Jerry Walls wicked and profane question about God..part2

pt3;
ANSWER 3. Let us be inlaid with sincerity. If a piece of timber begin to bend, it is because it is not sound. Why do any bend and comply against their conscience, but because their hearts are not sound? Their hearts were not right with him, neither were they steadfast (Psa. 78:37). Sincerity causes stability. When the apostle exhorts to armour, put on the girdle of truth, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth (Eph. 6:14). The girdle of truth is nothing else but sincerity.


Notice that Watson does not here instruct us to be inflexible and unbending in our personalities. When he speaks of steadfastness and refers to Psalm 78.37 and Ephesians 6.14, he is admonishing those who cut corners when it comes to obeying God and encouraging us to stand strong in the midst of spiritual battle.

Sadly, there are many who are rigid and inflexible in matters of preference, while yielding this way and that in matters of conscience and conviction. Of course, such as conduct themselves that way have it backwards.

When the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 6.14 that we should have our loins girt about with truth, you should try to picture a weightlifter with a weight belt snugly in place, giving him stability when he is lifting. Though combat was then nothing like it is in modern times, in ancient times the warrior would twist and flex his torso as he shielded himself on the left and swung his sword on the right. To prevent injury and to resist fatigue, a leather girdle would be strapped in place to provide stability.

When you are spiritually unstable during times of apostasy, it is because you do not have your loins girt about with truth, truth is not stabilizing you during the conflict. You are like a piece of timber that is beginning to bend under stress. That is not a good thing. Being flexible in your disposition is wonderful. Being flexible in your doctrinal position is a defect.


ANSWER 4. Let us get love to Christ. Love is a holy transport. It fires the affections, steels the courage, and carries a Christian above the love of life, and the fear of death, Many waters cannot quench love (Song of Sol. 8:7). Love made Christ suffer for us. If anyone ask what Christ died of, it may be answered, He died of love. If we love Christ, we will own him in the worst times, and be like that virgin of whom Basil speaks who, not accepting deliverance upon sinful terms, cried out, �Let life and money go; welcome Christ!�


This answer is very challenging. Of course, your love for Christ during times of apostasy is crucial. No wonder Watson was a much loved writer. He has a way with words. Love is a holy transport. It fires affections, steels the courage, and carries a Christian above the love of life, and the fear of death. Does this not explain the courage and the fortitude of martyrs?

As with most Puritans, Watson�s understanding of the Song of Solomon directly links to the Lord Jesus Christ, and shows that the love one has for the Lord Jesus Christ is the strongest motive of all for service, even during times of great apostasy. Notice, also, the evidence of Watson�s prayer life and meditations. �Love made Christ suffer for us. If anyone ask what Christ died of, it may be answered, He died of love.�

Few writers in the last two hundred years would choose to pen such words. Watson lived in a time of persecution, paid a price for his faithfulness to the cause of Christ, and seems to reveal in these words his own motivation for remaining faithful when he could have profited financially by compromising, and endured far less suffering by giving in to persecution. �If we love Christ, we will own him in the worst times, and be like that virgin of whom Basil speaks who, not accepting deliverance upon sinful terms, cried out, �Let life and money go; welcome Christ!�� The Basil he refers to was a fourth century defender of the Christian faith, who himself reported of a young girl who welcomed martyrdom rather than succumb to persecution and turn away from Christ.

 

pt4;
ANSWER 5. If we would keep up the sprightly vigour of grace in evil times, let us harden our hearts against the taunts and reproaches of the wicked. David was the song of the drunkards (Psa. 69:12). A Christian is never the worse for reproach. The stars are not the less glorious though they have ugly names given them, the Bear, the Dragon, etc. Reproaches are but assulae crucis, splinters of the cross. How will he endure the stake, who cannot bear a scoff? Reproaches for Christ are ensigns of honour, badges of adoption (I Pet. 4:14), the high honours of accusations, says Chrysostom. Let Christians bind these as a crown about their head. Better have men reproach you for being good, than have God damn you for being wicked. Be not laughed out of your religion. If a lame man laugh at you for walking upright, will you therefore limp?


Here Watson both acknowledges our hurt feelings, as well as providing encouraging words to deal with the harsh words that are flung at us by our enemies.

Do the jokes and the ridicules at work bother you? Do the hateful looks and the sneers wound you? We are reminded that David was the song of drunkards, Psalm 69.12, and in that same psalm he writes that he bore reproach for God�s sake. Therefore, you are not the first one who has felt the slings and arrows. Besides, Watson correctly points out that we are never the worse for reproach. Therefore, if you ever become a Christian who has derisive songs sung about you, it probably means you are very spiritual indeed.

�The stars are not the less glorious though they have ugly names given them, the Bear, the Dragon, etc. Reproaches are but assulae crucis, splinters of the cross. How will he endure the stake, who cannot bear a scoff? Reproaches for Christ are ensigns of honour, badges of adoption (I Pet. 4:14), the high honours of accusations, says Chrysostom. Let Christians bind these as a crown about their head. Better have men reproach you for being good, than have God damn you for being wicked. Be not laughed out of your religion. If a lame man laugh at you for walking upright, will you therefore limp?�

What encouraging and constructive comments these are. Oh, how I wish someone had said words like these to me as a young Christian. It would not have spared any of the pain of harsh comments and treatments I received, but it would have been a salve to the wounds, a healing ointment to the stabs in the back.

He is right in saying that we should harden our hearts against taunts and reproaches. This whole world is becoming so thin-skinned and sissified that we who love the Lord run the risk of letting little things like harsh words and nasty looks knock us off our trolleys. We need to be more determined than that. Amen? An inscription on the New York City Post Office reads, �Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.� Though it is applied to letter carriers in their determination to deliver the mail against all odds, the Greek historian and traveler, Herodotus, was originally describing the messengers dispatched by the Persian court in ancient times. Whoever the words were written about and later applied to, should they not be an appraisal of our determination to do right no matter what is said against us?


ANSWER 6. If we would keep up the vigour of devotion during a general seizure, let us beg God for confirming grace. Habitual grace may flag; Peter had habitual grace, yet was foiled; he lost a single battle, though not the victory. We need exciting, assisting, corroborating grace; not only grace in us, but grace with us (I Cor. 15:10); auxiliary grace (which is a fresh gale of the Spirit) will carry us undauntedly through the world�s blustering storms. Thus shall we be able to keep up our heroic zeal in corrupt times, and be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.


Watson introduces me to some new concepts with this final answer, concepts that I agree with upon reflection, and wholly endorse.

First, consider the concept of habitual grace. This is God�s grace in your life to deal with the routine, with the ordinary, with the expected and anticipated. Generally speaking, this is what you need from God to get by. With habitual grace you will win the war. However, if habitual grace is all you have you may lose important battles.

The battle Peter lost, of course, due to a deficiency in what Watson refers to as confirming grace, was when he severely stumbled and denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times in the early morning hours before our Lord�s crucifixion. What happened? Watson explains Peter�s tragic denials as habitual grace flagging, or habitual grace giving out. What Peter needed during those three times of fright and fatigue and temptation was confirming grace.

So, what do we need during this time of apostasy, when we are not so much set upon suddenly by fear and fatigue and temptation, as was Peter, but by a complete and general decline in spirituality all around us? In times like these �We need exciting, assisting, corroborating grace; not only grace in us, but grace with us (I Cor. 15:10); auxiliary grace (which is a fresh gale of the Spirit) will carry us undauntedly through the world�s blustering storms. Thus shall we be able to keep up our heroic zeal in corrupt times, and be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.�

What Watson does not specifically indicate here, but which he and every other Puritan most assuredly would have on his mind, was the means by which exciting, assisting, corroborating grace, auxiliary grace, which is a fresh gale of the Spirit, might be sought and acquired. Sadly, little attention is given these days of the means by which God imparts grace to people. What is misunderstood is that God�s ordinary means of grace is through church services in which His Word is preached, fellowship with other Christians, reading and studying the Bible, praying and serving God, and such activities as those. If you are really pressed hard and feel like you are under the gun, the worst thing you can do is miss church, stop reading your Bible, give up your prayer life, and disassociate from other Christians.

If it is your intent to keep up your heroic zeal in corrupt times, and be like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved . . . you simply must avail yourself of the ordinary means of grace, all the while asking God for the auxiliary grace needed to carry you through the storm.


We do live in times of apostasy. These are, after all, the last days. Therefore, if you would be a consistent Christian, if you would avoid the pitfalls of the kind of sudden temptations and stumbling that Simon Peter endured, you have to be prepared for unforeseen things. To be sure, the means of grace are crucial to establishing a pattern of routine and regular godliness. However, what should you do to combat surprise temptations? What will you do when you are suddenly overwhelmed and stricken in some way with a spiritual malady?

If you need auxiliary grace to supplement your habitual grace, you will not find it by abandoning the ordinary means of grace. You do yourself no good by missing church, avoiding Christians, ignoring your Bible and refusing to pray. If anything, you need the ordinary means of grace all the more at crucial times of stress and testing, during times of discouragement and great tempting.

Yes, we live in times of great apostasy and spiritual decline. Most are spiritually blind and without interest in spiritual things. All the more reason for you to pay attention to the means of grace, so you maintain your interest in spiritual pursuits, so you fan the flames in your own fireplace, waiting for special seasons of refreshing from the Lord.

 

I posted a response Steaver in post 75

 

you still have that post on file....I think you secretly study it...but that is okay my friend...
You know I stand by that post and would even expand on it today if you would like.

oh and by the way...is that the same Adrian [strawman] Rogers who got mightily corrected here;



This is the second edition of Radio Free Geneva on Youtube. In this edition, Dr. James White critiques a sermon presented by Dr. Adrian Rogers that gives many of the fallacies and inconsistencies those who do not hold to the Reformed faith usually commit. These errors include believing that the word "foreknow" is a noun, taking out words from Scripture like Matt. 23:37 to defend one's tradition, and thinking that unless a man's will is free, they are robots. This has been touted as very helpful by several people who have heard it because of Dr. White's refutations then explanations. The listener call-in section at around the last half hour or so is helpful, too. There was another part to this that was in a later episode of RFG.

 

steaver,

Steaver..I clearly said I answered them in age appropriate answers....do you understand this? The first time one of your 6 or 7 year old children asked you about ...where did babies come from...did you go into detail and explain all aspects on adult intimacies in marraige and explain the process of all phases of the sexual union? Or..did you answer in a way that they could grasp.

I do not hold back on election or predestination with anyone...

I do not speculate about what God may have decided or not...

I do speak of God electing a multitude before the world was...and they all will come to Jesus when He draws them.

I do not have your distorted view of the doctrines of grace, so I do not have to unwind this yarn you are spinning....

I tell them....we are all sinners....God is going to save a multitude of sinners...but not all. Those who do not trust in Jesus will perish. If they do not trust Jesus they will perish, Mom and Dad cannot save you....If you are going to be saved Jesus will have to do it.
There is no need for your dreadful speculation or whatever way you think to lie to your children as if that was going to change things.

Another thing children are called...is sinners.

I was speaking about both...not either or.

So Steaver...if Judas was your son...would your clever little stories have been strong enough to give him a new heart?

I have conveyed that to them so that they are without excuse.
Of course I do not mischaracterize the situation as you do...
My children were taught that God is holy...there will be no unsaved sinners in heaven.

No..a lie would be you telling your children you know for sure He loves them savingly...before they are saved.

You do not know if God will draw your children period!
No where in scripture is there a magic verse saying all children of all believers will be savingly drawn to faith.

I have taught them the truth about election and predestination....If God shows me who He has chosen I will announce it to those on the list.
Until then I will be content to teach the truth of election and predestination.