CAMPONTHIS

THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION and EVANGELICAL CO-BELLIGERENCE...the ineffectual intersection of politics and faith

2009-11-24T11:21:00.003-06:00

“The goal of both the church and the state is to advance the public good.”

-Francis Beckwith

The ultimate goal of the church biblically

is not the public good,

but the glory of God in the proclamation

and advancement of His gospel of sola fide.

God, not the audience, is sovereign.

The “public good” is political speak for tolerance.

The gospel, however, does divide;

it is a stumbling block, offensive and foolishness

for those who are perishing.

Here we go again!

In the face of President Obama's economic wasteland and political indecision vacuum concerning Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq; coupled with an abortion provision being slipped into the latest health care bill championed by Harr Reid yand company - the religious right has found reason again to try itself in the political arena through The Manhattan Declaration.

It is nothing more than ECT (Evangelicals and Catholics Together) and Justice Sunday revisited. Same framers and advocates of the benign philosophy of political remedy for moral malady. The religious right of the past 24 years has all but been silenced. And despite the grass-root efforts by many well respected evangelical leaders and politicians, our country remains unchanged on key social and family issues. So once again, those who are impassioned about important social issues from a "faith perspective" such as abortion, same sex marriage, and religious liberty and freedom, are all but silent about the real "faith solution" for these same issues. The solution being regeneration through the Lord Jesus Christ and not political legislation. The solution for the Christian must be Gospel-Centered; Christ-Centered; and Cross-Centered. Anything less is ineffectual in bringing real resolve spiritually to these concerns.

The lack of sea change in American society to a conservative political ethic for many of us has been frustrating. But attempting to fight spiritual battles with carnal weaponry is just as disappointing. Christians who in the past have sought real change on key cultural issues did so, in part, absent of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. IOW, the gospel became the afterthought, not the primary thought. That failed strategery to keep the proclamation of the gospel center in a righteous quest I have defined as Evangelical Co-Belligerence (ECB).

I offer the following definition:

Creating alliances with individuals or groups who do not share belief in or with orthodox biblical Christianity, in order to fight an agreed upon social, moral, cultural cause that seeks to undermine the traditional family and family values. This includes, but not limited to: gay marriage; abortion; euthanasia; etc. and those who aid, influence, or control such societal moral decline such as the Supreme Court, Congress, state and local officials, and a run-a-way Federal Judiciary. This is accomplished by using boycotts, petitions, picketing, legislation... any political remedies available to resolve the moral maladies in our nation.

This is further accomplished by organizing evangelicals/local churches as PAC's, lobbyist groups, or as some refer to as "Christocrats", as Christian voting blocks to threaten with militant tones sitting politicians with the prospect of not being reelected if they fail to adopt the ECB moral/family agenda. This tactic is being championed by many evangelical leaders, seminary presidents and pastors absent of the authority of Scripture, absent of the preaching of God's Word, and absent of the heralding of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. -Steve Camp, July 14, 2005

Christianity in culture does have impact and does produce change. But it only does so as long as Christianity doesn't become a political organization and remains at its very core deeply gospel-centered. Is it wrong for believers to enter politics? Of course not. Is it wrong for Christians in politics to use their office, driven by a biblical worldview, for the good of society and their fellow man as say Wilberforce did on the issue of slavery? Absolutely not. But the church itself is not driven by the brilliance of U.S. Constitutional ethics, but by the Scriptures of the living God.

So again, what is the solution to the plight our nation finds itself in? The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that brief answer is not about offering cultural reform back to an era of family values and more virtuous days. Jesus Christ did not come to transform America, but to transform Americans. The gospel is not the new nationalism for the conservative, but the hope for any sinner (like me and you) who by God's sovereign electing love trusts that eternal life and salvation is attained only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord alone.

IOW beloved, in this hour in our nations history may I propose a simple mandate: it is time for the church to be the church.

Gospel-driven Worship:

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Gospel-driven Welfare:

44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

Gospel-driven Witness:

47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

HE MUST INCREASE - I MUST DECREASE...challenging protestant popery and the cult of personality within the pastorate

2009-11-18T18:13:00.001-06:00

I was speaking with a friend of mine recently who asked an intriguing question: "why is it that it seems that most famous pastors of large mega-churches in the media tend to have unbelievable egos about them?" Generalizations aside, there is some truth to that in that question. I think the answer is simple: we have made personalities of them and given them power, admiration, and authority that is not in keeping with servant-leadership or imitating Christ; and their lofty platforms, prove more times than not, very difficult for any man to handle. When sectarian loyalty abounds (1 Cor. 3), then believing ones own press release becomes a real danger. Even the best-intentioned subordinates on church staffs can succumb to this pressure when much of their time is spent trying to get close to "the senior pastor" and remain in his good graces for either reasons of influence, job security, or to gain advancement by riding on anothers coattails.

Whatever the reason, what is true in the secular business world known as "brown nosing" is sadly true within the Christian community as well. We don't like to admit it; we seldom talk about it; and very rarely challenge it. And in part, if one does, one might find oneself on the outs with some "leaders of influence" in local church or greater denominational circles.

That is why I am firmly against what I call "Protestant Popery"; and favor the biblical model of servant-leadership we see in the pastoral epistles. In saying that, I am blessed and very grateful to the Lord for my pastors at my home church who are a model for me of Christlike humility; who are submissive to the standard of God's Word as their final authority; who invest tirelessly in the daily lives of the people of the church; and who are content to be servants of Christ, instead of stars in evangelicalism. They have a low visibility, yet high impact for the kingdom of God. May their tribe increase!

Our Lord is not like what Tozer used to call "the glory boys of today." Paul said in 2 Cor. 10:1, "we are mindful of the humility and gentleness of Christ." What an example for pastors today. Our Lord, though King of kings and God in human flesh, humbled Himself as a bondservant (Phil. 2:5-11); washed His disciples feet (John 13:1-12); was a friend of sinners (Luke 7:31-50); embraced the cross despising the shame (Heb. 12:2); and even submitted to the injustices of evil men (Acts 2:19-23). Pastors of large influential media driven churches today need to follow Christ and His example of leadership. They need to come down to the people, take up the towel, water and washbasin, serve God’s people daily, be men of fervent prayer privately before ever ascending to the pulpit publicly. They need to be more than expositors--more than effective communicators and leaders; they need to be under-shepherds who smell like sheep and are invested in the lives of the people. They need to be on the radio less, writing fewer books, maintaining a low visibility on TV with making the news talk-show appearances a rarity, limiting personal appearances around the country, and in their churches more. They need to disciple their fellow elders, deacons and lay leaders every week. They need to be more than excellent orators; they need to servants (1 Cor. 4:1-2). Ministry in famous pulpits alone breeds not humility, servanthood and Christlikeness, but left imbalanced could result in increased power, unjustified authority, and fosters unbroken pride. What's the solution? Accountability. Who shepherds the shepherd each week beloved? Who does the pastor submit himself too for discipleship? Who is willing to challenge his words, evaluate his preaching, examine his life, and hold him responsible to his holy charge from heaven? (2 Tim. 4:1-5).

May I encourage you today to email this to as many pastors, youth group leaders, missionaries, elders and deacons as you can. It will convict them, and in turn, bless them. Pray for your pastors and leaders at your church. Love them, serve them, encourage them, exhort them, and walk with them (Heb. 13:7; 17). May the following words give you some good insight in beginning to answer those important questions above.

Grace and peace,
Steve

To God be the glory alone; and may God help the man who takes any for himself.

“When all men honor us, then we may very well he content; but when the finger of scorn is pointed at us, when our character is held in ill repute, and men hiss us by the wayside, it requires much gospel knowledge to be able to endure that with patience and with cheerfulness. When we are increasing, and growing in rank, and honor, and human esteem, it is easy work to be contented; but when we have to say with John the Baptist, “I must decrease,” or when we see some other servant advanced to our place and another man bearing the palm we had longed to hold, it is not easy to sit still, and without an envious feeling cry with Moses, “Would to God that all the Lord’s servants were prophets.”

To hear another man praised at your own expense, to find your own virtues made as a foil to set forth the superior excellence of some new rival —this, I say, is beyond human nature, to be able to bear it with joy and thankfulness, and to bless God. There must be something noble in the heart of the man who is able to lay all his honors down as willingly as he took them up, when he can as cheerfully submit himself to Christ to humble him, as to lift him up and seat him upon a throne. And yet, my brethren, we have not any one of us learned what the apostle knew, if we are not as ready to glorify Christ by shame, by ignominy and by reproach, as by honor and by esteem among men. We must be ready to give up everything for him. We must be willing to go downwards, in order that Christ’s name may ascend upwards, and be the better known and glorified among men.

“I know how to be abased,” says the apostle.” (Phil. 4:11)

(author unknown)

THE CROSS OF CHRIST (pt 3)...the place of our constant boasting

2009-11-16T15:04:00.000-06:00

"Would I know the length and breadth of God the Father's love towards a sinful world? Where shall I see it most displayed? Shall I look at His glorious sun, shining down daily on the unthankful and evil? Shall I look at seed-time and harvest, returning in regular yearly succession? Oh, no! I can find a stronger proof of love than anything of this sort. I look at the cross of Christ. I see in it not the cause of the Father's love—but the effect. There I see that God so loved this wicked world, that He gave His only begotten Son."

by J.C. Ryle

III. Let me show, lastly, why all Christians ought to boast in the cross of Christ.

I feel that I must say something on this point, because of the ignorance that prevails about it. I suspect that many see no peculiar glory and beauty in the subject of Christ's cross. On the contrary, they think it painful, humbling, and degrading. They do not see much profit in the story of His death and sufferings. They rather turn from it as an unpleasant thing.

Now I believe that such people are quite wrong. I cannot hold with them. I believe it is an excellent thing for us all to be continually dwelling on the cross of Christ. It is a good thing to be often reminded how Jesus was betrayed into the hands of wicked men—how they condemned Him with most unjust judgment—how they spit on Him, scourged Him, beat Him, and crowned Him with thorns—how they led Him forth as a lamb to the slaughter, without His murmuring or resisting—how they drove the nails through His hands and feet, and set Him up on Calvary between two thieves—how they pierced His side with a spear, mocked Him in His sufferings, and let Him hang there naked and bleeding until He died. Of all these things, I say, it is good to be reminded. It is not for nothing that the crucifixion is described four times over in the New Testament. There are very few things that all four writers of the Gospel describe. Generally speaking, if Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell a thing in our Lord's history, John does not tell it. But there is one thing that all the four give us most fully, and that one thing is the story of the cross. This is a telling fact, and not to be overlooked.

People seem to forget that all Christ's sufferings on the cross were fore-ordained. They did not come on Him by chance or accident—they were all planned, counseled, and determined from all eternity. The cross was foreseen in all the provisions of the everlasting Trinity for the salvation of sinners. In the purposes of God the cross was set up from everlasting. Not one throb of pain did Jesus feel, not one precious drop of blood did Jesus shed, which had not been appointed long ago. Infinite wisdom planned that redemption should be by the cross. Infinite wisdom brought Jesus to the cross in due time. He was crucified "by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." (Acts 2:23.)

People seem to forget that all Christ's sufferings on the cross were necessary for man's salvation. He had to bear our sins, if ever they were to be borne at all. With His stripes alone could we be healed. This was the one payment of our debt that God would accept—this was the great sacrifice on which our eternal life depended. If Christ had not gone to the cross and suffered in our stead, the just for the unjust, there would not have been a spark of hope for us. There would have been a mighty gulf between ourselves and God, which no man ever could have passed.

"In Christ's humiliation stands our exaltation; in His weakness stands our strength; in His ignominy our glory; in His death our life."—Cudworth. 1613.

"The eye of faith regards Christ sitting on the summit of the cross as in a triumphal chariot; the devil bound to the lowest part of the same cross, and trodden under the feet of Christ."—Davenant on Colossians. 1627.

People seem to forget that all Christ's sufferings were endured voluntarily, and of His own free will. He was under no compulsion. Of His own choice He laid down His life—of His own choice He went to the cross in order to finish the work He came to do. He might easily have summoned legions of angels with a word, and scattered Pilate and Herod, and all their armies, like chaff before the wind. But He was a willing sufferer. His heart was set on the salvation of sinners. He was resolved to open "a fountain for all sin and uncleanness," by shedding His own blood. (Zech. 13:1.)

When I think of all this, I see nothing painful or disagreeable in the subject of Christ's cross. On the contrary, I see in it wisdom and power, peace and hope, joy and gladness, comfort and consolation. The more I keep the cross in my mind's eye, the more fullness I seem to discern in it. The longer I dwell on the cross in my thoughts, the more I am satisfied that there is more to be learned at the foot of the cross than anywhere else in the world.

(a) Would I know the length and breadth of God the Father's love towards a sinful world? Where shall I see it most displayed? Shall I look at His glorious sun, shining down daily on the unthankful and evil? Shall I look at seed-time and harvest, returning in regular yearly succession? Oh, no! I can find a stronger proof of love than anything of this sort. I look at the cross of Christ. I see in it not the cause of the Father's love—but the effect. There I see that God so loved this wicked world, that He gave His only begotten Son—gave Him to suffer and die—that "whoever believes in Him should not perish—but have eternal life." (John 3:16.) I know that the Father loves us, because He did not withhold from us His Son, His only Son. I might sometimes fancy that God the Father is too high and holy to care for such miserable, corrupt creatures as we are! But I cannot, must not, dare not think it, when I look at the cross of Christ.

"The world we live in would have fallen upon our heads, had it not been upheld by the pillar of the cross; had not Christ stepped in and promised a satisfaction for the sin of man. By this all things consist—not a blessing we enjoy but may put us in mind of it; they were all forfeited by sin—but merited by His blood. If we study it well we shall be sensible how God hated sin and loved a world."—Charnock.

(b) Would I know how exceedingly sinful and abominable sin is in the sight of God? Where shall I see that most fully brought out? Shall I turn to the history of the flood, and read how sin drowned the world? Shall I go to the shore of the Dead Sea, and mark what sin brought on Sodom and Gomorrah? Shall I turn to the wandering Jews, and observe how sin has scattered them over the face of the earth? No! I can find a clearer proof still! I look at the cross of Christ. There I see that sin is so black and damnable, that nothing but the blood of God's own Son can wash it away. There I see that sin has so separated me from my holy Maker, that all the angels in heaven could never have made peace between us. Nothing could reconcile us, short of the death of Christ. If I listened to the wretched talk of proud people, I might sometimes fancy sin was not so very sinful! But I cannot think little of sin, when I look at the cross of Christ.

(c) Would I know the fullness and completeness of the salvation God has provided for sinners? Where shall I see it most distinctly? Shall I go to the general declarations in the Bible about God's mercy? Shall I rest in the general truth that God is a "God of love"? Oh, no! I will look at the cross of Christ. I find no evidence like that. I find no balm for a sore conscience and a troubled heart, like the sight of Jesus dying for me on the accursed tree. There I see that a full payment has been made for all my enormous debts. The curse of that law which I have broken has come down on One who there suffered in my stead. The demands of that law are all satisfied. Payment has been made for me, even to the uttermost farthing. It will not be required twice over. Ah, I might sometimes imagine I was too bad to be forgiven! My own heart sometimes whispers that I am too wicked to be saved. But I know in my better moments this is all my foolish unbelief. I read an answer to my doubts in the blood shed on Calvary. I feel sure that there is a way to heaven for the very vilest of people, when I look at the cross.

(d) Would I find strong reasons for being a holy man? Where shall I turn for them? Shall I listen to the ten commandments merely? Shall I study the examples given me in the Bible of what grace can do? Shall I meditate on the rewards of heaven, and the punishments of hell? Is there no stronger motive still? Yes! I will look at the cross of Christ! There I see the love of Christ constraining me to "live not unto myself—but unto Him." There I see that I am not my own now—I am "bought with a price." (2 Cor. 5:15; 1 Cor. 6:20.) I am bound by the most solemn obligations to glorify Jesus with body and spirit, which are His. There I see that Jesus gave Himself for me, not only to redeem me from all iniquity—but also to purify me, and to make me one of a "peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:14.) He bore my sins in His own body on the tree, "that I being dead unto sin should live unto righteousness." (1 Pet. 2:24.) There is nothing so sanctifying as a clear view of the cross of Christ! It crucifies the world unto us, and us unto the world. How can we love sin, when we remember that because of our sins Jesus died? Surely none ought to be so holy as the disciples of a crucified Lord.

(e) Would I learn how to be contented and cheerful under all the cares and concerns of life? What school shall I go to? How shall I attain this state of mind most easily? Shall I look at the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, the providence of God, the love of God? It is well to do so. But I have a better argument still. I will look at the cross of Christ. I feel that "He who spared not His only-begotten Son—but delivered Him up to die for me, will surely with Him give me all things" that I really need. (Rom. 8:32.) He who endured such agony, sufferings, and pain for my soul, will surely not withhold from me anything that is really good. He who has done the greater things for me, will doubtless do the lesser things also. He who gave His own blood to procure me a home in heaven, will unquestionably supply me with all that is really profitable for me by the way. There is no school for learning contentment that can be compared with the foot of the cross!

(f) Would I gather arguments for hoping that I shall never be cast away? Where shall I go to find them? Shall I look at my own graces and gifts? Shall I take comfort in my own faith, and love, and penitence, and zeal, and prayer? Shall I turn to my own heart, and say, "this same heart will never be false and cold"? Oh, no! God forbid! I will look at the cross of Christ. This is my grand argument. This is my main stay. I cannot think that He who went through such sufferings to redeem my soul, will let that soul perish after all, when it has once cast itself on Him. Oh, no! what Jesus paid for, Jesus will surely keep. He paid dearly for it. He will not let it easily be lost. He called me to Himself when I was a dark sinner—He will never forsake me after I have believed. When Satan tempts us to doubt whether Christ's people will be kept from falling, we should tell Satan to look at the cross.

"The believer is so freed from eternal wrath, that if Satan and conscience say, 'You are a sinner, and under the curse of the law,' he can say, 'It is true, I am a sinner; but I was hanged on a tree and died, and was made a curse in my Head and Lawgiver Christ, and His payment and suffering is my payment and suffering.'"—Rutherford's Christ Dying. 1647.

And now, will you marvel that I said all Christians ought to boast in the cross? Will you not rather wonder that any can hear of the cross and remain unmoved? I declare I know no greater proof of man's depravity, than the fact that thousands of so-called Christians see nothing in the cross. Well may our hearts be called stony—well may the eyes of our mind be called blind—well may our whole nature be called diseased—well may we all be called dead, when the cross of Christ is heard of and yet neglected. Surely we may take up the words of the prophet, and say, "Hear, O heavens, and be astonished O earth; an astounding and a horrible thing is done,"—Christ was crucified for sinners, and yet many Christians live as if He was never crucified at all!

(a) The cross is the grand peculiarity of the Christian religion. Other religions have laws and moral precepts, forms and ceremonies, rewards and punishments. But other religions cannot tell us of a dying Savior. They cannot show us the cross. This is the crown and glory of the Gospel. This is that special comfort which belongs to it alone. Miserable indeed is that religious teaching which calls itself Christian, and yet contains nothing of the cross. A man who teaches in this way, might as well profess to explain the solar system, and yet tell his hearers nothing about the sun.

(b) The cross is the strength of a minister. I for one would not be without it for all the world. I should feel like a soldier without weapons—like an artist without his brush—like a pilot without his compass—like a laborer without his tools. Let others, if they will, preach the law and morality; let others hold forth the terrors of hell, and the joys of heaven; let others drench their congregations with teachings about the sacraments and the church; give me the cross of Christ! This is the only lever which has ever turned the world upside down hitherto, and made people forsake their sins. And if this will not, nothing will. A man may begin preaching with a perfect knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; but he will do little or no good among his hearers unless he knows something of the cross. Never was there a minister who did much for the conversion of souls who did not dwell much on Christ crucified. Luther, Rutherford, Whitefield, M'Cheyne, were all most eminently preachers of the cross. This is the preaching that the Holy Spirit delights to bless. He loves to honor those who honor the cross.

(c) The cross is the secret of all missionary success. Nothing but this has ever moved the hearts of the heathen. Just according as this has been lifted up missions have prospered. This is the weapon which has won victories over hearts of every kind, in every quarter of the globe. Greenlanders, Africans, South-Sea Islanders, Hindus, Chinese, all have alike felt its power. Just as that huge iron tube which crosses the Menai Straits, is more affected and bent by half-an-hour's sunshine than by all the dead weight that can be placed in it, so in like manner the hearts of savages have melted before the cross, when every other argument seemed to move them no more than stones. "Brethren," said a North-American Indian after his conversion, "I have been a heathen. I know how heathens think. Once a preacher came and began to explain to us that there was a God; but we told him to return to the place from whence he came. Another preacher came and told us not to lie, nor steal, nor drink; but we did not heed him. At last another came into my hut one day and said, 'I am come to you in the name of the Lord of heaven and earth, He sends to let you know that He will make you happy, and deliver you from misery. For this end He became a man, gave His life a ransom, and shed His blood for sinners.' I could not forget his words. I told them to the other Indians, and an awakening began among us." I say, therefore, preach the sufferings and death of Christ, our Savior, if you wish your words to gain entrance among the heathen. Never indeed did the devil triumph so thoroughly, as when he persuaded the Jesuit missionaries in China to keep back the story of the cross!

(d) The cross is the foundation of a Church's prosperity. No Church will ever be honored in which Christ crucified is not continually lifted up—nothing whatever can make up for the lack of the cross. Without it all things may be done decently and in order; without it there may be splendid ceremonies, beautiful music, gorgeous churches, learned ministers, crowded communion tables, huge collections for the poor. But without the cross no good will be done; dark hearts will not be enlightened, proud hearts will not be humbled, mourning hearts will not be comforted, fainting hearts will not be cheered. Sermons about the Church and an apostolic ministry—sermons about baptism and the Lord's supper—sermons about unity and schism—sermons about fasts and communion—sermons about fathers and saints—such sermons will never make up for the absence of sermons about the cross of Christ. They may amuse some—they will feed none. A gorgeous banqueting room, and splendid gold plate on the table, will never make up to a hungry man for the lack of food. Christ crucified is God's ordinance for doing good to people. Whenever a Church keeps back Christ crucified, or puts anything whatever in that foremost place which Christ crucified should always have, from that moment a Church ceases to be useful. Without Christ crucified in her pulpits, a church is little better than a cumberer of the ground, a dead carcase, a well without water, a barren fig tree, a sleeping watchman, a silent trumpet, a speechless witness, an ambassador without terms of peace, a messenger without tidings, a lighthouse without fire, a stumbling-block to weak believers, a comfort to infidels, a hot-bed for formalism, a joy to the devil, and an offence to God.

(e) The cross is the grand center of union among true Christians. Our outward differences are many, without doubt. One man is an Episcopalian, another is a Presbyterian—one is an Independent, another a Baptist—one is a Calvinist, another an Arminian—one is a Lutheran, another a Plymouth Brother—one is a friend to Establishments, another a friend to the voluntary system—one is a friend to liturgies, another a friend to extempore prayer. But, after all, what shall we hear about most of these differences, in heaven? Nothing, most probably—nothing at all. Does a man really and sincerely boast in the cross of Christ? That is the grand question. If he does, he is my brother—we are traveling on the same road; we are journeying towards a home where Christ is all, and everything outward in religion will be forgotten. But if he does not boast in the cross of Christ, I cannot feel comfort about him. Union on outward points only, is union only for a time—union about the cross is union for eternity. Error on outward points is only a skin-deep disease—error about the cross is disease at the heart. Union about outward points is a mere man-made union—union about the cross of Christ can only be produced by the Holy Spirit.

I know not what you think of all this. I feel as if I had said nothing compared to what might be said. I feel as if the half of what I desire to tell you about the cross were left untold. But I do hope that I have given you something to think about. I do trust that I have shown you that I have reason for the question with which I began this paper, "What do you think and feel about the cross of Christ?" Listen to me now for a few moments, while I say something to APPLY the whole subject to your conscience.

(a) Are you living in any kind of sin? Are you following the course of this world, and neglecting your soul? Hear, I beseech you, what I say to you this day, "Behold the Cross of Christ." See there how Jesus loved you! See there what Jesus suffered to prepare for you a way of salvation. Yes—careless men and women, for you that blood was shed! For you those hands and feet were pierced with nails! For you that body hung in agony on the cross! You are those whom Jesus loved, and for whom He died! Surely that love ought to melt you. Surely the thought of the cross should draw you to repentance. Oh, that it might be so this very day! Oh, that you would come at once to that Savior who died for you, and is willing to save! Come, and cry to Him with the prayer of faith, and I know that He will listen. Come, and lay hold upon the cross, and I know that He will not cast you out. Come, and believe on Him who died on the cross, and this very day you shall have eternal life. How will you ever escape if you neglect so great salvation? None surely will be so deep in hell as those who despise the cross!

(b) Are you inquiring the way toward heaven? Are you seeking salvation—but doubtful whether you can find it? Are you desiring to have an interest in Christ—but doubting whether Christ will receive you? To you also I say this day, "Behold the cross of Christ." Here is encouragement if you really want it. Draw near to the Lord Jesus with boldness, for nothing need keep you back. His arms are open to receive you—His heart is full of love towards you. He has made a way by which you may approach Him with confidence. Think of the cross. Draw near, and fear not.

(c) Are you an unlearned man? Are you desirous to get to heaven, and perplexed and brought to a stand-still by difficulties in the Bible which you cannot explain? To you also I say this day, "Behold the cross of Christ." Read there the Father's love and the Son's compassion. Surely they are written in great plain letters, which none can well mistake. What though you are now perplexed by the doctrine of election? What though at present you cannot reconcile your own utter corruption and your own responsibility? Look, I say, at the cross. Does not that cross tell you that Jesus is a mighty, loving, ready Savior? Does it not make one thing plain, and that is that it is all your own fault if you are not saved? Oh, get hold of that truth, and hold it fast!

(d) Are you a distressed believer? Is your heart pressed down with sickness, tried with disappointments, overburdened with cares? To you also I say this day, "Behold the cross of Christ." Think whose hand it is that chastens you; think whose hand is measuring to you the cup of bitterness which you are now drinking. It is the hand of Him who was crucified! It is the same hand which in love to your soul was nailed to the accursed tree. Surely that thought should comfort and hearten you. Surely you should say to yourself, "A crucified Savior will never lay upon me anything that is not for my good. There is a needs be. It must be well."

(e) Are you a believer that longs to be more holy? Are you one that finds his heart too ready to love earthly things? To you also I say, "Behold the cross of Christ." Look at the cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross, and then go and set your affections on the world if you can. I believe that holiness is nowhere learned so well as on Calvary. I believe you cannot look much at the cross without feeling your will sanctified, and your tastes made more spiritual. As the sun gazed upon makes everything else look dark and dim, so does the cross darken the false splendor of this world. As honey tasted makes all other things seem to have no taste at all, so does the cross seen by faith take all the sweetness out of the pleasures of the world. Keep on every day steadily looking at the cross of Christ, and you will soon say of the world, as the poet does—

Its pleasures now no longer please,
No more content afford;
Far from my heart be joys like these,
Now I have seen the Lord.

As by the light of opening day
The stars are all concealed,
So earthly pleasures fade away
When Jesus is revealed.

(f) Are you a dying believer? Have you gone to that bed from which something within tells you you will never come down alive? Are you drawing near to that solemn hour, when soul and body must part for a season, and you must launch into a world unknown? Oh, look steadily at the cross of Christ by faith, and you shall be kept in peace! Fix the eyes of your mind firmly, not on a man-made crucifix—but on Jesus crucified, and He shall deliver you from all your fears. Though you walk through dark places, He will be with you. He will never leave you—never forsake you. Sit under the shadow of the cross to the very last, and its fruit shall be sweet to your taste. "Ah," said a dying missionary, "there is but one thing needful on a death-bed, and that is to feel one's arms around the cross!"

I lay these thoughts before your mind. What you think now about the cross of Christ, I cannot tell. But I can wish you nothing better than this—that you may be able to say with the Apostle Paul, before you die or meet the Lord, "God forbid that I should boast—except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!

The Cross of Christ (pt 2)...the salvation of sinners and the satisfaction of God

2009-11-11T15:42:00.000-06:00

While things continue to be chaotic in the world around us, I want to encourage you to keep our eyes on what is important, edifying, essential, and praiseworthy: the cross of the gospel, the content of the gospel, and the call gospel. I will be posting on this specifically over the next few days on seven key things that constitute the genuine gospel of Jesus; and seven things that should mark any gospel call to all people everywhere, imploring them to be reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a very important and critical discussion, debate and dialogue that needs to continue and needs to be biblically addressed with humility, grace, truth and courage. Here is also a broadcast that you need to listen to in its entirety.

This article in three parts on the cross by J.C. Ryle is excellent foundation for our discussion. I have subtitled this post: "the salvation of sinners and the satisfaction of God." Here we clearly see the dual purpose of the cross:

Firstly, God's holiness cannot tolerate sin; His justice demands sinners be punished for all have broken His law; His wrath that burns against sinners has to be quenched. God must be satisfied! This is the primary purpose of the cross: Christ died for God (Isaiah 53; Romans 3:21-26). The theological term is propitiation (Roms. 2:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:2). This is the glory of the cross (read Eph. 1:4-14).

Secondly, the cross is the salvation of sinners through the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the place where God's love is demonstrated for us; where we are justified; where Jesus was clothed with every sin, that would ever be committed, by everyone, that would ever believe. And the most amazing transaction occurs: "For He how knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). He though sinless and holy was clothed with our sin; and we though sinful from conception are clothed with His perfect righteousness. On the cross Jesus was treated as if He lived our life, so that we by grace through faith in Him are treated as if we lived His life. The is the great doctrine of imputation. 1 John 4:10 says, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

How can sinful people, dead in their trespasses and sins and who are by nature children of wrath, have peace with God? Come to the cross and look unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2). He gave His life freely on the cross for those He came to save beloved (John 17; Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:1); and then was raised for our justification (Roms. 4:23-25). He was resurrected bodily from the dead three days later and now is seated at the right hand of the throne of God interceding for His bride as Lord and King. What a wonderful, merciful Savior we serve... amen?

by J.C. Ryle

II. Let me explain, in the second place, what we are to understand by "the cross of Christ."

The 'cross' is an expression that is used in more than one meaning in the Bible. What did Paul mean when he said, "I boast in the cross of Christ," in the Epistle to the Galatians? This is the point I now wish to examine closely and make clear.

The cross sometimes means that wooden cross, on which the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed and put to death on Calvary. This is what Paul had in his mind's eye, when he told the Philippians that Christ "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2:8.) This is not the cross in which Paul boasted. He would have shrunk with horror from the idea of boasting in a mere piece of wood. I have no doubt he would have denounced the Roman Catholic adoration of the crucifix, as profane, blasphemous, and idolatrous.

The cross sometimes means the afflictions and trials which believers in Christ have to go through, if they follow Christ faithfully, for their religion's sake. This is the sense in which our Lord uses the word when He says, "He who takes not his cross and follows after Me, cannot be my disciple." (Matt. 10:38.) This also is not the sense in which Paul uses the word when he writes to the Galatians. He knew that cross well—he carried it patiently. But he is not speaking of it here.

But the cross also means, in some places, the doctrine that Christ died for sinners upon the cross—the atonement that He made for sinners, by His suffering for them on the cross—the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin which He offered up, when He gave His own body to be crucified. In short, this one word, "the cross," stands for Christ crucified, the only Savior. This is the meaning in which Paul uses the expression, when he tells the Corinthians, "the preaching of the cross is to those who perish foolishness." (1 Cor. 1:18.) This is the meaning in which he wrote to the Galatians, "God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross." He simply meant, "I boast in nothing but Christ crucified, as the salvation of my soul."

"By the cross of Christ the Apostle understands the all-sufficient, expiatory, and satisfactory sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, with the whole work of our redemption; in the saving knowledge of whereof he professes he will glory and boasts."—Cudworth on Galatians. 1613.

"Touching these words, I do not find that any expositor, either ancient or modern, Popish, or Protestant, writing on this place, does expound the cross here mentioned of the sign of the cross—but of the profession of faith in Him who was hanged on the cross."—Mayer's Commentary. 1631.

"This is rather to be understood of the cross which Christ suffered for us, than of that we suffer for Him."—Leigh's Annotations. 1650.

Jesus Christ crucified was the joy and delight, the comfort and the peace, the hope and the confidence, the foundation and the resting-place, the ark and the refuge, the food and the medicine of Paul's soul. He did not think of what he had done himself, and suffered himself. He did not meditate on his own goodness, and his own righteousness. He loved to think of what Christ had done, and Christ had suffered—of the death of Christ, the righteousness of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ. In this he did boast. This was the sun of his soul.

This is the subject he loved to preach about. He was a man who went to and fro on the earth, proclaiming to sinners that the Son of God had shed His own heart's blood to save their souls. He walked up and down the world telling people that Jesus Christ had loved them, and died for their sins upon the cross. Mark how he says to the Corinthians, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins." (1 Cor. 15:3.) "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (1 Cor. 2:2.) He, a blaspheming, persecuting Pharisee, had been washed in Christ's blood. He could not hold his peace about it. He was never weary of telling the story of the cross.

This is the subject he loved to dwell upon when he wrote to believers. It is wonderful to observe how full his epistles generally are of the sufferings and death of Christ—how they run over with "thoughts that breathe and words that burn," about Christ's dying love and power. His heart seems full of the subject. He enlarges on it constantly—he returns to it continually. It is the golden thread that runs through all his doctrinal teaching and practical exhortations. He seems to think that the most advanced Christian can never hear too much about the cross.

"Christ crucified is the sum of the Gospel, and contains all the riches of it. Paul was so much taken with Christ, that nothing sweeter than Jesus could drop from his pen and lips. It is observed that he has the word "Jesus" five hundred times in his Epistles."—Charnock. 1684.

This is what he lived upon all his life, from the time of his conversion. He tells the Galatians, "The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galat. 2:20.) What made him so strong to labor? What made him so willing to work? What made him so unwearied in endeavoring to save some? What made him so persevering and patient? I will tell you the secret of it all. He was always feeding by faith on Christ's body and Christ's blood. Jesus crucified was the food and drink of his soul.

And we may rest assured that Paul was right. Depend upon it, the cross of Christ—the death of Christ on the cross to make atonement for sinners—is the center truth in the whole Bible. This is the truth we begin with when we open Genesis. The seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head is nothing else but a prophecy of Christ crucified. This is the truth that shines out, though veiled, all through the law of Moses, and the history of the Jews. The daily sacrifice, the passover lamb, the continual shedding of blood in the tabernacle and temple, all these were emblems of Christ crucified. This is the truth that we see honored in the vision of heaven before we close the book of Revelation. "In the midst of the throne and of the four beasts," we are told, "and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain." (Rev. 5:6.) Even in the midst of heavenly glory we get a view of Christ crucified. Take away the cross of Christ, and the Bible is a dark book. It is like the Egyptian hieroglyphics without the key that interprets their meaning—curious and wonderful—but of no real use.

Let every reader of this paper mark what I say. You may know a good deal about the Bible. You may know the outlines of the histories it contains, and the dates of the events described, just as a man knows the history of England. You may know the names of the men and women mentioned in it, just as a man knows Caesar, Alexander the Great, or Napoleon. You may know the several precepts of the Bible, and admire them, just as a man admires Plato, Aristotle, or Seneca. But if you have not yet found out that Christ crucified is the foundation of the whole volume, you have read your Bible hitherto to very little profit. Your religion is a heaven without a sun, an arch without a key-stone, a compass without a needle, a clock without spring or weights, a lamp without oil. It will not comfort you. It will not deliver your soul from hell.

Mark what I say again. You may know a good deal about Christ, by a kind of head knowledge. You may know who He was, and where He was born, and what He did. You may know His miracles, His sayings, His prophecies, and His ordinances. You may know how He lived, and how He suffered, and how He died. But unless you know the power of Christ's cross by experience—unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins—unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on the work that Christ did upon the cross—unless this be the case, Christ will profit you nothing. The mere knowing Christ's name will never save you. You must know His cross, and His blood, or else you will die in your sins.

"If our faith stops in Christ's life, and does not fasten upon His blood, it will not be justifying faith. His miracles, which prepared the world for His doctrines; His holiness, which fitted Himself for His sufferings, had been insufficient for us without the addition of the cross." Charnock. 1684.

As long as you live, beware of a religion in which there is not much of the cross. You live in times when the warning is sadly needful. Beware, I say again, of a religion without the cross.

There are hundreds of places of worship, in this day, in which there is everything almost except the cross. There is carved oak, and sculptured stone; there is stained glass, and brilliant painting; there are solemn services, and a constant round of ordinances; but the real cross of Christ is not there. Jesus crucified is not proclaimed in the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. And hence all is wrong. Beware of such places of worship. They are not apostolic. They would not have satisfied Paul.

"Paul determined to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But many manage the ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination—even to know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."—Traill. 1690.

There are thousands of religious books published in our times, in which there is everything except the cross. They are full of directions about sacraments, and praises of the Church. They abound in exhortations about holy living, and rules for the attainment of perfection. They have plenty of fonts and crosses, both inside and outside. But the real cross of Christ is left out. The Savior, and His work of atonement and complete salvation, are either not mentioned, or mentioned in an unscriptural way. And hence they are worse than useless. Beware of such books. They are not apostolic. They would never have satisfied Paul.

Paul boasted in nothing but the cross. Strive to be like him. Set Jesus crucified fully before the eyes of your soul. Listen not to any teaching which would interpose anything between you and Him. Do not fall into the old Galatian error—think not that anyone in this day is a better guide than the apostles. Do not be ashamed of the "old paths," in which men walked who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let not the vague talk of modern teachers, who speak great swelling words about "catholicity," and "the church," disturb your peace, and make you loose your hands from the cross. Churches, ministers, and sacraments, are all useful in their way—but they are not Christ crucified. Do not give Christ's honor to another. "He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord." (1 Cor. 1:1.)

The Cross of Christ (pt 1)...by J.C. Ryle

2009-11-10T15:03:00.000-06:00

"Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." -Galatians 6:14

What do we think and feel about the cross of Christ? We live in a Christian land. We probably attend the worship of a Christian church. We have, most of us, been baptized in the name of Christ. We profess and call ourselves Christians. All this is well—it is more than can be said of millions in the world. But what do we think and feel about the cross of Christ?

I want to examine what one of the greatest Christians who ever lived, thought of the cross of Christ. He has written down his opinion—he has given his judgment in words that cannot be mistaken. The man I mean is the Apostle Paul. The place where you will find his opinion, is in the letter which the Holy Spirit inspired him to write to the Galatians. The words in which his judgment is set down, are these, "But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Now what did Paul mean by saying this? He meant to declare strongly, that he trusted in nothing but "Jesus Christ crucified" for the pardon of his sins and the salvation of his soul. Let others, if they would, look elsewhere for salvation; let others, if they were so disposed, trust in other things for pardon and peace—for his part the apostle was determined to rest on nothing, lean on nothing, build his hope on nothing, place confidence in nothing, boast in nothing, "except in the cross of Jesus Christ."

I wish to say something about "the cross" to the readers of this volume. Believe me, the subject is one of the deepest importance. This is no mere question of controversy. It is not one of those points on which people may agree to differ, and feel that differences will not shut them out of heaven. A man must be right on this subject, or he is lost forever. Heaven or hell, happiness or misery, life or death, blessing or cursing in the last day—all hinges on the answer to this question, "What do you think about the cross of Christ?"

I. Let me show you, first of all, what the Apostle Paul did NOT boast in.

There are many things that Paul might have boasted in, if he had thought as some do in this day. If ever there was one on earth who had something to boast of in himself, that man was the great apostle of the Gentiles. Now if he did not dare to boast, who shall?

He never boasted in his national privileges. He was a Jew by birth, and, as he tells us himself, "A Hebrew of the Hebrews." (Phil. 3:5.) He might have said, like many of his brethren, "I have Abraham for my forefather I am not a dark unenlightened heathen; I am one of the favored people of God—I have been admitted into covenant with God by circumcision. I am a far better man than the ignorant Gentiles." But he never said so. He never boasted in anything of this kind. Never, for one moment!

He never boasted in his own works. None ever worked so hard for God as he did. He was "more abundant in labors" than any of the apostles. (2 Cor. 11:23.) No man ever preached so much, traveled so much, and endured so many hardships for Christ's cause. None was ever made the means of converting so many souls, did so much good to the world, and made himself so useful to mankind. No Father of the early Church, no Reformer, no Puritan, no Missionary, no minister, no layman—no one man could ever be named, who did so many good works as the Apostle Paul. But did he ever boast in them, as if they were in the least meritorious, and could save his soul? Never! Never for one moment!

He never boasted in his knowledge. He was a man of great gifts naturally, and, after he was converted, the Holy Spirit gave him greater gifts still. He was a mighty preacher, and a mighty speaker, and a weighty writer. He was as great with his pen as he was with his tongue. He could reason equally well with Jews and Gentiles. He could argue with infidels at Corinth, or Pharisees at Jerusalem, or self-righteous people in Galatia. He knew many deep things. He had been in the third heaven, and "heard unspeakable words." (2 Cor. 12:4.) He had received the spirit of prophecy, and could foretell things yet to come. But did he ever boast in his knowledge, as if it could justify him before God? Never—never! Never for one moment!

He never boasted in his graces. If ever there was one who abounded in graces, that man was Paul. He was full of love. How tenderly and affectionately he used to write! He could feel for souls like a mother or a nurse feeling for her child. He was a bold man. He cared not whom he opposed when truth was at stake. He cared not what risks he ran when souls were to be won. He was a self-denying man—in hunger and thirst often, in cold and nakedness, in watchings and fastings. He was a humble man. He thought himself less than the least of all saints, and the chief of sinners. He was a prayerful man. See how it comes out at the beginning of all his Epistles. He was a thankful man. His thanksgivings and his prayers walked side by side. But he never boasted in all this, never valued himself on it—never rested his soul's hopes on it. Oh, no—never for a moment!

He never boasted in his Churchmanship. If ever there was a good Churchman, that man was Paul. He was himself a chosen apostle. He was a founder of churches, and an ordainer of ministers—Timothy and Titus, and many elders, received their first commission from his hands. He was the beginner of services and sacraments in many a dark place. Many an one did he baptize; many an one did he receive to the Lord's Table; many a meeting for prayer, and praise, and preaching, did he begin and carry on. He was the setter up of discipline in many a young Church. Whatever ordinances, and rules, and ceremonies were observed in many Churches, were first recommended by him. But did he ever boast in his office and Church standing? Does he ever speak as if his Churchmanship would save him, justify him, put away his sins, and make him acceptable before God? Oh, no! Never—never! Never for a moment!

Now if the apostle Paul never boasted in any of these things, who in all the world, from one end to the other—who has any right to boast in them in our day? If Paul said, "God forbid that I should boast in anything whatever except the cross," who shall dare to say, "I have something to boast of—I am a better man than Paul"?

Who is there among the readers of this paper that trusts in any goodness of his own? Who is there that is resting on his own amendments—his own morality—his own churchmanship—his own works and performances of any kind whatever? Who is there that is leaning the weight of his soul on anything whatever of his own, in the smallest possible degree? Learn, I say, that you are very unlike the apostle Paul. Learn that your religion is not apostolic religion.

Who is there among the readers of this paper that trusts in his religious profession for salvation? Who is there that is valuing himself on his baptism, or his attendance at the Lord's table—his church-going on Sundays, or his daily services during the week—and saying to himself, "What more do I lack?" Learn, I say, this day, that you are very unlike Paul. Your Christianity is not the Christianity of the New Testament. Paul would not boast in anything but "the cross." Neither ought you.

Oh, let us beware of self-righteousness! Open sin kills its thousands of souls. Self-righteousness kills its tens of thousands! Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have grace—but never boast in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ, with heart and soul and mind and strength—but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own.

Think, you who take comfort in some fancied ideas of your own goodness—think, you who wrap up yourselves in the notion, "all must be right, if I keep to my Church,"—think for a moment what a sandy foundation you are building upon! Think how miserably defective your hopes and pleas will look in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment! Whatever people may say of their own goodness while they are strong and healthy, they will find but little to say of it when they are sick and dying. Whatever merit they may see in their own works here in this world, they will discover none in them when they stand before the tribunal of Christ. The light of that great day of judgement will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, expose the rottenness of many a deed that is now called good. Their wheat will prove nothing but chaff—their gold will be found nothing but dross. Millions of so-called 'good works' will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They passed current, and were valued among men—they will prove light and worthless in the balance of God. They will be found to have been like the whitened sepulchers of old—fair and beautiful on the outside—but full of corruption on the inside. Alas, for the man who can look forward to the day of judgment, and lean his soul in the smallest degree on anything of his own now!

"Howsoever people when they sit at ease, do vainly tickle their own hearts with the wanton conceit of I know not what proportionable correspondence between their merits and their rewards, which in the trance of their high speculations, they dream that God has measured and laid up as it were in bundles for them—we see notwithstanding by daily experience in a number even of them, that when the hour of death approaches, when they secretly hear themselves summoned to appear and stand at the bar of that Judge, whose brightness causes the eyes of angels themselves to dazzle, all those idle imaginations do then begin to hide their faces. To name merits then is to lay their souls upon the rack. The memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them. They forsake all things wherein they have put any trust and confidence. No staff to lean upon, no rest, no ease, no comfort then—but only in Christ Jesus."—Richard Hooker. 1585.

Once more I say, let us beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their fancied virtues as others do from their sins. Rest not, rest not until your heart beats in tune with Paul's. Rest not until you can say with him, "far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE WEIGHTIEST OF ALL PURITAN THEOLOGIANS...John Owen

2009-11-04T15:07:00.001-06:00

by Justin Taylor

Is Owen hard to read?
Packer describes Owen’s style and why it can be hard to read:

There is no denying that Owen is heavy and hard to read. This is not so much due to obscure arrangement as to two other factors. The first is his lumbering literary gait. ‘Owen travels through it [his subject] with the elephant’s grace and solid step, if sometimes also with his ungainly motion,’ says Thomson. That puts it kindly. Much of Owen’s prose reads like a roughly-dashed-off translation of a piece of thinking done in Ciceronian Latin. It has, no doubt, a certain clumsy dignity; so has Stonehenge; but it is trying to the reader to have to go over sentences two or three times to see their meaning, and this necessity makes it much harder to follow an argument. The present writer, however, has found that the hard places in Owen usually come out as soon as one reads them aloud. The second obscuring factor is Owen’s austerity as an expositor. He has a lordly disdain for broad introductions which ease the mind gently into a subject, and for comprehensive summaries which gather up scattered points into a small space. He obviously carries the whole of his design in his head, and expects his readers to do the same. Nor are his chapter divisions reliable pointers to the discourse, for though a change of subject is usually marked by a chapter division, Owen often starts a new chapter where there is no break in the thought at all. Nor is he concerned about literary proportions; the space given to a topic is determined by its intrinsic complexity rather than its relative importance, and the reader is left to work out what is basic and what is secondary by noting how things link together…. (Packer, Quest for Godliness, 147)

Spurgeon argued that “condensed” is the appropriate adjective to describe Owen’s writings. “His style is condensed because he gives notes of what he might have said, and passes on without fully developing the great thoughts of his capacious mind.” (Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries, 103)

Then why read him?
Spurgeon addressed this question once: “I did not say that it was easy to read them!—that would not be true; yet I do venture to say that the labour involved in plodding through these ill-arranged and tediously-written treatises will find them abundantly worthwhile." (Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries, 84)

Why should I read Owen on sanctification in particular?
Here are some testimonies from those who have been profoundly changed by Owen’s writings on sin:

“John Owen’s treatises on Indwelling Sin in Believers and The Mortification of Sin are, in my opinion, the most helpful writings on personal holiness ever written.” —Jerry Bridges

“I owe more to John Owen than to any other theologian, ancient or modern, and I owe more to this little book [The Mortification of Sin] than to anything else he wrote.” —J.I. Packer

“I assert unhesitatingly that the man who wants to study experimental theology will find no books equal to those of Owen for complete scriptural and exhaustive treatment of the subjects they handle. If you wish to study thoroughly the doctrine of sanctification I make no apology for strongly recommending Owen on the Holy Spirit.” —J. C. Ryle

Do you have any advice on reading Owen?
We’ll let J. I. Packer answer this question, too:

Owen’s style is often stigmatized as cumbersome and tortuous. Actually it is Latinised spoken style, fluent but stately and expansive, in the elaborate Ciceronian style. When Owen’s prose is read aloud, as didactic rhetoric (which is, after all, what it is), the verbal inversions, displacements, archaisms and new coinages that bother modern readers cease to obscure and offend. Those who think as they read find Owen’s expansiveness suggestive and his fulsomeness fertilising. (Packer, Quest for Godliness, 194)

For whom, then, did Owen write?
His studied unconcern about style in presenting his views, a conscientious protest against the self-conscious literary posturing of the age, conceals their uncommon clarity and straightforwardness from superficial readers; but then, Owen did not write for superficial readers. He wrote, rather, for those who, once they take up a subject, cannot rest till they see to the bottom of it, and who find exhaustiveness not exhausting, but satisfying and refreshing. (Packer, Quest for Godliness, 193)

How was Owen’s character and appearance described?
John Asty passes along this description:

As to his person his stature was tall, his visage grave and majestic and withal comely: he had the aspect and deportment of a gentleman, suitable to his birth. He had a very large capacity of mind, a ready invention, a good judgement, a great natural wit which being improved by education, rendered him a person of incomparable abilities. As to his temper he was very affable and courteous, familiar and sociable; the meanest persons found an easy access to his converse and friendship. He was facetious and pleasant in his common discourse, jesting with his acquaintance but with sobriety and measure; a great master of his passions especially that of anger; he was of a serene and even temper, neither elated with honour, credit, friends, or estate, nor depressed with troubles and difficulties. (Cited in Toon, God’s Statesmen, 176)

Who were the Puritans?
Puritanism was at heart a spiritual movement, passionately concerned with God and godliness. It began in England with William Tyndale the Bible translator, Luther’s contemporary, a generation before the word “Puritan” was coined, and it continued till the latter years of the seventeenth century, some decades after “Puritan” had fallen out of use. . . . Puritanism was essentially a movement for church reform, pastoral renewal and evangelism, and spiritual revival. . . . The Puritan goal was to complete what England’s Reformation began: to finish reshaping Anglican worship, to introduce effective church discipline into Anglican parishes, to establish righteousness in the political, domestic, and socio-economic fields, and to convert all Englishmen to a vigorous evangelical faith. (A Quest for Godliness, p. 28)

Which authors most influenced Owen?
According to Sebastian Rehnman: Owen’s writings refer to numerous Reformed thinkers, and his library contained hundreds of volumes of Reformed works. Some criteria are necessary in evaluating what authors had most influence on him, and if we take at least five affirmative references to or quotations from actual works as criterium [sic], which would seem to be a low and reasonable place to start, the list becomes surprisingly short: William Ames (1576-1633), Theodore Beza (1519-1605), John Calvin (1509-1564), Franciscus Junius (1545-1602), Johannes Piscator (1546-1626), Gisbert Voetius (1589-1676), and Hieronymus Zanchius (1516-1590). . . . Judging from Owen’s own remarks, he regarded Martin Bucer (1491-1551), John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli (1500-1562), and Theodore Beza, as the “principle” authors [Owen, Works IV.229] (Rehnman, Divine Discourse, 21, 22)

Was there a "center" to Owen’s theology?
Richard Daniels, who wrote in his dissertation on The Christology of John Owen: …there is one motif so important to John Owen, so often and so broadly cited by him, that the writer would go so far as to call it the focal point of Owen’s theology…. namely, the doctrine that in the gospel we behold, by the Christ-given Holy Spirit, the glory of God "in the face of Christ" and are thereby changed into his image…. (92) …the knowledge of Christ was the all-surpassing object of Owen’s desires, the center of his doctrinal system, and the end, means, and indispensable prerequisite for Christian theology. (516)

What was the driving factor in Owen’s ministry?
Steve Griffiths, in Redeem the Time, writes:

To date, no one has yet managed to reveal Owen the man. In an attempt to meet this challenge, new questions have had to be asked of Owen and a new premise has had to be sought in approaching his writings, namely: what was of fundamental importance to Owen and what was his primary motivation in ministry? The answer is blindingly simple. Owen was a pastor. Of fundamental importance to him was the spiritual growth of those amongst whom he ministered. His primary motivation was the growth in holiness of his flock. Everything else stems from that truth. He was not primarily concerned with unswerving faithfulness, or otherwise, to Calvin, Aristotle or Augustine. He was not fundamentally concerned with loyalty to any one theological position. Owen’s first loyalty was to no man. God was his judge and he was acutely aware that he would be judged on his performance as a minister of the gospel. (13)

Sinclair Ferguson, in John Owen on the Christian Life, echoes a similiar sentiment: “My own reading of Owen has convinced me that everything he wrote for his contemporaries had a practical and pastoral aim in view—the promotion of true Christian living” (xi). As David Clarkson said in his funeral sermon for Owen, "I need not tell you of this who knew him, that it was his great Design to promote Holiness in the Life and Exercise of it among you."

What were Owen’s final days like?
On August 22, 1683, at his home in Ealing, Owen dictated his last surviving letter to his long-time friend, Charles Fleetwood:

I am going to him whom my soul hath loved, or rather hath love me with an everlasting love; which is the whole ground of all my consolation. The passage is very irksome and wearisome through strong pain of various sorts which are all issued in an intermitting fever. All things were provided to carry me to London today attending to the advice of my physician, but we were all disappointed by my utter disability to understand the journey. I am leaving the ship of the church in a storm, but while the great Pilot is in it the loss of a poore under-rower will be inconsiderable. Live and pray and hope and waite patiently and doe not despair; the promise stands invincible that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee. (Toon, The Correspondence of John Owen, 174)

Two days later Owen’s friend William Payne, who was overseeing the printing of The Glory of Christ, paid him a visit, assuring him that all was going well with the publication. Owen responded:

I am glad to hear it; but O brother Payne! The long wished-for day is come at last, in which I shall see the glory in another manner than I have ever done, or was capable of doing in the world.

These were Owen’s last recorded words. He died on August 24, 1683—St. Bartholomew’s Day—exactly twenty years after the Great Ejection of the Puritans. On September 4, Owen was buried in Bunhill Fields.

Where is Owen’s grave?
Owen was buried in Bunhill Fields, in London. To see pictures of his grave, click here and here. You can view also view a map of Bunhill Fields to see where Owen is buried in relation to Bunyan, Cromwell, and others.

What is the translation of the Latin epigraph on Owen’s grave?
Found in Works I.cxiii f. this is, in Packer’s terms, "not a translation in the ordinary present-tense sense, but a loose explanatory amplification":

John Owen, born in Oxfordshire, son of a distinguished theologian, was himself a more distinguished one, who must be counted among the most distinguished of this age. Furnished with the recognised resources of humane learning in uncommon measure, he put them all, as a well-ordered array of handmaids, at the service of theology, which he served himself. His theology was polemical, practical, and what is called casuistical, and it cannot be said that any one of these was peculiarly his rather than another.

In polemical theology, with more than herculean strength, he strangled three poisonous serpents, the Arminian, the Socinian, and the Roman.

In practical theology, he laid out before others the whole of the activity of the Holy Spirit, which he had first experienced in his own heart, according to the rule of the Word. And, leaving other things aside, he cultivated, and realised in practice, the blissful communion with God of which he wrote; a traveller on earth who grasped God like one in heaven.

In casuistry, he was valued as an oracle to be consulted on every complex matter.

A scribe instructed in every way for the kingdom of God, this pure lamp of gospel truth shone forth on many in private, on more from the pulpit, and on all in his printed works, pointing everyone to the same goal. And in this shining forth he gradually, as he and others recognized, squandered his strength till it was gone. His holy soul, longing to enjoy God more, left the shattered ruins of his once-handsome body, full of permanent weaknesses, attacked by frequent diseases, worn out most of all by hard work, and no longer a fit instrument for serving God, on a day rendered dreadful for many by earthly powers but now made happy for him through the power of God, August 25, 1683. He was 67.

Owen is called a "Nonconformist." What does that mean?
According to Robert Oliver’s essay, "John Owen–His Life and Times":

Before 1660 the term ‘Nonconformist described an Anglican clergy-man who ignored some of the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, thereby avoiding what he considered to be the remnants of ‘popish superstition’. Requirements particularly obnoxious to the Puritans were the compulsory wearing of the surplice and making the sign of the cross in baptism. In the 1630s Archbishop Laud made further demands which included the railing in of the communion table at the east end of the church and bowing at the name of Jesus. Immediately after the Reformation the communion table had often been moved into the body of the church for the administration of the Lord’s Supper. Laud’s changes began to give the east end of the churches a more Romish apperance. (pp. 12-13)

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY - OUR GREAT SALVATION...by God; in Christ; through the Holy Spirit

2009-10-31T15:14:00.000-05:00

by grace alone; through faith alone; because of Christ alone; on the Word alone; to the glory of God alone!

Article 1: God's Right to Condemn All People
Since all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse, and to condemn them on account of their sin. As the apostle says: The whole world is liable to the condemnation of God (Rom. 3:19), All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).*

(*All quotations from Scripture are translations of the original Latin manuscript.)

Article 2: The Manifestation of God's Love
But this is how God showed his love: he sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Article 3: The Preaching of the Gospel
In order that people may be brought to faith, God mercifully sends proclaimers of this very joyful message to the people he wishes and at the time he wishes. By this ministry people are called to repentance and faith in Christ crucified. For how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? And how shall they preach unless they have been sent? (Rom. 10:14-15).

Article 4: A Twofold Response to the Gospel
God's anger remains on those who do not believe this gospel. But those who do accept it and embrace Jesus the Savior with a true and living faith are delivered through him from God's anger and from destruction, and receive the gift of eternal life.

Article 5: The Sources of Unbelief and of Faith
The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not at all in God, but in man. Faith in Jesus Christ, however, and salvation through him is a free gift of God. As Scripture says, It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Likewise: It has been freely given to you to believe in Christ (Phil. 1:29).

Article 6: God's Eternal Decision
The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that others do not, stems from his eternal decision. For all his works are known to God from eternity (Acts 15:18; Eph. 1:11). In accordance with this decision he graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of his chosen ones and inclines them to believe, but by his just judgment he leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in this especially is disclosed to us his act--unfathomable, and as merciful as it is just--of distinguishing between people equally lost. This is the well-known decision of election and reprobation revealed in God's Word. This decision the wicked, impure, and unstable distort to their own ruin, but it provides holy and godly souls with comfort beyond words.

Article 7: Election
Election [or choosing] is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following:

Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery. He did this in Christ, whom he also appointed from eternity to be the mediator, the head of all those chosen, and the foundation of their salvation. And so he decided to give the chosen ones to Christ to be saved, and to call and draw them effectively into Christ's fellowship through his Word and Spirit. In other words, he decided to grant them true faith in Christ, to justify them, to sanctify them, and finally, after powerfully preserving them in the fellowship of his Son, to glorify them.

God did all this in order to demonstrate his mercy, to the praise of the riches of his glorious grace.

As Scripture says, God chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before him with love; he predestined us whom he adopted as his children through Jesus Christ, in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, by which he freely made us pleasing to himself in his beloved (Eph. 1:4-6). And elsewhere, Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified (Rom. 8:30).

Article 8: A Single Decision of Election
This election is not of many kinds; it is one and the same election for all who were to be saved in the Old and the New Testament. For Scripture declares that there is a single good pleasure, purpose, and plan of God's will, by which he chose us from eternity both to grace and to glory, both to salvation and to the way of salvation, which he prepared in advance for us to walk in.

Article 9: Election Not Based on Foreseen Faith
This same election took place, not on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen, but rather for the purpose of faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, and so on. Accordingly, election is the source of each of the benefits of salvation. Faith, holiness, and the other saving gifts, and at last eternal life itself, flow forth from election as its fruits and effects. As the apostle says, He chose us (not because we were, but) so that we should be holy and blameless before him in love (Eph. 1:4).

Article 10: Election Based on God's Good Pleasure
But the cause of this undeserved election is exclusively the good pleasure of God. This does not involve his choosing certain human qualities or actions from among all those possible as a condition of salvation, but rather involves his adopting certain particular persons from among the common mass of sinners as his own possession. As Scripture says, When the children were not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad..., she (Rebecca) was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Rom. 9:11-13). Also, All who were appointed for eternal life believed (Acts 13:48).

Article 11: Election Unchangeable
Just as God himself is most wise, unchangeable, all-knowing, and almighty, so the election made by him can neither be suspended nor altered, revoked, or annulled; neither can his chosen ones be cast off, nor their number reduced.

Article 12: The Assurance of Election
Assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation is given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in differing measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves, with spiritual joy and holy delight, the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in God's Word-- such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on.

The above articles were taken from the Canons of Dort (1618-1619)

THE BARRIER TO REFORMATION...cherishing iniquity in our heart

2009-10-29T11:45:00.001-05:00

"If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened to my prayer." -Psalm 66:18

To begin with... a silent prayer

"O Lord, what evil have we not done? Or if there is evil that we have not done, what evil is there that we have not spoken? If there is any that we have not spoken, what evil is there that we have not thought to do? But you, O Lord, are good. You are merciful. You saw how deep we were sunk in death, and it was your power that drained dry the well of corruption in the depths of our hearts. All that You have asked of us was to deny our own wills and accept yours. Forgive us for every failure to do so and help us to follow You in every way and always, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." [Adapted from Augustine's Confessions, IX, x]

To cherish sin means to hold it dearly in our hearts; to love it; to embrace it; to treasure it.

We all have PhD's in rationalizing our sin don't we? We have all graduated with high honors in its schooling and it comes naturally to us all. But like David, until we can say, "against You and You alone have I sinned" we will not be broken of it. Sin may hurt others and ourselves, but all sin ultimately is an afront to and against God Himself.

The hypocrite when caught in a sin may say, "wash my garments and make them clean" - make me presentable again; just clean up my outward appearance, etc. But the one who is truly broken, contrite and repentant over their sin will humbly say before a holy God, "Lord wash me, make me clean, forgive me and restore me to the joy of my salvation." No excuses; no self-justification; no spin; no blaming Mom and Dad or others; no therapeutic diversions. Just alone before God owning our sin, confessing it to Him holding nothing back; then turning from it in repentance, and by His sanctifying grace continue to live in obedience to His Word.

The Sinfulness of Sin
Sin strikes at God and says,

“I don’t care what You said, I’ll do what I want.” It is God’s would be murderer. Sin would un-God God if it could. Sin defiles the conscience. Sin is irrational and forfeits blessing. Sin is painful—it hurts. Sin is damning. Sin is degrading it mares the image of God and man. Like Samson, it cuts the locks of purity and leaves men morally weak. Sin poisons the springs of love and turns beauty in leprosy. Sin defeats the mind, the heart, the will, the affections and it has made a whole world of people—all of mankind—children wrath by nature; objects of God’s wrath. Sin brings man under the domination of Satan and his sick sin system, which he controls. Man and the world is a slave to sin, open rebellion and defiance to God and a slave to Satan."

Jonathan Edwards reflecting on this says these powerful words:

"Sin is naturally exceeding dear to us; to part with it is compared to plucking out our right eyes. Men may refrain from wonted ways of sin for a little while, and may deny their lusts in a partial degree, with less difficulty; but it is heart-rending work, finally to part with all sin, and to give our dearest lusts a bill of divorce, utterly to send them away. But this we must do, if we would follow those that are truly turning to God: yea, we must not only forsake sin, but must, in a sense, forsake all the world, Luke 14:33 'Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.'"

Pastor Ralph Venning (1662, St. Olave's Church in Southwark, England)
says,

"Sin is a cheat, a lie, and therefore lurks privily and puts on false names and colors; for if it were to appear like itself--as sooner or later will do to all, either for conversion or confusion--it would frighten men into dying fits, as it did the Apostle, and when they come to themselves they would abhor and hate it, as Paul and the Prodigal did. Men would never be so hardy in sinning but that sin hardens them by deceiving them; so the writer of Hebrews says, 'Take heed lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin' (Hebrews 3:13). Sin uses all manner of arts, methods and devices to attract us and inveigle us. It uses many tricks on us and has all the knacks of deceiving and cheating us. So I may with truth say that sin has not learnt but taught all the deceits dissimulations, flatteries and false diplomacies that are found in courts; the stratagems of war; the sophisms and fallacies of the schools; the frauds of tradesmen, whether in city or county; the tricks of cheaters and jugglers, the ambushes of thieves, the pretensions of false friends, the various methods of false teachers--these and every other kind of cheat and deception in the world, sin teaches and practices upon us all to make us sin."

That is why beloved, Proverbs 28:13 so convictingly says, "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." What man uncovers (or confesses), God will by His grace covers (forgiveness); but what man covers up, God will uncover.

My favorite Puritan divine, Thomas Watson, says, "Knowledge without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell."

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age" -Titus 2:11-12

35 Reasons Not To Sin
by Jim Elliff

Because a little sin leads to more sin.
Because my sin invites the discipline of God.
Because the time spent in sin is forever wasted.
Because my sin never pleases but always grieves God who loves me.
Because my sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders.
Because in time my sin always brings heaviness to my heart.
Because I am doing what I do not have to do.
Because my sin always makes me less than what I could be.
Because others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin.
Because my sin saddens the godly.
Because my sin makes the enemies of God rejoice.
Because sin deceives me into believing I have gained when in reality I have lost.
Because sin may keep me from qualifying for spiritual leadership.
Because the supposed benefits of my sin will never outweigh the consequences of disobedience.
Because repenting of my sin is such a painful process, yet I must repent.
Because sin is a very brief pleasure for an eternal loss.
Because my sin may influence others to sin.
Because my sin may keep others from knowing Christ.
Because sin makes light of the cross, upon which Christ died for the very purpose of taking away my sin.
Because it is impossible to sin and follow the Spirit at the same time.
Because God chooses not to respect the prayers of those who cherish their sin.
Because sin steals my reputation and robs me of my testimony.
Because others once more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins.
Because the inhabitants of heaven and hell would all testify to the foolishness of this sin.
Because sin and guilt may harm both mind and body.
Because sins mixed with service make the things of God tasteless.
Because suffering for sin has no joy or reward, though suffering for righteousness has both.
Because my sin is adultery with the world.
Because, though forgiven, I will review this very sin at the Judgment Seat where loss and gain of eternal rewards are applied.
Because I can never really know ahead of time just how severe the discipline for my sin might be.
Because my sin may be an indication of a lost condition.
Because to sin is not to love Christ.
Because my unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it an authority over me greater than I wish to believe.
Because sin glorifies God only in His judgment of it and His turning of it to good use, never because it is worth anything on it's own.
Because I promised God he would be Lord of my life.

Love the Lord Jesus Christ with an unfeigned, undivided superlative love...

"There is no love but a superlative love that is any ways suitable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh, love him above your lusts, love him above your relations, love him above the world, love him above all your outward contentment’s and enjoyments; yea, love him above your very lives; for thus the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, primitive Christians, and the martyrs of old, have loved our Lord Jesus Christ with an overtopping love." -Thomas Brooks

1 John 2:1-2 says, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

"When your repentance is more notorious than your sin--then it is genuine." -C.H. Spurgeon

How to Live in Victory Over Sin
In a spirit of prayerful submission to the Lord and by His sustaining grace, may each of us long to honor the Lord with a holy life each day.

Recognize your Transgression
Repent of your Sin
Rely on God
Reverence Christ as Lord
Read His Word
Renew your Mind
Remain in godly Relationships, and
Rejoice and walk in the Holy Spirit

THE BURDEN FOR REFORMATION AND REVIVALprayer; contrition; and confession

2009-10-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

Oh Lord, send a great awakening among your people again according to Your Word; by Your Holy Spirit, for the praise of Your glory, for the spread of Your gospel, for the holiness of Your people. Leave us not in the condition in which we awoke this morning, but conform us by Your grace to Christlikeness so that we may be vessels fit for the Master's use.

This only is a work of heaven--for no man can conjure up a genuine move of God; no man can transform the heart of another; no man can stir the conscience to repentance, convict the soul of sin, and invoke contrition over iniquity. All our ways are impotent before You; and even when we have done all to obey You, we are still "unprofitable servants."

But the true church marches on her knees; and so may we run into the prayer closet this very hour, shut the door and see what You by Your sovereign grace will accomplish. For "it is not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit" says the Lord.

Forgive us Lord for being consumed with the advancement of our own ministries at the expense of others, for measuring the effectiveness of Your work by the size of a church's yearly offerings, and for charging others for that which we have received freely by Your grace. Dash to the ground our paltry plans, our self-devised and promoted reputations, our carefully positioned and politically aligned agendas and alliances. As my friend once said, "How can we be so dead when we've been so well fed; Jesus rose from the grave, but we, we can't even get out of bed."

May The Swordsman, by His divine sword, whittle us down to size as You did Gideon of old, so that we may not find comfort, resolve, or hope in our own strength, wisdom or wealth. May all our lowly boasting turn to tears, all our pride turn to dust, all our vain exaltations of self turn to ash; may our "laughter turn to mourning and our joy to heaviness" until reformation comes... until revival comes to Your people. Break our stubborn hearts with the hammer of Your Word and humble us under Your reverential fear until our deepest longing, passion and joy is found only in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Glorify Yourself for Your names sake only...
Steve
Col. 1:9-14

"A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness, making God's love triumph in the heart." -Andrew Murray

“When God has something very great to accomplish for His Church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people, as is manifest by Ezekiel 36:37... And it is revealed that, when God is about to accomplish great things for His Church, He will begin by a remarkable pouring out of the spirit of grace and supplication (Zechariah 12:10). If we are not to expect that the devil should go out of a particular person, under a bodily possession, without extraordinary prayer, or prayer and fasting, how much less should we expect to have him cast out of the land and the world without it!” -Jonathan Edwards

"God's quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives." -J. I. Packer  

”I did then preach much upon original sin, repentance, the nature and necessity of conversion, in a close, examinatory and distinguished way; laboring in the meantime to sound the trumpet of God's judgments, and alarm the secure by the terrors of the Lord, as well as to affect them by other topics of persuasion: which method was sealed by the Holy Spirit in the conviction and conversion of a considerable number of persons, at various times and in different places in that part of the county." -George Whitefield

The Prayers of the Saints
To be clothed upon with the "righteousness of GOD," is to occupy a position of dignity and glory to which no other creature can aspire. Angels stand in the aphelion, saints in the center, of the Sun of Righteousness. Lord! let the infidel deny the character, and the worldling scorn the name, number me among your saints everlasting, upon whom is conferred the privilege of fellowship and nearness with You here, and glory, honor, and immortality with You hereafter!

But what is the incense?—"the prayers of saints." The emblem is exquisitely beautiful and expressive. It is one of the highest conceptions of poetry, in one of its most sacred forms. Prayer is holy incense. The margin of the passage so renders it, and David so employs the expression in connection with prayer: "Let my prayer come before You as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." We have but glanced at the truth that the saints of God are a praying people—that communion with the Triune Jehovah is an essential characteristic. The thought is so important, we propose in a few pages to amplify it. We have said that devotion is a symptom of life, an evidence of true piety, a characteristic of a saint of God. This remark holds good in its universal application. True prayer is that one vital principle that animates, energizes, and sanctifies the universal family of God. Whatever their differences of ecclesiastical polity, discipline, or worship—whatever their varied gifts, attainments, or position in society, prayer is the moral atmosphere of the one Church of God. "Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them."

No man is a saint of God who is not a praying man; and a praying man, find him where you may, is a saint of God. He may prefer the place and the mode of prayer which his conscience best approves; and whether that place be a cathedral or a barn, and the mode be liturgical or free, is of no essential moment. If, penetrating within the inner and hidden shrine, he waves before its altar the censer of a truly contrite, believing, adoring heart, drawing near to God in the name of Jesus, and holding fellowship with the Invisible, that man is a man of prayer, is a recognized saint of the Most High, and as such we should recognize and commune with him as a Christian brother beloved.

PRAYER must be the living, enshrouding atmosphere of a saint of God. Not one moment could we live without it. Prayer—either breathed from the believer's heart on earth, or from the lips of the Great Intercessor in heaven—sustains each moment the life of God in the soul of man. Ah, beloved! where could you go with those burdens, those wants, those chafings, those backslidings, those shortcomings, those sorrows, which compose so large a part of daily life, but to the throne of grace? Where could you resort for mercy, for strength, for fortitude, for patience, for comfort and soothing, but where the God of love and power meets you and talks with you through Jesus, as man communes with his friend? It is in this light we come to regard prayer, not merely as a divine command, or as a Christian duty, but as the holiest, sweetest, and most precious privilege God has given to us on earth. Look at its grandeur—a mortal, a sinful mortal, in audience with the God of heaven! And when we consider that mortal in the light of a child and that God in the character of a Father, the spectacle becomes one of unsurpassed beauty and tenderness. But look at its preciousness. It comprehends all the minutiae of our daily life.

"Casting all your care upon Him."
"Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God."

What a tender, loving rebuke is this of that restraining of prayer, and limiting of God, which restricts our petitions to the major concerns of life, while it leaves unprovided for the minor ones. And yet, beloved, God is as deeply interested in your small cares as in your large ones. Those comparatively trivial events, those lesser circumstances of your history, are often those which you feel the most keenly, which chafe the most severely, and upon which so much that is important and momentous in your life depends. Learn, then, the blessedness, and appreciate the privilege, of hallowing with prayer the minute details of daily life. Infinite as Jehovah is, He stoops to our little trials, little cares, little wants, little sorrows. Nothing is too small for God that concerns you, His loved child. Study the life of Jesus when on earth. Was there a circumstance, or a want, or a temptation in the history of His disciples too mean or unimportant for His notice? He who, by similitude so significant and impressive, could vindicate and explain the particular providence of God in the affairs of His people, assuring those who the very hairs of their head were all numbered, was not likely to pass unnoticed and unmet the fasting and languor of His disciples, when on one occasion He said unto them, "Come you yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile."

He who created the minute things of nature, alike regards the minute things in providence, and despises not the "day of small things" in grace. God made the atoms that form the pyramids, the mote that dances in the sunbeam, the insect that swims in the ocean drop. Do you think, then, that He can be indifferent to, or regard as beneath His notice, the smallest care, the most delicate sorrow, the lowest want, the lowest interest, that relates to you? Impossible! Learn, then, to entwine with your petitions the small cares, the trifling sorrows, the little wants of daily life. Whatever affects you—be it a changed look, an altered tone, an unkind word, a slight, a wrong, a wound, a demand you cannot meet, a charge you cannot notice, a sorrow you cannot disclose—turn it into prayer, and send it up to God.

Disclosures you may not make to man you can make to the Lord. Man may be too little for your great matters, God is not too great for your small ones. Only give yourself to prayer, whatever be the occasion that calls for it. Send up your heart unto God just as it is. Send up a whole heart, and He will return it a broken heart. Send up a broken heart, and He will return it a healed heart. Send up a cold heart, and He will return it a loving heart. Send up an empty heart, and He will return it a full heart. Send up a praying heart, and He will return it a praising heart. Only send up your heart to heaven, whatever its frame or condition, its desires or wants, and your Heavenly Father's loving, gracious heart will descend and meet it when its pinions have scarce left the earth to sweep in faith and prayer the skies. "Trust in Him at all times. You people, pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us." "And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer: and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Wonderful encouragement to prayer!" -Octavius Winslow

Three Prayers
to Encourage our Hearts Today

Heart Corruptions
"O God, may Thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee. I have no merit, let the merit of Jesus stand for me. I am undeserving, but I look to Thy tender mercy. I am full of infirmities, wants, sin; Thou art full of grace.

I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my willful sin; all my powers of body and soul are defiled: a fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. There are chambers of foul images within my being; I have gone from one odious room to another, walked in a no-man's-land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature.

I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself; I have no green shoot in me nor fruit, but thorns and thistles; I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away; I live bare and barren as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit to be hewn down and burnt. Lord, dost Thou have mercy on me?

Thou hast struck a heavy blow at my pride, at the false god of self, and I lie in pieces before Thee. But Thou hast given me another master and lord, Thy Son, Jesus, and now my heart is turned towards holiness, my life speeds as an arrow from a bow towards complete obedience to Thee. Help me in all my doings to put down sin and to humble pride. Save me from the love of the world and the pride of life, from everything that is natural to fallen man, and let Christ's nature be seen in me day by day. Grant me grace to bear Thy will without repining, and delight to be not only chiseled, squared, or fashioned, but separated from the old rock where I have been embedded so long, and lifted from the quarry to the upper air, where I may be built in Christ for ever."

Purification
"Lord Jesus, I sin. Grant that I may never cease grieving because of it, never be content with myself, and never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue, and trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure, peaceable, to live for Thee and not for self, to copy Thy words, acts, spirit, to be transformed into Thy likeness, to be consecrated wholly to Thee, to live entirely to Thy glory.

Deliver me from attachment to things unclean, from wrong associations, from the predominance of evil passions, from the sugar of sin as well as its gap; that with self-loathing, deep contrition, earnest heart searching I may come to Thee, cast myself on Thee, trust in Thee, cry to Thee, be delivered by Thee.

O God, the Eternal All, help me to know that all things are shadows, but Thou art substance; all things are quicksand, but Thou art mountain; all things are shifting, but Thou art anchor; all things are ignorance, but Thou art wisdom.

If my life is to be a crucible amid burning heat, so be it, but do Thou sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore that nothing be lost. If I sin willfully, grievously, tormentedly, in grace take away my mourning and give me music; remove my sackcloth and clothe me with beauty; still my sighs and fill my mouth with song, then give me summer weather as a Christian.”

Confession and Petition
"Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and shortcomings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou should give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright."

THE ETERNAL WEIGHT AND IMPORTANCE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH...the uncompromised preaching of the Reformation

2009-10-23T14:35:00.000-05:00

"What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.” (Romans 4:1-8)

Excerpts by Martin Luther
on the chief article of faith of the gospel - Sola Fide
"This doctrine [justification by faith] is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour…. For no one who does not hold this article – or, to use Paul's expression, this 'sound doctrine' (Titus 2:1) – is able to teach aright in the church or successfully to resist any adversary . . . this is the heel of the Seed that opposes the old serpent and crushes its head. That is why Satan, in turn, cannot but persecute it."

"Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know God and is an idolater . . . For when this article has been taken away, nothing remains but error, hypocrisy, godlessness, and idolatry, although it may seem to be the height of truth, worship of God, holiness, etc."

"If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time. And all the people in the world who do not hold to this justification are either Jews or Turks or papists or heretics; for there is no middle ground between these two righteousness: the active one of the Law and the passive one which comes from Christ. Therefore the man who strays from Christian righteousness must relapse into the active one, that is, since he has lost Christ, he must put his confidence in his own works."

"When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen. Therefore it is necessary constantly to inculcate and impress it, as Moses says of his Law (Deut. 6:7); for it cannot be inculcated and urged enough or too much. Indeed, even though we learn it well and hold to it, yet there is no one who apprehends it perfectly or believes it with a full affection and heart. So very trickish is our flesh, fighting as it does against the obedience of the spirit."

"The article of justification and of grace is the most delightful, and it alone makes a person a theologian and makes of a theologian a judge of the earth and of all affairs. Few there are, however, who have thought it through well and who teach it aright."

"Of this article [justification] nothing may be yielded or conceded, though heaven and earth and whatever will not abide, fall to ruin; for 'there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,' says St. Peter (Acts 4:12); 'and with His stripes we are healed' (Is. 53:5). And on this article all that we teach and practice is based, against the pope, the devil, and the world. That is why we must be very certain of this doctrine and not doubt; otherwise all is lost, and the pope and the devil and all things gain the victory over us and are adjudged right."

"The article of justification must be learned diligently. It alone can support us in the face of these countless offenses and can console us in all temptations and persecutions. For we see that it cannot be otherwise: the world is bound to be offended at the doctrine of godliness and to cry out constantly that nothing good comes of it, since 'the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.' "

"In short, if this article concerning Christ — the doctrine that we are justified and saved through Him alone and consider all apart from Him damned — is not professed, all resistance and restraint are at an end. Then there is, in fact, neither measure nor limit to any heresy and error."

"There is this about the article of grace that if one diligently and sincerely remains loyal to it, it keeps one from falling into heresy and from undertaking anything against Christ or His Christendom. For with it comes the Holy Spirit, who enlightens the heart by it and keeps it in the true, certain understanding, so that it is able precisely and plainly to distinguish and judge all the other articles of faith and forcefully to sustain and defend them."

"The papacy is shaken and shattered nowadays, not through these tumults of the sectaries but through the preaching of the article of justification, which has not only weakened the kingdom of Antichrist but has also till now sustained and defended us against its power."

THE TREASURE OF BIBLICAL CONTENTMENT...active rest in the sovereignty of God

2009-10-19T08:05:00.000-05:00

Phil. 4:10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.

Introduction:
Philippians, is a letter of deep gratitude—marked by the continuous use of the word joy and/or rejoice. Paul is writing this letter of thanksgiving and appreciation for the kindness and generosity of the believers at Philippi expressed to him. He warns them of false teachers (3:1-4:1), to inform them of his situation in Rome (1:12-26), to encourage them in unity (2:1-2), and to commemorate his dear friend and co-worker Epaphroditus (2:25).

Paul finds himself incarcerated at Rome (1:13, 4:22), under house arrest—chained to a Roman guard (Acts 28:16) though he still was permitted to receive visitors and still have the opportunity to preach the gospel. He is at low ebb in his ministry and life anticipating a trial before Nero, which could result in his execution. These Philippian believers had a great love for him and they send Epaphroditus to Paul to bring to him what the apostle calls the “sweet aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God” (4:18).

In these eleven verses (Phil. 4:10-20) the Apostle Paul teaches us seven key things about contentment. Let's begin with verse 10 and the first of these truths.

Discontent can be caused by several things:

-The death of a loved one or friend.
-The loss of estate or money.
-When relationships don’t satisfy our longings.
-When friendships prove unfaithful and distrustful.
-The broken heart for a wayward or rebellious child.
-When coming under great criticism or reproach unjustly. (discontent arising from disrespect savors too much pride—the Lord will use the arrows of another to teach us to have a lower opinion of ourselves than others may have).
-Suffering for the truth. (A carnal man makes more of his sufferings and less of his sins. The one heart cries, take away the punishment; the other heart cries, take away my iniquity.)
-The prosperity of the wicked—while the righteous suffer the loss of earthly things. (Psalm 37; 73)
-The evil of the times—when every mans opinion is his bible. That kind of error is corrupting and poisonous. The devil is the father and pride is the mother of pride—self-esteem and self-regard are two of its children.
-Covetousness—inadequate view of ones spiritual gifts and part in the body of Christ. Desiring someone else’s position, prominence or proficiency. (Jealousy, envy, or coveting the unholy trinity of wrongful desire).
-Burdens for the church. “Cain put the knife to Abel’s throat and ever since the church’s veins have bled; but she is like the vine, which by bleeding grows and like the palm tree—the more weight is laid upon it the higher it rises” (Thomas Watson).
-Fear - the uncertainty of tomorrow (James 4:13-14).
-Sin (Psalm 32:2-4).

This is the stuff of real faith beloved. Are we truly content in the Lord or are those just words we conveniently say out of religious programming rather than true love for the Master? These are but a few of the things that I know in my life if left unguarded, unchecked, and unnoticed will rob me of my daily contentment in the Lord.

We can see discontent at the heart of sin: consider Adam and Eve in the Fall; Cain's murder of his brother Abel; David’s adultery; Satan’s heavenly rebellion; Nebuchednezar’s arrogance and pride; Demas’s apostasy; Judas’s betrayal; Herod’s death; and on and on it goes...

Thomas Watson once said these profound words:
“A good conscience can sleep in the mouth of a canon.”
Are we that content beloved?

What is contentment?
Here are a few verses that will help us biblically define its meaning:

1 Tim. 6:6. “But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment.”

Heb.13:5, “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’” (cf Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5)

2 Cor. 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

We could say then that contentment is knowing that God orchestrates all things for our good and for His glory according to His holy purposes. It is being completely sufficed and satisfied with who God is and with what God does.

“Blessed is he who does not get offended because of me.” (Matthew 11:6, “the forgotten beatitude”)

The Greek word for contentment is αυταρκεσ and means to be self sufficient, to be satisfied, to have enough. To have an independence from aid or help. An independence from external circumstances supporting oneself without anyone’s aid. Paul was satisfied. But his soul-sufficiency is not derived from any resources which the soul has in itself. Paul is no vain boaster and would never say, “I am the Captain of my soul” (William Hendricksen). His contentment was only found in and through the person Jesus Christ alone.

The Stoics had made the word contentment into a virtue in the Greek culture. They used it as a term of total indifference to mean “to be unmoved by joy or grief.” The phrase “I don’t care” would sum it up. No matter what occurred, blessing or tragedy, health or sickness, life or death, plenty or privation they would simply reply, “I don’t care.” The Apostle Paul was no Stoic and could rest not in fatalism, but in the sovereignty of God.

This is where Paul continues to instruct us in Philippians 4 on learning the treasure of biblical contentment; and he points to the foundation of contentment in Christ—the sovereignty of God.

1. Rest in God’s Sovereignty (v.10) - Trust

v.10 - “But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity."

Sovereignty means that God is in control of every area of your life. We like to pray, “Thy will be done…” but then get frustrated when He does it! (cp, Acts 16:19, 25ff; Psalm 37:3-7, 34; Is.45; Job 38-40; Phil. 2:13f). A great example of God’s sovereignty in contentment is to read through the life of Joseph in Genesis 37-50. It culminates in 50:20 with these familiar and powerful words when Joseph is confronting his brothers who sold him into slavery by saying, “what you meant for evil, God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result.”

That’s biblical sovereignty in contentment in the most concise terms. Joseph was resigned to God’s purposes being accomplished even through the tragic events of his life done so by the hands of his own brothers—his own family.

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly (χαιρω - rejoice) a timeless aor. meaning “I did rejoice, I do rejoice, I am always rejoicing!” This was Paul’s continuous state of personality and this rejoicing was great. Paul’s mega-rejoicing was motivated by the highest possible considerations as being in the closest union with the Lord, but also with the full implication of this gift.

That now at last you have revived your concern for me…

“Revived is a word properly applicable to plants or flowers, meaning to grow green again; to flourish again; to spring up again. Here the meaning is, that they had been again prospered in their care of him, and to Paul it seemed as if their care had sprung up anew” (Barnes).

Just as in the winter a tree or shrub or flower seems to be dead and lifeless, but in the springtime blossoms again with the beauty and life that it demonstrated in the past, so with the Philippians. Their love for Paul though in the past was great and for a season seemed to be lifeless and silent. But now was blooming again for it had found a way for that expression of love to unfold. “You caused your thought of me to sprout afresh after a long winter.”

Though you surely did care…
They never stopped caring for Paul though a long time had passed between their gifts. Dr. MacArthur has catalogued Paul's journey in contentment this way:

Ten years have passed since Paul had received the last gift from the Philippians.
Ten years since he arrived in Philippi
Ten years since he preached the gospel there
Ten years since Lydia and her household were won for Christ
Ten years since he was throne in jail
Ten years since the earthquake freed all the prisoners
Ten years since the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his whole household
Ten years since he went Thessalonica and to Berea
Ten years since he left Macedonia for the cities of Athens and Corinth
Ten years since Paul preached repentance and “the resurrection of the dead” at the Areopagus
Ten years since he discipled Aquila and Priscilla
Ten years since Crispus the leader of synagogue was converted with his whole household and the result many Corinthians believed the gospel.
Ten years since the Philippians’ last expression of love for him.

But you lacked opportunity. Within the season of God’s providence they could not respond to Paul’s needs “at that time.” (v.15-16; 2 Cor. 11:8-9)

But this didn’t bother Paul, for he was content to wait on the Lord. God is in control. He is sovereign in that He is ordering everything for His own holy purpose. Sovereignty is not fatalism—the end is all we see and the means are not significant. Nor is it what I call “botchulism”—man excusing his own sinful ways by saying, “God permitted it, therefore, He must have condoned it.” Nor is it “androidianism’—man living in some sort of paralyzed robotic state as a benign bystander being tugged along like a marionette on a string.

Sovereignty is the confidence and assurance that the Lord is not only omniscient, that He know all things—but that He is also omnipotent, able to bring that which He wills and knows into existence and integrate into perfect conformity with His person and plan for all men.

Beloved, there are no coincidences in the Christian’s life. There are no accidents or cosmic surprises that disrupt the plans of God. He IS orchestrating all things for our good and His glory according to His divine purposes! Amen?

Because He is God
Because He is God, He must be reckoned with. Because He is God, He must not be trifled with. Because He is God, we must love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength—and love our neighbor as ourselves. Because He is God, we ought to worship Him in spirit and truth. Because He is God, we esteem Him with an undivided heart as First Love. Because He is God, we must approach Him clothed in contrition and we tremble at His Word. Because He is God, we give Him the preeminence in all things. Because He is God, he has given us His grace instead of His wrath; His love instead of His enmity; His mercy instead of His justice; joy unspeakable in glory instead of torment in hell for perpetuity.

Because He is God, I have no right to myself. Because He is God, I must walk in love, and love others, as Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. Because He is God, I must be willing to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven me. Because He is God, we love the brethren. Because He is God, I cannot harbor anger, wrath, clamor, bitterness, and malice in my heart toward another. Because He is God, I must turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and give someone my cloak if they want my coat too. Because He is God, I must be willing to suffer the loss of all things, to gain everything. Because He is God, I can rest in the surety that He is orchestrating all things for our good and His glory. Because He is God, I cannot repay evil for evil, wrong for wrong, hurt for hurt. Because He is God, we may rejoice when our hearts are breaking and our world has been shaken. Because He is God, our trials are blessings—invited guests and not strangers.

Because He is God, we keep our vows to our spouse even when he or she seems unlovable, unapproachable, unteachable, or uncaring. Because He is God, we train our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Because He is God, we cannot take another to court and sue for reparations. Because He is God, we have the right to be wronged. Because He is God, we love His Word more than daily food. Because He is God, pastors should preach the Word of God instead of being clever asinine raconteurs. Because He is God, the church must discipline sin and not wink at it. Because He is God, I cannot cherish my sin, but must daily repent of it. Because He is God, I’ve made a covenant with my eyes. Because He is God, I must guard my heart. Because He is God, I must not be motivated by mans applause, but by His “well done.” Because He is God, we cannot become unequally yoked with an unbeliever in any spiritual ministry or enterprise. Because He is God, all our possessions are for the Master’s use—they are not ours; they belong to Him. Because He is God, we must deny ourselves, daily take up our cross and follow Him.

To do all to His glory, according to His divine purpose, under the authority of His Word, to seek His will more than earthly reward, to embrace the fellowship of His sufferings rather than the pleasures of this world even for a season, to live self-sacrificially in unreciprocated love and service to others—to do all this for no other reason than… because He is God!

God alone is the source, sustenance, and sustaining treasure of the Christians contentment. Anything else will be fleeting; anything else can become an idol; anything else will ultimately leave us empty, unsatisfied, and restless.

THOUGHTS FOR YOUNG MEN...warnings about thoughtlessness and contempt of Christianity

2009-10-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

by J.C. Ryle

(3) Another danger to young men is THOUGHTLESSNESS.  
Not thinking is one simple reason why thousands of souls are thrown away forever into the Lake of Fire. Men will not consider, will not look ahead, will not look around them, will not reflect on the end of their present course, and the sure consequences of their present days, and wake up to find they are damned for a lack of thinking.  

Young men, none are in more danger of this than yourselves. You know little of the perils around you, and so you are careless how you walk. You hate the trouble of serious, quiet thinking, and so you make wrong decisions and bring upon yourselves much sorrow. Young Esau had to have his brother's stew and sold his birthright: he never thought how much he would want it in the future. Young Simeon and Levi had to avenge the rape of their sister Dinah, and kill the Shechemites: they never considered how much trouble and anxiety they might bring on their father Jacob and his house. Job seems to have been especially afraid of this thoughtlessness among his children: it is written, that when they had a feast, and the "period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, 'Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.' This was Job's regular custom" (Job 1:5).  

Believe me, this world is not a world in which we can do well without thinking, and least of all do well in the matter of our souls. "Don't think," whispers Satan: he knows that an unconverted heart is like a dishonest businessman's financial records, they will not bear close inspection. "Consider your ways," says the Word of God--stop and think--consider and be wise. The Spanish proverb says it well, "Hurry comes from the devil." Just as men marry in a rush and then are miserable with their mate, so they make mistakes about their souls in a minute, and then suffer for it for years. Just as a bad servant does wrong, and then says, "I never gave it a thought," so young men run into sin, and then say, "I did not think about it--it did not look like sin." Not look like sin! What would you expect? Sin will not come to you, saying, "I am sin;" it would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems "good, and pleasant, and desirable," at the time of commission. Oh, get wisdom, get discretion! Remember the words of Solomon: "Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm" (Proverbs 4:26).  

Some, I dare say, will object that I am asking what is unreasonable; that youth is not the time of life when people ought to be grave and thoughtful. I answer, there is little danger of their being too much so in the present day. Foolish talking and kidding, and joking, and excessive amusement, are only too common. I don't argue the fact that there is a time for all things; but to be always flippant and joking is anything but wise. What does the wisest of men say--

"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure" -Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

Matthew Henry tells a story of a great statesman in Queen Elizabeth's time, who retired from public life in his latter days, and gave himself up to serious thought. His former merry companions came to visit him, and told him that he was becoming somber: "No," he replied, "I am serious; for everyone around me is serious. God is serious in observing us--Christ is serious in interceding for us--the Spirit is serious in striving with us--the truths of God are serious--our spiritual enemies are serious in their endeavors to ruin us--poor lost sinners are serious in hell--and why then should you and I not be serious too?"  

Oh, young men, learn to be thoughtful! Learn to consider what you are doing, and where you are going. Make time for calm reflection. Commune with your own heart, and be still. Remember my caution--Do not be lost merely for the lack of thought.   

(4) Another danger to young men is CONTEMPT OF CHRISTIANITY.  
This also is one of your special dangers. I always observe that none pay so little outward respect to Christianity as young men. None take so little part in our services, when they are present at them--use Bibles so little--sing so little--listen to preaching so little. None are so generally absent at prayer meetings, Bible Studies, and all other weekday helps to the soul. Young men seem to think they do not need these things--they may be good for women and old men, but not for them. They appear ashamed of seeming to care about their souls: one would almost fancy they considered it a disgrace to go to heaven at all. And this is contempt of Christianity--it is the same spirit which made the young people of Bethel mock Elisha--and of this spirit I say to all young men, Beware! If it is worthwhile to be a Christian, it is worthwhile to be in earnest about it.  

Contempt of holy things is the straight road to hell. Once a man begins to make a joke of any part of Christianity, then I am never surprised to hear that he has turned out to be an unbeliever. (This is why I posted McLaren's new book cover; IMHO, no one in our postmodern day continually displays a contempt for orthodox, historical, biblical Christianity than he.)  

Young men, have you really made up your minds to this? Have you clearly looked into the fires which are before you, if you persist in despising Christianity? Call to mind the words of David: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 14:1). The fool, and no one but the fool has said it: but he has never proved it! Remember, if there ever was a book which has been proved true from beginning to end, by every kind of evidence, that book is the Bible. It has defied the attacks of all enemies and faultfinders. "The Word of the Lord is flawless" (Psalm 18:30). It has been tested in every way, and the more it has been tested, the more evidently has it been shown to be the very handiwork of God Himself. What will you believe, if you do not believe the Bible? There is no choice but to believe something ridiculous and absurd. Depend on it, no man is so grossly naive as the man who denies the Bible to be the Word of God; and if it be the Word of God, be careful that you don't despise it.  

Men may tell you that there are difficulties in the Bible; things hard to understand. It would not be God's book if there were not. And what if there are? You don't despise medicines because you cannot explain all that your doctor does with them. But whatever men may say, the things needed for salvation are as clear as daylight. Be very sure of this--people never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They understand it too well; they understand that it condemns their own behavior; they understand that it witnesses against their own sins, and summons them to judgment. They try to believe it is false and useless, because they don't like to believe it is true. An evil lifestyle must always raise an objection to this book. Men question the truth of Christianity because they hate the practice of it.  

Young men, when did God ever fail to keep His word? Never. What He has said, He has always done; and what He has spoken, He has always made good. Did He fail to keep His word at the flood? No. Did He fail with Sodom and Gomorrah? No. Did He fail with unbelieving Jerusalem? No. Has He failed with the Jews up to this very hour? No. He has never failed to fulfill His word. Take care, lest you be found among those who despise God's Word.  

Never laugh at Christianity. Never make a joke of sacred things. Never mock those who are serious and earnest about their souls. The time may come when you will count those happy whom you laughed at--a time when your laughter will be turned into sorrow, and your mockery into seriousness.   

THE GOODNESS OF GOD...the infinite and inexhaustible treasure of all blessedness

2009-10-14T13:36:00.005-05:00

"The goodness of God endureth continually" (Ps. 52:1). The "goodness" of God respects the perfection of His nature: "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). There is such an absolute perfection in God’s nature and being that nothing is wanting to it or defective in it, and nothing can be added to it to make it better.

"He is originally good, good of Himself, which nothing else is; for all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God. He is essentially good; not only good, but goodness itself: the creature’s good is a superadded quality, in God it is His essence. He is infinitely good; the creature’s good is but a drop, but in God there is an infinite ocean or gathering together of good. He is eternally and immutably good, for He cannot be less good than He is; as there can be no addition made to Him, so no subtraction from Him." (Thomas Manton)

God is summum bonum, the chiefest good. The original Saxon meaning of our English word "God" is "The Good." God is not only the Greatest of all beings, but the Best. All the goodness there is in any creature has been imparted from the Creator, but God’s goodness is underived, for it is the essence of His eternal nature. As God is infinite in power from all eternity, before there was any display thereof, or any act of omnipotency put forth; so He was eternally good before there was any communication of His bounty, or any creature to whom it might be imparted or exercised. Thus, the first manifestation of this Divine perfection was in giving being to all things. "Thou art good, and doest good" (Ps. 119:68). God has in Himself an infinite and inexhaustible treasure of all blessedness enough to fill all things.

All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good: as it is written. "And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). Thus, the "goodness" of God is seen, first, in Creation. The more closely the creature is studied, the more the beneficence of its Creator becomes apparent. Take the highest of God’s earthly creatures, man. Abundant reason has he to say with the Psalmist, "I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well" (139:14). Everything about the structure of our bodies attests the goodness of their Maker. How suited the bands to perform their allotted work! How good of the Lord to appoint sleep to refresh the wearied body! How benevolent His provision to give unto the eyes lids and brows for their protection! And so we might continue indefinitely.

Nor is the goodness of the Creator confined to man, it is exercised toward all His creatures. "The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing" (Ps. 145:15,16). Whole volumes might be written, yea have been, to amplify this fact. Whether it be the birds of the air, the beasts of the forest, or the fish in the sea, abundant provision has been made to supply their every need. God "giveth food to all flesh, for His mercy endureth forever" (Ps. 136:25). Truly, "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" (Ps. 33:5).

The goodness of God is seen in the variety of natural pleasures which He has provided for His creatures. God might have been pleased to satisfy our hunger without the food being pleasing to our palates—how His benevolence appears in the varied flavors which He has given to meats, vegetables, and fruits! God has not only given us senses, but also that which gratifies them; and this too reveals His goodness. The earth might have been as fertile as it is without its surface being so delightfully variegated. Our physical lives could have been sustained without beautiful flowers to regale our eyes, and exhale sweet perfumes. We might have walked the fields without our ears being saluted by the music of the birds. Whence, then, this loveliness, this charm, so freely diffused over the face of nature? Verily, "The tender mercies of the Lord are over all His works" (Ps. 145:9).

The goodness of God is seen in that when man transgressed the law of His Creator a dispensation of unmixed wrath did not at once commence. Well might God have deprived His fallen creatures of every blessing, every comfort, every pleasure. Instead, He ushered in a regime of a mixed nature, of mercy and judgment. This is very wonderful if it be duly considered, and the more thoroughly that regime be examined the more will it appear that "mercy rejoiceth against judgment" (Jas. 2:13). Notwithstanding all the evils which attend our fallen state, the balance of good greatly preponderates. With comparatively rare exceptions, men and women experience a far greater number of days of health, than they do of sickness and pain. There is much more creature—happiness than creature—misery in the world. Even our sorrows admit of considerable alleviation, and God has given to the human mind a pliability which adapts itself to circumstances and makes the most of them.

Nor can the benevolence of God be justly called into question because there is suffering and sorrow in the world. If man sins against the goodness of God, if he despises "the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering," and after the hardness and impenitency of his heart treasurest up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath (Rom 2:5,5), who is to blame but himself? Would God be "good" if He punished not those who ill-use His blessings, abuse His benevolence, and trample His mercies beneath their feet? It will be no reflection upon God’s goodness, but rather the brightest exemplification of it, when He shall rid the earth of those who have broken His laws, defied His authority, mocked His messengers, scorned His Son, and persecuted those for whom He died.

The goodness of God appeared most illustriously when He sent forth His Son "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might received the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4, 5). Then it was that a multitude of the heavenly host praised their Maker and said, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good-will toward men" (Luke 2:14). Yes, in the Gospel the "grace (Gk. benevolence or goodness) of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11). Nor can God’s benignity be called into question because He has not made every sinful creature to be a subject of His redemptive grace. He did not the fallen angels. Had God left all to perish it had been no reflection on His goodness. To any who would challenge this statement we will remind him of our Lord’s sovereign prerogative: "Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" (Matt. 20:15).

"O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men" (Ps. 107:8). Gratitude is the return justly required from the objects of His beneficence; yet is it often withheld from our great Benefactor simply because His goodness is so constant and so abundant. It is lightly esteemed because it is exercised toward us in the common course of events. It is not felt because we daily experience it. "Despisest thou the riches of His goodness?" (Rom. 2:4). His goodness is "despised" when it is not improved as a means to lead men to repentance, but, on the contrary, serves to harden them from the supposition that God entirely overlooks their sin.

The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged: "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him" (Nahum 1:7).

"When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless Him that He is good. We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same." (C. H. Spurgeon)

THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY...why this is essential truth

2009-10-12T16:25:00.001-05:00

"Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood: ¶ May egrace and fpeace be multiplied to you." (1 Pet. 1:2)

In light of my most recent post "A Night at the Improv", I thought it would be helpful to demonstrate the necessity and importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. Though people who are genuinely saved may have questions surrounding this great truth, no genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will ever deny it! To deny the existence of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit as being co-eternal, co-existing and co-equal from all eternity, is to deny the God of the Scriptures and worship another god; which is idolatry; which is damnable. Anyone who teaches the Sabellian, modalist, anti-Trinitarian view of God is teaching doctrine of demons, is a false teacher, and not of the faith.

The doctrine of the Trinity simply expressed is:

There is One true and living God - indivisible, infinite; co-eternal, co-equal, and co-existing in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each possess the same essence and attributes of deity; deserving our obedience and reverence. However, the Father is not the Spirit; the Spirit is not the Son; and the Son is not the Father (see chart below). Our God exists to glorify and enjoy Himself forever. He is infinite in being and perfection, a Spirit invisible, personal, omnipresent, eternal, dependent on none, unchanging, truthful, trustworthy, almighty, sovereign, omniscient, righteous, holy, good, loving, merciful, long-suffering, and gracious. (Exodus 3:13-14; 34:4-7; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; 1 Kings 8:27; Nehemiah 9:32-33; Job 22:2-3; Psalm 5:4-8; 90:1-2; 95:1-7; 115:1-7; 119:65-68; 145:17-18 Proverbs 16:4; Isaiah 6:1-3; 40:10-31; 46:9-13; Jeremiah 10:10; 23:23-24; Daniel 4:34-35; Malachi 3:6; Matthew 28:16-20; John 1:1-18; 4:21-24; 14:1-11; 15:26-27; Acts 7:2-50; 20:28; Romans 11:33-36; 1 Corinthians 8:5-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 4:4-7; Hebrews 4:12-13; 11:6; Revelation 4:8; 5:11-14)

With that as a foundation, Thomas Watson gives us a weighty, biblical, and unwavering defense of the One Triune God of the Bible in his following article. I pray that it will be a joy to your heart and an encouragement to your mind to feast on this great truth. May it cause you to worship afresh the God of the Bible.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:14)

POST TENEBRAS LUX
Steve
2 Cor. 4:5-7

Q: HOW MANY PERSONS ARE THERE IN THE GODHEAD?

A: Three persons, yet but one God.

‘There are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.’ (1 John 5:7)

God is but one, yet are there three distinct persons subsisting in one Godhead. This is a sacred mystery, which the light within man could never have discovered. As the two natures in Christ, yet but one person, is a wonder; so three persons, yet but one Godhead. Here is a great deep, the Father God, the Son God, the Holy Ghost God; yet not three Gods, but one God. The three persons in the blessed Trinity are distinguished, but not divided; three substances, but one essence. This is a divine riddle, where one makes three, and three make one. Our narrow thoughts can no more comprehend the Trinity in Unity, than a nut-shell will hold all the water in the sea. Let me shadow it out by a similitude. In the body of the sun, there are the substance of the sun, the beams, and the heat; the beams are begotten of the sun, the heat proceeds both from the sun and the beams; but these three, though different, are not divided; they all three make but one sun: so in the blessed Trinity, the Son is begotten of the Father, the Holy Ghost proceeds from both; yet though they are three distinct persons, they are but one God.

First, let me speak of the Unity in Trinity; then of the Trinity in Unity.

I. Of the Unity in Trinity. The Unity of the persons in the Godhead consists of two things.

[1] The identity of essence. In the Trinity there is a oneness in essence. The three persons are of the same divine nature and substance; so that in Deo nonest magis et minus, ‘there are no degrees in the Godhead’; one person is not God more than another.

[2] Unity of the persons in the Godhead consists in the mutual inbeing of them, or their being in one together. The three persons are so united that one person is in another, and with another. ‘Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.’ John 17:21.

II. Let me speak of the Trinity in Unity.

[1] The first person in the Trinity is God the Father. He is called the first person, in respect of order, not dignity: for God the Father has no essential perfection which the other persons have not; he is not more wise, more holy, more powerful than the other persons are. There is a priority, not a superiority.

[2] The second person in the Trinity is Jesus Christ, who is begotten of the Father before all time. ‘I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth.’ Prov viii 23-25. This Scripture declares the eternal generation of the Son of God. This second person in the Trinity, who is Jehovah, is become our Jesus. The Scripture calls him the branch of David, Jer xxiii 5, and I may call him the flower of our nature. ‘By him all that believe are justified.’ Acts xiii 39.

[3] The third person in the Trinity is the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, whose work is to illuminate the mind, and enkindle sacred motions. The essence of the Spirit is in heaven, and everywhere; but the influence of it is in the hearts of believers. This is that blessed Spirit who gives us the holy unction. I John ii 20. Though Christ merits grace for us, it is the Holy Ghost that works it in us. Though Christ makes the purchase, it is the Holy Ghost that makes the assurance, and seals us to the day of redemption. Thus I have spoken of all the three persons. The Trinity of persons may be proved out of Matt iii 16. ‘Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son.’ Here are three names given to the three persons. He who spake with a voice from heaven was God the Father; he who was baptized in Jordan was God the Son; he who descended in the likeness of a dove was God the Holy Ghost. Thus I have shown you the Unity of essence, and the Trinity of persons.

Use one: For confutation.
(I.) This confutes the Jews and Turks, who believe only the first person in the Godhead. Take away the distinction of the persons in the Trinity, and you overthrow man’s redemption; for God the Father being offended with man for sin, how shall he be pacified without a mediator? This mediator is Christ, who makes our peace. Christ having died, and shed his blood, how shall this blood be applied but by the Holy Ghost? Therefore, if there be not three persons in the Godhead, man’s salvation cannot be wrought out; if there be no second person in the Trinity, there is no redeemer; if no third person, there is no comforter. Thus the plank is taken away by which we get to heaven.

(2.) It confutes the execrable opinion of the Socinians, who deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus, and make him to be a creature only, but of a higher rank. As the Papists blot out the second commandment, so the Socinians do the second person in the Trinity. If to oppose Christ’s members be a sin, what is it to oppose Christ himself? Jesus Christ is co-equal with God the Father. He thought it no robbery to be equal with God. Phil ii 6. He is co-eternal with God the Father: ‘I was from the beginning,’ Prov viii 23: if not, there was a time when God was without a Son, and so he would be no Father; nay, there was a time when God was without his glory, for Christ is ‘the brightness of his Father’s glory.’ Heb i 3. He is co-essential with God the Father. The Godhead subsists in Christ. ‘In whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’ Col ii 9. It is said; not only that Christ was with God before the beginning, but that he was God. John i 1, and I Tim iii 16. ‘God manifest in the flesh.’ The title of Lord, so often given to Christ, in the New Testament, answers to the tide of Jehovah in the Old. Deut vi 5; Matt xxii 37. Christ has a co-eternity, and co-substantiality with his Father. ‘I and my Father are one.’ John x 30. It were blasphemy for an angel to speak thus. Yet further to prove Christ’s Godhead, consider (i) The glorious incommunicable attributes belonging to God the Father are ascribed to Christ. Is God the Father omnipotent? So is Jesus Christ. He is the almighty, Rev i 8, and he creates, Col i 16. Is God the Father infinitely immense, filling all places? Jer xxiii 24. So is Jesus Christ. While Christ was on the earth by his bodily presence, he was at the same time in the bosom of the Father by his divine presence. John iii 13. (ii) The same jura regalia, or prerogatives royal, which belong to God the Father, belong also to Christ. Does God the Father seal pardons? This is a flower of Christ’s crown. ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ Matt ix 2. Nor does Christ remit sin organice only, as ministers do, by virtue of a power delegated to them from God; but he does it by his own power and authority. Is God the Father the adequate object of faith? Is he to be believed in? So is his Son. John xiv 1. Does adoration belong to God the Father? So it does to the Son. ‘Let all the angels of God worship him.’ Heb i 6. How sacrilegious therefore is the Socinian, who would rob Christ of his Godhead, the best flower of his crown. They that deny Christ to be God, must greatly wrest, or else deny the Scripture to be the Word of God.

(3.) It confutes the Arians, who deny the Holy Ghost to be God. The eternal Godhead subsists in the Holy Ghost. ‘He shall guide you into all truth.’ John xvi 13. Christ speaks not there of an attribute, but of a person. That the Godhead subsists in the person of the Holy Ghost appears in this; that the Spirit, who gives diversity of gifts, is said to be the same Lord, and the same God. I Cor xii 5, 6. The black and unpardonable sin is said, in a special manner, to be committed against the Godhead subsisting in the Holy Ghost. Matt xii 32. The mighty power of God is made manifest by the Holy Ghost; for he changes the hearts of men. The devil would have Christ prove himself to be God, by turning stones into bread; but the Holy Ghost shows his Godhead by turning stones into flesh. ‘I will take away the stony heart; and give you a heart of flesh.’ Ezek xxxvi 26. Yet further, the power and Godhead of the Holy Ghost appeared in effecting the glorious conception of our Lord Jesus Christ. The very shadow of the Holy Ghost made a virgin conceive. Luke i 35. The Holy Ghost works miracles, which transcend the sphere of nature; as raising the dead. Rom viii 11. To him belongs divine worship; our souls and bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, I Cor vi 19, in which temples he is to be worshipped, verse 20. We are baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost; therefore we must believe his Godhead, or renounce our baptism in his name. Methinks it were better for such men not to have so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, Acts xix 2, than to deny his Deity. They who would wittingly and willingly blot out the third person, shall have their names blotted out of the book of life.

Use two: For exhortation.
(I.) Believe this doctrine of the Trinity of persons in the unity of essence. The Trinity is purely an object of faith; the plumbline of reason is too short to fathom this mystery; but where reason cannot wade, there faith may swim. There are some truths in religion that may be demonstrated by reason; as that there is a God: but the Trinity of persons in the Unity of essence is wholly supernatural, and must be believed by faith. This sacred doctrine is not against reason, but above it. Those illuminated philosophers, that could find out the causes of things, and discourse of the magnitude and influence of the stars, the nature of minerals, could never, by their deepest search, find out the mystery of the Trinity. This is of divine revelation, and must be adored with humble believing. We can be no good Christians, without the firm belief of the Trinity. How can we pray to God the Father but in the name of Christ, and through the help of the Spirit? How believe the glorious Trinity? How are the Quakers to be abhorred, who go under the name of Christians, and yet undervalue and renounce Jesus Christ! I have read of some Quakers who speak thus: ‘We deny the person of him whom you call Christ, and affirm, That they who expect to be saved by that Christ without works, will be damned in that faith!’ Could the devil himself speak worse blasphemy? They would pull up all religion by the roots, and take away that corner stone, on which the hope of our salvation is built.

(2.) If there be one God subsisting in three persons, then let us give equal reverence to all the persons in the Trinity. There is not more or less in the Trinity; the Father is not more God than the Son and Holy Ghost. There is an order in the Godhead, but no degrees; one person has not a majority or super eminence above another, therefore we must give equal worship to all the persons. ‘That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father’ John v 23. Adore Unity in Trinity.

(3.) Obey all the persons in the blessed Trinity; for all of them are God.

Obey God the Father. Christ himself as man, obeyed God the Father, John iv much more must we. Deut xxvii 10.

Obey God the Son. ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry.’ Psa ii 12. Kiss him with a kiss of obedience. Christ’s commands are not grievous. I John v 3. Whatever he commands is for our interest and benefit. Oh then kiss the Son! Why do the elders throw down their crowns at the feet of Christ, and fall down before the Lamb? Rev iv 10, 11. To testify their subjection, and to profess their readiness to serve and obey him.

Obey God the Holy Ghost. Our souls are breathed into us by the glorious Spirit. ‘The Spirit of God hath made me.’ Job xxxiii 4. Our souls are adorned by the blessed Spirit. Every grace is a divine spark lighted in the soul by the Holy Ghost. Nay, more, the Spirit of God sanctified Christ’s human nature; he united it with the divine, and fitted the man Christ to be our Meditator. Well then does this third person in the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, deserve to be obeyed; for he is God, and this tribute of homage and obedience is due to him from us.

-About the Author-

The actual birth date of Thomas Watson is unknown exactly. He was one of the non-conformists of the 1600s and was educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and in 1646 was appointed to preach at St. Stephen's, Walbrook. He showed strong Presbyterian views during the civil war, with, however, an attachment for the king; because of his share in Love's plot to recall Charles II, he was imprisoned in 1651, but was released and reinstated vicar of St. Stephen's in 1652. He acquired fame as a preacher, but in 1662 was ejected at the Restoration. He continued, however, to exercise his ministry privately. In 1672 after the declaration of indulgence he obtained a license for Crosby Hall, where he preached for several years until his retirement to Barnston upon the failure of his health.

Watson was a man of learning and acquired fame by his quaint devotional and expository writings. Of his many works may be mentioned, The Art of Divine Contentment (London, 1653); The Saint's Delight 1657); Jerusalem's Glory (1661); The Divine Cordial (1663); The Godly Man's Picture (1666); The Holy Eucharist (1668); Heaven Taken by Storm (1669); and A Body of Practical Divinity, . . . One Hundred seventy Six Sermons on the Lesser Catechism (1692). He died at Barnston (28 miles n.e. of London) in July of 1686.

THE LOVE OF GOD...His most comforting and misunderstood attribute

2009-10-08T10:41:00.004-05:00

We are getting ready at our church to embark a two to three year study of the gospel of John and Hebrews. The gospel of John's great theme is "The Word of His Love" and depicts Jesus as God the Son - the exalted Lord Christ come as man to earth (the Word become flesh - 1:14). And the wonderful theme of Hebrews is the Supremacy and Sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the great characteristics of John's gospel is how he unfolds and focuses on the love of God. In that light, I thought it would be fitting to republish this article by A.W. Pink on the love of God as a precursor to the gospel of John. I hope it will be an encouragement to your heart and mind today as you serve the Lord.

In His fathomless love,
Steve
1 Cor. 13

by A.W. Pink

There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God. First, "God is spirit" (John 4:24). In the Greek there is no indefinite article, and to say "God is a spirit" is most objectionable, for it places Him in a class with others. God is "spirit" in the highest sense. Because He is "spirit" He is incorporeal, having no visible substance. Had God a tangible body, He would not be omnipresent, He would be limited to one place; because He is spirit He fills heaven and earth. Second, God is light (1 John 1:5), which is the opposite of "darkness." In Scripture "darkness" stands for sin, evil, death; and "light" for holiness, goodness, life. God is light, means that He is the sum of all excellency. Third, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is not simply that God "loves," but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.

There are many today who talk about the love of God, who are total strangers to the God of love. The Divine love is commonly regarded as a species of amiable weakness, a sort of good-natured indulgence; it is reduced to a mere sickly sentiment, patterned after human emotion. Now the truth is that on this, as on everything else, our thoughts need to be formed and regulated by what is revealed thereon in Holy Scripture. That there is urgent need for this is apparent not only from the ignorance which so generally prevails, but also from the low state of spirituality which is now so sadly evident everywhere among professing Christians. How little real love there is for God. One chief reason for this is because our hearts are so little occupied with His wondrous love for His people. The better we are acquainted with His love—its character, fulness, blessedness—the more will our hearts be drawn out in love to Him.

1. The love of God is uninfluenced.
By this we mean, there was nothing whatever in the objects of His love to call it into exercise, nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it. The love which one creature has for another is because of something in them; but the love of God is free, spontaneous, uncaused. The only reason why God loves any is found in His own sovereign will: "The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved thee" (Deut. 7:7,8). God has loved His people from everlasting, and therefore nothing of the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from Himself: "according to His own purpose" (2 Tim. 1:9).

"We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). God did not love us because we loved Him, but He loved us before we had a particle of love for Him. Had God loved us in return for ours, then it would not be spontaneous on His part; but because He loved us when we were loveless, it is clear that His love was uninfluenced. It is highly important if God is to be honored and the heart of His child established, that we should be quite clear upon this precious truth. God’s love for me, and for each of "His own," was entirely unmoved by anything in them. What was there in me to attract the heart of God? Absolutely nothing. But, to the contrary, everything to repel Him, everything calculated to make Him loathe me—sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption, with "no good thing" in me.

"What was there in me that could merit esteem,
Or give the Creator delight?
‘Twas even so, Father, I ever must sing,
Because it seemed good, in Thy sight."

2. It is eternal.
This of necessity. God Himself is eternal, and God is love; therefore, as God Himself had no beginning, His love had none. Granted that such a concept far transcends the grasp of our feeble minds, nevertheless, where we cannot comprehend, we can bow in adoring worship. How clear is the testimony of Jeremiah 31:3, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." How blessed to know that the great and holy God loved His people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity. Clear proof is this that His love is spontaneous, for He loved them endless ages before they had any being.

The same precious truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4,5, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love having predestinated us." What praise should this evoke from each of His children! How tranquilizing for the heart: since God’s love toward me had no beginning, it can have no ending! Since it be true that "from everlasting to everlasting" He is God, and since God is "love," then it is equally true that "from everlasting to everlasting" He loves His people.

3. It is sovereign.
This also is self-evident. God Himself is sovereign, under obligations to none, a law unto Himself, acting always according to His own imperial pleasure. Since God be sovereign, and since He be love, it necessarily follows that His love is sovereign. Because God is God, He does as He pleases; because God is love, He loves whom He pleases. Such is His own express affirmation: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom. 9:19). There was no more reason in Jacob why he should be the object of Divine love, than there was in Esau. They both had the same parents, and were born at the same time, being twins; yet God loved the one and hated the other! Why? Because it pleased Him to do so.

The sovereignty of God’s love necessarily follows from the fact that it is uninfluenced by anything in the creature. Thus, to affirm that the cause of His love lies in God Himself, is only another way of saying, He loves whom He pleases. For a moment, assume the opposite. Suppose God’s love were regulated by anything else than His will, in such a case He would love by rule, and loving by rule He would be under a law of love, and then so far from being free, God would Himself be ruled by law. "In love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to"—what? Some excellency which He foresaw in them? No; what then? "According to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:4,5).

4. It is infinite.
Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present and future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So His love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to it which defies measurement, by any creature-standard. Beautifully is this intimated in Ephesians 2:4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us: the word "great" there is parallel with the "God so loved" of John 3:16. It tells us that the love of God is so transcendent it cannot be estimated.

No tongue can fully express the infinitude of God’s love, or any mind comprehend it: it "passeth knowledge" Eph. 3:19). The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about Divine love, are infinitely below its true nature. The heaven is not so far above the earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most raised conceptions which we are able to form of it. It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition in such as are the objects of it. It is a fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it (John Brine, 1743).

5. It is immutable.
As with God Himself there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17), so His love knows neither change or diminution. The worm Jacob supplies a forceful example of this: "Jacob have I loved," declared Jehovah, and despite all his unbelief and waywardness, He never ceased to love him. John 13:1 furnishes another beautiful illustration. That very night one of the apostles would say, "Show us the Father"; another would deny Him with cursings; all of them would be scandalized by and forsake Him. Nevertheless "having loved His own which were in the world, He love them unto the end." The Divine love is subject to no vicissitudes. Divine love is "strong as death ... many waters cannot quench it" (Song of Sol. 8:6,7). Nothing can separate from it: Romans 8:35-39.

"His love no end nor measure knows,
No change can turn its course,
Eternally the same it flows
From one eternal source."

6. It is holy.
God’s love is not regulated by caprice passion, or sentiment, but by principle. Just as His grace reigns not at the expense of it, but "through righteousness" (Rom. 5:21), so His love never conflicts with His holiness. "God is light" (1 John 1:5) is mentioned before "God is love" (1 John 4:8). God’s love is no mere amiable weakness, or effeminate softness. Scripture declares, "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth" (Heb. 12:6). God will not wink at sin, even in His own people. His love is pure, unmixed with any maudlin sentimentality.

7. It is gracious.
The love and favor of God are inseparable. This is clearly brought out in Romans 8:32-39. What that love is from which there can be no "separation," is easily perceived from the design and scope of the immediate context: it is that goodwill and grace of God which determined Him to give His Son for sinners. That love was the impulsive power of Christ’s incarnation: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). Christ died not in order to make God love us, but because He did love His people, Calvary is the supreme demonstration of Divine love. Whenever you are tempted to doubt the love of God, Christian reader, go back to Calvary.

Here then is abundant cause for trust and patience under Divine affliction. Christ was beloved of the Father, yet He was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution. He hungered and thirsted. Thus, it was not incompatible with God’s love for Christ when He permitted men to spit upon and smite Him. Then let no Christian call into question God’s love when he is brought under painful afflictions and trials. God did not enrich Christ on earth with temporal prosperity, for "He had not where to lay His head." But He did give Him the Spirit "without measure" (John 3:34). Learn then that spiritual blessings are the principal gifts of Divine love. How blessed to know that when the world hates us, God loves us!

this has been a timely encore presentation

THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST MADE PLAIN

2009-10-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

HERE IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPELLING PRESENTATIONS
OF THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST I HAVE EVER READ.

Please read it and share it with others.

Sola Fide,
Campi
2 Cor. 4:5-7

BEARING THE CROSS...by Octavius Winslow

2009-10-05T11:58:00.001-05:00

In light of this powerful article below by Octavius Winslow, first consider these distrubing words between Robert Schuller and Billy Graham (source: Television interview of Billy Graham by Robert Schuller, on May 31, 1997. The following segment is an exact transcript of an excerpt close to the end of the broadcast. Reported by The Christian News, October 20, 1997, page 15.):

SCHULLER: Tell me, what do you think is the future of Christianity?

GRAHAM: Well, Christianity and being a true believer -- you know, I think there's the Body of Christ. This comes from all the Christian groups around the world, outside the Christian groups. I think everybody that loves Christ, or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not, they're members of the Body of Christ ... I think James answered that, the Apostle James in the first council in Jerusalem, when he said that God's purpose for this age is to call out a people for His name. And that's what God is doing today, He's calling people out of the world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or the Buddhist world, or the Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of Christ, because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name of Jesus, but they know in their hearts that they need something that they don't have, and they turn to the only light that they have, and I think they are saved, and that they're going to be with us in heaven."

SCHULLER: What, what I hear you saying, that it's possible for Jesus Christ to come into human hearts and soul and life, even if they've been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you're saying?

GRAHAM: Yes, it is, because I believe that. I've met people in various parts of the world in tribal situations, that they have never seen a Bible or heard about a Bible, and never heard of Jesus, but they've believed in their hearts that there was a God, and they've tried to live a life that was quite apart from the surrounding community in which they lived."

SCHULLER: [R.S. trips over his tongue for a moment, his face beaming, then says] I'm so thrilled to hear you say this. There's a wideness in God's mercy.

GRAHAM: There is. There definitely is."

One must ask this question of these two men: how wide do you think is the narrow road?

Bearing the Cross
By Octavius Winslow
"And He, bearing His cross, went forth to a place called Golgotha." John 19:17

There is no incident in our Lord's passion which, to a heart quickened with spiritual sensibility, is more replete with holy instruction, or more deeply, tenderly touching than this- Christ bearing to Calvary the cross upon which He was to suffer. It unveils such a profound abasement, and yet such a depth of love- it portrays a stoop of the Majesty of heaven to earth's lowest degradation- so marvelous, and yet, is the measurement of grace, so vast, the fact stands out, amid the many marvels of our Lord's death, one of the most touching and significant of all. To compel the criminal to bear the wood upon which he was to be impaled, was one of the severest elements of degradation in the Roman punishment of crucifixion. To this our Lord was subjected, "And He, bearing His cross, went forth." Little did they dream, as they bound the fatal wood upon His shoulder, by whose power that tree was made to grow, and from whom the beings who bore Him to the death drew their existence. So completely was Jesus bent upon saving sinners by the sacrifice of Himself, He created the tree upon which He was to die, and nurtured from infancy the men who were to nail Him to the accursed wood. Oh the depth of Jesus's love to sinners! Lord! the universe in its accumulation presents no love like Yours! Your love, eternal as Your being, saw from everlasting the cross of Calvary, and yet You did not falter in Your purpose, nor modify Your plan of saving lost sinners by the sacrifice of Yourself. You saved others, Yourself You would not save!

Our present subject, while it presents one of the most affecting portraits of our Lord, equally delineates what should be the portrait of His disciple bearing the cross after Jesus. We proceed to guide the reader's thoughts first, to the study of the Divine Original, and then, to the consideration of the human copy.

THE DIVINE ORIGINAL
The burden borne by our Lord on this memorable occasion was the literal, actual cross upon which He was to agonize and die. What a touching proof have we here of His literal and actual humanity! The bearing of that cross upon His chafed shoulders, His weariness and fainting beneath its weight, proved Him to be (sin always excepted) very man of very man, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Replete with consolation is this fact to the burdened believer. Perhaps Jesus has laid upon you some cross- it may be the shame and the loss of His own; your heart is sad, your spirits sink, you stagger and swoon beneath the burden. But study this touching incident in your Lord's life, and receive the instruction and accept the soothing it affords. Your Lord knew what it was to droop beneath the cross, and do you think that He has no regard, no compassion, no sympathy with you at this moment, as, weary, exhausted, and faint, you bear the load God has laid upon you, carry the cross Christ has imposed, toiling on in obedience, suffering, and service?

We have already adverted to the humiliating aspect which this fact in our Lord's history presents. It is too significant to pass superficially over. Every view of our Lord's humiliation is a view of His love. The greatest indignity, as we have remarked, in the death of the Roman malefactor, was to compel him to carry the gibbet to the place of execution. To this degradation did Jesus voluntarily subject Himself. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." But why this degradation? That He might illustrate the depth of His love, and teach His followers that in all the humiliation they pass through in confessing His name and bearing His cross, He enfolds them in the robe of His sympathy, and sustains them by the arm of His grace. If such the humiliation to which our Lord cheerfully submitted, and such the springs of sympathy which gush from His compassionate nature, who would shrink from the shame and the loss of bearing the cross after Jesus? What assuring words has He spoken! "Whoever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven." But we pass to the more spiritual and gospel truth involved in the incident of Christ bearing His cross.

IT WAS THE SYMBOL OF A HEAVIER BURDEN THAT HE BORE- THE BURDEN OF HIS CHURCH'S SINS
But for sin there had been no cross. When our blessed Lord traveled to Calvary, weary and faint beneath the cross, there was a sorrow in His heart, a moral crucifixion of the soul, greater and severer far than this- the sorrow and the weight which the transfer of all His people's transgressions to Him, as their Substitute and Surety, involved. Listen to His touching language- "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death." What was the cause of that grief from which He would not escape? The bearing of sin! Nothing but sin supplies a solution of the mystery of His deep, unparalleled soul-sorrow. The sorrow had not been His by experience- had not the sin been His by imputation. Thus our Lord endured, not the punishment only, but the actual sins of His people. What injustice would there be in punishing the innocent for the guilty, had not the innocent party stood in the place of the guilty party. This our Lord did. Substitution is the great doctrine of the gospel- the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. "He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Behold then, beloved, your sins laid by transfer upon Jesus. The teaching of the Bible is not, as some suppose, that we lay our sins upon Christ- that were a difficult, an impossible act, but the teaching is, that Jehovah laid our sins upon Him. "The Lord [JEHOVAH] has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." The Father did this in His everlasting love, from all eternity. In the eternal purpose of the Triune God the sins of the elect were laid upon Jesus, and He undertook to bear and die for them. If God the Father had not laid our sins upon God the Son, no power of ours had ever prevailed to effect the task. In accomplishing our reconciliation, Christ acted for God on the one part, and for man on the other. And if God had not consented that His people's transgressions should all meet upon Christ, actually binding upon the sacrificial victim with His own hands the burden, there had been no reconciliation. Hence our salvation, with all the blessings that flow from it- Jehovah the Father laying upon Jehovah the Son His Church's sins.

And now your faith has to do with an accomplished fact, and not with an impossible task. It is to accept the truth that God Himself laid your sins upon the soul of Jesus, as Aaron the priest took all the transgressions of all the children of Israel and laid them upon the head of the goat, and then sent him away into the wilderness. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions and all their sins, putting them [the actual iniquities and transgressions] upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not in habited." (Margin, a land of separation.) You have, perhaps, under an enlightened and spiritual sense of sin- distressed and despairing- for months endeavored to uplift the crushing weight and lay it upon Christ, and every effort has failed. Let me gently lead you to the foot of the Savior's cross. Behold in faith the sinless, spotless Lamb of God as having already borne that weight, as having suffered for those sins, as having died for those transgressions, and accept the precious truth that it was God's eternal love that laid them all on Jesus, and that nothing is left for you to do but to believe in Jesus, that He saves to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.

Thus, as we have remarked, you have, in the momentous matter of your soul's salvation, to accept an attested fact, and not to propose a hopeless task. Your soul-distress for sin, your spiritual consciousness of guilt, is to impel you, just as you are, to the cross, there to look and believe and be saved. If you lose sight of the truth that God laid your sins upon Christ, you lose sight of the love of God towards you; and, losing sight of the love of God, you lose sight of the fountain from where flows all your springs of peace and joy and hope. The comfort which this view of Christ's bearing sin imparts, distances all measurement. If God has laid your sins upon the Son of His love, you may rest assured that He will never lay them a second time upon you; since, if Christ has borne them and atoned for them to Divine justice, they never again can be found. What, then, are you to take to Jesus? For what are you to repair to the foot of His cross? You are to take to Jesus the conviction of sin; the spiritual, enlightened confession of your guilt- that terrible and crushing burden that weighs you to the earth- you are to take to Him your sense of condemnation, your dread of death, your fearful apprehension of eternal wrath. Brought by the Holy Spirit to see and feel your condemnation under the law, you are to repair to the cross and behold Jesus "made a curse for us," and see your sins all laid upon Him, condemned in Him, pardoned through Him, and by Him cast into eternal oblivion.

While all Christendom admits the fact that Christ died upon the cross, how widely different the interpretation of that fact? We accept the only scriptural and rational one which supplies a solution of the mystery, "Christ died for the ungodly." "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." "Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree." Can any truth be presented more forcibly, or in a light more luminous, than the doctrine which these touching words convey- the sacrificial nature of our Lord's death? Hold fast this essential doctrine of your faith- it is for your life. There is no present spiritual life, and there can be no future eternal life, apart from a humble, believing reception of the atonement Of the Son of God. God will not save the sinner at the expense of His honor, or exercise mercy at the sacrifice of justice. The atonement of the Son of God so harmonizes His perfections, as to render it easy, honorable, and illustrious on the part of God to embrace in His love, extend His mercy, and exercise His grace towards the greatest sinner. Were He to save the sinner on the basis of mercy without an equivalent to His moral government, it would be an outrage on justice, and a dishonor to holiness, and a violation of truth. But the atoning work of the Son of God- the God-man, Christ Jesus- meets the whole case- it honors the Holiest and it saves the vilest. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."

And how resplendent does the love of Jesus appear from beneath this dark cloud of His profound humiliation. The marvellous fact of His bearing His own cross can only be understood in the light of LOVE. It was, in fact, LOVE bearing the instrument of its own torture and death. The cross of Jesus is the symbol, the badge, the expression of Divine love. It is love's manner and escutcheon. Love died to save, confronting death in its most painful and degrading form. God the Father so loved that He gave His Son- God the Son so loved that He gave Himself- and God the Spirit so loves that He takes of the things of Jesus and shows them to us. Love, and love only, supplies the solution of all that Jehovah has done from everlasting in the covenant of redemption. Behold, then, your Savior bearing His cross, trembling and fainting the place of suffering, and doubt not His love to you. Has He laid upon you a burden beneath whose pressure your tender spirit faints? His love bore a far heavier one for you; and will sustain you while you learn the lesson and reap the blessing of this discipline. Would you know the heart of Jesus? Track His footsteps as, bearing His own cross for you, weary and mournful, He traveled to the sepulchral gloom of Golgotha.

Many are THE BLESSINGS which flow from this touching incident of our Lord's passion. We mention a few. Confirming, as it does, the fact of our Lord's nature as a man, it equally illustrates His human sympathy. Sinking from weariness, faint from exhaustion, and ready to succumb beneath the burden that you bear, let the thought of Christ's sympathy soothe and sustain you. No other being can sympathize with your present position- the mental depression, the bodily infirmity, the spiritual despondency- as Christ. His bearing the burden of His cross schooled Him for this identical path you now tread. It may be tortuous in its windings, cross-like in its shape, traced by tears, shaded by gloom, nevertheless the discipline of your Lord, when He went forth bearing His cross, has prepared Him for this your present path. Take your cross to the foot of His, and the spectacle of His suffering love will make your affliction light and momentary; and you shall declare with the Psalmist, "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Few lessons gleaned from this incident in our Lord's life are more practical and precious to the believer than the assimilation into which it brings him with Christ. How frequently, in His conversations with His disciples, did the phrase occur- "taking the cross." For example- "He that takes not his cross, and follows not after Me, is not worthy of Me." "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." An illustration of this high, spiritual privilege of the disciple of Christ is touchingly presented in the instance of Simon the Cyrenean, of whom it is recorded, "him they compelled to bear His cross."

What is it to bear Christ's cross?

It involves three ideas.

The first is, the public confession of Christ crucified before the world. It is due to our Lord, if we are really His disciples, that the world should know it. There are many who are not Christ's true disciples, who yet presumptuously assume and wear His badge. And there are not a few who are His true disciples, but who are only secretly so. "Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly." But the religion of Jesus imposes an open, public, and avowed profession of His name and truth before men. Christ was not crucified in secret, but openly in the sight of heaven and earth; and His true disciples, not ashamed of Him and His cross, of His truth and of His people, but coming out of the world, separating themselves from its worldliness and its religion, are openly, manfully, and meekly to take up His cross and follow Him; not ashamed to own themselves the disciples of that Savior whose life was poverty, whose kingdom was not of this world, whose first apostles were fishermen, and whose death was that of a Roman slave upon the cross. Oh, then, if you love Jesus, confess Him where His person is despised, His gospel hated, His name reviled; and count it your highest distinction on earth, like Simon, . to "bear the cross after Jesus."

Another idea involved is, a willing and cheerful endurance of whatever sufferings, afflictions, and trials our Lord may see fit, in His infinite wisdom and love, to lay upon us in the profession of His name and the service of His kingdom and truth. The religion of Jesus involves the bearing of a cross. We should keep in mind the sentiment of Augustine, "My Love was crucified." All service, therefore, for Him whom our souls love imposes a cross, demands a self-denying spirit, the abnegation of our own will, and the doing and the suffering of our Lord's. And oh, how pleasant a thing it is to make any sacrifice- if we dare dignify our poor service by such a term- for Him who sacrificed Himself for us! Love to Jesus- love enkindled at the altar of His own- will impart lowliness to the loftiest service, and dignity to the most common things done in His name.

The third idea is that of crucifixion of sin. "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh." "I am crucified with Christ." The sacrificial death of our Lord upon the cross not only obtained for us reconciliation with God, but it supplied a personal and effectual motive for the mortification of sin and the subjugation of the powers and passions of the soul to the supremacy of Jesus. And he who, by the power of the cross, thus crucifies sin, may appropriate to himself spiritually the language which Paul employed literally- "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." "I have in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." As Owen observes, "Nothing but the death of Christ for us, will be the death of sin in us." In bearing thus the cross of Jesus, the believer dies unto sin and lives unto holiness. It is a dying daily, or daily crucifixion. And never can the child of God look simply to the cross, beholding His sins all nailed there, without associating the crucifixion of Jesus for his sins with the crucifixion of his sins. In the solemn light of that cross he reads, "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." "Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God our Father."

Thus may we be found, like our Lord and Master, bearing the cross, though the path lead us to the solitude, the suffering, and the sorrow of Golgotha. It will not be that we bear this precious load alone, nor bear it long. Christ carries with us its heaviest end, and in a little while we shall lay it down for the "rest that remains for the people of God."

_____________

In light of these stirring words above, I leave you with a closing comment from Billy Graham taken from a recent interview with Jon Meacham - managing editor of Newsweek, entitled "Pilgrim's Progress."

"A unifying theme of Graham's new thinking is humility. He is sure and certain of his faith in Jesus as the way to salvation. When asked whether he believes heaven will be closed to good Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or secular people, though, Graham says: "Those are decisions only the Lord will make. It would be foolish for me to speculate on who will be there and who won't ... I don't want to speculate about all that. I believe the love of God is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world, and I think he loves everybody regardless of what label they have."

this has been an encore presentation

THE ROT OF RELIGION...the idolatry of self-love

2009-09-30T14:24:00.000-05:00

Self has always been the most destructive and dominating plague to hinder true Christianity. Self-love (self-righteous pride) is the cancer of the church and sadly, much the hallmark of modern faith. An unfortunate example of this would be a well known evangelical TV personality's toxic tome, "Self...The New Reformation" which represents much of this move away from biblical Christianity (towards the focus on self) and, therefore, away from the worship and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and sacrifical service to others. The two great commandments of "Love the Lord Thy God" and "love thy neighbor..." has now been eclipsed with this third hell-inspired commandment: "love thyself."

This powerful and convicting article by Richard Alleine will confront the root of self-love with the red-hot iron of the Word and the sharpened scalpal of the Spirit's two-edged sword. I must warn you ahead of time, his words are so contrary to the post-modern culture and dumbed down religious substitute being represented as genuine Christianity today, that it will shock you and wonderfully disturb you. It will plow up the fallow ground of your soul, cause you afresh to glory in Christ, and daily deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.

Grace and peace,
Steve Camp
Matthew 16:24

by Richard Alleine
from the Soli Deo Gloria book
by Richard Alleine entitled "Instructions about Heartwork"

Sinful self-love is the great heart-idolatry, and the root of all rebellion and disobedience to God. Here I shall show you what this sinful self-love is.

It is a love of mistaken self, of carnal self, a love of the flesh, and its affections and lusts. It is a love of that flesh which Christ would have us to hate and deny. Matthew 16:24: "Except a man hate himself," that is, his flesh or carnal self. Men are mistaken in themselves, and count that to be their self which is not their self. Christ said to the woman of Samaria (John 4) concerning her husband, "He that thou hast for a husband is not thine husband." And so may it be said to sinners, that which you take to be your self is not your self. This flesh which you take for your self, and love as your self, is not your self. You who love your flesh love your enemy; you who please your flesh are pleasing your enemy; you who are working for your flesh, providing for your flesh, and pampering your flesh, are working for and feeding your enemy. You think that you are seeking of and working for your self. No, it is for your enemy! This flesh is your mortal enemy, Now this is one sort of sinful self-love: when we love our flesh or our corruptions; when we love ourselves as fleshly-minded men; when we love to please, provide for, and satisfy our fleshly minds; when we foster and cherish this flesh.

An Iordinate Love
Sinful self-love is an inordinate love of our natural selves; when we love that which is ourselves more or otherwise than we ought to love it. Our natural selves, our bodies and our souls are to be loved ut supra. We ought to love ourselves, not our souls only, but our bodies also, and so to love them as to seek the good and well-being of ourselves, not only our eternal, but our temporal well-being. We may love our ease, and our freedom from pain; we may love our credit, and our freedom from reproach and disgrace; we may love our maintenance and freedom from want; yea, we may love our beauty and comeliness, and freedom from deformity; and we may so love as to maintain and provide for ourselves in all these respects, to maintain ourselves in health, to preserve ourselves from temporal misery, to provide for our temporal necessities. But now our sinful self-love is when we love ourselves more or otherwise than we should.

I will give three instances of this sinful self-love:
1. The first is when we love ourselves more than God, when we love ourselves to the neglect of God. As Christ said in Matthew 10:37, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me, he that loveth son or daughter more than Me," so may it be said, "he that loves himself, his own flesh, his own life, more than Me, is not worthy of Me." Much more is this the case when our self-love makes an abatement of our love to God, when self is loved so much that God is loved the less, when the more self is minded or cared for, by so much the less God is regarded.

2. A second case is when we love self as separated from God, or otherwise than in subordination to God; when our love determines in self, and rises no higher. Every man should love himself, but it must be for the sake of God, whose servant he is, and whose image he bears.

3. The third case is when we love ourselves to the prejudice of the love of our neighbor. The word is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." You shall love yourself, but not so that it hinders you from loving your neighbor. When self monopolizes our love, when our love (which should be common) is an enclosure, and is impropriated and confined to ourselves; when we so intensely love ourselves that we love nobody else, or care for nobody else, or at least love not others so much as we should; when we do not care whom we displease as long as we please ourselves; when we do not care whom we neglect as long as we provide for ourselves; when we do not care how it is with others "let them be in sickness, let them be in want, let them starve, let them die, we care not how it be with them" so long as it is well with ourselves; when our self-love is only for the advancing of self-interest, and will invade and encroach upon, and wrong the interest of others when we can thereby advance our own lay these things together, and therein you may see what sinful self-love is: a love of mistaken self, or an inordinate love of our natural self.

The Great Heart Idolatry
Whatever we love more than God, we make it a god, yea, when we love anything equal to God, or in separation from God and not in subordination to God. If we love ourselves only for our- selves, we therein deny the God who is above. As he who loves riches only for riches' sake, as he who loves his meat and drink only for the pleasure he has in eating and drinking, so he who loves himself only for self's sake is an idolater. Whatever we make our last end, we make our god. Therefore, as the apostle writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever you do" so whatever you love, regard, or desire, let it be all, let it be only "for the glory of God." Romans 11:36 tells us that to Him are all things; by Him they were made, and to Him they must be directed. O beloved, what an idolatrous piece has the heart of man become! Oh, what an idolatrous heart there is then in everyone of us! Is self-love idolatry?

The Mistaken Self
Then who of us can be free from this charge of idolatry? We have, every one of us, more or less, set up this idol self in our hearts. Do we not love mistaken self, our sinful flesh? Do not our hearts go after our covetousness, our carnal ease, and our carnal pleasures? Do we not love that carnal self which should be denied, which should be mortified and crucified? Do none of us so love, as to cherish and make provision for the flesh? You have a proud heart, and do you not maintain and keep up that self-esteem? You have a covetous heart, and do you not nourish and feed your covetousness? You lust after your carnal pleasures and liberties, and you indulge them all you can. You love to be prominent, you love to be rich, you love your pleasure and your liberty; these things you love, and do you not love them more than God? The more you lust after these things, and the more you have of them, is not God so much less loved and regarded? Do you not know that if you had checked and crossed that proud mind, if you had denied that covetous heart, the Lord God would have had more of your regard, more of your love, than now He has had? Do you not think you would have loved God better if you had loved the world less, or your ease or your appetite less? Behold, these things have broken in and encroached upon God's right; they have carried away God's due. This self, for whose sake all these are loved, has stolen into the heart and carried it away after it. Oh, what a woeful thing is it, that it should be said of any professor of religion, "It would be well for these men, or at least better than it is with them, if they loved God as well as they love their flesh; if they served God as heartily as they serve their covetousness; if they were set upon pleasing God as much as they are set upon pleasing their appetites; if they delighted in God as much as they delighted in the world; if they could find as much pleasure in the meditation of God and exercise of religion as in the businesses of this life!" You know that it is not so with you. You do not love and delight yourself in God as you love and delight yourself in this earth and flesh.

Is communion with God, is communing with your own heart about the things of God; is conversing with God in prayer, in holy contemplation and meditation; is exercising your faith on God, your hope on God, your looking into the gospel of God, and searching out and feeding upon the blood and bowels and unsearchable treasures laid up in Christ; is exercising yourself in these things as great a pleasure to you, and do you find as great a delight in them, as you find in eating and drinking, in buying and selling and getting gain? Do you love to be praying or to be praising the Lord, as you love to be getting money? Do you love to be sending your heart to heaven. and there to solace it in the thoughts and joys of the Lord, as you love to be thinking of your corn, your cattle, or your income from your trade? You know you do not. Can you say with the psalmist in Psalm 84:1-2, "How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for Thy courts. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." Can you say, "A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere; a door in Thine house is better than all the dwellings of the world. Lord, lift up Thy countenance upon me, and that shall put more gladness into my heart than when their corn and wine increased?" Let the corn and the wine be whose it will, as long as the Lord God will be mine; let this world go cross and frown upon me as it will, so long as the face and countenance of God shine upon me; let me be poor rather than a stranger from God; let me lack a house, money, or bread rather than lack the presence of God. Can you say this, heartily say it? You know that you cannot.

What Do You Think of Yourself
The good things of the earth, the riches and pleasures of the earth, are the riches you love and the pleasures you love. You would be content to be straitened in the Lord as long as you might abound in these carnal things. Is it not so with you? Oh, what a heart you have! What do you think of yourself? Are you not an idolater, a lover of money more than a lover of God, a lover of pleasures more than a lover of God, a lover of yourself and flesh more than a lover of God? Then are you not an idolater? Does your heart go a-whoring after your idols, run away from God after your money, run away from God after your pleasures, run away from God after yourself and flesh, and does that not make you an idolater? Are you an idolater then, an idolatrous Christian, an idolatrous professor? Oh, how is it that such a thought does not fill your face with shame, set your soul to weeping, and cause trembling and astonishment to take hold upon you? Friends, is it nothing to you to be idolaters, to have idolatrous hearts, whoring hearts, whoring from God and whoring after your flesh and the lusts thereof? Surely, friends, it would make the best of our hearts to ache if we were sensible of what degrees of this idolatry there were to be found in every one of us. And many of us, I fear, would be convinced that they are idolaters to so high a degree that there is nothing of true and real love to God in them.

The Rot of all Religion
Sinful self-love is the root of all rebellion and disobedience. In 2 Timothy 3:2, self-love is put at the head of a black troop of lusts and wickednesses. "Men shall be lovers of themselves." There is the ring leader. And what follows? Why, a entire troop comes: covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God what a regiment of sins is here led on by self-love! And, observe it, lovers of themselves lead the van, and lovers of pleasures bring up the rear. Heart-sins are root-sins, and self-love is the root of these roots. Pride is the root of contention, malice is the root of revenge, covetousness is the root of oppression, and self-love is the root of them all. The apostle says in 1 Timothy 6:10 that the love of money is the root of all evil; and self-love is the root of the love of money.

That you may know what a mischievous evil this heart-sin of self-love is, and how pregnant it is with all other wickedness, consider that it is: The rot of all religion, the root of all unrighteousness and unmercifulness, the root of all sinful brawls and quarrels, and the root of sinful self-seeking. It is the rot of all religion, that is, where it is predominant and carries the main stroke in our religion. It is the rottenness of the heart, under all its most specious religious pretences or performances. All sincere religion is animated by the love of God; the love of God is the soul of religion. If there is no love to God in our profession of religion, if no love to God in our practices of piety, if no love to God in our prayers, no love to God in our fastings and alms, all our religion is rotten at heart. Self-love, which is its only root, is its rottenness.

Self-love will limit our religion. It will limit it by self-interest; no more religion will it allow than will serve our carnal turns; no farther may we go in it than will consist with this love of ourselves. Whatever part or exercise of religion will pinch upon the flesh, the self-denying part, the self-abasing part, the flesh-mortifying part of religion, unless it is to some further ends, self-love will never bear it. So much professing, so much praying and hearing, as will consist with our ease and our safety, as will not put us to too much pains or expose us to too much danger and reproach; so much religion as will not hold us in too strictly, severely, and closely, self-love will bear it; but where the yoke of Christ wrings and galls, there it must be thrown off.

Self-love will corrupt our religion and turn it into hypocrisy. Selfish professors are hypocrites, all their religion is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy is the rottenness of the heart. You who are professing Christians, see to it that you are not self-loving professors; if you are, whatever there is in your tongues, your looks, or your religious performances, you are rotten at the core, rotten in your hearts. It is love to God wherein our sincerity lies. Self-love is our hypocrisy, and where this rotten self-love has tainted your hearts, your hearts will taint and corrupt all your duties; it will pervert and corrupt all that ever you do, and turn it into quite another thing. Your religion is no religion, your Christianity is no Christianity, your praying is no praying, your spirituality is but fleshliness, your heavenly-mindedness is but earthiness, and your seeming fruitfulness is but emptiness and barrenness. "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth his fruits to himself" (Hosea 10:1). Israel seemed to be a fruitful vine, that had her clusters upon it; there were clusters of prayers, clusters of sacrifices, and clusters of alms. Israel had her fruits, yet she was but a barren and empty vine. How so? Why, whatever fruits she had, they were all brought forth to self. Self brought them forth and self ate them up. There was nothing for God. Israel was an empty vine to Him, her fruits were to herself.

Self-Love: The Skewed Reformation
Friends, would you not be rejected for being barren, empty vines; for false-hearted and rotten professors? Would you not be found rotten at the core? See that it is the love of God, and not this self-love, lying at the bottom, at the root of your religion. Sinful self-love is the root of all unrighteousness and unmercifulness to men. Self-love will never learn that lesson, to do to others as it would be done by; it will catch all it can and keep all it has. Self must be advanced; self must be enriched, whoever is ruined by it. All manner of fraud and deceit, all manner of oppression and wrong, all men's underminings, all men's over-reachings of their neighbors, all men's falsehoods in their words, their promise-breakings, their lyings, all their falsehood in their dealings, in their tradings, in their deceitful words in their deceitful weights and measures, all this unrighteousness, it is their self-love that puts them upon it. So that they may get something for themselves, and enrich themselves, however wicked the means or ways are to it, they do not care who is impoverished or ruined. And where self will not suffer men to be righteous, it will less suffer them to be merciful. What they are so much for getting, they will be but little for giving. The hunger and nakedness, the pinching and pining, and even starving of so many poor among us, the short alms they can get, and that little is so hardly come by, the failing of compassions, the shutting up of bowels against those who are in need, this is all from self-love. "I need it for myself. I need it for my own. I cannot spare it." These are often the words that go in place of giving alms.

Sinful self-love is the root of all brawls, quarrels, and contentions in the world. Why are there such a multitude of troublesome lawsuits? What are they but the contendings of one self with another self. One says, "It is my own, and I will have it, whatever it costs me." The other says, "It is not yours, it is mine; and I will have it, whatever it costs me."

As self-love is the root of holy self-seeking, as the love of God is the root of seeking God, so sinful self-love is the root of all sinful self-seeking; and sinful self-seeking is contrary to seeking God. The love of God is the root of our seeking God. These two, love of God and seeking God, are put both together in one promise. Proverbs 8:17: "I love them that love Me, and those that seek Me early shall find me." Isaiah 26:9: "With my soul have I desired Thee." There is the love, and what follows? "With my spirit within me will I seek Thee early." The love of God will set us to seeking God. It is in vain that you say, "I love God," if you cannot say also, "I seek God." The love of self will put us on self-seeking; and this sinful self-seeking is ever contrary to seeking God. Philippians 2:21: "All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's." All seek their own things, that is, their own carnal things; and those who thus seek their own, not the things of Christ. There is this difference between self-love and the love of God: self-love divides interests. Self stands by itself, and has a separated and divided interest, the interest of self, which is the interest of none else; and self-love, in seeking its own interest, seeks the interest of none else, neither that of Christ nor men. The love of God unites interests. He who loves God, the things of God and his own things are the same. He counts nothing his own things but those that are also the things of God; and when he is seeking God, he is then most seeking his own. God is his own, and he counts nothing his own but what is also the Lord's. When he seeks God, he therein seeks his own, and where he seeks his own he therein seeks God. His soul is his own, and the interest and prosperity of soul are the things of God.

"He Must Increase... I Must Decrease"
It is the love of the brethren that unites our interest with the interest of the saints; it is the interest of the whole body that is the interest of every member. All the saints have the same common interest; so the love of Christ unites the interest of every member with the interest of the Head. The love of God makes the things of God our own things, and the love of the saints makes the things of the Church to be all our own. It is between Christ and Christians, and between Christians toward one another, as it was between the primitive Christians: they hold all things to be common (Acts 4:32). None said of anything that he possessed that it was his own, but they held all things to be common. Not but that Christians have a real propriety in their own estates, by virtue of which civil right their estates are so their own and not anothers; but, yet by virtue of the community of interests, what one man has should be, as there is occasion, to the benefit of the community. And why was this? The love of God had united their interests; and the multitude of them who believed were knit together by that love as one man. They were of one heart and one soul. There is no "yours and mine" between Christ and His saints, but all is mine. "I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine" (Song of Solomon 2:16).

"We are not our own," believers say, "we are Thine."

"And I am not My own," says Christ, "I am yours, and that which I have is yours." John 20:17: "Tell My brethren, I go to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." He was saying, 'My Father is yours, My God is your God, all I have is yours. I am yours, and My blood and My bowels are yours. My stripes, My wounds, My righteousness, and My inheritance is yours." 1Corinthians 3:22?23: "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, ordeath, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

"Deny Yourself..."
He is saying, "My ministers are yours. My ordinances are yours. My possessions are yours, things present and things to come. If I have any right in this world ('the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof'), if I have anything in the world to come, the everlasting crown, the everlasting mansions, all are yours, and you are Mine, and I am God's." Thus Christ's love to Christians causes Him to say to them, "I am yours, and all that I have." So a Christian's love for Christ helps him to say, "Lord, I am Thine, and all that I have is Thine. Not only are my sins Thine, not only are my infirmities Thine, but my parts, my possessions, my graces and my duties, yea, my house and my lands, all my possessions, all are Thine."

THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST...the foundation of sola gratia

2009-09-28T14:28:00.001-05:00

"Lordship Salvation emphasizes that a love for Christ springs from our new nature (granted freely by God) which desires to believe the gospel as well as submit to Jesus Christ as Lord over one's life. Both faith and obedience are the result of God's invincible and indelible grace, not the cause of it. The so-called 'free grace' movement rejects the inward call of the Holy Spirit to the elect and thus, like Romans Catholics and other synergists, mistakenly ascribe belief in Christ as something within the ability of the old nature. So while they may appear as antinomian after salvation, they are guilty of semi-pelagianism prior to it. An odd mix, but naturally we all are tempted to try to contribute something to our salvation. This is where the fall off the horse away from historic Chrstianity by rejecting the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace ALONE in Christ alone. By not giving glory to God for their faith they add conditions for their salvaiton.

The biggest obstacle to the "no-Lordship" position is its misapprehension of the work of the Holy Spirit in giving rise to our faith and affection for Christ. For HOW CAN AN UNREGENERATE MAN SEE CHRIST'S BEAUTY, EXCELLENCY OR ANYTHING TO DESIRE IN HIM AT ALL. One must have a new heart and the mind of Christ in order to understand and love spiritual things. It erroneously views the Lordship position as having added a contribution of commitment, and thus works, instead of recognizing that they themselves are doing this very same thing by making faith itself a contribution to the price of their redemption. i.e grace + faith. But those of us who embrace a "lordship salvation" believe faith and obedience are the result, not the cause of of the new birth. Unless the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of our hearts from hostility to affection for Christ, no one would exercise saving faith. Any "faith" which exists apart from the work of the Spirit is spurious and of the flesh (Luke 8:4-15). God alone does the work of regeneration which infallibly gives rise to a spiritual faith that desires to obey and commit itself to Christ. In this case God gets all the glory. But the "no-Lordship" position would have us believe that one could produce faith from our unregenerated human nature. The question is, why do some believe and others resist? Are some more wise or humble? Isn't it grace itself which makes us wise and humble? The Scripture says, "What do we have that we did not receive". So, in fact, while the "no-Lordship" position is admirably attempting to protect the doctrine of "faith alone", but in the process it has cast aside the biblical doctrine of "grace alone". "No-Lordship" may believe in a salvation by grace, but not salvation by grace alone (sola gratia). That man must somehow cooperate with God to be born again, as they hold, is to say that some men innately have the natural capacity to believe, independent of God's action of grace, while others do not. How is this different than salvation by merit? So in reality the burden of proof to explain belief apart from grace alone, is on those who hold to "no-Lordship". Different understandings of the work of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration is the key to the debate." -Author Unknown

RUSH LIMBAUGH ON JAY LENO...getting it right - masterful

2009-09-25T23:21:00.001-05:00

WHY SALVATION MUST BE SUPERNATURAL...the glory of God in the redemption of sinners

2009-09-24T13:36:00.006-05:00

By Stephen Charnock
(An excerpt from The Chief of Sinners Saved)

The insufficiency of nature to such a work as conversion is, shows that men may not fall down and idolize their own wit and power. A change from acts of sin to moral duties may be done by a natural strength and the power of natural conscience: for the very same motives which led to sin, as education, interest, profit, may, upon a change of circumstances, guide men to an outward morality; but a change to the contrary grace is supernatural.

Two things are certain in nature:

(1.) Natural inclinations never change, but by some superior virtue.
A loadstone will not cease to draw iron, while that attractive quality remains in it. The wolf can never love the lamb, nor the lamb the wolf; nothing but must act suitably to its nature. Water cannot but moisten, fire cannot but burn. So likewise the corrupt nature of man being possessed with an invincible contrariety and enmity to God, will never suffer him to comply with God. And the inclinations of a sinner to sin being more strengthened by the frequency of sinful acts, have as great a power over him, and as natural to him, as any qualities are to natural agents: and being stronger than any sympathies in the world, cannot by a man's own power, or the power of any other nature equal to it, be turned into a contrary channel.

(2.) Nothing can act beyond its own principle and nature.
Nothing in the world can raise itself to a higher rank of being than that which nature has placed it in; a spark cannot make itself a star, though it mount a little up to heaven; nor a plant endue itself with sense, nor a beast adorn itself with reason; nor a man make himself an angel. Thorns cannot bring forth grapes, nor thistles produce figs because such fruits are above the nature of those plants. So neither can our corrupt nature bring forth grace, which is a fruit above it. Effectus non excedit virtutem suae causae [the effect cannot exceed the power of its cause]: grace is more excellent than nature, therefore cannot be the fruit of nature. It is Christ's conclusion, "How can you, being evil, speak good things?" Matt. 12:33, 34. Not so much as the buds and blossoms of words, much less the fruit of actions. They can no more change their natures, than a viper can do away with his poison. Now though this I have said be true, yet there is nothing man does more affect in the world than a self-sufficiency, and an independence from any other power but his own. This attitude is as much riveted in his nature, as any other false principle whatsoever. For man does derive it from his first parents, as the prime legacy bequeathed to his nature: for it was the first thing uncovered in man at his fall; he would be as God, independent from him. Now God, to cross this principle, allows his elect, like Lazarus, to lie in the grave till they stink, that there may be no excuse to ascribe their resurrection to their own power. If a putrefied rotten carcass should be brought to life, it could never be thought that it inspired itself with that active principle. God lets men run on so far in sin, that they do unman themselves, that he may proclaim to all the world, that we are unable to do anything of ourselves towards our recovery, without a superior principle.

The Evidence of Which will Appear if We Consider

1. Man's subjection under sin.
He is "sold under sin," Rom. 7:14, and brought "into captivity to the law of sin," ver. 23. "Law of sin:" that sin seems to have a legal authority over him; and man is not only a slave to one sin, but many, Tit. 3:3, "serving divers lusts." Now when a man is sold under the power of a thousand lusts, every one of which has an absolute tyranny over him, and rules him as a sovereign by a law; when a man is thus bound by a thousand laws, a thousand cords and fetters, and carried whither his lords please, against the dictates of his own conscience and force of natural light; can any man imagine that his own power can rescue him from the strength of these masters that claim such a right to him, and keep such a force upon him, and have so often baffled his own strength, when he attempted to turn against them?

2. Man's affection to them.
He does not only serve them, but he serves them, and every one of them, with delight and pleasure; Tit. 3:3. They were all pleasures, as well as lusts; friends as well as lords. Will any man leave his sensual delights and such sins that please and flatter his flesh? Will a man ever endeavour to run away from those lords which he serves with affection? having as much delight in being bound a slave to these lusts, as the devil has in binding him. Therefore when you see a man cast away his pleasures, deprive himself of those comfortable things to which his soul was once knit, and walk in paths contrary to corrupt nature, you may search for the cause anywhere, rather than in nature itself. No piece of dirty, muddy clay can form itself into a neat and handsome vessel; no plain piece of timber can fit itself for the building, much less a crooked one. Nor a man that is born blind, give himself sight.

God deals with men in this case as he did with Abraham. He would not give Isaac while Sarah's womb, in a natural probability, might have borne him; but when her womb was dead, and age had taken away all natural strength of conception, then God gives him; that it might appear that he was not a child of nature, but a child of promise.

HOW MAY I KNOW I HAVE UNDERSTOOD THE GOSPEL AND THAT I AM ELECT? by A.W. Pink

2009-09-22T07:01:00.003-05:00

First, by the Word of God having come in divine power to the soul so that my self-complacency is shattered and my self-righteousness is renounced.

Second, by the Holy Spirit convicting me of my woeful, guilty, and lost condition.

Third, by having had revealed to me the suitability and sufficiency of Christ to meet my desperate case and by a divinely given faith causing me to lay hold of and rest upon Him as my only hope.

Fourth, by the marks of the new nature within me - a love for God; an appetite for spiritual things; a longing for holiness; a seeking after conformity to Christ.

Fifth, by the resistance which the new nature makes to the old, causing me to hate sin and loathe myself for it.

Sixth, by avoiding everything which is condemned by God's Word and by sincerely repenting of and humbly confessing every transgression. Failure at this point will surely bring a dark cloud over our assurance causing the Spirit to withhold His witness.

Seventh, by giving all diligence to cultivate the Christian graces and using all diligence to this end. Thus the knowledge of election is cumulative. -A .W. Pink

THE CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD...by Charles H. Spurgeon - a must read

2009-09-21T13:55:00.001-05:00

A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, APRIL 22, 1855, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT EXETER HALL STRAND

“The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.” -Romans 8:7

This is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle Paul here prefers against the carnal mind. He declares it to be enmity against God. When we consider what man once was, only second to the angels, the companion of God, who walked with Him in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. When we think of him as being made in the very image of his Creator, pure, spotless and unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly grieved to find such an accusation as this preferred against us as a race, We may well hang our harps upon the willows while we listen to the voice of Jehovah, solemnly speaking to His rebellious creature:

“How are you fallen from Heaven, you son of the morning!” “You seal up the sun, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering—the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created. You are the anointed cherub that covers. And I have set you so—you were upon the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you and you sinned. Therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God—and will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”

There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins of our race. As the Carthaginian who might tread the desolate site of his much-loved city would shed many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Romans. Or as the Jew, wandering through the deserted streets of Jerusalem, would lament that the plowshare had marred the beauty and the glory of that city which was the joy of the whole earth. So ought we to mourn for ourselves and our race when we behold the ruins of that goodly structure which God has made—that creature, matchless in symmetry, second only to angelic intellect. That mighty being, man—when we behold how he is “fallen, fallen, fallen, from his high estate” and lies in a mass of destruction.

A few years ago a star was seen blazing out with considerable brilliance but soon disappeared. It has since been affirmed that it was a world on fire, thousands of millions of miles from us and yet the rays of the conflagration reached us. The noiseless messenger of light gave to the distant dwellers on this globe the alarm of, “A world on fire!” But what is the conflagration of a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere material of the most ponderous orb compared with this Fall of humanity, this wreck of all that is holy and sacred in ourselves? To us, indeed, the things are scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the other.

The Fall of Adam was OUR fall. We fell in and with him. We were equal sufferers. It is the ruin of our own house that we lament. It is the destruction of our own city that we bemoan when we stand and see written in lines too plain for us to mistake their meaning, “The carnal mind”—that very self-same mind which was once holiness and has now become carnal—is enmity against God.” May God help me this morning to solemnly prefer this indictment against you all! Oh, that the Holy Spirit may so convince us of sin that we may unanimously plead “guilty” before God.

There is no difficulty in understanding my text—it needs scarcely any explanation. We all know that the word “carnal” here signifies fleshly. The old translators rendered the passage thus—“The mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” That is to say, the natural mind—that soul which we inherit from our fathers—that which was born within us when our bodies were fashioned by God. The fleshly mind, the phronema sarkos, the lusts, the passions of the soul. It is this which has gone astray from God and become enmity against Him.

But before we enter upon a discussion of the doctrine of the text, observe how strongly the Apostle expresses it. “The carnal mind,” He says, “it is ENMITY against God.” He uses a noun and not an adjective. He does not say it is opposed to God merely, but it is positive enmity. It is not black, but blackness. It is not at enmity, but enmity itself. It is not corrupt, but corruption. It is not rebellious, it is rebellion—it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it is deceitful, is positively deceit. It is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence. It is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile. It is not envious against God, it is envy. It is not at enmity, it is actual enmity.

Nor need we say a word to explain that it is “enmity against God.” It does not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the dominion, laws, or doctrines of Jehovah. It strikes a deeper and surer blow. It does not strike man upon the head but it penetrates into his heart. It lays the axe at the root of the tree and pronounces man “enmity against God.”

Against the Person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the mighty Maker of this World—not at enmity against His Bible or against His Gospel—though that is true, but against God Himself. Against His essence, His existence and His Person. Let us, then, weigh the words of the text, for they are solemn words. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul. They were, moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who tells man how to speak aright. May He help us to expound, as He has already given us the passage to explain.

We shall be called upon to notice, this morning, first, the truthfulness of this assertion. Secondly, the universality of the evil here complained of. Thirdly, we will still further enter into the depths of the subject and press it to your hearts, by showing the enormity of the evil. And after that, should we have time, we will deduce one or two doctrines from the general fact.

I. First, we are called upon to speak of the truthfulness of this great statement, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”
It needs no proof, for since it is written in God’s Word, we, as Christian men and women, are bound to bow before it. The words of the Scriptures are words of infinite wisdom and if reason cannot see the ground of a statement of Revelation, it is bound, most reverently, to believe it, since we are well-assured even should it be above our reason, that it cannot be contrary to it. Here I find it written in the Scriptures, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” And that of itself is enough for me. But did I need witnesses I would conjure up the nations of antiquity. I would unroll the volume of ancient history, I would tell you of the awful deeds of mankind. It may be I might move your souls to detestation if I spoke of the cruelty of this race to itself, if I showed you how it made the world an Aceldama by its wars and deluged it with blood by its fights and murders.

If I should recite the black list of vices in which whole nations have indulged or even bring before you the characters of some of the most eminent philosophers, I should blush to speak of them and you would refuse to hear. Yes, it would be impossible for you, as refined inhabitants of a civilized country, to endure the mention of the crimes that were committed by those very men who now-a-days are held up as being paragons of perfection. I fear if all the truth were written, we should rise up from reading the lives of earth’s mighty heroes and proudest sages and would say at once of all of them,

"They are clean gone mad. They are altogether become unprofitable.
There is none that does good. No, not one.”

And did not that suffice, I would point you to the delusions of the heathen. I would tell you of their priestcraft by which their souls have been enthralled in superstition. I would drag their gods before you. I would let you witness the horrid obscenities, the diabolical rites which are to these besotted men most sacred things. Then after you had heard what the natural religion of man is, I would ask what must his irreligion be? If this is his devotion, what must be his impiety? If this is his ardent love of the Godhead, what must his hatred thereof be?

You would, I am sure, at once confess, did you know what the race is, that the indictment is proven and that the world must unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, “guilty.” A further argument I might find in the fact that the best of men have been always the most ready to confess their depravity. The holiest men, the most free from impurity, have always felt it most. He whose garments are the whitest will best perceive the spots upon them. He whose crown shines the brightest will know when he has lost a jewel. He who gives the most light to the world will always be able to discover his own darkness. The angels of Heaven veil their faces.

And the angels of God on earth, His chosen people, must always veil their faces with humility when they think of what they were. Hear David—he was none of those who boast of a holy nature and a pure disposition. He says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive me.” Hear all those holy men who have written in the inspired volume and you shall find them all confessing that they were not clean, no, not one. Yes, one of them even exclaimed, “O wretched man that I am; who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

And more, I will summon one other witness to the truthfulness of this act who shall decide the question. It shall be your conscience. Conscience, I will put you in the witness box and cross-examine you this morning! Conscience, answer truly! Be not drugged with the opium of self-security! Speak the truth! Did you ever hear the heart say, “I wish there were no God?” Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were not true? Though they could not entirely rid their souls of the idea of the Godhead, did they not wish that there might not be God? Have they not had the desire that it might turn out that all these Divine realities were a delusion, a farce?

“Yes,” says every man, “that has crossed my mind sometimes. I have wished I might indulge in folly. I have wished there were no laws to restrain me. I have wished, as the fool, that there were no God.” That passage in the Psalms, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God,” is wrongly translated. It should be, “The fool has said in his heart, no God.” The fool does not say in His heart there is no God, for he knows there is a God. Rather he says, “No God—I don’t want any, I wish there were none.” And who among us has not been so foolish as to desire that there were no God?

Now conscience, answer another question! You have confessed that you have at times wished there were no God. Now, suppose a man wished another dead, would not that show that he hated him? Yes, it would. And so, my Friends, the wish that there were no God, proves that we dislike God. When I wish such a man dead and rotting in his grave, when I desire that he were non est, I must hate that man—otherwise I should not wish him to be extinct. So that wish—and I do not think there has been a man in this world who has not had it—proves that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

But, conscience, I have another question. Has not your heart ever desired, since there is a God, that He were a little less holy, a little less pure—so that those things which are now great crimes might be regarded as venial offenses, as peccadilloes? Has your heart never said, “Would to God these sins were not forbidden. Would that He would be merciful and pass them by without an atonement! Would that He were not so severe, so rigorously just, so sternly strict to His integrity.” Have you never said that, my Heart? Conscience must reply, “you have.” Well, that wish to change God proves that you are not in love with the God that now is, the God of Heaven and earth.

And though you may talk of natural religion and boast that you do reverence the God of the green fields, the grassy meads, the swelling flood, the rolling thunder, the azure sky, the starry night and the great universe—though you love the poetic ideal of Deity, it is not the God of Scripture—for you have wished to change His nature and in that have you proved that you are at enmity with Him. But where do we go from here? You can bear faithful witness if you would speak the truth that each person here has so transgressed against God, so continually broken His laws, violated His Sabbath, trampled on His statutes, despised His Gospel, that it is true, yes, most true, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

II. Now, secondly, we are called upon to notice the universality of this evil.
What a broad assertion it is! It is not a single carnal mind, or a certain class of characters, but “the carnal mind.” It is an unqualified statement, including every individual. Whatever mind may properly be called carnal, not having been spiritualized by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, is “enmity against God.”

Observe then, first of all, the universality of this as to all persons. Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. This does not exclude even infants at the mother’s breast. We call them innocent and so they are of actual transgression, but as the poet says, “Within the youngest breast there lies a stone.” There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity against God. It is not developed, but it lies there. Some say that children learn sin by imitation. But no—take a child away, place it under the most pious influences, let the very air it breathes be purified by piety—let it constantly drink in draughts of holiness. Let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and praise. Let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of sacred song—and that child, notwithstanding, may still become one of the grossest of transgressors. And though placed apparently on the very road to Heaven, it shall, if not directed by Divine grace, march downwards to the pit.

Oh, how true it is that some who have had the best of parents have been the worst of sons—that many who have been trained up under the most Holy auspices, in the midst of most favorable scenes of piety—have nevertheless become loose and wanton! So it is not by imitation but it is by nature that the child is evil! Grant me that the child is carnal and my text says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The young crocodile, I have heard, when broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to put itself in a posture of attack, opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained. We know that young lions when tamed and domesticated still will have the wild nature of their fellows of the forest and were liberty given them, would prey as fiercely as others. So with the child. You may bind him with the green withes of education, you may do what you will with him—but you cannot change his heart. That carnal mind shall still be at enmity against God. And notwithstanding intellect, talent and all you may give to boot, it shall be of the same sinful complexion as every other child, if not as apparently evil, for, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”

And if this applies to children, equally does it include every class of men. There are some men that are born into this world master spirits. They walk about it as giants, wrapped in mantles of light and glory. I refer to the poets—men who stand aloft like Colossi—mightier than we, seeming to be descended from celestial spheres. There are others of acute intellect, who, searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden from the creation of the world. Men of keen research and mighty erudition—and yet of each of these—poet, philosopher, metaphysician and great discoverer—it can be said, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.”

You may train him up, you may make his intellect almost angelic, you may strengthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles to us and unravel them with his fingers in a moment. You may make him so mighty that he can grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms in his fist. You may give him an eye so keen that he can penetrate the deep secrets of rocks and mountains. You may add a soul so potent that he may slay the giant Sphinx that had for ages troubled the mightiest men of learning. Yet when you have done all this, his mind shall be a depraved one and his carnal heart shall still be in opposition to God. Yes, more, you shall bring him to the house of prayer. You shall make him sit constantly under the clearest preaching of the word where he shall hear the doctrines of grace in all their purity, attended by a holy unction.

But if that holy unction does not rest upon him, all shall be vain—he shall attend most regularly, but like the pious door of the chapel that turns in and out, he shall still be the same—having an outside superficial religion and his carnal mind shall still be at enmity against God. Now, this is not my assertion, it is the declaration of God’s Word and you must leave it if you do not believe it. But quarrel not with me, it is my Master’s message and it is true of every one of you—men, women and children and myself, too—that if we had not been regenerated and converted, if we have not experienced a change of heart, our carnal mind is still at enmity against God.

Again, notice the universality of this at all times. The carnal mind is at all times enmity against God. “Oh,” say some, “it may be true that we are at times opposed to God, but surely we are not always so.” “There are moments,” says one, “when I feel rebellious. At times my passions lead me astray. But surely there are other favorable seasons when I really am Friendly to God and offer true devotion. I have (continues the objector) stood upon the mountaintop, until my whole soul has kindled with the scene below and my lips have uttered the song of praise—

“These are Your glorious works, parent of good,
Almighty, shine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair—Yourself how wondrous then!”

Yes, but mark—what is true one day is not false another, “the carnal mind is enmity against God” at all times. The wolf may sleep, but it is a wolf still. The snake with its azure hues may slumber amid the flowers and the child may stroke its slimy back, but it is a serpent still. It does not change its nature, though it is dormant. The sea is the house of storms even when it is glassy as a lake. The thunder is still the mighty rolling thunder when it is so much aloft that we hear it not. And the heart, when we perceive not its boiling, when it belches not forth its lava and sends not forth the hot stones of its corruption, is still the same dread volcano. At all times, at all hours, at every moment, (I speak this as God speaks it) if you are carnal, you are each one of you enmity against God.

Another thought concerning the universality of this statement. The whole of the mind is enmity against God. The text says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God,” that is, the entire man, every part of him—every power, every passion. It is a question often asked, “What part of man was injured by the Fall?” Some think that the Fall was only felt by the affections and that the intellect was unimpaired. This they argue from the wisdom of man and the mighty discoveries he has made, such as the law of gravitation, the steam engine and the sciences.

Now I consider these things as being a very mean display of wisdom, compared with what is to come in the next hundred years—and very small compared with what might have been, if man’s intellect had continued in its pristine condition. I believe the Fall crushed man entirely. Albeit, when it rolled like an avalanche upon the mighty temple of human nature some shafts were still left undestroyed and amidst the ruins you find here and there a flute, a pedestal, a cornice, a column not quite broken—yet the entire structure fell and its most glorious relics are fallen ones, leveled in the dust.

The whole of man is defaced. Look at our memory—is it not true that the memory is fallen? I can recollect evil things far better than those which savor of piety. I hear a ribald song—that same music of Hell shall jar in my ear when gray hairs shall be upon my head. I hear a note of holy praise—alas, it is forgotten! Memory grasps with an iron hand ill things, but the good she holds with feeble fingers. She suffers the glorious timbers from the forest of Lebanon to swim down the stream of oblivion, but she stops all the dross that floats from the foul city of Sodom. She will retain evil, she will lose good. Memory is fallen.

So are the affections. We love everything earthly better than we ought. We soon fix our heart upon a creature but very seldom upon the Creator. And when the heart is given to Jesus it is prone to wander. Look at the imagination, too. Oh, how can the imagination revel when the body is in an ill condition! Only give man something that shall well near intoxicate him. Drug him with opium and how will his imagination dance with joy! Like a bird uncaged, how will it mount with more than eagles’ wings! He sees things he had not dreamed of even in the shades of night. Why did not his imagination work when his body was in a normal state—when it was healthy? Simply because it is depraved. And until he had entered a foul element—until the body had begun to quiver with a kind of intoxication—the fancy would not hold its carnival.

We have some splendid specimens of what men could write when they have been under the accursed influence of ardent spirits. It is because the mind is so depraved that it loves something which puts the body into an abnormal condition. And here we have proof that the imagination itself has gone astray. So with the judgment—I might prove how ill it decides. So might I accuse the conscience and tell you how blind it is and how it winks at the greatest follies. I might review all our powers and write upon the brow of each one, “Traitor against Heaven! Traitor against God!” The whole “carnal mind is enmity against God.”

Now, my Hearers, “the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants”—but whenever I find a certain book much held in reverence by our Episcopalian Brethren, entirely on my side, I always feel the greatest delight in quoting from it. Do you know I am one of the best Churchmen in the world, the very best, if you will judge me by the Articles and the very worst if you measure me in any other way? Measure me by the Articles of the Church of England and I will not stand second to any man under Heaven’s blue sky in preaching the Gospel contained in them. For if there is an excellent epitome of the Gospel, it is to be found in the Articles of the Church of England.

Let me show you that you have not been hearing strange doctrine. Here is the 9th Article, upon Original or Birth Sin.

“Original Sin stands not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam. Whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusts always contrary to the spirit. And, therefore, in every person born into this world, it deserves God’s wrath and damnation.

“And this infection of nature does remain, yes, in them that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek, phronema sarkos which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the Law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle does confess that concupiscence and lust has of itself the nature of sin.”

I want nothing more.

Will anyone who believes in the Prayer Book dissent from the doctrine that “the carnal mind is enmity against God”?

III. I have said that I would endeavor, in the third place, to show the great enormity of this guilt.
I do fear, my Brethren, that very often when we consider our state we think not so much of the guilt as of the misery. I have sometimes read sermons upon the inclination of the sinner to evil, in which it has been very powerfully proved and certainly the pride of human nature has been well humbled and brought low. But one thing always strikes me, if it is left out, as being a very great omission—the doctrine that man is guilty in all these things. If His heart is against God, we ought to tell him it is his sin. And if he cannot repent we ought to show him that sin is the sole cause of his disability—that all his alienation from God is sin—that as long as he keeps from God it is sin.

I fear many of us here must acknowledge that we do not charge the sin of it to our own consciences. Yes, say we, we have many corruptions. Oh, yes. But we sit down very contented. My Brethren we ought not to do so. The having those corruptions is our crime which should be confessed as an enormous evil. If I, as a minister of the Gospel, do not press home the sin of the thing, I have missed what is the very virus of it. I have left out the very essence if I have not shown that it is a crime. Now, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” What a sin it is! This will appear in two ways. Consider the relation in which we stand to God and then remember what God is. And after I have spoken of these two things, I hope you will see, indeed, that it is a sin to be at enmity with God.

What is God to us? He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He bears up the pillars of the universe, His breath perfumes the flowers. His brush paints them. He is the Author of this fair creation. “We are the sheep of His pasture, He has made us and not we ourselves.” He stands to us in the relationship of a Maker and Creator and from that fact He claims to be our King. He is our Legislator our Law-maker. And then, to make our crime still worse and worse, He is the Ruler of Providence. For it is He who keeps us daily. He supplies our wants. He keeps the breath within our nostrils. He bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins. He holds us in life and prevents us from death. He stands before us, our Creator, our King, our Sustainer, our Benefactor. And I ask, is it not a sin of enormous magnitude—is it not high treason against the Emperor of Heaven—is it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our judgment—that we, His creatures, dependent upon Him, should be at enmity with God?

But the crime may be seen to be worse when we think of what God is. Let me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style for this has weight with it. Sinner! Why are you at enmity with God? God is the God of Love, He is kind to His creatures. He regards you with His love of benevolence. This very day His sun has shone upon you. This day you have had food and raiment and you have come up here in health and strength. Do you hate God because He loves you? Is that the reason? Consider how many mercies you have received at His hands all your lives long! You are born with a body not deformed, you have had a tolerable share of health. You have been recovered many times from sickness.

When lying at the gates of death His arm has held back your soul from the last step to destruction. Do you hate God for all this? Do you hate Him because He spared your life by His tender mercy? Behold His goodness that He has spread before you! He might have sent you to Hell, but you are here. Now, do you hate God for sparing you? Oh, why are you at enmity with Him? My fellow Creature, do you not know that God sent His Son from His bosom, hung Him on the tree and there suffered Him to die for sinners, the Just for the unjust? And do you hate God for that?

Oh, Sinner, is this the cause of your enmity? Are you so estranged that you give enmity for love? And when He surrounds you with favors, girds you with mercies, encircles you with loving kindness, do you hate Him for this? He might say as Jesus did to the Jews—“For which of these works do you stone Me?” For which of these works do you hate God? If an earthly benefactor fed you, would you hate him? Did he clothe you, would you abuse him to his face?

Did he give you talents, would you turn those powers against him? Oh, speak! Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of your best Friend? Do you hate your mother who nursed you on her knee? Do you curse your father who so wisely watched over you? No, you say, we have some little gratitude towards earthly relatives. Where are your hearts, then? Where are your hearts that you can still despise God and be at enmity with Him? Oh, diabolical crime! Oh, Satanic enormity! Oh, iniquity for which words fail in description! To hate the All-lovely—to despise the essentially Good—to abhor the constantly Merciful—to spurn the Ever-beneficent—to scorn the Kind, the Gracious One! Above all, to hate the God who sent His Son to die for man!

Ah, in that thought—“the carnal mind is enmity against God”—there is something which may make us shake. For it is a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I could speak more powerfully, but my Master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil of this horrid state of heart.

IV. But there are one or two doctrines which we will try to deduce from this.
Is the carnal mind at “enmity against God?” Then salvation cannot be by merit, it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with God, what merit can we have? How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Even if we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit. For I do not think Adam had any desert before his Creator. When he had kept all his Master’s Law, he was but an unprofitable servant. He had done no more than he ought to have done. He had no surplus—no balance. But since we have become enemies how much less can we hope to be saved by works!

Oh, no. The whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end, that salvation is not by the works of the Law but by the deeds of grace. Martin Luther declared that he constantly preached justification by faith alone, “because,” he said, “the people would forget it—so that I was obliged almost to knock my Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts.” So it is true we constantly forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always want to be putting in some little scrap of our own virtue. We want to be doing something. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes—

“Saved by your works!? You might as well try to go to America in a paper boat!” Saved by your works!? It is impossible! Oh no!

“The poor legalist is like a blind horse going round and round the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadmill and finding himself no higher after all he has done. He has no solid confidence, no firm ground to rest upon. He has not done enough—never enough.” Conscience always says, “this is not perfection. It ought to have been better.”

Salvation for enemies must be by an ambassador—by an atonement—yes, by Christ.

Another doctrine we gather from this is the necessity of an entire change of our nature. It is true that by birth we are at enmity with God. How necessary then, it is that our nature should be changed. There are few people who sincerely believe this. They think that if they cry, “Lord, have mercy upon me,” when they lie a-dying, they shall go to Heaven directly. Let me suppose an impossible case for a moment. Let me imagine a man entering Heaven without a change of heart. He comes within the gates. He hears a sonnet. He starts! It is to the praise of his Enemy. He sees a Throne and on it sits One who is glorious. But it is his Enemy. He walks streets of gold, but those streets belong to his Enemy. He sees hosts of angels. But those hosts are the servants of his Enemy. He is in his Enemy’s house. For he is at enmity with God.

He could not join the song, for he would not know the tune. There he would stand—silent, motionless—till Christ should say, with a voice louder than ten thousand thunders, “What are you doing here? Enemies at a marriage banquet? Enemies in the children’s house? Enemies in Heaven? Get you gone! Depart you cursed, into everlasting fire in Hell!” Oh, Sirs, if the unregenerate man could enter Heaven, I mention once more the oft-repeated saying of Whitfield, “he would be so unhappy in Heaven that he would ask God to let him run down into Hell for shelter.”

There must be a change, if you consider the future state. For how can enemies to God ever sit down at the banquet of the Lamb? And to conclude, let me remind you—and it is in the text after all—that this change must be worked by a power beyond your own. An enemy may possibly make himself a Friend. But enmity cannot. If it is but an adjunct of his nature to be an enemy he may change himself into a Friend. But if it is the very essence of his existence to be enmity, positive enmity, enmity cannot change itself. No, there must be something done more than we can accomplish. This is just what is forgotten in these days. We must have more preaching of the Holy Spirit if we are to have more conversion work.

I tell you, Sirs, if you change yourselves and make yourselves better and better and better, a thousand times, you will never be good enough for Heaven. Till God’s Spirit has laid His hand upon you. Till He has renewed your heart—till He has purified your soul, till He has changed your entire spirit and made you a new man—there can be no entering Heaven. How seriously, then, should each stand and think. Here am I, a creature of a day, a mortal born to die, but yet an immortal! At present I am at enmity with God. What shall I do? Is it not my duty, as well as my happiness, to ask, whether there is a way to be reconciled to God?

Oh, weary Slaves of sin, are not your ways the paths of folly? Is it wisdom, O my fellow Creatures, is it wisdom to hate your Creator? Is it wisdom to stand in opposition against Him? Is it prudent to despise the riches of His grace? If it is wisdom, it is Hell’s wisdom. If it is wisdom, it is a wisdom which is folly with God. Oh, may God grant that you may turn unto Jesus with full purpose of heart! He is the Ambassador. He it is who can make peace through His blood. And though you came in here an enemy, it is possible you may go out through that door a Friend yet, if you can but look to Jesus Christ, the brazen serpent which was lifted up.

And now, it may be, some of you are convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit. I will now proclaim to you the way of salvation. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up—that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Behold, O trembling Penitent, the means of your deliverance! Turn your tearing eye to yonder Mount of Calvary. I see the Victim of justice—the Sacrifice of atonement for your transgression. View the Savior in His agonies, with streams of blood purchasing your soul and with most intense agonies enduring your punishment.

He died for you, if now you confess your guilt. O come, you condemned one, self-condemned—turn your eye this way, for one look will save. Sinner, you are bitten. Look! It is nothing but “Look!” It is simply “Look!” If you can but look to Jesus you are safe. Hear the voice of the Redeemer—“Look unto Me and be you saved.” Look! Look! Look! O guilty souls—

“Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.
None but Jesus,
Can do helpless sinners good.”

May my blessed Master help you to come to Him and draw you to His Son, for Jesus’ sake. Amen and Amen

Adapted from The C.H. Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307

WE'RE STILL PAYING JOHN TETZEL...should we be charging for ministry?

2009-09-18T09:28:00.003-05:00

Should we be charging for ministry? It's an important question; and how we answer it will have tremendous consequences as to how we approach and do ministry... biblically.

As more and more Christian Publishers and CCM music companies are being bought out by non-Christian companies, have they now become unequally-yoked by surrendering their spiritual autonomy for the promise of more distribution, marketing, sales, and influence? What about corporate sponsorships for CCM touring artists or authors for their conferences and/or worship events? Should speakers and artists be charging tickets to the general public and Christian community for the purpose of worship and/or evangelistic outreach? Should pastors be charged heavy fees to attend another Bible conference designed to equip them for ministry? Has money replaced ministry? Has pragmatics replaced biblical thinking on these issues? Are those who have signed with a non-Christian company to release their CD's and books in sin or is it an a-moral issue; an issue of conscience? Has ministry been turned into big business? What's the balance in all of these things and what does the Bible say about these things?

This is an important discussion that is resurfacing today. I would like to know your thoughts on this important subject.

"Freely we have received; freely we must give..."
Steve
2 Cor. 4:5-7

Let's Begin Here With a Look Back in Church History
John Tetzel is not as famous as his counterpart, Martin Luther, but his role in the Reformation, though insidious, can be enlightening and a helpful warning to us all. Tetzel was Rome's chief fundraiser and one of its most politically savvy and influencial lobbyists. Money earned in the arena of faith owned his heart. Truth mixed with errror dominated his message and he profited from it significantly.

We are at a similar crossroads in our day. Faith is now big business; from publishing to Christian music money dominates the scenery which must produce big profits due to its almost exclusive secular owndership and executive management. Money--not ministry, is the passion of the hour.

Some very critical and important questions are facing us today: Has the evangelical church in America today unwittingly fallen prey to the methods and techniques of Mr. Tetzel? Does the contemporary church resemble more Tetzel's Rome than the New Testament? Has money become a prerequisite for ministry? Are we guilty of charging others for the gospel, worship, counseling, discipleship, reconciliation, music, Bible study, evangelism, etc.?

Let's take an honest look together at these important and revealing questions.

Who is John Tetzel?
John Tetzel, was Pope Leo X emissary; a braggart hired as Rome’s chief fundraiser by promising a “get out of jail free card” for the price of a financial offering to the Pope. He was ordered to sell the idea that buying indulgences would release sinners from divine punishment. "Indulgences" were printed permits or coupons listing the monetary value of a personal confession of sin. Bishop Albrecht of Mainz had authorized the sale of indulgences in order to pay Rome for making him an archbishop. The monies raised were used to assist in building St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. This became known as the selling of indulgences. Tetzel was the great mouthpiece, commissioner, and preacher of indulgences in Germany. His preaching raised enormous amounts of money which were sent to Rome. He had a very clever saying that he was infamous for when motivating people with the false promise of avoiding purgatorian punishment, playing with fear on the sentiments of many that by giving to him and Rome their friends and loved ones would be immediately released from torment to heaven's glory. He would "sing" this clever and effective little "jingle": "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."

Luther, who was outraged by this abhorrent practice issued a public call for theological debate on the sale of indulgences by posting his ninety-five theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on the eve of All Saint’s Day, October 31, 1517. He strategically trumped, by one day, Tetzel's influence over the people by challenging his unbiblical view of indulgences in a public forum. Printers distributed copies without Luther’s knowledge and permission. Within a few weeks, Martin Luther was known everywhere as the "voice of renewal." He began to see clearly that the church of his time stressed human merit—works righteousness, rather than trust in God alone for the salvation of men’s souls. It is no wonder that Luther and the other reformers gospel cry became: grace alone-sola gratia; through faith alone-sola fide; on the Word alone-sola Scriptura; because of Christ alone-solus Christus; to the glory of God alone-soli Deo gloria.

Just "Monking" Around
"This indulgence was highly respected. When the commissioner was welcomed to town, the Papal Bull (a written command or edict from the Pope) was carried on velvet or gold cloth. All the priests, monks, councilmen, teachers, pupils, men, women, maids, and children went to meet him singing in solemn procession with flags and candles. The bells tolled and when he entered the church the organ played. A red Cross was put up in the middle of the church to which the Pope's banner was affixed. In short: even God himself could not have been welcomed and received more beautifully.” [Source: Friedrich Myconius, Historia reformationis, p. 14.]

Here I Stand
"Although Rome wanted to silence Luther, powerful German princes, led by Elector Frederick of Saxony, Luther’s benefactor, secured freedom of speech for him. He debated with Cardinal Cajetan and the Dominican John Eck at Augsburg and Leipzig in 1519; he stated his case before Emperor Charles V at Worms in 1521 (where, standing before empire and church he said, "Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me."); and he published numerous proposals for reform from 1520 on. Nevertheless, Luther was excommunicated as a heretic and condemned as a traitor by pope and emperor in 1521.

Listen to Luther in his own words:
“When many people from Wittenberg ran after indulgences to Jüterborg and Zerbst, I did not know - as surely as my Lord Christ has redeemed me - what indulgences were, but no one else knew either. I carefully began to preach that one could do something better and more certain than to purchase indulgences. On an earlier occasion I had already preached here in the castle against indulgences, but was not very graciously received by Duke Frederick, who was fond of his collegiate church. Now, to speak about the real cause for the 'Lutheran scandal', at first I let everything continue its course.

Then it was reported to me, however, that Tetzel was preaching some cruel and terrible propositions, such as the following:

“Thus he said that if the Pope would forgive, God also had to forgive.”

“If they would put money quickly into the coffer to obtain grace and indulgence, all the mountains near St. Annaberg would turn into pure silver.”

“Such a marvellous thing was his indulgence. In sum and substance: God was no longer God, as he had bestowed all divine power to the Pope.”

“He had grace and power from the Pope to offer forgiveness even if someone had slept with the Holy Virgin Mother of God, as long as a contribution would be put into the coffer.”

“Furthermore, the red Cross of indulgences and the papal coat of arms on the flag of the churches was as powerful as the Cross of Christ.”

“Moreover, even if St. Peter were here now he would have no greater grace or power than he had.”

“Furthermore, he would not want to trade places in heaven with St. Peter, for he had redeemed more souls with his indulgences than Peter with his sermons.”

“Furthermore, if anyone put money into the coffer for a soul in purgatory, the soul would leave purgatory for heaven in the moment one could hear the penny hit the bottom.”

“Also the grace of indulgences is the grace by which man is reconciled with God.”

“Furthermore, it is not necessary to show remorse or sorrow or do penance for sins when purchasing indulgences or a letter of indulgence. He even sold indulgences for future sins. Such abominable things he did abundantly. He was merely interested in money.” [Source: Martin Luther, Wider Hans Worst, 1541. (WA 51, 538.)]

Turnabout is Fair Play
“After Tetzel had received a substantial amount of money at Leipzig, a nobleman asked him if it were possible to receive a letter of indulgence for a future sin. Tetzel quickly answered in the affirmative, insisting, however, that the payment had to made at once. This the nobleman did, receiving thereupon letter and seal from Tetzel. When Tetzel left Leipzig the nobleman attacked him along the way, gave him a thorough beating, and sent him back empty-handed to Leipzig with the comment that this was the future sin which he had in mind. Duke George at first was quite furious about this incident, but when he heard the whole story he let it go without punishing the nobleman.” [Source: Luthers Schriften, herausg. von Walch. XV, 446.]

Out of the Heart the Mouth Speaks - John Tetzel’s Own Words:

“What are you thinking about? Why do you hesitate to convert yourself? Why don't you have fears about your sins? Why don't you confess now to the vicars of our Most Holy Pope? Don't you have the example of Lawrence, who, compelled by the love of God, gave away his inheritance and suffered his body to be burned? Why do you not take the example of Bartholomew, Stephen, and of other saints who gladly suffered the most gruesome deaths for the sake and salvation of their souls? You, however, do not give up great treasures; indeed you give not even a moderate alms. They gave their bodies to be martyred, but you delight in living well and joyfully. You priest, nobleman, merchant, wife, virgin, you married people, young person, old man, enter into your church which is for you, as I have said, St. Peter's, and visit the most holy Cross. It has been placed there for you, and it always cries and calls for you. Are you perhaps ashamed to visit the Cross with a candle and yet not ashamed to visit a tavern? Are you ashamed to go to the apostolic confessors, but not ashamed to go to a dance? Behold, you are on the raging sea of the world in storm and danger, not knowing if you will safely reach the harbor of salvation. Do you not know that everything which man has hangs on a thin thread and that all of life is but a struggle on earth? Let us then fight, as did Lawrence and the other saints, for the day it is well, but ill tomorrow. Today alive and tomorrow dead.

"You should know that all who confess and in penance put alms into the coffer according to the counsel of the confessor, will obtain complete remission of all their sins. If they visit, after confession and after the Jubilee, the Cross and the altar every day they will receive that indulgence which would be theirs upon visiting in St. Peter's the seven altars, where complete indulgence is offered. Why are you then standing there? Run for the salvation of your souls! Be as careful and concerned for the salvation of your souls as you are for your temporal goods, which you seek both day and night. Seek the Lord while he may be found and while he is near. Work, as St. John says, while it is yet day, for the night comes when no man can work.

“Don't you hear the voices of your wailing dead parents and others who say, 'Have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me, because we are in severe punishment and pain. From this you could redeem us with a small alms and yet you do not want to do so.' Open your ears as the father says to the son and the mother to the daughter . . ., 'We have created you, fed you, cared for you, and left you our temporal goods. Why then are you so cruel and harsh that you do not want to save us, though it only takes a little? You let us lie in flames so that we only slowly come to the promised glory.' You may have letters which let you have, once in life and in the hour of death . . . full remission of the punishment which belongs to sin. Oh, those of you with vows, you usurers, robbers, murderers, and criminals - Now is the time to hear the voice of God. He does not want the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live. Convert yourselves the, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, to the Lord, thy God. Oh, you blasphemers, gossipers, who hinder this work openly or secretly, what about your affairs? You are outside the fellowship of the Church. No masses, no sermons, prayers, sacraments, or intercession help you. No field, vineyard, trees, or cattle bring fruit or wine for you. Even spiritual things vanish, as many an illustration could point out. Convert yourself with all you heart and use the medicine of which the Book of Wisdom says, 'The Most High has made medicine out of the earth and a wise man will not reject it.'” [Source: W. Köhler, Dokumente zum Ablassstreit, pp. 125-26.]

The above are quoted from The Reformation, by Hans J. Hillerbrand, published by Harper & Row, publishers, Copyright 1964 by SCM Press Ltd and Harper and Row, Inc., Library of Congress catalog card number 64-15480, pp.41-46.

We’re Still Paying John Tetzel
Tetzel used faith as a means to solicit money; and he used money as a means to promise God's blessing in faith. Unorthodox and heretical as his Pelagian theology was--his methods were cleverly pragmatic and devastatingly effective. Sadly, that has become all too familiar in the evangelical community in America today. The residue of Tetzelian methodology is now evident in almost every area of the Christian faith; for almost every aspect of our faith is now for sale. The promise of faith's blessing for financial giving is all too common. Shockingly, this is not just being done by heretics of John Tetzel influence (the "word-faith" movement, Romanism, etc.), but from mainline evangelicalism itself. Today, the "means of grace" command high fees for the salvation and sanctification of men's souls. We now have our own brand of "indulgences" in the evangelical world that people must pay before they can be ministered to and receive the promise of spiritual blessing from the Lord.

Need you think I'm being a gadfly or an alarmist, consider the following: the health, wealth, prosperity crowd is famous for saying, "send me a donation and God will give you your healing or prosper you," etc.; to hear the gospel in song or word these days, people are charged a pricey ticket or hefty honorarium totaling in the millions each year; worship gatherings and concerts are also high ticket items and are now owned by large multi-national corporations--it's "Worship, Inc."; reconciliation between disgruntled churches or disenfranchised believers can cost you in the thousands, at current hourly rates, just to bring restoration between others; psychological Christian counselors are the new "pastors of discipleship" and do charge you and your insurance company untold millions each year to "help you" deal with the deep problems of the mind and heart; the further training of pastors at Bible conferences can cost up to hundreds of dollars for the registration fee alone- plus materials; to find "the purpose" in "the purpose driven life" is also expensive--in order for churches to get to the material necessary to really equip their congregates more fully on the website and/or satellite broadcasts, they must pay a handsome fee based on size of church membership. Even for a small congregation those fees can total several hundred dollars; and finally at Christian retail stores-- Bibles, books, CD’s, tapes, trinkets, gifts, greeting cards, etc. are available for a pretty tidy sum as well - "ad nauseam ad infinitum."

Question: How are we better than the Tetzel Romanists of old on methodology just because we get it right biblically and/or theologically? Does that give us the right to charge God’s people and make retail merchandise of His holy Word and His gospel? And charge, mind you, for that which He has given to us freely?

Spurgeon saw the danger in his day during the Down-Grade Controversy when the Baptist Union was adopting, not a skewed theology mind you, but a worldly methodology for ministry. Spurgeon's concerns were justified; an abhorrent methodology will ultimately give way to a abhorrent theology - thus corrupting and polluting the entire church. Spurgeon was absolutely right on and history has proven him correct.

In like manner, the contemporary church today has adopted a worldly methodology--parroting worldly marketing techniques for ministry rather than biblical ones. Some will try to pragmatically justify these methods through "marketing and promotional language and values." Here's how the rhetoric usually goes: "if we can get more coverage in mainline stores and through the media, more people will hear the message... more people will get saved... more ministry will be accomplished... our churches will grow greater in number... and, therefore, more glory to God can ultimately be given. What's wrong with that, man? And after all, we're just trying to cover expenses; isn't a workman worthy of his hire?

Skubalon!

Such skewed rationale to justify our own lust for the "legal tender" by twisting God's Word is rubbish ladies and gentlemen. That kind of logic is dung, human excrement worthy only of the manure pile! It is foreign to Christ, the Apostles, the early church and church fathers. Fling it to the winds, for it is a stench in the nostrils of a holy God. This is not ministry beloved--no matter how you package it; it is but love of money (1 Timothy 6:5-17). Jesus said, "We cannot serve both God and Mammon..." How dare we turn the grace of God into industry? How dare we make Him the object of our fleshly lusts and worldly pursuits? How dare we make His precious gospel and Word something for personal profit? How dare we pretend to be heavenward in all our efforts, when our daily activity is only about amassing earthly things? How dare we place on the backs of God’s people a promise of healing, prosperity, salvation, a new promotion, a better station in life, any kind of spiritual blessing if they only give to such and such a ministry? How dare we promise spiritual insight and wisdom if they only would financially send money "our way?"

Money Should Not be a Prerequisite for Ministry
The Scriptures are clear that genuine ministry is to be supported through the sacrificial giving of God's people in and through the local church. Pastors who teach and preach faithfully are worthy of "double honor" - a financial term (1 Timothy 5:17-18). Travelling missionaries and musicianaries alike; doing the work of the evangelist--those spreading the gospel to an unsaved world are to be cared for by the people of God as well (3 John 5-8 and Philippians 4:15-19). Even the Apostle Paul says, "that if we are about the work of the gospel that we should eat by the gospel... Do not muzzle the ox while he is threshing out the grain... A workman is worthy of his hire" (cp, 1 Corinthians 9:7-18).

But we must never make it a fixed-demand up front in order "to minister" for the Lord and to others. We must never put a price tag for serving the Lord, His people or a lost world. And we must never promise spiritual blessing for the sake of soliciting funds. Both are wrong; both are sin. Money can never be a prerequisite for ministry... amen? Once again, "Freely we have received; freely we must give." I had to repent of this beloved. I was sinning against the Lord and His people for charging churches, concert goers, etc. a ticket to hear me sing, lead in worship, or preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was sin and nine years ago the Lord gave me the grace to walk away from the current CCM industry, and, to the best of my ability, follow a biblical model from that day to present for ministry instead. I don't even charge for CD's anymore either... they are available for whatever people can afford; and if anyone can't afford anything, they may get any item for free.

That is our policy with AudienceONE Music/Ministries as well. Though these days are leaner financially than before, the ministry has wonderfully deepened; and I wouldn't go back to the "old ways" for anything in the world. Why...? Because it's not about me and my music; and my fame; and my glory; and my income; and my influence; and my sales; and my airplay; and my recognition; and my noteriety; and my touring; and my press release; and chart action; and my celebrity. It is only about Christ and His glory; and His gospel; and His Word being honored; and His church being served; and this world hearing the gospel. It's not about us, it's all about Him!

Just By Faith
Oh for men and women of God that won’t buy into the spirit of the age and sell their souls for the pottage of prominence, prestige, power, or position. To give all for the sake of the gospel and not parrot the world; to "let goods and kindred go" and model the Master's life. May we repent of any Tetzelian tendencies that we may be gulty of individually or corporately in the church; and say with Peter. "Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you freely..." (Acts 3:6).

It was said of Luther that during the Reformation you would hear him preach almost exclusively from the book of Galatians—“the Magna Charta of Spiritual Freedom.” Listen to these powerful words of Paul and may they ignite your heart and life to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified—and to always offer freely the blessed gospel of grace and His divine truth.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:1-13).

this has been an encore presentation

THE OLD GOSPEL COMPARED WITH THE NEW...discerning what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ

2009-09-15T10:33:00.002-05:00

Adapted from J. I. Packer -

on the gospel according to John Owen

Introduction:
by S.J. Camp

The debate of late has been on the content of the gospel and the call of the gospel. Some want to make the assumption that any kind of gospel presented is acceptable no matter how lacking in substance of message for God will use anything in bringing salvation to lost people. One writer claims that a beloved evangelical leader was converted by one obscure verse from the book of Ecclesiastes. Listen, no man is converted by such whimsical, romantic notions or casual verse reading that have nothing to do with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul says, "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation..." It must be the gospel proclaimed -unadulterated and unfettered - to bring Christ to men. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ..."

We have a charge beloved to proclaim the gospel by the whole council of God and that we must. Fear no man; pay homage to no man, be swayed by no man; but let your conscience and heart be governed by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Let not your tongue be muzzled by those who seek to control you, rather than serve you. The Word of God is like a fire... and here, it will not be quenched. The Word of God is also a hammer; and may we pound it aloud for all to hear!

The gospel of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ humbles itself to no one. The issue of the gospel is not how do we get sinful men to a holy God; the issue of the gospel is how does a holy God come to sinful men without violating His holiness and His justice. And the answer is the cross. Here mercy and justice kiss; here saving grace triumphs over wrath; here His electing love conquers our emnity; here holy God is satisfied and depraved man is justified.

Do not be impressed with surfboards, sentiment, scenary, and style. Be humbled at the love of God come through the propitiatory work of the Son. Be awed at the regenerating ministry of the Holy Spirit. Be rejoicing because we serve a risen, reigning, glorious Lord Jesus whose name is above every name. And be confident in the power of the Word of God to pierce and convict men's hearts, to bring them to their knees in repentance which God alone can grant. Be offended by those who seek to picture God as a lover begging on one knee for any sinner to take His engagement ring proposing as a nervous man to his girlfriend; and then waiting as an impotent Divine who can only observe what man may accept and decide.

Implore sinful men to be reconciled to God, to bow the knee before the holy dread Sovereign of Glory; to tremble at His Word; to repent of their sin crying out for forgiveness that God may grant them saving faith and take away their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Warn them of the wrath to come. Plead with them to not harden their hearts while today is still called today. God is not asking for decisions or looking for converts; God is seeking for true worshippers--disciples that will deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him. He is seeking to save that which is lost. The Hound of Heaven is on the move--think not your little inventions add one thing to the soul in need of redemption. It is His gospel alone which transforms lives--we are but its stewards. And may we be found faithful!

"Let goods and kindred go
This mortal life also
The body they may kill
His truth abideth still
His kingdom is forever."

To that end, let us begin.

The Free Offer of Salvation:
The old gospel of Owen, first of all, contains no less full and free an offer of salvation than its modern counterpart. It presents ample grounds of faith (the sufficiency of Christ, and the promise of God), and cogent motives to faith (the sinner's need, and the Creator's command, which is also the Redeemer's invitation). The new gospel gains nothing here by asserting universal redemption. The old gospel, certainly, has no room for the cheap sentimentalizing which turns God's free mercy to sinners into a constitutional softheartedness on His part which we can take for granted; nor will it countenance the degrading presentation of Christ as the baffled Saviour, balked in what he hoped to do by human unbelief; nor will it indulge in maudlin appeals to the unconverted to let Christ save them out of pity for His disappointment. The pitiable Saviour and the pathetic God of modern pulpits are unknown to the old gospel.

The old gospel tells men that they need God, but not that God needs them (a modern falsehood); it does not exhort them to pity Christ, but announces that Christ has pitied them, though pity was the last thing they deserved. It never loses sight of the Divine majesty and sovereign power of the Christ whom it proclaims, but rejects flatly all representations of Him which would obscure His free omnipotence.

Electing Love to Sinners:
Does this mean, however, that the preacher of the old gospel is inhibited or confined in offering Christ to men and inviting them to receive Him? Not at all. In actual fact, just because he recognizes that Divine mercy is sovereign and free, he is in a position to make far more of the offer of Christ in his preaching than is the expositor of the new gospel; for this offer is itself a far more wonderful thing on his principles than it can ever be in the eyes of those who regard love to all sinners as a necessity of God's nature, and therefore a matter of course. To think that the holy Creator, who never needed man for His happiness and might justly have banished our fallen race for ever without mercy, should actually have chosen to redeem some of them! and that His own Son was willing to undergo death and descend into hell to save them! and that now from His throne He should speak to ungodly men as He does in the words of the gospel, urging upon them the command to repent and believe in the form of a compassionate invitation to pity themselves and choose life! These thoughts are the focal points round which the preaching of the old gospel revolves. It is all wonderful, just because none of it can be taken for granted. But perhaps the most wonderful thing of all - the holiest spot in all the holy ground of gospel truth - is the free invitation which "the Lord Christ " (as Owen loves to call Him) issues repeatedly to guilty sinners to come to Him and find rest for their souls. It is the glory of these invitations that it is an omnipotent King who gives them, just as it is a chief part of the glory of the enthroned Christ that He condescends still to utter them. And it is the glory of the gospel ministry that the preacher goes to men as Christ's ambassador, charged to deliver the King's invitation personally to every sinner present and to summon them all to turn and live. Owen himself enlarges on this in a passage addressed to the unconverted.

"Consider the infinite condescension and love of Christ, in his invitations and calls of you to come unto him for life, deliverance, mercy, grace, peace and eternal salvation. Multitudes of these invitations and calls are recorded in the Scripture, and they are all of them filled up with those blessed encouragements which divine wisdom knows to be suited unto lost, convinced sinners.... In the declaration and preaching of them, Jesus Christ yet stands before sinners, calling, inviting, encouraging them to come unto him.

Passionate Appeal - Warning and Invitation:
"This is somewhat of the word which he now speaks unto you: Why will ye die? why will ye perish? why will ye not have compassion on your own souls? Can your hearts endure, or can your hands be strong, in the day of wrath that is approaching?... Look unto me, and be saved; come unto me, and I will ease you of all sins, sorrows, fears, burdens, and give rest unto your souls. Come, I entreat you; lay aside all procrastinations, all delays; put me off no more; eternity lies at the door... do not so hate me as that you will rather perish than accept of deliverance by me.

"These and the like things doth the Lord Christ continually declare, proclaim, plead and urge upon the souls of sinners.... He doth it in the preaching of the word, as if he were present with you, stood amongst you, and spake personally to every one of you. He hath appointed the ministers of the gospel to appear before you, and to deal with you in his stead, avowing as his own the invitations which are given you in his name, 2 Cor. v.19,20,"

These invitations are universal; Christ addresses them to sinners, as such, and every man, as he believes God to be true, is bound to treat them as God's words to him personally and to accept the universal assurance which accompanies them, that all who come to Christ will be received. Again, these invitations are real; Christ genuinely offers Himself to all who hear the gospel, and is in truth a perfect Saviour to all who trust Him. The question of the extent of the atonement does not arise in evangelistic preaching; the message to be delivered is simply this - that Christ Jesus, the sovereign Lord, who died for sinners, now invites sinners freely to Himself. God commands all to repent and believe; Christ promises life and peace to all who do so.

Furthermore, these invitations are marvelously gracious; men despise and reject them, and are never in any case worthy of them, and yet Christ still issues them. He need not, but He does. "Come unto me… and I will give you rest" remains His word to the world, never cancelled, always to be preached. He whose death has ensured the salvation of all His people is to be proclaimed everywhere as a perfect Saviour, and all men invited and urged to believe on Him, whoever they are, whatever they have been. Upon these three insights the evangelism of the old gospel is based.

It is a very ill-informed supposition that evangelistic preaching which proceeds on these principles must be anemic and half-hearted by comparison with what Arminians can do. Those who study the printed sermons of worthy expositors of the old gospel, such as Bunyan (whose preaching Owen himself much admired), or Whitefield, or Spurgeon, will find that in fact they hold forth the Saviour and summon sinners to Him with a fullness, warmth, intensity and moving force unmatched in Protestant pulpit literature. And it will be found on analysis that the very thing which gave their preaching its unique power to overwhelm their audiences with broken-hearted joy at the riches of God's grace - and still gives it that power, let it be said, even with hard-boiled modem readers - was their insistence on the fact that grace is free. They knew that the dimensions of Divine love are not half understood till one realizes that God need not have chosen to save nor given his Son to die; nor need Christ have taken upon him vicarious damnation to redeem men, nor need He invite sinners indiscriminately to Himself as He does; but that all God's gracious dealings spring entirely from His own free purpose.

Biblical Gospel Evangelistic Preaching - No Surfboards Allowed:
Knowing this, they stressed it, and it is this stress that sets their evangelistic preaching in a class by itself. Other Evangelicals, possessed of a more superficial and less adequate theology of grace, have laid the main emphasis in their gospel preaching on the sinner's need of forgiveness, or peace, or power, and of the way to get them by "deciding for Christ." It is not to be denied that their preaching has done good (for God will use His truth, even when imperfectly held and mixed with error), although this type of evangelism is always open to the criticism of being too man-centered and pietistic; but it has been left (necessarily) to Calvinists and those who, like the Wesleys, fall into Calvinistic ways of thought as soon as they begin a sermon to the unconverted, to preach the gospel in a way which highlights above - everything else the free love, willing condescension, patient long-suffering and infinite kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without doubt, this is the most Scriptural and edifying way to preach it; for gospel invitations to sinners never honour God and exalt Christ more, nor are more powerful to awaken and confirm faith, than when full weight is laid on the free omnipotence of the mercy from which they flow. It looks, indeed, as if the preachers of the old gospel are the only people whose position allows them to do justice to the revelation of Divine goodness in the free offer of Christ to sinners.

Then, in the second place, the old gospel safeguards values which the new gospel loses. We saw before that the new gospel, by asserting universal redemption and a universal Divine saving purpose, compels itself to cheapen grace and the Cross by denying that the Father and the Son are sovereign in salvation; for it assures us that, after God and Christ have done all that they can, or will, it depends finally on each man's own choice whether God's purpose to save him is realized or not. This position has two unhappy results.

The first is that it compels us to misunderstand the significance of the gracious invitations of Christ in the gospel of which we have been speaking; for we now have to read them, not as expressions of the tender patience of a mighty sovereign, but as the pathetic pleadings of impotent desire; and so the enthroned Lord is suddenly metamorphosed into a weak, futile figure tapping forlornly at the door of the human heart, which He is powerless to open. This is a shameful dishonour to the Christ of the New Testament.

The second implication is equally serious: for this view in effect denies our dependence on God when it comes to vital decisions, takes us out of His hand, tells us that we are, after all, what sin taught us to think we were-masters of our fate, captain of our souls-and so undermines the very foundation of man's religious relationship with his Maker. It can hardly be wondered at that the converts of the new gospel are so often both irreverent and irreligious, for such is the natural tendency of this teaching. The old gospel, however, speaks very differently and has a very different tendency. On the one hand, in expounding man's need of Christ, it stresses something which the new gospel effectively ignores - that sinners cannot obey the gospel, any more than the law, without renewal of heart. On the other hand, in declaring Christ's power to save, it proclaims Him as the author and chief agent of conversion, coming by His Spirit as the gospel goes forth to renew men's hearts and draw them to Himself.

God Must Give What God Commands:
Accordingly, in applying the message, the old gospel, while stressing that faith is man's duty, stresses also that faith is not in man's power, but that God must give what He commands. It announces, not merely that men must come to Christ for salvation, but also that they cannot come unless Christ Himself draws them. Thus it labours to overthrow self-confidence, to convince sinners that their salvation is altogether out of their hands, and to shut them up to a self-despairing dependence on the glorious grace of a sovereign Saviour, not only for their righteousness but for their faith too.

It is not likely, therefore, that a preacher of the old gospel will be happy to express the application of it in the form of a demand to "decide for Christ," as the current phrase is. For, on the one hand, this phrase carries the wrong associations. It suggests voting a person into office - an act in which the candidate plays no part beyond offering himself for election, and everything then being settled by the voter's independent choice. But we do not vote God's Son into office as our Saviour, nor does He remain passive while preachers campaign on His behalf, whipping up support for His cause. We ought not to think of evangelism as a kind of electioneering. And then, on the other hand, this phrase obscures the very thing that is essential in repentance and faith - the denying of self in a personal approach to Christ. It is not at all obvious that deciding for Christ is the same as coming to Him and resting On Him and turning from sin and self-effort; it sounds like something much less, and is accordingly calculated to instill defective notions of what the gospel really requires of sinners. It is not a very apt phrase from any point of view.

To the question: what must I do to be saved? the old gospel replies: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To the further question: what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? its reply is: it means knowing oneself to be a sinner, and Christ to have died for sinners, [and who was resurrected bodily from the grave for our justification]; abandoning all self-righteousness and self-confidence, and casting oneself wholly upon Him for pardon arid peace; and exchanging one's natural enmity and rebellion against God for a spirit of grateful submission to the will of Christ through the renewing of one's heart by the Holy Ghost.

And to the further question still: how am I to go about believing on Christ and repenting, if I have no natural ability to do these things? it answers: look to Christ, speak to Christ, cry to Christ, just as you are; confess your sin, your impenitence, your unbelief, and cast yourself on His mercy; ask Him to give you a new heart, working in you true repentance and firm faith; ask Him to take away your evil heart of unbelief and to write His law within you, that you may never henceforth stray from Him. Turn to Him and trust Him as best you can, and pray for grace to turn and trust more thoroughly; use the means of grace expectantly, looking to Christ to draw near to you as you seek to draw near to Him; watch, pray, read and hear God's Word, worship and commune with God's people, and so continue till you know in yourself beyond doubt that you are indeed a changed being, a penitent believer, and the new heart which you desired has been put within you. The emphasis in this advice is on the need to call upon Christ directly, as the very first step.

"Let not conscience make you linger,  Nor of fitness fondly dream; 
All the fitness He requireth  Is to feel your need of Him"

So do not postpone action till you think you are better, but honestly confess your badness and give yourself up here and now to the Christ who alone can make you better; and wait on Him till His light rises in your soul, as Scripture promises that it shall do. Anything less than this direct dealing with Christ is disobedience of the gospel. Such is the exercise of spirit to which the old evangel summons its hearers. "I believe-help thou mine unbelief": this must become their cry.

Bringing Christ to Men:
And the old gospel is proclaimed in the sure confidence that the Christ of whom it testifies, the Christ who is the real speaker when the Scriptural invitations to trust Him are expounded and applied, is not passively waiting for man's decision as the word goes forth, but is omnipotently active, working with and through the word to bring His people to faith in Himself. The preaching of the new gospel is often described as the task of "bringing men to Christ " - as if only men move, while Christ stands still. But the task of preaching the old gospel could more properly be described as bringing Christ to men, for those who preach it know that as they do their work of setting Christ before men's eyes, the mighty Saviour whom they proclaim is busy doing His work through their words, visiting sinners with salvation, awakening them to faith, drawing them in mercy to Himself.

It is this older gospel, which Owen will teach us to preach: the gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ as the author and finisher of faith and salvation. It is the only gospel, which can be preached on Owen's principles, but those who have tasted its sweetness will not in any case be found looking for another. In the matter of believing and preaching the gospel, as in other things, Jeremiah's words still have their application:

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." To find ourselves debarred, as Owen would debar us, from taking up with the fashionable modern substitute gospel may not, after all, be a bad thing, either for us, or for the Church. More might be said, but to go farther would be to exceed the limits of an introductory essay. The foregoing remarks are made simply to show how important it is at the present time that we should attend most carefully to… what the Bible says about the saving work of Christ.