What will make the year 2011 a year of hope lived out in obedience to the will of God in the life of the church? A forward looking faith in the stretched out grace of God promised to his children in Christ is the way of obedience. If a people cut off the conduit of God’s grace in hope and promise that builds faith then she will shrink back in her flesh to a love of self and the world.
On the last day of the year, reading through Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s daily Bible reading plan, we come to 2 Chronicles 36. This chapter of Scripture is one of judgment and hope. We see God’s judgment on his people as Jerusalem is besieged by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and her king and some of the vessels of the house of the LORD are carried off to the Babylonian kingdom. Zedekiah is set in place by Babylon to serve as king in Jerusalem and he and all the people continue to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord obeying the abominations of the nations. Yet in the midst of this judgment God sends hope by his Word. The king is given the prophet Jeremiah to speak from the mouth of the LORD but Zedekiah would not humble himself (v.12). And the people of God still living in Jerusalem are cared for by God through the hope of his word yet they rejected his grace. We read, And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. (v.15-16). In the midst of bringing their enemies upon them in judgment and the grace of hope through his Word, the people of God continued to rebel. Therefore God brought their enemies to destroy the city, burn the house of God and tear down the walls of Jerusalem. Many of the men were killed by the sword and many others carried off from the place of promise into exile in Babylon (v.17-20).
However in the midst of this judgment upon God’s people the writer brings us to the close of this book with hope. He allows us to see God’s purposes fulfilled in the people living until the 70 years were finished as prophesied (v.21). And brings us into the history of Persia where God used King Cyrus to bring his people back into the land as he promised for the rebuilding of the temple (v.22-23). Therefore in the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances in judgment we are given to see hope as the promises of God are being fulfilled. And this is where M’Cheyen’s reading plan is brilliant. We begin on the first day of the year reading again of creation showing us the glory of God as our Creator who fulfills all his decrees and promising salvation in the midst of judgment. We read in Ezra an account of God fulfilling his promises to bring his people back into the land and into his presence in the rebuilding of the temple. We read in Matthew of God sending into the world the re-Creator and Redeemer who is the long awaited Messiah and hope of Israel. And we read in Acts of the account of that redemption and re-creation reaching the peoples of Jerusalem. They had lived long waiting on the promise of life and saw it fulfilled among them in the coming of the Holy Spirit and his kingdom in the New Covenant.
In the reading of God’s Word we are able to see all that God has been for us in goodness, wisdom and power and we have the ability to see his goodness, wisdom and power set before us in promise. This is the open conduit of his grace to his people still living in the midst of a struggling life between the flesh and the Spirit (Gal.5; Rom.7&8), between the kingdom of sin and death and the kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, and between being pilgrims and sojourners on the earth while our final rest lies in the new heavens and new earth. Therefore to live in the coming year for the glory of God in love to him and our neighbors loving his pleasure by his grace, the church cannot cut off the valve of God’s fountain of grace. She must say with the apostle Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (Jn.6:68). The church will struggle in the land as she awaits the promise. Therefore God sends her his prophets and apostles where Christ Jesus is the cornerstone (Eph.2:20) in the Word of God. She must turn to the Word of God, take it up and read, study, meditate and memorize. Then she will hold fast in the storms of life that are sure to blow against her according to God’s will, and live for his pleasure and glory as his children holy and dearly loved.
Take up and read in private and with your family or others in the family of God his Word. M’Cheyen’s reading plan is available in the church foyer or this and other plans are available online at http://www.bibleplan.org/mcheyne.htm. Tolle Lege!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Resolved, To Keep the Lord's Day Holy
As you approach the coming of the year 2011 it is the time many Americans participate in making resolutions. One American who participated in the making of resolves was Jonathan Edwards. He began to make these resolves early in his life but not upon the New Year. He participated in this practice as a discipline toward a reformation of life. Therefore he made it his practice to go over his resolves once a week prayerfully to walk by faith for a reformation of life. As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ it is our aim through his grace to work out our salvation with fear and trembling making our calling and election sure toward a reformation of life that shows forth the glory of Christ. Therefore God has provided for us the Lord’s Day. In the coming year, Lord willing, there will be 52 days God provides for his children to live toward him in his grace in worship unhindered by the affairs of the world. If we lived toward him in love calling the Lord’s Day a delight and not going on in the way of our flesh or in a love of the world what might take place in the reformation of our lives and our churches? Let us be resolved to live as a church calling the Lord’s Day a delight that we may grow each week in his grace through worship, works of necessity and the showing of mercy. Let us live toward the day and out of the day not being hindered in the keeping of the day by worldly employments or anxieties. Let us plan and purpose to gather together in the morning and evening for worship as the body of Christ. Let us be resolved to live as this day is the benefit of the grace of God we have in his salvation through Christ and not as though the keeping of the day merits God’s favor. Let us encourage and exhort one another in the coming year in keeping the Lord’s Day holy.
The following are five helpful directions for observing the Lord’s Day taken from Archibald Alexander’s, A Brief Compend of Bible Truth (1846). I encourage you to read these and seek to put them in practice as we resolve together as the body of Christ in keeping the Lord’s Day holy.
1. Let the whole day be consecrated to the service of God, especially in acts of worship, public and private. This weekly recess from worldly cares and avocations, affords a precious opportunity for the study of God's word, and for the examination of our own hearts. Rise early, and let your first thoughts and aspirations be directed to heaven. Meditate much and profoundly on divine things, and endeavour to acquire a degree of spirituality on this day which will abide with you through the whole week.
2. Consider the Lord's Day an honour and delight. Let your heart be elevated in holy joy, and your lips be employed in the high praises of God. This day more resembles heaven, than any other portion of our time; and we should endeavour to imitate the worship of heaven, according to that petition of the Lord's prayer -- "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Never permit the idea to enter your mind, that the Sabbath is a burden. It is a sad case, when professing Christians are weary of this sacred rest, and say, like some of old, "When will the Sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn, and set forth wheat?" As you improve this day, so probably will you be prospered all the week.
3. Avoid undue rigour, and Pharisaic scrupulosity, for nothing renders the Lord's Day more odious. Still keep in view the great end of its institution; and remember that the Sabbath was instituted for the benefit of man, and not to be a galling yoke. The cessation from worldly business and labour is not for its own sake, as if there was any thing morally good in inaction, but we are called off from secular pursuits on this day, that we may have a portion of our time to devote uninterruptedly to the worship of God. Let every thing then be so arranged in your household, beforehand, that there may be no interruption to religious duties, and to attendance on the means of grace.
As divine knowledge is the richest acquisition within our reach, and as this knowledge is to be found in the word of God, let us value this day, as affording all persons an opportunity of hearing and reading the word. And as the fourth commandment requires the heads of families to cause the Sabbath to be observed by all under their control, or within their gates, it is very important that domestic and culinary arrangements should be so ordered, that no one be deprived of the opportunity of attending on the word and worship of God which this day affords. If we possess any measure of the true spirit of devotion, this sacred day will be most welcome to our hearts; and we will rejoice when they say, "Let us go unto the house of the Lord." To such a soul, the opportunity of enjoying spiritual communion with God will be valued above all price, and be esteemed as the richest privilege which creatures can enjoy on earth.
4. Whilst you conscientiously follow your own sense of duty in the observance of the rest of the Sabbath, be not ready to censure all who may differ from you in regard to minute particulars, which are not prescribed or commended in the word of God. Beware of indulging yourself in any practice which may have the effect of leading others to disregard the rest and sanctity of the Sabbath. Let not your liberty in regard to what you think may be done, be a stumbling block to cause weaker brethren to offend, or unnecessarily to give them pain, or to lead them to entertain an unfavourable opinion of your piety.
5. As, undoubtedly, the celebration of public worship and gaining divine instruction from the divine oracles, is the main object of the institution of the Christian Sabbath, let all be careful to attend on the services of the sanctuary on this day. And let the heart be prepared by previous prayer and meditation for a participation in public worship, and while in the more immediate presence of the Divine Majesty, let all the people fear before him, and with reverence adore and praise his holy name. Let all vanity, and curious gazing, and slothfulness, be banished from the house of God. Let every heart be lifted up on entering the sanctuary, and let the thoughts be carefully restrained from wandering on foolish or worldly objects, and resolutely recalled when they have begun to go astray. Let brotherly love be cherished, when joining with others in the worship of God. The hearts of all the church should be united in worship, as the heart of one man. Thus, will the worship of the sanctuary below, be a preparation for the purer, sublimer worship in the temple above.
The following are five helpful directions for observing the Lord’s Day taken from Archibald Alexander’s, A Brief Compend of Bible Truth (1846). I encourage you to read these and seek to put them in practice as we resolve together as the body of Christ in keeping the Lord’s Day holy.
1. Let the whole day be consecrated to the service of God, especially in acts of worship, public and private. This weekly recess from worldly cares and avocations, affords a precious opportunity for the study of God's word, and for the examination of our own hearts. Rise early, and let your first thoughts and aspirations be directed to heaven. Meditate much and profoundly on divine things, and endeavour to acquire a degree of spirituality on this day which will abide with you through the whole week.
2. Consider the Lord's Day an honour and delight. Let your heart be elevated in holy joy, and your lips be employed in the high praises of God. This day more resembles heaven, than any other portion of our time; and we should endeavour to imitate the worship of heaven, according to that petition of the Lord's prayer -- "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Never permit the idea to enter your mind, that the Sabbath is a burden. It is a sad case, when professing Christians are weary of this sacred rest, and say, like some of old, "When will the Sabbath be gone, that we may sell corn, and set forth wheat?" As you improve this day, so probably will you be prospered all the week.
3. Avoid undue rigour, and Pharisaic scrupulosity, for nothing renders the Lord's Day more odious. Still keep in view the great end of its institution; and remember that the Sabbath was instituted for the benefit of man, and not to be a galling yoke. The cessation from worldly business and labour is not for its own sake, as if there was any thing morally good in inaction, but we are called off from secular pursuits on this day, that we may have a portion of our time to devote uninterruptedly to the worship of God. Let every thing then be so arranged in your household, beforehand, that there may be no interruption to religious duties, and to attendance on the means of grace.
As divine knowledge is the richest acquisition within our reach, and as this knowledge is to be found in the word of God, let us value this day, as affording all persons an opportunity of hearing and reading the word. And as the fourth commandment requires the heads of families to cause the Sabbath to be observed by all under their control, or within their gates, it is very important that domestic and culinary arrangements should be so ordered, that no one be deprived of the opportunity of attending on the word and worship of God which this day affords. If we possess any measure of the true spirit of devotion, this sacred day will be most welcome to our hearts; and we will rejoice when they say, "Let us go unto the house of the Lord." To such a soul, the opportunity of enjoying spiritual communion with God will be valued above all price, and be esteemed as the richest privilege which creatures can enjoy on earth.
4. Whilst you conscientiously follow your own sense of duty in the observance of the rest of the Sabbath, be not ready to censure all who may differ from you in regard to minute particulars, which are not prescribed or commended in the word of God. Beware of indulging yourself in any practice which may have the effect of leading others to disregard the rest and sanctity of the Sabbath. Let not your liberty in regard to what you think may be done, be a stumbling block to cause weaker brethren to offend, or unnecessarily to give them pain, or to lead them to entertain an unfavourable opinion of your piety.
5. As, undoubtedly, the celebration of public worship and gaining divine instruction from the divine oracles, is the main object of the institution of the Christian Sabbath, let all be careful to attend on the services of the sanctuary on this day. And let the heart be prepared by previous prayer and meditation for a participation in public worship, and while in the more immediate presence of the Divine Majesty, let all the people fear before him, and with reverence adore and praise his holy name. Let all vanity, and curious gazing, and slothfulness, be banished from the house of God. Let every heart be lifted up on entering the sanctuary, and let the thoughts be carefully restrained from wandering on foolish or worldly objects, and resolutely recalled when they have begun to go astray. Let brotherly love be cherished, when joining with others in the worship of God. The hearts of all the church should be united in worship, as the heart of one man. Thus, will the worship of the sanctuary below, be a preparation for the purer, sublimer worship in the temple above.
Friday, December 17, 2010
A Christmas Meditation, Celebrating Christmas
Celebrating Christmas in the church and the culture takes many different forms. In the coming week we will gather with church members, family and friends to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ in various ways. Some of these ways will be more a reflection of the church conforming to the world and it’s rebellious culture than it will be a conforming to Scripture. The ancient church is the inventor of celebrating Christmas or the birth of Jesus Christ. God has revealed to us in his Word the incarnation of the Son of God in his birth, but he has not ordained a day to celebrate that truth or regulated what we are to do on that day. Does this mean then that the church should not celebrate Christmas because it is not given to us in the Scriptures? I don’t think so because the incarnation of Jesus Christ is worthy of celebration. But how do we do it without being idolatrous?
The governor of the Plymouth settlement in 1620, William Bradford, struggled with this matter. In his record of the Plymouth settlement he records a Christmas day in 1621. He went to work on that day because it was not a Lord’s Day. Other men who had come from England that year believed it to be against conscience to work on that day. However when William Bradford found them later in that day playing “sport” he denied them that right saying it was against his conscience that they could play on that day while others worked. He commanded them to obey their consciences because “if they made the keeping of that day a matter of devotion, let them remain in their houses; but there should be no gamming and reveling in the streets.” William Bradford and these men were seeking to act as their consciences were ruled by some authority. And this is an important way for the church to act, but the question is what authority governs how we celebrate the birth of Immanuel?
Samuel Davies, an 18th century southern Presbyterian minister stated, “I do not set apart this day (Christmas day) for public worship, as though it had any particular sanctity, or we were under any obligations to keep it religiously. I know no human authority, that has power to make one day more holy than another, or that can bind the conscience in such cases. And as for divine authority, to which alone the sanctifying of the days and things belongs, it has thought it sufficient to consecrate one day in seven to a religious use, for the commemoration both of the birth of this world, and the resurrection of its great Author, or of the works of creation and redemption. This I would religiously observe; and inculcate the religious observance upon all. But as to other days, consecrated by the mistaken piety or superstition of men, and conveyed down to us as holy, through the corrupt medium of human tradition, I think myself free to observe them or not, according to convenience, and the prospect of usefulness; like other common days, on which I may lawfully carry on public worship or not, as circumstances require.” The church must be careful based upon God’s authority to think rightly about our celebration of the Christ of Christmas. The church must consider her Christmas celebrations as “useful” to the end that they allow us to glory in our King and Savior, and not in ourselves, a day, or a feeling produced by nostalgia. With this in mind let me offer the following four considerations from Luke 2:17-20 on how we may celebrate Christmas.
In Luke 2:17-20 we read, 17And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
First, the church can celebrate Christmas by telling others what has been revealed to her about the Christ. We see the shepherds seeing the Christ born in Bethlehem as it had been told them by the angels. And upon their seeing they made known to others what they had been told about him. Celebrating Christmas is an expression of the joy one has in the Christ of Christmas told publically to any who would hear. What the church would tell is not what the church has invented or believed to be true for them. The church tells others what has been revealed by God about the person and work of her Savior and Lord. Let us celebrate Christmas by telling others of the Christ of Christmas as revealed in Scripture.
Second, the church is to celebrate Christmas by being amazed with the truth that has been revealed about the Christ of Christmas. As the shepherds told what had been revealed to them to others those who heard this good news were in wonder, awe or amazement. This is the proper way to respond to the glorious truth of the good news of great joy for all peoples. We should take time not only to listen to the truth about the Christ of Christmas but to be amazed by what has been revealed to us concerning him. Reading this week in Zechariah 3 I stood amazed at the revelation of the Branch (v.8) and his taking away the iniquity of his people in a day (v.9). The Branch came to serve and not be served and give his life as a ransom for many (Mt.20:28). He existed in eternity, came into time and space, lived, died and was raised to be the joy of all peoples, Jews and Gentiles alike. Amazing love how can it be, that the Son of God should live, die and be raised for me as I glory in him.
Third, the church can celebrate Christmas by treasuring in their hearts all that is revealed to them about the Christ of Christmas. It is treasuring truth that allows us to be amazed by truth. Mary treasured up the things that were told to her meaning that she stored them away. She kept them in mind as a continual action of her heart. Treasuring the truth means she loved this truth about the Son. This is an important way for American Christians to celebrate Christmas where we are so apt to treasure the gifts of the Son rather than the truth about the Son of God. Treasuring Christ means that we must meditate study, think on and read about the Christ of Christmas in order to be thinking rightly about Christmas.
The fourth way the church can celebrate Christmas is by completing her joy in God by praising and thanking him for all that he is for her in Christ Jesus. These people returned praising God whom they knew as he revealed himself to them and whom they enjoyed in their knowing. Therefore they glorified him at the coming of the promised Messiah. They praised him for his glorious grace (Eph.1:14) and it was for this that they were made and this is why he revealed his truth to them.
Come let us worship the LORD this Christmas telling others of his wondrous works, standing amazed at his grace, singing and making melody to him in our hearts as we treasure what is true of him, and overflowing with joy in him who has glorified himself to us in the Christ of Christmas.
The governor of the Plymouth settlement in 1620, William Bradford, struggled with this matter. In his record of the Plymouth settlement he records a Christmas day in 1621. He went to work on that day because it was not a Lord’s Day. Other men who had come from England that year believed it to be against conscience to work on that day. However when William Bradford found them later in that day playing “sport” he denied them that right saying it was against his conscience that they could play on that day while others worked. He commanded them to obey their consciences because “if they made the keeping of that day a matter of devotion, let them remain in their houses; but there should be no gamming and reveling in the streets.” William Bradford and these men were seeking to act as their consciences were ruled by some authority. And this is an important way for the church to act, but the question is what authority governs how we celebrate the birth of Immanuel?
Samuel Davies, an 18th century southern Presbyterian minister stated, “I do not set apart this day (Christmas day) for public worship, as though it had any particular sanctity, or we were under any obligations to keep it religiously. I know no human authority, that has power to make one day more holy than another, or that can bind the conscience in such cases. And as for divine authority, to which alone the sanctifying of the days and things belongs, it has thought it sufficient to consecrate one day in seven to a religious use, for the commemoration both of the birth of this world, and the resurrection of its great Author, or of the works of creation and redemption. This I would religiously observe; and inculcate the religious observance upon all. But as to other days, consecrated by the mistaken piety or superstition of men, and conveyed down to us as holy, through the corrupt medium of human tradition, I think myself free to observe them or not, according to convenience, and the prospect of usefulness; like other common days, on which I may lawfully carry on public worship or not, as circumstances require.” The church must be careful based upon God’s authority to think rightly about our celebration of the Christ of Christmas. The church must consider her Christmas celebrations as “useful” to the end that they allow us to glory in our King and Savior, and not in ourselves, a day, or a feeling produced by nostalgia. With this in mind let me offer the following four considerations from Luke 2:17-20 on how we may celebrate Christmas.
In Luke 2:17-20 we read, 17And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
First, the church can celebrate Christmas by telling others what has been revealed to her about the Christ. We see the shepherds seeing the Christ born in Bethlehem as it had been told them by the angels. And upon their seeing they made known to others what they had been told about him. Celebrating Christmas is an expression of the joy one has in the Christ of Christmas told publically to any who would hear. What the church would tell is not what the church has invented or believed to be true for them. The church tells others what has been revealed by God about the person and work of her Savior and Lord. Let us celebrate Christmas by telling others of the Christ of Christmas as revealed in Scripture.
Second, the church is to celebrate Christmas by being amazed with the truth that has been revealed about the Christ of Christmas. As the shepherds told what had been revealed to them to others those who heard this good news were in wonder, awe or amazement. This is the proper way to respond to the glorious truth of the good news of great joy for all peoples. We should take time not only to listen to the truth about the Christ of Christmas but to be amazed by what has been revealed to us concerning him. Reading this week in Zechariah 3 I stood amazed at the revelation of the Branch (v.8) and his taking away the iniquity of his people in a day (v.9). The Branch came to serve and not be served and give his life as a ransom for many (Mt.20:28). He existed in eternity, came into time and space, lived, died and was raised to be the joy of all peoples, Jews and Gentiles alike. Amazing love how can it be, that the Son of God should live, die and be raised for me as I glory in him.
Third, the church can celebrate Christmas by treasuring in their hearts all that is revealed to them about the Christ of Christmas. It is treasuring truth that allows us to be amazed by truth. Mary treasured up the things that were told to her meaning that she stored them away. She kept them in mind as a continual action of her heart. Treasuring the truth means she loved this truth about the Son. This is an important way for American Christians to celebrate Christmas where we are so apt to treasure the gifts of the Son rather than the truth about the Son of God. Treasuring Christ means that we must meditate study, think on and read about the Christ of Christmas in order to be thinking rightly about Christmas.
The fourth way the church can celebrate Christmas is by completing her joy in God by praising and thanking him for all that he is for her in Christ Jesus. These people returned praising God whom they knew as he revealed himself to them and whom they enjoyed in their knowing. Therefore they glorified him at the coming of the promised Messiah. They praised him for his glorious grace (Eph.1:14) and it was for this that they were made and this is why he revealed his truth to them.
Come let us worship the LORD this Christmas telling others of his wondrous works, standing amazed at his grace, singing and making melody to him in our hearts as we treasure what is true of him, and overflowing with joy in him who has glorified himself to us in the Christ of Christmas.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Works and Promise
Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts,…6For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. (Haggai 2:4, 6-7)
When circumstances are dark and it seems hope is lost it is hard to work. God’s people were in the darkness of exile under the rule of a foreign king and the hope of the glory of Israel seemed lost. However, God called on his people to be strong and work hard and founded that calling in promise. He promised he was with them and that he would glorify again the place of his presence among them in the Temple. Their strength was zapped by sadness and brokenness over having experienced judgment at the hands of their enemies. They were defeated and like an athlete with his head in his hands sitting on the bench knowing they were on the low end of the scoreboard they had no strength. Their hope lay in the presence of God among them. But they had denied his presence in their false worship and God had brought destruction on the place, the Temple, where he had promised to dwell among them in power, wisdom and goodness for his glory and their good. Their hope and strength were swallowed up by their own sin, judgment and the power of another nation.
It is in this void of self sufficiency that God calls his people to work in the sight of his promise. The strength is the Lord’s and the promise that secures their hope is from him. It is in this time that God is glorified for his sufficient grace toward his people when she lives in his strength with her eyes upon his promise. As the church is the place of his dwelling, the place of his presence and glory, so he promises to build his household (Mt.16:18). His church is the dwelling place of his presence by the Spirit (Ezek.36:27) and so he promises to finish the work that he has begun in her (Phil.1:6). He will shake all the nations with the power of the gospel to save his children who are perishing (Jn.10: Jn.10:16; Rom.1:16) that his glory will fill all the earth (Hab.2:5, 14).
Therefore his church can be strong in the strength he provides (Eph.6:10) and go to work in his sufficient grace (2Cor.12:9) in the way he builds his church. She can go to work around his word bringing every thought and action captive to his will revealed in his Word (2Cor.10:5; Mt.28:20). She can go to work feeding and being nurtured on his wisdom, power and goodness revealed in his Word. She can feed on her on Head Christ Jesus and commune together around his sacraments (Acts 2:42). She can work together in love singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs together in her heart (Col.3:16). She can fall upon her face in prayer depending upon God for all things. She can swing wide the doors of hospitality to one another to encourage, exhort and bear one another’s burdens (Gal.6:1-2). She can tell others of the reason for the hope that is within her spreading the good news of the gospel (1Pe.3:15). She can teach, preach and counsel to build up the body of Christ to maturity (Eph.4:11-13). She can love kindness and mercy and compassion toward the oppressed, the hungry, the poor, the sick, the sorrowing, and the afflicted (Micah 6:8). She can be strong and go to work for the glory of the Lord rests upon her and lives in her in the Spirit and her union with Christ, and the promise of more and more grace lies before her in all that God promises.
May the church get her head out of her hands and walk in the way of strength and promise that is in Christ Jesus doing the work he has called her to by the grace he provides for every work along the way. 20Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Heb.13:20-21)
When circumstances are dark and it seems hope is lost it is hard to work. God’s people were in the darkness of exile under the rule of a foreign king and the hope of the glory of Israel seemed lost. However, God called on his people to be strong and work hard and founded that calling in promise. He promised he was with them and that he would glorify again the place of his presence among them in the Temple. Their strength was zapped by sadness and brokenness over having experienced judgment at the hands of their enemies. They were defeated and like an athlete with his head in his hands sitting on the bench knowing they were on the low end of the scoreboard they had no strength. Their hope lay in the presence of God among them. But they had denied his presence in their false worship and God had brought destruction on the place, the Temple, where he had promised to dwell among them in power, wisdom and goodness for his glory and their good. Their hope and strength were swallowed up by their own sin, judgment and the power of another nation.
It is in this void of self sufficiency that God calls his people to work in the sight of his promise. The strength is the Lord’s and the promise that secures their hope is from him. It is in this time that God is glorified for his sufficient grace toward his people when she lives in his strength with her eyes upon his promise. As the church is the place of his dwelling, the place of his presence and glory, so he promises to build his household (Mt.16:18). His church is the dwelling place of his presence by the Spirit (Ezek.36:27) and so he promises to finish the work that he has begun in her (Phil.1:6). He will shake all the nations with the power of the gospel to save his children who are perishing (Jn.10: Jn.10:16; Rom.1:16) that his glory will fill all the earth (Hab.2:5, 14).
Therefore his church can be strong in the strength he provides (Eph.6:10) and go to work in his sufficient grace (2Cor.12:9) in the way he builds his church. She can go to work around his word bringing every thought and action captive to his will revealed in his Word (2Cor.10:5; Mt.28:20). She can go to work feeding and being nurtured on his wisdom, power and goodness revealed in his Word. She can feed on her on Head Christ Jesus and commune together around his sacraments (Acts 2:42). She can work together in love singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs together in her heart (Col.3:16). She can fall upon her face in prayer depending upon God for all things. She can swing wide the doors of hospitality to one another to encourage, exhort and bear one another’s burdens (Gal.6:1-2). She can tell others of the reason for the hope that is within her spreading the good news of the gospel (1Pe.3:15). She can teach, preach and counsel to build up the body of Christ to maturity (Eph.4:11-13). She can love kindness and mercy and compassion toward the oppressed, the hungry, the poor, the sick, the sorrowing, and the afflicted (Micah 6:8). She can be strong and go to work for the glory of the Lord rests upon her and lives in her in the Spirit and her union with Christ, and the promise of more and more grace lies before her in all that God promises.
May the church get her head out of her hands and walk in the way of strength and promise that is in Christ Jesus doing the work he has called her to by the grace he provides for every work along the way. 20Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Heb.13:20-21)
Friday, December 10, 2010
A Christmas Meditation, Christ's Eternal Goodness
What is Christmas for? Christmas is a good time to meditate and think upon what God reveals to us in the glory of Christ. Christmas is for the continual remembrance that God has loved his own children from everlasting to everlasting. How deep is the Father’s love for us? How vast and unmeasured is his love for us in the Christ of Christmas? God reveals the vastness of his goodness to us in Christ in these words, He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (1Peter 1:20). When we consider the Christ of Christmas we so often think of his birth or his becoming flesh. As Peter says here, “was made manifest in the last times…”. And when we do we consider his becoming flesh so that he might become sin for us on the cross to purchase our redemption (2Corinthians 5:21). This is important for us to meditate and think upon both in reflection upon our own condition as to why we need a Savior and upon the glory of that Savior who came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). However, it is also important to look at the depth of love that is revealed to us at Christmas in the eternal goodness of God toward us.
How far back must we go to see the Christ of Christmas? Is he only visible in a manger several thousand years ago or must we search further? Peter tells us “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world…” The word “forknown” comes from a Greek word proginosko. It contains a stem pro meaning before and another word ginosko meaning to know. Therefore God planned and purposed in his eternal counsel the Son who would be the lamb to take away sin and be manifest to his people (1Peter 1:19-20). God is proclaiming his grace in an amplified manner by telling us of his everlasting love toward us in his Son. Psalm 103:17 proclaims, The steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting. And when we consider that love from everlasting we see the Son of God who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3) is in the heavens before the foundations of the earth ready to redeem a people yet unborn. The Christ of Christmas is the Word made flesh who, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3). The eternal nature of the Son of God is for the eternal purpose of God to redeem a people who will glorify him for his infinite and eternal goodness.
Christmas is not a new idea on the part of God. Christmas should resound in our ears as not even ancient but eternal. The churches faith at Christmas must not rest on something novel like a God who sees a people in trouble and sends them a nice little baby under a starry sky who would become a great symbol of his love. God did not at last in his workshop come up with a great idea to help man out after several thousand years of existence in misery. The Christ of Christmas is to be trusted in as our eternal salvation, the one who has always been our salvation even before the world began.
But someone may ask, “Why would God employ a Mediator or Redeemer ever before he needed one?” To answer from God’s vantage point, because he foresaw that Adam would not stand long in righteousness. Therefore in his foreknowledge he ordained that Jesus Christ would be the Redeemer of his children whom he loved from everlasting to everlasting. As John Calvin says, “In this there shines forth more clearly the unspeakable goodness of God, in that he anticipated our disease by the remedy of his grace, and provided a restoration to life before the first man had fallen into death.” God shows forth his goodness to his creatures by shinning out of the light of eternity his foreknown Son to be the Redeemer of his own people living as those in the filth and stench of their own wicked sinfulness. He reveals to us this truth not to show us that there was something in us that would merit his coming to us, but to show us that he loved us ever before we thought about or loved him. He loved his own from eternity in the eternal Son of God who is the only Redeemer and Mediator between God and man.
A merry Christmas will be had by those who take up their joy in the God who has loved them from all eternity in the Christ of Christmas. Take time this Christmas to think and meditate upon the everlasting goodness of God in Christ manifest to us and our children. And tell others what Christmas is for, to live in the enjoyment of all that God is for us in the Christ of Christmas.
How far back must we go to see the Christ of Christmas? Is he only visible in a manger several thousand years ago or must we search further? Peter tells us “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world…” The word “forknown” comes from a Greek word proginosko. It contains a stem pro meaning before and another word ginosko meaning to know. Therefore God planned and purposed in his eternal counsel the Son who would be the lamb to take away sin and be manifest to his people (1Peter 1:19-20). God is proclaiming his grace in an amplified manner by telling us of his everlasting love toward us in his Son. Psalm 103:17 proclaims, The steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting. And when we consider that love from everlasting we see the Son of God who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3) is in the heavens before the foundations of the earth ready to redeem a people yet unborn. The Christ of Christmas is the Word made flesh who, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3). The eternal nature of the Son of God is for the eternal purpose of God to redeem a people who will glorify him for his infinite and eternal goodness.
Christmas is not a new idea on the part of God. Christmas should resound in our ears as not even ancient but eternal. The churches faith at Christmas must not rest on something novel like a God who sees a people in trouble and sends them a nice little baby under a starry sky who would become a great symbol of his love. God did not at last in his workshop come up with a great idea to help man out after several thousand years of existence in misery. The Christ of Christmas is to be trusted in as our eternal salvation, the one who has always been our salvation even before the world began.
But someone may ask, “Why would God employ a Mediator or Redeemer ever before he needed one?” To answer from God’s vantage point, because he foresaw that Adam would not stand long in righteousness. Therefore in his foreknowledge he ordained that Jesus Christ would be the Redeemer of his children whom he loved from everlasting to everlasting. As John Calvin says, “In this there shines forth more clearly the unspeakable goodness of God, in that he anticipated our disease by the remedy of his grace, and provided a restoration to life before the first man had fallen into death.” God shows forth his goodness to his creatures by shinning out of the light of eternity his foreknown Son to be the Redeemer of his own people living as those in the filth and stench of their own wicked sinfulness. He reveals to us this truth not to show us that there was something in us that would merit his coming to us, but to show us that he loved us ever before we thought about or loved him. He loved his own from eternity in the eternal Son of God who is the only Redeemer and Mediator between God and man.
A merry Christmas will be had by those who take up their joy in the God who has loved them from all eternity in the Christ of Christmas. Take time this Christmas to think and meditate upon the everlasting goodness of God in Christ manifest to us and our children. And tell others what Christmas is for, to live in the enjoyment of all that God is for us in the Christ of Christmas.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Celebrating a Christian Calling
There are numerous callings in the Scriptures. There is the “general call” of God which goes out to all men through the preaching of the gospel. This calls all men to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The general call of God came through the lips of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles. Luke records this general call going out to the crowds gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost as they heard through the mouth of the apostle Peter, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words…” (Acts 2:14) It was upon these words that the Lord was casting the net broadly and generally to all men gathered there that day. To hear the general call of God is to be highly favored. There are millions of people in the earth who have not heard this general call.
There is also a vocational call in Scripture. This is a call to a particular job, position, or station in life. These callings are most familiar to us in the Old Testament. We read of Adam being called to rule and subdue the earth (Genesis 2:15). We read of Noah being called by God as a leader and savior of his family and caregiver of those animals that God chose to preserve in the earth after the flood. (Genesis 6-9). We read of Moses being called by God to be a deliverer of his people living in Egypt (Exodus 3). We also see this call in the New Testament. We see Peter being called from being a fisher of fish to a fisher of men (Matthew 4:19) or Matthew being called from being a tax collector to a disciple of Christ (Matthew 9:9). Paul speaks of this kind of calling in 1 Corinthians 7:20 when he says, “Each one should remain in the situation which he was when he was called.” The situation is the vocational calling or station which has been assigned (7:17). Therefore a calling may be in regard to your social or positional call in life. It is this calling that people tend to put the most significance or mark their own significance upon. This is the calling that most people are so willing to celebrate if they think it makes them significant or so willing to despair over if they think it does not measure up. But this is not the calling to celebrate. Though we should be thankful and content in the various callings we have in life, these callings are just that, for this life.
The third calling in Scripture that is the most to be celebrated is the effectual calling. It is what Paul is referring to in 1 Corinthians 7:20, “Each one should remain in the situation which he was when he was called.” Paul is referring to remaining in a situation or calling that they were in when God effectually called them to salvation in Christ Jesus. It is God who calls his own to salvation in the powerful, able and efficient call. Because man is incapable or unable in himself to come to Christ for salvation God must act toward him in his grace and power.
Jesus speaks of this call in John 6:44 when he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” This verse speaks both of man’s inability to come and the Father’s effectual call to come unto Christ. Man’s inability is in his sinful condition. In the condition of man’s hard sinful heart there is no righteousness, no seeking after God, no want of blessed affections or right thoughts of God and his salvation. All the heart is in love with is self and for the glory of self it lives to die. Jesus is clear in saying “No one can come…”. There will be those who say it is the preaching of the gospel that will enable them to come. But I would say through the preaching of the gospel there goes forth a general call and man may believe the gospel preached for himself but not in himself. Others may say, “It is in how that gospel is preached. There are not many clear gospel preachers, or relevant gospel preachers, or cultural / missional gospel preachers, and this is why people are not coming.” But if you were to name the greatest preacher of all time who would name? If you named anyone but Christ Jesus himself you stand to condemn your judgment for he is God and the very author of his Word that he preached. Yet when he went throughout Galilee and Judea many heard but did not come. This is so because coming to salvation in Christ rests not on the preaching of the gospel, the one preaching or those hearing, but on the Father’s effectual calling.
The effectual call takes place when God by his free and special grace through his Word and Spirit calls men, women and children out of the condition of sin and death, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. He does this by enlightening the mind spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh, renewing the will, and by his great power determining the person to that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ. And in this the person comes most freely and willingly by grace. (Westminster Confession of Faith Chpt.X.1) God is gloriously gracious to bring us to see the grossness of our sin and the beauty of his righteousness in Christ so that we act against our old will according to the life of the new will made alive by the Spirit. This is the calling to celebrate in life toward life.
It is in God’s effectual call that we have a glorious social standing of being one in Christ Jesus (Gal.3:28) and a magnificent positional standing of having all things in Christ Jesus. This is the calling most of all to be celebrated in a life of love through obedience to his will in whatever social, cultural or positional condition God has assigned to us. It is here that we can learn most to enjoy his presence in love and serve our neighbors in love without fear of losing anything and with humility to not take our position or standing to the love of self.
There is also a vocational call in Scripture. This is a call to a particular job, position, or station in life. These callings are most familiar to us in the Old Testament. We read of Adam being called to rule and subdue the earth (Genesis 2:15). We read of Noah being called by God as a leader and savior of his family and caregiver of those animals that God chose to preserve in the earth after the flood. (Genesis 6-9). We read of Moses being called by God to be a deliverer of his people living in Egypt (Exodus 3). We also see this call in the New Testament. We see Peter being called from being a fisher of fish to a fisher of men (Matthew 4:19) or Matthew being called from being a tax collector to a disciple of Christ (Matthew 9:9). Paul speaks of this kind of calling in 1 Corinthians 7:20 when he says, “Each one should remain in the situation which he was when he was called.” The situation is the vocational calling or station which has been assigned (7:17). Therefore a calling may be in regard to your social or positional call in life. It is this calling that people tend to put the most significance or mark their own significance upon. This is the calling that most people are so willing to celebrate if they think it makes them significant or so willing to despair over if they think it does not measure up. But this is not the calling to celebrate. Though we should be thankful and content in the various callings we have in life, these callings are just that, for this life.
The third calling in Scripture that is the most to be celebrated is the effectual calling. It is what Paul is referring to in 1 Corinthians 7:20, “Each one should remain in the situation which he was when he was called.” Paul is referring to remaining in a situation or calling that they were in when God effectually called them to salvation in Christ Jesus. It is God who calls his own to salvation in the powerful, able and efficient call. Because man is incapable or unable in himself to come to Christ for salvation God must act toward him in his grace and power.
Jesus speaks of this call in John 6:44 when he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” This verse speaks both of man’s inability to come and the Father’s effectual call to come unto Christ. Man’s inability is in his sinful condition. In the condition of man’s hard sinful heart there is no righteousness, no seeking after God, no want of blessed affections or right thoughts of God and his salvation. All the heart is in love with is self and for the glory of self it lives to die. Jesus is clear in saying “No one can come…”. There will be those who say it is the preaching of the gospel that will enable them to come. But I would say through the preaching of the gospel there goes forth a general call and man may believe the gospel preached for himself but not in himself. Others may say, “It is in how that gospel is preached. There are not many clear gospel preachers, or relevant gospel preachers, or cultural / missional gospel preachers, and this is why people are not coming.” But if you were to name the greatest preacher of all time who would name? If you named anyone but Christ Jesus himself you stand to condemn your judgment for he is God and the very author of his Word that he preached. Yet when he went throughout Galilee and Judea many heard but did not come. This is so because coming to salvation in Christ rests not on the preaching of the gospel, the one preaching or those hearing, but on the Father’s effectual calling.
The effectual call takes place when God by his free and special grace through his Word and Spirit calls men, women and children out of the condition of sin and death, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. He does this by enlightening the mind spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh, renewing the will, and by his great power determining the person to that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ. And in this the person comes most freely and willingly by grace. (Westminster Confession of Faith Chpt.X.1) God is gloriously gracious to bring us to see the grossness of our sin and the beauty of his righteousness in Christ so that we act against our old will according to the life of the new will made alive by the Spirit. This is the calling to celebrate in life toward life.
It is in God’s effectual call that we have a glorious social standing of being one in Christ Jesus (Gal.3:28) and a magnificent positional standing of having all things in Christ Jesus. This is the calling most of all to be celebrated in a life of love through obedience to his will in whatever social, cultural or positional condition God has assigned to us. It is here that we can learn most to enjoy his presence in love and serve our neighbors in love without fear of losing anything and with humility to not take our position or standing to the love of self.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Confessions at Thanksgiving
I have a dog named Burton. She is named after a place I grew up in the summers and a place my family returns each year for vacation, Lake Burton. Burton is a Yellow Lab who loves to eat. She can be on the other side of the house as I walk quietly into the kitchen, quietly take out of the cabinet the box of crackers and quietly try to open the jar of peanut butter. But before the lid is out of my hand and laying on the counter and my knife is just beginning to dip into the peanut butter to be applied to my first cracker she is at my feet drooling. She loves to eat. I do not feed Burton dog food. She eats things like fried eggs and toast, left over Sunday dinner and chicken noodle soup. But she has a character flaw. She is an ingrate. She never says thank you. In fact if I have determined that she is need of nothing to eat while I am in the kitchen and I tell her to go lie down on her bed she will obey. However as she lies down she sighs, sometimes moans or just plain growls showing her disapproval of me and my unfeeling command that certainly does not understand her situation. But she never says thank you. She is dependent upon me for every meal, she eats better than any dog on the block, she sleeps inside, gets the run of the house, a bone on Sunday, but she is an ingrate, an ungrateful canine.
I tell you about my dog to tell you about myself. I have a wretched sin problem that is akin to my dog Burton. I am cynical. The word cynic is derived from the Greek word for canine which means dog. Webster defines cynic as “having the qualities of a surly dog.” Some may try to blame this on my melancholy temperament. However, I find in my heart the expressions of being cross, crabby, sour, rough, just plain surly and cynical. But I did not say my dog was cynical, I said she was ungrateful. Exactly, she cannot express her surliness unless she growls or howls, but I can express mine in all kinds of words and when I do it is the expression of being an ingrate, an ungrateful prig, a thankless wretch.
Now that you know about my dog and me, and are thinking that we both belong in a dog house, what about you? We are fast approaching one of our favorite days of the year, Thanksgiving. Burton does not remember last Thanksgiving so she does not know what is in store for her. But when she receives some of the bounty of that day and the day after will she be thankful or will she eat her bowl clean and return to the kitchen for more just as ungrateful as before? On that day we will gather around the table and tell everyone something we are thankful for while the rest of the time we complain about our football team, our job, the state of our country, the faults of our neighbors or family who are not present and the folks at church? That’s my biggest problem with comparing myself to Burton, at least she is consistent. I am just hypocritical.
I don’t want to sit at the children’s table this Thanksgiving, or be out with the dog, but I ought to. I act like an ungrateful child who expects the world to give me everything I want, and when it doesn’t I growl. I want to sit with the mature adults but maturity is thankful from the heart and expresses it in gratitude and praise. C.S. Lewis noted this difference when he observed, ‘The humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious (large), minds praised most while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least.’ Maturity is founded in a recognized dependence on God for all things and is expressed in a humble thankful life and speech. When my mind and heart are balanced and filled with great thoughts of God then the Spirit produces in me humility and a want to give thanks.
Therefore preparing for thanksgiving is not something the Christian is called to do once a year, though he ought to make that a special time, it is a way of life everyday. For me to continue in the sin of ingratitude and a life of cynicism is to live like a dog. Therefore I must flee from this sin and put it to death by thinking great thoughts of God in utter dependence upon him for all things. I must enter the realm of his truth and let my mind and heart reach deeply into his Word. And there I will find great and wonderful things concerning him, his salvation and his will. It is in this realm of greatness and beauty that gratitude is birthed and nurtured. It is in this realm that I can give thanks in all circumstances (1Thes.5:18). I must thank him when times and things are “good” because it is good and I must thank him when things or times are “bad” because he is working in me patience, endurance, humility, and a want for another reality. Preparing for a heart and life of gratitude and the practice of thanksgiving does not happen because Aunt Jane gives you a piece of paper and asks you to write down one thing you are thankful for. My dog could do that with her bowl in her paws if she could write. We must go on our knees into the throne room of God where is displayed in Christ God’s infinite grace and mercy, unending forgiveness, majestic beauty of holiness, extensive power and revealed wisdom. It is here that our hearts are revived and we will magnify him with thanksgiving (Ps.69:30, 32).
I tell you about my dog to tell you about myself. I have a wretched sin problem that is akin to my dog Burton. I am cynical. The word cynic is derived from the Greek word for canine which means dog. Webster defines cynic as “having the qualities of a surly dog.” Some may try to blame this on my melancholy temperament. However, I find in my heart the expressions of being cross, crabby, sour, rough, just plain surly and cynical. But I did not say my dog was cynical, I said she was ungrateful. Exactly, she cannot express her surliness unless she growls or howls, but I can express mine in all kinds of words and when I do it is the expression of being an ingrate, an ungrateful prig, a thankless wretch.
Now that you know about my dog and me, and are thinking that we both belong in a dog house, what about you? We are fast approaching one of our favorite days of the year, Thanksgiving. Burton does not remember last Thanksgiving so she does not know what is in store for her. But when she receives some of the bounty of that day and the day after will she be thankful or will she eat her bowl clean and return to the kitchen for more just as ungrateful as before? On that day we will gather around the table and tell everyone something we are thankful for while the rest of the time we complain about our football team, our job, the state of our country, the faults of our neighbors or family who are not present and the folks at church? That’s my biggest problem with comparing myself to Burton, at least she is consistent. I am just hypocritical.
I don’t want to sit at the children’s table this Thanksgiving, or be out with the dog, but I ought to. I act like an ungrateful child who expects the world to give me everything I want, and when it doesn’t I growl. I want to sit with the mature adults but maturity is thankful from the heart and expresses it in gratitude and praise. C.S. Lewis noted this difference when he observed, ‘The humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious (large), minds praised most while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least.’ Maturity is founded in a recognized dependence on God for all things and is expressed in a humble thankful life and speech. When my mind and heart are balanced and filled with great thoughts of God then the Spirit produces in me humility and a want to give thanks.
Therefore preparing for thanksgiving is not something the Christian is called to do once a year, though he ought to make that a special time, it is a way of life everyday. For me to continue in the sin of ingratitude and a life of cynicism is to live like a dog. Therefore I must flee from this sin and put it to death by thinking great thoughts of God in utter dependence upon him for all things. I must enter the realm of his truth and let my mind and heart reach deeply into his Word. And there I will find great and wonderful things concerning him, his salvation and his will. It is in this realm of greatness and beauty that gratitude is birthed and nurtured. It is in this realm that I can give thanks in all circumstances (1Thes.5:18). I must thank him when times and things are “good” because it is good and I must thank him when things or times are “bad” because he is working in me patience, endurance, humility, and a want for another reality. Preparing for a heart and life of gratitude and the practice of thanksgiving does not happen because Aunt Jane gives you a piece of paper and asks you to write down one thing you are thankful for. My dog could do that with her bowl in her paws if she could write. We must go on our knees into the throne room of God where is displayed in Christ God’s infinite grace and mercy, unending forgiveness, majestic beauty of holiness, extensive power and revealed wisdom. It is here that our hearts are revived and we will magnify him with thanksgiving (Ps.69:30, 32).
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Preaching and Writing Fantasy
While reading one of my son’s posts on writing fantasy I happened upon something that has helped me better to understand preaching and the hearing of the preached word. In his writing on fantasy as “escapist” he says, “Escape is not a flight of reality; it is merely the move from one reality (prison, death, Evil, or darkness- take your pick) to another (life, salvation, Good, or light). Desertion is the rejection of reality and your value for life. While it seems fantasy may be the escape from reality with its common use of dragons, elves, knights, castles, and other such ancient notions, the creators of such beasts or beings do not let them exceed the limits of Reason or reality. While you may create some beast that has hooves and can fly, the beast itself does not try to escape from what it was created to inhabit.” Here he is reflecting on what J.R.R. Tolkien writes when he says, “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” The beauty and “glory” of fantasy is the weight it has on the mind and the soul to move us from one reality to another or to liberate us through an escape into another realm of reality. But preaching God’s Word and hearing God’s Word is not considered fantasy. However, it shares something in common.
Preaching is escapist and hearing preaching with the ears of faith is escapist. A preacher is given the task of rightly dividing or handling the Word of God. The Word of God contains many different genres of literature. But it is not a book of literature; it is the breathed out Word of God. Therefore, the preacher enters into a prayerful studious process to understand what God is saying in a particular text through the study of its language, context and culture. As he unpacks what it says he then must understand what it means. He must discern by the Spirit what it meant to the original audience and what it means to the contemporary audience who is to hear it in the present. He must then apply this meaning to the present context of hearers and their lives within the Kingdom of God. But as of yet he has only been a student of the Word, he must now preach the Word.
He must preach to the people of God as one faithfully handling God’s Words through the power of the Spirit. He must tell them what it says and what it teaches applying that to their minds and hearts. And it is here that the preacher reaches glory and takes the hearers with him. He leads the hearers by God’s Word like prisoners with their minds and affections from one reality to another, not as deserters rejecting reality and a true value for life, but as escapists into a life they are created and re-created to inhabit. This is where the preacher escapes one reality and his hearers go with him into another reality that is glorious and weighty. It is not the role of the preacher to give three simple points that rhyme so that you can practically remember them for a moral life. The role of the preacher is to carry the Words of God as other worldly to a people in the world and by them lift them out of this world into a great escape in the new heavens and earth.
The listeners must expect this from God each Lord’s Day as they prayerfully gather around the servant of God called out by him to lead them in their escape. They must see him as the slave of God joyfully bound to the God of righteousness sent to them as a vessel spewing forth the Words of life. They must not see him as a communicator but a herald of words that they can light on by the power of the Holy Spirit and ride from one reality to another they were meant for with weight and glory. They must look past the man; his tie, bad hair, and quirky mannerisms, that they may hear Christ, their prophet, speak his escapist words to their mind and heart.
Preaching and hearing the preached word is escapist. And until the preacher longs for this liberty for himself and his hearers and until the hearers long for this movement from one reality to another through Word and by Spirit, the preacher and the hearers will only go to church like robots following a calendar of days.
Preaching is escapist and hearing preaching with the ears of faith is escapist. A preacher is given the task of rightly dividing or handling the Word of God. The Word of God contains many different genres of literature. But it is not a book of literature; it is the breathed out Word of God. Therefore, the preacher enters into a prayerful studious process to understand what God is saying in a particular text through the study of its language, context and culture. As he unpacks what it says he then must understand what it means. He must discern by the Spirit what it meant to the original audience and what it means to the contemporary audience who is to hear it in the present. He must then apply this meaning to the present context of hearers and their lives within the Kingdom of God. But as of yet he has only been a student of the Word, he must now preach the Word.
He must preach to the people of God as one faithfully handling God’s Words through the power of the Spirit. He must tell them what it says and what it teaches applying that to their minds and hearts. And it is here that the preacher reaches glory and takes the hearers with him. He leads the hearers by God’s Word like prisoners with their minds and affections from one reality to another, not as deserters rejecting reality and a true value for life, but as escapists into a life they are created and re-created to inhabit. This is where the preacher escapes one reality and his hearers go with him into another reality that is glorious and weighty. It is not the role of the preacher to give three simple points that rhyme so that you can practically remember them for a moral life. The role of the preacher is to carry the Words of God as other worldly to a people in the world and by them lift them out of this world into a great escape in the new heavens and earth.
The listeners must expect this from God each Lord’s Day as they prayerfully gather around the servant of God called out by him to lead them in their escape. They must see him as the slave of God joyfully bound to the God of righteousness sent to them as a vessel spewing forth the Words of life. They must not see him as a communicator but a herald of words that they can light on by the power of the Holy Spirit and ride from one reality to another they were meant for with weight and glory. They must look past the man; his tie, bad hair, and quirky mannerisms, that they may hear Christ, their prophet, speak his escapist words to their mind and heart.
Preaching and hearing the preached word is escapist. And until the preacher longs for this liberty for himself and his hearers and until the hearers long for this movement from one reality to another through Word and by Spirit, the preacher and the hearers will only go to church like robots following a calendar of days.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Preparing for Thanksgiving
Holidays are special, and the Thanksgiving holiday is special to people in America for many different reasons. Those reasons may include family, country, food, or several days off during the week. But for the church a day of Thanksgiving set aside during the week should be a significant time to recount the wonders of God. But recounting the wonders of God may take some preparation for the average church goers in America.
The reason being is that the average American church goers are not focused on wonders. If you ask most people in the church, who are busy with family, jobs, activities and church, what they are thankful for, the response is, “I am thankful to have made it through the week.” There is not much time to contemplate the wonders of God or there is not much time taken to think on the wonders of God. But taking time at a special time of year like Thanksgiving to think on the wonders of God may do more than provide for a special time of thanksgiving, it may have a transforming affect on average church goers, turning us from ungrateful to thankful.
Let’s consider the wondrous things God does in the first heavens. Elihu says to Job, 11He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.12They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. 13Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. (Job 37:11-13) God is in the heavens doing all his pleasure (Ps.115:3) taking the stores of his own water sources and loading them into thick clouds that are holding tanks. He loads them out of the waters in the earth. He takes the water out of seas by evaporation. The salt stays behind and what was fluid flies off from the waters in vapor that is lighter than the atmosphere so it can go up and load into clouds. The vapors condense through the forming of tiny dust particles forming clouds loaded with water. He then directs them around the heavens at his pleasure while they obey his direction like a company of choreographed dancers in all their glory.
These clouds of water then clash together in the heavens sending forth lighting at his will. Lightening is an atmospheric charge that is explained by various theories. But we do not know how it occurs. However we do know there are more than 16 million lightening storms in the world each year, a lightening bolt can reach temperatures of more than 54,000 degrees and travel at 22,000 mph. Lightening is not a wonder of science it is a display of God’s wondrous work. He brings them out of the clouds like clashing cymbals sending forth majestic light and fearful sounds. They are like a well tuned orchestra displaying a symphony of perfect sounds in the midst of an array of a perfectly engineered light display. And man can only wonder at this display of unfathomable judgments.
He commands them for correction, land and love and they act at his command. If he pours forth an inch of rain on one square mile of land he gives forth 17,377,536 gallons of water weighing 144,735,360 pounds. And when he sends these drops forth sometimes they are big enough to lay down the plants in a field or flood the field and sometimes they are small enough to gently wet the leaves and fall into the ground to nourish the roots. Some rains sweep away land, animals and people and some fill water tanks for drinking and cooking. He pours it how as he wills. Some lightening strikes fear as it claims a life or burns a home, some strikes ignite a forest burning and clearing to purify the land, and some leaves a person in awe and wonder at it’s beauty. As Elihu says to Job after consideration of these wondrous things God does, 14"Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.(Job.37:14).
A church that shows forth a form of godliness but denies it’s power is an ungrateful church (2Tim.3:2,5). But a church that is looking on the wondrous things that God is doing everyday in things like rain and lightening and the orchestration of clouds she will respond with awe and thanksgiving before God who does all his pleasure for his glory and the good of his creatures. Whether it be in God’s general revelation or his special revelation let us not hide from ourselves or one another the wondrous things that God is doing in his creation, providence and redemption. Then we will come into his presence together with thanksgiving. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.(Ps.78:4)
The reason being is that the average American church goers are not focused on wonders. If you ask most people in the church, who are busy with family, jobs, activities and church, what they are thankful for, the response is, “I am thankful to have made it through the week.” There is not much time to contemplate the wonders of God or there is not much time taken to think on the wonders of God. But taking time at a special time of year like Thanksgiving to think on the wonders of God may do more than provide for a special time of thanksgiving, it may have a transforming affect on average church goers, turning us from ungrateful to thankful.
Let’s consider the wondrous things God does in the first heavens. Elihu says to Job, 11He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.12They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. 13Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen. (Job 37:11-13) God is in the heavens doing all his pleasure (Ps.115:3) taking the stores of his own water sources and loading them into thick clouds that are holding tanks. He loads them out of the waters in the earth. He takes the water out of seas by evaporation. The salt stays behind and what was fluid flies off from the waters in vapor that is lighter than the atmosphere so it can go up and load into clouds. The vapors condense through the forming of tiny dust particles forming clouds loaded with water. He then directs them around the heavens at his pleasure while they obey his direction like a company of choreographed dancers in all their glory.
These clouds of water then clash together in the heavens sending forth lighting at his will. Lightening is an atmospheric charge that is explained by various theories. But we do not know how it occurs. However we do know there are more than 16 million lightening storms in the world each year, a lightening bolt can reach temperatures of more than 54,000 degrees and travel at 22,000 mph. Lightening is not a wonder of science it is a display of God’s wondrous work. He brings them out of the clouds like clashing cymbals sending forth majestic light and fearful sounds. They are like a well tuned orchestra displaying a symphony of perfect sounds in the midst of an array of a perfectly engineered light display. And man can only wonder at this display of unfathomable judgments.
He commands them for correction, land and love and they act at his command. If he pours forth an inch of rain on one square mile of land he gives forth 17,377,536 gallons of water weighing 144,735,360 pounds. And when he sends these drops forth sometimes they are big enough to lay down the plants in a field or flood the field and sometimes they are small enough to gently wet the leaves and fall into the ground to nourish the roots. Some rains sweep away land, animals and people and some fill water tanks for drinking and cooking. He pours it how as he wills. Some lightening strikes fear as it claims a life or burns a home, some strikes ignite a forest burning and clearing to purify the land, and some leaves a person in awe and wonder at it’s beauty. As Elihu says to Job after consideration of these wondrous things God does, 14"Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.(Job.37:14).
A church that shows forth a form of godliness but denies it’s power is an ungrateful church (2Tim.3:2,5). But a church that is looking on the wondrous things that God is doing everyday in things like rain and lightening and the orchestration of clouds she will respond with awe and thanksgiving before God who does all his pleasure for his glory and the good of his creatures. Whether it be in God’s general revelation or his special revelation let us not hide from ourselves or one another the wondrous things that God is doing in his creation, providence and redemption. Then we will come into his presence together with thanksgiving. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.(Ps.78:4)
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Ready for Good Work
How is God who is the gospel glorified by his church? How does the church beautify the God who is the gospel? God can not be made more glorious by his church. The church cannot add beauty or glory to God. He is infinitely glorious in the fullness of triune nature. But the church can in knowing and enjoying the glory of God revealed in the gospel show forth that glory in what she wears by her life.
In Titus 3:1b-2 Paul tells the young pastor what should adorn the church as she lives in the beauty of God in the gospel. She should be ready for every good work. The good work that the church is re-created in the image of Jesus for are works that are prepared beforehand (Eph.2:10) that she must be ready concerning. Good work is not avoided. In the church there can be no giving of the eyes to much sleep or folding of the hands for to much rest (Pr.6:4,10). This kind of life will bring the church to poverty not adorning the glorious God of the gospel. The church beautifies the God of the gospel when she is like her Lord who found it his food to be doing the will of the Father who sent him by accomplishing his work (Jn.4:34). That work may be at home, toward his church, or in the community toward her neighbors but it is work we are not seeking to avoid but are ready concerning. And that work is good because God has prepared it for us and in doing it for his glory by depending on his grace and being obedient to his will, it adorns his glory. Good work is not defined culturally but Biblically and providentially. Be ready.
In this text Paul tells us what some of the good work that adorns the gospel of God is as it is exercised toward those around us. First of all he says to speak evil of no one. We are not to blaspheme or slander someone with our words. We are not to speak to others in a false way about someone so as to injure their name or reputation. Therefore the good work is to speak of someone in a manner that upholds their name and reputation truthfully. The church should speak about others not seeking to injure but to have compassion on their person and their life. Secondly, he says to avoid quarrelling. We are not to fight but rather strive for peace with everyone (Heb.12:14). The church should avoid looking for a fight, or being contentious. There are those who will seek to get into foolish arguments with those in the church and the church must be careful not to think that God is glorified by besting someone into the kingdom through a well fought argument. The third work the church must be ready for is to be gentle. It is gentleness that is the beauty of God’s glory in Christ (Mt.11:29), and that gentle forbearing life of Christ through the church is the good work that adorns his beauty. Gentleness is born out of strength. Paul tells Timothy that he has not received a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind (2Tim.1:7). It is through the strength of God in the gospel that we have received power in the Holy Spirit and the same power that raised Christ from the dead is toward us (Eph.1:19), but that power is for the fruit of gentleness (Gal.5:23). Gentleness is necessary where there is so much brokenness. The last work mentioned that the church must be ready for is to show perfect courtesy toward all people. Courtesy is often translated meekness. It is used to describe a quality of life toward others in the midst of difficult circumstances. In this text Paul follows these instructions in verse 3 reminding us of the difficult circumstances we lived in because of sin before we shared in the gospel of God through his mercies, For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another (3:3). Therefore he is telling us that this is the difficult circumstances we should see people living in because of sin and we should be ready to be patient, meek, courteous and mild toward them as we await God’s mercy to reach them. A child will say something they should not say and perfect courtesy will not reprimand them publicly but with meekness and gentleness take them aside and show them God’s mercy through truth toward their sin. In this way the mother adorns the gospel of God.
Therefore the church beautifies the God of the gospel when she is ready for and living in the good works that are prepared for her in Christ and lived through the Spirit. But what does God provide to fuel the faith for these good works? Paul gives us this answer in the explanation of the beautiful God of the gospel and its resulting hope, 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Tit.3:4-7). Be ready for every good work as you hope in the knowledge and enjoyment of the glorious God of the gospel as he is offered you in life forevermore through Christ Jesus.
In Titus 3:1b-2 Paul tells the young pastor what should adorn the church as she lives in the beauty of God in the gospel. She should be ready for every good work. The good work that the church is re-created in the image of Jesus for are works that are prepared beforehand (Eph.2:10) that she must be ready concerning. Good work is not avoided. In the church there can be no giving of the eyes to much sleep or folding of the hands for to much rest (Pr.6:4,10). This kind of life will bring the church to poverty not adorning the glorious God of the gospel. The church beautifies the God of the gospel when she is like her Lord who found it his food to be doing the will of the Father who sent him by accomplishing his work (Jn.4:34). That work may be at home, toward his church, or in the community toward her neighbors but it is work we are not seeking to avoid but are ready concerning. And that work is good because God has prepared it for us and in doing it for his glory by depending on his grace and being obedient to his will, it adorns his glory. Good work is not defined culturally but Biblically and providentially. Be ready.
In this text Paul tells us what some of the good work that adorns the gospel of God is as it is exercised toward those around us. First of all he says to speak evil of no one. We are not to blaspheme or slander someone with our words. We are not to speak to others in a false way about someone so as to injure their name or reputation. Therefore the good work is to speak of someone in a manner that upholds their name and reputation truthfully. The church should speak about others not seeking to injure but to have compassion on their person and their life. Secondly, he says to avoid quarrelling. We are not to fight but rather strive for peace with everyone (Heb.12:14). The church should avoid looking for a fight, or being contentious. There are those who will seek to get into foolish arguments with those in the church and the church must be careful not to think that God is glorified by besting someone into the kingdom through a well fought argument. The third work the church must be ready for is to be gentle. It is gentleness that is the beauty of God’s glory in Christ (Mt.11:29), and that gentle forbearing life of Christ through the church is the good work that adorns his beauty. Gentleness is born out of strength. Paul tells Timothy that he has not received a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind (2Tim.1:7). It is through the strength of God in the gospel that we have received power in the Holy Spirit and the same power that raised Christ from the dead is toward us (Eph.1:19), but that power is for the fruit of gentleness (Gal.5:23). Gentleness is necessary where there is so much brokenness. The last work mentioned that the church must be ready for is to show perfect courtesy toward all people. Courtesy is often translated meekness. It is used to describe a quality of life toward others in the midst of difficult circumstances. In this text Paul follows these instructions in verse 3 reminding us of the difficult circumstances we lived in because of sin before we shared in the gospel of God through his mercies, For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another (3:3). Therefore he is telling us that this is the difficult circumstances we should see people living in because of sin and we should be ready to be patient, meek, courteous and mild toward them as we await God’s mercy to reach them. A child will say something they should not say and perfect courtesy will not reprimand them publicly but with meekness and gentleness take them aside and show them God’s mercy through truth toward their sin. In this way the mother adorns the gospel of God.
Therefore the church beautifies the God of the gospel when she is ready for and living in the good works that are prepared for her in Christ and lived through the Spirit. But what does God provide to fuel the faith for these good works? Paul gives us this answer in the explanation of the beautiful God of the gospel and its resulting hope, 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Tit.3:4-7). Be ready for every good work as you hope in the knowledge and enjoyment of the glorious God of the gospel as he is offered you in life forevermore through Christ Jesus.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Sola Scriptura - Sufficiency of Scripture
We often wonder if we have enough. I was recently working on a project at home. I made the plans, calculated the materials and made the purchase. But as I was making the purchase I was aware of a constant nagging question in my mind, “Is this going to be enough?” This nagging question was legitimate based upon past experiences. In the past I had projects, made plans, calculated the materials, made the purchase and gone to work on the project only to realize in the middle or at the end I did not have enough to finish. And then there is that time wasting trip back to the store that inevitably lengthens the time of the project. When we wonder if we have enough we are dealing with the issue of sufficiency.
The issue of sufficiency is also a matter of life and death. How do we know we have sufficient authority to live life for the glory of God? And when it comes to death how do we know we have sufficient authority to assure us of eternal life beyond the grave? These are questions that every man, woman and child should be wrestling with because we are all created for the glory of God and we will all face death and an eternal existence of life or death.
The apostle Paul wrote concerning this sufficient authority to his son in the faith Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15-17. Paul first of all tells him that the Scriptures are the sufficient authority to assure him of eternal life beyond the grave. He says in verse 15 and 16, “and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God…” Timothy had been taught from the “sacred writings”. This phrase refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. He had been taught these by Paul, but also his mother and grandmother. It was the Scripture or the “breathed out” Word of God that was God’s sufficient means to bring Timothy to salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. The Scripture is from God and authoritative and because it is from God it is his sufficient source for the certainty of his children’s salvation. It is able to make them wise and understanding as to the way of God’s salvation for them in Christ. Where there is so much uncertainty inside and outside the church as to how many ways there are to God, in the Scripture we read the only sufficient answer. In Jn.14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Scripture is from God and sufficient to make us certain of God’s salvation for us in Christ Jesus.
We also see in this text that the Scriptures are the sufficient and final judge in the matter of faith and life. Timothy was living in the midst of ungodliness in the context of the church (2Tim.3:1-9). In that situation God is the judge and he judges according to his sufficient Word. Paul did not command Timothy to think through their lives and his life and try to determine which is best way, so that he may pass judgment on one way of life and live in the other. In the midst of this ungodliness he was to follow Paul’s example of godliness and expect suffering (3:12). And while he did this he was to preach God’s Word (2Tim.4:1-2). It is God’s breathed out word that is the sufficient and final judge in matters of faith and life. The church will be among a form of godliness that denies it’s power (3:5) within the church and God has given her his sufficient word to be the final judge. If there is uncertainty about what you must believe to be a Christian or if there are questions about what we must believe and do as those who are alive in Christ and following him by faith through the Spirit, then God’s Word is the sufficient and final judge. In a church and culture that does not think anyone should judge or be judged we have great uncertainty. But there is great certainty where God’s Word is trusted as the sufficient and final judge in the matter of faith and life.
The last thing Paul tells Timothy about the sufficiency of God’s Word is that it is sufficient for a life of good works that flow out of his salvation for us in Christ Jesus. In verse 16 and 17 he says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” God’s salvation for his children leads to good works or fruit bearing for his glory (Mt.13:23; Jn.15:8). We read in Ephesians 2:10, “10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” But how do we know we have enough for these works or to know what the works and the fruit looks like? The Word of God is “profitable” to this end. It is the sufficient truth of God given to his church to lead her in his pleasure.
The Word of God given us by God through the prophets and apostles is his sufficient Word for faith and life and it is the basis of the churches certainty that we may believe and live for his glory.
The issue of sufficiency is also a matter of life and death. How do we know we have sufficient authority to live life for the glory of God? And when it comes to death how do we know we have sufficient authority to assure us of eternal life beyond the grave? These are questions that every man, woman and child should be wrestling with because we are all created for the glory of God and we will all face death and an eternal existence of life or death.
The apostle Paul wrote concerning this sufficient authority to his son in the faith Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15-17. Paul first of all tells him that the Scriptures are the sufficient authority to assure him of eternal life beyond the grave. He says in verse 15 and 16, “and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God…” Timothy had been taught from the “sacred writings”. This phrase refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. He had been taught these by Paul, but also his mother and grandmother. It was the Scripture or the “breathed out” Word of God that was God’s sufficient means to bring Timothy to salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. The Scripture is from God and authoritative and because it is from God it is his sufficient source for the certainty of his children’s salvation. It is able to make them wise and understanding as to the way of God’s salvation for them in Christ. Where there is so much uncertainty inside and outside the church as to how many ways there are to God, in the Scripture we read the only sufficient answer. In Jn.14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Scripture is from God and sufficient to make us certain of God’s salvation for us in Christ Jesus.
We also see in this text that the Scriptures are the sufficient and final judge in the matter of faith and life. Timothy was living in the midst of ungodliness in the context of the church (2Tim.3:1-9). In that situation God is the judge and he judges according to his sufficient Word. Paul did not command Timothy to think through their lives and his life and try to determine which is best way, so that he may pass judgment on one way of life and live in the other. In the midst of this ungodliness he was to follow Paul’s example of godliness and expect suffering (3:12). And while he did this he was to preach God’s Word (2Tim.4:1-2). It is God’s breathed out word that is the sufficient and final judge in matters of faith and life. The church will be among a form of godliness that denies it’s power (3:5) within the church and God has given her his sufficient word to be the final judge. If there is uncertainty about what you must believe to be a Christian or if there are questions about what we must believe and do as those who are alive in Christ and following him by faith through the Spirit, then God’s Word is the sufficient and final judge. In a church and culture that does not think anyone should judge or be judged we have great uncertainty. But there is great certainty where God’s Word is trusted as the sufficient and final judge in the matter of faith and life.
The last thing Paul tells Timothy about the sufficiency of God’s Word is that it is sufficient for a life of good works that flow out of his salvation for us in Christ Jesus. In verse 16 and 17 he says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” God’s salvation for his children leads to good works or fruit bearing for his glory (Mt.13:23; Jn.15:8). We read in Ephesians 2:10, “10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” But how do we know we have enough for these works or to know what the works and the fruit looks like? The Word of God is “profitable” to this end. It is the sufficient truth of God given to his church to lead her in his pleasure.
The Word of God given us by God through the prophets and apostles is his sufficient Word for faith and life and it is the basis of the churches certainty that we may believe and live for his glory.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Sola Scriptura - Authority of Scripture
There was an advertisement for a brokerage firm some years ago that said, “When E.F. Hutton speaks people listen.” In those television adds you would see and hear people walking about being busy with their live and a man would speak and everyone would stop and listen. In this way they were showing that E. F. Hutton was the authority on investments. This is how we often think of authority. We say someone is an authority who is an expert in the field. We say a referee is an authority because he enforces the rules of the game. But the Christian concept of authority is different from these views of authority. In both cases their authority is derived from something they represent.
The Christian is met with a superior and sovereign authority in the only true and living God who is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And his authority is revealed to us in his expired or breathed out Word. God’s authority is revealed to us because it is given us in his Word. Therefore the Word of God is authoritative because it is God speaking to us. The Scriptures claim this authority in several repeated phrases in Scripture. “It is written” is used 46 times. “Scripture says” is used seven times. “According to the Scriptures” is used three times. And Jesus uses the phrase, “the law and the prophets” 38 times. In the words of Augustine, “What Scripture says, God says.” The Scriptures have their origin in the will of God and not the opinion or rational thinking of man. They have authority that man must submit to. Paul says to the Corinthian church, “What I am writing to you is the Lord’s command” (1Cor.14:37). So the writings of the prophets and apostles are the authoritative foundation stones of the church (Eph.2:20). The authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is given us in the Scriptures. When we say Jesus is our Lord then we must have a belief in and submission to the authority of the Scriptures. As one theologian says, “It (the authority which comes from the Bible) calls for instant and unqualified acceptance of every statement of the Bible on the part of man. To ignore, disregard, or reject any doctrine of the Bible is rebellion against God’s authority, and will not go unpunished.” (Edward W.A. Koehler) The authority of the Scriptures is found in the sovereign God who breathed them out. “The voice of Scripture is the voice of God.” (John Armstrong).
Let me illustrate this way. If a parent commands a child to do something and the child responds by saying, “Why must I do this?”, they are questioning the parents authority. If the parent responds by saying, “Because I said so”, then they have taken the supreme place of authority in the child’s life. The authority of the parent over the child is a derived and temporary authority. Therefore any authority the parent exercises over the child should point the child to their ultimate authority who is God who directs them through his Word. Therefore the proper response of the parent is not, “Because I said so”, but “Because God says so and you need to learn to trust and obey God.” God says, “Children obey your parents” and this is the final authority.
Therefore when Abraham repeatedly said to the rich man in Jesus’ story (Lk.16:19-31), “They have Moses and the prophets”, he was saying what Paul said about the weapons of our spiritual warfare. His and other Jews lives were set against the knowledge of God and his pleasure. Therefore they needed the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17) to demolish those strongholds, arguments and pretensions that were set up (2Cor.10:3-6) in that money promised a greater joy than God in Christ. And that walking over your neighbor to pursue that promise was greater than giving one’s neighbor the glory of God in Christ through love. But how does God through his Word take this place of authority in our lives. The kind of authority that is embraced, believed and loved?
The Scripture has a self testimony because it is God breathed and the Holy Spirit operates through that testimony in the life of Christian. Scripture itself bears witness to its own divine authority by the working power of the Holy Spirit. This is what is called the internal witness of the Spirit. The witness of the Spirit is not present in human emotions that cause you to choose God. The Spirit operates through the Word to believe, willfully embrace and act on God’s authoritative Word. This is what Paul says in 1Thessalonians 2:13, “13And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” Notice in this passage that the internal witness of the Spirit is tied to the gospel. The believer must believe in the death of Jesus Christ as a satisfaction for sin and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a justifying life. This must be the inner work of the Spirit that brings the witness of the Word to bear on the life of a true believer. If this is not present then the Word is not working authoritatively in the life. What the Scripture says, God says, and this authoritative Word of God working through the Spirit of God is what enables his church to submit to her Lord.
God has spoken and is speaking through his Word are you listening, trusting, submitting and obeying under his authority?
The Christian is met with a superior and sovereign authority in the only true and living God who is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And his authority is revealed to us in his expired or breathed out Word. God’s authority is revealed to us because it is given us in his Word. Therefore the Word of God is authoritative because it is God speaking to us. The Scriptures claim this authority in several repeated phrases in Scripture. “It is written” is used 46 times. “Scripture says” is used seven times. “According to the Scriptures” is used three times. And Jesus uses the phrase, “the law and the prophets” 38 times. In the words of Augustine, “What Scripture says, God says.” The Scriptures have their origin in the will of God and not the opinion or rational thinking of man. They have authority that man must submit to. Paul says to the Corinthian church, “What I am writing to you is the Lord’s command” (1Cor.14:37). So the writings of the prophets and apostles are the authoritative foundation stones of the church (Eph.2:20). The authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is given us in the Scriptures. When we say Jesus is our Lord then we must have a belief in and submission to the authority of the Scriptures. As one theologian says, “It (the authority which comes from the Bible) calls for instant and unqualified acceptance of every statement of the Bible on the part of man. To ignore, disregard, or reject any doctrine of the Bible is rebellion against God’s authority, and will not go unpunished.” (Edward W.A. Koehler) The authority of the Scriptures is found in the sovereign God who breathed them out. “The voice of Scripture is the voice of God.” (John Armstrong).
Let me illustrate this way. If a parent commands a child to do something and the child responds by saying, “Why must I do this?”, they are questioning the parents authority. If the parent responds by saying, “Because I said so”, then they have taken the supreme place of authority in the child’s life. The authority of the parent over the child is a derived and temporary authority. Therefore any authority the parent exercises over the child should point the child to their ultimate authority who is God who directs them through his Word. Therefore the proper response of the parent is not, “Because I said so”, but “Because God says so and you need to learn to trust and obey God.” God says, “Children obey your parents” and this is the final authority.
Therefore when Abraham repeatedly said to the rich man in Jesus’ story (Lk.16:19-31), “They have Moses and the prophets”, he was saying what Paul said about the weapons of our spiritual warfare. His and other Jews lives were set against the knowledge of God and his pleasure. Therefore they needed the sword of the Spirit (Eph.6:17) to demolish those strongholds, arguments and pretensions that were set up (2Cor.10:3-6) in that money promised a greater joy than God in Christ. And that walking over your neighbor to pursue that promise was greater than giving one’s neighbor the glory of God in Christ through love. But how does God through his Word take this place of authority in our lives. The kind of authority that is embraced, believed and loved?
The Scripture has a self testimony because it is God breathed and the Holy Spirit operates through that testimony in the life of Christian. Scripture itself bears witness to its own divine authority by the working power of the Holy Spirit. This is what is called the internal witness of the Spirit. The witness of the Spirit is not present in human emotions that cause you to choose God. The Spirit operates through the Word to believe, willfully embrace and act on God’s authoritative Word. This is what Paul says in 1Thessalonians 2:13, “13And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” Notice in this passage that the internal witness of the Spirit is tied to the gospel. The believer must believe in the death of Jesus Christ as a satisfaction for sin and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a justifying life. This must be the inner work of the Spirit that brings the witness of the Word to bear on the life of a true believer. If this is not present then the Word is not working authoritatively in the life. What the Scripture says, God says, and this authoritative Word of God working through the Spirit of God is what enables his church to submit to her Lord.
God has spoken and is speaking through his Word are you listening, trusting, submitting and obeying under his authority?
Friday, October 15, 2010
Faith, Engendered or Hindered
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
John 5:44
Belief is hindered by seeking glory from man. There is only one glory that is true glory, but there are many false glories. There is the false glory that comes from man. This is a glory that fears man for what glory he may receive from him. It may be in knowing him and being associated with him, even if it be in name only. This is the love of praise and approval from man. This imposter glory posts something on a blog or facebook that makes a person proud of the response they get from others or to know that others are paying attention to them or what they have said. This seeking of glory from mortal, limited, weak and sinful man is a false glory that does not satisfy. It is a false glory because it is not weighty. It is a light weight glory that is like the flower of the field. It blooms and blossoms red but fades quickly into dried up browns that loose their glory. The glory of man is a light weight glory because it is here a moment and then gone, it seems rock solid in promising joy but it quickly returns to the dust. Man was not made to be a vessel for providing the glory we seek. Man was made for a weighty glory that is outside of himself that he needs.
Man’s will must be changed to seek the weight of God’s glory. His will must be changed to seek and delight in what truly gratifies, the only God as he reveals himself. Man is a god we seek glory from in our sin. God is the only God we seek glory from in his grace and truth in Jesus Christ. This is the only true glory we were made for, to be trusting in God in Jesus Christ as he reveals himself in the Scriptures as our only real and lasting treasure and pleasure. This seeking of glory from the immortal, unlimited, powerful and holy triune God is a true glory that satisfies the souls of men. God’s glory is weighty. It is like the sun rising at dawn with all its glorious light to hide the lesser glories of the night sky. The glory of God in Christ is a rock solid eternal glory promising and providing joy for all who seek him. His glory is a true glory that when sought with a true heart of faith engenders greater belief. But how do you seek his glory?
We must come to Christ at the cross repenting of a will that seeks man’s glory and by faith seek his glory through the grace and truth of his revealed person and will in the Scriptures. His glory is known and enjoyed where he is being known and enjoyed in a growing knowledge of who he is and a growing life of doing his pleasure each day. His glory is known through his grace, and we attend to that grace through faith believing his glory is a greater treasure than all that man could ever offer. In this way man becomes one we serve the glory of God to through our lives of faith and repentance, instead of one we try to extract glory out of for ourselves. In this way faith is engendered and not hindered.
John 5:44
Belief is hindered by seeking glory from man. There is only one glory that is true glory, but there are many false glories. There is the false glory that comes from man. This is a glory that fears man for what glory he may receive from him. It may be in knowing him and being associated with him, even if it be in name only. This is the love of praise and approval from man. This imposter glory posts something on a blog or facebook that makes a person proud of the response they get from others or to know that others are paying attention to them or what they have said. This seeking of glory from mortal, limited, weak and sinful man is a false glory that does not satisfy. It is a false glory because it is not weighty. It is a light weight glory that is like the flower of the field. It blooms and blossoms red but fades quickly into dried up browns that loose their glory. The glory of man is a light weight glory because it is here a moment and then gone, it seems rock solid in promising joy but it quickly returns to the dust. Man was not made to be a vessel for providing the glory we seek. Man was made for a weighty glory that is outside of himself that he needs.
Man’s will must be changed to seek the weight of God’s glory. His will must be changed to seek and delight in what truly gratifies, the only God as he reveals himself. Man is a god we seek glory from in our sin. God is the only God we seek glory from in his grace and truth in Jesus Christ. This is the only true glory we were made for, to be trusting in God in Jesus Christ as he reveals himself in the Scriptures as our only real and lasting treasure and pleasure. This seeking of glory from the immortal, unlimited, powerful and holy triune God is a true glory that satisfies the souls of men. God’s glory is weighty. It is like the sun rising at dawn with all its glorious light to hide the lesser glories of the night sky. The glory of God in Christ is a rock solid eternal glory promising and providing joy for all who seek him. His glory is a true glory that when sought with a true heart of faith engenders greater belief. But how do you seek his glory?
We must come to Christ at the cross repenting of a will that seeks man’s glory and by faith seek his glory through the grace and truth of his revealed person and will in the Scriptures. His glory is known and enjoyed where he is being known and enjoyed in a growing knowledge of who he is and a growing life of doing his pleasure each day. His glory is known through his grace, and we attend to that grace through faith believing his glory is a greater treasure than all that man could ever offer. In this way man becomes one we serve the glory of God to through our lives of faith and repentance, instead of one we try to extract glory out of for ourselves. In this way faith is engendered and not hindered.
Helpful Thoughts from Reading This Week
John Calvin on the Necessity of Scripture...Institutes Book I. Chapter VI.3; "Without Scripture We Fall Into Error"
"Suppose we ponder how slippery the fall of the human mind into forgetfulness of God, how great the tendency to every kind of error, how great the lust to fashion constantly new and artificial religions. Then we may perceive how necessary was such written proof of the heavenly doctrine, that it should neither perish through forgetfulness nor vanish through error nor be corrupted by the audacity of men. It is therefore clear that God has provided the assistance of the Word for the sake of all those to whom he has pleased to give useful instruction because he foresaw that his likeness imprinted upon the most beautiful form of the universe would be insufficiently effective.... For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine contenance, which even the apostle calls "unapproachable" (1Tim.6:16), is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word; so that it is better to limp along this path that to dash with all speed outside of it...For errors can never be uprooted from human hearts until true knowledge of God is planted therein."
Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment; Chapter 2 pg.44; "The Mystery of Contentment"
"The peace of God shall keep you, and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil.4:7,9). Here is what I would observe from this text, that the peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart except it may have the God of that peace. A carnal heart could be satisfied if he might but have outward peace, though it is not the peace of God; peace in the state, and in his trading, would satisfy him. But mark how a godly heart goes beyond a carnal. All outward peace is not enough; I must have the peace of God. But suppose you have the peace of God, Will that not quiet you? No, I must have the God of peace; as the peace of God so the God of peace. That is, I must enjoy that God who gives me the peace; I must have the Cause as well as the effect. I must see from when my peace comes, and enjoy the Fountain of my peace, as well as the stream of my peace. And so in other mercies: have I health from God? I must have the God of my health to be my portion, or else I am not satisfied. It is not life, but the God of my life; it is not riches, but the God of those riches, that I must have, the God of my preservation, as well as my preservation."
Keep Reading...
"Suppose we ponder how slippery the fall of the human mind into forgetfulness of God, how great the tendency to every kind of error, how great the lust to fashion constantly new and artificial religions. Then we may perceive how necessary was such written proof of the heavenly doctrine, that it should neither perish through forgetfulness nor vanish through error nor be corrupted by the audacity of men. It is therefore clear that God has provided the assistance of the Word for the sake of all those to whom he has pleased to give useful instruction because he foresaw that his likeness imprinted upon the most beautiful form of the universe would be insufficiently effective.... For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine contenance, which even the apostle calls "unapproachable" (1Tim.6:16), is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word; so that it is better to limp along this path that to dash with all speed outside of it...For errors can never be uprooted from human hearts until true knowledge of God is planted therein."
Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment; Chapter 2 pg.44; "The Mystery of Contentment"
"The peace of God shall keep you, and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil.4:7,9). Here is what I would observe from this text, that the peace of God is not enough to a gracious heart except it may have the God of that peace. A carnal heart could be satisfied if he might but have outward peace, though it is not the peace of God; peace in the state, and in his trading, would satisfy him. But mark how a godly heart goes beyond a carnal. All outward peace is not enough; I must have the peace of God. But suppose you have the peace of God, Will that not quiet you? No, I must have the God of peace; as the peace of God so the God of peace. That is, I must enjoy that God who gives me the peace; I must have the Cause as well as the effect. I must see from when my peace comes, and enjoy the Fountain of my peace, as well as the stream of my peace. And so in other mercies: have I health from God? I must have the God of my health to be my portion, or else I am not satisfied. It is not life, but the God of my life; it is not riches, but the God of those riches, that I must have, the God of my preservation, as well as my preservation."
Keep Reading...
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Scripture, Necessary or Important
The Scriptures, are they necessary or merely important? This past Lord’s Day I preached on the necessity of Scripture from Romans 10:12-17. In that sermon we discovered the Scriptures are necessary to make one wise unto salvation, for the churches growth in that salvation, and a continued understanding of and life in the way of God’s pleasure. Therefore the Scriptures are not just important; they are necessary, so necessary that the church cannot exist without them. God is not bound to the Scriptures but he has bound his church to them (Francis Turretin). I encourage you to connect to the link to listen to this first sermon in our series, “Sola Scriptura: The Necessity of Scripture; Why Do We Need the Bible.”
We must reckon with our own minds and hearts in regard to the necessity of Scripture. Do we treat the Bible each day and week of our lives as though it is just important or absolutely necessary to our lives in Christ? In the last words of Moses to the people of Israel God speaks clearly of their need to treat his Word as necessary. He says to them in Deuteronomy 8:3, “3And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The life of God that keeps the souls of men alive in him is necessarily found in his Word. He gives life and sustains life through the means of his Word. He says much later in the book, "Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." (Deut.32:46-47). Here God tells us that his Words are not empty. They are full of the grace of life and they are necessary for God’s people to live upon forever. Is your mind and heart fixed by faith on the necessity of sitting at the Lord’s feet to be fed by him through his Word? The church is dying where the necessary Word of God is marginalized into a place of mere importance or unimportance.
Here are 7 reasons from Psalm 119 for you to consider why the Scriptures are necessary:
1. The Word is necessary for our joy or blessedness in God. "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!" v.1
2. The Word is necessary for a diligent faith in God’s pleasure. "You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently." v.4
3. The Word is necessary to the end for which you were created, to praise God. "I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules." v.7
4. The Word in the heart is necessary to protect the life from sin. "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." v.11
5. The Word is necessary to lift us up out of our flesh to his life. "My soul clings to the dust, give me life according to your word!" v.25
6. The Word is necessary for strength to not be overcome by sorrow, despair and depression. "My soul melts away for sorrow, strengthen me according to your word." v.28
7. The Word is necessary to protect against a self imploding, worldly life. "Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain." v.36
These 7 reasons only scratch the surface of the necessity of God’s Word for the churches salvation, growth in that salvation and continued understanding and life in the pleasure of God. There are many more you could list from this Psalm and the rest of Scripture.
The Word of God is more than important, it is necessary. May the church be reforming her life on this formative principle of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura.
We must reckon with our own minds and hearts in regard to the necessity of Scripture. Do we treat the Bible each day and week of our lives as though it is just important or absolutely necessary to our lives in Christ? In the last words of Moses to the people of Israel God speaks clearly of their need to treat his Word as necessary. He says to them in Deuteronomy 8:3, “3And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The life of God that keeps the souls of men alive in him is necessarily found in his Word. He gives life and sustains life through the means of his Word. He says much later in the book, "Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." (Deut.32:46-47). Here God tells us that his Words are not empty. They are full of the grace of life and they are necessary for God’s people to live upon forever. Is your mind and heart fixed by faith on the necessity of sitting at the Lord’s feet to be fed by him through his Word? The church is dying where the necessary Word of God is marginalized into a place of mere importance or unimportance.
Here are 7 reasons from Psalm 119 for you to consider why the Scriptures are necessary:
1. The Word is necessary for our joy or blessedness in God. "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!" v.1
2. The Word is necessary for a diligent faith in God’s pleasure. "You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently." v.4
3. The Word is necessary to the end for which you were created, to praise God. "I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules." v.7
4. The Word in the heart is necessary to protect the life from sin. "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." v.11
5. The Word is necessary to lift us up out of our flesh to his life. "My soul clings to the dust, give me life according to your word!" v.25
6. The Word is necessary for strength to not be overcome by sorrow, despair and depression. "My soul melts away for sorrow, strengthen me according to your word." v.28
7. The Word is necessary to protect against a self imploding, worldly life. "Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain." v.36
These 7 reasons only scratch the surface of the necessity of God’s Word for the churches salvation, growth in that salvation and continued understanding and life in the pleasure of God. There are many more you could list from this Psalm and the rest of Scripture.
The Word of God is more than important, it is necessary. May the church be reforming her life on this formative principle of the Reformation, Sola Scriptura.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sola Scriptura
“Unless I am convinced by Sacred Scripture or by evident reason, I will not recant. My conscience is held captive by the Word of God and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe.” These were the words spoken by Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521. He was on trial for his writings and doctrinal positions that put him in the position of being called a demon and a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church. It was Luther’s belief in the authority of the Scriptures that lead him to argue that the Pope and the church councils are able and in fact had erred. Therefore for Luther the church was not infallible in its interpretation of the Scriptures and its traditions set down according to those interpretations. This put him at odds with the church who believed that the Scriptures and the Roman Church were infallible sources of special revelation.
The dispute over sola Scriptura was a dispute over authority. Who had the authority to bind the conscience of believers in the church, was it the church and the Scriptures or the Scriptures alone? The reformers were not averse to recognizing God given authority in the church through her offices, creeds and confessions. But they saw these authorities as subordinate to God’s authority through his Word. And when the churches traditions, creeds, and confessions made demands on her people contrary to the authority of God’s Word then she needed reforming according to the Word. Only God who is infallible has the right to bind the consciences of his children in his church through his infallible Word alone. But even in our day the true doctrine of sola Scriptura is confused.
In our modern culture we have elevated the autonomous or individual reason to the place of an infallible authority. In the church it is common to believe that the Scriptures are the only “basis of authority”. In our “no creeds but Christ” church culture it is the autonomous reason that has taken the place of the Roman Catholic tradition. In the time of the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church believed that the infallible Scriptures and the infallible Pope and Church were the authority. But now the individual reason has taken the place of the church and Pope as an infallible source of authority. It says, “I am my own interpreter, I am my own authority based on what I believe the Scriptures say”. In this present climate change in the church it does not necessarily matter what you believe as long as you do not believe that I have to believe or interpret the Bible in the same way you do or according to a standard. This is why we have churches emerging that do not stress or even have church membership. Church membership infringes upon the individual. It causes the church to have to rule and teach authoritatively from a standard given them by God in subordination to the Scriptures.
In our modern church culture of “solo Scriptura” (the Scripture is the sole basis of authority) any God given authority in the church which is subordinate to the Scriptures is replaced by man’s own reason. In the time of the Reformation were Martin Luther and other reformers only studying the Bible? And were they only studying the Bible through their own thought lenses? When I was in graduate school taking a class in hermeneutics I was taught to come to the Bible with no preconceived notions or thoughts, no presuppositions about the Scripture I was studying. This teaching was borrowed from Lewis Sperry Chafer founder of Dallas Theological Seminary who said, “the very fact that I did not study a prescribed course in theology made it possible for me to approach the subject with an unprejudiced mind and to be concerned only with what the Bible actually teaches.” This is an approach resting on the infallibility of the individual in interpreting Scripture. Keith Mathison says, “Each of us comes to the Scripture with different presuppositions, blind spots, ignorance of important facts, and, most importantly, sinfulness. Because of this we each read things into Scripture that are not there and miss things in Scripture that are there.” Martin Luther and other reformers used by God in the 16th and 17th centuries did not interpret the Scriptures as the sole basis of authority. They recognized that though men and councils in the church could ere nonetheless they depended upon the creeds and confessions and writings of the church in the past. This is why when Charles of Germany handed down his decisions regarding Luther at the Diet of Worms he connected him with the teachings of the pre-reformers John Wycliffe, Jon Hus and the Waldensians. Luther was not original in his understandings and interpretations. In his debate with Johann Eck he quoted as much of Augustine and the church fathers as he did the Scriptures in defending his positions. The modern church must be careful that she does not abandon the ancient paths in the pursuit of the autonomous infallible self.
The modern church needs the authoritative Word that has produced creeds, confessions and writings that still guide her to this day. The Word of God alone can bind the consciences of God’s beloved church, but it is not the sole basis of authority. God has given his church fallible yet authoritative offices, creeds and confessions as subordinate to the Word of God. Yet the Scripture alone is the infallible, expired, special revelation of God which is the formal cause of the churches reformation then, now and forevermore. Ecclesia semper reformanda est.
The dispute over sola Scriptura was a dispute over authority. Who had the authority to bind the conscience of believers in the church, was it the church and the Scriptures or the Scriptures alone? The reformers were not averse to recognizing God given authority in the church through her offices, creeds and confessions. But they saw these authorities as subordinate to God’s authority through his Word. And when the churches traditions, creeds, and confessions made demands on her people contrary to the authority of God’s Word then she needed reforming according to the Word. Only God who is infallible has the right to bind the consciences of his children in his church through his infallible Word alone. But even in our day the true doctrine of sola Scriptura is confused.
In our modern culture we have elevated the autonomous or individual reason to the place of an infallible authority. In the church it is common to believe that the Scriptures are the only “basis of authority”. In our “no creeds but Christ” church culture it is the autonomous reason that has taken the place of the Roman Catholic tradition. In the time of the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church believed that the infallible Scriptures and the infallible Pope and Church were the authority. But now the individual reason has taken the place of the church and Pope as an infallible source of authority. It says, “I am my own interpreter, I am my own authority based on what I believe the Scriptures say”. In this present climate change in the church it does not necessarily matter what you believe as long as you do not believe that I have to believe or interpret the Bible in the same way you do or according to a standard. This is why we have churches emerging that do not stress or even have church membership. Church membership infringes upon the individual. It causes the church to have to rule and teach authoritatively from a standard given them by God in subordination to the Scriptures.
In our modern church culture of “solo Scriptura” (the Scripture is the sole basis of authority) any God given authority in the church which is subordinate to the Scriptures is replaced by man’s own reason. In the time of the Reformation were Martin Luther and other reformers only studying the Bible? And were they only studying the Bible through their own thought lenses? When I was in graduate school taking a class in hermeneutics I was taught to come to the Bible with no preconceived notions or thoughts, no presuppositions about the Scripture I was studying. This teaching was borrowed from Lewis Sperry Chafer founder of Dallas Theological Seminary who said, “the very fact that I did not study a prescribed course in theology made it possible for me to approach the subject with an unprejudiced mind and to be concerned only with what the Bible actually teaches.” This is an approach resting on the infallibility of the individual in interpreting Scripture. Keith Mathison says, “Each of us comes to the Scripture with different presuppositions, blind spots, ignorance of important facts, and, most importantly, sinfulness. Because of this we each read things into Scripture that are not there and miss things in Scripture that are there.” Martin Luther and other reformers used by God in the 16th and 17th centuries did not interpret the Scriptures as the sole basis of authority. They recognized that though men and councils in the church could ere nonetheless they depended upon the creeds and confessions and writings of the church in the past. This is why when Charles of Germany handed down his decisions regarding Luther at the Diet of Worms he connected him with the teachings of the pre-reformers John Wycliffe, Jon Hus and the Waldensians. Luther was not original in his understandings and interpretations. In his debate with Johann Eck he quoted as much of Augustine and the church fathers as he did the Scriptures in defending his positions. The modern church must be careful that she does not abandon the ancient paths in the pursuit of the autonomous infallible self.
The modern church needs the authoritative Word that has produced creeds, confessions and writings that still guide her to this day. The Word of God alone can bind the consciences of God’s beloved church, but it is not the sole basis of authority. God has given his church fallible yet authoritative offices, creeds and confessions as subordinate to the Word of God. Yet the Scripture alone is the infallible, expired, special revelation of God which is the formal cause of the churches reformation then, now and forevermore. Ecclesia semper reformanda est.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Beautiful Feet
Do you have beautiful feet? I am not talking about a nice shaped foot that has been gently cared for and nurtured by all the correct massages and lotions, pedicures and polish. No, I am speaking of the beautiful feet of those who preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Rom.10:15). Here he is quoting from Isaiah 52:7 which reads,
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
Those with beautiful feet are those who bring the glorious riches of God in the person, works and words of Jesus Christ. Their feet may be blistered and worn, but their news is beautiful and a precious ointment to the souls of those who hear by faith. For there are those who sit in the news of their misery and death, those who know only strife, discord, guilt and condemnation, those who know only tears, sorrow and darkness, and those whose god is the creature or the creation. But the one who comes by their feet to proclaim the sovereign reign and grace of God seen in Jesus Christ is an ambassador of joy and a steward of riches to those who sit in misplaced joy and sorrow.
How beautiful are your feet to those in your family, your neighborhood and your workplaces? How beautiful are your feet to those in your church? Those in the church are the stewards of the good news, the words of peace, the words of joy and happiness and the words of the salvation of her God who reigns.
There are many ways the church can publish the words of Christ to those around her. You can write a letter of this good news to one of your renewed friendships on facebook. You can give a good Christian book to someone in your family who may not know the way of Christ truly from the Scriptures. You can invite a friend, neighbor or work associate to church to hear the good news proclaimed. You can carry the good news of peace with God to your neighbor through a conversation over tea, dessert or supper. You can be used of God to take the good news to a people who have never heard as you walk to your prayer closet or board a plane to cross a culture to publish peace in Jesus Christ. The church must remember that “these boots were made for walkin”, but not like the popular song lyrics say, “for walkin all over you”. No the feet that go in the boots are beautiful when they bring the good news of peace where there is enmity, joy where there is sorrow and good news where there is only bad. The beautiful feet are those who treasure the truth of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ and spread the riches of that treasure to all God’s broken image bearers.
The apostle Paul says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Rom.10:15). Here he is quoting from Isaiah 52:7 which reads,
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
Those with beautiful feet are those who bring the glorious riches of God in the person, works and words of Jesus Christ. Their feet may be blistered and worn, but their news is beautiful and a precious ointment to the souls of those who hear by faith. For there are those who sit in the news of their misery and death, those who know only strife, discord, guilt and condemnation, those who know only tears, sorrow and darkness, and those whose god is the creature or the creation. But the one who comes by their feet to proclaim the sovereign reign and grace of God seen in Jesus Christ is an ambassador of joy and a steward of riches to those who sit in misplaced joy and sorrow.
How beautiful are your feet to those in your family, your neighborhood and your workplaces? How beautiful are your feet to those in your church? Those in the church are the stewards of the good news, the words of peace, the words of joy and happiness and the words of the salvation of her God who reigns.
There are many ways the church can publish the words of Christ to those around her. You can write a letter of this good news to one of your renewed friendships on facebook. You can give a good Christian book to someone in your family who may not know the way of Christ truly from the Scriptures. You can invite a friend, neighbor or work associate to church to hear the good news proclaimed. You can carry the good news of peace with God to your neighbor through a conversation over tea, dessert or supper. You can be used of God to take the good news to a people who have never heard as you walk to your prayer closet or board a plane to cross a culture to publish peace in Jesus Christ. The church must remember that “these boots were made for walkin”, but not like the popular song lyrics say, “for walkin all over you”. No the feet that go in the boots are beautiful when they bring the good news of peace where there is enmity, joy where there is sorrow and good news where there is only bad. The beautiful feet are those who treasure the truth of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ and spread the riches of that treasure to all God’s broken image bearers.
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Need to Read
There is a need to read. CNN reported this week that the Pew Forum conducted a 32 question religion quiz with 3,400 people living in America. In their findings they discovered that atheists and agnostics scored higher than evangelicals. Those in the “Bible belt” scored the lowest. The poll was certainly not exhaustive in its findings but it does represent what the church knows and those findings are not good. One conclusion is obvious; those who read did better than those who do not.
A 2004 NEA survey found that most adult Americans do not read one book a year. They found that the average 15-24 year old spends less than seven minutes a day reading leisurely. Another study found that 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college. 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book in 2007. Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines. The average American watching 4 hours of TV a week will spend 9 years of their life in front the TV by the age 65. The average American parent spends 3.5 minutes per week in meaning conversation with their children. The average American child watches 1,680 minutes per week watching television. People are reading less and watching more and knowing less.
When I first read George Orwell’s 1984 I feared what most young Americans feared living during the Cold War, Big Brother and oppression from without. But what I missed in that government education by day and TBS education by night was Aldous Huxley’s prophecy in Brave New World. Neil Postman puts it this way, “As he (Huxley) saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think…Orwell feared those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one to read one…Huxley feared that what we love would ruin us.” It appears that Huxley was on the road to right especially if we apply these thoughts to the church.
Does the church know what or how to think in this culture of amusements or is she sliding with the culture into the same ruin of passivity and egoism? I would argue that if you asked the “evangelicals” of those 3,400 polled by the Pew Forum on religious knowledge if they cared about the questions they were being asked the answer would have been, “No, what does it have to do with me.” The church does not know what she is laughing about and why she has stopped thinking. Therefore the following questions are necessary: How many hours a week is the average church member spending reading, hearing, praying and singing the Word of God? How many hours a week is the average church member spending in reading good Christian books and discussing them with other church goers?
David prays in Psalm 119:17, Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Life in the ways of God is through the transforming and renewing of the mind with the knowledge of God and his will (Rom.12:1-2). The turning away from worthless things and worthless thoughts happens in the context of treasuring the knowledge and will of God revealed through his Word. But it also occurs where the truth about God and his will is discovered in good Christian literature. This week I struggled with discouragement and was tempted to shrink back into passivity and egoism. But God through his Word studied, talked about, taught and written on my heart and the use of good Christian literature my mind and affections were renewed and transformed that I might live in his ways.
The apostle Paul uses the phrase, “Do you not know” thirteen times. Jesus is recorded as saying, “Have you not read” seven times, and “have you never read” three times in the gospels. The prophet Isaiah says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” (Isa.40:28) What are you knowing, what are you reading, what are you hearing read and discussing? It is the unsearchable knowledge and understanding of God that is for the shaping and imaging of the church for his glory The church must be attending to every opportunity to read the Scriptures, hear them read, taught, preached and participate in the discussion of them. The church must also be reading good Christian literature. By reading good Christian literature 15 minutes a day each church member could be reading 20 average Christian books a year. Tolle Lege, take up and read. There is a need to read.
A 2004 NEA survey found that most adult Americans do not read one book a year. They found that the average 15-24 year old spends less than seven minutes a day reading leisurely. Another study found that 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college. 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book in 2007. Each day in the U.S., people spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines. The average American watching 4 hours of TV a week will spend 9 years of their life in front the TV by the age 65. The average American parent spends 3.5 minutes per week in meaning conversation with their children. The average American child watches 1,680 minutes per week watching television. People are reading less and watching more and knowing less.
When I first read George Orwell’s 1984 I feared what most young Americans feared living during the Cold War, Big Brother and oppression from without. But what I missed in that government education by day and TBS education by night was Aldous Huxley’s prophecy in Brave New World. Neil Postman puts it this way, “As he (Huxley) saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think…Orwell feared those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one to read one…Huxley feared that what we love would ruin us.” It appears that Huxley was on the road to right especially if we apply these thoughts to the church.
Does the church know what or how to think in this culture of amusements or is she sliding with the culture into the same ruin of passivity and egoism? I would argue that if you asked the “evangelicals” of those 3,400 polled by the Pew Forum on religious knowledge if they cared about the questions they were being asked the answer would have been, “No, what does it have to do with me.” The church does not know what she is laughing about and why she has stopped thinking. Therefore the following questions are necessary: How many hours a week is the average church member spending reading, hearing, praying and singing the Word of God? How many hours a week is the average church member spending in reading good Christian books and discussing them with other church goers?
David prays in Psalm 119:17, Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Life in the ways of God is through the transforming and renewing of the mind with the knowledge of God and his will (Rom.12:1-2). The turning away from worthless things and worthless thoughts happens in the context of treasuring the knowledge and will of God revealed through his Word. But it also occurs where the truth about God and his will is discovered in good Christian literature. This week I struggled with discouragement and was tempted to shrink back into passivity and egoism. But God through his Word studied, talked about, taught and written on my heart and the use of good Christian literature my mind and affections were renewed and transformed that I might live in his ways.
The apostle Paul uses the phrase, “Do you not know” thirteen times. Jesus is recorded as saying, “Have you not read” seven times, and “have you never read” three times in the gospels. The prophet Isaiah says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” (Isa.40:28) What are you knowing, what are you reading, what are you hearing read and discussing? It is the unsearchable knowledge and understanding of God that is for the shaping and imaging of the church for his glory The church must be attending to every opportunity to read the Scriptures, hear them read, taught, preached and participate in the discussion of them. The church must also be reading good Christian literature. By reading good Christian literature 15 minutes a day each church member could be reading 20 average Christian books a year. Tolle Lege, take up and read. There is a need to read.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sexuality, Purity and Glory
Sex in marriage is necessary for purity and glory. In this statement I do not intend to separate purity from glory or glory from purity. The word “and” does not function in this sentence to separate these two ideas but to make them dependent upon one another.
We often focus on the necessity of sex in marriage as a protectorate against sexual immorality or impurity. We read in 1 Corinthians 7:2, “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” To “have” one’s own wife or husband is to be participating in the good gift of sex in the context of marriage. Therefore Paul seems to be saying that God has provided this gift to protect the church from sexual immorality. In other words if the wife and husband are satisfying one another in the joy of giving (1Cor.7:3-4) then the wife and husband will not be going outside of the marriage to satisfy their sexual desires. Paul also says, “ …but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self control.” (1Cor.7:5). Here again it seems that sex in the context of marriage, “come together again”, is necessary for purity, to protect one another from temptation toward sexual immorality. Therefore based on what Paul is saying here we instruct couples in the church to have sex in their marriage for the purpose of pursuing marital fidelity or purity. As the writer of Hebrews commands, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Heb.13:4) Sexual purity is necessary to see God and not suffer his wrath. Therefore the Scriptures teach us that sex in marriage is necessary for purity.
However, I do not think that the Scriptures are teaching us that sex in marriage is necessary for purity alone. Purity is not the end glory is. When purity is the end it drives sex in marriage out of the realm of heavenly glory into the realm of earthly duty. This thinking on purity without glory lends us toward asking questions like, “How many times a week should we be involved in sexual intimacy?” or “Should I give in every time he / she asks?” I am not against such questions but they tend to focus on sex in marriage as a duty we must fulfill for the husband or wife in order to keep them from impurity. We tend to separate sex in marriage from the glorious when we see purity and protection from impurity as the end. Therefore sex in marriage is necessary for purity and glory.
Glory is the end of purity and purity leads to glory. Why is Paul interested in sexual purity in the church in Corinth? Is he worried about unwanted pregnancies? Is he concerned about sexually transmitted diseases? Is he upset over the breakdown of the traditional family and the effect it will have on coming generations? Is he concerned about the prostitution in Corinth and the degradation that brings to the city and its people? Is he concerned about their reputation? What is Paul’s concern?
Paul is jealous for the glory of God and that the church would know and live in that glory. When Paul speaks against sexual immorality in chapter 6:12-20 he does so around the glory of the gospel. He tells them to flee sexual immorality in the glory of the resurrection (6:12-14), in the certainty of their union with Christ (6:15-17) and in the glory of redemption (6:18-20). Sexual purity is next to the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sexual purity in marriage is a metaphor for the purity and glory of God’s covenantal love to his own people (Ezek.16:1-14, 59-63; Hosea 2:14-20; 3; Song of Solomon; Eph.5:23-33). When a man who is united to Christ is brought together by God (Gen.2:22, 24; Mt.19:8) to a woman who is united to Christ there is a picture of God’s glory in Christ in the gospel. That man and that woman are not only participating in the purity of God but also the glory of God. The husband whose heart is satisfied in all that God is for him through the gospel of Jesus Christ can live in love toward his wife in the joy of giving to her in the purity of their marriage bed and the wife in Christ can give in the same joy and participate in the same purity and glory. It is this purity and glory that protects the husband and wife from all the self seeking glory that leads to impurity and brokenness.
Paul knows that everything, including sex, is from God, and through God and to God for his own glory (Rom.11:36). Paul knows that sex is a gift from God that is for his glory (1Tim.4:3-4). Paul knows that everything we do is to be done for the glory of God (1Cor.10:31). Therefore Paul knows that God’s creatures are created to know and enjoy his glory in everything. And when those creatures exchange the glory of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature and the creation they suffer under God’s wrath and participate in impurity (Rom.1:18ff). Sexual immorality and impurity leads God’s creatures away from the glory they are designed for into a world of lies and shallow dead end pleasures. Sex in marriage is necessary for purity that leads God’s people to glory. The sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God (1Cor.6:9-10), They will not taste and see that God is good (Ps.34:8). They will not know that God is their best portion forever (Ps.73:26). They will not know that in God’s presence is the fullness of joy forevermore (Ps.16:11). They will not know glory and they will not lead their wives and husbands into that same glory through purity in the joy of giving in sex in marriage.
Sex in marriage is necessary for purity and glory. Many in the church are broken by sexual self seeking and sexual impurity. The restoration of sex in marriage for purity and glory is discovered and lived in the knowledge and enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The joy of giving in the purity of the marriage bed is a participation in glory.
We often focus on the necessity of sex in marriage as a protectorate against sexual immorality or impurity. We read in 1 Corinthians 7:2, “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.” To “have” one’s own wife or husband is to be participating in the good gift of sex in the context of marriage. Therefore Paul seems to be saying that God has provided this gift to protect the church from sexual immorality. In other words if the wife and husband are satisfying one another in the joy of giving (1Cor.7:3-4) then the wife and husband will not be going outside of the marriage to satisfy their sexual desires. Paul also says, “ …but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self control.” (1Cor.7:5). Here again it seems that sex in the context of marriage, “come together again”, is necessary for purity, to protect one another from temptation toward sexual immorality. Therefore based on what Paul is saying here we instruct couples in the church to have sex in their marriage for the purpose of pursuing marital fidelity or purity. As the writer of Hebrews commands, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (Heb.13:4) Sexual purity is necessary to see God and not suffer his wrath. Therefore the Scriptures teach us that sex in marriage is necessary for purity.
However, I do not think that the Scriptures are teaching us that sex in marriage is necessary for purity alone. Purity is not the end glory is. When purity is the end it drives sex in marriage out of the realm of heavenly glory into the realm of earthly duty. This thinking on purity without glory lends us toward asking questions like, “How many times a week should we be involved in sexual intimacy?” or “Should I give in every time he / she asks?” I am not against such questions but they tend to focus on sex in marriage as a duty we must fulfill for the husband or wife in order to keep them from impurity. We tend to separate sex in marriage from the glorious when we see purity and protection from impurity as the end. Therefore sex in marriage is necessary for purity and glory.
Glory is the end of purity and purity leads to glory. Why is Paul interested in sexual purity in the church in Corinth? Is he worried about unwanted pregnancies? Is he concerned about sexually transmitted diseases? Is he upset over the breakdown of the traditional family and the effect it will have on coming generations? Is he concerned about the prostitution in Corinth and the degradation that brings to the city and its people? Is he concerned about their reputation? What is Paul’s concern?
Paul is jealous for the glory of God and that the church would know and live in that glory. When Paul speaks against sexual immorality in chapter 6:12-20 he does so around the glory of the gospel. He tells them to flee sexual immorality in the glory of the resurrection (6:12-14), in the certainty of their union with Christ (6:15-17) and in the glory of redemption (6:18-20). Sexual purity is next to the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sexual purity in marriage is a metaphor for the purity and glory of God’s covenantal love to his own people (Ezek.16:1-14, 59-63; Hosea 2:14-20; 3; Song of Solomon; Eph.5:23-33). When a man who is united to Christ is brought together by God (Gen.2:22, 24; Mt.19:8) to a woman who is united to Christ there is a picture of God’s glory in Christ in the gospel. That man and that woman are not only participating in the purity of God but also the glory of God. The husband whose heart is satisfied in all that God is for him through the gospel of Jesus Christ can live in love toward his wife in the joy of giving to her in the purity of their marriage bed and the wife in Christ can give in the same joy and participate in the same purity and glory. It is this purity and glory that protects the husband and wife from all the self seeking glory that leads to impurity and brokenness.
Paul knows that everything, including sex, is from God, and through God and to God for his own glory (Rom.11:36). Paul knows that sex is a gift from God that is for his glory (1Tim.4:3-4). Paul knows that everything we do is to be done for the glory of God (1Cor.10:31). Therefore Paul knows that God’s creatures are created to know and enjoy his glory in everything. And when those creatures exchange the glory of God for a lie and worship and serve the creature and the creation they suffer under God’s wrath and participate in impurity (Rom.1:18ff). Sexual immorality and impurity leads God’s creatures away from the glory they are designed for into a world of lies and shallow dead end pleasures. Sex in marriage is necessary for purity that leads God’s people to glory. The sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God (1Cor.6:9-10), They will not taste and see that God is good (Ps.34:8). They will not know that God is their best portion forever (Ps.73:26). They will not know that in God’s presence is the fullness of joy forevermore (Ps.16:11). They will not know glory and they will not lead their wives and husbands into that same glory through purity in the joy of giving in sex in marriage.
Sex in marriage is necessary for purity and glory. Many in the church are broken by sexual self seeking and sexual impurity. The restoration of sex in marriage for purity and glory is discovered and lived in the knowledge and enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The joy of giving in the purity of the marriage bed is a participation in glory.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Sexuality and the Knowledge of God
In a culture where, “God is dead”, sex is a god that enslaves. In a culture where “god is love”, sex is an expression of one’s freedom for the glory of self. In a culture where god is known but as a god of the churches own making, sex is perfunctory and misused. However in the Kingdom where God is known and loved through the gospel as he reveals himself in his Word, sex is a beautiful gift of God enjoyed in the context of marriage for the knowledge and enjoyment of God.
In the next several weeks in our exposition of 1 Corinthians 6 and 7 we will be faced with the uncomfortable reality of thinking about sex. It is one thing to think about sex in the privacy of your own home, but God brings this topic into the context of corporate worship where he speaks to his own from his Word, and I think this brings the issue of sex into it’s proper perspective, Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God. Living in a sex crazed culture the church has lost its ability to think and talk rightly about sex. But the Scriptures are not silent on the subject. Therefore the church should think and speak clearly about this subject in a culture that is in rebellion to God who created sex for the good of his children and the glory of his name.
Sex outside of marriage is a misuse of God’s gift. Sex in the context of marriage is designed for our knowledge and enjoyment of him and the protection of his creatures. Sexual immorality is described in the Scriptures as porneia. To the prophets and apostles this includes using the gift of sex outside of the context of marriage. It is a misuse of sex in adultery, fornication, lust, pornography, prostitution, homosexuality, rape etc.. These kinds of sexual sin are the result of suppressing the knowledge of God. The apostle Paul seeks to lead the Corinthian church out of sexual sin through an understanding of God and his salvation in the doctrines of the resurrection of Christ, union with Christ and redemption in Christ (1Cor.6:12-20). Paul also writes in the book of Romans that it is the suppression of the knowledge of God that leads men and women to a debased mind and the doing of what they should not do (Rom.1:28). He says in the same chapter that the exchanging of the glory of God in worship to worship the glory of the creature and creation leads to the impure sexual life (Rom.1:23-24). In Ephesians 4 we see Paul connect impurity to not knowing God when he says, “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (Eph.4:19-20). Sexual immorality is practiced with the mind, the heart or the life where God is not being known, trusted and loved in Christ Jesus.
At this someone may object and say, “Look at all the sexual immorality in the church and by the leaders of the church!” However, because people are in the visible church or leading the visible church does not mean that they are knowing, trusting and loving God in Christ as he reveals himself in his Word. This is why the apostle confronts the sexual immorality in the church not by only telling them to stop doing something (1Cor.6:18), but by founding that command in the knowledge of God in Christ (1Cor.6:14, 15-17, 18-20). Therefore if sexual immorality is the result of suppressing the knowledge of God, then the way to sexual purity is through the knowledge of God in Christ. If we are going to see God turn the tables on a sexual revolution that is destroying culture, then the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ must necessarily be revealed and applied. Jesus told his disciples that it is the truth that will set them free and it is in abiding in Christ’s word that his disciples know that truth, that setting free truth (Jn.8:31-32). Sexual impurity is not an expression of freedom. It does not matter of the mutual consent of the parties involved or the supposed love between the two people. Sexual impurity is sin. And sin is slavery. Knowing God in Christ truly through his Word revealed by the Spirit is God’s design to guard his own from sexual immorality and guide them in sexual purity in the context of marriage. Growing in the knowledge and enjoyment of God in Christ is very practical right down to our own sexuality.
In the next several weeks in our exposition of 1 Corinthians 6 and 7 we will be faced with the uncomfortable reality of thinking about sex. It is one thing to think about sex in the privacy of your own home, but God brings this topic into the context of corporate worship where he speaks to his own from his Word, and I think this brings the issue of sex into it’s proper perspective, Soli Deo Gloria, for the glory of God. Living in a sex crazed culture the church has lost its ability to think and talk rightly about sex. But the Scriptures are not silent on the subject. Therefore the church should think and speak clearly about this subject in a culture that is in rebellion to God who created sex for the good of his children and the glory of his name.
Sex outside of marriage is a misuse of God’s gift. Sex in the context of marriage is designed for our knowledge and enjoyment of him and the protection of his creatures. Sexual immorality is described in the Scriptures as porneia. To the prophets and apostles this includes using the gift of sex outside of the context of marriage. It is a misuse of sex in adultery, fornication, lust, pornography, prostitution, homosexuality, rape etc.. These kinds of sexual sin are the result of suppressing the knowledge of God. The apostle Paul seeks to lead the Corinthian church out of sexual sin through an understanding of God and his salvation in the doctrines of the resurrection of Christ, union with Christ and redemption in Christ (1Cor.6:12-20). Paul also writes in the book of Romans that it is the suppression of the knowledge of God that leads men and women to a debased mind and the doing of what they should not do (Rom.1:28). He says in the same chapter that the exchanging of the glory of God in worship to worship the glory of the creature and creation leads to the impure sexual life (Rom.1:23-24). In Ephesians 4 we see Paul connect impurity to not knowing God when he says, “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (Eph.4:19-20). Sexual immorality is practiced with the mind, the heart or the life where God is not being known, trusted and loved in Christ Jesus.
At this someone may object and say, “Look at all the sexual immorality in the church and by the leaders of the church!” However, because people are in the visible church or leading the visible church does not mean that they are knowing, trusting and loving God in Christ as he reveals himself in his Word. This is why the apostle confronts the sexual immorality in the church not by only telling them to stop doing something (1Cor.6:18), but by founding that command in the knowledge of God in Christ (1Cor.6:14, 15-17, 18-20). Therefore if sexual immorality is the result of suppressing the knowledge of God, then the way to sexual purity is through the knowledge of God in Christ. If we are going to see God turn the tables on a sexual revolution that is destroying culture, then the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ must necessarily be revealed and applied. Jesus told his disciples that it is the truth that will set them free and it is in abiding in Christ’s word that his disciples know that truth, that setting free truth (Jn.8:31-32). Sexual impurity is not an expression of freedom. It does not matter of the mutual consent of the parties involved or the supposed love between the two people. Sexual impurity is sin. And sin is slavery. Knowing God in Christ truly through his Word revealed by the Spirit is God’s design to guard his own from sexual immorality and guide them in sexual purity in the context of marriage. Growing in the knowledge and enjoyment of God in Christ is very practical right down to our own sexuality.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Ideas Have Consequences
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something.” These are the latest “profound” words from British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. It is in Hawking’s latest work that Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion”, claims, “it finishes off God. Darwin kicked him out of biology, but physics remained more uncertain. Hawking is now administering the coup de grace” But what does this physicist and atheist mean by his theory of “spontaneous creation”?
I will allow the brilliant man speak for himself in these recent words from a British publication. “The universe created itself out of nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going”-Stephen Hawking, The Times. There it is brilliance at the height of Godless science or maybe we should call it foolishness. Richard Dawkins speaks foolishly about it when he says, “I know nothing of the details of physics, but I had always assumed the same thing”. Since Mr. Dawkins is ignorant on the subject of physics he is glad that Mr. Hawking agrees with him. Be careful that you do not question their brilliance and be found among the backward of the world believing God created everything from nothing. Mr. Dawkins is looking for a theory from the school which David Robertson calls ABGism – Anything But Godism, and he has found it in biological theories and now in Mr. Hawking’s physics. Mr. Dawkins chooses aliens as the depositors of matter that evolved into the earth we now inhabit and Mr. Hawking chooses nothing to create the something of the universe.
But how does Mr. Hawking get something from nothing without an agent acting? He explains, “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing”. Laws such as gravity or motion are descriptions of the created order being acted upon under certain conditions. The law does not do anything. Sir Isaac Newton can sit under an apple tree all day and wait for the law of gravity to do something but it will do nothing all day because the law is not the agency. The law of gravity is observed under the condition that an apple is acted upon by a force called gravity and it falls from the tree. We can take a baseball and a bat place them on the ground and wait for the law of motion to do something, but we will be waiting all day until a person lifts the bat and ball tosses the ball into the air and swings the bat striking the ball and sending it through the air. The law of motion is observable when there is agency. It is this kind of logic with this kind of science which caused Isaac Newton to believe that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos. But Mr. Hawking prefers chaos and foolishness to God and wisdom. Does all this really matter?
Yes it matters! Scientists like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins and writers like Phillip Pullman and Christopher Hitchens are motivated by a common radical atheism that is bent on an anti-theistic revolution through science and free thought. Hawking says, “Just as Darwin and Wallace explained how the apparently miraculous design of living forms could appear without intervention by a supreme being, the multiverse concept can explain the fine-tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the Universe for our benefit…this makes us in a sense the lords of creation.” In these theories that Mr. Hawking puts forward the “science” is undergirded by thought that is free from any logic and sound reasoning. But as long as it accomplishes his purpose that does not matter. It matters because ideas have consequences.
The apostle Paul in Romans 1:21-22 says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,” Foolish free thinking scientist ignore the invisible attributes of God in his divine nature and eternal power from what they clearly perceive in all of creation and suffer the wrath of God as they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom.1:18-20). Ideas have consequences. Adam and Eve believed the lie in the garden and fell into sin, misery and death bringing all creation into that same futility. Ideas have consequences. However, the same God that created all things from nothing and let light shine out of darkness has sent his Son into the world to redeem the world from the futility of sin, misery and death. And it is through faith in the Son that redemption and restoration is secured. Ideas have consequences. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1Jn.5:12). Believing and acting on those ideas have life and death consequences.
I will allow the brilliant man speak for himself in these recent words from a British publication. “The universe created itself out of nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going”-Stephen Hawking, The Times. There it is brilliance at the height of Godless science or maybe we should call it foolishness. Richard Dawkins speaks foolishly about it when he says, “I know nothing of the details of physics, but I had always assumed the same thing”. Since Mr. Dawkins is ignorant on the subject of physics he is glad that Mr. Hawking agrees with him. Be careful that you do not question their brilliance and be found among the backward of the world believing God created everything from nothing. Mr. Dawkins is looking for a theory from the school which David Robertson calls ABGism – Anything But Godism, and he has found it in biological theories and now in Mr. Hawking’s physics. Mr. Dawkins chooses aliens as the depositors of matter that evolved into the earth we now inhabit and Mr. Hawking chooses nothing to create the something of the universe.
But how does Mr. Hawking get something from nothing without an agent acting? He explains, “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing”. Laws such as gravity or motion are descriptions of the created order being acted upon under certain conditions. The law does not do anything. Sir Isaac Newton can sit under an apple tree all day and wait for the law of gravity to do something but it will do nothing all day because the law is not the agency. The law of gravity is observed under the condition that an apple is acted upon by a force called gravity and it falls from the tree. We can take a baseball and a bat place them on the ground and wait for the law of motion to do something, but we will be waiting all day until a person lifts the bat and ball tosses the ball into the air and swings the bat striking the ball and sending it through the air. The law of motion is observable when there is agency. It is this kind of logic with this kind of science which caused Isaac Newton to believe that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos. But Mr. Hawking prefers chaos and foolishness to God and wisdom. Does all this really matter?
Yes it matters! Scientists like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins and writers like Phillip Pullman and Christopher Hitchens are motivated by a common radical atheism that is bent on an anti-theistic revolution through science and free thought. Hawking says, “Just as Darwin and Wallace explained how the apparently miraculous design of living forms could appear without intervention by a supreme being, the multiverse concept can explain the fine-tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the Universe for our benefit…this makes us in a sense the lords of creation.” In these theories that Mr. Hawking puts forward the “science” is undergirded by thought that is free from any logic and sound reasoning. But as long as it accomplishes his purpose that does not matter. It matters because ideas have consequences.
The apostle Paul in Romans 1:21-22 says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools,” Foolish free thinking scientist ignore the invisible attributes of God in his divine nature and eternal power from what they clearly perceive in all of creation and suffer the wrath of God as they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom.1:18-20). Ideas have consequences. Adam and Eve believed the lie in the garden and fell into sin, misery and death bringing all creation into that same futility. Ideas have consequences. However, the same God that created all things from nothing and let light shine out of darkness has sent his Son into the world to redeem the world from the futility of sin, misery and death. And it is through faith in the Son that redemption and restoration is secured. Ideas have consequences. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1Jn.5:12). Believing and acting on those ideas have life and death consequences.
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