Jeremiah Griffin

I got an email from my father that was pretty neat for a son to get.  It was a testimony of God’s working in his life.  God continues to move even though we are old.  Way old.   It is interesting that  I still wrestle with Dispensational vs. Covenant Theology… yeah probably not on many people’s radar but it is something that has caused me to dig deeper into scripture.  Oh for perfect knowledge and understanding… Lord, come quick!  No matter what you believe the fact is we are MADE for worship (thank’s to Toby Mac for making that known to my generation) Today, let us sing the same song of the ages.

Robert E Griffin
Studying on “Worship” and how we “Praise” God, I was more than a little shaken in my strong dispensational thinking to see a continuing worship from the days of Moses to David to Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah to the end of Revelation’s scene in heaven.  It was the SAME!

I always wanted to compartmentalize praise and worship, and divide the Church from anyone else. But from beginning to end, IT IS THE SAME SONG for all of God’s people. And God’s people are the same – from beginning to end!

While God may have given differing commands and requirements for people in different ages, ALL of God’s people are one, and ALL are singing the same song!  We are the Church of the Firstborn, God’s people!

 Exodus 15:1-2 “I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously.

The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

 Psalm 118:14 “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.”

 Isaiah 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid:
for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.”

 Revelation 15:3, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints”

 From beginning to end, we see the “Church” (ALL of God’s people of ALL ages) singing the same song that is nothing more or less than the Gospel elucidations that we experience now!

 Published w/o permission

This morning waves of emotion.  It seems that as God blesses and changes my mindset it gets more difficult.  As I drovethe truck (works when it is not raining) this morning trying to drive off the water in the air filter I cranked up the Skillet and just let go.  God is in control and no matter what I try to do I can not thwart that plan for my life.  Today I am broken from my sin. It feels strangely good.

Ps. 37:28
For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved forever. . .”

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James 1: 18 In His goodness God chose to make us His own children by giving us His true Word. And we, out of all creation, became His choice possession.

As a child I memorized the book of James and although my memory is not clear enough to spit it back out word for word, I find myself paraphrasing it all the time.  This is one of those verses that screams God’s will, God’s Grace, God’s Choice for each believer.  I love it!

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“the covenant of works was broken by sin and was unable to confer life”
 – Baptist Confession of Faith 1689

What a different way of looking at the covenant. Often we think of the covenants as something the God must keep, we focus on the fact that His promises never fail… to think that a promise made by God was broken, not by God but by man’s failure to KEEP the covenant. 

Romans 4:13
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith (emphasis mine)

We are left with a massive shortfall of righteousness on our side of the covenant.  We have broken the Laws of God with no hope of making it right.   More evidence of grace that has been planned from the beginning.

2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Before time began, God knew we would fail our side of the promise.  God knew we would never achieve the Glory of  Himself.  It is in the gospel that we are made righteous.

We must proclaim this Good News.  That God would choose us to make His call known is still beyond the reaches of my imagination.

Ex33:19 “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”

It is a really good thing that God is gracious to this world that constantly rejects him. It is our duty as Disciples of Christ to preach the Gospel with the compassion that was shown to us. That we would be privilaged to be even a small part of God’s display of compassion. This is grace.

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Matthew Henry’s commentary says about the call of God to the saints, “It is an effectual call, from self and earth to God, and Christ, and heaven, as our end; from sin and vanity to grace and holiness, as our way. This is the gospel call. The love of God, ruling in the hearts of those who once were enemies to him, proves that they have been called according to his purpose.

It is  amazing that we sat close the the brink of  a destruction of our own making.  Then comes “the call.”  Left to our own we would not give a thought to the call to repentance…yet we hear a different call,  a purpose.  It is  God that brings this call to us.  We do nothing on our own.

John 6: 43-44 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End.  (The Message)

I love this translation!  He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come.

One of the most difficult things to face is that we on our own can do nothing to achieve the Holiness that is required to come near to God.  We can not even get close.  Add to this that, we on our own we would be happy to just sit and perhaps even mock God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines the “Effectual calling” as follows:

“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 persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.”

God has purposed His call to us.  Humbling, but at the same time liberating.   We do nothing.  God  convicts.  God works.  God  changes.

Romans 9:11 What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative.

God keeps. God chooses. God has a purpose that is beyond our minds, beyond our control.  Romans 9:11 calls that purpose “a sure thing.”

How  awesome is our God.  The mystery of God’s grace as one grows in its knowledge  continues to deepen and it is a wonderful thing… “a sure thing!”

II Timothy1:9-10 We can only keep on going, after all, by the power of God, who first saved us and then called us to this holy work. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it. But we know it now. Since the appearance of our Savior, nothing could be plainer: death defeated, life vindicated in a steady blaze of light, all through the work of Jesus.