The Only Gift We Need this Christmas

I love this time of year when fall, my favorite season slowly gives way to Christmas, my favorite holiday. As a child, the anticipation I felt in December was so great that invariably I'd set myself up for a serious "let down" when it was all over.

I think the sadness I felt each year on December 26 might have been lessened by some careful adult instruction. Although we were a Christian family, Christmas, in my mind, was a pretext for the real joy of opening gifts... things I wanted, for my sake, and for my satisfaction. Of course, this kind of joy doesn't last too long. The consequence of my misguided hopes and selfishness? An empty feeling each year when it was all over. The build up was great, but the experience itself proved a general disappointment.

Brothers and sisters, this year our pastors have purposed to create a different sort of anticipation-- one that will not disappoint. In this FREETRUTH blog, we have the opportunity each day this Advent Season to look at a biblical text highlighting the Gift of God, Jesus! A powerful daily reminder that Jesus Himself is the Gift we are celebrating!

I welcome the emphasis-- especially this year. Economic recession has touched so many of our own number. May we allow these hard times to draw our attention all the more to the only Gift on earth that ever really mattered, God's Gift, Jesus. God Himself arriving in the form of a baby! What more is there?! We are eternally rescued!

I work with men who have found the Lord Jesus after years of addiction. Colony of Mercy men have an expression: "You never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have." Some of these men have wrecked everything good in their lives, including family-- but they have Jesus! And they are content.

This Advent can be the most wonderful ever, even if you are in financial straits. See Jesus this Christmas as "all you need" and in proportion, the value of those colorful boxes under the tree (be they few or many), will fade. And come December 26, you'll still have Him, and He will not leave you feeling empty!

God is the Gospel

As we prepare for Advent and the celebration of the Savior's birth, I thought it appropriate for my last regular guest post of the year to leave off with this truth concerning the purpose of the Savior's work:

Today--as in every generation--it is stunning to watch the shift away from God as the all-satisfying gift of God’s love. It is stunning how seldom God himself is proclaimed as the greatest gift of the gospel. But the Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God’s love is the enjoyment of God’s beauty. “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (Ps. 27:4). The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). This is the all-encompassing gift of God’s love through the gospel--to see and savor the glory of Christ forever.

....The Christian gospel is not merely that Jesus died and rose again; and not merely that these events appease God’s wrath, forgive sin, and justify sinners; and not merely that this redemption gets us out of hell and into heaven; but that they bring us to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as our supreme, all-satisfying, and everlasting treasure. “Christ... suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).

....And the effect is that now these central gospel events and effects shine all the more brightly with what makes them truly good news--the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Now when we herald the death and resurrection of Jesus as good news, we are not just exulting in God’s acts or God’s gifts. We are showing the final joyful reason for calling them good news. When we proclaim that the death and resurrection of Jesus is the ground for propitiating God’s wrath and forgiving sin and imputing righteousness, we are not just assuaging guilt and relieving fears--we are displaying the glory of God. We are making known not merely divine acts and divine gifts--we are making known the truth and beauty and worth of Christ himself who is the image of God. By God’s sovereign, creative power, we are opening the eyes of the blind (Acts 26:17b-18; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6) to see in the gospel “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We are making plain that there is no salvation through the gospel where the best and highest and final good in the gospel is not seen and savored. That good is the glory, the worth, the beauty, the treasure of Christ himself who is true God and true man. (God is the Gospel, by John Piper, pgs. 11, 167-168)

Ponder, gives thanks, rejoice, and worship!

Why I'd like to Sign the Manhattan Declaration, but a Few Reasons Why I Can't

Regarding the Manhattan Declaration (MD) I feel the need to post some thoughts for your consideration. Having read a number of articles pro and con on the merits of signing the MD, I have thus far decided against doing so. If you will indulge, let me give you several reasons why I would like to sign this document, and then a few reasons why I cannot in good conscience do so.

Please be ready for a more lengthy post today as I will not be able to post again on this matter in the near future. So if it takes a few days to digest this, feel free. You may want to read it in two sittings, first taking in the reasons why I'd like to sign; then reading the reasons why I don't believe I can.

Reasons why I'd like to sign the MD:
1. I am strongly pro-life, pro-family, and pro-freedom. Any chance one gets to support these values is worth seizing and supporting if at all possible. As one who has been involved in pro-life efforts for decades (ranging from preaching to letters to newspaper editors to active long-term support of a pregnancy center, to doing ethics talks at a local hospital to spending time in jail for the unborn, I would applaud every voice that joins in in the fight for life. I'd honor every God-glorifying action that defends the helpless and/or strengthens family and freedom.
2. As a matter of biblical principle, I stand against big government and the assault on freedom that MD opposes. It would be a delight to sign on to this publicly declared commitment to obey God rather than government. I'd love in this way to let the world know where I stand at this historical crossroads; one at which I am very convinced that persecution for faithful faith is soon to come.
3. I am a peace and unity lover. If there could be a way to declare my unity with all believers in the true gospel of God's pure grace, and at the same time express solidarity in common cause against the encroaching darkness, I would leap at the chance with a thrilled heart.
4. I respect many of those who have signed the MD and would be honored to have my name next to theirs. For reasons that some have expressed, but I cannot accept, many good solidly evangelical people have signed this document and I would love to join them.
5. I have no pleasure in being misunderstood as narrow-minded and marginalized as a provincial evangelical hick (as I know I am by some). There's no joy in being labeled, scolded, and derided as "doctrinally narrow" or "unloving" or "bigoted" or "Luther wannabes" as I and others like me have been. When one's heart is for love and peace in the Church, one's heart breaks when it is accused of obstructing the very unity it seeks.

For these reasons and more, I'd love to sign on to MD, but for reasons of conscience I cannot do so. Among these reasons are the following (if you're just joining the conversation please read my heart from my previous post and comments before reading the following):
1. I believe the MD blurs and fuzzies the gospel. By calling social issues (however important they may be) "the gospel" MD confuses Christian ethics with what is the actual good news of our faith. The gospel is not the "sanctity of life" or the preservation of the family or defence of freedom. The gospel is that Christ died for sinners, and rose from the dead so that all who believe in His finished work alone for their salvation may be forgiven of all sin. The gospel is that sinners are justified by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.

MD also blurs the gospel when it implies that those who preach another gospel are "Christians" and "brothers". MD states:

We, as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and all nations...

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers...

Paul would have called those who preach another gospel by very different names than "Christian" and "brother" (see Galatians 1:6-9 and Philippians 3:2). Every indicator is that the people Paul opposed so fiercely were right on nearly every doctrine except justification. He says nothing about them being anti-trinitarian or opposing the deity of Christ or denying any other cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith. Their only error was that they mixed grace with works/merit. That error was enough to elicit from him shocking epithets. He did not consider them brothers. Another way of putting this is: I have hard time seeing Paul signing this document if he were present today.
2. As a shepherd of sheep, my daily task is to lead my flock into the green pastures of the gospel. My sheep have a hard time keeping the gospel clear in their own minds. It's amazing how stubborn the tendency to fall back into legalism is. We are prone to measure ourselves before God by how we perform today. I love my sheep so much that I do not want to send any mixed signals about the gospel. The gospel must stay pure and central and all-important or else the road to legalistic bondage will once again be traveled by the ones I love.
3. I believe that the gospel is under full-scale attack on numerous fronts, so I cannot be unguarded in the fight. From the New Perspective on Paul to an increasingly popular rejection of the doctrine of imputation to the Roman Catholic system of merit to cheap grace theology I see the enemy assaulting the gospel from all sides. This is not a day for blurriness and neglect for the sake of lesser matters; it's a day for bold, unadulterated gospel proclamation.
4. I cannot sign the MD simply as a matter of personal integrity. Whatever may be the definitions some signers may be giving to the terms "Christians" and "brothers", I know that the history of key signers and spokesmen shows an understanding of those terms that I cannot accept. Thus to sign a document as a statement of unity when I know that at best, I mean something different than other signers, and in actuality I may mean and think the opposite, would be to compromise my integrity. I'd have to sign with my fingers crossed behind my back, which as you can guess I'm not able to do.

Well enough of this for now. Such conversations are never pleasant though sometimes needed. Whatever our conclusions may we be sure to always speak with respect and love for all men, even for those with whom our differences are matters of life and death.

Alliances: Cooperation or Compromise

I came into the office today, admittedly with a heavy heart. I knew I'd have to address an issue that the recent Manhattan Declaration has forced to the surface again. I'm heavy-hearted because no matter how carefully and humbly I may try to respond to this I grieve that some will be offended. I also grieve because every time similar conversations occur, I am reminded of how subtle and covert the Enemy's assaults are, and how hard it is to make sure that we recognize them and are not deceived by them.

Likewise I am very much aware of my own fallibility and limited perspective (it's possible that I am seeing an Enemy assault that is not really there at all!). Aware of my inability to see all things clearly, I feel a high-level hesitancy in declaring my views, lest I in ignorance miss something of significant import in the conversation.

With that said I need to respond to this development for the good of the flock entrusted to my care. I admire the views and the courage of all those who have signed on to this declaration. I am in whole-hearted agreement with their views on the moral issues they raise, and think that I have lived and pastored in such a way as to prove that claim. I have long preached and lived and counseled and insisted on the values that this declaration proclaims and seeks to defend, and have done so at some personal cost and sacrifice--in full expectation that more suffering is soon to come.

I recognize that we are on a cultural trajectory that in my judgment, is leading inexorably to an ever-darkening culture of death and also to an inevitable persecution of the church. I do not believe we can ignore this or be silent about it. The Church must be salt and light in the world of our day. We must say all that God would say to this generation--for we are His voice in our times. And we must be willing to back up our words with lives marked by blameless character, fearless witness, and tireless love.

Martin Luther's famous words are apropos for this moment:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

But oddly as it may seem to many, it is this very commitment to confess Christ at the "point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking" that keeps me from being ready to sign the Manhattan Declaration. Friends, I will agree that all the concerns addressed by the framers of this declaration are points of Satanic attack in our times. But what I really do believe is that there is another point of Satanic attack even more critical for the cause of the gospel and glory of Christ that this very same declaration (perhaps unwittingly) may actually assist.

I believe there are aspects of this document that undermine the very heart of the gospel, that One Thing that matters most, and for this reason I cannot in good conscience sign on. I'll have to explain further in a later post since this one is long enough already.

But for your consideration let me ask some questions, questions that I would ask that you think long and carefully about before you actually try to answer them in a comment: "If the Bible calls people Christians when they trust in Christ alone for their salvation, in no way trusting in their own merit for that salvation...and if those who preach another gospel other than a gospel of God's free justifying grace by faith alone through Christ alone receive apostolic anathemas (which is what Paul's letter to the Galatians is all about, see Galatians 1:6-9) do we not need to be very careful in how we describe those who so distort the gospel? Can we really, under any circumstances call one a "Christian" or a "brother" whom Paul would anathematize? And does not the Manhattan Declaration do that very thing?

My concern with the Manhattan Declaration is not in what it says on paper so much as what it assumes about those who signed it. I really do believe that those underlying assumptions undermine the integrity and essence of the gospel (because they suggest that people that proclaim another gospel are nonetheless brothers in the faith). And I am convinced that in the long run this kind of blurring and fuzzying of the gospel will do more harm to the cause of all that is good, than all other cultural threats to morality ever will.

I know that this is controversial, but for reasons I'll expand tomorrow (and until I am presented with reasons I've not yet considered) I seem bound by faithfulness to the gospel to take my stand here. I truly am open to sound reasons to convince me otherwise, but thus far, I have not been convinced by any I've seen.

Alliances: Old and New

Two "religious news" items came up on my monitor last Friday while I was at work. One, an electronic newsletter from the IRD (Institute on Religion and Democracy), and the other, a press release announcing the "Manhattan Declaration" sent to me by my friend in Chicago who edits Touchstone, and Salvo, two excellent Christian periodicals.

In the IRD newsletter, I learned that certain Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians are lobbying hard for the passage of the trillion dollar health care plan now moving to the U.S. Senate. Boards from these mainline Protestant denominations were angered by the recent U.S. House vote that prohibited government health insurance funded abortions (a pro-life victory won largely by the efforts of U.S. Catholic Bishops).

The other news I received Friday was of the issuing of the "Manhattan Declaration: A call of Christian Conscience." It is an eloquent plea from Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical believers to uphold the sanctity of life, the institution of marriage, and religious liberty. It also includes an emphatic refusal to compromise the proclamation of the gospel.

Old alliances no longer serve. Our Reformed and Evangelical views on these issues seem to align us more closely with the Orthodox and Catholic than with mainline protestant churches, many of which have joined ranks with "liberal elites."

I cannot remember the last time I described myself as a "Protestant." As a child I found the label handy in distinguishing myself from Roman Catholics, but I don't use it these days.

What do you think? Is it safe to publicly align ourselves with others who call themselves believers in order to stand together on the important moral issues of our day? Can we, while holding theological differences, still unite on other issues?

Over 22,000 have signed this declaration since Friday. What say ye... do we sign on, or no. And if not, why not?

Alive--But We Still Sin

Last week I shared an excerpt from Finally Alive, by John Piper, that listed a number of necessary Biblical evidences of the new birth, of true conversion. If we have truly been regenerated by the Holy Spirit these evidences must be present, to a greater or lesser extent, or else we are not truly spiritually alive. Yet if we are alive, or perhaps I should say in spite of being alive, something else will also always be present in this life--sin. We will still sin, in thought, word, and deed, every day. So, how do we relate our sin to these neccesary evidences of life? A most practical and important question it would seem.

The following, I believe, are some very helpful additional thoughts from Finally Alive that should minister to us in the daily battle-royal that is the Christian life:

DEALING WITH OUR ONGOING SIN

Now we come to the question we raised at the beginning: How do people who have experienced the miracle of the new birth deal with their own sinfulness as they try to live in the full assurance of their salvation? My answer is: You deal with it by the way you use John’s teaching. John warns against hypocrisy (claiming to be born again when your life contradicts it), and John celebrates the Advocacy and Propitiation of Christ for born-again sinners.

The question is: How do you use these two truths? How do you use the warning that you might deceive yourself? How do you use the promise, “If we do sin, we have an Advocate”? The evidence of your new birth lies in how these two truths function in your life.

Here’s the way they function if you are born again:

FLEEING PRESUMPTION, FLYING TO THE ADVOCATE

One common scenario for believers is drifting toward sinful presumption. You are slipping into a lukewarm, careless, presumptuous frame of mind about your own sinfulness. You are starting to coast or be indifferent to whether you are holy or worldly. You are losing your vigilance against bad attitudes and behaviors—and starting to settle in with sinful patterns of behavior.

When the born-again person experiences this kind of drift, the truth of 1 John 3:9 (“No one born of God makes a practice of sinning”) has the effect, by the Holy Spirit, of awakening him to the danger of his condition so that he flies to his Advocate and his Propitiation for mercy and forgiveness and righteousness. He confesses his sin and receives cleansing (1:9). His love for Christ is renewed and the sweetness of his relationship is recovered and the hatred of sin is restored and the joy of the Lord again becomes his strength.

FLEEING DESPAIR, FLYING TO THE ADVOCATE

Another common scenario for believers is drifting toward despair. You are sinking down in fear and discouragement and even despair that your righteousness, your love for people, and your fight against sin are just not good enough. Your conscience is condemning you, and your own deeds seem so imperfect to you that they could never prove that you are born again.

When the born-again person experiences this, the truth of 1 John 2:1 has the effect, by the Spirit, of rescuing him from despair: “My little children [he wants to be tender with our consciences], I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

John’s warning of hypocrisy calls us back from the precipice of presumption. John’s promise of an Advocate calls us back from the precipice of despair.

THE REDEMPTIVE POWER OF GOD’S WORD

The new birth enables you to hear Scripture and use Scripture helpfully, redemptively. The new birth doesn’t use the promise “We have an Advocate” to justify an attitude of cavalier indifference to sin. The new birth doesn’t use the warning “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning” to pour gasoline on the fires of despair. The new birth brings a spiritual discernment that senses how to use John’s teaching: The new birth is chastened and sobered by the warnings, and the new birth is thrilled and empowered by the promise of an Advocate and a Propitiation.

May the Lord confirm your new birth as you experience both of these responses to the word of God. May he grant you to embrace both the warning and the comfort. May you hear the word of God as God means it to be heard, and may God’s all-sufficient word preserve the full assurance of your salvation.

Don't Go to Church? (2)

Here is part two of yesterday's blog by Jeff Purswell, based on an exposition of Hebrews 12. God bless you as you read it.

[In light of what we have seen] Think about the people with whom you serve, live, and worship. Have you fully grasped just what your local church is and what it’s doing on a Sunday morning? Your local church is one authentic, visible manifestation of the entire people of God for all time.

It is a part of the heavenly throng that even now is worshiping before the throne of God. And we get to be part of that!

Think about this gathering, which includes—

Angels. We are worshiping with creatures before whom we would be tempted to fall down in terror and worship, if we could see them.

The spirits of the righteous-made-perfect. Here are the heroes from Hebrews 11—Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David—mighty men of God, mighty prophets who trusted God, so endued with power that they stopped lion’s mouths and put foreign armies to flight. We are worshiping with them.

Faithful saints. These men and women endured torture and refused deliverance if it meant compromise. They chose a stoning pit or a chopping block before they would deny Jesus. And if they survived, they joyfully embraced poverty, deprivation, and persecution. They feared God and they feared sinning more than they feared man—all so that they might receive something better. And when we worship, we join them before the throne of God, who remains “a consuming fire” (v. 29).

We come to Jesus. He is there, our mediator, whose sprinkled blood cleanses us from sin. His blood “speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (v. 24). Abel’s blood cried out for judgment, but Jesus’s blood cries out for mercy.

Sunday Morning

So back to your home church this upcoming Sunday. When you enter and the music begins, what are you more aware of? Is it the song set? the musicians? the mix? Does the worship band wow you? Does the routine bore you?

Or do you perceive something beyond all this?

Your church is one authentic manifestation of the entire people of God that right now is worshiping before the throne of God. That is the reality of new covenant worship. And when we begin to wrap our minds around that, there springs to mind a thousand reasons to rejoice, to praise, and to sing; and to renounce flippancy, self-display, selfishness, superficiality, sloppiness, and thoughtlessness.

Before the God who is a consuming fire, we don’t shuffle in casually. We don’t demand our artistic preferences. We don’t merely gather with our friends. We don’t merely sing together. As the people of God, we enter into the very presence of God. Encountering God in this way is the very nature of the church. By definition, to be the church is to gather in God’s presence and to worship God together. And when we begin singing, we join the glorious worship that takes place unceasingly before the throne of God.

This is true regardless of how we feel, who leads worship, what songs we sing, or how we think worship went. There is something incredible happening on Sunday morning!

Be the church and go to church. Something eternal is going on in there.

Don’t miss it.

Friends how can we ever think of worship the same again?

Don’t Go to Church?

I came across the following piece yesterday and it was so good that I have to pass it along to you. It speaks to the reality of what we are about as the people of God when we gather for worship each Lord's Day.

The article is by Jeff Purswell, dean of the Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors College. I'll be presenting it in two parts. The first is exegetical from Hebrews 12; the second more applicaation and wonder. Enjoy!

The other day I saw a sign that captured my attention—and deeply concerned me. It said—

“Don’t go to church. Be the church.”

Now, despite the element of truth (God’s people are the church), there are all kinds of things wrong with this statement. But behind the words is obviously someone’s disappointment (and possibly disillusionment) with organized Christianity. And although I’d guess that many Christians would reject this false choice, their attitude to Sunday gatherings of the church may reveal a similar apathy.

To fight such apathy, we all need a biblical perspective on what is taking place on Sunday—a perspective that can transform our attitude toward “going to church.” And it’s this perspective that the writer of Hebrews gives us when he describes the ongoing worship service we join when we gather to worship each Sunday.

Mount Sinai and Mount Zion

In Hebrews [12] the writer presents a striking contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, between the experience of the people of God under the old covenant and their experience under the new covenant.

In verses 18–21 the writer recounts the gathering at Mount Sinai (as recorded in Exodus 19). After their deliverance from Egypt, God gathered his people and made a covenant with them. He constituted them as a nation, his very own people.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

Now look at the gathering at Mount Zion described in verses 22–24:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

What a contrast.

At Mount Sinai everything served to emphasize the chasm between God and these people. At Mount Zion everything encourages us to come boldly into God’s presence. There, at Mount Sinai, the scene itself is frightening—fire, darkness, gloom. Here, at Mount Zion, is a gleaming city, the New Jerusalem, the place where God dwells with his covenant people.

At Mount Sinai the sounds are frightening—whirlwind, trumpet blast, unutterable words. At Mount Zion is the sound of exuberant and celebratory praise.

At Mount Sinai was a solemn gathering filled with fear. Here at Mount Zion is a joyful assembly of those whose names are forever written in the Lamb’s book of life.

There at Mount Sinai was a picture of the unapproachability of God’s holy presence. But here at Mount Zion is a picture of full access into the presence of God through the mediator Jesus Christ.

Now think about your church. Think about the people with whom you serve, live, and worship. Have you fully grasped just what your local church is and what it’s doing on a Sunday morning? Your local church is one authentic, visible manifestation of the entire people of God for all time.

It is a part of the heavenly throng that even now is worshiping before the throne of God. And we get to be part of that!

What do you think?

Sermon Application

You know, before Sunday morning's message by Pastor Tim, I never connected Philippians 4:8 with the preceding verses of that chapter where Paul urges certain believers toward unity and peace. Phil. 4:8 has always been a kind of "stand alone" text for me: "...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just... think on these things." But Tim was clearly suggesting 4:8 was a "how to" text intended by Paul to instruct us how to keep unity, or if necessary, how to repair unity between believers.

Tim concluded his sermon by asking the Euodias among us to think of our Syntyche-- someone with whom we've had difficulty being at peace with; someone with whom we have disagreed; someone we might be nurturing hard feelings toward, or an unloving and unforgiving spirit.

Tim urged us to consider that person in the light of Philippians 4:8. What is there in that person that is honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise? He then instructed us to go to that person at our earliest opportunity, and humbly praise them for their many good qualities. Tim said we'd be amazed at what God would do!

I thought of my dad at the end of Tim's sermon. It isn't that we've been enemies, not at all. But I have not been the warm and loving son to an aging father. Sure, my dad missed some things that might have made for a better situation, but then what father has done it perfectly? He lost his own father when he was 10 years old. Surely I can extend grace and forgiveness for that reason alone!

It's funny, we had decided to visit my parents that day before we even arrived at church. When Tim gave the closing challenge, I thought of my dad-- there is surely room for improvement in our relationship.

A month ago, my parents were involved in serious traffic accident in Whiting. I received a late night call from Community Medical Center and arrived at the hospital to find my mom badly bruised, and my dad shaken, and tearful. If not for the air bags, we might have lost our parents. And if the Lord taken them that night, I would have had certain regrets. But God is giving me more time...

And so, today I invited my dad into the back room, telling him I wanted to talk with him for a few moments. I told him that he was a good man. I thanked him for the way he faithfully brought home his paycheck, carefully providing for his family with a limited income. I told him how much I appreciated his love for mom, his fidelity to her; and I thanked him for memories of a safe, secure, and carefree childhood.

My dad, of course, was blessed.

Thank you Tim. Life is too short not to be at peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially with those in our own household!

Have You Been Born Again?

My friend Jonathan Edwards taught that true conversion to Christ is difficult and rare, simply following the Bible and Jesus who said "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matt. 7:13-14). In a recent book by John Piper called Finally Alive the subject of genuine conversion through regeneration or the new birth is addressed head on. It is truly one of the most important books he has written to date. One of the reasons why this book was written was to address, as Piper puts it,

The claim that born again Christians have lifestyles of worldliness and sin that are indistinguishable from the unregenerate. I don’t think so. 1 John 5:4: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.” But my conviction is not rosy news for the church. It implies that there are millions of church attenders who are not born again.

Drawing from the letter of 1st John, Piper has helpfully drawn out 11 necessary evidences that to a greater or lesser extent must be present, must exist in the person who has been genuinely given life by the Spirit of God. For all those who have been genuinely born again this will serve as means of assurance and of exultation in God for what He has sovereignly and graciously brought about in our lives. Moreover, since the Bible tells us all to "Examine ourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves." (2 Cor. 13:5), and to "be all the more diligent to make your calling election sure" (2 Pet. 1:10), and since self-deception is a real and present danger, and since the popular view of the new birth has so desecrated its true meaning, we would all do well to reflect deeply on these things.

John gives at least eleven evidences that a person is born again. We could probably boil them all down to faith and love. But for now we’ll let them stand the way he says them. Not every verse below uses new-birth language. But it will be plain, if you think about it for a moment, that even where the language is not present, the reality is. Here they are:

1. Those who are born of God keep his commandments.
1 John 2:3–4: “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
1 John 3:24: “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him.”

2. Those who are born of God walk as Christ walked.
1 John 2:5–6: “By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

3. Those who are born of God don’t hate others but love them.
1 John 2:9: “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.”
1 John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
1 John 4:7–8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:20: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.”

4. Those who are born of God don’t love the world.
1 John 2:15: “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

5. Those who are born of God confess the Son and receive (have) him.
1 John 2:23: “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
1 John 4:15: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
1 John 5:12: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

6. Those who are born of God practice righteousness.
1 John 2:29: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

7. Those who are born of God don’t make a practice of sinning.
1 John 3:6: “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
1 John 3:9–10: “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
1 John 5:18: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

8. Those who are born of God possess the Spirit of God.
1 John 3:24: “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”
1 John 4:13: “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”


9. Those who are born of God listen submissively to the apostolic Word.
1 John 4:6: “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

10. Those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Christ.
1 John 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”

11. Those who are born of God overcome the world.
1 John 5:4: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

Into the highways and By-ways

In my personal Bible reading this morning the Lord spoke to me through Matthew 23:37, 38 and Matthew 21:31 and Matthew 22:9 and Luke 14:21-23.

God told me of His heart for sinners of all shapes and sizes and social strata and situations, and He said that I should have the same heart. I heard His voice ask: "Tim do you care about the lost and derelict and wayward and forsaken and outcast and socially misfitted and rejected the way I do?"

I asked him to give me His heart. I said, "Lord help me to love all those that my very proud self-righteous heart might easily disdain and overlook. I don't want to turn away from the people others scorn or despise. I want to see and love the very ones you see and love."

And He said to me, "I will give you such a heart. But Tim, you need to open your eyes and your heart to make room for them today. Your eyes will see them today, but will your eyes see them? Go look for them, and find them. And when you do, lead them home to Me, and I'll be waiting for them with open arms."

"Thank you Lord. By your grace I will seek and find at least one lost sheep to bring home to You today. Thank You for giving me a bit more of Your tender heart. I love You for loving this lost sheep and for bringing me home. Amen."

The Discipline of God and What Our Sins Deserve

Below is an email that awaited me in my box when I returned to my office today. Along with it is a brief response. What do you all think?

Hey Pastor Tim,

I have some scripture that I'm a little confused on, and I'm not sure if I will be able to express my confusion correctly but here it goes; Act 5:1-11 tells the story of a married couple who die because they witheld the truth (from God) on the amount of money they received when selling their property. They kept some for themselves while giving the rest to the apostles. Now I understand the deception and greed they had. What I don't understand is why they had to die. This type of scripture seems to be very common in the Old Testament, when man tests God they lose, and sometimes in very disturbing ways. What makes this disturbing to me is that this happened in the New Testament, after Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. Could they not have repented and asked for forgiveness? To me, Peter comes off as arrogant or that he himself killed the wife after telling her to look at the feet of the men who just carried her dead husband out. I don't know I might be totally missing the message on this one. Could you help to clarify this for me.

Thanks,
______

My response:

Hey _____________,
To give a short answer to your good question let me say this:

1. First, Peter was simply relaying God's perspective on this situation; he wasn't killing them or being arrogant. He was telling them what God thought about their sin, and simply carrying out God's sentence against them for it.

2. The truth is that what happens here reveals how God views all sin. Remember that all the way back to Genesis 2 we're told that if we sin any sin, death is the natural and divinely ordained judgment for it. All sin deserves death (Romans 6:23; James 1:14, 15) because no matter how small it seems or trivial it might appear, it is an offence against a holy God.

3. Since God is unchangingly holy and just, God's view of sin is no different in the New Testament than in the Old. In fact some of the most frightening descriptions of God's attitudes toward all sin (including lying, see Rev. 21:8; 22:14, 15) are found in the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament. Few seem to realize that no one in the Bible spoke more about hell the consequences of sin more scarily than did Jesus!

4. In the Bible we have instances like these in both Testaments to remind us of just how bad sin is, and of what all sin deserves. For example in 1 Corinthians 11:28-30 we see that God actually put some to death because they partook of the Lord's Supper without careful preparation of heart! And there’s no reason to think (as far as I know) that He doesn’t still do this today.

You are right in saying that "when man tests God, he loses, and some times in very disturbing ways." I think that is exactly the point of these occasions in Scripture: God is reminding us of what our every sin deserves and of what He could justly do to us every time we test Him by doing things we know to be wrong.

The real mystery here is why people aren't dying for these types of things more often, since God could kill us fairly for them. The fact that these things are rare speaks of the amazing patience of God toward us.

5. Regarding the question of God's forgiveness, I'd say that it may well be that Ananias and Sapphira were forgiven of their sins (if in fact they were true believers which I think they were) but still had to face certain earthly consequences for those sins.

Forgiveness does not erase certain consequences on earth. It erases the eternal consequence of hell but not all earthly consequences in this life. (Think of the murderer who later comes to faith in Christ. He is forgiven of his sin but he still has to be punished on earth for it.

There's a lot more to your questions bro, than what can be unfolded in a short email reply. For this reason I'm going to post your letter and my reply (without your name of course) on my blog, so others can speak into the question and a conversation can begin. I’d encourage you to follow up there!

Thanks so much for your very thoughtful and humble questions brother. It speaks well of God's grace at work in you that you are thinking carefully about the reading of the Word of God!

Yours in Him,
Tim

How to Ascertain the Will of God

Here is some very practical help from a great man of faith, and prayer warrior, George Mueller. He answers the question: How can I discover the will of God? I hope you find it helpful. Here are the 6 steps:

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.

2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.

3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Spirit guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.

4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.

5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.

6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving the most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

Jesus, Our Wrath Absorber

While keeping before our mind and talking about the subject of the final judgment to come is very important (and I suspect we consider it far less frequently than we should), it is not the most important thing. That which is most important, that which is of first importance is Christ and His saving work on behalf of those who deserve only the wrath of God (1 Cor. 15:3-4). As important as it may be to think about Hell, after thinking about Hell I find my heart needing to think now about Christ--thinking about Christ as the One who fully absorbed the wrath of God as a substitute for all His elect so that they will never experience it themselves (1 Thess. 1:10). This central aspect of the saving work of Christ is found in the word propitiation. The Savior has made propitiation for His people; the Savior has made propitiation even for the likes of me!

Reflect on the following thoughts expressed by J.I. Packer, as he writes about the heart of the gospel that is to be found in this glorious, wonderful truth of propitiation:

What we have said so far may be summed up as follows. The gospel tells us that our Creator has become our Redeemer. It announces that the Son of God has become man "for us men and for our salvation" and has died on the cross to save us from eternal judgment. The basic description of the saving death of Christ in the Bible is a propitiation, that is, as that which quenched God's wrath against us by obliterating our sins from his sight. God's wrath is his righteousness reacting against unrighteousness; it shows itself in retributive justice. But Jesus Christ has shielded us from the nightmare prospect of retributive justice by becoming our representative substitute, in obedience to his Father's will, and receiving the wages of our sin in our place.

By this means justice has been done, for the sins of all that will ever be pardoned were judged and punished in the person of God the Son, and it is on this basis that pardon is now offered to us offenders. Redeeming love and retributive justice joined hands, so to speak, at Calvary, for there God showed himself to be "just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus...."

In heaven, where these things are better understood, angels and men unite to praise "the Lamb, who was slain" (Rev. 5:12; see 7:9-12). Here on earth those who by grace have been made spiritual realists do the same.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!.....

* * *

He left His Father's throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love
And bled for Adam's helpless race.
Amazing love! How can it be?
For O, my God, it found out me!....

* * *

If Thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured
The whole of wrath divine,
Payment God cannot twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine.

Turn then, my soul, unto thy rest;
The merits of thy great High Priest
Have bought thy liberty.
Trust in His efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee!

These are the songs of the heirs of heaven, those who have seen "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face [that is, the person, office, and achievement] of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). The joyful news of redeeming love and propitiating mercy, which is the heart of the gospel, spurs them to never-ending praise. Are you among their number? (Knowing God, by J.I. Packer, pgs. 189, 198-199)

Is Not Life More than Food?

In my devotions the other day I came across Jesus' question in Matthew 6:25--"Is not life more than food?"

Do you ever have moments when the light suddenly goes on and you realize that when God led you into faith you were entering a whole new realm; you were passing a threshold into an entire different world and life view that simply defies every cultural and intuitive norm? That's what happened to me in reading our Lord's words.

It hit me as I read His words that the intuitive and cultural answer to our Lord's question is the exact opposite of the answer His rhetorical question expects. His expected answer is: "Of course life is more than food!" The world's answer would be: "Are you nuts?"

Intuition and culture would say: "Life is food and clothes, and satisfying our natural appetites for comfort, safety, sustenance, and survival." Jesus says in effect: "No; all those things miss the point. Life is about something more, something different, something counter-intuitive and counter-cultural."

Life is about the soul; the soul in relationship with the God who made it. "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" Jesus asks in another place. Jesus is a "meaning of life revolutionary." He turns conventional and instinctive "wisdom" on its ear, and sets the soul in an entirely new direction.

Friends, what is your life about? When you got up this morning, in what direction did the compass needle of your soul point instinctively? To food? To exercise? To work? To "looking good"? To concerns and cares and trials and disappointments and plans for fun or recreation or pleasure that you've made for today?

Or to God?

When you have a moment to think, where does your heart turn: inward or outward...or Upward? And if you realize that you haven't had many moments to think, do you determine to create more of them so you can answer the Upward call?

In the end there is only one thing that matters: the state and focus and eternal destiny of your never dying soul in relationship with the God Who created it for His pleasure and your joy. This is what life is all about!

HUMILITY: A Definition

It is common, where I work, for two men to have an "on the job" conflict. It happens almost daily. Many of these men are new believers coming out of various kinds of addiction... but they are eager to learn this new walk of faith in Christ. Old habits surface however, and the flesh dies hard. We find that the work place itself becomes an excellent training ground, and that conflicts invariably lead to growth.

I have discovered that every conflict can be traced back to a man's wounded pride. If the men truly understood humility, the conflicts would go away! And so, some time ago, I posted in a prominent place the following from Andrew Murray:

Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed or irritated or sore, or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where I can go in and out and kneel to my Father in secret and be at rest as in a deep sea of calmness when all around and above is troubled.

Brothers and sisters, wouldn't this be a wonderful way to live!