Good Morning!
I trust everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a blast in Sevierville/Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg last week. I especially enjoyed the hikes in the mountains and our Thanksgiving meal at Golden Corral. It was a great time of feasting and gave us an opportunity to experience everything that is wonderful about America. I felt like Lee Greenwood should have been belting out from the house speakers while I went for my fourth plate. It was excellent. I hope your time this past week was refreshing and gave you much to rejoice in. When we take time to remember how fortunate we are it can, or at least should, outright humble us a tad.
That last bit is going to be the focus of our Tuesday worship and prayer help. You can probably tell from the number, but this is the 101st one of these we’ve had since late October of 2020. I hope they have been beneficial and as always if there is anything I can do to improve them or if there is a subject you’d like to hear about in the future let me know. Starting the first of the year in this Tuesday letter I plan on going through each part of our worship service at Bethany to help us all know why we do what we do and the reasoning behind the order of things on the Lord’s Day morning.
But, let’s get into the meat of the day.
Whenever we come to talk about humility one of the first verses which pops up in my mind is another thing often associated with Lee Greenwood and good ole American Christianity and that is 2 Chronicles 7:14. The Chronicler (likely Ezra) writes, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” That Scripture ought to be one you have memorized, if not from trying to then from seeing it everywhere. It is often applied rather woodenly to the United States with the idea that if our nation would recognize its sin and repent before the Lord then our current run towards Gomorrah would cease and the troubles that we see in our land would be healed.
Now, I am a firm believer in the Biblical teaching held by our forefathers in Covenanter and Associate (Seceder) circles that nations, as nations, should covenant themselves with God and make promises to teach the true religion and ensure that the Churches of Christ are provided for and left alone to do the work of the kingdom granted unto them by the Creator. And if they fail to do that? Then national repentance is absolutely necessary. A problem though for employing 2 Chronicles 7:14 to the US of A is that our nation has never done that. In fact our First Amendment actually forbids us from acknowledging Jesus as the Head and Ruler of the United States in His office as King. (Col. 1:16). Individual states for a while were still able to, but that as well has been legislated away.
We do not really have space here to get into more on that, but if you want me to waste an hour of your life get me going on this subject. I love talking about Covenanting. Most people though get that glassed over look the more I get into it, so inquire at your own risk. 😉
To spend the rest of our time in more fruitful ways let’s think about that verse as it involves the Church, and by extension the people in it. Notice that the first part says, “…If My people who are called by my name…” Ezra makes it clear that one of the requirements for healing is that the person doing the repentance recall their relationship with the LORD. Keeping in mind the grace already shown to the covenant member changes how we think about our need to turn from our own sin and into the arms of our loving Heavenly Father, in fact, it should cause us to remember that our ability to repent is only possible because we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. The testimony of Hezekiah is apropos here. The King of Judah says to the people under his care, ”…the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him.” (2 Chron. 30:9).
This same Jehovah who brought them out of the land of bondage and granted them the land of promise, who had forgiven their forefathers for all numbers of gross sins would not keep that same loving hand from them if they would humble themselves, admit their fault, and come unto Him in obedience and thanksgiving.
There is very much a Prodigal Son message in this. That young man was able to go back to his Father’s house because he had been raised in that home and had received all numbers of blessing in it, as we can see by the Dad’s response to the older son. Our being a member of the body of Christ by our covenantal baptism enables even the most transgressive adherents to the inheritance offered in faith to come back into the good graces of the King of Kings if they would only put to death their pride and truly admit to their sin and seek the Lord’s forgiveness. It is there for the having.
Come and take it!
I want to close today with a quotation from Wilhelmus A’Brakel. He was known as “poppa A’Brakel” by generations of Dutch reformed believers because his four volume The Christian’s Reasonable Service was daily a part of family worship in homes of faithful believers in the Netherlands. These books are still in print, in English, today. (click the link). Here he is on true humility and where it comes from for the believer. This will help us get a fuller picture of how, and why, there is much peace in our place in the beloved:
True humility is only to be found in a Christian, that is, in a believer. All humility of the unconverted is nothing but an appearance without substance, and upon close examination it will prove to be either nothing but pride or else despondency—the reason being that an unconverted person has neither life, spiritual disposition of heart, nor is he united to Christ from whom, as the Head, all virtues issue forth to His children. However, a regenerate person has the principle of life in Christ and thus also a virtuous heart—the fountain of virtues. "Let the brother of low degree rejoice" (James 1:9). It is the Lord who teaches humility and Christ is the example: "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt 11:29). Therefore, those who have fellowship with the Lord Jesus, know Him and behold Him, and in faith are united with Him, will learn this from Him and their humility is of the same nature as His.
Y’all be blessed and here is more from A’Brakel on this question.
https://www.monergism.com/humility
In Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church