Monthly Archives: April 2011

Around the blogosphere

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Here are some things I came across that I wanted to share.

(1) From the Ligonier Ministries website: In recent days, the evangelical church has been rocked by Rob Bell’s open questioning of the doctrine of hell. Dr. Sproul answers those questions in a forthcoming book, Unseen Realities: Heaven, Hell, Angels and Demons. In the following excerpt from the book, Dr. R. C. Sproul strongly affirms that hell is a biblical concept and a very real place. Unseen Realities, which is jointly published by Christian Focus Publications and Ligonier Ministries, will be released in the United Kingdom in May and in the United States in July. Excerpt found here (its excellent!!!)

(2) I love this quote of Dr. J. I. Packer concerning the Puritans:

“For the Puritans, the landscape of piety–that is, the spiritual topography of the ongoing life-situations in which each saint serves God–was determined by four realities, on all of which, as their books show, they laid out a great deal of expository effort. These were the sovereignty and sanctity of God, under whose eye we live, in whose hands we are, and whose purpose to have us holy, as he is holy, explains his way with our lives; the dignity and depravity of human beings, made for God but ruined by sin and now needing total renewal by grace; the love and Lordship of Christ, the Mediator, the Christian’s Saviour-King; and the light and power of the Holy Spirit, who convicts, quickens, regenerates, witnesses, leads, and sanctifies.” – Dr. J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Crossway, 2010; repr.), 332

(3) I think it is well worth just over a minute of your time to watch this. May God stir our hearts to seek Him for something only He can bring – revival to His people! Blaze Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire!

God bless!

Romans 8:28 – 9:24 (Part 1)

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In Romans chapter 9, Romans 9 follows on from Romans 8, and in the latter part of Romans 8, Paul is stating the fact that nothing and no one can separate the true believer from the love of Christ. But this raises a huge question; namely, why is it that not all Jews, the chosen people, have recognized their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ? How can nothing separate God’s people from the love of Christ and many of the Jews be separated from it? That’s exactly the question Paul is seeking to answer in Romans 9.

There are no chapter and verse divisions in the original Greek text, and actually, Paul starts talking about predestination and election in Romans 8. So let’s start at Romans 8:28 reading through to chapter 9 so we can establish the context for Paul’s argument.

Romans 8:
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

In what theologians refer to as “The Golden Chain of Redemption,” God is revealing to us an unbreakable chain that starts in eternity past, goes through time, and on into eternity future. This chain is forged by God Himself, and has five unbreakable links: God foreknows, predestinates, calls, justifies and glorifies.

Notice that there is one ambiguity in the text; something that is not actually stated but is definitely implied – that being the word “all.” Let’s see this clearly by inserting another possible implication by way of contrast, the word “some.”

“For (some) whom He foreknew, He predestined; (some) He predestined, He called; (some) He called, He justified; and (some) He justified, He glorified.”

What kind of comfort and security would that give to us? Would we be able to say “who can separate us from the love of Christ?” I think our answer would have to be, many things could separate us (if the intended implication was the word “some” in this passage). It would make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and certainly would not give us any kind of security in Christ, the very thing Paul is seeking to do in this passage. Instead, I believe 100 out of 100 Bible scholars would all agree that the implication of the text is that all He foreknew, He predestined; all He predestined, He called; all He called, He justified; and all He justified, He glorified.

When I realized this, in my studies, I began to see a key word in this text that opened up much to me. That is the word “called.” Why? Continue reading →

Logic in the Pulpit

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Pastor John, do you believe there is a place for a preacher to make use of logic in the pulpit? I would like to know your thoughts.

Preaching to a congregation is obviously a very different scenario from teaching a class on logic in a University or Seminary setting. Yet I believe that we as ministers can teach the Scriptures using logical arguments without having to resort to using technical language which the vast majority of folk would not be able to understand.

I am sure that all of us as preachers have at times been guilty of speaking over the heads of our people. Yet one of the ways to remedy this is to simply be constantly aware of this tendency. Then we need to apply the discipline of working out how to say the exact same thing we would say to a group of intellectuals (using the same logic) to the people in the congregation, by using language and explanations which all can follow. This takes work – sometimes a great deal of work. Yet I do believe it is very much possible to bring logic into a sermon.

For instance, when I was preaching on the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16 to our congregation, I spoke of the need to think through what the verse actually said, rather than assume its meaning, which is something we all tend to do. The text reads:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 teaches that God’s love for the world is seen by the giving of His Son so that
all who A (believe in Him)
will not B (perish)
but will have C (eternal life).

There is no possibility of someone believing in Christ and then perishing, but all who believe will have eternal life. That’s what the text clearly teaches.

I then asked the congregation, what does this verse teach us concerning who it is who has the ability to believe?

There was silence for a few seconds while people thought about the answer; but I then answered my own question by saying, “actually the verse teaches us nothing at all about who WILL believe or who CAN believe. All the verse tells us is that those who DO believe will not perish, but will have eternal life.

John 3:16 does not address the question of who has the ability to believe. We might as well ask what the verse teaches us about the correct carpet color for church sanctuaries – why? Because that too is not in any way addressed by the text!

The question of who has the ability to believe is addressed by John elsewhere. For example, earlier in the chapter, Jesus taught that unless a man is born again he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5, 7) and in John 10:26, Jesus said, “you do not believe because you are not My sheep.””

Now in teaching this in the church service, I didn’t use technical language at all or use pie charts and venn diagrams. If I did, I think the vast majority of the people may well have switched off and felt everything was way over their heads (even if it was not). The problem would have been that nothing would have been communicated to the vast majority of people, which would have been a pointless exercise.

Another reason I share this is because I am sure that most in the congregation would not know that they had been presented with interpretation through applying the laws of logic. They simply heard the text interpreted in language they understood (hopefully). And that’s exactly my point. We don’t have to use technical language to communicate with people, and in fact, we should avoid it whenever possible. Perhaps this is what Paul was refering to in 1 Corinthians 1:17; 2:1, 4, 5 when he wrote, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void… And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom… my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

I believe the truths of the Bible can be attested to by the principles of logical reasoning (the Bible is not an illogical book), yet to serve a congregation, the minister needs to present the truth in ways which can be understood by the people – people who may or may not have received a higher form of education.

As one man said,”anyone can make the simple things complex, but it takes genius to make complex things simple.” Yet even if we present the truth precisely and with great simplicity, we need to always remember that it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to write the truth upon the heart.

As Dr. James White says, “many are blinded by their traditions, and those most blinded are those who don’t think they have any.” Our job as preachers is to present the truth as clearly as we can. It is, of course, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who will lead God’s people into all truth. We rest in His ability to do this rather than our own.