Never get beyond the gospel

Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds points to a great quote by Tim Keller on our need even as Christians to keep the gospel central in our lives. How easy it is to jettison the gospel in our lives and in our churches and to see ourselves as "already knowing that." A great book to do more study on this is The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges. Anything on the gospel by Bridges is worth reading!

We never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to something more “advanced.” The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths, rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s of Christianity, but it is the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.

We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience but the gospel is the way we grow (Gal. 3:1-3) and are renewed (Col 1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier (Rom 1:16-17).

It is very common in the church to think as follows: “The gospel is for non-Christians. One needs it to be saved. But once saved, you grow through hard work and obedience.” But Colossians 1:6 shows that this is a mistake. Both confession and “hard work” that is not arising from and “in line” with the gospel will not sanctify you—it will strangle you. All our problems come from a failure to apply the gospel. Thus when Paul left the Ephesians he committed them “to the word of his grace, which can build you up” (Acts 20:32).

The main problem, then, in the Christian life I that we have not thought out the deep implication of the gospel, we have not “used” the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people’s problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel—a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther says (on Gal. 2:14), “The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine… Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” The gospel is not easily comprehended. Paul says that the gospel only does its renewing work in us as we understand it in all its truth. All of us, to some degree live around the truth of the gospel but do not “get” it. So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel—seeing more of its truth. This is true for either an individual or a church.

Don't become puffed up!

I am preparing a message on qualifications of an elder from 1 Timothy 3. Verse 6 reads, "He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil." Elders must be humble.

We all must be humble for "pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:8).

Pride is what made the devil fall from being one of the most beautiful and exalted of all angels to taking up the role of God's archenemy.

Defeating pride is a lifelong pursuit. Pride is one of the three main categories of sin (1 John 2:15).

To defeat pride and cultivate humility we must identify pride, see its seriousness, confess sin, and become broken in spirit.

Below is a list that reminds us that pride is a hideous sin and that humility is a great virtue. Many of these quotes were compiled from Wayne Mack's book Humility: The Forgotten Virtue.

"Humility is "the contrary grace"—Cotton Mather

"It takes many forms and shapes and encompasses the heart like layers of an onion—when you pull off one layer, there is another underneath."—Jonathan Edwards

"It is hard starving this sin, as there is nothing almost but it can live upon."—Richard Mayo

"I know I am proud; and yet I do not know the half of that pride."—Murray M'Cheyne

"I am more afraid of pope 'self' than of the pope in Rome and all his cardinals."—Martin Luther

"I endeavored to take a view of my pride as the very image of the Devil, contrary to the image and grace of Christ; as an offense against God, and grieving of His Spirit; as the most unreasonable folly and madness for one who had nothing singularly excellent and who had a nature so corrupt."—Cotton Mather

"I kept a private fast for light to see the full glory of the Gospel. . . and for the conquest of all my remaining pride of heart."—Thomas Shepard

"That demon of pride was born with us, and it will not die one hour before us. It is so woven into the very warp and woof or our nature, that till we are wrapped in our winding sheets we will never hear the last of it."—Charles Spurgeon

"Pride is the essential vice, the utmost evil. It is the one vice of which no man in the world is free and of which hardly any people. . . ever imagine they are guilty themselves."—C.S. Lewis

"Pride is the mother of all evils"—Chrysosotom

"Those who think too much of themselves don't think enough."—Amy Carmichael

"Man is naturally a proud piece of flesh. This sin runs in the blood, but the godly do not allow themselves in it. Our first parents fell by their pride. They aspired to deity. There are the seeds of this in the best of us, but the godly do not allow themselves in it. They strive to kill this weed of pride by mortification. But certainly where this sin reigns and prevails, it cannot stand with grace. You may as well call him who lacks discretion a prudent man, as him who lacks humility a godly man. . . It is better to lack anything than humility. It is better to lack gifts rather than humility. No, it is better to lack "the comforts of the Spirit" than lack humility."—Thomas Watson

"I must try to describe pride to you. I might paint it as being the worst malformation of all the monstrous things in creation; it hath nothing lovely in it, nothing in proportion, but everything in disorder. It is altogether the very reverse of the creatures which God hath made, which are pure and holy. Pride, the first-born son of hell, is indeed like its parent, all unclean and vile, and in it there is neither form, fashion, nor comeliness.

In the first place, pride is a groundless thing. It standeth on the sands; or worse than that, it puts its foot on the billows which yield beneath its tread; or worse still, it stands on bubbles, which soon must burst beneath its feet. Of all things pride has the worst foothold; it has no solid rock on earth whereon to place itself. We have reasons for almost everything, but we have no reasons for pride. Pride is a thing which should be unnatural to us, for we have nothing to be proud of."—Charles Spurgeon

"There is one voice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else, and which hardly any people except Christians ever imagine that they are guilty of themselves. The only people who do not see it that way are Christians. There is no fault that makes a man more unpopular, no fault which we are more conscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. According to the Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity (unfaithfulness), anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is a completely anti-God state of mind."—C. S. Lewis

"Nothing sets a Christian so much out of the devil's reach than humility."—Jonathan Edwards

"There is nothing into which the heart of man so easily falls as pride, and there is no vice which is more frequently, and emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture."—Charles Spurgeon

Cultivating a love for Christ

Magnify thy love to me according to its greatness,
and not according to my deserts or prayers,
and whatever increase thou givest, let it draw out greater love to Thee.

Victims of injustice

I have been meditating on the theme of injustice and yesterday I witnessed some injustice firsthand. I have heard of unjust laws and unjust settlements, I have seen it before and yet yesterday I saw a concrete example of it.

The world is full of injustice. Life is not fair. If you have been verbally attacked, humiliated, treated with contempt or slandered, you have experienced injustice. If you have been sexually manipulated, molested, seduced, or raped, you have experienced injustice. If you have been the victim of financial fraud, you have experienced injustice. Victims of prejudice based on race, age, gender, ethnicity, religion, and disability suffer injustice.

Psalm 44 is just one example of scores in OT poetry of the righteous crying out when injustice occurs:

Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (vv. 23-26)

Everyone who experiences injustice asks "Why me?" We ask, "Where is God? My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" We want God but we feel overwhelmed. Some even blame God as they grope for answers. Violence, betrayal, and abandonment hurt greately.

What do we do when we experience injustice? How do we help one who is writhing from pain from fresh injustice or is having difficulty with fear, bitterness and doubt? Psalm 10 is an excellent model for us to follow. David Powlison deals with this psalm extensively in an esssay in Seeing with New Eyes. God in his sweet providence brought this chapter to my eyes just a few days ago and it has helped me to react more biblically and Christlike to injustice.

Powlison offers several helpful insights. We must talk to God when we suffer. Talk out loud. We must think through how harmful people have mistreated us and how we may have sinned in the conflict or as a result of the injutice. We must remember that God will act against injustice and we should ask God to act, to destroy evil and bless good. And we must confidently affirm that the Lord who is King will right all wrongs one day. In these times we need to remember that God sees the hurt; He knows the turmoil the wicked can incur. Doing these things and suffering with a Godward perspective brings calm, strength, hope, peace, and comfort.

The Heildberg confession reminds us of the source of true comfort in times of injustice:

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Yes, the Lord will reign forever! Christ will win, evil will lose So even when your life is shattered by human injustice and sufferings we can affirm with John Newton

These inward trials I design,
From sin and self to set thee free
To break thy schemes for earthly joy
That thou may'st find thy all in Me!

Lord, help us today to suffer in a Godward direction today as we experience injustice! May we do it for your glory, our Deliverer and King!

On Longsuffering

As I contemplate the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), one of the ones that I see myself standing most in need of is "longsuffering." The reason I should be longsuffering is that the Lord is a "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Psalm 86:15).

What is longsuffering? The original word in the Greek is macro-thumos which means to literally to be "long-angered"; in other words, to have a long fuse. In his book Quest for Character John MacArthur writes, "Longsuffering is a particular kind of patient, gentle, persevering self-control that especially comes into play in our dealings with people who deliberately try to provoke us." All of us can think of a person or two in our life who we have to practice longsuffering toward in a very deliberate and conscientious way.

Later, MacArthur remarks, " Love's longsuffering is expressed in a patient willingness to bear any inconvenience or sacrifice for the sake of our loved one without becoming angry or upset." The servant of the Lord must practice longsuffering (2 Timothy 2:24-26) with those who are opposed to the gospel. This calls for great care, but the greatest test of longsuffering most of us face is with those we come in contact with on a daily or regular basis.

This kind of longsuffering runs with kindness! It refuses to envy, be rude, boast, or think evil. This is a tall order but praise God it is possible as we "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

A fresh look at the cross reminds us of the grace to exercise longsuffering. It comes from the believer's bridegroom, Jesus Christ Himself, who "also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:21-23).

Teaching children to fear God

Deuteronomy 6:2 commands us to teach our children so "that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long." (ESV). There are several resources available to aid in what has been called family worship including one new one by Dr. Donald Whitney. Family worship is but one of scores of ways to teach your children intentionally to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of God.

Jerry Bridges writes in The Joy of Fearing God that children "need to be taught the primacy of loving their neighbor as themselves and how this is worked out in treating others as they want to be treated. They need to understand that obedience is possible only through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Above all, they need to see that their only hope of acceptance by a holy God, both in this life and eternity, is through faith in the shed blood and righteous life of our Lord Jesus Christ."

May we as parents take up this God-given duty of teaching our children to obey God because they love Him and others and they fear Him.

Being a "one-woman" man

1 Timothy 3:2 teaches us that those who aspire to the office of overseer must be "one-woman" men.

Now, how can we remain “one-woman” men? I strongly suggest that every man read The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn. He has proven, Bible-saturated strategies to keep yourself a one woman man. He suggests to keep yourself morally pure you must have clear goals and sound strategies, and then diligently carry them out

First, and the most basic strategy is found in 1 Corinthians 6:18 which simply says, “Flee from sexual immorality.” He who hesitates loses. He who runs lives. The premier example of this strategy is Joseph who ran from temptation. Don't try to stay and resist temptation, whether it be what you are watching, reading, or if you are in someone's presence. Flee.

Second, keep your distance. Don't ask, “How close can I get to temptation without falling for it. No, when you are running from temptation, don't turn around and ask, “Is this far enough?” Rather, say, “If God says this isn't good for me, then I will keep as far away from it as possible. “Flee youthful passions.” (2 Timothy 2:22).

Three, anticipate and prevent temptations. Make your decisions about what you will do in certain situations in moments of strength not in moments of weakness.

Four, cultivate your inner life. Now, I am not saying, “Just try harder and here is a simple formula: read your Bible and pray and the devil will stay away.” No, Bible reading and prayer aren't sufficient alone, but they are necessary. The battle for moral purity must be fought on our knees with God and in collaboration with fellow soldiers.

Five, memorize and quote Scripture.

Six, pray and don't give up! Prayer won't solve everything, but you won't solve anything without it.

In one chapter Alcorn addresses married men and women specifically He offers the following strategies to cultivate and guard marital intimacy including:

• Remembering that all unfaithfulness begins with deception and deception begins with seemingly innocent secrets like “he doesn't really need to know this”
• Watch for red flags of discontentment and a diminishing intimate relationship
• Be sensitive to your spouse's intimate needs
• Date your spouse
• When at work, surround yourself with reminders of your spouse and children
• Pray with and for one another
• Work hard to bring your spouse into your world
• Deal with resentment, boredom, and hurt quickly
• Train your eyes well to look away from stimulating images
• Treasure your spouse
• Get help if you need it
• Cultivate your love for the Lord

Love for Christ is the single greatest thing that will keep you away sin. If the most controlling feature in your life is your love for Christ, then you will have great victory over sin in your life. If you love Jesus intensely, you will tremble at the thought of disappointing Him. So, spend much time in the Gospels learning about Christ. Look for Christ wherever you read in the Word. Think about the reality of who He is, the glory and the wonder of His person, his love for you as seen most profoundly at the cross where he gave Himself for you and even chose you before the foundation of the world! Make the love of Christ the most controlling feature of your life, and all these other strategies will fall into place.

Why we need biblical counseling and fellow Christians

"The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godliness man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ. "--Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together