Glen Berry

“THEOLOGY” is the study of God.  True theology would then mean the TRUTH about the true God. Contrasting truth with error would mean a showing forth or exposing of ERROR as opposed to TRUTH.

So let’s look at an interesting CONTRAST that is far more important than you might think.

I have heard some last days TV preachers say (we are in the “last days,” you know) that “God loves everybody,” meaning that He has redemptive love for every son of Adam. Or they have said, “If you can eye-ball anyone, you can tell them God loves them,” meaning He is just waiting to save you, or “begging you to let Him  save you.” NO QUALIFICATION IS GIVEN! Just if you can “eye-ball” them, then you can with full assurance tell them to make that decision and let Jesus save them.

THIS is what we want to CONTRAST with the gospel hymn by Joseph Hart, “Come, Ye Sinners.”

When Hitler, who was a Satanist, was having millions of Jews with their children killed in the gas-chambers or by firing squad, could an evangelist rightfully tell him that “Jesus  waits (or begs) to save you”? Joseph Hart was NOT saying that.

When the deceitful Babylonians were plotting and tricking the king to throw Daniel into the lion’s den, but when God delivered Daniel, the king threw the wicked plotters to the lions and they were eaten,—would it have seemed right and timely for an evangelist to cry out to them, “Smile, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”???

DOES GOD LOVE SINNERS?  YES!

Does that mean we should tell everyone we can “eye-ball” that Jesus is just waiting and begging to save them?  NO!

Think about it and may you bow to the truth, if you can see it.  When Jesus Himself says, “Come unto Me,” does He say it indiscriminately to “everyone He can eye-ball”? Does He give such a call, invitation, command (or whatever you want to call it) WITHOUT ANY QUALIFICATION?

NO! NO! NO!

Then what DOES Jesus say? Listen to Him. He alone has ALL the true theology, the full knowledge of God.

“Come unto Me, ALL YE THAT LABOR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN . . .”

THAT, dear searcher for truth, is quite a qualification NOT to be overlooked in any study of true theology.  Is it your desire to study God?                              

NOW LET US LOOK AT THE GOSPEL HYMN

          Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,

          Weak and wounded, sick and sore;

          Jesus ready stands to save you,

          Full of pity, love, and power.

If this is true of you or anyone, you would be right, then, in responding with these words of Joseph Hart’s refrain:

          “I will arise and go to Jesus,

          He will embrace me in His arms;

          In the arms of my dear Savior,

          O there are ten thousand charms.”

Now that is gospel truth!  That is true theology!

Again, as the Lord Jesus Himself says, “Come unto Me, ALL YE THAT LABOR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN [weary and sick of your SIN], and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28)

Jesus also told Nicodemus that “ye must BE born again.” Without the new birth you cannot see the kingdom of God, neither will you desire it, or understand anything about it. He says you must BE born again, NOT “get” born again. The new birth is the WORK of the Spirit of God, not the work of  man. Just like the birth of a baby is not brought about by the baby’s will and work. In this analogy or comparison, the baby is passive until birth and it is after the birth that he cries. Jesus uses this same natural analogy in saying “ye must BE born again.”

Further, in John 6:29 Jesus Himself says,

“This is the WORK OF GOD, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

WHAT ABOUT THE WILL OF MAN,

THAT SOME CALL “FREE WILL”?   

Man DOES have a will. That is so very obvious. But the NATURAL will is “at enmity” (against) God. The natural will cannot even receive the things of the Spirit of God “for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)  Again, you must BE born again before you will receive, desire or will with a spiritual will. That new will comes with the new birth, hence the title of this booklet, “The ‘born again’ Will.”

If THIS were not so, if THIS were not true, then the instructive Psalm 110 would not be true and would have no meaning where it says,—

“Thy people shall be WILLING in the day of Thy power.”  So without this power working of God there is no willingness to receive or understand the sovereign God of the Bible. Repentance, holy and spiritual desire and the new spiritual will are all gifts, part of the new spiritual birth which comes down from heaven from God. That is why the apostle Paul speaks so much and so emphatically about salvation being by GRACE and not by works.

He says salvation is not by works LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST. He says it is not of the will of the flesh, the natural will, or by the will of man, but by the will of God. By GRACE are you saved, if you are saved at all, through faith, and even “that is the gift of God.” “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal like through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

You either believe true theology or false theology. Be aware that two different conceptions of Jesus are being preached. You either believe in the true biblical Jesus, or in “another Jesus” that comes out of a man’s NATURAL imagination and fantasy. That would be a counterfeit Jesus, not the true One. Or some would say, “Antichrist,” which is against the true Christ, or a substitute for the true Christ. “Another Jesus” would be one falsely described while rejecting what the REAL Jesus says about Himself, out of His own mouth. That is most serious!

While some have described what the Bible says about the sovereign God and His Christ, some have retorted, “If I believed my God was like that, I would look for another God.” And indeed that is what they HAVE done, and accepted a god that their  natural wills are NOT against, that nature can readily love. Call it  another gospel.

Now let us continue with the sound and true theology of Joseph Hart’s hymn. Here are the fourth and then third verses:

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,

               Bruised [or lost] and ruined by the fall,

            If  you tarry till you’re better,

               You will never come at all.

            Not the righteous, not the righteous,

               Sinners Jesus came to call.

            Not the righteous, not the righteous,

               Sinners Jesus came to call.

 

            Let not conscience make you linger,

               Nor of fitness fondly dream;

            All the fitness He requireth

               Is to feel your need of Him.

            This He gives you, this He gives you—

               ’Tis the Spirit;s rising beam.

            This He gives you, this He gives you—

               ’Tis the Spirit’s rising beam.

The gospel call, the “Jesus call,” is to the poor and needy, to the heavy-laden and laboring sinner, who is miserable and weary, and sick of his SIN. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the self-righteous. He came to save HIS PEOPLE from their sins, and He sees to it that THEY are sick of those sins and realize their lost condition without Him. He loses NONE the Father gave Him.

Finally, as Joseph Hart truthfully and faithfully says, the requirement is that the sinner comes to feel his need of the Savior, and EVEN THAT SENSE OF NEED is provided by the Savior in the new birth, even in  the “born-again” will. ALL that is required is provided by Him. As one has said, “What God requires, Christ provides.” It is TRUE that “Salvation is of the Lord.” It is ALL of Him. He looked, and there was none to help, so His “own arm brought Salvation.”—g/b

“. . . For Thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God

by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue

and people, and nation.” (Revelation. 5:9)

 

“The voice of my Beloved! Behold, He

cometh leaping upon the mountains,

skipping upon the hills.”

(song of Solomon 2:8)

 

TO GOD IS ALL THE GLORY. Our “boast” is in Him. 

When it comes to the activity of the will, the searching and sincere soul, especially one that has been led into false doctrine that exalts man as sovereign over a weak and begging Jesus, needs to examine himself as to WHO his will is saying “yes” to. Is it a cry to the sovereign God “who holds all the cards,” like the poor publican who cried, “ God, be merciful to me, a SINNER,” or it to a “Jesus,” who the soul is sovereign over, whose success or failure is based on whether or not YOU will LET him save you, who in effect is at your mercy, even if PARTLY you  see yourself at his mercy? The natural will  can respond to the one while rejecting the other.

Jesus Christ being who He says He is, He is either a 100% Savior or not your Savior at all. God gets ALL the glory, or there is no salvation! “Salvation is of the Lord,” or there is no redemption for your soul. What God records is TRUE!

 

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