My family meets for dinner to discuss various topics that concern us. Here are the notes of one such meeting. Maybe they will give you some ideas of what you can do with your family. Click on the tag "Family Dinner Meeting" at the bottom of this post to see others.
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The question we need to resolve in our minds is – Can we trust the Bible’s answer? The Bible says,
Man Is The Solution
Jesus Is The Example
This would mean that…
The Solution is You
Therefore, improve oneself, improves the world.
The Wheel – Where You Are
Personal Development – Where You Need To Go
Part 2: Part Problem Part Solution
I want to look into this further and see how God unfolded the answer to man’s problems.
The Problem
Hundred Thousand Billion Different Variants Of The Problem Exist
The solution could be…
A. Look at each variant and find a counter to it like in traditional medicine.
B. Grow healthy to resist all threats like in nature.
If we choose B then the question becomes how do we grow healthy?
We raised this question last time by looking at how the Bible described the problem. We saw that it read like today’s newspaper. It knows what it is talking about when it comes to describing our problems. It has credibility there. People 2000 years ago and people 2600 years ago dealt with problems we have today:
a sinful nation
no justice
no leaders
a desire to kill children
So, this leads to this question: Does the Bible have any credibility when it comes to talking about solutions? Can we trust its solutions to be accurate and helpful?
The Bible’s approach to solving the problem is not by looking at every individual problem and coming up with a solution to it but by a more natural approach. Be what you were meant to be and you will resolve many of the problems that plague us. God wants from us a healthy body, soul, and spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How To Grow Healthy
Genesis was revealed for the first time to Israel after God delivered them out of Egypt. Genesis contains information that God wanted them to know. He was forming a people into a nation and these people needed to know this for that nation to function properly.
What we find first in Genesis is this. This is foundational and very powerful as we shall see. They needed to…
Understand origins (Gen 1-2)
Understand how evil entered the world (Gen 3-4)
Genesis 4:6-7 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Not every worldview separates evil from man like we see in Genesis. There is a difference between you being evil and evil being in you.
The cause of anger is not you but sin in you.
The cause of depression is not you but sin in you.
The force we need to contend with is not you but a force in you.
To separate the two allows you to elevate man above evil and care for him and help him. One important result of that is a stable society. A stable society is good for mankind.
Such knowledge (of our origins and the nature of evil) gives us wisdom to know what is important.
What we see is not always what we think we see. I taught my children that a dime, even though it is smaller, is more valuable than a nickel, which is much bigger. This is the kind of knowledge we are talking about when we talk about growing to be healthy and wise.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred [not old, but sacred] writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation [deliverance from evil] through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
So, every time you learn something new it is like adding new code to a computer that was designed to solve problems.
Every time you study Scripture you feed your brain with something it was designed to need in order for it to work and solve the problems of the world: namely, how torule and subdue creation – this includes overcoming evil.
The Solution
So, I want to inject into your computer some code similar to what the nation of Israel heard on their way to the Promised Land. Not only is this foundational, but it is also vitally powerful as well.
This is a review of The Cross Crucified With Christ by J.C. Ryle with study questions added to turn them into lessons. You can see an overview of the complete study on Sanctification here. To go to the start of this current series click here.
1: What the Apostle Paul Did Not Glory In
The apostle Paul might have gloried in many things, if he had thought as some do today. If ever there was a person on earth who had something to boast of, that man was the great apostle of the Gentiles. If he did not dare to glory, who should?
He never gloried in his national privileges. He was a Jew by birth, as he tells us he was an Hebrew of Hebrews (Philippians 3:5). Like many of his brethren, he might have said, “I have Abraham for my forefather. I am not a dark, unenlightened heathen; I am one of the favored people of God: I have been admitted into covenant with God by circumcision. I am a far better man than the ignorant Gentiles.” But he never said that but declared those things which were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ (Philippians 3:7). He never gloried in anything of this kind. Never for one moment!
He never gloried in his own works. No one ever worked so hard for God as he did. He was more abundant in labors than any of the apostles (2 Corinthians 11:23). No living man ever preached so much, traveled so much, and endured so many hardships for Christ’s cause. No one ever converted so many souls, did so much good to the world, and made himself so useful to mankind. No father of the early church, no reformer, no Puritan, no missionary, no minister, no layman – no one man could ever be named who did so many good works as the apostle Paul. But did he ever glory in them as if they were in the least meritorious and could save his soul? Never! Never for one moment!
He never gloried in his knowledge. He was a man of great natural gifts, and after he was converted, the Holy Spirit gave him even greater gifts. He was a mighty preacher, and a mighty speaker, and a mighty writer. He was as great with his pen as he was with his tongue. He could reason equally well with Jews and Gentiles. He could argue with infidels at Corinth, or Pharisees at Jerusalem, or the self-righteous people in Galatia. He knew many deep things. He had been in the third heaven and had heard unspeakable words (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). He had received the spirit of prophecy and could explain things yet to come. But did he ever glory in his knowledge as if it could justify him before God? Never! Never for one moment!
He never gloried in his graces. If ever there was one who abounded in graces, that man was Paul. He was full of love. How tenderly and affectionately he used to write. He could feel for souls like a mother or a nurse feeling for her child. He was a bold man. He cared not whom he opposed when truth was at stake. He cared not what risks he ran when souls could be won. He was a self-denying man – in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and nakedness (2 Corinthians 11:27). He was a humble man. He thought himself less than the least of all saints and the chief of sinners (Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:15). He was a prayerful man. At the beginning of his epistles he expressed himself as a thankful man. His thanksgivings and his prayers walked side by side, but he never gloried in all this, never valued himself because of it, never rested his soul’s hopes on it. Oh no, never for a moment!
He never gloried in his churchmanship. If ever there was a good churchman, that man was Paul. He was a chosen apostle. He was a founder of churches and an ordainer of ministers: Timothy, Titus, and many elders received their first commission from his hands. He began services in many dark places, observed the Lord’s Supper, and held many meetings for prayer, and praise, and preaching. He set up the discipline in many young churches. Paul described qualifications for bishops and deacons and explained how to provide for widows and honor the elders (1 Timothy 3:1-5:25). But did he ever glory in his office and church standing? Does he ever speak as if his churchmanship would save him, justify him, remove his sins, and make him acceptable before God? Oh no, never! Never for a moment!
And now consider what I say. If the apostle Paul never gloried in any of these things, who in all the world, from one end to the other, has any right to glory in these qualities today? If Paul said, “God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross,” who should dare to say, “I have something to glory in; I am a better man than Paul”?
Who is there among the readers of this small book that trusts in any goodness of his own? Who is there that is resting on his own accomplishments, his own morality, or his own performances of any kind? Who is there that is placing the weight of his soul on anything of his own in the smallest possible degree?
Who is there among the readers of this book that trusts in his church membership for salvation? Who values himself on his baptism, his attendance at the Lord’s Table, his church attendance on Sundays, or his daily services during the week and says to himself, “What do I lack?” Learn today that you are not like Paul. Your Christianity is not the Christianity of the New Testament. Paul would not glory in anything but the cross. Neither should you.
Oh, beware of self-righteousness. Open sin kills thousands of souls. Self-righteousness kills tens of thousands.[1] Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ with heart and soul and mind and strength, but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own.
Think, you who take comfort in some fancied ideas of your own goodness; think, you who wrap yourselves up in the notion that all must be right if I stay in my church; think for a moment what a sandy foundation you are building! Think for a moment how miserably defective your hopes and pleas will look in the hour of death and in the day of judgment!
Whatever men may say of their own goodness while they are strong and healthy, they will find little to say of it when they are sick and dying. Whatever merit they may see in their own works here in this world, they discover no merit in them when they stand before the bar of Christ. The light of that great day of judgment will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, and expose the rottenness of many deeds that are now called good. Their wheat will prove to be nothing but chaff; their gold will be found to be nothing but dross. Millions of so-called good works will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They were genuine and valued among men, but they will prove light and worthless in the balance of God. They will be found to have been like the whitened sepulchres of old, fair and beautiful outside but full of corruption within. Alas, for the man who can look forward to the day of judgment and place his soul in the smallest degree on anything of his own![2]
Once more I say, beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people receive as much harm from their fancied virtues as others do from their sins.[3] Take heed, lest you be one. Rest not until your heart beats in tune with Paul’s. Rest not until you can say with him, God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross.
Questions & Notes
Do you agree that “sin kills thousands…self-righteousness kills tens of thousands”? Why? ↑
“In Christ’s humiliation stands our exaltation; in His weakness stands our strength; in His humiliation our glory; in His death our life.” – Cudworth, 1618. ↑
I saw this picture and it reminded me of the truth of this lesson. Study the picture; what do you see? These two keys what are they for? God has handed out a limited number of keys and most people are not in possession of them. Are you in possession of them? Do you use them? Today's study will reveal the answer.
This is a review of With Christ In The School Of Prayer by Andrew Murray with plenty of exercises along the way. Feel free to study along and improve your prayer life. As Murray said, “Power with God is the highest attainment of the life of full abiding.” I invite you to leave any questions or comments in the comments section below to enrich our learning. To go to the start of this series click here.
Andrew Murray, 1885
30: The Ministry of Intercession
A holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, well pleasing to God by Jesus, the Christ. – 1 Peter 2:5
Ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD. – Isaiah 61:6
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the LORD has anointed me (Isaiah 61:1) are the words of Jesus in Isaiah. As the fruit of His work, all redeemed ones are fellow partakers with Him through the anointing by the Spirit as High Priest. Now he who confirms us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God; who has also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). Like the precious ointment upon the head, that runs down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that goes down to the skirts of his garments (Psalm 133:2).[1] As every son of Aaron had a right to the priesthood, so every member of Jesus’ body has a right to the priesthood. But not everyone lives accordingly; many are still entirely ignorant of opportunity. And yet it is the highest privilege of a child of God, the mark of greatest nearness and likeness to Him, as he ever lives to make intercession (Hebrews 7:25).[2] Do you doubt that this is so? Think of what constitutes Christ’s role as our High Priest.
First, there is the work of the Old Testament priesthood. This has two sides: one is Godward, the other manward. Every priest is . . . constituted on behalf of men in things relating to God (Hebrews 5:1). Or, as Moses said in Deuteronomy 10:8, The LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name. On the one hand, the priest had the power to draw near to God, to dwell with Him in His house, and to present before Him the blood of the sacrifice or the burning incense.[3] This work he did not do, however, on his own behalf, but for the sake of the people whose representative he was. Likewise, Christ became our High Priest and representative as He was sacrificed for our salvation. For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
For the other side of his work, the priest received sacrifices from the people, presented them before God, and then came out to bless in His name to give the assurance of His favor and to teach them His law. In the same way, Christ lives to make intercession for us, and we can pray and intercede for all men (Hebrews 7:25; 1 Timothy 2:1).
A priest was thus a man who did not live for himself. He lived with God and for God. His work was as God’s servant to care for His house, His honor, and His worship, and to make known to men His love and His will.[4] He lived with men and for men (Hebrews 5:2). His work was to bring the people’s confession and needs before God, to offer sacrifice and incense in their name, to obtain forgiveness and blessing for them, and then to come out and bless them in His name.
This is the same high calling of every believer. As the apostle Paul declared, I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20). This shall be glory for all his merciful ones (Psalm 149:9). They have been redeemed for the purpose of being in the midst of the perishing millions around them as God’s ambassadors, who in conformity to Jesus, the Great High Priest, are to be the ministers and stewards of the grace of God to all around them. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did exhort you by us; we beseech you in Christ’s name, be ye reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20).
And then the walk of the priesthood should be in harmony with its work. As God is holy, so the priest was to be especially holy. This meant not only being separated from everything unclean but also being holy unto God, set apart, and given to God for His disposal.[5] The separation from the world and the setting apart unto God was indicated in many ways.
This separation was seen in the clothing: the holy garments, made after God’s own order, marked them as His (Exodus 28). We see this separation in the command about their special purity and freedom from all contact with death and defilement (Leviticus 21:11). Much that was allowed for an ordinary Israelite was forbidden for the priests. It was seen in the injunction that the priest must have no bodily defect or blemish; bodily perfection was to be the type of wholeness and holiness in God’s service (Leviticus 21:18-22). And it was seen in the arrangement by which the priestly tribes were to have no inheritance with the other tribes; God was to be their inheritance, for He told Ezekiel, And this shall be unto them for an inheritance: I shall be their inheritance: and ye shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession (Ezekiel 44:28).[6] Their life was to be one of faith; set apart unto God, they were to live on Him as well as for Him.
All this is the sign of what the character of the New Testament believer is to be. Our power with God depends on our personal life and walk. We must be like those of whose walk on earth Jesus said, they have not defiled their garments (Revelation 3:4).
In the surrender of what may appear lawful to others in our separation from the world, we must prove that our consecration to be holy to the Lord is wholehearted and entire. As Paul wrote:
I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies in living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing unto God, which is your rational worship. And be not conformed to this age, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your soul that ye may experience what is that good and well pleasing and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)
The bodily perfection of the priest has its counterpart for us also as we read in Ephesians where Christ also loved the congregation and gave himself for her, that he might present her glorious for himself, a congregation, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25, 27). The message is clear that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:17) and perfect and entire, not lacking in anything (James 1:4). And above all, we consent to give up all inheritance on earth and to forsake all, and like Christ, to have only God as our portion – to possess as not possessing and hold all for God alone. For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:8). These were marks of the true priest in the Old Testament, but they also describe the man who lives only for God and his fellow men today.
If we consider the way to the priesthood, we see that God had chosen Aaron’s sons to be priests – each of them was a priest by birth. They could not enter upon their work without a special act of ordinance or consecration. Every believer becomes a child of God through his rebirth – his blood relationship to the Great High Priest.[7] Then he can exercise his power as he walks in the Spirit and submits and is holy and unblameable and unreproveable (Colossians 1:22).
With Aaron and his sons, this consecration took place in Exodus 29. After being washed and clothed, they were anointed with the holy oil (Exodus 29:4-9). Sacrifices were then offered, and the right ear, the right hand, and the right foot were touched with the blood. Then they and their garments were sprinkled with the blood and the oil together (Exodus 29:20-21).
As a comparison, the child of God is washed with His blood, for in Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, and he is sealed with that Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:7, 13). Therefore, the believer is already a fellow heir and partaker by the effectual working of His power. The blood removes all unworthiness, and the Spirit gives gifts for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12).[8]
Notice what was new in the application of the blood to the priest. If he had ever as a penitent sought forgiveness by bringing a sacrifice for his sin, the blood was sprinkled on the altar but not on his person. But for priestly consecration, there was to be closer contact with the blood. The ear, hand, and foot were by a special act brought under its power, and the whole being was sanctified for God.
Today, when the believer is led to seek full access to God, he might feel the need of a fuller experience of the power of the blood. He now desires personal sprinkling and cleansing of the heart from an evil conscience, so that he can hold fast faith and a good conscience as cleansing from all sin (1 Timothy 1:19). So, he gets to enjoy that he is awakened to his wonderful right of the most intimate access to God and the full assurance of his intercessions.
As the blood gives the right, so the Spirit gives the power and fits the individual for believing intercession. He breathes into us the burning love for God’s honor and the saving of souls. He makes us one with Jesus, so that prayer in His name is a reality. He strengthens us for believing, effectual prayer.[9] The more the Christian is truly filled with the Spirit of Christ, the more spontaneous will be his giving of himself to the life of intercession.
Beloved fellow Christians, God needs – greatly needs – believers who can draw near to Him, who live in His presence, and who by their intercession draw the blessings of His grace on others. Those who live should not live from now on unto themselves, but unto him who died and rose again for them (2 Corinthians 5:15).[10] And the world needs – greatly needs – believers who will bear the burden of the perishing ones and intercede on their behalf, who will be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). As the apostle Paul said, I will very gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls (2 Corinthians 12:15); may we also be so spent.
Are you willing to offer yourself for this holy work? You know the surrender it demands – nothing less than the Christlike giving up of everything, so that the saving purposes of God’s love may be accomplished among men. Oh, don’t be one of those who are content if they have salvation and work enough just to keep themselves warm and lively. Oh, let nothing keep you back from giving yourselves to be entirely ambassadors – nothing else, nothing less than ministers of the Most High God.
The thought of unworthiness or inadequacy does not need to keep you back. In the blood, the objective power of the perfect redemption works in you; in the Spirit, the full, subjective personal experience as a divine life is secured. The blood of Christ provides an infinite worthiness to make your prayers most acceptable. The Spirit provides divine strength and teaches you to pray according to the will of God. Every priest knew that when he presented a sacrifice according to the law of the sanctuary, it was accepted. Under the covering of the blood and Spirit, you have the assurance that all the wonderful promises of prayer in the name of Jesus will be fulfilled in you.
Abiding in union with the Great High Priest, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. You will have power to pray the effectual prayer of the righteous man that availeth much. You will not only join in the general prayer of the church for the world, but you will also be able to take up your special work of prayer in your own sphere to transact it with God, to receive and know the answer, and thereby to bless in His name. Come, brother, come, and give yourself wholly to God. Seek to walk before the Lord in the full consciousness that you have been set apart for the holy ministry of interceding for your circle of family and friends. This is the true blessedness of conformity to the image of God’s Son.
* * * *
Oh, my blessed High Priest, accept the consecration in which my soul can respond to Your message. I believe I can have boldness and confidence with power to appear before the Father, and in the prayer that avails much, I will bring blessing on the perishing around me.
I believe in the power of Your precious blood to cleanse me from all sin, to give me perfect confidence toward God, and to bring me near in the full assurance of faith that my prayer will be heard.
I believe in the Holy Spirit who comes down from You, my Great High Priest, to sanctify me, to fill me with the consciousness of my calling and with a love for souls, to teach me what is according to God’s will and how to pray the prayer of faith.
I believe that as You, my Lord Jesus, are in all things my life, so You are the assurance for me and You will draw me into the fellowship of Your wondrous work of intercession. In this faith, I yield myself this day to my God as His ambassador to stand before His face to intercede on behalf of sinners and to come out and bless them in His name.
Lord Jesus, accept and seal my consecration. Yes, Lord, lay Your hands on me and consecrate me to this holy work. Let me walk among men with the consciousness and the character of a believer of the Most High God.
Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Questions & Notes
Editor’s note: Sheep are anointed with oil for three reasons: (1) to keep bugs and flies from nesting in the nose and ears and ultimately even causing the death of the animal; (2) to cause the sheep’s heads to glance off each other without doing harm when they butt heads; and (3) to bring healing to wounds incurred in daily life. So, when Aaron was anointed with oil, it was to show that God would protect him from harm, strengthen him in trials, and heal him when wounded. Understanding how the anointing was used in a practical way also sheds light on Psalm 23: Thou hast anointed my head with oil. ↑
What is the highest privilege of the child of God? ↑
How does the priest live in relationship to God? ↑
