Real Preaching!

Those who criticise the role of preaching in our day, questioning its relevance; and those would advocate any kind of man made substitute to replace it – one thing is certain – they have NEVER truly heard REAL preaching. Here is 11 minutes of the real thing, from Paul Washer:

“God never violates the free will of man” – Really?

My friend John Hendryx (the man behind the amazing monergism.com theological website) has deep insight into the Scriptures and is particularly skilled when it comes to answering questions. John is gifted with a tender heart towards the Lord and His people, as well as a very sharp mind. I have had the privilege of serving with him for almost six years as a writer on the reformationtheology.com blog and am often amazed with the precision and care he shows in handling objections. Here’s two such recent cases:

(1) Someone recently declared to me (John Hendryx) that “God’s fulfills his plan without ever coercing our volition” – But is it an axiom that in order for there to be true love, God must never violate our so-called “free will?”

My response: First and foremost, it must be said that such an idea is nowhere to be found in the Bible. But in order to demonstrate that this idea does not even fly in everyday life, I have a simple story for you: Two parents see their disobedient toddlers run out into oncoming traffic. The first parent runs up to the curb to tell their toddler to use their will to get out of the way of traffic, but does NOTHING more because he does not want to interfere with the toddler’s will. The SECOND parent sees the cars coming and runs out into the street at the risk of their life to SCOOP up the child to MAKE CERTAIN their child is safe. WHICH parent loved their child ? We would all view this second parent as having GREAT love for their child and GET THIS, he was not concerned AT ALL about the child’s will because the parent knew better than the child what was good for him . AND How much more does God love his own? God’s love for us is not conditional as you believe. He does not first see how we use OUR WILL to determine whether he loves us, as you seem to believe. He loves us too much to leave us in our own hands. No, God saves us in spite of our rebellious will. The synergist’s idea of love then is flawed since they believe God’s love for us is CONDITIONAL. Rather, “we love God BECAUSE he first loved us.” Jesus does for us what we are unable and unwilling to do for ourselves.

Again, when you used the phrase “fulfilling God’s plan without coercing their volition” — this seems to be a “basic assumption” which is the driving force behind your theology. You guys have talked about this idea for so long that it has become axiomatic for you, even though it is nowhere found in the Bible. Your most precious doctrine, it seems, that drives everything else is, therefore, this false idea which is READ INTO the Scriptures. It is a logical deduction but, I would argue, is wrong. Continue reading

As the King’s Herald

“I stand before you today as the King’s herald with a message of supreme importance. This King I serve is the Creator of all things. He has made you for Himself, violating His laws with reckless abandon. These amount to acts of high treason that defy His right of ownership and His holy character. Being a just and holy King, He must dispense justice to the perpetrators. These acts being as traitorous as they are deserve His wrath in full measure. He has every right to sentence all rebels to eternal punishment while also wiping them off the face of the earth.

Yet, this Great King, moved by love and as a display of vast mercy, has sent His dearly loved Son into the world, to live a righteous life, and at the cross, bear the punishment and guilt of all those who would believe in Him. So to all who would renounce all attempts of self justification and who will take refuge in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, this King announces that He will forgive all your treasonous acts on the basis that His own Son was punished in your place, and instead, He will transfer the righteousness of His Son to your account so that you stand before Him guiltless and righteous in His sight. For He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God.

So to all who take refuge in the Son, you need not face the King’s fierce and holy wrath; only trust in, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrected Savior, now enthroned in the courts of heaven. This is the good news I have been sent to proclaim as His herald.

John Chapter 3, verse 36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

All rebels of the King hear the word of the Lord. Repent of both your treason and all your vain attempts to please Him. Trust in the Son. Trust in His finished work upon the cross. Come to Him now. Make Him your refuge, and the King extends to you full pardon for all your acts of high treason, and a place with Him at His banqueting table where you will enjoy the King’s favor and bounty always. In His presence there is fullness of joy and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Yet this free offer of good news will not last forever. Come to Him for now indeed is the day of salvation. Call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved!”

An Open Letter To Mr. Grace-Loving Antinomian

I read this today and began cheering. Brilliant, simply brilliant!

Tullian Tchividjian is the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (the Church formerly led by Dr. D. James Kennedy), a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham. He writes:

There seems to be a fear out there that the preaching of radical grace produces serial killers. Or, to put it in more theological terms, too much emphasis on the indicatives of the gospel leads to antinomianism (a lawless version of Christianity that believes the directives and commands of God don’t matter). My problem with this fear is that I’ve never actually met anyone who has been truly gripped by God’s amazing grace in the gospel who then doesn’t care about obeying him. As I have said before: antinomianism happens not when we think too much of grace. Just the opposite, actually. Antinomianism happens when we think too little of grace.

Wondering whether this common fear is valid, my dear friend Elyse Fitzpatrick (in C.S. Lewis fashion) writes an open letter to Mr. Grace-Loving Antinomian–a person she’s heard about for years but never met–asking him to please step forward and identify himself.

Enjoy…

Dear Mr. Antinomian,

Forgive me for writing to you in such an open forum but I’ve been trying to meet you for years and we just never seem to connect. While it’s true that I live in a little corner of the States and while it’s true that I am, well, a woman, I did assume that I would meet you at some point in my decades old counseling practice. But alas, neither you nor any of your (must be) thousands of brothers and sisters have ever shown up for my help…So again, please do pardon my writing in such a public manner but, you see, I’ve got a few things to say to you and I think it’s time I got them off my chest.

I wonder if you know how hard you’re making it for those of us who love to brag about the gospel. You say that you love the gospel and grace too, but I wonder how that can be possible since it’s been continuously reported to me that you live like such a slug. I’ve even heard that you are lazy and don’t work at obeying God at all…Rather you sit around munching on cigars and Twinkies, brewing beer and watching porn on your computer. Mr. A, really! Can this be true?

So many of my friends and acquaintances are simply up in arms about the way you act and they tell me it’s because you talk too much about grace. They suggest (and I’m almost tempted to agree) that what you need is more and more rules to live by. In fact, I’m very tempted to tell you that you need to get up off your lazy chair, pour your beer down the drain, turn off your computer and get about the business of the Kingdom.

I admit that I’m absolutely flummoxed, though, which is why I’m writing as I am. You puzzle me. How can you think about all that Christ has done for you, about your Father’s steadfast, immeasurable, extravagantly generous love and still live the way you do? Have you never considered the incarnation, about the Son leaving ineffable light to be consigned first to the darkness of Mary’s womb and then the darkness of this world? Have you never considered how He labored day-after-day in His home, obeying His parents, loving His brothers and sisters so that you could be counted righteous in the sight of His Father? Have you forgotten the bloody disgrace of the cross you deserve? Don’t you know that in the resurrection He demolished sin’s power over you? Aren’t you moved to loving action knowing that He’s now your ascended Lord Who prays for you and daily bears you on His heart? Has your heart of stone never been warmed and transformed by the Spirit? Does this grace really not impel zealous obedience? Hello…Are you there?

Honestly, even though my friends talk about you as though you were just everywhere in every church, always talking about justification but living like the devil, frankly I wonder if you even exist. I suppose you must because everyone is so afraid that talking about grace will produce more of you. So that’s why I’m writing: Will you please come forward? Will you please stand up in front of all of us and tell us that your heart has been captivated so deeply by grace that it makes you want to watch the Playboy channel?

Again, please do forgive me for calling you out like this. I really would like to meet you. I am,

Trusting in Grace Alone,

Elyse

The Altar Call – Is It Biblical?

We are so used to seeing the altar call in a Christian service that we are shocked to learn that it is a fairly recent invention in Church history. Modern church historians trace its origin to the ministry of Charles G. Finney. Though honored by many in our day as a champion of the faith, his beliefs and teachings could only place him in the “heretic” category. He vehemently denied the doctrines of original sin, justification by faith alone and the substitutionary atonement of Christ. If I found such a person, I would endeavor to share the gospel with him, in spite of his apparant love of high morals and for “Christianity.”

We would be shocked further to learn that Evangelists like George Whitefield and Charles Spurgeon, never used the modern day altar call, and yet were mightily used of God to see tens of thousands brought to Christ. The altar call, in historical terms, is a modern day fad.

In ministry overseas some years back, I was told by the pastor that my preaching was a complete failure because I did not end the sermon with an altar call. That experience weighed very heavily upon my soul for some time, as I am sure you can imagine. Continue reading

An Evangelical Leader

Here’s an excerpt from Iain Murray’s recent biography of John MacArthur. In his Introduction Murray seeks to show what makes a man a leader among evangelicals. He offers a five-point answer:

In brief, an evangelical is a person who believes the ‘three rs’: ruin by the Fall, redemption through Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It follows that an ‘evangelical leader’ is a person who stands out in the advancement and defence of those truths. The title does not necessarily imply success judged by numbers and immediate results. on that basis neither Paul nor Tyndale might qualify.

1. An evangelical leader is one who leads and guides the lives of others by the Scripture as the Word of God. he seeks to repudiate every other form of influence and pressure. His great concern is to teach Scripture accurately, and to see lives submitted to its authority.

2. An evangelical leader inspires the affection of followers because they learn Christ through him, and see something of Christ in him. They follow him because he follows Christ. And they love him because he loves them in Christ’s name. ‘The apostle Paul summarized the spirit of the true leader when he wrote, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”’ And what is to be imitated the Scriptures do not leave in doubt: ‘Almost every time Scripture holds up Christ as our example to follow, the stress is on his humility.’

3. An evangelical leader is a man prepared to be unpopular. From the days when Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Are you he that troubles Israel?’, faithfulness to Scripture will not bring the approval of the majority. Dr MacArthur says bluntly, ‘You cannot be faithful and popular, so take your pick.’ A quest for popularity is a very short-term thing. For an evangelical, ‘success isn’t measured in hours, or even centuries. Our focus is fixed on eternity.’ Success ‘is not prosperity, power, prominence, popularity, or any of the other worldly notions of success. Real success is doing the will of God regardless of the consequences.’

4. An evangelical leader is one who is awake to the dangers of the times. Not every Christian has the distinction that was once given to the tribe of Issachar, ‘The men of Issachar had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do’ (1 Chron. 12:32). There are periods in church history when the leaders have seriously mistaken the way in which the cause of Christ is to be carried forward. The signs of the times have been misread. A true evangelical leader is raised up to provide God-given direction.

5. An evangelical leader will not direct attention to himself. He personally owes everything to Jesus Christ. As a sinner he sees the need to live in a spirit of repentance all his days. He knows the contrast between what he is in himself and the message that he preaches: ‘We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us’ (2 Cor. 4:7). ‘God chooses whom he chooses in order that he might receive the glory. He chooses weak instruments so that no one will attribute the power to human instruments rather than to God, who wields those instruments.’

HT: TC

A Time to Laugh

Even in laughter the heart may ache…. Proverbs 14:13

The following was written by Diana Lovegrove at waitingforourblessedhope.blogspot.com – I am sure many can identify:

A friend recently shared on Facebook how Spurgeon thanked God for the gift of laughter:

“Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, the celebrated Brooklyn divine, was visiting the famous London preacher, Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon. After a hard day of work and serious discussion, these two mighty men of God went out into the country together for a holiday. They roamed the fields in high spirits like boys let loose from school, chatting and laughing and free from care. Dr. Cuyler had just told a story at which Mr. Spurgeon laughed uproariously. Then suddenly he turned to Dr. Cuyler and exclaimed, ‘Theodore, let’s kneel down and thank God for laughter!’ And there, on the green carpet of grass, under the trees, two of the world’s greatest men knelt and thanked the dear Lord for the bright and joyous gift of laughter.”

I likewise thank my God for the bright and joyous gift of laughter. It has been my absolute joy to laugh along with my dear friends in recent days. It has been a pure tonic for my soul, and I trust it has for them too.

For we are living in strange times. I have come to the point where I hesitate before turning on the news, almost bracing myself as I wonder what I’m going to discover has happened in the world overnight. Uprisings in the Middle East, western nations on the verge of economic collapse, natural disasters affecting every part of the globe.

I live in a nation which has turned its back on the ways and statutes of the Lord God Almighty, where the idols of the land are sport and celebrity, and I have never felt more like an “alien and stranger in the world” (1 Pe 2:11).

I watch the church turning its back on the Holiness and Awesomeness of God Almighty in favour of embracing God All-matey and a burden grows in my heart that cannot be shifted. Finding like-minded pilgrims seems to be a much harder task these days, and a loneliness grows in my spirit.

I read of the increasing persecution of the church worldwide, I see pictures of the faces of families living in fear of their lives for claiming the Name of Christ in a land where Islam is the dominant religion, and I am haunted by those faces and I suffer with them.

Closer to home, I daily battle against indwelling sin, even whilst knowing that in Christ I have died to sin. I witness loved ones struggling to cope with the everyday routines of life, and I long for that day when there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain.

I have often wondered whether our Lord, who was a “man of sorrows” (Isa 53:3), laughed with his friends. Matthew Henry notes that “We never read that He laughed, but often that He wept”. RC Sproul takes this view: “In the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament—for example, in Ecclesiastes—we’re told that certain things are appropriate at certain times. There’s a time to plant, a time to reap, a time to build, a time to tear down; there’s a time to dance, a time to sing, a time to laugh, a time to cry. Since God has, in his seasons, appointed appropriate times for laughter, and Jesus always did what was appropriate, it would seem to me that when it was time to laugh, he laughed.”

I thank my God that in His great mercy and love He has provided me with a group of friends whom I love dearly, for we share a tie that can never be broken – the precious blood of Christ; who share the same sorrows; and yet with whom I can share the occasional moment of laughter, sometimes even with tears rolling down my cheeks whilst I do so.

But as for the burden and the ache in my heart, that will remain until He returns or calls me home.

The Intercession and Sacrifice of Christ

What was God’s intention from all eternity in the atonement? What did He intend for Christ to accomplish by His death on the cross?

Orthodox Christians are not universalists (universalism is the ancient heresy that teaches that all people will eventually be redeemed). Instead, we are particularists, believing that only some (and not all) will be saved. The Bible makes it clear that some people will in fact be lost, ultimately lost, in a place of weeping, darkness and gnashing of teeth. Some people will in fact spend eternity in hell.

Knowing this, all of us as Christians limit the atonement in some sense because we agree that not everyone will be saved by the work of Christ. Amongst particularists then there are two main views; the first being what is called “universal redemption” (the view that Christ died to try to save everybody in human history, past, present and future, though His work by itself did not actually accomplish this unless man does something to cooperate).

JESUS THE PERFECT AND POWERFUL SAVIOR

The second and I believe biblical view is called “particular redemption” (Christ actually propitiated the Father’s wrath for a specific group of people – securing redemption for them and providing even the faith that will call upon Him to save them – Jesus being the author and perfector of our faith. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Eph 5:25).

In Matthew 1:21 we have the record of Joseph being told, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The question then is, well did Jesus in fact do this? Did He accomplish this? I believe He did. In His work of redemption, Jesus saved God’s people from their sins.

Rev 5:9 says of Christ, “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”

Here’s a rather lengthy quote from C. H. Spurgeon on particular redemption:

“The doctrine of Redemption is one of the most important doctrines of the system of faith. A mistake on this point will inevitably lead to a mistake through the entire system of our belief.

Now, you are aware that there are different theories of Redemption. All Christians hold that Christ died to redeem, but all Christians do not teach the same redemption. We differ as to the nature of atonement, and as to the design of redemption. For instance, the Arminian holds that Christ, when he died, did not die with an intent to save any particular person; and they teach that Christ’s death does not in itself secure, beyond doubt, the salvation of any one man living. They believe that Christ died to make the salvation of all men possible, or that by the doing of something else, any man who pleases may attain unto eternal life; consequently, they are obliged to hold that if man’s will would not give way and voluntarily surrender to grace, then Christ’s atonement would be unavailing. They hold that there was no particularity and speciality in the death of Christ. Christ died, according to them, as much for Judas in hell as for Peter who mounted to heaven. They believe that for those who are consigned to eternal fire, there was as true and real a redemption made as for those who now stand before the throne of the Most High.

Now, we believe no such thing. We hold that Christ, when he died, had an object in view, and that object will most assuredly, and beyond a doubt, be accomplished. We measure the design of Christ’s death by the effect of it. If any one asks us, “What did Christ design to do by his death?” we answer that question by asking him another — “What has Christ done, or what will Christ do by his death?” For we declare that the measure of the effect of Christ’s love, is the measure of the design of it. We cannot so belie our reason as to think that the intention of Almighty God could be frustrated, or that the design of so great a thing as the atonement, can by any way whatever, be missed of. We hold — we are not afraid to say what we believe — that Christ came into this world with the intention of saving “a multitude which no man can number;” and we believe that as the result of this, every person for whom he died must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, be cleansed from sin, and stand, washed in blood, before the Father’s throne. We do not believe that Christ made any effectual atonement for those who are for ever damned, we dare not think that the blood of Christ was ever shed with the intention of saving those whom God foreknew never could be saved, and some of whom were even in hell when Christ, according to some men’s account, died to save them.” C. H. Spurgeon – Particular Redemption, 2/28/1858: Spurgeon’s Sermons: Volume 4

INTERCESSION AND SACRIFICE INTIMATELY RELATED

Just as the High Priest made sacrifice and interceded for Israel, Jesus as the Great High Priest provided a sacrifice that actually atoned for sin (rather than just makes people saveable) and His intercession takes place for the same exact group. Continue reading

The Heart is an Idol Factory

?”If we are not content to wait on God for our desires, then our heart’s desire is not set on the glory of God. Instead, our desire has become an idol.” – Martha Peace, An Excellent Wife?

“From this we may gather that man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” – John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

“. . . every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” – John Calvin, Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles