How much is God needed?

I asked myself this question how is our greatest enemy and I heard someone say that “the biggest enemy which we have today is the devil” in a very dogmatic statement. So it forced me to ask myself two questions; first if this statement is true than the greatest act of God would be to protect me from the devil, because whatever my greatest enemy is would buy necessity have to be the greatest “need” that I would have for God.  Second question “is the devil our worst enemy?” The simple answer is “no” that is not the worst enemy which possess. I believe that the worst enemy that we have is our self! I come to this conclusion from an understanding of the deprived of man. Once an understanding of this Biblical truth than we will have the answer to “how much do we really need God?” So here we go.

let us begin with scripture Rom 5:10  “For if, when we were enemies…to God…” When the term “enemy” is used it is an active sate of heat toward God. but what is it that brings us to this point where we hate God? The answer is found in first John where there are three things which do this there is “the world”, “the flesh”, and “the devil”. When we come to the world we cannot say that the world is the biggest enemy which we have, because even when the world was in a perfect state and there was no evil influence upon humanity we still fell in to sin. Most people would automatically jump to the conclusion that the devil made us sin in the Gardena of Eden and that he is the greatest enemy that we have, but I don't think so. All the devil had to do was simply implant thoughts into our head and then he let us fall all on our own. I believe that “we” are the worst enemies which we have! And I believe this for a number of reasons the chief reason would be found in the statement Rom 1:21  “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” It is often assumed that this statement is given to the unbelieving world, and I certainly agree that it does apply to the unregenerate, but I believe the first time this sin took place was in the Garden of Eden when man had not fallen. We knew that God was the source of infinite satisfaction and happiness, then we committed the greatest travesty ever conceivable we trade infinite satisfaction for finite satisfaction, thus making ourselves our greatest enemy against God.

Man in an un-fallen state was not able to sustain in holiness. We find that Man is not alone this particular state. We read in scriptures that even Angels are unable to sustain holiness. In the passage 1Ti5:21 it refers to God sustaining “…the elect angels…”. So what is the purpose of this post? Well here it is and I hope it makes sense to more people than justly me. No created being no matter how perfect is able to sustain in holiness, for God is the only self-sustaining being ever. So every being that is desiring to stay in a state of holiness and remain just. must buy necessity have to have God’s maintaining sovereign hand upon his life or we would all become subject to low and deprived minds. So the answer to the question how deprived is a man, this depravity starts with the fact that God is not an intricate part of my life, so my greatest enemy is not the world and it is not the devil, it is myself. Finally the answer to how much is God needed? God is needed in every area that my will can be exercise because my “free will” is my greatest enemy! May God completely over take my will and I have his will instead of mine. For when I find myself after exercising my “free will” it is always against God’s. Lord help me in my terrible condition and save my soul from myself.

Is God Pleased with man?

This is a Question That is either not asked that all, or at the very least not asked near enough; it is “is God pleased with man?” And more specifically “is God pleased with me?” First thing I want us to see is that this is a topic about divine pleasure and God's pleasures are not man's pleasures. God's pleasures are perfect man's pleasures are polluted. Sin is anything that does not align itself with God and who He is; that includes pleasure. So when I take pleasure in something that God hates, that is sin! So I hope that we all understand this is extremely important. I want to be pleased with what God is pleased in. So we go to the source in which we can find all the answers for life, including the answer to the question of “to whom is God please?” The Bible. In Zec 8:17 “And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.” And in Isa 61:8 “For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering…” Pro 6:16 “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:”

I Hope that is apparent from these verses that God hates sin. This should not be the most frightening thing to come across to you or I, a far more exceedingly important question for us is “our we sinful or not?” Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” this is not just slightly wicked but desperately wicked. Meaning extremely displeasing to our God.; The wickedness of man is repeated over and over again throughout Scripture is woven in Scripture in its entirety, but one of the most concise examples of this is in Rom 3:10-12 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Now we should be worried for the supremely powerful God has an infinite amount of hatred towards sin in which mankind not only lives in and thrives upon, but we find our pleasure in. Is there a way for us to escape the wrath of God? Yes there is, and strangely enough it is found in His perfect, infinitely satisfying , holy pleasures. For it is without controversy that some of the greatest pleasures of God are found in Himself, namely Christ.

In Isaiah 53 we find the most amazing pleasures can ever be found in the whole of Scripture. Taking this section of Scripture and slowly moving through it and want us to see how one of the greatest pleasures that God has we heated. Isa 53:2-10 “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.( God saw the most beautiful things that ever existed, we saw no beauty in Him. What God was as satisfying, you and I didn’t even want.) He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Not only did we simply just not want Him, but we treated Him worse than not wanting Him, we had an active attitude of rejection towards Him.) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Even in a gracious act of cleansing us from our sin, we continued persecuting Him)…Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” God was pleased with the suffering of Christ because it appeased His wrath for our sin. This is absolutely foundational without this truth of the pleasure of God and the sacrifice of Christ there would be no hope for you or me, because there is an appeasement for sin there is hope for us. But just because there is an appeasement for sin does not mean that mean you are bringing pleasure to God in any way. But this tremendous pleasure of God in Christ is not over. Mat 3:17” And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Mat 12:18 “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased…” Mat 17:5 “…This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased...” God finds eternal pleasure in the infinitely worthy being of Christ. Now this is finally good news for you and for me. For what way we turn to the book of Romans 8:29 and we find these word “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son….” the work of sanctification comes about when we are being pressed into the mold of Christ. And when this takes place God looks down upon me and no longer see Stephen Clement but see Christ! In a final conclusion we can see that God is pleased with no man, save for Christ, so when God looks down upon our life may He not see our life but Christ's life. The answer to the question “to whom this God pleased?” Is one that only you can answer. May your answer be yes.