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Why John Piper Emphasized Racial Harmony from the Pulpit

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Why Should Churches Prioritize Racial Harmony?

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(via As I See It - Reflections at 63)

Arial view of Emmanuel Sovereign Grace Fellowship - Northeast Ohio.

At the 2018 G3 Conference I spoke on “Discipleship in Diversity.” I told of how we, at Grace Fellowship Church, have learned to be a church that is united in a context of great diversity. I concluded the message with a video of some of the people of Grace Fellowship Church reading Revelation 5 in many different languages. I hope you enjoy it. We also have a Spanish and Portuguese version of this video if you are interested in …

Thinking Poorly

Bad exegesis leads to bad theology. This is a statement that most people who study the word of God will readily agree with. If you don't properly interpret Scripture, the resulting theology will not be, should we say, scriptural. And while a misinterpretation of a single verse or passage of Scripture will not inevitably lead a man to ruin, it can have a profound impact on how other passages of Scripture are interpreted and in the end result in an entirely wrong view of a particular subject and sometimes a distortion of the entire Bible. The degree to which an interpretation varies from the true meaning of Scripture can also play a key role in how impactful that error is on the interpretation of other passages. A recent example of a serious misinterpretation of Scripture by a widely esteemed conservative Bible expositor can be used to show just how important good exegesis (thinking rightly on the Scriptures) is, and how serious poor thinking can be. Hebrews 12:14 "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." In commenting on the above verse, this well known, quasi-Reformed Bible teacher said the following: The holiness spoken of here "has to be the righteousness of Christ because our holiness could never make us worthy to see the Lord." This is a serious misinterpretation of Scripture. Let's just take a moment to see just how bad this really is. 1) The context is entirely focussed on a believer's growth in practical, personal holiness (progressive sanctification). vs. 4-5 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. We find these verses immediately after an entire chapter talking about the great deeds done by those who had true faith. The author then turns to his readers and begins to talk about their own faith and perseverance seeing that they are surrounded by the "great cloud of witnesses" in Chapter 11. These verse talk about "striving against sin." They tell us that God disciplines his children that they might "share in his holiness." The discipline spoken of is not joyful, but by it we are trained. In the end this "training by discipline" yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. These are all words used to describe the Christian's fight to live a life of practical holiness before the Lord. These verses speak of growth or progress using worlds like training and yielding. The exhortation in light of these truths is to "be strong" and "make your paths straight" so that the limb that is out of joint (most likely from v. 1 - the "sin that so easily entangles you") would be healed. Nothing in the context of this verse is speaking about justification or the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is a passage about "running a race," "fixing our eyes on Jesus," enduring the training-discipline of the Lord, and growing in the manifestation of his holiness and righteousness in our lives. Additionally, the verses that immediately follow verse 14 continue on with the same theme. vs. 15-17 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. Again, the call to personal and practical holiness is tied to "obtaining the grace of God." This is language that points to the future and describes perseverance as a means of manifesting (not obtaining) the present reality of salvation. Holiness is tied to not having a "root of bitterness" in your heart and not being sexually immoral or unholy. These verses don't point us to the righteousness of Christ in justification, but clearly speak of progressive sanctification and perseverance in obedience so that one does not become "defiled" and left with "no chance to repent." Based on many other passage both in and out of Hebrews, we understand this language to inform us that while we are justified once by faith alone in Christ alone, our perseverance in the faith and progress in personal holiness is evidence of our being the true justified children of God. 2) The grammar of this text cannot be twisted to refer to the righteousness of Christ. The first thing to note is that the holiness spoken of here is something to be pursued. The word used in this verse is also used in the following verses: 1 Corinthians 14:1 "Pursue love..." 1 Thessalonians 5:15 "Seek to do good to one another and to all." In this verse "the holiness" (τὸν ἁγιασμόν) that is required or else a person will not "see the Lord" is something we are to actively seek or pursue. John Calvin sees the command to pursue holiness as a qualifier to the command to pursue peace with all men. The Christian is to seek to be a peacemaker even with the ungodly. But never is a Christian to compromise holiness in the process. "As however peace cannot be maintained with the ungodly except on the condition of approving of their vices and wickedness, the Apostle immediately adds, that holiness is to be followed together with peace; as though he commended peace to us with this exception, that the friendship of the wicked is not to be allowed to defile or pollute us; for holiness has an especial regard to God. Though then the whole world were roused to a blazing war, yet holiness is not to be forsaken, for it is the bond of our union with God. In short, let us quietly cherish concord with men, but only, according to the proverb, as far as conscience allows. He declares, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord; for with no other eyes shall we see God than those which have been renewed after his image." (Calvin - Commentary on Hebrews) Likewise, John Owen argues that "It is universal holiness which is here prescribed unto us. This we are in all things always to follow after." (Owen - An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews) 3) The interjection of the words "could never make us worthy" are not anywhere mentioned in the text. God's word nowhere teaches that our personal, practical, and progressive sanctification makes us "worthy" to see the Lord. And this text of God's word doesn't even hint at such a conclusion. But the fact that this expositor draws such a conclusion points out either a defective view of salvation or an illogical view of conditionality. The thinking here is just poor. Let me explain. A condition, in logic, is a stipulation, or provision, that needs to be satisfied in order for something else to exist of happen. For example, if I call into a local radio station and correctly answer the daily trivia question, I win tickets to a local sporting event. After winning the tickets, I must go downtown to the station to pick them up. Coming downtown to get the tickets is a condition for me to use the tickets to get into the game. If I don't come downtown and pick them up, I don't have them to go to the game. But if I didn't first win the trivia contest and simply went downtown to claim tickets, I would be sorely disappointed to find out that no tickets were there waiting for me. In the Bible we find a condition for our justification (i.e. faith). We are not justified on the ground or basis of our faith, but it is "through" or "by" faith that we are united to Christ in whom we are justified (by his obedience and blood). However, it can be truly said that without faith, no one is justified. It is therefore a condition. Those who meet this condition are saved (justified) and will be saved (glorified) in the resurrection. Personal holiness is similar but not the same. Without holiness (personal, practical, and progressive sanctification) no one will see the Lord. This is conditional language. If you lack this holiness, you will not go to heaven. But this condition is not a means by which you are saved, as faith was to justification, but rather it is the evidence of the fact that you are saved. In other words, if you have truly believed (and as a consequence, been justified by the merits of Christ alone), then you will also be a person in whom personal, practical, and progressive sanctification is taking place. If this is not taking place in you (if you lack this holiness), then you are not one who has truly believed and therefore you are not one who has ever been justified. Hence, this holiness is a condition of ultimate or final salvation ("without which - condition - no one will see the Lord - final salvation"). Think back with me to the illustration of the trivia contest. If I am to get into the game with free tickets, then I must win the contest. And if I am to get into the game with free tickets, I must come down to the station to pick them up. But unless I am insane, the reason I go down to the station to pick up the tickets is because they are mine (I won them). Going downtown to pickup the tickets is the evidence that I won them and not the reason I get to go to the game for free. So, justification is the ground of my entering into the presence of God with a righteousness that is perfectly acceptable to him (the righteousness of Christ). But the evidence that I have been justified is that I have pursued holiness - personal, practical, and progressive sanctification in my life. If I lack this evidence, then it is obvious that I have not been justified - just as the fact that I don't go down to the radio station on the morning after the contest is evidence that I didn't win any tickets. As you can see, the context, the grammar, and the basic logic of the text cannot in any way be twisted to allow for this expositor's interpretation. But how important is it to get a passage like this right? Very. 1) We live in a time where the requirement of personal, practical, and progressive sanctification is under assault both from within and without the Reformed community. It is essential that we rightly interpret the many key verses that are the only source of truth on this vital topic. The opinions of men matter nothing, we must rely on a faithful exposition of the truth itself, the word of God. 2) Getting a text like this "slightly" wrong is not such a serious issue. For example, if a person saw contextually that the author of Hebrews had in mind not so much universal holiness as he did abstaining from sexual sin (contra John Owen), it would not result in an overthrows of the meaning of the text, it would simply be limiting the scope of the holiness required. And even then, such a limit would only be due to the context of the argument and not a universal declaration that only sexual purity is required to see the Lord. But the wrongness of this expositor's interpretation is not slight. It's a complete overthrow of the meaning of the verse. This is where the danger is to be found. If a verse like this can be interpreted, despite context and grammar, to refer to the righteousness of Christ in justification, then any and every other verse in the New Testament that exhorts us to righteous living or practical holiness is subject to such revisions. In the end, personal, practical, and progressive sanctification becomes something for puritans and preachers, but not a requirement for the average Christian. My goal in this post is not to bring ridicule upon this great Bible teacher. I have not named names simply because I think the error is inconsistent with his overall lifelong teaching on the subject of holiness. I also don't want to further publicize this statement as belonging to such a respected figure, for many ignorant people will follow this view simply because of the person who said it. But I hope you, who were so kind as to persevere in reading this post, have been encouraged to see afresh the absolute importance of personal holiness in your life and the danger of reinterpreting Scripture in an attempt to excuse the lack of it.

New Calvinism...Is it dangerous?

Most of you know that I am no fan of Mark Driscol's ministry. But this article by Tom Chantry makes it all so clear to me why I am not a Reformed Baptist. New Calvinism and Celebrity To lump the New Calvinists (and specifically men like John Piper and Matt Chandler) in with Mark Driscol is utterly dishonest and sounds more like carnal jealousy than pastoral insight.

Rivers of Living Water (A Sermon)

Rivers of Living Water John 7:37-39

This morning we are going to repeat many concepts that we have covered already in previous messages. As we have seen through our study thus far, John’s gospel is very repetitious. There are some very core themes that repeat again and again and again, but they are gospel themes and so they are very important. I know I need to preach the gospel to myself everyday. I need these basic truths brought to my mind continually as a source of strength, of perseverance, and of joy and peace. So, I believe we do well to hear them again, but this time to try to hear them as if we have never heard them before. And I will do my best to preach them as if I have never said them before.

Tell me the old, old story, Of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, Of Jesus and His love; Tell me the story simply, As to a little child, For I am weak and weary, And helpless and defiled.

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John calls the last day of the feast “the great day”. It was to be the day of the “solemn assembly” or a “holy convocation” as commanded in Leviticus 23:36. As the people were gathered together to bring offerings to the Lord, Jesus stood up and cried out to them: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” What an amazing gospel proclamation and so full of powerful truths!

1) If anyone… Jesus cried out to all within earshot without discrimination. Man or woman. Slave or free. Rich or poor. He calls them all – “if anyone.” We who believe in the doctrine of unconditional election must always remember that the gospel is to go out to all men. We are not to presume that someone is too hardened, too ignorant, or too prideful to be called by the gospel. We proclaim Jesus to whoever will listen knowing that the power to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus rests solely with God.

Matthew 13:47-48 47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.

Matthew 22:14 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Like Jesus, we are to proclaim the gospel to all without pre-judging the response of those we share it with. If they will listen to us, then we tell them the good news of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus is our example in this.

2) If anyone thirsts… This is where unconditional election comes in. Not everyone who hears the gospel will respond in faith because not everyone who hears is thirsty! Jesus stood up in the crowd and cried out: If anyone is thirsty! Thirst is a recognized need. You cannot be thirsty and be unaware of it. Which is a very good thing.

• Thirst is a God given desire – without it you would not drink and without water you would perish. Like thirst,

• Hunger is a God given desire – without it you would not eat and without food you would perish.

As we covered before, hunger and thirst are basic needs…ones for which we will leave behind all other felt needs to satisfy. Why? Because without their satisfaction, we perish. But the thirst that Jesus speaks of is a spiritual thirst.

As we saw in Chapter 6, it is a thirst for righteousness… a righteousness we must have (like water)…or we perish! a righteousness we don’t have…and we know it (so we thirst)!

Most people hear the gospel and they respond with indifference or anger. It is to them nothing but foolishness. They aren’t thirsty for righteousness because they don’t know how desperately they need it, and they certainly don’t think they lack it. But when God comes to the soul of man in the power of the Holy Spirit, his darkened heart and mind is opened to see his need and his lack. For such a one, the gospel is life itself! He now knows that the gospel of Jesus Christ is something he cannot live without! He has been made thirsty by sovereign grace!

1 Corinthians 1:18 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved (you could add – “by grace”) it is the power of God. 3. Let him come to me… Those who are thirsty are bid by Christ to come to him. This tells me that their wills must be put into action. It is not enough to sit here this morning and feel that you are a sinner. It is not enough to know that you need righteousness and that you have none. It is not enough to be thirsty. You must come to Christ.

If he were here before you…standing here at the front of the church…you would exercise your will and get up out of your seat and you would come to him with your feet. But we know that we do not come to Christ with our feet, for he can’t be approached physically. But do we know how to come to him?

Before we answer this, let’s look at what Jesus says we must do when we come to him. It is not enough to come to the one who has the power to quench our thirst, we must do something when we get there.

4. And drink… Imagine you have been working outside in the heat of the day. Hard to imagine after this past week of record low temperatures, but try. You are thirsty like you have never known thirst. One of your family members calls to you – “If you are thirsty, come in and have some fresh, ice-cold lemonade.” So you exercise your will, you put your feet into action, and they carry your tired body into the house and right up to tall cold glass of lemonade. Is this enough? Is your thirst quenched holding that glass in your hand as the condensation wets your fingertips? No. You must drink it. Your thirst is not satisfied until you drink the lemonade.

And so Jesus cries out for the thirsty to come to him…but not just to come to him…they are to come and drink!

Now if you are like me, you hear a statement like that and mutter under your breath…”What sense does that make?” How am I to come to Jesus when he is not physically here? How am I to drink? What am I to drink? Is this more of that “drink my blood” stuff from chapter 6?

Now I could simply take us to the next phrase in our text and it would tell us what it means to come to Jesus and to drink. “Whoever believes in me…”

But this would not be best for us. Most people “assume” they know what it means to believe. So when I say that coming to Jesus and drinking is the same thing as believing, they immediately stop thinking about drinking and start thinking about their preconceived notion about what it means to believe. This is a big problem, and it’s dangerous.

I don’t think Jesus wants us to reason back from our ideas about faith to what it means to drink. This will cause us to think the same way we always have. He want us to reason forward from the call to drink to the meaning of believe!

When you stopped working in the yard and came into the house and drank the glass of ice-cold lemonade, you were engaging in a physical activity. But coming to Jesus and drinking is not a physical activity. The thirst you had from your hard day’s work was a physical thirst. But the thirst that the Holy Spirit produces in us is not a physical thirst. So the analogy that Jesus is making is not about the physical act of coming and drinking – it is about the effect, the result, the outcome of coming and drinking.

Let me explain.

When you drink the lemonade, your thirst is quenched. Your craving for water is fulfilled. You are satisfied. The cold liquid your body needs brings with it pleasure as it assuages your thirst. If you have a soul thirsty for righteousness and life, so thirsty that nothing on earth can quench it, then come to Jesus and drink – appropriate Jesus’ righteousness as your own. Take his death as your death. Find in him alone the satisfaction of your souls greatest longings and deepest needs. To drink then is to be satisfied with Jesus! It is to see by the eye of faith that Jesus has done all that was required to save a sinner like you. But it is not just to see this fact; it is to be completely satisfied in it. To come and see is one thing, but to drink is to be made content, satisfied, and happy.

Do you know the pleasure of having your spiritual thirst quenched by nothing other than Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Savior?

No amount of religion can quench this thirst. No amount of alcohol. No amount of entertainment. No amount of sex. No amount of denial. Nothing can quench this thirst but Jesus alone – the Lord our righteousness!

Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And what happens to those who drink and are satisfied?

5. And out of your belly will flow rivers of living water! “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” The ESV translates the Greek word κοιλία as heart. And while this is a good translation for modern readers, I believe it misses something important found in the literal translation of the word as stomach or belly.

The stomach is a voracious consumer of all things edible. It is pure appetite. Things go into the stomach…but nothing comes out…at least not naturally. If things come out of your stomach, it means you are pretty sick. The stomach is a taker and not a giver. It consumes, it does not yield.

For this reason, the stomach is often used as a metaphor for our carnal, earthly appetites. When Paul speaks about unbelievers in Philippians 3:19 he refers to them as those ‘whose god is their belly’.

19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Therefore, when Jesus tells us that out of our belly will flow rivers of living water, he is telling us that out of the source of our carnal appetites will flow forth the Holy Spirit. What sense does this make? Life giving water flowing out of our stomachs? The Holy Spirit flowing out of our bellies?

Well we need to understand the purpose that the Holy Spirit has when he indwells us. When we see that purpose, we can begin to understand what it means for him to flow out of us like rivers of living water!

John 16:12-15 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Do you see the purpose of his ministry? He is to guide us into all truth – ABOUT JESUS! He is to reveal JESUS to us more and more. He is to glorify JESUS! That is his purpose…to magnify JESUS!

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by turning our appetites away from the selfish vanity of gratifying our own desires. In place of these carnal appetites he give us an appetite to give ourselves selflessly to others. We go from being greedy consumers to self-sacrificing givers. Out of that which is nothing but appetite (our belly) flows life-giving water. We who were once walking in death have become a source of life to others. This is a miracle.

Do you want to see the power of the Holy Spirit? Then you don’t need to look for signs and wonders. You don’t need a special gift from God to make you feel his power. All you need to do is look at the miracle that is wrought when a sinner is turned from his idols to serve the living and true God!

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 “…you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

The Holy Spirit has created a new and different appetite in us. We had appetites for anything and everything in this world that could bring us pleasure. We had no appetite for Jesus. The miracle of grace is that by the power of the Holy Spirit an appetite for Jesus, a thirst for him has been created in us. And the Holy Spirit does not leave us thirsty. He quenches that thirst; he satisfies that hunger for Jesus by being “Christ in us, the hope of glory!” He brings Jesus to us to quench the thirst for Jesus that he has created! And when he does this, we are changed. We become more like Jesus who indwells us through the Holy Spirit. And we become Jesus to the world around us.

Jesus who gave his life for his friends. Jesus who came not to be served to but serve. Jesus who washed his disciples feet. Jesus who said regarding those who murdered him, “Father forgive them for they know now what they do.” This is the Jesus we become like.

Instead of a relentless pursuit of that which will satisfy our earthly carnal appetites, we pursue loving others, helping others, serving others. We become givers…even swearing to our own hurt if it means loving even our enemies.

As Jesus commanded, we are to love one another even as he loved us. He is the example. And by the Holy Spirit, he is in us. The resurrected and glorified Messiah, the Son of God, has come to indwell us through the Holy Spirit and produce in us the love that he himself has shown us in his life and death for us.

Romans 8:9 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Christ in us is the transformation of a sinner to a saint. Christ in us is the transformation of a selfish consumer to a self-denying giver. And when the world sees Christ in us, it is like rivers of living water flowing from that, which once only consumed in greed. Jesus is being magnified in us and through us because Jesus is in us!

To take a sinner and cause complete satisfaction in Christ to flow out of the very source of his carnal appetites (his stomach) is a miracle of sovereign grace and a demonstration of the power of God!

Now as we close, let me say this, if you are living a life dulled to the glory of Jesus because your eyes are set too firmly on things on earth, then you need the Holy Spirit to fill you. You need him to flow out of your belly like a glorious river of life giving water! And there is only one way for you to know this reality…you must have your hunger and thirst both revived and satisfied. You will not come to Jesus to drink unless you have a thirst that nothing in this world can quench. As long as you are completely satisfied with the gifts of God, you will not desire the Giver!

But being a Christian is not living a life of perpetual unquenched thirst. We are not dissatisfied people always needing to get more out of the Christian life. Sure we want to grow. We want to be more like Jesus. But that growth comes in the most contradictory manner…it comes when we are truly content in Jesus!

When we lay down our striving to be super Christians and find the satisfaction and rest we so long for in Jesus, we begin to grow. We begin to be what we were redeemed to be. I am not saying, ”let go let God.” I am not saying that the Christian life does not include effort, fighting, persevering, and obeying.

What I am saying is that we need to stop trying to generate spirituality, righteousness, and obedience out of a discontented and selfish heart. We need to seek him who alone can make rivers of living water flow from our bellies. We need to find in him all the satisfaction of heart that we could ever need. When we do, the miracle will be that we find ourselves living for him with all our heart. And he will be glorified! Only a faith that truly rests content in Jesus will be a faith that fights to live for Jesus!

What do you really want in this life? Do you want to be a holier Christian? Do you want to be a more mature believer? Or do you want more of Jesus? Do you want to know him better, love him more, and find your heart’s satisfaction in him alone?

The former seems good and right, but it will kill you. It’s too much about you. The later seems like complacency, but it is nothing of the sort. Seeking more of Jesus will result in holiness. It will result in maturity. Not for the sake of holiness or maturity. It will result in these things for the sake of the glory of Jesus.

Some of us need to stop the mad race of our so-called Christian life, and we need to sit at the feet of the Savior and have our thirst both magnified and satisfied by him alone. I promise you, if you are satisfied in Him, you will find your life anything but ordinary, anything but typical, and anything but wasted.

Lies, No More Lies!

John 8:44-45 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. In his book, Tempted and Tried, Russell Moore subtitles one chapter as follows: "Why You're on the Verge of Wrecking Your Life (Especially If You Don't Know It)." He argues that we are being led by the Devil to our doom like cattle being gently let into the slaughterhouse to meet theirs. The imagery is vivid. The arguments he makes are cutting and unapologetically frank. He is trying to save lives, not gain the approval of men. I am hopeful he will accomplish the former as readily as he will fail to accomplish the latter. If he is successful reaching anyone with a saving result, it will only be because he risked alienating so many people by the raw and sometimes hard to swallow truth of God's word. Jesus took exactly the same approach, and yet so few today will follow his example. Everything is couched in qualification to the point that the truth is so nuanced that the forcefulness of it has been lost. But we must see that believers need the truth if they are to stand against the Devil and the system of this world that he has created for the very purpose of murdering those created in the image of God, especially those who take the name of Jesus Christ and claim to be his followers. Satan is a liar. Jesus tells us that he is the father of lies. He can do nothing else. Lying is his nature. But murder is his aim. He is a murderer and has been since he killed our primeval parents in the Garden of Eden. He wants to destroy the souls of every man, woman, and child. He wants to do this because he hates God and consequently men who are created in the image of God for the purpose of glorifying and enjoying God forever. So how does a liar go about murdering the image-bearers of God? By lying to them! This was his method with Eve when he told her, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). This is the method he uses with us today. Satan knows our God given natural desires. He knows we were created to worship, to work, to eat, and even to procreate. The desires to do these things were put in us by God, and they were good. We were created by God to depend upon him as our Father who would provide all that we need, protect us from harm, and be for us the source of all joy in worshipping and serving him alone. And what did Satan do? He made us doubt God's good intentions toward us. He got our parents to seek to provide for themselves...fulfill their desires their way...and ultimately become the worshippers of themselves and not God. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Genesis 3:6 She had a desire. The tree was good for food and was a delight to the eyes. She had a desire, she wanted to be wise. She wanted to no longer depend upon God to be the provider of her food, the satisfaction for her desires, and the source of all her wisdom. She took it. She reached out in her declaration of independence and took the fruit and ate it. Then she gave it to her more than willing husband, and he did the same. We do the same today. We have God given desires, and yet we are unwilling to wait for him to satisfy those desires in his way and according to his will. We want things our way. We want them now. And Satan, if not personally - at least through the system of this fallen world that he has designed for this purpose, is there lying to us - telling us that we will surely not die. O God, deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13). It is so important that we begin to not only hear the truth, but we need to believe it. We must throw off that satanic tendency within us to exclude ourselves from God's warnings as if they don't apply to us. This is what Eve did. She believed the lie. I can only imagine she reasoned that what God said didn't apply to her. How many professing Christians do this very thing and give their souls to the "roaring lion?" A married man convinces himself that he is unhappy and that the affair he is having with his co-worker is not something that God will judge him for. God will understand, he reasons to himself. God knows that this is different than what other people are doing. His circumstances are different from "those adulterers." But God shows no partiality. If he does not repent, he will most assuredly perish (Luke 13:3). What about the young man who looks at pornography? How he must rationalize his situation. But God's word is clear: the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. Looking at pornography is sexual immorality. It is taking a desire that God created to be good and choosing to satisfy it ourselves in our way. We "take it" like Eve took the fruit. And we are murdered. The truth is, those who look at pornography are sexually immoral. No matter how they rationalize it. No matter how sorry they feel about it. They need to repent, or they will most assuredly perish. This could go on and on. The temptations of the Devil will seek out our weaknesses and try to pull us away from God by lying to us. And the biggest lie is to tell us that we don't need to worry about our adversary the Devil because we have "decided for Jesus" and can never be lost. But the assurance of salvation that belongs to believers does not belong to those who continue to follow Satan in his lies. The perseverance of the saints is a beautiful and true doctrine, but that truth only teaches us that true saints will persevere by God's grace to the end. It does not teach us that a profession of faith in Jesus makes one a true saint. This is why it is so vitally important that we listen to the word of God and believe it. We must hear his word! Jesus said to the Jews:"because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." They were so entranced by the lies of the Devil that when the truth was told to them, they rejected it and killed the Truth-teller. But we fight the Devil and this world system of unbelief by listening to the truth of God's word and believing it. When the word tells us that God will care for us and provide all that we need, we should believe this and resist the Devil. He will tempt us to take things into our own hands. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, we will seek our own retirement fund to provide for ourselves in the future. The wisdom of providing for your future seems so rational. What's wrong with working those extra long hours to set aside enough money to provide for a "worry free retirement?" "Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21) See how easy it is to be deceived? How easy it is to believe a lie and be thrown off following Christ? We are supposed to be ALL about seeking first God's kingdom. And yet most professing Christians can't ever be said to be SEEKING God's kingdom. They rarely, if ever, make a concerted effort toward living for God's kingdom. And yet, they are completely convinced they are on their way to heaven! Please do me a favor, those of you who know me - which will be the only ones who read this, speak the truth to me all the time. Please share with me the true things you read. Please be frank about what God's word says when you talk to me. I need to be encouraged by the truth lest I believe a lie and my heart grow cold (Hebrews 3:12-13). We need each other to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). I don't want to be like those who believe the lies of a murderer. I don't want to wreck my life because I was unaware of the adversary who was seeking to devour me. I don't want you to wreck yours either. I encourage you to read Russell Moore's book: Tempted and Tried. Most of what I have written above is a summary of some of its main themes. I have a copy for the library and you can find a link to it on the church website under Interesting Stuff.

Bound with Darkness

2 Corinthians 6:14-16 "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God." He didn't see what all the fuss was about. He knew she wasn't a Christian, but she seemed like a nice girl from a good family. Why did everyone from his parents to his pastor insist that he shouldn't pursue any kind of attachment to her? It's not like she was a satanist or anything. How many times have you heard a young professing Christian say something like this? Usually things have progressed much further in the relationship by the time anyone has an opportunity to counsel against the attachment. Usually, it's too late. So how does the attachment between light and darkness happen in the first place? Is it simply a matter of disobedience to this rather obscure commandment lodged in the middle of the New Testament in one of the most little known epistles of the apostle Paul? I don't think so. When Paul tells believers not to be yoked together with unbelievers, he fortifies this prohibition with several comparisons. We do well to see them. At the same time, he helps us better understand what he means by being "yoked" together. Let's look his words. What partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? If any word describes a marriage it's "partnership." And what is partnership but two people agreeing to function together as a unit. In business the members of the partnership may have different roles and responsibilities, but they represent each other in the varying activities they perform. This is no different in a marriage. The roles between husband and wife are different, but the responsibilities of each come together as a unified expression of the partnership. So Paul asks, how can righteousness and lawlessness exist in a partnership? Now let's not misunderstand the apostle, he's not saying that the lawless person is an axe murderer or an anarchist. What he's saying is that the believer makes all decisions in life on the basis of submission to the Lordship of Christ, under the Fatherhood of God. The unbeliever doesn't make decisions on anything in life with reference to God. How then can the two be in partnership? It's impossible. What fellowship has light with darkness? Fellowship literally means "to share." Again, marriage is a perfect example of two people sharing everything in sickness and in health, in plenty and in poverty. In marriage this fellowship is of the most intimate kind. The one flesh lifelong covenant union of a man and woman is the closest of all human relationships. Is it no wonder that divorce is so frequently a bitter and hurtful separation? And yet, the apostle tells us that joining a believer and an unbeliever in this type fellowship is like light sharing with darkness. How does that work? Light dispels darkness, and darkness tries to suppress light. The presence of one is the absence of the other. It's utterly impossible for them to share. It isn't just ill-advised, it's inconceivable (and that word means what I think it means). What accord has Christ with Belial? Belial is a term used as a synonym for Satan. It's like saying, what accord does Christ have with anti-Christ? Now this is a strong statement, and one that we do well to understand before we allow it to become inflammatory. Paul is not saying that unbelievers are Satan, or that they are the "personification of evil." What he's saying is that the whole world lies under the power of Satan (1 John 5:19), and that all those who are not saved through Christ are the children of the Devil (Matthew 13:38). They are not aware of their servitude. They think they are the "Jack Sparrow" of their own vessel, but really they are the servants of their appetites and lusts (Romans 6:16) and the followers of the "prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:1-2). So how can someone who belongs to Christ have agreement with someone who serves the one who is against Christ? The young man above didn't see with spiritual eyes the nice girl he wanted to date. "It's not like she's a satanist," he said. But that is exactly what all of us are apart from Christ. We are of our father the Devil (John 8:44) until Jesus reclaims us for God by his grace. Don't infuse into the word "satanist" all the hype of Hollywood. The young lady in question is an unwitting servant, but she is a servant nonetheless, and so were each of us who have since been "delivered from the domain of darkness, and transferred [into] the kingdom of God's beloved Son" (Colossians 3:13). There can be no agreement between the bond-slave of Christ and the servant of "spirit of the world." What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? Whatever happens to a believer in this life, no matter how difficult, he is known as one who trusts in his Father. As a true Father, God is his Protector. God is his Provider. God is his Portion. Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. This isn't true of the unbeliever. His portion is what he can gain for himself in this world. This is why the believer and the unbeliever have different priorities, different purposes, and even different passions. One is driven to live in light of things unseen, the other for what he can touch, taste, and see. The one finds his portion in God alone, the other only in what God gives. The one receives God's gifts as a means of glorifying the Giver. The other takes them as if they were his own hard-earned spoils. How can they possibly share the same portion? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Let's wrap things up. This one is very similar to there being no accord (agreement) between Christ and Beliah, but Paul brings it up so that we will see something additional and profound. There can be no agreement between the believer and the unbeliever because the believer is the temple of God. He has the Holy Spirit in him. He worships the true God in spirit and truth. The unbeliever also worships, but not knowing the true God, he is an idolater. He may not go to a pagan temple and sacrifice an animal to Belial, but every day when he looks in the mirror, lusts after the woman in the next cubicle, or envies his friend over his recent promotion, he is worshipping his idols. How can one who worships only God be in agreement with one who worships anything that brings him pleasure? It can't be. There may be several reasons why Christians get themselves into serious, marriage intending relationships with unbelievers, but there's a possible reason that may be predominate: they're not Christians. It's very likely that the reason they find so much in common with an unbeliever, one with whom they have arrived at a depth of relationship that would make marriage possible, is because they truly have so much in common. Those professing Christians who have found themselves in such a situation should take a long hard look at their spiritual state. They should "test themselves to see if they are in the faith" (2 Corinthians 13:5). I would suggest the same diligence be applied even by those Christians who have gone down this path only to be saved from it by a broken heart or a converted partner. The fact that it ended for the good or the bad doesn't mean that the professing believer was not entangled with one who knows nothing of God's grace. Their common interests, goals, and thoughts may be a strong indication that they shared the same spiritual master. It does not need to remain that way. God's grace is truly amazing! Finally, one last thought. These words of the apostle Paul, tucked away in this under-appreciated epistle, are a challenge to all of us. Is our faith in Jesus such that it has made us very different people from those around us who lack this faith? Does our faith make us wait on God for his protection and his provision even when our fears and our desires are demanding to be satisfied? Does our faith make us worship God alone, or are we also caught with our unbelieving neighbors in the relentless pursuit of false gods? We can learn much from this admonishment if we will take the time to think deeply upon it. Note: If we see unbelievers as Paul has outlined them in this text from 2 Corinthians, then we will be much more compassionate, patient, and gospel centered people. We will understand why they do the things they do, and we will pray for them, witness to them, and be to them the love of Christ. But we will not engage ourselves with them in partnership and fellowship as we cannot truly share together in those things which are most important.

Jesus: Prince of Peace? by Derek Marx

Matthew 10:34-37 Jesus- Prince of Peace? -As you can tell from our Scripture reading, I’m going to share some thoughts that perhaps are not what one would call a traditional Christmas message. And the reason why I’m going to kind of change gears here tonight is because I assume that for most of us here, we are all to some degree familiar with the Christmas story- in fact we are going to watch the children tell it to us- and I assume that we all here to some degree are not complete strangers to Christianity. And so what I want to do, assuming my assumptions are correct about most of you, is to be very real with you tonight about Jesus. And I say this because I wonder for how many people, is the baby in the humble manger the closest that some might want get to Jesus. And no doubt, the story of the shepherds keeping their watch by night, the wise men, Mary and Joseph, and the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes is an amazing story- one that is most moving. And it’s in the context of that moving story, that this holiday season is associated then with good feelings, giving, getting together, and so on. And I get all of that; I enjoy all of that and think all that stuff is great. -But I fear that for so many people, that’s the closest that they want to get to Jesus. They don’t want to deal with him beyond the humble manger scene. He’s safe to them as long as their dealings with him are no more than seeing him as the humble baby- so many want a safe and non-threatening Jesus. I’m reminded of an interesting dialogue that takes place in the movie, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” in the Chronicles of Narnia. The scene is when the two girls, Lucy and Susan, are talking with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. The beaver couple is telling the girls about this person called Aslyn who is the mighty lion and king of Narnia- and of course Aslyn represents Christ in the story. Upon their hearing that Aslyn is not a man but a lion, the girls then ask the beavers whether Aslyn is safe or not. Mrs. Beaver responds by saying that “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslyn without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” So then the young girl Lucy then repeats the question, “then he isn’t safe?” To which Mr. Beaver responds with, “Safe?, don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king.” -What’s going on there? I think what’s going on there is that the beavers are trying to convey that this good lion king, is someone who is not to be trifled with. He’s someone not to be crossed. He’s not safe. And folks what I’m getting at is that the baby that laid in the manger (the one that the Christmas season is centered around) would grow up to become a man who in a real sense is not safe. Oh he is very good indeed, but he’s someone not to be trifled with. -Well you might be wondering to yourself at this point how in the world this precious humble Jesus would make such a stir for people. Well look again at our text, what does it say? It says that this Jesus, the one whose story of his birth brings warm and fuzzy feelings and is the occasion of bringing so many people together on this holiday season, this Jesus is actually going to be the one who becomes the great divider of humanity. This Jesus, who is indeed the Prince of Peace that we sing about, in another sense came to not bring peace to mankind, but to split it. There is something about who is this baby is and what he does when he grows up that has that kind of effect upon the human race. As we see in Jesus’ words this split is so great and real, that it reaches into the most intimate and closest of human relationships. It separates children from their parents and in-laws from one another- it separates family members. Why are people brought into this kind of predicament? -What’s this division over and how is Jesus at the center of it? Well the answer to that question has to do with the fact that the loyalties that Jesus demands are so great, the commitment that he calls his followers to is so all life encompassing, that when one becomes a true follower of Christ (what we would call a true Christian), the principal and heart commitment that that person now operates out of is so utterly opposed to and against the principal and heart commitment from which non-followers of Christ operate out of. (repeat)Do you see what I mean? Jesus makes such claims and demands and has such an effect upon those who take him up on those claims and demands that he produces a loyalty in his followers so deep so as to take precedent over all other loyalties in their lives- a loyalty that even supercedes one’s love and commitment to their own family members. -You see folks, Jesus is someone that you and I cannot be ambivalent or neutral about. He’s someone that we can’t be lukewarm about- that option does not even exist. Some people think that that option exists but it doesn’t. For example, some people are fond of the example that Jesus left us in his life and “moral” teachings, but they don’t want to take him up on the claims that he makes about himself; they like to pick and choose what things they’re willing to believe for whatever fits their fancy- a kind of have a so-so attitude towards him. But in reality that “middle of the road” or “so-so” attitude toward Jesus is nothing really other than opposition against him. Jesus himself in Matthew 12:30 said that to not be for him is to be against him- no neutrality. (Pause) You know as I get older, I’ve come to see that there are many issues in life that we cannot take an all or nothing approach to. Life presents us with complexities in some of our decision making that forces us at times to take a middle of the road stance. But with Jesus, there is no such thing as that middle of the road stance, with him it’s either all or nothing. I either take him for all that he is or I have none of him. -That’s what Jesus meant when he said that he came to bring a sword. He didn’t come to bring a political sword or start national upheavals, but rather he came to bring a war, a division, that would result in a dividing men’s hearts, men’s loyalties. That’s why he’s not safe; that’s why he can’t be trifled with. He makes such strong calls to commitment to himself from all who hear his Word. -Well, you might be asking to yourself, over what matters does Jesus make this kind of division? Why do men’s loyalties divide over his claims? Well you see Jesus’ claims are all tied together with his purpose for coming into the world. And that purpose is all wrapped up in dealing once and for all with a big three letter word- sin. Jesus came to deal with men’s sin problem. And the problem is, our own sinfulness keeps up from seeing how he has done that. You see, sin, is that innate desire that all of us have by nature to live apart from God- to be our own captains, our own masters. We don’t want to be accountable to the God who has made us. And it’s interesting because there is a sense in which all people know something of this sin problem. We all have consciences that condemn us as guilty. And what winds up happening amongst people who know that they have this problem is that they usually wind up doing one of two things. -They either suppress that guilt or they try deal with it in their own way. Men suppress that guilt in a variety of ways. They may do that by ignoring it and trying to drown it out by the busy things going on in their lives. Some people get more sophisticated and they try to turn to some form of atheism to make them feel that they’ve escaped accountability. But for some people, they know that this guilt is real and so they want to deal with it to make them feel like God has been pacified. And that’s where most religion comes from. It comes from this desire to make people feel like they’re good and they’ve done something that deals with their sin problem. -Well do you want to know why Jesus makes such a division amongst men’s loyalties? It’s because he comes into the world and you want to know what he says, he says that ‘I’m the only one that can deal with your sin problem. ‘ You can read on your own all the many times that this idea is communicated by Jesus in John’s gospel account alone; how many times he tells us that he who had the Son has life. He who doesn’t believe on the Son does not have life but the wrath of God abides upon him. Over and over we read in the Scriptures how Christ is the only God appointed way to deal with men’s sin. In that sense, he truly is the only Prince of Peace. He alone can make peace between God and man through his life and atoning work on the cross. -Do you see how that claim cuts at most people’s hearts? How it strikes a bad nerve with them? Jesus’ claim tells men that they can’t be their own saviors. It tells them that they are helpless and hopeless without him. It tears down man’s pride, who again, is showing through all his religious endeavors that he doesn’t want to listen to God. God has clearly manifested in history and in His Word who the Savior is. But man still wants to cleave to his own devices and wisdom in trying to bring peace between himself and God. -This is why Jesus is the great divider of humanity. It’s because when a person is brought by the Spirit of God to the place where they now are finding that Jesus alone deserves their loyalty, He alone can save and He alone had the rights to the throne of their hearts, that person is now renouncing all the other myriads of forms of man-made wisdom and religion that most of the world is still following after. There is a division made in loyalties. That person now sees all of that stuff as untrue, as deceptive, and as foolish. Jesus is now truly seen for all that he is, as truly the way, the truth, and the life and that no one goes to the Father except through Him. -And so people, this Jesus who was once a babe in a manger would someday grow up to be a man who in a real sense is not safe. His claims are so real and big, claims which he has made good on by being raised from the dead after his death on the cross, that to not own him and take him up has dire and everlasting consequences. For if you will not take him as the only one able to save you from your sins, the only Savior that God the Father has ever appointed to do this work, then you yourself will have to answer for those sins. Your guilt will be on your head. And so Jesus is not safe because it’s either believe on Him for eternal life or it’s reject Him unto an everlasting punishment. But, if you remember, just as Mr. Beaver told Lucy and Susan that Aslyn the lion wasn’t safe, he also told them that he was good. And as we’ve seen that Jesus is one sense isn’t safe, he also is good. He is good on all of his promises. And do you want to know what he promises? He promises that to all who come to him, he will never cast out. If you start to see the reality of your guilt and sin and you want to come to him as a sinner renouncing yourself as the captain of your own ship, renouncing your own strength and efforts to save yourself, in other words if you want to come to him with child-like faith, (like a child who has nothing to bring), he will take you in as one of his own and be your Savior. And he doesn’t care how old you are (how much time you’ve squandered) or what you’ve done, he is also a merciful and good Savior. He may be like a lion, but he is also gentle like a lamb who will never reject anyone one who comes to Him with a repenting and believing heart.

Look At Your Judgment and Be Healed

As we prepare our hearts for worship and the Lord's Supper at EmmanuelSGF this week, I was drawn to think about a passage in Numbers where the Israelites began to complain about their experience in the desert. Numbers 21:4-5 4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Wow! And I thought modern American's were fickle and forgetful. They were miraculously taken out of slavery, guided by fire at night and a cloud to shade them during the day, and fed manna from heaven. And yet, they complain against God! Their ingratitude was the evidence of their faithlessness. And so God brought a judgment upon them for their sin, and it wasn't just any judgment. Pointing their minds back to the garden of Eden, God sends upon them fiery serpents, poisonous vipers to strike them dead. v6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. These serpents are an emblem of Satan who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden and brought the whole human race under judgment, a judgment of death. These poisonous vipers remind us of the Fall and the fact that all men are born under a curse and are held captive through the fear of death by the one who holds the power of death, the Devil (Hebrews 2:14,15). And so the people cry out to Moses acknowledging their sin and asking him to pray that the Lord would relent his just judgment upon them. v7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord answered Moses and told him to make a bronze copy of the serpent and put it on a pole so that all could see. vs.8-9 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. It has always been unclear to me, until now, why God commanded Moses to put a serpent on the pole. The serpent was what was killing the people. Why look at that which is killing you in order to be saved from it? Doesn't really make sense...or does it? Of course it does. It was not the serpents that were the cause of their dying in the wilderness. Sure, they were the instrument used by God to bring about death among the people, but the cause behind their dying was their sin. The serpent was a judgment of God upon them, and death was the verdict rendered against sin before Adam ever committed the first sin: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) When we see that the serpent was a judgment of God, it makes sense for the people look at their own judgment to be saved. There must be repentance. They must see that this is what they deserved. And in being able to look at their own guilt and the just punishment that was upon them, God healed them. And all of this was ordained to happen that it might point to the only true and ultimate Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He took this very incident in the history of Israel and applied it to himself. John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. What was the cross upon which the Son of Man was lifted up? It was a symbol of God's judgment. It is what each of us deserve. It is "an emblem of suffering and shame." Jesus, the perfect One, who had no sin, was lifted up on the cross to bear the punishment due to sinners, the just judgment of God that is upon us all. And like the Israelites who looked at the bronze serpent in the wilderness, anyone who will look to the Savior on the cross, seeing and acknowledging that it is their guilt and their sin that sent him there, will have eternal life. The Israelites looked at the serpent and lived...only to one day die. Those who look at Jesus on the cross will live...never to die again! But they must see the cross for what it is. It is the judgment of God against their sin. Only those who have truly acknowledge their sin against God will be able to look to the cross and see it for what it truly is. So as we gather this week for the Lord's Supper, let's remember that we are proclaiming his death (his death in our place) until he comes again! He has delivered us from the wrath to come. He has delivered us from bondage to Satan and the fear of death. He has, by being himself the Victor by his death and resurrection, given us the victory! Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

Make a Joyful Noise

"Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!" Psalm 100:1,2

As we prepare to come together as a church this Sunday, let’s draw our minds to what the Bible says about worship. When we do, we will discover that worship has many sides to it. Sometimes worship is completely silent and still, an act of reverence that would lose its sincerity and its appropriateness if one were to utter a single word.

Hab. 2:20 “But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Zeph. 1:7 “Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.”

Zech. 2:13 “Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

Sometimes worship is simply action, the offering up of our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Rom. 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” But most frequently, worship in the Bible is consistent with Psalm 100. It involves joy, noise, and singing. The Christian is to be, above all people, a joyful person. He has been saved by the sovereign grace of God. He has been redeemed from death and destruction and given a personally undeserved title to the kingdom of God. How can he not make a joyful noise to the Lord? How can he not come into the presence of God with singing?

As a matter of fact, so loud and vocal is the worship of God among His people that the psalmist describes the worship of God like this:

Psalm 66:1-3a “Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!” It would be very wrong of us to read these verses as if they only applied only within a specific cultural context, or as if somehow the people of God could choose between what kind of worship they want to give based on their personalities. Different types of worship are right for different situations, but not for different people. Sometimes the right response in worship is silence or quietness. Sometimes the right response is shouting for joy. It is not about our personalities. It is not about our culture. It is about responding to the glory of God in a manner appropriate to the manifestation of that glory to our minds and hearts.

So we will be greatly benefitted if we refuse to neglect the point of the Psalms: The worship of God is very frequently to be loud! The above verses in Psalm 66 are not promoting senseless shouting, but they are commanding God’s people to raise their voices in the proclamation of His praise! They are to make noise, joyful noise unto God.

Think about this before coming into worship this Sunday. Is your heart so thankful to God for his salvation, so in awe of him because of his awesome deeds and his glorious character that making a joyful noise unto him is simply the right thing to do? Is there joy in you enough to make noise unto the Lord and proclaim with a loud voice his glorious praise? If not, then it is not because God has not given you enough reason to have this kind of joy. It is very likely that you do not have your eyes where they should be. All of us are often in need of having our perspective adjusted so we can begin again to see things clearly.

So let’s take time yet tonight and early in the morning to prepare our hearts. To meditate on the greatness of God, on the glory of God, on the mighty works of God, and on his grace given to us in Christ Jesus. Then may we purpose to come together to worship him rightly, with a joyful noise, singing his praises!

And when we do, let us remember that all worship, no matter how quiet, or how loud, is to always be done with reverence and awe.

Hebrews 12:28-29 “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Pastor Jude Speaks to the 21st Century

"Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” Jude 22-23

The letter of Jude addresses the need for Christians to watch out for false teachers who creep into the church and promote teachings that deny the Lord Jesus and pervert the grace of God into sensuality (v.4). These false teachers were having a deadly impact on the church as they were successfully seducing professing Christians to follow them in their godless thinking and living.

But the church is not only molested from within, the very culture in which we live is a culture “against God” both in its ideologies and its lifestyle. Science is trumpeted as the great God-slayer, and promiscuity fills the void as men can now seek pleasure without a second thought to its consequences. Just take a normal day on almost every university campus. By day professors preach every kind of “ism” you can imagine in an attempt to rid the students of the religious baggage they brought with them when they entered the acedemic promised land. By night co-ed dorms are astir with a degree of immorality that would shock the average adult over 30. How are young Christians to survive?

Jude was seeing the same kind of temptations afoot in the 1st century, and his pastoral heart sought to help believers survive the onslaught of false teachings and ungodly examples that were against them. Thus, at the end of his letter he exhorts us to four things that are necessary to our survival.

Number 1: Keep yourselves in the love of God and the expectation of Christ’s return. This is especially important these days when the love of God is thought of more like the love of a permissive grandparent then the love of the holy Creator. God’s love is seen by most as His desire to do good for everyone. And the really “cool” part is that we get to define what is good for us. But Jude saw the love of God less like a giant flood light casting its soft glow over the whole world, and more like a laser beam powerfully saving every person within its piercing ray. We keep oursevles in the love of God when we make sure we are never to be found outside of His Son, the Lord Jesus. You see, the love of God is found in his Son. Jesus is the “Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). He is “His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased” (Matthew 17:5). Jesus is the object of God’s unmitigated love. If we want to keep ourselves in the love of God, then we need to make sure we are in His Son. In Christ we have everything we could ever need. Outside of Christ is the just wrath of God. There is no middle ground. We either stand by grace safely in Jesus, or we stand under a curse. Therefore, Jude encourages these first century believers to keep themselves in the love of God and keep their hearts ready for the expectant return of Christ!

Number 2: Have mercy on those who doubt. Charles Spurgeon once said, “It is not possible, I suppose, so long as man is in this world, that he should be perfect in anything; and surely it seems to be quite impossible that he should be perfect in faith.”

Doubt is something that every Christian will face now and again in his life. Whether it be by the assault of worldly philosophies or so the called scientific discoveries of the day, the faith of a Christian will be tested. When loved ones turn from the faith, or live lives wholly unbecoming of a believer it is enough to send the tender faith of a true saint into a fit of doubt. Jude recognizes this temptation, and he recognizes that it is not the sign of a false profession but the sign of a faith in need of help. Therefore, he tells these believers to “have mercy on those who doubt.”

Why should we have mercy? Because if we stand in grace by faith, it is soley by grace that we have the faith to stand. Believers who are beginning to struggle with doubts need other believers whose faith is strong to come to their aid and encourage their faith with the word of God and the hope of Jesus’ coming.

Spurgeon went on to say, “I think I shall be quite safe in concluding this morning, that there are some here who are full of doubting and fearing. Sure I am that all true Christians have their times of anxious questioning. The heart that hath never doubted has not yet learned to believe.”

We need to be merciful to our brothers and sisters who are doubting. But we also need to take it seriously. Those who doubt need help, and they need it fast. Jude begins by addressing those who doubt, and ends with those who have fallen away completely. Doubt is the first step to falling.

Number 3: Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Some began with doubts, and their doubts slowly drew them away from Jesus and into the false ideologies and false way of living that characterize the false teachers they have been listening to. Jude tells those who are keeping themselves in the love of God to snatch these stumbling one’s from the fire. They are about to step over a precipice and come under the judgment of God. We must waste no time, and show no concern for how we may be viewed by them. They need “snatched” from the fire. The boldness that can only come from love must be exercised to warn and deliver these stumbling ones from an eternity of misery.

"A partial defection is incident even to the godly themselves. I may call it temporary; for they may be left for a considerable time, to make many woeful steps of defection from Christ and his ways; as is plain from the instances of David, Peter, Abraham, and many others. But when they fall, they are like wood or cork, falling into water, who, though they sink at first, yet they rise again by faith and repentance, which influence the reformation of their lives, and which, in pursuit of the divine purpose of grace for their salvation, are actuated in them by the Holy Spirit, according to Psal. 37:24: “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” - Ebenezer Erskine (English Puritan)

Number 4: "To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” For some, doubt has given way to temptation and temptation to apostasy. Some have turned against Christ and followed the ways of the world. They are now fully engaged in the ideologies and lifestyle of the culture that surrounds them. And yet, even to these we are to show mercy.

Christians are not what our modern culture calls “haters.” The lives of true believers are makred by love and joy and gentleness and kindness. These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit who is in them. But many who take the name of Jesus and profess religion and attend a church are carnal and completely without the Spirit of God. The fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 6:22) is not in them because they have never truly been born again. But the world around us doesn’t understand this difference. They think of all Christians as “haters.”

But the prevalence of false professors in our churches is not the only reason the world sees Christians as hateful. Even the true Christian, saved by grace and manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in his life, is still a sinner. As J C Ryle once said, “the best of men are men at best.” As much goodness and kindness as we may show to those around us, one slip of the tongue is all a watching world needs to trample the us under their feet. And they are quick to seize any opportunity we may give them no matter how sorry we are or how ardently we seek to make amends. This “no-win-situation” the believer must endure with patience and complete trust in his Savior, the Lord Jesus. We are not justified by our goodness. We will stumble and we will sin. Sometimes we may even do what we never thought possible. But we must ever be known by our repentance and faith in Jesus. We must ever be known by our mercy to others as those how have received mercy from God and daily rely on that same mercy.

Finally, there is one other reason that the world sees Christians as “haters.” As Christians, we are human beings made in the image of God. Therefore, we have and excercise the capacity to love some things and hate other things. The world loves sin and hates Christians. The Christian loves people and hates sin. As Pastor Jude says, we are to “hate even the garment stained by the flesh.” But when we hate sin, the world translates that into hating people. So if I am one who believes that homosexuality is a sin and that God will judge those who do not repent and continue to practice it, then in the world’s eyes I am one who hates homosexuals. They don’t have a category for hating sin and loving the sinner.

But regardless of the many reasons the world may have for hating true Christians, we are nonetheless duty bound by Christ to show mercy to them with fear. We are to hate the sin that they practice while at the same time we are to love them with our actions and our words. Above all things, we are to be merciful. But we must watch out that we do not fall into sin with them. We are to show mercy with fear. Satan is like a roaring lion seeking to devour those who claim allegiance to Christ. We must show ourselves to be Christians indeed by listening to the warnings our Savior gives us in his word. We are to show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. God is powerful to save even the most hardened sinner. The apostle Paul was the leader of a group of Christian killers. And yet, the grace of God turned this “hater” into his own mouthpiece to take the gospel to the world. So we must show mercy with fear, for God may yet save our most zealous persecutors.

These words from Jude written almost a millennia ago are so appropriate for us living in the early part of the twentieth century. We do well to here his message and put it to practice in our lives. May it move us to walk more aware of the influences of the culture and more ready to help those of our brethren who have begun to struggle with doubts or even falter and stumble.

"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

mattersofinterpretation-deactiv

Roger E. Olson has a post at Patheos (HT: Fred Sanders and Justin Taylor) discussing the need for evangelical Arminians to promote a, as the title has it, “Robust Arminian Theology for Lay People (Especially Youth).” This need has arisen, Olson explains, because of the spread of the “new...

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by Charles Edmisten, III

Don't I Deserve Better?

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Phil. 2:12-13

I have always loved these two verses. I have a personal history with them that makes them especially important in my life. The command to work out our salvation while all the time knowing that it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure is one of the most liberating statements in all of the Bible. No confusion here. I must do something: obey God. And when I do it, I can rest assured that God is the one causing me to want to obey and giving me the power to bring real obedience into reality. But what has struck me recently from this passage is what follows these verses. Instead of giving us instructions on what we should do, Paul gives us instruction on how we should do everything. In other words, he gives us a motive and not a method. "Do all things without grumbling or disputing…" Have you ever taken the time to pay attention to your own words throughout any given day? It’s no secret that we live in a culture of complaint. So prevalent is this tendency to grumble that Christians can barely make it through a single day without engaging in some form of discontent about the circumstance in which they find themselves. People complain about the weather, their jobs, their bosses, the food in the cafeteria, their spouses, their children, the shortness of the weekend, the loss by their favorite football team, and on and on and on and on. There is no limit to the opportunities for grumbling. Why is this? Why do we complain about our circumstances? Well, let me suggest that the main, if not the only reason we complain is because we think we deserve better. Certainly some circumstances can be very difficult, even painful. But regardless of the circumstances, grumbling is the response of a person who believes he deserves better. We grumble because things aren’t the way we want them to be, and we all seem to be convinced that how we want them to be is how we deserve for them to be. Quite against this seemingly natural tendency, Paul tells those who follow Jesus to do everything in life without grumbling or disputing. No matter what circumstances they are in, no matter what they are called to do in life, they are to do it without complaint. But how are they going to be like this? Everyone around them is filled with complaint. They were raised to think they should have what they want in life. How are they going to break I the mold and be different?

First, let’s look at what they will be like if they actually break the mold and do everything without grumbling or disputing. The next verse tells us that when we do all things without complaint, we will be blameless children of God shining like lights in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation. "…that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." The world is so full of complaint, so crooked and twisted in their thinking, so utterly centered on the unquestioned presupposition that they deserve better than what they have. When Christians do everything in life in every circumstance without grumbling and disputing, they stand out like lights. When we live like this we become like stars against a black sky. We contrast with the background of a world that can’t even comprehend a people who do all things without complaint, endure all things with joy, and receive all things with thanksgiving. How can people live like that? The answer to that question is simple and yet profound. The answer is because they believe the gospel! True Christians are people who by grace have come to believe what the Bible says about them and about God. They see with clarity that no matter how bad things might be for them (and things can get pretty bad), they have not received what they deserve. Surely this is a good reason not to complain. But it doesn’t stop there for a Christian.

Anyone with their eyes open to what is happening around them can conclude that things could be much worse, and for many people they are. But for the Christian, he sees that what is deserved is infinitely worse than anything that can be experienced in this life, in this body, on this earth. The believer knows that he has been delivered from the just wrath of a truly holy God. Wrath is what is deserved because sin and rebellion is what rules in our hearts. Even the kindest and gentlest of people are rebellious against God in their hearts. So when a Christian thinks about what he deserves, all the difficulties in life pale in comparison.

But even this is not all. The Christian not only sees what he deserves and does not receive, but also sees the wonder of what has been given that is not deserved. The Bible puts the emphasis here. Sure, we must deal honestly with sin and wrath and judgment. But above and beyond and to an incomparable degree, God’s grace has given us more than we could ever imagine. As God’s word declares, “where sin abounded, grace did super-abound” (Rom. 5:20).

It is grace freely given that moves us to look at our lives so differently. We are the children of God, and what we one day will be has not yet appeared. But when he appears we shall be like him (1 John 3:2) and that will be something that takes all the earthly suffering and difficulty and turns it into momentary, light (only by comparison) affliction (2 Cor. 4:17).

So we can do all things without grumbling…in all things give thanks…and rejoice in the Lord always, because we have believed the gospel. And through that gospel, we have come to know that we have not been given what we deserve, but to a super-abounding degree we have been given what we don’t, and never could deserve…grace!!

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