Holy One
- The Doxology
- Glorious Name (Free Download)
- Focus feat. J. Black
- Ode to Christ feat. Linda & A-Smoove
- Liberty
- Psalm 51 feat. D-Hall
- All Gone feat Kingdom
- Work It Out
- Death to Flesh
- Goodbye, World
- No Fear feat. J. Black
- Prayer for the City feat. D-Hall
- Crucifixion
Saturday, January 15, 2011
What Is The Gospel Part 3: Wrath & Mercy
In the last post we concluded that the standard by which GOD judges his people is Himself, and all who fail to match up to His perfect holiness is unfit to commune with Him. But we fail to directly address one of the questions raised in the introduction. The question is: are there any conditions under which GOD alters His standards? More specifically; does JESUS’s death exempt believers from meeting the standard of righteousness?
Before we delve too deep into this issue, I think it would be best to glimpse at the mercy of GOD in order add depth to the question. In post 1 we established that we are wicked by nature. Then in post 2 we discovered that our sinfulness exempt us from a relationship with GOD; for He His so holy and just that He must destroy every sinful thing. That’s why Ephesians 2:3 refer to us as children of wrath by nature. But, doesn’t scripture refer to GOD as merciful.?
Is it possible to reconcile the afore mentioned judgement and condemnation with the often heralded mercy and lovingkindness of GOD? For we know that all humanity will be tried based on whether they do or do not match up with righteousness of GOD. We also know, in the Bible there is mention of a people whom sins are not imputed to them. How can this be? If we are so sinful and GOD so holy and righteous in His judgement, then no one can be truly forgiven without GOD some how altering His nature. Unless there is some way GOD can both judge sin, and forgive sinners. We will attempt to tackle this issue of GOD’s wrath and mercy by looking a little closer at the nature of GOD’s judgement.
In Exodus 33 verses 6-7 GOD declared His name to Moses; He said: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” In this passage notice how GOD, after speaking of His grace, patience, goodness, and forgiveness immediately tells us that these truths do not clear the guilty. Sense GOD is perfect in all His attributes; the fact He is a holy just judge does not exclude Him from being merciful and forgiving. Therefor GOD will not just passively exonerate the wicked for that would be an affront to His holy justice. So GOD somehow condemns and justifies sinners. This act is accomplished in the sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST.
Romans 3 teaches that GOD set forth CHRIST to be a propitiation for our sins; that He might be both just and the justifier (Rom 3:24-26). This is the wisdom of GOD as displayed in the gospel. He condemns sin in the sacrifice of CHRIST (Rom 8:3). Isaiah said “the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Thus when Paul sums up the gospel he preached to the Corinthians, he begins with fact the CHRIST died for sins. The truth that often goes unrepresented is that all sin committed by the sons of men will be justly punished; whether in the body of the sinner or the Saviour, all sins will be punished. But thanks be unto GOD that the recompense for my wickedness was poured upon my LORD and Saviour CHRIST JESUS.
Now that GOD through wisdom has satisfied His wrath against sin without either destroying the sinner, or denying His glorious name; He can freely offer forgiveness to who ever He wills. Thus now all how come to Him through the merit of CHRIST will have their sins forgiven. That’s why Paul equates the redemption wrought through CHRIST’s blood with the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14, Eph 1:7). Also JESUS declared His blood was for the remission of sins (Mat 26:28). And when expounding this new testament the writer to the Hebrews says (quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34) GOD “will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Echoing this sentiment, GOD, through the prophet Isaiah, proclaims that He “blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isa 43:25). And John begins to show the way to receive this forgiveness saying: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” How beautiful! We who from our youth lived a life of rebellion and disobedience to GOD, can through CHRIST’s death be completely forgiven of all our wickedness. That’s why these are truthZIFollow. Please ask GOD to grant you forgiveness.
Before we delve too deep into this issue, I think it would be best to glimpse at the mercy of GOD in order add depth to the question. In post 1 we established that we are wicked by nature. Then in post 2 we discovered that our sinfulness exempt us from a relationship with GOD; for He His so holy and just that He must destroy every sinful thing. That’s why Ephesians 2:3 refer to us as children of wrath by nature. But, doesn’t scripture refer to GOD as merciful.?
Is it possible to reconcile the afore mentioned judgement and condemnation with the often heralded mercy and lovingkindness of GOD? For we know that all humanity will be tried based on whether they do or do not match up with righteousness of GOD. We also know, in the Bible there is mention of a people whom sins are not imputed to them. How can this be? If we are so sinful and GOD so holy and righteous in His judgement, then no one can be truly forgiven without GOD some how altering His nature. Unless there is some way GOD can both judge sin, and forgive sinners. We will attempt to tackle this issue of GOD’s wrath and mercy by looking a little closer at the nature of GOD’s judgement.
In Exodus 33 verses 6-7 GOD declared His name to Moses; He said: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” In this passage notice how GOD, after speaking of His grace, patience, goodness, and forgiveness immediately tells us that these truths do not clear the guilty. Sense GOD is perfect in all His attributes; the fact He is a holy just judge does not exclude Him from being merciful and forgiving. Therefor GOD will not just passively exonerate the wicked for that would be an affront to His holy justice. So GOD somehow condemns and justifies sinners. This act is accomplished in the sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST.
Romans 3 teaches that GOD set forth CHRIST to be a propitiation for our sins; that He might be both just and the justifier (Rom 3:24-26). This is the wisdom of GOD as displayed in the gospel. He condemns sin in the sacrifice of CHRIST (Rom 8:3). Isaiah said “the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Thus when Paul sums up the gospel he preached to the Corinthians, he begins with fact the CHRIST died for sins. The truth that often goes unrepresented is that all sin committed by the sons of men will be justly punished; whether in the body of the sinner or the Saviour, all sins will be punished. But thanks be unto GOD that the recompense for my wickedness was poured upon my LORD and Saviour CHRIST JESUS.
Now that GOD through wisdom has satisfied His wrath against sin without either destroying the sinner, or denying His glorious name; He can freely offer forgiveness to who ever He wills. Thus now all how come to Him through the merit of CHRIST will have their sins forgiven. That’s why Paul equates the redemption wrought through CHRIST’s blood with the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:14, Eph 1:7). Also JESUS declared His blood was for the remission of sins (Mat 26:28). And when expounding this new testament the writer to the Hebrews says (quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34) GOD “will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Echoing this sentiment, GOD, through the prophet Isaiah, proclaims that He “blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isa 43:25). And John begins to show the way to receive this forgiveness saying: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” How beautiful! We who from our youth lived a life of rebellion and disobedience to GOD, can through CHRIST’s death be completely forgiven of all our wickedness. That’s why these are truthZIFollow. Please ask GOD to grant you forgiveness.
What Is The Gospel Part 2: The Holy Creator
In the previous post (What Is The Gospel Pt. 1) we considered man’s need of salvation due to his innate wickedness. We concluded that man’s chief problem is not that he does wrong, but that he is wrong. The cutest infant child is but a bud of wickedness and rebellion ready to blossom into a base sinful being. Which brings us to the subject of this post; does it really matter that we are sinful. To some pious and religious individuals this seems to be an absurd question. But they, if they honestly inspect their view of the gospel, will see their inconsistency on this issue. For some say that CHRIST’s death on the cross gets us to heaven no matter what we do. Therefore I don’t have to conquer my sin because CHRIST’s blood covers my sin. As one kid’s girlfriend told him when speaking about having sex,”I’m straight now ’cause I got saved.” Or as another student told me, “I know I need to change my life, but I’m still going to heaven.” Both these students, and many across the globe, view their actions as sin, but they also think these sins could not and does not hinder their relationship with GOD. Which is a very important issue; does GOD judge the sinfulness of man, and if so by what standard? Also are there any conditions under which He alters His standard?
To begin we must consider the beginner, GOD. We will not delve into the nature and attributes of GOD in any real depth, for that is not the focus of this particular post. Instead we will consider two attributes of GOD that are pertinent to a proper understanding of the Gospel. Namely the truths that GOD is creator, and He is holy. If we misunderstand any of these truths we shall fail to truly appreciate the goodness of the gospel.
The scripture plainly teaches that GOD is the creator of everything (Gen 1:1, Isa 42:5). In Colossians 1:16 we read that “…all things were created by Him, and for Him.” In this statement we see the preeminent presupposition of the gospel. For the fact that GOD created us is what gives Him the right to sit as judge over us. Just as the sculptor is the sole determiner of whether the statue is worthy of display or disposal; the Maker of all likewise has the freedom to destroy His mold if he sees fit. But, unlike the sculpture who may be working for another, the scriptures state that GOD created for Himself. So if the thing created is not pleasing to the Creator it has no purpose for existence ( for ex. see Luke 13:6-9). Therefore, in order to truly gage the significance of our existence, we must discover the Maker’s intent for creating. His intent was for man to be the image of GOD (see part 1). Thus, He alone has the right to judge mankind and due to the intent of His creating can judge man against Himself (we will consider this more later). And the Bible clearly teaches that GOD exercises His position as judge. 1 Samuel 2:10 speak of the LORD as the Judge of the ends of the earth, and also Psalms 94:2 refers to the LORD as the Judge of the earth (to name a few).
So what exactly is the standard by which he judges? The answer to this question is the perfect life of the Son of GOD, JESUS CHRIST. For, as we said before, GOD created man to be the likeness of Himself (Gen 1:26). CHRIST is the fleshly manifestation of GOD (Col 1:15 & Heb 1:3). Therefore all who does not match up to the life of CHRIST are sinners. The greek word translated sinner in most New Testament passages literally means to miss the mark (look here). As in Romans 3:23 where we are charged with fallen short of the glory of GOD. In the minds of most people this is an absurd statement; how can a man be charged with fallen short of the glory of GOD? But, it makes more sense if you keep in mind that we were originally created to be the image (mini icon or representation) of GOD. That’s why He commands us to love and forgive likes he does (Col 3:13), to be perfect as He is (Mat 5:48), and to be holy like He is (1 Pet 1:15). Thus the standard of GOD is GOD Himself. And as the potter as the freedom to destroy the blemished pot no matter how good it appears to every other eye: the Sovereign LORD and Creator of all sit as judge of all He has created inspecting them to see if they adequately reflect His nature.
But does GOD really expect us to live like the sinless Son of GOD? Before we can adequately answer this we must look a littler closer at the nature of GOD. The Bible teaches that GOD is holy (see Isa 6:3,Psa 111:9, Rev 4:8). Most people will not dispute this truth. But the reality that is often neglected is that GOD’s holiness makes it impossible for Him to live in union with sin. As Paul Washer so lucidly stated it: “The holiness of God means that He transcends the moral corruption of His creation and is separated from all that is profane and sinful. God cannot sin, cannot take pleasure in sin, and cannot have fellowship with sin.” The Prophet Habakkuk said that GOD cannot look upon evil(1:13). In Isiah 59:1-2 GOD declares that the sin separates between Him and the people. GOD has no intimate connection with sin. Actually the scriptures declare that sin is hated by GOD, for He is holy. Psalms 5:4 declares that GOD hath no pleasure in wickedness. Moses said”…all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy GOD.” Notice that it specifies all that do unrighteously, not all unrighteousness as it is so often stated. Countless are the times I’ve heard it stated that GOD hates the sin, but loves the sinner. Many use this as salve to ease the condemnation of their wicked hearts. But, scripture clearly contradicts this notion. For the scriptures plainly teaches that more than despise the deeds of the wicked(Proverbs 15:8-9) GOD “hatest all workers of iniquity” themselves ( Psa 5:5). GOD is not just a little displeased because we do wrong, but He is ontologically opposed to both the sin and sinner. (see 1 Jhn 1:5). Therefore He must judge, negatively, all who are involved in sin, by casting them away from Himself (Mat 7:23).
To sum up what has been stated so far; GOD created all men to be the image of GOD and a reflection of His glory. But we are, by nature, wicked sinful beings and consistently fall short of the glory of GOD. GOD is too holy to have any relationship with sin. He hates and loathes both sin and sinner. Therefore, in our natural state, we cannot have fellowship with GOD (Rom 8:7).That’s why we are “by nature the children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). How shall we be freed from this condemnation?
To begin we must consider the beginner, GOD. We will not delve into the nature and attributes of GOD in any real depth, for that is not the focus of this particular post. Instead we will consider two attributes of GOD that are pertinent to a proper understanding of the Gospel. Namely the truths that GOD is creator, and He is holy. If we misunderstand any of these truths we shall fail to truly appreciate the goodness of the gospel.
The scripture plainly teaches that GOD is the creator of everything (Gen 1:1, Isa 42:5). In Colossians 1:16 we read that “…all things were created by Him, and for Him.” In this statement we see the preeminent presupposition of the gospel. For the fact that GOD created us is what gives Him the right to sit as judge over us. Just as the sculptor is the sole determiner of whether the statue is worthy of display or disposal; the Maker of all likewise has the freedom to destroy His mold if he sees fit. But, unlike the sculpture who may be working for another, the scriptures state that GOD created for Himself. So if the thing created is not pleasing to the Creator it has no purpose for existence ( for ex. see Luke 13:6-9). Therefore, in order to truly gage the significance of our existence, we must discover the Maker’s intent for creating. His intent was for man to be the image of GOD (see part 1). Thus, He alone has the right to judge mankind and due to the intent of His creating can judge man against Himself (we will consider this more later). And the Bible clearly teaches that GOD exercises His position as judge. 1 Samuel 2:10 speak of the LORD as the Judge of the ends of the earth, and also Psalms 94:2 refers to the LORD as the Judge of the earth (to name a few).
So what exactly is the standard by which he judges? The answer to this question is the perfect life of the Son of GOD, JESUS CHRIST. For, as we said before, GOD created man to be the likeness of Himself (Gen 1:26). CHRIST is the fleshly manifestation of GOD (Col 1:15 & Heb 1:3). Therefore all who does not match up to the life of CHRIST are sinners. The greek word translated sinner in most New Testament passages literally means to miss the mark (look here). As in Romans 3:23 where we are charged with fallen short of the glory of GOD. In the minds of most people this is an absurd statement; how can a man be charged with fallen short of the glory of GOD? But, it makes more sense if you keep in mind that we were originally created to be the image (mini icon or representation) of GOD. That’s why He commands us to love and forgive likes he does (Col 3:13), to be perfect as He is (Mat 5:48), and to be holy like He is (1 Pet 1:15). Thus the standard of GOD is GOD Himself. And as the potter as the freedom to destroy the blemished pot no matter how good it appears to every other eye: the Sovereign LORD and Creator of all sit as judge of all He has created inspecting them to see if they adequately reflect His nature.
But does GOD really expect us to live like the sinless Son of GOD? Before we can adequately answer this we must look a littler closer at the nature of GOD. The Bible teaches that GOD is holy (see Isa 6:3,Psa 111:9, Rev 4:8). Most people will not dispute this truth. But the reality that is often neglected is that GOD’s holiness makes it impossible for Him to live in union with sin. As Paul Washer so lucidly stated it: “The holiness of God means that He transcends the moral corruption of His creation and is separated from all that is profane and sinful. God cannot sin, cannot take pleasure in sin, and cannot have fellowship with sin.” The Prophet Habakkuk said that GOD cannot look upon evil(1:13). In Isiah 59:1-2 GOD declares that the sin separates between Him and the people. GOD has no intimate connection with sin. Actually the scriptures declare that sin is hated by GOD, for He is holy. Psalms 5:4 declares that GOD hath no pleasure in wickedness. Moses said”…all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy GOD.” Notice that it specifies all that do unrighteously, not all unrighteousness as it is so often stated. Countless are the times I’ve heard it stated that GOD hates the sin, but loves the sinner. Many use this as salve to ease the condemnation of their wicked hearts. But, scripture clearly contradicts this notion. For the scriptures plainly teaches that more than despise the deeds of the wicked(Proverbs 15:8-9) GOD “hatest all workers of iniquity” themselves ( Psa 5:5). GOD is not just a little displeased because we do wrong, but He is ontologically opposed to both the sin and sinner. (see 1 Jhn 1:5). Therefore He must judge, negatively, all who are involved in sin, by casting them away from Himself (Mat 7:23).
To sum up what has been stated so far; GOD created all men to be the image of GOD and a reflection of His glory. But we are, by nature, wicked sinful beings and consistently fall short of the glory of GOD. GOD is too holy to have any relationship with sin. He hates and loathes both sin and sinner. Therefore, in our natural state, we cannot have fellowship with GOD (Rom 8:7).That’s why we are “by nature the children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). How shall we be freed from this condemnation?
What Is The Gospel: Part. 1 Man
In order to truly understand the Good News (Gospel) of CHRIST JESUS coming to be the Saviour of men, You must first have some grasp of man’s need of Salvation. For if you, like most Americans, think that you’re basically good; then you will not see your need for salvation. It’s like a person that has been infected with H.I.V., but does not know it. He develops a cough, but seeks after cough drops or some type of cough syrup. He would be offend if someone told him; “I have good news. I can stop your cough, but you must come with me quickly before you die of A.I.D.S.” This is one reason most people are offend by the Gospel, and many who ”accept JESUS” do so so flippantly. Because they fail to recognise that they are infected with an incurable deadly virus; and lying, lust, hatred, discontentment, depression, and etc. are only symptoms of its destruction. As JESUS said in Mat. 9:12 (KJV): “ They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” The truth is all born on their death beds.
Firstly we will (prayerfully) discover our sickness by comparing what we are with what we were created to be. In the book of Genesis, we read of man being created in the image of GOD (Gen. 1:27 we will elaborate on this in a later post). This word image could be translated as representation or figuren). Meaning GOD’s desired outcome of creating man was for man to be a mini Him. We were made to be just like GOD. GOD is holy and He expects us to be same (Isa 6:3 and 1 Pet 1:16). He is love and demands us do likewise on the same scale as He does (Mat 5:43-45). In short GOD commands us to walk upright, because He made us upright (Psa 25:8 & Ecc 7:29). Therefore if you are not doing what JESUS would do, then you are sinning and have fallen short of the glory of GOD. (Rom 3:23 ) Sin in that verse means to miss the mark. The mark is the sinless Son of GOD the express image of GOD, CHRIST JESUS. He lived how we were created to live, and one deviation equals death.
Next lets take a quick journey through the Bible to gain an understanding of the current state of man. Genesis 6:5 says: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And chapter 8 verse 21 says that ” the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Also take in the words of JESUS in Matthew 15:18-20: the” things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20These are the things which defile a man…” The reason men murder is because murder is in their heart, they steal because theft is in their, so on and so forth. Couple this with the two passages from Genesis and we get: Men hearts are always thinking wickedness. What ever is in the heart flows out and defiles them, therefore men from their youth are continually doing and being defiled by wickedness. Which is why the SPIRIT tells us that we are “by nature the children of wrath” (Eph 2:3 emphasis mine). In short we do wrong because we are wrong (Read Rom 7;13-25 notice that sin is inside of him, not what he did).
We are inherently prone to evil and wickedness. And this is made worse by the fact that heart is not only wicked, but it is also extremely deceptive. Proverbs 16:25 says “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. ” We all think that the way we feel or believe things should be done is the best way, but GOD says those things that seem right to use leads to death. Which means that we are like the man in the opening paragraph. We think we are O.K., but we are daily drawing nigh unto destruction. We can’t see that GOD view our best deeds as “filthy rags” (Isa 64:6). You think you are close to GOD but you are unaware of the fact that ” iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isa 59:2). You just know that GOD ain’t completely pleased, but it He ain’t mad either. Because you’ve been deceived and can’t realize that GOD ”hatest all workers of iniquity.” And the reason we don’t recognise that we are terminally ill is because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer 17:9). Our heart will lead us to sin, death, and destruction under the guise of life and righteousness. It is the reason we cannot be what GOD created us to be. We must completely rid ourselves of this if we are to have any hope of truly being the image of GOD. But the problem is this is who we are. We are flesh (Gen 6:3). And “the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:8), for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (v.7). We were created to please GOD (Rev 4:11),but because of who we are we cannot. Therefore, like the fruitless tree (Luke 13:6-9), we are fit to be hewn down and cast into the flames. But think about that analogy. A fruitless branch is a dead branch. We are worse than sick we are ”dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1 & Col 2:13). These are truthzifolllow.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
Firstly we will (prayerfully) discover our sickness by comparing what we are with what we were created to be. In the book of Genesis, we read of man being created in the image of GOD (Gen. 1:27 we will elaborate on this in a later post). This word image could be translated as representation or figuren). Meaning GOD’s desired outcome of creating man was for man to be a mini Him. We were made to be just like GOD. GOD is holy and He expects us to be same (Isa 6:3 and 1 Pet 1:16). He is love and demands us do likewise on the same scale as He does (Mat 5:43-45). In short GOD commands us to walk upright, because He made us upright (Psa 25:8 & Ecc 7:29). Therefore if you are not doing what JESUS would do, then you are sinning and have fallen short of the glory of GOD. (Rom 3:23 ) Sin in that verse means to miss the mark. The mark is the sinless Son of GOD the express image of GOD, CHRIST JESUS. He lived how we were created to live, and one deviation equals death.
Next lets take a quick journey through the Bible to gain an understanding of the current state of man. Genesis 6:5 says: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And chapter 8 verse 21 says that ” the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Also take in the words of JESUS in Matthew 15:18-20: the” things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20These are the things which defile a man…” The reason men murder is because murder is in their heart, they steal because theft is in their, so on and so forth. Couple this with the two passages from Genesis and we get: Men hearts are always thinking wickedness. What ever is in the heart flows out and defiles them, therefore men from their youth are continually doing and being defiled by wickedness. Which is why the SPIRIT tells us that we are “by nature the children of wrath” (Eph 2:3 emphasis mine). In short we do wrong because we are wrong (Read Rom 7;13-25 notice that sin is inside of him, not what he did).
We are inherently prone to evil and wickedness. And this is made worse by the fact that heart is not only wicked, but it is also extremely deceptive. Proverbs 16:25 says “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. ” We all think that the way we feel or believe things should be done is the best way, but GOD says those things that seem right to use leads to death. Which means that we are like the man in the opening paragraph. We think we are O.K., but we are daily drawing nigh unto destruction. We can’t see that GOD view our best deeds as “filthy rags” (Isa 64:6). You think you are close to GOD but you are unaware of the fact that ” iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isa 59:2). You just know that GOD ain’t completely pleased, but it He ain’t mad either. Because you’ve been deceived and can’t realize that GOD ”hatest all workers of iniquity.” And the reason we don’t recognise that we are terminally ill is because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer 17:9). Our heart will lead us to sin, death, and destruction under the guise of life and righteousness. It is the reason we cannot be what GOD created us to be. We must completely rid ourselves of this if we are to have any hope of truly being the image of GOD. But the problem is this is who we are. We are flesh (Gen 6:3). And “the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:8), for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (v.7). We were created to please GOD (Rev 4:11),but because of who we are we cannot. Therefore, like the fruitless tree (Luke 13:6-9), we are fit to be hewn down and cast into the flames. But think about that analogy. A fruitless branch is a dead branch. We are worse than sick we are ”dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1 & Col 2:13). These are truthzifolllow.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Emmaus' New Album
My man Zenk and I are almost done with our first project as Emmaus entitled, "The Doxology". Our aim is to use Hip Hop to paint a portrait of Jesus Christ. We hope that the picture painted will reveal our desire for Christ to be glorified through every aspect of our lives.
Many of the songs are speaking directly to God, giving the listener an intimate look at the conversation between the Creator and his creation. We hope that the end result will be to encourage the listener to see that the gospel affects everything in our lives. It's not enough that we "give God our Sundays" but then keep the rest of the week for ourselves. When we are in Christ, EVERYTHING changes. We are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). How can we have the Spirit of Christ within us and yet be the same? Everything, from our thoughts to the way we raise our children, is now a reflection of the power and Lordship of Jesus.
Needless to say, this is not a casual listening type of album (at least not all the time). We encourage you to actively listen to the lyrics and content of the songs. There are plenty of scripture references that need to be examined. Don't just take our word for it and assume that we're right about the things we say; confirm it. If there ends up being something said that you don't understand or that you disagree with then contact us so we can work it out. We'll be posting all the lyrics to the album soon so that you can follow along as you listen.
Other than that, we'll keep you updated. Peace!
In His Love,
Matt J
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Root Of It All
If I can be honest, whenever I'm reading Scripture and I get to a passage that is listing the attributes of the unrighteous such as hatred, greed, malice, decietfulness, sexual impurity,ect, I always get out a mental check list. As I'm reading I'm thinking, "Ok. Don't do this. I'm not supposed to do this. Christians don't do this so I can't either." My focus becomes the absence of these things rather than these things being the fruit of a Spirit filled follower of Christ. It's easier to look at the Scriptures as what I need to do to "be in good with God." This is completely contrary to what God desires for our lives. Yes He wants the absence of these things in our lives, but not as the means to salvation but the fruit of it. If when reading these lists of attributes of the unrighteous we see areas that our lives don't match up with, we shouldn't just try harder next time. The problem is not that we do these things, it's that there is something very twisted and wicked within us that reveals itself through these things. It's similar to a tree and it's fruit. Chopping down all the fruit of a tree doesn't keep fruit from being produced. If you want to stop the fruit from being produced you have to uproot the tree. It's the same with us. Our fruit is the attributes we have weather good or bad and the only way to cure the real problem is to uproot the tree, namely our wicked hearts. The catch is that we don't have the power within us to do that. God is the only one with the power to change our hearts and the fruit produced. So when we see anything in the Bible that contradicts our lives, that's a sign that we need to seek God diligantly in repentance for His Spirit to change our hearts. A constant tweaking of actions only mocks our God who sees the intents of our hearts. So, next time you're reading the Scriptures (which I'm hoping is often) and you see a commandment that isn't being kept in your life, don't just write it off as something you need to try harder at next time. Instead, I urge you (and me), to stop and plead with the God of heaven, who has the power to give life and take it away, for a renewed heart that reflects the heart of Christ.
In His Love,
matt j
In His Love,
matt j
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