Benjamin Glaser

Do You Love God? I Mean Really Love Him?

When we begin to go through the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth commandments are we going to find ourselves devoted to what they teach or are we going to make excuses and find loopholes for our feigned obedience to this portion of God’s law? It’s a question every person who names the name of Christ needs to ask of themselves. Do I love the Lord as He presents Himself in His word, or do I seek a god of my own making who can be molded and shaped as circumstances allow? If we confess that Jesus is our Savior we cannot do that unless we hope and desire that He be our King as well. 

As we move into the second table of the law in our walk through the Ten Commandments as they are laid out in the Westminster Larger Catechism our Divines are going to want to take a breath and ask a question about what we are doing. It is always helpful to take stock of where things are going and how things are at the moment. Doing both helps assist in making the way clear for positive growth in the future. As we heard of the dangers of atheism, idolatry, blasphemy, and Sabbath breaking the Love Thy Neighbor part of the Law will of course have its do’s and don’ts as well. However, we need to be careful not to spend all our time on the negatives. For Christians the keeping of the statutes of God is always a blessing to us.
We should always be desiring to be conformed to the image of the Son.
The Bible knows nothing about a stagnant believer. The Pharisees were keen on thinking they had arrived at a perfect knowledge of the truth, and then sought to impose that man-made standard on everyone who encountered them. That is one of the reasons why those born again by the Spirit and by the blood are self-effacing in their consideration of their own walk with Christ. Humility is part and parcel of faith in the risen Lord. As we look at the Catechism question today I want you to take a moment and listen to what the writers of the WLC have to say about how not only we should be using the law daily to put to death sin and live to life eternal, but why our attitude towards obedience should always be one grounded in thanksgiving for the grace granted to sinners such as us. Here is this week’s Q/A:
Q. 122. What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
A. The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man, is, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to others what we would have them to do to us.
Now, the build up to that one short question may seem to have been overdone. It doesn’t read like a call to meditation or introspection. All it looks to be communicating is a short statement about what the contents of the rest of the commandments are. Yet, it is vital to understand that when God established the division of the two tables He was intimating something that Jesus explains to the fellow who asked Him what the most important part of the law was for man.
Read More
Related Posts:

Fathers Who Love Christ Love the Sabbath

It should be in the heart of the man of the house, as a member of his local community, to ensure that all people are observing the good pleasures of God’s day of rest, which includes obeying what Paul writes in Hebrews 10:24-25, “ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”.

This will be the second of three sections of the Larger Catechism, as we have it broken down, that will touch on the subject of the Christian Sabbath. It should come as no surprise that out of all the commandments the fourth receives more play than any other. Questions surrounding the nature of it and how to go about obeying the Lord in regards to it have always vexed the mind of man. We’ve noted before that this reason is mostly due to the fact that we are dealing with the matter of time, of which we have little. The idea pushes back at our own idolatrous concept of who is actually in charge of our life. So how do we go about keeping the word on this front? Well, our catechism questions today gives us an idea particularly suited to that.
Here are today’s Q/A’s:
Q. 118. Why is the charge of keeping the sabbath more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors?
A. The charge of keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments of their own.
Q. 119. What are the sins forbidden in the fourth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the fourth commandment are, all omissions of the duties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning the day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and by all needless works, words, and thoughts, about our worldly employments and recreations.
In something of a foreshadowing we have a distinct question focused on the responsibilities of husbands, fathers, even civil authorities as to what their calling entails in the keeping of this law given and granted by God. It is a subject we don’t talk about enough. When I wrote my dissertation the main argument I used to answer the inquiry concerning why men are not engaged in the life of the church was that the church in general had failed, and continues to do so, to engage the heads of households in what it means to keep the fifth commandment. By their nature men are called to be in charge. It’s part of Paul’s argument as to why only men are to be in authority in the church. Hear what he says in 1 Timothy 2:12-13, “ Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
Read More
Related Posts:

Honoring the Name of God

If He has given to us the revelation of His own character in the law there is a sense in which He has not only opened Himself to all men through that public disclosure, but especially for those dearest unto Him, the covenant family. 

Next on the list is the commandment which deals with the name of God. Now, for sure this statute means we ought not use the acronym OMG nor say the full thing out loud nor use the name Jesus in a light way, but as we saw with the two previous laws there is a holistic way that we are to follow the Lord’s teaching that touches all areas of our being, both body and soul. One of the ways we become little pharisees with the law is to act as if only the outward keeping of it is what really matters, yet just like with the prohibition against imaging pictures of Jesus in our head what we see required below to the just obedience of the third commandment includes how we think about God, His titles, attributes, ordinances, etc… This is a vitally central part of the way we are to honor the name of our Lord. So, as we get into this command let us take a look at the Larger Catechism questions for the week:
Q. 111. Which is the third commandment?
A. The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Q. 112. What is required in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment requires, That the name of God, his titles, attributes, ordinances, the word, sacraments, prayer, oaths, vows, lots, his works, and whatsoever else there is whereby he makes himself known, be holily and reverently used in thought, meditation, word, and writing; by an holy profession, and answerable conversation, to the glory of God, and the good of ourselves, and others.
It used to be the case that young men were cautioned against public disobedience because of the fear of what it would do to the family name. It meant something to be a Glaser or a McGill or a Faulkner or a Crawford or whatever. There was an association which was important to be kept for social graces. To step out of line was to put in danger a long-term work which made even the dead embarrassed. That’s the way we need to think about the third commandment. Our sin is a humiliation not only to ourselves, but to our heavenly Father.
Israel was counseled likewise by Moses in Deuteronomy 4:5-7.
Read More
Related Posts:

The Sabbath Day is Good Actually

So much of what we spend our time with is at best just passing time. One of the things we will find when we make right use of the Lord’s Day is that we will be spending so much time spiritual feasting and resting in the works of mercy and grace we won’t have time for those things which can take us away from God’s blessed worship.

As noted last week for today’s prayer and worship help we are going to look at one of the modern criticisms given towards what our forefathers in the ARP understood about the Christian Sabbath. The primary issue is that there are those who teach that there is no, or only a conceptual continuing application of the Fourth Commandment in the life of the believer. The particular concern on the docket this morning is the question of whether or not some of the things we traditionally were told not to do on the Lord’s Day, in keeping with the moral law of God, are actually true to the word, or are they just legalistic Phariseeism run amok?
However, rather than spending time going through a litany of “am I allowed to do x on the Sabbath?” questions we instead will be talking through what a normal Sunday would (does) look like for a Sabbath-keeping Christian. The purpose of speaking through this in a positive way is so that instead of only having a negative association with the Sabbath we might see as believers the goodness of God’s commandments and the reasons why He would have us maintain their purpose in the new covenant church.
To do this let’s go back to the Bible and take a look at a set of verses that will help reason our way towards a workable liturgy of life on Sunday. Getting started we are going to head to the book of Exodus and bring forward Exodus 16:4-5, 22-26:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” . . . And so it was, on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’” So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
One of the reasons why I chose to start with this portion of God’s word is that a critique of how us ARP folks traditionally understood the Fourth Commandment is centered around the idea that the Sabbath is a Mosaic institution.
Read More
Related Posts:

Humility Born Out of Love

No one goes to Heaven merely because they recognize His existence. There must be, alongside this, a worshipping and glorifying of Him accordingly. There is a fruit born out of love that begins with the eyes opened to see the beauty and holiness of Jehovah. To go back to the preface to the Ten Commandments for a second if God is your God and has raised you from the spiritual dead then how can you fail to “. . .trust, hope, delight, rejoice, highly esteem, honor, adore, choose, love, desire, fear, believe, meditating, remember. . .” His glory in grace? You can’t. These things are so inscrutably linked as to be defined together.

As with when we went through the commandments last year in the Shorter Catechism, I’ll warn you ahead of time that this process will be somewhat slow and unending. Yet, I will do what I can to try and punch up the blessing that is the law of God, even if at some point it may feel like it is getting not only repetitive, but oppressive. Some have criticized the authors of the Larger Catechism for their so-called navel gazing fastidiousness.
However, I think we will find much meat to fill our souls with grace as we spend time considering what our Lord would have us learn.
There is an idiom below that is worth pulling out for some more examination before we read the Q/A’s themselves and that would be “. . .in the whole man”. It is a curious phrase which means not only in our outward obedience, but in the inward as well we are to apply these commands. It is a part of course of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount that we sin not in deed alone. Our minds and affections are as much affected by the Fall as our physical activities. We sweat when we work, yet the truth is that pricking the finger on a thorn results in all types of inward cursing (or outward for that matter) that testifies to the reality of our transgressions before the Lord. So, as we walk through each of the Ten Words let us keep in mind what God is requiring of us.
We open with the first commandment. It is, as you might expect, the foundation for all the statutes that come after and this is why when we read the duties required in Q.104 we see something of all the rest of the Decalogue listed in some form or fashion. It is helpful to remind ourselves that obedience to God is complete and full.
Here are this week’s Q/A’s:
Q. 103: Which is the first commandment?
A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Q. 104: What are the duties required in the first commandment?
Read More
Related Posts:

The Balm of the Law

Whenever we talk about God’s law we have to keep in mind that the nature of the law has not changed regardless if we consider it under the covenant of works or the covenant of grace. It’s not the law that changes, it is us. 

Today in our catechism lesson we’ll be doing something a little different, and you’ll see why in a minute. One of the connections between the Shorter and Larger Catechism is that they both follow a similar pattern of getting to know God, clarifying what God has done for us in redemption, and then helpfully explaining the manner and way of sanctification so that the Believer can place the law in its proper place and duty. If there was any one issue that got the early church excited, and still provides fodder for journal articles, books, and blog posts it is how to deal with the law, especially the moral law, as justified men and women. Are we still to keep it? Do we use it merely as a guide and not as a rule of life? Is the keeping of the law tied into our remaining in the good graces of our Lord or does it really not matter how we observe His commandments?
These and many other questions will hopefully be helpfully answered in the words that follow.
Let’s go ahead and get to the Q/A’s for this morning:
Q. 98: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments, which were delivered by the voice of God upon Mount Sinai, and written by him in two tables of stone; and are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The four first commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man.
Q. 100: What special things are we to consider in the ten commandments?A. We are to consider, in the ten commandments, the preface, the substance of the commandments themselves, and several reasons annexed to some of them, the more to enforce themselves.
No, we aren’t skipping #99. We’ll take that one up by itself next week. In the meantime as you meditate on what the Divines are saying at the moment you’ll notice that there are a couple of features of the moral law that are worth exploring first. Whenever we talk about God’s law we have to keep in mind that the nature of the law has not changed regardless if we consider it under the covenant of works or the covenant of grace. It’s not the law that changes, it is us. As it is under the covenant of works it is a taskmaster that requires of us complete and full obedience for our obtaining eternal life. As it is under the covenant of grace it is a blessed tutor helping to learn us up in the school of Christ in and through His marvelous love. Rather than having an antagonistic, almost Sisyphus relationship with the commandments, those bought with a price now read and apply the law as we hear David describe in Psalm 119:1-2:
Read More
Related Posts:

What is the True Purpose of the Lord’s Supper?

Comprehending the importance of celebration, commemoration, and confirmation in light of the festivity of the Table meal changes our relationship to how we approach the question of who is to be granted access to the bread and the cup. If those without faith should not come to the Lord’s Supper because they have not any of these gifts it is because they do not have warrant to come, as is remarked by Ralph Erskine in the last quote above. It’s why Paul bars any who cannot “judge the body rightly” from the supper meal in Corinth. It is an act of love to prevent harm to those who know not what the Table entails. We shouldn’t invite men to sin in worship.

As we move on to the second part of the talk on close communion, or again session-controlled communion in more recent parlance we need to start by thinking about what the Lord’s Supper is in order that we can better understand why there would even be a need to have a doctrine about who can and cannot partake of the covenant meal at a local church. It’s kind of like writing an essay on whether the banning of the shift has been good for Major League Baseball. Whether or not the reader knows what baseball is needs be a prerequisite before you can talk about the most recent rule change affecting the sport. In order to define for us communion we’ll follow our previously established pattern of limiting ourselves to ARP sources so that we can learn more about why and what the ARP once believed on the question at hand.
Biblically the Lord’s Supper was established by the example and command of Christ as He prepared His disciples before He went to the cross (Matt. 26:26-29). After His death, resurrection, and ascension we see the Church continuing to practice the eating of this meal in the context of worship in places like Acts 2:42, Acts 20:7, and 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. A thing to consider, which will be important for later, is that whenever the people gather together for the purpose of breaking bread the word is always present. The reason why this matters is that we must always understand the Lord’s Supper to be tied into the preaching of the Word. It is not something we do separate from the ordinary life of the Church, nor is it something we do at random or without due consideration. In light of this let’s look at a few things from Ralph Erskine as to what he understands to be the purpose behind the ordinance. This will help us get in the right frame of mind as we move forward.
First, he remarks that it is a celebration as he says:
“Then, the doctrine I am upon, may give us some insight into the nature and end of this sacrament. Why, it is a just celebrating the memorial of the death of the man that is God’s fellow, when, as the glorious shepherd, he yielded himself a sacrifice to the awakened sword of justice, in the room of the sheep.”
Then, he notes it is a commemoration:
“This sacrament is appointed to be a commemorative sign of the death of Christ; ‘As often as  you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you shew forth the Lord’s death till he come. Do this in remembrance of me’; of me, who became a sacrifice to the sword of justice; by which sacrifice all spiritual blessings, peace, pardon, reconciliation with God, grace, glory, and all good things are purchased.”
Read More
Related Posts:

Two Distinct, Yet Inseparable Blessings

Our being saved from the wrath to come has in its benefits the fact that God’s gracious gift is not a one-time event. Our Lord is not a divine Publisher’s Clearinghouse who knocks on the door of our heart, gives us the prize, and disappears. Rather He takes us into His house with the key of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection opening the gate and allows us in His mercy to eat and feast at His table forever. Part of that feeding comes with the assuring work that as we take in the food of faith we grow stronger and stronger in it. That’s difference between the imputation of justification and the infusing of sanctification.

Our Westminster Divines had a problem. It wasn’t a new problem, and it is a problem that is still with us today. Many people, including whole branches of Christendom, confuse justification and sanctification. Either they get the cart before the horse or they introduce elements of both into each other, like peanut butter and chocolate in a Reece’s. It may be delicious in that context, but it is damnable heresy in our context. There is not only a functional difference between justification and sanctification, but getting each of them right is the warp and woof of the gospel of grace offered in Jesus Christ. So today for our catechism lesson we are going to listen as the writers of the WLC help us to understand not only why this matters, but how we can use this distinction to grow in faith both in this life and in the life to come. Here are the Q/A’s:
Q. 77: Wherein do justification and sanctification differ?
A. Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that God in justification imputes the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification his Spirit infuses grace, and enables to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued: the one doeth equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation; the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection.
Q. 78. Whence arises the imperfection of sanctification in believers?
A. The imperfection of sanctification in believers arises from the remnants of sin abiding in every part of them, and the perpetual lustings of the flesh against the spirit; whereby they are often foiled with temptations, and fall into many sins, are hindered in all their spiritual services, and their best works are imperfect and defiled in the sight of God.
Q. 79: May not true believers, by reason of their imperfections, and the many temptations and sins they are overtaken with, fall away from the state of grace?
A. True believers, by reason of the unchangeable love of God, and his decree and covenant to give them perseverance, their inseparable union with Christ, his continual intercession for them, and the Spirit and seed of God abiding in them, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
The opening words of the first question make it clear that justification and sanctification are inseparably joined. What they mean by that is that you can’t have the one without the other.
Read More
Related Posts:

A Darkness More than Night

Those who grope around in darkness (see Deut. 28:29) cannot praise Jehovah for they see Him not. Light in the context of Genesis 1, John 1, and myriads of other verses says to believers that if they want to understand the world around them, be at peace, and receive all the goodness which comes to the those who love the Lord than they best be abiding in the light and seeking out the light wherever He may be found.

There is a call to love the light that reverberates throughout the Bible. The marking out of darkness as the realm of evil is an image which is meant to evoke for us the vanity of seeking after wicked things, for they lead us astray from the good and they actively take us away from the truth. Darkness has always, in every culture, been the domain of the dead. Your grandaddy’s old saying that nothing blessed happens after midnight has been shared by old men to their progeny in Romania as much as Mongolia. It is a universal knowledge. It is part of the reason why the color black is the shade chosen by those who which to be seen as transgressive, non-conformist, and those who wish to let everyone know they mean trouble. The silver and black of the Raiders was chosen on purpose.
In the beginning (no pun intended) when we are first introduced to our God it is mentioned that darkness was on the face of the deep. The Holy Spirit is seen hovering over the waters. Then God makes light which comes neither from the sun nor the moon, but from the command of His voice. Why was it made? It is not as if the Third Person of the Holy Trinity needed it to see. Our God does not have eyes like men. Also darkness isn’t meant to imply the absence of God, and light the presence of God (more on that in a minute). It can seem as if there is a deeper thing going on here that we are not quite ready to comprehend completely, especially if you are coming to Genesis with preconceived notions of what to expect. However, as we think about what the Lord is doing we need to remember that as the patriarchs gave us testimony, they knew that one was to come who would give light to the answers we seek.
The Apostle John as he writes his gospel will mimic these opening words of Genesis and apply them directly to Jesus Christ. He writes:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Read More
Related Posts:

The Christian’s Justification

If your faith is in your good deeds, the idea that being a “good person” is enough to get you into heaven, than that faith is worthless. It has no power, nor worth, to gain you entrance into the celestial kingdom. True saving faith will show itself in the obedience the redeemed give to the revealed testimony of the Lord found in the Scriptures. 

After a little break due to some sickness on my account we are back at it with our Thursday looks at the Larger Catechism. We’ve gone from considering Church membership and the advantages of the body of Christ for the believer to now contemplating some of the aspects of the work of the Lord in our redemption. The first thing we are going to look at is the way God grants forgiveness of sins to the believer. Yet, as we will discover, justification is about a lot more than merely the slate being made clean, because what was wrong with us in our depravity cannot be reduced to the fact we broke some commandments. The totality of our sinfulness should never either be undersold or ignored when it comes to the salvation we have received wholly by the grace of our Heavenly Father.
In today’s help (and next week’s) we’ll explore more about how justification particularly sets the stage for all the other benefits which come from our union with Christ. Here’s todays Q/A’s:
Q. 70: What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.
Q. 71: How is justification an act of God’s free grace?
A. Although Christ, by his obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in the behalf of them that are justified; yet in as much as God accepts the satisfaction from a surety, which he might have demanded of them, and did provide this surety, his own only Son, imputing his righteousness to them, and requiring nothing of them for their justification but faith, which also is his gift, their justification is to them of free grace.
As with their Shorter Catechism counterparts these questions make abundantly clear that justification is in every way an act that God performs, not a cooperating effort between the deity and the sinner. As Paul says if it was not of grace, then it would be of works. (Rom. 11:6). Grace by definition is freely offered and provided. (Eph. 2:8-10). The freeness of the act has its genesis in the reality that God at no point was required either by justice or fairness or any other type of attribute to relieve us of our condemnation due to us because of sin.
Read More
Related Posts:

Scroll to top