May Hymn of the Month:

Tis Not That I Did Choose Thee
by Josiah Conder

The hymn for the month of May, Tis Not That I Did Choose Thee, by Josiah Conder, will take us to the holy pages of scripture, to look at one of the most humbling, awe inspiring, and ultimately comforting doctrine in scripture; the sovereignty of God.

The doctrine of God's sovereignty could be the doctrine most assaulted of all found in the Bible, but make no mistake about it, it is all over the Bible. Now, when I say that this doctrine is assaulted, I truly do mean just that. Now, no true Christian would tell you that they don't believe God is sovereign, but when you really press the issue, you find precious little sovereignty left.

In the words of Charles Haddon Spurgoen:

"There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. On the other hand there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense alms and bestow blessings. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures gnash their teeth, and when we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter, then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on the throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne we love to preach. It is the God upon the throne Whom we trust."

Now, the exact point when we "turn a deaf ear" from this doctrine, is when it comes to the salvation of man. We want so badly to take a leading role in our salvation, that we will overturn the very pages of scripture to ensure that man remains autonomous. Unfortunately two things take place when we do this, first, we are attempting to claim merit for our own salvation, after all, what "work" would please God more than choosing Him, and second, we are taking the glory away from God, which He alone deserves.

Josiah Conder understood this fact very well, and when he read the words of Jesus in John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." he could not help, but "let go, and let God." Now, this doctrine itself is found everywhere in scripture, it is not something that you would have any difficulty validating. In fact, for good measure I would like to throw out a few verses that you either have to deny completely, or concede that God is sovereign, but I will let you be the judge:

John 6:35-45 Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

(emphasis added)Now these words make it plain, "no one can come" to Jesus unless "the Father draws them".

Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed

. Here the words are very plain, as many as God had appointed to eternal life believed the Gospel.

Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved

This passage, (which continues for another 8 verses) demands of us to understand who the choice belongs to in salvation. If God Chose us before the foundation of the world, then we didn't have much of a choice. Some would reject that this is the case, with a misunderstanding of the foreknowledge of God, but Paul makes it clear in Romans 9:11 that it isn't on the basis of what we do (which would make us the one who is sovereign over salvation), instead, it is based on His choice.

So here it is, without further adieu May's hymn of the month:

Tis Not That I Did Choose Thee
by: Josiah Conder 1836

Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For Lord that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
Hadst Thou not chosen me.
Thou from the sin that stained me
Hast cleansed and set me free
Of old Thou hast ordained me,
That I should Live to Thee

Twas sovereign mercy called me
And taught my opening mind;
The world had else enthralled me,
To heavenly glories blind.
My heart owns non before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first.

AMEN

Interesting Article

When addressing the most important aspect of Christian living Jesus gave us a very clear mandate: "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24 Emphasis added)

The only absolute truth we have is the Word of God, and so to worship Him in spirit and truth, we must approach God, as He has revealed Himself through scripture. We don't get to decide how to worship God, He decides. Just look at how things turned out for Nadab and Abihu when they tried to get creative and worship God in a way that He "had not commanded them" (Leviticus 10:1-3)

This article is eye opening, because it reveals just how far some so called "christians" are taking a detour from the faith, and unfortunately, they aren't alone. Many people follow these radicals, because when your "faith" doesn't demand change, when your "god" doesn't demand submission, then religion becomes safe. It isn't amazing to me that people are going out of their way to dethrone God, and worship their own false images, what amazes me, is God's tremendous patience and long suffering with this wicked generation.

Let us join together in prayer not only for those who are right now preaching false doctrine, but for those who blindly follow their blind leaders away from the only light and life, Jesus Christ.

Not Much 'Lord' in this Church Service

Albert Mohler

The movement toward gender-neutral language for God has picked up steam in recent years, and liberal churches have been busy rewriting language for worship and theology. Just last year the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to "receive" a document that called for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be replaced or supplemented with triads such as "Sun, Light, and Burning Ray," "Overflowing Font, Living Water, and Flowing River," and "Fire that Consumes, Sword that Divides, and Storm that Melts Mountains."

That report even suggested an explicitly female triad -- "Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child, Life-Giving Womb." The report was controversial, but this kind of nonsense has been spreading for some time now. Many feminists simply insist that they cannot or will not worship a God who names Himself exclusively in male terms. Yet, to rename God is to create an idol -- a false god of our own creativity and invention. Put simply -- God gets to name Himself.

Now, a report out of Tucson, Arizona indicates just how far many churches have already gone down the road of reinventing God. As Stephanie Innes reports in the Arizona Daily Star, some churches have banished the word "Lord."

From her article:

At Tucson's largest Episcopal church, St. Philip's in the Hills, the creators of an alternative worship service called Come & See are bucking tradition by rewriting what have become prescribed ways of worship.

For the faithful, that means God isn't referred to as "him," and references to "the Lord" are rare.

"Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.

"The way our service reads, the theology is that God is love, period," St. Philip's deacon Thomas Lindell added. "Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything."

These statements are nothing short of amazing. It is hard to imagine that they are meant to be taken seriously, but they clearly are. Take, for example, Susan Anderson-Smith's argument that the word Lord "has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things." Has become such a word? The word, translated from both Greek and Hebrew word forms, has always meant hierarchy. Indeed, the word is meaningless without that meaning. Later, she expanded this point even further:

In the strictest Christian sense, "Lord" comes from the Greek word kyrios, which Greek culture in the first century understood in much different ways, Anderson-Smith said. Evidence suggests the word was used in talking about Jesus as the fullest embodied revelation of God, but it had a lot less to do with hierarchy than what the word means now, she said.

Once again, her statements are directly at odds with the truth -- and a truth quite easily demonstrated. There is not only every reason to reject her argument that "Lord" is more hierarchical in meaning today than in the biblical era -- there is good reason to see the truth as the precise opposite of her argument. Indeed, the most powerful display of the essentially hierarchical nature of this divine title is found in the New Testament itself:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father [Philippians 2:9-11].

This verse stresses the hierarchical nature of the title. One day, every single knee will bow to Jesus Christ as Lord. It should go without saying that no creature will miss the hierarchical character of that moment.

The problem is deepened when Anderson-Smith proceeds to explain that Jesus was not interested in hierarchy at all. Jesus, she would have us think, was a modern egalitarian. The absurdity of this is breathtaking. Jesus -- the Lord -- called His disciples to follow Him. He did not follow them. He commanded them to obey His words. He did not obey theirs. Jesus castigated those who called Him Lord but did not obey Him [Luke 6:46]. He was not a mere "mentor" and "companion."

Deacon Thomas Lindell's comments add the icing to Rev. Anderson-Smith's cake. He boasts of having removed all the "power imagery" from the church's worship services. That, we might imagine, is rather hard to do. If God is not all-powerful, why worship? Without an acknowledgment of God's power, we are left with little to say. A God who is not powerful cannot help, much less save. What can you then sing? "O God our [well-intended but less-than-sovereign Spirit of helpfulness] in ages past?"

There is more:

St. Philip's isn't the only local church to re-examine its language. Other local religious leaders already are eschewing the use of "Lord" for similar reasons.

First Congregational United Church of Christ in Midtown even has a different name for The Lord's Prayer. They call it "The Prayer of Our Creator."

"We do still use the word 'Lord' on occasion, but we are suspicious of it," First Congregational pastor Briget Nicholson said. "Inclusive language is important. Our United Church of Christ hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God.' but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God.' It's gender-balanced."

Pastor Briget Nicholson is "suspicious" of the word "Lord" but will use it sparingly, so long as other terms -- terms not found in the Bible as divine names -- "balance" the use of "Lord."

As one might suspect, other doctrinal changes are afoot in these churches as well. Deacon Lindell explains that his church doesn't stress "the blood and gore of the crucifixion." The St. Philip's congregation appears to play to the liberal wing of the Episcopal Church USA while Pastor Briget Nicholson is identified on her church's Web site along with her female "spouse."

When you replace the biblical names for God with those of your own choosing, you create a new religion. The evidence for this flows directly from the rejection of the Bible as the authoritative revelation of God's names. If the Bible cannot be trusted to name God correctly, then why accept its verdict on homosexuality? If the biblical names for God can be updated and renovated, then why not do the same with the doctrine of atonement?

Reporter Stephanie Innes, describing the "Come & See" worship service at St. Philip's, noted: "There's not much Lord in this church service." It may well be that more accurate words have never been used in such a report -- or more damning.

© All rights reserved, www.almohler.com. Used with permission.
Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary — the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. He is a theologian and ordained minister, as well as an author, speaker and host of his own radio program The Albert Mohler Program.

May Hymn of the Month

Here is this months wonderful hymn, again I will be talking about it more in depth in the coming weeks, but I would like you to have the chance to read it over and dwell on these rich and reassuring words.

Tis Not That I Did Choose Thee

’Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
Hadst Thou not chosen me.
Thou from the sin that stained me
Hast cleansed and set me free;
Of old Thou hast ordained me,
That I should live to Thee.

’Twas sov’reign mercy called me
And taught my op’ning mind;
The world had else enthralled me,
To heav’nly glories blind.
My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing, if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first.