American Loon

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 31 to 34

Q31: What is effectual calling?
A31: Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel. 

Q32: What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A32: They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which, in this life, do either accompany or flow from them. 

Q33: What is justification?
A33: Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. 

Q34: What is adoption?
A34: Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the Sons of God. 

Today we will be going through verse 27. We are still dealing with John the Baptist and him stating for the record who he is and who he is not.

John 1:27
It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. The Pharisees were convinced of their righteousness and I think a bit puzzled as to why they would need to repent. Our present day, it is the same. I meet people all the time who are convinced they are a good person and repentance is not something they need to worry about. After all, they say that their sins have been forgiven. If you are true of heart and believe that Christ has risen from the dead and is Lord of all, that is true. However, it is incumbent upon us to repent of our daily sins. Yes, they are forgiven, but we must acknowledge the sin and forsake it, lest our blessings be withheld.

Acts 17: 11
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

Now let’s play the part of the Bereans and look at what was said. 

We’ve talked about who is good several times during various bible studies and I’ve gotten the impression of “there he goes again” from this group. Do any of us here really think of ourselves as good people? And why would you think that? We are told all through our lives that we’re a good boy or girl. Or you’ve done a good job and this reinforces the “I must be a good person” idea. And if you’ve not read the bible, you would persist in thinking this. This is the work of satan. Does that shock you? It should. Luke 18:19 has Jesus saying there are none good but God alone. The great deceiver would like you to think differently. God is Holy and does not take any sin lightly. If He alone is good, when we think we are good, we are sinning against God. I want to make this as simple as possible to let you understand something so small but so important.

So let’s figure out what I said. I used “you are true of heart” as a qualifier to the rest of what I said. To review: “If you are true of heart and believe that Christ has risen from the dead and is Lord of all, that is true. However, it is incumbent upon us to repent of our daily sins. Yes, they are forgiven, but we must acknowledge the sin and forsake it, lest our blessings be withheld.” 

 So what am I talking about? There is head knowledge of scripture and God and there is heart knowledge. You may know certain things about the bible, but if you have not taken them into your heart, it will do you no good. Your blessings will be of those that all get as general Grace. God’s grace abounds to all the earth. Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

So examine yourselves to know if your heart is true. 

2 Corinthians 13:5
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you– unless indeed you fail the test?

We’ve got that covered, now on to Christ has risen from the dead. You’ve heard this countless times I’m sure. But how do you know this? This is an important idea. Where did you get this knowledge? Did you read it or just hear it in Sunday School? This can be for many people, head knowledge. If you have not taken it into your heart and truly believe, it is of little value. Just another one of those things you know, that you can say to one another, but that’s about it. We find proof of it in the scripture.

Mark 16:14
Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.

So the scripture tells us so and we know the bible is good from 2 Timothy 3:16 and here we have Jesus coming to the disciples, those that were told He would be raised from the dead, but that apparently was just head knowledge. 

Now why is Easter and Him who was crucified and now raised important? Laughably simple questions to those whose hearts have been examined and found true, but not all know this.

The Good News is if you are still breathing, you can still repent and accept the Lord as your savior. Now onto proof. 

John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Romans 1:9
“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

What I am doing here is breaking down everything I had said, and proving up on it with the scriptures. Yes there is context involved, but I don’t want to muddy the water up with that just yet. 

Let us finish out parsing my statement. The last part was to repent your sins daily or you’ll not be blessed by our Father as He would like to bless you. The simple of it is, obey God and you’ll be blessed, disobey God and you’ll be cursed. Deuteronomy 28 where Moses spells this out to those stiff necked Jews quite clearly. 

1 John 1:8
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 JOHN 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 

Hebrews 10:26-27
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Revelation 3:3
Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

Proverbs 28:13
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

That covers everything I said. Now what I want you to do is think about what you know, really think about it and think about how you came to know that. Were you just told it or did you read it somewhere? Is this head knowledge or do you hold it in your heart? And now follow up on that. The internet is very good for this task but your very own bible is all you need. Sit down in a quiet place with the bible in your lap and ask God to help you find what you are looking for. None of you here can tell me you don’t have time for that. How will you know God and what he wants from you if you don’t read what he wrote? Take an interest in your salvation, for none of us knows the span of our days.

Just like John the Baptist when he said that he was not worthy of untying the sandal of Him who was crucified so that we might have eternal life. We are not worthy of God’s love, but God loves us anyway. Glorify Him in all that you do.

All Glory to God the Father and to our Savior Jesus Christ

From Westminster Shorter Catechism, questions 27 to 30

Q27: Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?
A27: Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time. 

Q28: Wherein consisteth Christ’s exaltation?
A28: Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day. 

Q29: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A29: We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit. 

Q30: How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A30: The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. 

We will be going back to John chapter 1 today. From past bible studies, we learned about John the Baptist. He was related to Jesus through Mary, his mother. He was also prophesied to come in several places in the Old Testament:

Deuteronomy 18:15
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

Isaiah 40:3
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Malachi 3:1
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

God was letting His people know that this prophet was coming to “prepare the way” for the Messiah. And throughout the expanse of time, from Deuteronomy to just before John’s first baptism, those that followed the scripture, whose hearts aligned with the will of their Creator, they knew of this event and looked forward to it. The Pharisees probably did know, but it was head knowledge, not heart knowledge. They thought of themselves more righteous than their fellow Jews, but John’s message to them was no you are not. 

We will pick this up in John chapter 1 verse 24:

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 

They had read the scrolls and knew that Elijah had been brought up to heaven in a flaming chariot. 2 Kings 2:11 As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.

Elijah, one of two men said to have not died but gone right to heaven. Enoch was the other. Enoch, if you recall, walked with God and God so enjoyed this man’s heart that He took Enoch to heaven with Him (Genesis 5:21-24). 

Getting back to Elijah, we find in Malachi something that would cause the Pharisees to think that Elijah would be coming back.

Malachi 4:5-6
Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse

So when this hairy guy that eats bugs is baptising people in the Jordan and saying things like REPENT, the smart among them would conclude that this could possibly be Elijah. 

Kings 1:8 They answered him, “He was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

While there were, I am sure, many hairy unkempt men walking about in those days, what really perked up their ears was John’s baptisms and message. So they sent out their minions, junior pharisees, to see just what was going on in the river Jordan.

26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 

While the Pharisees were very good at some details, they kinda missed the crucial detail of who the Messiah was. Because of their pride and supposed righteousness, they could see but not see.

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Seeing the entire vineyard but missing the essential vine, as it were. I want you to focus on verse 2 of the above passage. Gird your loins, as this now is the stern rod portion of the program.

We talk about God and Jesus all the time in these sessions. And while we hear this, do we really hear this? Or are our ears like the Pharisees? They heard what Jesus said, but didn’t hear with their hearts only their heads and were damned for what they did. 

All of us have the law written upon our hearts. This is found in many places of the bible, but I’ll use this: Psalm 40:8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

So if we know the right and wrong of things, what causes us to be casual or laid back in how we obey God? Think of it as little white lies. They are neither little nor white in God’s estimation. There is a lot of self deception built into us. We think we are doing the Lord’s will by being a good person and going to church most of the time. We tend to have our pet peeves, I mean who does not with election season being blared into our faces day and night. And that one person, man I just can’t stand to look at them, they are so… well I just can’t stand them.

I get it, I really do. I was a pet peever with the best of them. I could hold a grudge over something so small, for years. It helps with a splash of Scottish blood you know. They were good at grudges. 

Calm yourselves, I am not going to talk about politics. I am going to talk about things that result from our day to day interaction with people and our culture. What does God say about judgement? Matthew 7:1 “Judge not lest ye be judged” 

As simple as that. But what does it mean to judge? 

To judge means: to separate, to pick out, select, choose. By implication, it means to condemn, punish—avenge, conclude. It also carries the idea of having discernment. The passage where Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” 

Be clear here, I am not pointing my finger at any one person here, because I would also have to point at myself. I am guilty of judging people. Because I am a miserable sinner. We all are. When we say we can’t stand a person, can’t even listen to them, because you don’t like them that much, that is judgment. Who are you, without any sin, to pass judgement on any person?

Remember the log eye comment from Jesus? 

Matthew 7:3-5
3 Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

And just how does one take the log from thine own eye? Asking for a friend. The short answer is Obey God. All things are possible through Him. I hear quite often, from people who say they “just can’t”, whether it be getting over worrying or fear of something they should not have fear of. My answer is “Of course you can’t. But God can, just let Him. I could not bare ALS on my own. But God can and does for me because were I am weak, He is strong.

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

So yes we are sinners prone to sin. From MacArthur’s Devotionals: Sin is a serious issue and you should never take it lightly. But when you do sin, remember that as a believer you’re immediately cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7). So always confess your sins and turn from them, but never doubt God’s power or willingness to keep you saved. Trust in His grace, not in your ability to perform.

We see how the Pharisees passed judgement on Christ. And we know what God has said about judgement. Most of this could be nipped in the bud by following what Jesus said: 

Matthew 22:37-38 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

How can you judge someone when you love them? And that is only possible with God in you. I am asking you to be aware of what’s in your heart and read the bible. How else are you going to know what God wants us to do? Take that head knowledge and apply it to your heart. You will be surprised what difference it will make in your life. And while you’re at it, I encourage you keep going through the rest of His book. It will open your eyes.