Yearly Archives: 2011

The Heart of the Gospel: Justification by Faith Alone

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“In a free act of grace, God justifies the ungodly by faith alone apart from works, pardoning their sins, and reckoning them as righteous and acceptable in His presence. Faith is the sole instrument by which we, as sinners, are united to Christ, whose perfect righteousness and satisfaction for sins is alone the ground of our acceptance with God. This acceptance happens fully and permanently at the first instant of justification. The righteousness by which we come into right standing with God is not anything worked in us by God, neither imparted to us at baptism nor over time, but rather is accomplished for us, outside ourselves, and is imputed to us.” Bethlehem Baptist Church, Statement of Faith

This message below (broken up into 5 parts) by Dr. R. C. Sproul is something I wish every Christian could hear. Then I would wish that they heard it again. Even if we think we know this subject inside out, it would still do our souls good to hear this doctrine taught again. Yet in listening to this lecture by Dr. Sproul, I believe we all may well learn a thing or two.

As R.C. says, the doctrine of justification by faith alone is not hard to comprehend, but to get it into our bloodstream requires that it be heard repeatedly. For my own heart’s sake, if I was on my deathbed with only hours to live, and could hear only one sermon before leaving this world, I would want to hear about Sola Fide “justification by faith alone” one more time. It is the very heart of the Christian gospel.

Some Quotes from Martin Luther:

“Justification by faith alone is the article of the standing or falling Church.”

“This doctrine [justification by faith alone] 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.”

“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.”

Here then is Dr. Sproul: Continue reading →

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Last Stand Against Socialism

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Here’s a video of part of a Question time session in the House of Parliament in London, at the end of the Iron Lady’s eleven year tenure as Britain’s Prime Minister. Though it was undeniable that she had led the country into much economic prosperity, she faced accusations that the gap between rich and poor had increased. Here is her response to the charge.

HT: Thirsty Theologian

Miscellaneous Quotes (18)

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“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.” – Winston Churchill

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” – Winston Churchill

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln

“My people’s greatest need is for my own holiness.” – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

“Without Christ crucified in her pulpits, a Church is little better than a dead carcass, a well without water, a barren fig-tree, a sleeping watchman, a silent trumpet, a lighthouse without fire, a stumbling-block to weak believers, a comfort to unbelievers, a hot-bed for formalism, a joy to the devil, and an offence to God.” – J.C. Ryle

“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s willingness.” – George Mueller

“To touch the image of God is to touch God himself; to kill the image of God is to do violence to God himself.” – Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 16.

“Jesus produced mainly three effects: hatred, terror, adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.” – C.S. Lewis

“As creatures, we have no right or reason to expect that at every point we shall be able to comprehend the wisdom of our Creator.” – J.I. Packer

“Character is what we are when nobody sees us except God.” – John Blanchard

“To Satan no sight is beautiful but deformity itself, and no smell is sweet but filth and nastiness.” – John Calvin

“Did God not sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, we should be ruined at our own request.” – Hannah More

“What have we time and strength for, but to lay out both for God? What is a candle made for, but to burn?” – Richard Baxter

“The gospel of justification by faith is such a shocker, such an explosion, because it is an absolutely unconditional promise. It is not an “if-then” kind of statement, but “because-therefore” pronouncement: because Jesus died and rose, your sins are forgiven and you are righteous in the sight of God! It bursts in upon our little world all shut up and barricaded behind our accustomed conditional thinking as some strange comet from goodness-knows-where, something we can’t really seem to wrap our minds around, the logic of which appears closed to us. How can it be entirely unconditional? Isn’t it terribly dangerous? How can anyone say flat out, “You are righteous for Jesus’ sake? Is there not some price to be paid, some-thing (however minuscule) to be done? After all, there can’t be such thing as a free lunch, can there?”

You see, we really are sealed up in the prison of our conditional thinking. It is terribly difficult for us to get out, and even if someone batters down the door and shatters the bars, chances are we will stay in the prison anyway! We seem always to want to hold out for something somehow, that little bit of something, and we do it with a passion and an anxiety that betrays its true source–the Old Adam that just does not want to lose control.” – Gerhard Forde, Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and Life, pg. 24 Continue reading →

Friday Round Up

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FIVE ITEMS:

(1) Please keep our evangelistic outreach to Kerala, India in your prayers. Update make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through. Too often, he writes, God’s people tinker around with churches, jobs, and relationships, worrying that they haven’t found God’s perfect will for their lives. Or—even worse—they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting…waiting…waiting for clear, direct, unmistakable direction. But God doesn’t need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He’s already revealed his plan for our lives: to love him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like. No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just do something. Paperback; 128 pages.”

For the month of July, Alistair Begg is making this book available for any size gift into his “Truth for Life” ministry. Its full title is “JUST DO SOMETHING – A LIBERATING APPROACH TO FINDING GOD’S WILL or how to make decisions without dreams, vision, fleeces, impressions, open doors, random Bible verses, casting lots, liver shivers, writing in the sky, etc.” Available here.

(3) If you are interested in learning something about the field of textual criticism but don’t know where to start, this will be right up your street. The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) is committed to helping others understand the reliability of our New Testaments, the history of translations, the study of the text, and significant figures who have made this possible. Beginning today, CSNTM is making a series of videos concerning New Testament manuscripts, textual criticism, history of the New Testament, and expert commentary on key verses available as a free download on iTunes U. Featured in the videos are interviews and footage shot around the world of important people involved in the work of the Center. Noted scholar, Dr. Daniel B. Wallace explains important aspects in the study of the text of the New Testament – found here.

Note: these short clip videos are free but only available through iTunes, yet I felt that the material is too good not to mention.

(4) Ligonier has some SUPER deals today in this week’s $5 Friday sale here. Remember, if you decide to purchase material, you can claim a further 10% discount on these and on ALL Ligonier products (as a reader of this blog) by using the coupon code EGRACE10.

(5) Last, but by no means least, please keep my dear friend Jim in your prayers (I mentioned his situation a few days ago on the blog here). The amazing news is that he has been removed from ICU and doctors are trying to ascertain whether or not his body might stand up to a heart transplant (if he qualifies for one). The journey has been amazing though – with his heart stopped for 15 minutes, there was a real fear he would simply be a vegetable mentally (that fear is well and truly dismissed as he is talking now). Just three days ago, his liver readings were so poor that the medical opinion was that he needed a very urgent liver transplant – but the readings are now so close to normal that doctors are not even worried about his liver anymore. We give great thanks to God as this is nothing short of miraculous, but lets keep praying. He is not completely out of the woods yet.

Paul and the Pagan Poets

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From virginiahuguenot.blogspot.com

There are interesting passages in the New Testament that demonstrate the Apostle Paul’s willingness to employ verses from pagan poetry to speak Biblical truth. There may be others; some trace 1 Timothy 5.4 to a line from Terence (195/185–159 BC), Andria IV. Be that as it may, it is clear that Paul was learned in pagan poetry, and found good uses for it, even apart from the idolatrous intentions of the poets themselves. Without adopting the whole false system of belief represented by the sources he quoted, Paul with discernment and for godly purposes, was able, because of his familiarity with pagan poems, to find the good within and bring it to light to God’s glory.

Acts 17.28: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

This verse spoken during his famous speech at Mars Hill in Athens shows the apologetic use that such acquaintance with pagan poetry can provide. The first quote seems derived from a work on Crete by Epimenides in which he rebukes the Cretians for building a tomb to Zeus, whom he believed to be immortal.

Epimenides (6th century BC), Cretica:

They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one—
The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!
But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever,
For in thee we live and move and have our being.

Paul also may have in mind Cleanthes, who said something similar.

Cleanthes (c. 330 BC – c. 230 BC), Hymn to Zeus:

Most glorious of the immortals, invoked by many names, ever all-powerful,
Zeus, the First Cause of Nature, who rules all things with Law,
Hail! It is right for mortals to call upon you,
since from you we have our being, we whose lot it is to be God’s image,
we alone of all mortal creatures that live and move upon the earth.

The latter quote seems to come from a work by Aratus again in praise of Zeus.

Aratus (c. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC), Phaenomena 1-5:

From Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave unnamed;
full of Zeus are all the streets and all the market-places of men;
full is the sea and the havens thereof;
always we all have need of Zeus.
For we are also his offspring;

It is interesting to see how Paul borrowed expressions intended to glorify a false God, which his hearers would have recognized, and applied them to the true God. Eusebius records (Preparation for the Gospel 13.12) how Aristobulus of Paneas, a Jewish philosopher (c. 160 BC) had similarly quoted from the same beginning lines of Aratus, Phaenomena, but to demonstrate that the praise of Zeus was rightly given to God instead. Aristobulus thus: ‘It is clearly shown, I think, that all things are pervaded by the power of God: and this I have properly represented by taking away the name of Zeus which runs through the poems; for it is to God that their thought is sent up, and for that reason I have so expressed it.’ The apologetic purpose of Paul — and Aristobulus — thus finds truth in a pagan poem and employs it for godly ends.

1 Cor. 15.32-33: If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die. Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

The phrase “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die” may be an allusion to both Isa. 22.13 and Eccl. 8.15. However, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Paul may have had in mind the philosophy of Epicurus (341 BC – 270 BC), who put forth a similar view of life.

The phrase “evil communications corrupt good manners” is apparently a direct quote from either Menander or Euripides (John Milton attributes it to Euripides in the preface to his Samson Agonistes). Paul thus bears witness to the maxim of a heathen poet.

Menander (ca. 342–291 BC), Thais: Bad company corrupts good character.

Euripides (c. 480 BC – 406 BC) (fr. 609): Evil communications corrupt good manners.

Titus 1.12-13a: One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true.

The quotation here seems to be from Epimenides, cited already above, or perhaps from Callimachus. Again, Paul shows his extensive knowledge of pagan poetry, and selectively quotes as appropriate to demonstrate a true statement found within an idolatrous poem.

Callimachus (310/305–240 BC), Hymn I. To Zeus: “Cretans are ever liars.”

The Apostle Paul by these examples shows that indeed, as I have noted before, “all truth is God’s truth,” wherever we may find it. The words of Charles Spurgeon on this point are worth heeding.

Charles Spurgeon, Exposition of 1 Corinthians 15:

“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.” Oh! wicked Paul! to quote from a heathen poet! How disgraceful. If I were to repeat a verse, and it looked as if Shakespere or any profane author ever wrote such a thing, how criminal! say you. But I like good things wherever I find them. I have often quoted from the devil, and I dare say I shall often quote from his people. Paul quoted this from Meander, and another heathen poet, who wrote far worse things than have been written by modern poets, and if any of us who may have stored our minds with the contents of books we wish we had never read, and if there be some choice gems in them which may be used for the service of God, by his help we will so use them.

The Shepherd’s love and care for the sheep

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From John’s Gospel, we can make the following scriptural statements:

All that the Father has chosen to be His from eternity, He has given to the Son (John 6:37); and all whom He has given to the Son, the Son knows (John 10:3); and calls (John 10:3-5); and all whom He calls, know Him (John 10:14) and recognize His voice (John 10:4-5) and they come to Him (John 6:37) and follow Him (John 10:4, 27); and the Son lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11); and He gives them eternal life (John 10:28) and keeps them in the Father’s word (John 17:6), so that not even one of them is lost (John 6:39), to glorify the Son forever (John 17:10). This is the indestructible foundation for an infallible salvation that rebounds in the end to the glory of both the Father and the Son.

None of Christ’s sheep finally reject His word. Though He allows some of His sheep to resist the word for a long time, never do they reject it finally. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” (John 6:37). What a promise! And what a privilege we have in sharing the Gospel with people, as we witness the Good Shepherd rounding up His sheep.

Please continue to pray

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Jim, with his 15 year old daughter Alisa

Jim Maestri is a very dear friend of mine. It is actually amazing that he is alive. He is only 43 but has already had six heart attacks, his issues being genetic – Jim’s father died before he (Jim) was even born, from the very same thing.

I was out in Brazil on the recent trip (returning just yesterday) and was informed while I was out there that Jim was going into hospital for the sixth time this year. My heart sank. Yet a few days later, I was told that his heart actually stopped beating for 15 minutes. Though he revived, doctors were very concerned that a vast amount of brain damage had occured. Jim’s survival prospects were around 20%.

Then more issues emerged – his liver was not functioning – his readings were “completely off the charts” in terms of the seriousness of the issue and that for him to survive, doctors said he would need a liver transplant. Yet because Jim was far too unstable, heart wise, even this was not considered a wise course of action.

Of course – I prayed.. and many others did. Much of my time in Brazil was spent trying to get updates on Jim’s condition over the internet. He was constantly on my heart and mind.

Then I was told the doctors were stunned by the liver function returning – that they had NEVER seen such a dramtic turn around.

This was so encouraging, of course.

Late last night I received an update from Jim’s sister, Cathy. Apparantly, she is an agnostic, but wrote the following:

I know this sounds crazy, but this afternoon they took jim off sedatives and off the vent to see if he could breathe on his own for an hour or so. not only did he wake up, within half an hour he was speaking (very weakly), insulting me, correcting me, demanding stuff (mainly pepsi) and trying to make the nurses laugh.

This evening he’s complaining of chest pain and trouble breathing (now that all the drugs are wearing off, he’s probably feeling what must be cracked ribs from CPR and the coughing fits that would appear to have blown out his hernia.) What’s more, he’s afraid to go to sleep for fear he won’t wake up. The nurse just gave him some morphine and a third popsicle, and I promised to stay the night.

He’s still pretty darn ill — i have to assume they’d still categorize him as critical — but today has been absolutely mind-blowing.

Thanks for all your thoughts and concern and prayers and e-mail. We both REALLY appreciate it!

Cathy

Please keep my friend Jim in your prayers. There is nothing too hard for the Lord.

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

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(Especially for Pastors and Teachers) – Watch a discussion on preaching Jesus and the gospel from the Old Testament at The Gospel Coalition’s 2011 national conference at McCormick Place. The panel includes Tim Keller, Crawford Loritts, Don Carson, John Piper, and Bryan Chapell. (approx. 51 minutes)

Panel on Preaching Christ in the OT – Keller, Piper, Loritts, Carson, Chapell – TGC 2011 from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.