Did you hear the good news?

Imagine the scenario. You have been out most of the day and come home, and using the hand held remote, turn on the television. Its 5:59 p.m. and you turn to a well known national TV channel because you want to catch up on the news of the day.

After viewing a commercial for a skin care product, its time for the news program to air. After the short burst of introductory music, the broadcast announcer says, “Now, here with today’s news is Brian Green…”

Though the TV studio background is a very familiar setting, an unfamiliar face greets you with a smile saying, “Hello, my name is Brian Green, and today, I feel good! Yes, I feel REALLY GOOD! Life is just great right now.”

He continues, “I’ve managed to turn a few things around financially, I’ve lost 12 lbs in weight over the last few weeks and my relationships are so much healthier too. This new job as a news broadcaster, I have to say, is the best career move I’ve ever made. I wish you could have seen me a few weeks ago. My life did not have the same sense of purpose as it does today. I was fairly miserable most of the time. But I tell you, now, there’s definite, noticable spring in my step and I just want you to know, ‘Today is a great day!’ Over to you, Andrea Mckenzie with today’s weather…”

Andrea says, “Yes, thanks Brian, I want to tell folk that the weather today really makes me feel so happy inside. I used to live a long way from here and when I woke up this morning and opened the window curtains I saw the sun shining and I just knew I had made the right decision to move here. It brings such a smile to my face! I always felt there was a piece missing in the jigsaw that is my life and the weather here fills a void in my heart. On days like today, I have absolutely no regrets about moving here…”

By now, I hope you are feeling the utter sense of the ridiculous in the above scenario. Unless you have tuned in to a comedy channel by mistake, you are never likely to witness such a thing on your television screen. But let us ask ourselves why?

The reason is rather obvious isn’t it? It is because the news is objective not subjective. News is the recounting of events outside of ourselves. When we watch the news we hear such things as “today at the JFK airport in New York, a Boeing 747 had to make an emergency landing after one of its engines failed in mid flight…a spokesperson for Boeing said that no one was in immediate danger and no injuries were reported. The plane landed as a precaution…” and so it goes on.

The word Gospel comes from the Greek word euangellion and means Good announcement or good news.

The good news of the Gospel has two aspects to it. Firstly, it concerns what the Lord Jesus Christ achieved by His life, death, burial and resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15: 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…

The second vital component of the good news concerns how Christ’s atoning work of redemption is actually appropriated by sinners. This is the good news of grace.

Galatians 1: 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Based on the sure foundation of Scripture alone, we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone.

When a large stone is thrown into a lake it produces ripples in the water that reach to the edge of the lake, so the Gospel, when believed, affects people’s lives in all sorts of ways. If no ripples emerge, we can be sure that no stone hit the water. However, we must never confuse the message of the Gospel (the large stone) with the affects of the gospel (the ripples in the water).

As important and as interesting as it may be to hear news of a changed life, or of how a God shaped void in the human heart has been filled; of finding meaning and purpose to life – these things, as wonderful as they may be, are not the Gospel. They are wonderful affects of the Gospel but not the Gospel itself.

The Good News is the message of Christ and Him crucified, His Person and work – what He achieved in His life, death and resurrection for us sinners. It is an announcement of something accomplished outside of us, in real time, in human history. It reveals the fact that as our God appointed Substitute, He absorbed the wrath of God in our place, so that all who believe in Him, will in no way perish, but instead have everlasting life.

The Gospel is News. When was the last time you shared it?

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” – Romans 1:16

Assumption – the Hallmark of Tradition

2 Peter 3:1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 is the most frequently cited verse, bar none, to seek to dismiss the biblical doctrine of election (though very rarely quoted in context) – its meaning, just assumed. However, assumption is the very hallmark of tradition.

Some time back I wrote a brief article on this verse. The resultant comments and interaction may be helpful to others with the same questions – found here.

Miscellaneous Quotes (48)

“We know from Genesis 1:1 that there was no creation before ‘the beginning.’ Creation is not coeternal with God. Before the beginning of the created world, God dwelled alone. The universe was made by him, is providentially sustained by him, and is utterly dependent on him. However, God is not in any way dependent on this created universe, nor is his being to be confused with created reality (Acts 17:24–25), nor can we act on him or coerce from him what we want by our actions. He is completely independent of his creation. That is the biblical starting point.” – David F. Wells

“One who cannot state the doctrine of justification by faith clearly should never stand in a pulpit.” – Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Marriage manifests who we really are: If we are loving, generous, and Christlike, marriage gives us an opportunity to be more so. If we are selfish and prideful, marriage also gives us the opportunity to practice our sin on someone in the same household.” – Jeff Hoots

“A Christian cannot have a boring testimony. Being raised from the dead is not boring.” – Unknown

“It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.” – George Whitefield

“We need to make plain that total depravity is not just badness, but blindness to beauty and deadness to joy; and unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed; and that limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for us by the blood of the covenant; and irresistible grace is the commitment and power of God’s love to make sure we don’t hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the sovereign power of superior delights; and that the perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God to keep us, through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of pleasures at God’s right hand forever.” – John Piper, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, p. 73.

“Reading through the Bible from beginning to end is like watching a painter transform a blank canvas into a masterpiece.” – T.D. Alexander

“I can say from experience that 95% of knowing the will of God consists in being prepared to do it before you know what it is.” – Donald Gray Barnhouse

“My car won’t move without two things: gas and an ever-present library of instructional CDs. We average 12,000 miles a year; that’s 300 hours! Brian Tracy taught me early to turn my car into a mobile classroom. Listen to instructional CDs as you drive & each year is the equivalent of two semesters of an advanced degree. Combined with a reading routine, you can separate yourself from the herd of average, CD by CD, book by book!” – Darren Hardy

A Puritan once said, “The same sun that melts wax, hardens clay”. When the Gospel is preached, God always, without fail, accomplishes His purpose.

“A golden coffin will be a poor compensation for a damned soul.” – C.H. Spurgeon

“There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.” – J.C. Ryle

“The longer I live, the more faith I have in providence, and the less faith in my interpretation of providence.” – Jeremiah Day

“It is all too plainly apparent men are willing to forgo the old for the sake of the new. But commonly it is found in theology that that which is true is not new, and that which is new is NOT true.” – C.H. Spurgeon

“This eclipse [of the teaching of the Reformation, particularly justification by faith alone in Christ alone] is tragic not because it represents a break with a ‘golden age’ that we recall with sentimental nostalgia. Rather, it concerns us because it indicates a break with the authority, sufficiency, and in many respects even the content of Scripture – gains that were made by the Reformation at enormous cost. Like the prodigal son, the evangelical movement has preferred the excitement of the culture to the privileged life of an heir in the Father.s house. It is not difficult to discern that our churches by and large are increasingly less shaped by Scripture than by the managerial, pragmatic, marketing, entertainment, therapeutic, and technological values of our day.. Quoted in ‘Whatever Happened to the Reformation?’ edited by Johnson and White.” – Dr. Michael Horton

“It is not until the sunlight floods a room that the grime and dust are fully revealed. So, it is only as we really come into the presence of Him who is the light, that we are made aware of the filth and wickedness which indwell us, and which defile every part of our being.” – A. W. Pink

“The Christian gospel offers salvation freely in Jesus Christ. It is a work of God from beginning to end. God is the active giver: He chooses, He draws, He saves, and He keeps. It is all His doing. Anything less is not the gospel.” – Unknown

“When we sin we can receive both the accusation of Satan and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. What is the difference? The goal of Satan’s accusation is to harm us. He wants to drive us away from God. The goal of the Spirit’s conviction is to turn us from sin. He wants our awareness of sin to bring us close to God. Satan would have us perish in our guilt. The Spirit seeks to save us from our guilt. They both may call attention to the same sin. But their goals are radically different.” – R.C. Sproul, Pleasing God (p. 106):

“How then can where we are acutely conscious of His love?The answer is through the gospel… As we continually reflect upon that gospel, the Holy Spirit floods our hearts with a sense of God’s love to us in Christ. And that sense of His love motivates us in a compelling way to live for Him.” – Jerry Bridges

The first great and primary business

“The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about is… how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished… the most important thing is to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.”

– George Mueller

A Sample Chapter and more…

In Dr. R. C. Sproul’s latest book “Are We Together? A Protestant Analyzes Roman Catholicism” he outlines six core doctrines in which Roman Catholicism is at odds with the clear teaching of the Bible; namely her view of Scripture, the Church, the sacraments, the Papacy and the role of Mary. He also describes how Protestants should relate to Roman Catholics without minimizing the vital differences. I encourage you to read the foreword (by Dr. Michael Horton) as well as the introduction and sample chapter on justification:

The book is a clarion call to evangelicals to stand firm for the gospel, the precious good news of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone. You can purchase it at the Ligonier store .

Right Side Up

Dr. D. James Kennedy, was an American pastor, evangelist, and Christian broadcaster. He founded the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was senior pastor from 1960 until his death in 2007. Kennedy also founded Evangelism Explosion International, Coral Ridge Ministries, the Westminster Academy in Ft. Lauderdale, the Knox Theological Seminary, and the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ.

Some years back, he wrote the following article “Turning the World Right Side Up” in Tabletalk magazine:

The apostles came into one of the bastions of paganism in the ancient world, and the cry went up that “these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also …” (Acts 17:6b). Now that is an amazing compliment, though it wasn’t intended to be one, that in such a brief period of time the apostles already were seen as those who had transformed the world. Now what those pagans didn’t know is that long since — since the fall of man — the world has been upside down, and what the apostles were doing was turning it right side up. But from the pagan perspective, as always, up is down and down is up; right is wrong and wrong is right.

This makes clarity of thought in doctrinal matters all the more crucial. We are not to allow our theology to be swayed by the upside-down mentality of the world. Right doctrine, indeed, Reformed doctrine, serves as the impetus for biblical evangelism. Many would suppose the opposite, as if the sovereignty of God in election is somehow opposed to the preaching of the Gospel. Our evangelism must be informed by sound, orthodox theology. What, then, does such theology look like?

“Orthodoxy” can be paraphrased as “straight thinking.” It means the truth of the Christian faith — the historic truth. Now I must confess that I had a number of professors in seminary that did not believe in that, and they did their best to twist the minds of the students to get them also to disbelieve it. But despite the attempts of such men, we are to learn the historic orthodoxy of the faith. Some of those are called the fundamentals of the faith: the verbal plenary full inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures; the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ; the divine Trinity; the atonement of Christ; the resurrection of the body of Christ; His second coming. Those, of course, and many other great truths we are to learn, like the great truths of the Reformation — the five solas and the doctrines of grace.

Readers of Tabletalk are no doubt familiar with these, but do not be surprised when even ministers do not know what the doctrines of grace are. Not knowing what they are is tragic, indeed.

The doctrines of grace are sometimes called “the five points of Calvinism,” and these five points are called the doctrines of grace for this reason: to whatever extent you deviate from one of them, you deviate from grace. But what help are these five points to the evangelist? Why should salvation be by grace alone? In order that it may be of God. Salvation is of God, from alpha to omega, from infinity past to infinity future, beginning and end — it is all of God and for His glory.

This is what the doctrine of total depravity, for example, protects. It means not that man is as bad as he could be, but that every aspect of man’s being has been corrupted and tainted with sin. His mind, his understanding, his heart and affections, his will and volition are all corrupted. From the top of his head to the soles of his feet he is one huge sore and corrupt. Therefore, he is incapable of doing anything good in the sight of God, or even understanding. Not only does he have total sin, he also has total inability to understand or deal with spiritual things: “But the natural man (the unsaved man) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14 KJV). Jesus taught us that the unregenerate man, the natural man, as he is called before conversion, has eyes and sees not spiritual things; he has ears and hears not; his mind is darkened and veiled; his heart is a stone and is at enmity with God.

Therefore, since the will always does what the mind and the heart tell it to do, it will always reject Christ, because basically the unsaved man hates God. He is hostile to God. He will never admit that, but that is the truth. Total depravity and inability describes man’s condition — there is nothing he can do to gain his salvation.

This was the orthodoxy of the church back from the very beginning, exemplified when Augustine labored and fought with Pelagius. The question was: Is natural man born dead in sin? Is he born alive and well, or is he merely sick? If he is dead, he needs God to resurrect him. If he is merely sick, then all he needs is a physician with whom he can cooperate. In that case, Jesus and he will do the saving. Glory be to them both. Always man is trying to gain some part of his salvation. If he is well, all he needs is a little instruction, and he will stay in the way everlasting and will never fall into sin.

Contrarily, the church from the very beginning taught what is now called Augustinianism, namely that man is dead in sins and, therefore, needs Christ to resurrect him. “You hath he quickened who was made alive, which were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1 KJV). How many people today seem to think that unsaved man has some ability to cooperate in his salvation? It is as if Jesus said to Lazarus: “Lazarus, if you will just come out of that tomb, I will make you alive.” And so Lazarus got up and walked out of the tomb as a dead man, and then Jesus made him alive. If you believe that, you will believe a lot of popular Arminian preaching of our time.
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Music as a Language

Music is a powerful communication tool–it causes us to laugh, cry, think and question. Bassist and five-time Grammy winner, Victor Wooten, asks us to approach music the same way we learn verbal language–by embracing mistakes and playing as often as possible.

The Threefold Use Of The Law

The Reformation Study Bible contains 96 theological articles on a wide variety of subjects. Here is a helpful article that succinctly explains what is commonly called the threefold use of the law:

“Scripture shows that God intends His law to function in three ways, which Calvin crystalized in classic form for the church’s benefit as the law’s threefold use.

Its first function is to be a mirror reflecting to us both the perfect righteousness of God and our own sinfulness and shortcomings. As Augustine wrote, “the law bids us, as we try to fulfill its requirements, and become wearied in our weakness under it, to know how to ask the help of grace.” The law is meant to give knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:13; 7:7-11), and by showing us our need of pardon and our danger of damnation to lead us in repentance and faith to Christ (Gal. 3:19-24).

A second function, the “civil use,” is to restrain evil. Though the law cannot change the heart, it can to some extent inhibit lawlessness by its threats of judgement, especially when backed by a civil code that administers punishment for proven offenses (Deut. 13:6-11; 19:16-21; Rom. 13:3, 4). Thus it secures civil order, and serves to protect the righteous from the unjust.

Its third function is to guide the regenerate into the good works that God has planned for them (Eph. 2:10). The law tells God’s children what will please their heavenly Father. It could be called their family code. Christ was speaking of this third use of the law when He said that those who become His disciples must be taught to do all that He had commanded (Matt. 28:20), and that obedience to His commands will prove the reality of one’s love for Him (John 14:15). The Christian is free from the law as a system of salvation (Rom. 6:14; 7:4, 6; 1 Cor. 9:20; Gal. 2:15-19, 3:25), but is “under the law of Christ” as a rule of life (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2).”

Small Increments of Change

Tim Challies reminds us of something very important, especially when it comes to politics and societal change (original source here):

A few years ago I read Paul Chamberlain’s Talking About Good and Bad Without Getting Ugly, a book that proposes ways that Christians can talk about difficult issues—issues like abortion, homosexual marriage, euthanasia—in a pluralistic society. The final chapter is a case study that features William Wilberforce as an example of a man who used his Christian convictions to bring about widespread cultural change. Wilberforce was a driving force behind the abolition of slavery within the British Empire. The results of his efforts are seen and celebrated in Western society to this day.

There was one aspect of his strategy to abolish slavery that I found both a challenge and encouragement. Wilberforce was a realistic man; he knew that the kind of change he longed for required the British people to adopt a whole new mindset and would therefore take time and patience. They had to be led to see that slavery was an afront to the God-given value of human beings. They had to see that the conditions of slavery were an abomination to a nation that claimed to be Christian. They had a lot to learn and such lessons would take time.

Because of the distance the people had to come, Wilberforce was willing to accept incremental improvements. For example, at one point he supported a bill, passed on a trial basis, that would regulate the number of slaves that were permitted to be transported on a single ship. Slaves had previously been laid in rows on benches, chained on their sides with the front of one pressed against the back of the next. This proposed legislation demanded immediate improvements but implictly and explicitly supported the continuance of slavery. Still, Wilberforce saw it as a step in the right direction and for that reason he was willing to support it. Another time he voted for a bill that required plantation owners to register all of their slaves. While this bill also supported slavery, Wilberforce understood that a slave registry would keep plantation owners from adding to their number of slaves by buying them from illegal smugglers.

Wilberforce saw these incremental changes as accomplishing two goals. First, they improved the living and working conditions of slaves. While slavery continued, at least the slaves were afforded a greater amount of dignity, even if it had to be measured in small increments. Second, he believed that affording slaves greater rights set the Empire on a slippery slope. Having acknowledged the humanness of the slaves, people had to admit that slaves were something more than animals. The British Parliament had given approval to bills that Wilberforce knew would eventually but inevitably lead to nothing short of abolition. And of course his beliefs proved to be correct. The incremental changes he lobbied for proved to be the starting point for the eventual abolition of slavery.

Chamberlain points out that this same strategy has been used by those opposed to the dignity of life. Abortion is a prime example. What was first allowed as a concession to protect the physical health of a woman soon became a measure to protect her mental health. Mental health is far less objective than physical health and soon abortion was widespread. From there it was only a small step to societal acceptance.

As I read about Wilberforce I wondered if, put in the position of a parliamentarian, I could support legislation that supported abortion or euthenasia or homosexual marriage, even if that legislation seemed to be a step in the right direction. Would doing this be merely pragmatic? Or would it be sinful to tacitly support something so wrong, even while believing that it would lead to a more biblical end?

Chamberlain suggests that this principle, which we see in the life of Wilberforce, is the hardest to accept. He writes, “In their zeal to achieve a specific goal, whether banning abortion on demand, eliminating poverty or improving labor laws, some today operate with an ‘all or nothing’ mentality. Anything less than accomplishing one’s full goal all at once is viewed as an unacceptable compromise, as giving tacit approval to an unjust practice.”

But I think Chamberlain also helps uncover the solution. We need to be careful, when pondering this kind of a choice, that we do not make a decision based on two alternatives, only one of which is real. Wilberforce knew that he did not have the opportunity to vote for or against slavery. Instead, he was given the opportunity to decide between the status quo and a slight improvement on it. He voted for the improvement. While we might say that in doing so he also voted for slavery, and there may even be some truth to this, the fact is that this vote was not, in reality, for or against slavery. He kept focused on what was immediately attainable, but with his eyes gazing longingly at a future target of complete abolition.

Might we do the same with abortion, euthenasia and the cheapening of marriage? I know of politicians who have refused to vote for incremental change, stating that nothing but the end result would be worth their support. Is it possible that these people missed a golden opportunity to enact at least some level of change that may have proven beneficial? I can’t say and really only God knows for sure. But it is certainly possible that these people were too fixated on the final goal, not realizing that this was simply not attainable. Not yet.

One lesson Chamberlain wants us to learn from Wilberforce’s life is that change, especially change that effects all of society, comes in increments. This is true whether the change is for good or for ill. Those who promote abortion, euthenasia or homosexual marriage seem to realize this and have been effective in their strategy of bringing about change. Perhaps as Christians we have been too focused on the final result and have not been able to know a good thing when we see it.

Not everyone agrees with this approach however. Dr. R. C. Sproul, Jr. responded to this article by writing the following:

To my many pro-life friends – My friend Tim Challies has on his blog written a piece in defense of incrementalism. In the comments section I responded to a commenter, Jefe, who in turn likewise praises said incrementalism with these words- Jefe, What you suggest pro-life folks may need to consider is what we have been doing for decades now. How familiar are you with the faithful labors of your local crisis pregnancy center? Contraception, likewise, has been virtually ubiquitous for decades. You are simply parroting pro-abortion talking points from thirty years ago. Worse still, you just traded the lives of babies. Would you push for legislation that affirms the legitimacy of murdering babies on the weekends, but disallows the murder of babies on weekdays? I’m afraid my friend Tim’s article here unintentionally exposes the folly of both the slavery/abortion equation and incrementalism.

Wilberforce, for all the wonderful ways God used Him, is not our role-model. Jesus is, who tells us to serve the least of these. Jesus left the 99 to rescue the 1. I will not trade a single baby to save millions.

I’d encourage you to take a look at the article, to help you understand how our brothers think on the issue. Tim Challies is an influential man. I am grateful for much that he does, and I do consider him a friend. But this was less than encouraging.