Monthly Archives: May 2011

Is God Your “Biggest Fan”?

Posted on by
1

“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.” – John 3:36

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” – Hebrews 10:31

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” – Revelation 20:11-15

I don’t always find myself in agreement with Roger Olson (he calls himself “a proud Arminian” and I am seeking to be neither of these), but regarding what he writes below, I could not agree with him more. It underlined to me just how far from the Bible the modern day visible Church has strayed. Millions of people are just lapping this stuff up as “gospel” truth, never thinking for even a moment about the danger this perversion is to their souls.

Many ask if this kind of preaching will lead to God’s judgment on America. My answer might surprise some. I say that this kind of preaching IS God’s judgment on America. God is giving the people what their itching ears long for.

Here are Olson’s insightful remarks: Continue reading →

Friday Round Up

Posted on by
Reply

(1) Michael Brown joins James White to discuss his (Brown’s) new book, “A Queer Thing Happened to America.” This is one of the most important cultural issues of our day, and we dare not ignore it. Here’s the program.

(2) We often hear Christian leaders say things like, “I’m not inviting you to join a church, but to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus.” So in this approach, everything that is formal, official, planned, and public is seen as mere church-ianity, while genuine Christian experience is informal unofficial, spontaneous, and private. But is this biblical? Would the apostles agree with this kind of anti-institutional approach, or would they recognize it as part of the spirit of the age? Continue reading →

Solitary Confinement

Posted on by
Reply

Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001), whose many years of imprisonment for the gospel included three years in solitary confinement, went on to write Tortured for Christ and to found Voice of the Martyrs.

Below is a video where he talks about his suffering and God’s grace and presence:

HT: JT

Logic in the Pulpit

Posted on by
Reply

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? Continue reading →

Miscellaneous Quotes (15)

Posted on by
1

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling ‘darkness’ on the wall of his cell.” —C.S. Lewis

“Little sins often slide into the soul, and breed, and work secretly and undiscernibly in the soul, til they come to be so strong, as to trample upon the soul, and cut the throat of the soul…there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.” – Thomas Brooks

“It is neglect of the Bible which makes so many a prey to the first false teacher whom they hear.” – J.C. Ryle

“Backsliding generally first begins with neglect of private prayer.” – J.C. Ryle

“We spend our years with sighing; it is a valley of tears; but death is the funeral of all our sorrows.” – Thomas Watson

“Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.” – Martin Luther

Martin Luther in his Commentary on Galatians tells us how to answer the Accuser: “Paul does not say that works are objectionable, but to build one’s hopes for righteousness on works is disastrous, for that makes Christ good for nothing. Let us bear this in mind when the devil accuses our conscience. When that dragon accuses us of having done no good at all, say to him,”You trouble me with the remembrance of my past sins; you remind me that I have done no good. But this does not bother me, because if I were to trust in my own good deeds, or despair because I have done no good deeds, Christ would profit me neither way. I am not going to make Him unprofitable to me. This I would do if I should presume to purchase for myself the favor of God by my good deeds or if I should despair of my salvation because of my sins.”

“True faith takes its character and quality from its object and not from itself. Faith gets a man out of himself and into Christ. Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ. Even those of us who have weak faith have the same strong Christ as others!” – Sinclair Ferguson, The Christian Life

“There are times when God asks nothing of his children except silence, patience and tears.” – Charles Seymour Robinson

“If you don’t believe in the devil’s existence, just try resisting him for a while.” – Charles Finney (yeah, I know, it’s the heretic Finney; but it’s a great quote)

“The chief and fundamental thing in the Gospel is this, that before you take Christ as your example, you recognize and accept Him as God’s gift to you; so that when you see or hear Him in any of His work of suffering, you do not doubt but believe that He, Christ Himself, with such work or suffering of His, is most truly your very own, whereon you may rely as confidently as if you had done that work… See, this is to understand aright the Gospel, that is, the infinite grace of God… This is the mighty fire of God’s love toward us whereby He makes the conscience confident, joyful, and content.” – Martin Luther, as quoted in Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Eerdmans, 1999), 119

“A cold, hard-hearted Christian is the greatest absurdity and contradiction. It is as if one should speak of dark brightness, or a false truth!” – Jonathan Edwards, ‘Charity and Its Fruits,’ in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Yale ed., 8:147

Concerning the gift of our Great High Priest and His prayers of intercession for us:

Louis Berkhof: “It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life; that He is presenting to the Father those spiritual needs which were not present to our minds and which we often neglect to include in our prayers; and that He prays for our protection against the dangers of which we are not even conscious, and against the enemies which threaten us, though we do not notice it. He is praying that our faith may not cease, and that we may come out victoriously in the end.” (Systematic Theology p. 403)

Robert Murray M’Cheyne: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”

Jesus is knocking

Posted on by
Reply

Revelation 3:20. Its a verse many of us not only know but can quote by heart. Its also a verse that is almost always used out of context.

For some time I have been thinking of writing a short article on the context and meaning of the verse, not only for the good of my own soul (my own thoughts tend to become much clearer when I write them down) but hopefully, for the benefit of others too. Yet today, as I made my morning venture out into the blogosphere, I came across an article that said all I ever wished to say about the verse and said it very well. So, I thought to myself, “Self… rather than taking the time to try to say the same thing using different words (to avoid plagiarism), why not simply quote the article and let all be blessed by it, the same way you were?” So, that is what I do here. I found the article to be a real blessing and pass it on, trusting it will be the same for you.

The Thirsty Theologian writes:

On the wall of one of the churches I attended as a child hung a picture of a fair-haired gentile knocking on a door. We all knew it was Jesus, seeking entrance at our heart’s door, as in Revelation 3:20.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Time and time again, we were taught that Jesus was standing, waiting, knocking, waiting, knocking, just hoping to be invited into our hearts.

Time after time He has waited before
And now He is waiting again
To see if you are willing to open the door
Oh, how He wants to come in.

This image of the pathetic, pleading Jesus has no doubt coaxed multitudes down aisles to dubious conversions. But what if it’s all fiction? What if Jesus is not standing at some door to our hearts? Rather than pulling one verse out of context because it looks so nice on a tract, let’s examine the entire passage.

14 To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 3

The church at Laodicea was very much like a great many churches today. It was an apostate body, unregenerate, no true church at all. The Lord points to their deeds, observing that they “are neither cold nor hot.” This figure is a metaphor for water, which, when hot or cold, has many uses, but when lukewarm is not good for much. He wishes they were one or the other, because that would indicate the good fruit of a good tree (Matthew 7:16–20). But they are, figuratively, lukewarm — not good for washing, not good for drinking — so Christ will spit them out like warm, stagnant water. Bad trees get cut down, bad water gets spit out on the ground. This was the Laodicean church.

To make matters worse, they were self-righteous. They thought themselves rich when they were, in fact, spiritually “poor and blind and naked.” This is the state of the unregenerate. They are naked, and blind to their nakedness. This, again, was the Laodicean church. They were spiritually naked, but they thought they were dressed in rich robes of their own making.

At this point, Jesus could have simply passed judgment. If the Laodiceans didn’t deserve to be cut down and burned, no one ever would. But Christ extended grace, delayed the day of judgment, and called them to repentance. Notice now that this is no pleading Savior. His knock is a command, and spare me the “Jesus is a gentleman” nonsense. This is a take-it-or-leave-it command to turn to him in repentance and faith. Notice also that this is not the door to any individual’s heart.

Though this verse has been used in countless tracts and evangelistic messages to depict Christ’s knocking on the door of the sinner’s heart, it is broader than that. The door on which Christ is knocking is not the door to a single human heart, but to the Laodicean church. Christ was outside this apostate church and wanted to come in—something that could only happen if the people repented.

The invitation is, first of all, a personal one, since salvation is individual. But He is knocking on the door of the church, calling the many to saving faith, so that He may enter the church. If one person (anyone) opened the door by repentance and faith, Christ would enter that church through that individual. The picture of Christ outside the Laodicean church strongly implies that, unlike the Sardis, there were no believers there at all.

Christ’s offer to dine with the repentant church speaks of fellowship, communion, and intimacy. Sharing a meal in ancient times symbolized the union of the people in loving fellowship. Believers will dine with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9), and in the millennial kingdom (Luke 22:16, 29-30). Dine is from deipneo, which refers to the evening meal, the last meal of the day (cf. Luke 7:8; 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25, where the underlying Greek is rendered “sup,” “supper,” and “supped,” respectively). The Lord Jesus Christ urged them to repent and have fellowship with Him before the night of judgment fell and it was too late forever.

—John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Revelation 1–21 (Moody, 1999), 140.

I thank God that Jesus was never waiting for me to let him in, for if he had been, he still would be. I would never have let him in. And this is should be an obvious tip-off to the error of the popular interpretation of verse 20: nowhere in Scripture is there any hint that Christ needs our acceptance. No, it is we who need to be made acceptable to God. My salvation was never dependent on me accepting him, but on him making me acceptable to the Father. That is what the gospel is all about. It is what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Goodness Gracious!

Posted on by
Reply

I read this short article by Dr. R. C. Sproul Jr, a few times over just now and found nothing at all that could in any way be termed “politically correct,” yet biblically, I think he’s right on. It was written in the immediate aftermath of the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death in Pakistan:

“Common grace is more potent than we normally think. Special grace, on the other hand, is likely more nuanced than we tend to think. As these United States celebrate the just end to the life of Osama Bin Laden, I’m afraid we are in danger of missing both of these truths.

First, common grace is keeping the world from being populated with nothing but Osama Bin Ladens. The difference between Bin Laden and Gandhi isn’t that Bin Laden was evil enough to embrace an evil, violent religion while Gandhi was good enough to at least choose and teach a more gentle, false religion. The difference is the amount of common grace given by the living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus. Both men were sinners. Neither gave any sign of having turned to the cross and clinging to the finished work of Christ. And so both men find themselves well beyond the reach of any grace, in eternal torment. Both are receiving what they so richly deserve.

The state itself is a manifestation of common grace. We would be wise to remember that God killed Bin Laden, not the United States government. God ordained the state to bear the sword, to punish evildoers. And so in this case they have done so. They have rightly served as His ministers of justice. We should give thanks, to the God who gave us government.

That said, what does it say about us that we are dancing in the streets today, while we Christians were so silent and ashamed when notorious abortionist George Tiller was killed? Please don’t misunderstand. I do not believe that private citizens should take the law into their own hands to kill abortionists. But the same state that has spent millions of dollars and nearly ten years to hunt down one killer in Bin Laden, in those same years has spent millions of dollars to protect men like George Tiller whose grisly work has resulted in many times over the number of deaths Bin Laden gave us. God bless the USA?

Which brings us to the subtlety of special grace. Today even those who have been born again, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who are daily being remade into the image of Christ, find themselves caught up in the twisted and distorted perspective of the world. We are singing “Ding Dong the witch is dead” while hundreds of bin Ladens are murdering more babies than there were adults killed on 9/11. We, who are called to take every thought captive, fail to think deliberately. We are not sober-minded. We have horrible, evil, murderous men in our own neighborhoods, but we are either caught up in celebratory jingo-ism or fevered conspiracy theories.

The truth is that God is in control. He does cause the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Thus the beleaguered president gets a bump in the polls. Thus a wicked nation celebrates the death of one man that attacked it. On the other hand, our Christian heritage did not protect us on 9/11. Our Christian heritage does not protect our unborn children. Our Christian heritage does not make sure we think cogently, biblically about the day’s events.

For those of us who have been reborn, may I suggest a few steps towards sound thinking?

First, Osama is an example of what we would all be with less grace in our lives. By all means give thanks for God’s just judgment. Then be sure to give thanks for His grace in your own life.

Second, evil isn’t what you see on television, or what they talk about on talk radio. Evil is what is advertised in the yellow pages. Evil is what is in your state’s budget, as well as the federal budget. Evil is what we call a political issue that we must nuance. Evil is what is happening in that rundown office on the poor side of town. Evil is killing babies.

Third, evil is what is in our own hearts because we know what happens in our neighborhoods, and yet think today a good day because one evil man died on the other side of the globe.”

He goes on to say, “… ask God that He would give us more repentance and the wisdom to stop being led around by our noses by main-stream media, talk radio, and bloggers. Today is a dark day. Babies are being murdered.”

– Dr. R. C. Sproul, Jr.

One Thousand Gifts (Review)

Posted on by
1

Romanticism, Mysticism and Panentheism

Some time back I wrote concering my alarm over Ann Voskamp’s book “One Thousand Gifts” that seems to have had wide influence among some Christian women today. Now Bob Dewaay has written a much more extensive book review that is well worth reading.

He writes:

“There is enough sensuality in the world without us having sensual desires stirred up under the guise of a higher order religious experience in the context of a panentheistic worldview. Voskamp’s book feeds into the romantic sensibilities of its postmodern readers. But it does nothing to promote the faith once for all delivered to the saints. It pushes the church even further down the unbiblical road of mysticism that so many are already on. We need to reject this and instead return to objective, Biblical truth.”

The full review can be found here.