Strengthened By Grace: May 2006

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Help your children see God's glory!

"Help your children to see the supremacy of God. Help them to see the eternality of God, this One who is eternal, uncaused in His being. Help them to see the constancy of God, these attributes that are held in constant balance unchanging forever; the knowledge of a God who never has learned anything and who never forgets, who is the sum of all knowing; the wisdom of a God who is never confused and never perplexed; the authority of a God who has all authority so He needs never consult anyone about anything; the providence of God who governs all of His creatures and all of their actions; the power of God that stills storms, feeds multitudes, changes people; the purity of God, that He is one who is clean and sinless and has never conceived of or thought of anything wrong or correctable; the trustworthiness of a God who keeps His Word and can always be depended upon; the justice of a God who will bring all wickedness under His judgment so no one will ever get away with anything; the patience of a God who apart from his patient forbearance, none of us would ever be saved; the wrath of God who will one day avenge every beheading in Iraq and every wicked cruelty that was ever done to a child. . . the grace of a God who for reasons found in Him delights in grace; the love of God that surpasses knowledge; the gladness and joy of God in His own triune Being where He enjoys Himself forever because He is complete is His triune completeness.” --Tedd Tripp

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Are you dazzled by God?

I am not sure of the exact author of this quote. I heard it on a message given by Tedd Tripp entitled "Giving Your Children a Vision of God." Regardless of the author, the quote is right on!

“Ecstasy and delight are essential for the believer’s soul and they promote satisfaction. We are not meant to live without spiritual exhilaration and the Christian who goes a long time without the experience of heartwarming will soon find himself tempted to have his emotions satisfied with earthly things and not as he ought in the Spirit of God. The soul is so constituted that it craves fulfillment from things outside itself and will embrace earthly joys for satisfaction when it cannot reach spiritual ones. The believer is in spiritual danger if he allows himself to go for any length of time without tasting the love of Christ and without savoring the felt comforts of the Savior’s presence. When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls will go in silent search of other lovers."

How long has it been since you have tasted of the love of Chirst and savored the comforts of His presence? "As for me I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness." (Psalm 17:15)

Saturday, May 27, 2006

As you can see, I might not be posting for a while. They don't allow laptops in jail...

Well, actually, this is Dwight's kids just playing a joke on him :-)

What is the heart of the gospel

"The heart of the gospel is not getting sinners to pray a pray so that they won't go to hell when they die. The heart of the gospel is the glory of God! The heart of the gospel is a God who is jealous for his own glory so he sends His Son to redeem us for He won't give His glory to another! The gospel is about a Son who is so jealous for His glory that He prays to His Father in John 17, "Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am so that they can behold my glory, the glory I had before I came to earth. The glory of God is what moved God to choose a people. The glory of God is the heart of the gospel!"

Friday, May 26, 2006

A modest(y) proposal

A TOUCHY SUBJECT?

Well, summer is on it’s way, or perhaps it is here for some parts of the country. And along with the warmer weather comes an issue that has been of concern to me for some time.

"The issue is... MODESTY. It seems to be considered one of the lesser virtues, even in the church today. Of course, since there is no new thing under the sun, this is by no means a new problem; however, it is one that seemingly few pastors or churches want to touch.

Some may say, "What difference does it make to anyone else how I dress?" It matters a great deal to many people, but more importantly, it matters to God. While it isn’t mentioned much by name in scripture, the concept is certainly there. There are many passages that can apply to this issue as well as others; and there are stories, OT and NT, that bear out the need for modesty. "

So begins a post by a woman named Toby and I wholeheartedly concur with her thoughts so I encourage both women and me to read the rest of her entry here.

Also, the ladies over at Girl talk had an excellent series on modesty called "Fashion and Following the Savior" that you can read here.

My thoughts on this subject are here.

Study indwelling sin!

C. J. Mahaney at the 2006 Together for the Gospel Conference exhorted pastors to keep a close watch over our lives and our doctrine. Watching over our lives is the more difficult of the two I believe.

J. I. Packer has written that no one taught him more about indwelling sin than the great Puritan theologian John Owen. He wrote, "Owen showed me that there is far more than I had ever known, both the indwelling sin in believers, and God’s gracious work of sanctification. Owen searched me to the root of my being and he brought God close to me. No one probes the depths of the human heart with such grace, authority, and skill as Owen."

Here is an excerpt from Owen on this all important theme of the believer's duty to deal with indwelling sin.

"Oh, many men live in the dark to themselves all their day. Whatever else they know, they know not themselves. Indeed few labor to grow wise in this matter. Few study themselves as they ought, are acquainted with the evils of their own hearts as they ought, on which yet the whole course of their obedience and consequently of their eternal condition doth depend. This then is our wisdom to repair this omission and to get to know ourselves and to know in particular what damage sin is seeking to do in our spiritual and moral system. Awake, therefore, all of you whose heart is anything of the ways of God. Your enemy is not only upon you as on Samson of old but he is in you also. He is at work by all ways of force and craft which we shall see. would you not dishonor God and his gospel? Would you not scandalize the saints and the ways of God? Would you not wound your conscious and endanger your souls? Would you not grieve the good and Holy Spirit of God, the Author of all of your comforts? Would you not be preserved from the number of apostates in these latter days? Then awake. Awake to the consideration of this cursed enemy which is the spring of all these and innumerable other evils. Study indwelling sin for your own soul’s health, for you need to and are in danger if you don’t."

Thursday, May 25, 2006

The Joy of God!

This week at GHBC, we are memorizing Galatians 5:22-23 as part of our weekly memory work. This text is famous for describing the fruit of the Spirit. Joy is part of that fruit. God commands us to have joy! But what is amazing and what we rarely think about is that God is joyful! John MacArthur recently preached a sermon on Luke 15 in which he prefaced his message on the prodigal son with these thoughts on the "joy of God." Of course, John Piper has caused us all to think a lot about the joy of God in being God over the last 20 years or more. Here is what MacArthur had to say:

“Scripture is very clear that God has no joy in the death of the wicked, no pleasure in their destruction. It was Jesus weeping over Jerusalem saying how often I wanted to gather you as a hen gathereth her brood and you would not and he wept. The truth is that God finds his joy not in the destruction of the wicked but in the recovery of sinners. We don’t talk much about the joy of God. I think the foundation for everything in life and ministry is the doctrine of God, theology proper. And we preach about a lot of things concerning the nature of God, his communicable and incommunicable attributes. And one of the things that seems to me that gets left out of this is the joy of God.

I don’t know that we actually think of God as joyful, but I want you to know that God experiences unending, consummate joy every moment. And what gives him this joy? Deuteronomy 30 verses 9 and 10 says ‘For the Lord your God will rejoice over you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in the book of the law and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’ And in Isaiah 62:5 the scripture says ‘and as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.’ And the analogy is of the supreme joy in human experience. The joy of a bridegroom over his bride. God rejoices in that way. Jeremiah 32:38: ‘They shall be my people, I’ll be their God. I’ll give them one heart, one way that they may fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them and I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from me and I will rejoice over them.’

God finds his joy in the salvation of sinners. In Zephaniah chapter 3 an equally marvelous statement is made in verse 16, “In that day it will be said to Jerusalem do not be afraid oh Zion, do not let your hands fall limp. The Lord your God is in your midst a victorious warrior and he will rejoice over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love and yet he will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.’ We don’t think of God as shouting with joy.

Joy is found in the recovery of lost sinners. Both John 3:16 and Luke 19:10 ‘the Son of man has come to seek and to save the lost’ indicate God’s compelling interest in the recovery of lost sinners out of his eternal love for his own eternal joy.

Jonathan Edwards said, ‘God infinitely values his own glory and finds his infinite joy in that glory.’ And Edwards understood that God’s joy is greatest where his glory is greatest. And in human history he said his greatest glory is displayed in the salvation of sinners and therefore it is his highest joy. Edwards says, ‘God has greatly glorified himself in the work of creation and providence. All his works praise him and his glory shines brightly from them all. But as some stars differ from others in glory, so the glory of God shines brighter in some of his works than in others. And, amongst all these the work of redemption is like the Son in his strength.’ And Edwards said, ‘Christ has done greater things than to create the world in order to obtain his bride and, it is the joy of his marriage with her.’ Edwards said, ‘God’s single end in redemption is his own joy.’”

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The movie is as bad as the book

The Da Vinci Code movie grossed $77 million domestically and $200 million internationally, second only to one other film for an opening weekend. It is definitely in the "blockbuster" category with a start like that! But what was of most interest to me as a Christian was whether or not the movie with follow the heretical assertions of the book on which it was based. Well, we know the answer now. It definitely does.

Leigh Teabing is the historian figure in the movie and who make several assertions such as "Constantine might have been a lifelong pagan, but he was also a pragmatist and he tried to unify Rome under a single religion, Christianity. "

Teabing teaches, "Until that moment Jesus was viewed by many of his followers as a mighty prophet, a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless, a great and powerful man."

Teabing continues, "Remember in those days gods were everywhere. By infusing Jesus the man with divine magic, making him capable of earthly miracles and his own resurrection, Constantine turned him into a god within the human world. He basically knocked the more distant gods out of the game."

The historian Teabing confidently mentions, "Fact: for many Christians Jesus was mortal one day and divine the next. . . .There was even a formal announcement of his promotion."

The Da Vinci Code movie is taking on a new doctrine as well that the book really didn't develop: the church. It suggests that church of Jesus Christ has been guilty of murder continually through its history. "How many have been murdered over this question? As long as there has been belief in the one true God, there has been killing in his name." So now you have an attack not only on the deity of Jesus Christ but on the church itself.

At the end of the movie, Teabing postulates, "For two thousand years, the church has reigned oppression and atrocity upon mankind, crushed passion and idea alike with their stranglehold on society, all in the name of their walking God. Proof of Jesus' mortality can bring an end to all that suffering, drive this church of lies to its knees. The living error must be revealed. Jesus must be shown what he was--not miraculous, simply man."

Many are of course crying, "Lighten up. This is just a novel, just a movie. It is fiction for goodness sake." However, this movie is shaping the opinions of its audience. One exit poll in Britain discovered that 60% of the viewers thought that it was possible that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had children from their marriage.

So, we will have to continue to deal with many falsehoods that people may buy into after watching this movie but orthodoxy is always more compelling than heresy and truth is always more beautiful than error.

The Blessed God

So many passages of Scripture talk about the blessed God. Three that I have come up against in recent days are these.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places," (Ephesians 1:3, ESV)

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you," (1 Peter 1:3-4, ESV)

"in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. " (1 Timothy 1:11, ESV)

As I have meditated on these passages I have come to see that it is not so much that we bless God as it is that God is blessed and blesses us. One theologian goes deep on this phrase as he ponders,

“Blessedness when ascribed to God comprises three elements: In the first place it expresses the fact that God is absolute perfection, for blessedness is the property of every being that is perfect or complete: that has life, and is free from disturbance, whether inwardly or outwardly. . . . Because of the fact that God is absolute perfection, the sum-total of all virtues, the highest essence, the supreme of goodness and truth, in other words, because he is absolute life, the fountain of all life, he is the God of absolute blessedness.… Secondly, the word blessedness when applied to God implies that this absolute perfection is the object of God’s knowledge and love . . . God knows himself with a knowledge that is absolute, and he loves himself with a love that is absolute. Hence, the word blessedness when applied to God implies thirdly that God delights in himself in an absolute sense, that he rests in himself, that he is perfectly self-sufficient. His life is not a continual development, a mere striving and becoming, as is taught by pantheism, but an uninterrupted rest, an eternal peace” (H. Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, p. 248)

What a privilege to know the gospel of the glory of the blessed God who knows and loves His absolute perfection!

Truth is simply irrevelant!

Al Mohler notes that "the editors of The Tablet [UK] offer an interesting assessment of The Da Vinci Code and its significance:

The fact is that for an increasing proportion of the population, the more so the younger they are, religion is a blank piece of paper on which anyone may write anything. And then tear it up again; for what also characterises such people is the opinion that organised religion is so irrelevant to ordinary life that whether it is true or not has nothing to do with them.

This is a profoundly important insight, offered by the editors in light of that fact that so many people responded to a survey by indicating that three out of five British people said that there was "some truth" in the theory offered in The Da Vinci Code that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene. For so many, the truth status of a claim is simply irrelevant.

The Gospel

1 Timothy 1:11 says that we have been entrusted with "the gospel of glory of the blessed God." We have the gospel of glory and yet false teachers are continually trying to distort the gospel. Even evangelicals are guilty more and more of adding to or subtracting from the gospel. So what is the gospel. Well many definitions have been offered but here are some that I have read recently which are comprehensive and right on target!

“What is the gospel? That man is a sinner of such depth and profundity that he cannot redeem himself. But Jesus Christ—God in human flesh—came into the world, died on a cross, was raised the third day for our justification, and through faith in Him and by the grace of God we can be forgiven of our sins. Thus to rightly define the law is part of that gospel. Initially, the good news is bad. The gospel says man is a sinner: he is lost without Christ, his sin is unforgiven, which damns him forever in an eternal hell."—John Macarthur

“The gospel is the good news of God’s saving activity in the person and work of Christ. This includes his incarnation in which he took to himself full (yet sinless) human nature; his sinless life which fulfilled the perfect law of God; his substitutionary death which paid the penalty for man’s sin and satisfied the righteous wrath of God; his resurrection demonstrating God’s satisfaction with his sacrifice; and his glorification and ascension to the right hand of the Father where he now reigns and intercedes for the church.

“Such news is specific: there is a defined ‘thatness’ to the gospel which sets forth the content of both our saving faith and our proclamation. It is objective, and not to be confused with our response. It is sufficient: we can add nothing to what Christ has accomplished for us—it falls to us simply to believe this news, turning from our sins and receiving by faith all that God has done for us in Christ.” —Jeff Purswell

"I would define the Gospel as the good news that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ [1 Cor. 15:3-4]. This good news tells us that we are sinners, who deserve only death and cannot save ourselves. The Gospel points to the cross of Christ as the propitiation for our sins, the substitutionary sacrifice for our transgressions [Romans 3:21-26] and to the empty tomb as the promise of our resurrection unto eternal life [1 Cor. 15]. This Gospel is God’s gift, as is the faith that justifies sinners. Salvation is all of grace, so that no sinner can boast of his salvation. Saving faith is made visible in those who confess with their lips that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead [Romans 10:9]".—Mohler

How important it is that we get the gospel right!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

How to deal with overload

I really needed to hear this word from Phil Ryken this week. The article comes from his posts called "Window on the World."

Overload
So how should we deal with the inescapable overload of life in the twenty-first century?

Do you ever get overwhelmed by all the things you need to get done, and discouraged by all the things you probably won’t? Almost every day, right?

I’ve felt that way a number of times recently. I felt overloaded when we made a few small domestic renovations and our home was in something more than its usual disarray. I felt the same way when I went to delete the messages in my inbox archive and discovered that more than ten thousand emails had accumulated since the end of last summer. And I felt that way when I went to count the books on my “recently acquired, really important to read books shelf”—or shelves, actually, plus some piles on the floor—and discovered that I am now 157 books behind (not counting the pile beside my bed at home). And then there are all the important things that need to get done in the ordinary course of ministry and the daily life of the home.

It Only Gets Worse

You are probably just as busy—not with the same things, perhaps, but busy nonetheless. And the problem will only get worse. Listen to what Richard Swenson says in his book The Overload Syndrome :

Progress always gives us more and more of everything faster and faster . There are only so many details that can be comfortably managed in anybody’s life. Once this number has been exceeded, one of two things happens: disorganization or frustration. Yet progress gives us more and more details every year—often at exponential rates. We have to deal with more “things per person” than ever before in the history of humankind. Every year we have more products, more information, more technology, more activities, more choices, more change, more traffic, more commitments, more work. In short, more of everything. Faster. . . . Progress automatically leads to increasing overload, meaninglessness, speed, change, stress, and complexity [Richard A. Swenson, The Overload Syndrome (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1998), pp. 43-44; emphasis in the original].

Monday, May 01, 2006

A prayer for my church and others

Ligon Duncan, one of the speakers at the T4G (Together for the Gospel) Conference, expressed his vision for the church like this:

"We want to see a strong coalition of Bible-saturated, truth-driven, God-entranced, prayer-soaked, aggressively evangelistic, Christ-treasuring, Christ-exalting, Spirit-filled, sovereign grace-loving, missions-advancing, hell-robbing, strong-thinking, real-need-exposing, soul-winning, mind-engaging, vagueness-rejecting, wartime-life-style-pursuing, risk-taking, justice-advancing, Scripture-expounding, cross-cherishing, homosexuality-opposing, abortion-denouncing, racism-resisting, heaven-desiring, imputation-of-an-alien righteousness-proclaiming, justification-by-faith-alone-apart-from-doing preaching, error-exposing, complementarian, joyful, humble, courageous, happy pastors working together for the Gospel. (thanks to John Piper for much of this language)

And we want to see them leading a strong coalition of evangelical churches who, while they hold as faithfully and biblically as they know how to certain doctrinal distinctives not shared by all other biblical evangelical churches, band together for the Gospel on a robustly doctrinal, historic, orthodox, reformational, world-opposing-while-at-the-same-time-world-loving, Bible-preaching, Scriptural-theology-inculcating, real-conversion-prizing, deep biblical evangelism-practicing, New Testament church-membership-implementing, church-discipline-applying, healthy and growing Disciple-making, biblically led basis – for the display of God’s glory in the churches.

AMEN and AMEN!!!

Strengthened By Grace