Monthly Archives: May 2018

Our Love to God is a Sign of His Love to us

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I guess it is a lot like our own day. Go into a Christian bookstore today and the resources found there can be excellent, very good, very bad, extremely bad or sometimes even downright heretical. Voddie Baucham was right when he commented, “There ought to be a sign posted in every Christian bookstore that reads, ‘The views expressed in these books do not necessarily express the views of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’”

Yet, we sift and sort through the material on the Christian bookstore shelves and often find something immensely helpful to us, as well as materials we would wish to put into the hands of others.

While no author today is writing Scripture, when we find an author who can be trusted we tend to return to them again and again because they are faithful guides in helping us to understand God’s word. Each of these are gifts of the Ascended Lord Jesus to His body (Eph. 4:7-16). Of course, everything they say or write should ALWAYS be tested by the God-breathed Scripture. Scripture alone is the word of God. Indeed, the best teachers remind us of that. They will say, “where what I say or write disagrees with Scripture, go with the Scripture. That is the infallible guide. I am not.” We know this. We understand this.

And… I write all this to ask you this question, “have you heard of the Puritans?”

I am sure you have. The Puritans were professing Christians who lived after the Protestant Reformation was well under way. Much could be said about their times. It is fair to say that America was founded by the Puritans. While the Puritans were a mixed bag, we owe them a huge debt of gratitude, especially for their stand for the Lord Jesus and His gospel truth.

Like the writings of today, none of these men and women were infallible. The Puritans had their blind spots, and some of them are fairly easy to detect. We have our blind spots too, and these are often harder to see…. but the good thing is this: the blind spots the Puritans had were different blind spots to ours. Understanding this allows us to draw from their writings and when we do, we find that some very gifted brothers and sisters in Christ have left a massive legacy for us.

Here are three helpful quotes in this regard:

“It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.” – C. H. Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1876), 1.

“The best way to guard a true interpretation of Scripture, the Reformers insisted, was neither to naively embrace the infallibility of tradition, or the infallibility of the individual, but to recognize the communal interpretation of Scripture. The best way to ensure faithfulness to the text is to read it together, not only with the churches of our own time and place, but with the wider ‘communion of saints’ down through the age.” – Michael Horton, “What Still Keeps Us Apart?

“Tradition is the fruit of the Spirit’s teaching activity from the ages as God’s people have sought understanding of Scripture. It is not infallible, but neither is it negligible, and we impoverish ourselves if we disregard it.” – J.I. Packer, “Upholding the Unity of Scripture Today,” JETS 25 (1982): 414

I agree – and I write all this because I would like to introduce you to a Puritan – a man named Thomas Watson.

Was he infallible? No. Certainly not.

Could he be helpful to us? Yes, for sure. He got a lot of things right and had great insight on many matters. And here is where this becomes helpful to us. When we see what he saw, it allows us to stand on his shoulders, so to speak, so that we can see further than we would have without him… did you catch that? …“further than we would have without him.”

What do we wish to see?

Oh that is easy. We wish to see the glory of our great God; the wonders of the Lord Jesus Christ and the splendor of the gospel.

Oh Lord, by the power and work of God, the Holy Spirit, help us see – truly see!

Let me give you a taste of what I mean by means of the following, an excerpt from Thomas Watson’s book on the Ten Commandments (available for free in ebook, mobi and pdf formats here)

It is an article entitled “7 Visible Signs of our Love for God.” Perhaps you can print this out and either today or over the next few days, read through it. I think you will find it a rich resource in helping you draw near to the Lord this week. Each point made in the article is a meditation on His word. I would say – a deep meditation – on His word.

One warning: There is old English to work through and there may even by times when we need to check with a dictionary in order to understand certain words being used that are very unfamiliar to us… but that’s ok. I believe doing this is worth any effort involved.

My hope is that it will be a blessing to each of you and that you will draw nearer to the Lord through the words that follow. That is my prayer for each of us.

Enjoy!

7 Visible Signs of our Love to God by Thomas Watson

(original source here)

Before all else let us remember, our love to God is a sign of his love to us. ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ I John 4: 19. Continue reading →

Obsessed with the Gospel

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Article by Jordan Standridge (original source at this link)

How can you stop someone who is obsessed with the Gospel?

If you tell him or her to stop, they only grow in their zeal. (Acts 4:19-20)

If you take away their home, it’s ok because they have a greater home in Heaven. (John 14:2)

If you take away their freedom, then they write letters, books, and share the Gospel with their fellow prisoners. (Acts 16:25-30)

If you take away their life, it is gain for them. (Phil. 1:21)

You simply cannot stop someone who is obsessed with the Gospel.

As I study Philippians, it is quite obvious that Paul is obsessed with the Gospel. Despite being in chains and with the possibility of losing his head, he is encouraged and even ecstatic by how the Gospel has gone forth.

Like a missionary sending his supporters a letter, letting his supporters know how their money is contributing to the spread of the Gospel, Paul writes the Philippians to let them know. And, of course, the Philippian church would have been worried for Paul. Their missionary was in prison. Unable to move about, freely spreading the Gospel form house to house and town to town. Instead, he was stuck in a Roman cell waiting to hear what would happen to him.

If a missionary you supported was put in jail, would you be tempted to feel like you are wasting your money? I think the Philippians would have been tempted to feel this way, and at the very least would have been tempted to question the Lord about why He would keep the great apostle Paul in chains for so long. But they should have known better. The Philippians, of all people, should have known that Paul in prison meant that the Gospel would spread. The jailor himself, who almost committed suicide on the night Paul and Silas worshipped God after being beaten, would have most likely still been a part of the Philippian church. He knew first hand that Paul in prison meant that people were going to get saved.

And that’s exactly what was happening. Paul reassures them, saying, “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel” (Phil 1:12). Paul is so obsessed with the Gospel that he thinks prison has been a blessing! The Gospel is advancing!

There are two reasons for this.

The first is the praetorian guards

“…so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else…” (Phil 1:13).

These guards were Caesar’s soldiers. They would take six-hour shifts in being chained to Paul. Four men a day for weeks would take turns being chained next to the evangelist. What do you think they talked about? The weather? Paul would have certainly told them his incredible story. He would have told them about Jesus and would have begged them to repent of their sin and turn to Christ. They, in turn, would have gone home, and, typically, like with any man, the wife would ask them how their day was, and they would say, “it was fine,” and that would be the end of their conversation. But not on a day after talking with Paul. They would have told their families about this incredible man with his incredible story, and the Gospel would spread throughout Rome at an uncontrollable rate.

Who are you chained to? Some of us have spent far more than six hours with someone and have yet to share the Gospel with them. Perhaps you should set up a six-hour rule of sorts that if you spend a considerable amount of time with someone that they will hear the gospel.

Second, the Roman Believers

“…and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Phil 1:14).

This, in my opinion, is one of the most shocking verses in the Bible. Christians in Rome would visit Paul, and upon seeing him and his faith, would walk away more likely to share the Gospel! Not less likely! Despite the fact that they could go to jail for sharing their faith, or even lose their life, they walk away from a man who is in jail for sharing the gospel and leave more likely to do that very thing! That is the power of being around someone who is obsessed with the Gospel.

Do you have this kind of impact on believers around you? Do people walk away from talking to you, more likely to follow Christ or less likely? Are you an encourager or a discourager? Frankly many Christians through their gossip and complaining attitude can really sour fellow believers.

Paul, despite facing terrible circumstances, is able to rejoice. It must be said that some of the believers who are encouraged to preach Christ are doing it for selfish reasons. He goes on to say, “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife…” (Phil 1:15), and yet, despite what would be so discouraging to have people speaking against him, Paul says famously in Philippians 1:18, “What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.”

That is a man obsessed with the Gospel. You put him in jail? He rejoices that the gospel is spreading. (Phil 1:12) You tell him that preachers are using him and maligning him? He rejoices that at least they are preaching the Gospel! (Phil 1:18) You threaten his life? Well, for him to die is gain (Phil 1:21O). You simply cannot steal this man’s joy!

Many things attempt to steal our attention away. Whether it is our jobs, our homes, our cell phones, or our families, it is so easy to become obsessed with the world. Paul was tempted like us; he was just a man, but he was a man who was obsessed with the Gospel. The reason why he loved the Gospel so much was because the Gospel is about Jesus Christ. For Paul, life was worth living because Jesus was His Lord, and for Paul death was worth dying because it meant being with His Lord. He was obsessed with Jesus, and couldn’t help but talk about Him and couldn’t wait to be with Him.

How about you? What are you obsessed with? Be obsessed with the Gospel–it is the only thing worth living for and the only thing worth dying for.

No Degrees Of Deadness

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The key to a right understanding of God’s work in salvation is to start where the Bible starts regarding our condition outside of Christ. We are not healthy; and not just sick; very sick; or even mortally sick. No, we are dead. All of us were born that way when we came into this world as the fallen sons of Adam. In Adam all die.

Start there in your thinking, recognizing there are no degrees of deadness. See the utter hopelessness and futility of our condition. Anything less than this is a misdiagnosis of the problem. Our condition is way beyond bleak. A doctor prescribed medicine or a coach’s moral pep-talk is foolishness at this point. It’s too late. The doctor has signed the papers pronouncing us dead and there was no mistake. The mortician has placed us in the casket already. We are, in human terms, beyond all hope.

Did you catch that? Do you get that?

If you did, then you would realize that for God to make a Christian, He must raise him from spiritual death. He needs more than healing; he needs resurrection. Every Christian is therefore an act of God – a miracle, a new creation – and something impossible by the power, schemes and efforts of man.

When we understand this to be the Bible’s teaching (which it is), there can be no other logical conclusion except salvation is entirely God’s work from start to finish. It is actually quite ridiculous to think otherwise. It is beyond debate. Salvation is of the Lord.

See this now in the words of the Apostle Paul. Addressing the Christians at Ephesus he writes:

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.