The Need for Apostolic Certitude
Filed under The Kingdom of God on December 28th, 2009 by Bryan Purtle
“…. he that has seen Me has seen the Father….” -John 14.9
In the October 30th selection of My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers gives us this awesome thought:
Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we cannot have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say- “he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
The darkness that marks ‘god-seeking’ cultures is profounder and more tragic than we know. Even in modern evangelicalism, there is enough of a measure of humanistic thought that in most cases believers remain unbroken over the condition of mankind. If one were to survey the nation of India, for instance, and the number of gods or goddesses men pursue there, it would become clear that the whole of the nation is pursuing “God” as a mere abstraction.
Men will spend weeks standing on one leg, days and sometimes months in fasting, whole nights in meditation and reading of ancient texts, or cut and pierce their bodies in numerous ways, just for the positive sense it gives them in knowing that their souls are bent in a spiritual direction. From one village to the next, their deities change name and form, and most of the time there are multiple gods to worship in each household. There is no spiritual stability, no answer to the problem of sin, no consciousness of God’s holiness and love, but instead the bewildering pursuit of the divine in mere abstractions. Paul did not see these kinds of religious pursuits as valid in any way, stating that they were literally worshiping “demons” whether they knew it or not. (1 Cor. 10.20)
We cannot have faith in God until we have seen His Son for who He is, and believed in Him unto salvation. The nations are groping in darkness, incapable of finding anything but false and fading lights, and not until the Church has penetrated their darkness with the light of truth in Christ will they have any hope at all. The darkness is not bound to idolatry in India, but is the plight of mankind in every culture and in every form of life where Christ has not become the center. Across the board men are seeking their gods in abstraction, be they wooden statues or cars, homes and big screen T.V.’s, and only those who have come into communion with the One true God through the Gospel have the unfading hope of true Light. Only we have stability and certitude about eternity, for it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and it is founded upon the revelation that God has given in the Scriptures. Do we dare keep this great light to ourselves?
They must know of His great love. They must know of His power to break the stranglehold of sin and shame. They must know that He has come in the flesh, died, raised, and ascended, and that He’s coming again. They are groping about after “mere abstractions,” when the revelation of God the Father has already been given. They must hear of the Man, Christ Jesus!
How can we live so indifferently, so numbly, so stingily. Have we failed to realize that unless the nations see God through the revelation of the Gospel they will only pursue Him through abstractions, and will fall totally short of the glory of grace altogether? Do we really believe that unless they come into the Gospel they will perish, forever?
We need to be freed from humanistic mixtures and hollow hopes for their progressive improvement, and brought onto the grounds of apostolic certitude. Paul shed blood and tears, took stones in the face and lashes on the back, for the singular purpose of setting forth the Man Christ Jesus to those who were seeking God in mere abstractions. We need the same sight, the same courage, the same burden, the same faith, and the same missionary spirit, or else they perish forever. It’s time to wake up, saints. It’s not a dream. It’s not an option. Woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel.
“If sinners be damned at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. Let them go with our arms around their knees. Let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for.” -Charles Spurgeon
Tags: Charles Spurgeon, Church, demons, holiness, Holy Spirit, India, Jesus Christ, Oswald Chambers, Paul
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Dear Bryan,
I have often wondered why, as you say, that “men are willing to go to extremes to gain that positive sense that there souls are bent in spiritual direction” when they could just accept the free give of salvation and enter into His glorious rest? I have now come to the conclusion that one possible reason is they have not seen it demonstrated. What they see from church to church is, and I will use your words because it is my belief that they fit the church as well as the village. They see, “there is no spiritual stability, no answer to the problem of sin, no consciousness of God’s holiness and love.”
Our church doors have become revolving doors because they enter in and see believers who came to Jesus through a wonderful spiritual experience and then rather than wait on the Lord, begin to try and complete themselves through their own flesh.
I will admit that waiting on the Lord is hard. (many a time I have been tempted to scream for Hagar but thank God I held my tongue and increased my grip on the promise)
But the world enters in and sees programs that look very similar to what the world has to offer only, of course, we just tack on the name of Jesus and call it spiritual.
There are classes that closely resemble worldly counseling sessions, in monetary terms as well as in end results. I know a woman who attended some sort of stream that was supposed to wash off all the past and yet she needed to go back a fourth time because she still felt bothered by things. I want to weep as I think of dear Wigglesworth and how he often said, “when God does a thing it is done!”
You say that we can’t have faith in God until we have seen His Son as He truly is. The problem is that so many don’t want to see Him! They don’t want Him to be Lord! Mankind wants to stretch forth his own hand often for his own glory and there is an exchange that takes place when that happens because God don’t do mixture.
A Christian woman told me she was battling demons every night because she was single and her unsaved father was her covering. She didn’t want to hear that Jesus could be her covering and then He would fight for her. She insisted that she had to do it herself. A short time later she died in her sleep.
One woman told me that she was going to attend a class to mourn a miscarriage she had eighteen years ago. This woman has been a Christian for over twenty years and when I asked her had she not grieved back then she became angry with me. I shared how I had been set free and healed as I obeyed God when He would send me out to help others and she became so offended she would not speak to me for three months!
A poor missionary relayed that she is suffering to the point of death and for consolation she received a prophetic word that she was bound with her feet in shackles, and she believed it even though the Word of God declares otherwise!
God’s people don’t see the suffering of the world because their eyes are filled with themselves. One Christian actually told me that she believes that when little children are beaten they don’t feel it! No wonder so many in the church walk right by the suffering without seeing them.
When I talk to people about going to the cross they would rather talk about the latest conference or the newest revelation that will set you free with no suffering at all. Anything to avoid the cross!
It’s no wonder the world don’t want what they see that many Christians have. The water has been so muddied it is not fit for human consumption.
And you want to talk about idolatry? God once told me that many of his people spend more time rebuking the devil than they do praising Jesus whereas if they would spend more time praising they would not have to spend so much time rebuking.
I have been in prayer meetings where people have cried out for the sinners saying, “if they would just turn from their sins!” And all the while The Word is saying, “If they would just turn from their selfish ways, if they would just lay down their lives, if they would just believe and take up their cross”…
As dispiriting as it is, I run to my closet and lock myself in where I rest in the assurance that God is faithful and He is readying a people. You won’t find them at the fellowship meeting, and they’re not the popular ones at church. They are who they have always been; a bunch of nobodies who are often looked upon as distastefully as water at a wedding feast. They are a group of strong quiet souls who are unafraid of evil, hidden in the shadow of the cross, eyes swollen from crying, hearts yearning for His cause, waiting patiently for Jesus to just say when…
That Spurgeon quote puts to death the idea that Calvinists don’t believe in evangelism.
I love the post.
You speak of the people in other countries performing acts for their gods, I see that in the body and it plagues my heart. In the church we have developed a false holiness in the body. We believed that holiness and our position with God is based on what we do or do not do and that is what brings us closer to God , when in reality it is His Son that has accomplished this for us. I hear Pastors say that only if we press in more, pray longer, do one thing, don’t do something else then we can be closer to God. While I was in the world doing vile things in unbelief, God came to me, why do I think I must impress Him now. He knows my heart, knows I am a sinner, and still chooses to love me. I use the present tense ” I am” a sinner because my belief in Jesus has not taken away my sin nature, sometimes in church we forget that, we think that we are no longer sinners, no longer wretched, but outside of Christ we are the same wretched people that God loved enough to send His son. I am not saying that I should not pray longer, but I should do things out of the love for God, not believing that it guarantees me a greater place in heaven than the next man.
I equate it to playing basketball with Michael Jordan on my team, I might be on the winning team , but I still suck at basketball. We are winning through no strength or skill of our own, and If Michael were to quit the team we would be losers again. Until we get past this treadmill of performance, and understand the simplistic grace of “the good News” our hearts will not be broken, because we will never understand the love that gave us life, we will only believe that it is us doing “good” things, or not doing bad things that keeps us in a good place with God. When we need to understand that we stand blameless because of Christ, and then true freedom and love can flourish.
Rob S.,
Would that all (or even most) Calvinists shared Spurgeon’s heart and burden for the lost!
Amen!
Amen and amen!
Dr. Brown: As a matter of curiosity, have you ever had the chance to work along side Dr. Piper in your ministry dealings? If you ever find yourself in Minneapolis, I’d highly suggest visiting his church–it is VERY missions-focused. He’s also a continuationist.
Also, congrats on landing the future radio debate with James White! I look forward to hearing it.
Great article Bryan!
Bless you, Daniel. Thanks for the encouraging word.