July 30, 2009 at 6:42 am (Uncategorized)
The Life God has given each of us is short, and it will be measured in the heavenly rewards He has promised us. We should therefore make the most of it that He might find us to be good and faithful servants. Our goal is not to make ourselves busy with programs just for the sake of programs but to allocate our time wisely that we might serve our families and the people of God, and thus the Lord. Do you manage your time well in service to our Father?
July 29, 2009 at 7:58 am (* Favorites, Lifestyle, Will - God's, Worldly Pursuits)
“True Christianity! Let us mind that word true. There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. It passes muster, it satisfies sleepy consciences; but it is not good money. It is not the authentic reality that called itself Christianity in the beginning.
There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians. They make a profession of faith in Christ. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage service. They mean to be buried as Christians when they die. But you never see any fight about their religion! Of spiritual strife and exertion and conflict and self–denial and watching and warring they know literally nothing at all.
Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded and His apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is a fight.”
July 28, 2009 at 5:33 am (* Favorites)
Tags: Assurance
“Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge, etc.” –2 Peter 1:5, 6
If you would enjoy the eminent grace of the full assurance of faith, under the blessed Spirit’s influence and assistance, do what the Scripture tells you: “Make every effort.” Take care that your faith is the right kind—that it is not a mere belief of doctrine, but a simple faith, depending on Christ and on Christ alone. Pay careful attention to your courage. Plead with God that He would give you the face of a lion, that you may, with a consciousness of right, go on boldly. Study the Scriptures diligently and get knowledge; for a knowledge of doctrine will help a great deal to confirm faith. Try to understand God’s Word; let it dwell in your heart richly.
When you have done this, add to your “knowledge … self-control.” Pay attention to your body and soul. Be controlled in speech, life, heart, and thought. Add to this, by God’s Holy Spirit, patience; ask Him to give you that patience that endures affliction, which, when it is tried, will come forth as gold. Array yourself with patience, so that you do not murmur or be depressed in your afflictions. When that grace is won, look to godliness. Godliness is something more than religion. Make God’s glory your object in life; live in His sight; dwell close to Him; seek fellowship with Him; then you will have “godliness”; and to that add brotherly love. Have a love for all the saints: And add to that a charity that opens its arms to all men and loves their souls. When you are adorned with these jewels, and just in proportion as you practice these heavenly virtues, you will come to know by clearest evidence “your calling and election.” “Make every effort,” if you would get assurance, for lukewarmness and doubting very naturally go hand in hand.
July 26, 2009 at 5:32 am (* Favorites, Sin)
. . . Dr. Henninger noted that in the presidential proclamation for the annual National Day of Prayer, the last time the word sin was mentioned was in President Eisenhower’s proclamation in 1953 — and those words were borrowed from a call to national prayer by Abraham Lincoln in 1863! So, as Dr. Henninger observed, “as a nation, we officially ceased sinning’ some twenty [now over fifty] years ago.”‘ Karl Henninger is by no means alone in his assessment. Author Peter Barnes, in an article titled “What! Me? A Sinner?” wrote, In twentieth century England, C. S. Lewis noted that, “The barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin.” And in 2001, New Testament scholar D. A. Carson commented that the most frustrating aspect of doing evangelism in universities is the fact that students generally have no idea of sin. “They know how to sin well enough, but they have no idea of what constitutes sin.” These statements only confirm what seems clear to many observers: The whole idea of sin has virtually disappeared from our culture. So we see that the entire concept of sin has virtually disappeared from our American culture at large and has been softened, even within many of our churches, to accommodate modern sensibilities. Indeed, strong biblical words for sin have been excised from our vocabulary. People no longer commit adultery; instead they have an affair. Corporate executives do not steal; they commit fraud.
But what about our conservative, evangelical churches? Has the idea of sin all but disappeared from us also? No, it has not disappeared, but it has, in many instances, been deflected to those outside our circles who commit flagrant sins such as abortion, homosexuality, and murder, or the notorious white-collar crimes of high-level corporate executives. It’s easy for us to condemn those obvious sins while virtually ignoring our own sins of gossip, pride, envy, bitterness, and lust, or even our lack of those gracious qualities that Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
July 25, 2009 at 9:07 am (Humility)
“They shall go hindmost with their standards.” –Numbers 2:31
The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock, and journeyed to the same inheritance. Come, my heart, cheer up, though last and least; it is thy privilege to be in the army, and to fare as they fare who lead the van. Some one must be hindmost in honor and esteem, some one must do menial work for Jesus, and why should not I? In a poor village, among an ignorant peasantry; or in a back street, among degraded sinners, I will work on, and take my assigned place at the rear.
The Danites occupied a very useful place. Stragglers have to be picked up upon the march, and lost property has to be gathered from the field. Fiery spirits may dash forward over untrodden paths to learn fresh truth, and win more souls to Jesus; but some of a more conservative spirit may be well engaged in reminding the church of her ancient faith, and restoring her fainting sons. Every position has its duties, and the slowly moving children of God will find their peculiar state one in which they may be eminently a blessing to the whole host.
The rear guard is a place of danger. There are foes behind us as well as before us. Attacks may come from any quarter. We read that Amalek fell upon Israel, and slew some of the hindmost of them. The experienced Christian will find much work for his weapons in aiding those poor doubting, desponding, wavering, souls, who are hindmost in faith, knowledge, and joy. These must not be left unaided, and therefore be it the business of well-taught saints to bear their standards among the hindmost. My soul, do thou tenderly watch to help the hindmost this day.
July 24, 2009 at 10:07 am (* Favorites, Sin)
We were incensed, and rightfully so, when a major denomination ordained a practicing homosexual as a bishop. Why do we not also mourn over our selfishness, our critical spirit, our impatience, and our anger? It’s easy to let ourselves off the hook by saying, these sins are not as bad as the flagrant ones of society. But God has not given us the authority to establish values for different sins. Instead, He says through James, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for [is guilty of] all of it” (2:1o). That Scripture is difficult for us to understand because we think in terms of individual laws and their respective penalties. But God’s law is seamless. The Bible speaks not of God’s laws, as if many of them, but of God’s law as a single whole. When a person commits murder, he breaks God’s law. When a Christian lets corrupting speech (that is, speech which tends to tear down another person) come out of his mouth (see Ephesians 4:29), he breaks God’s law.
In chapter 1 I acknowledged that some sins are more serious than others. I would rather be guilty of a lustful look than of adultery. Yet Jesus said that with that lustful look, I have actually committed adultery in my heart. I would rather be angry at someone than to murder that person. Yet Jesus said that whoever murders and whoever is angry with his brother are both liable to judgment (see Matthew 5:21-22). The truth is, all sin is serious because all sin is a breaking of God’s law.
The apostle John wrote, “Sin is lawlessness” (i John 3:4). All sin, even sin that seems so minor in our eyes, is lawlessness. It is not just the breaking of a single command; it is a complete disregard for the law of God, a deliberate rejection of His moral will in favor of fulfilling one’s own desires. In our human values of civil laws, we draw a huge distinction between an otherwise “law-abiding citizen” who gets an occasional traffic ticket and a person who lives a “lawless” life in contempt and utter disregard for all laws. But the Bible does not seem to make that distinction. Rather it simply says sin – that is, all sin without distinction – is lawlessness.
July 23, 2009 at 7:47 am (* Favorites, Calvinism)
“I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor.”
July 21, 2009 at 7:01 am (Self-Audit)
YOU HAVE BECOME LIKE US! – ISAIAH 14: 10
What must be the apostate professor’s doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear to hear that voice telling him that he is banished forever from His presence and that he will not be the recipient of mercy? “Depart from Me, you cursed; you have rejected knowledge, and I reject you.” What will be this wretch’s shame at the last great day when, before the assembled crowds, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed faith, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he is,” says one; “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another; “he rebuked me for cursing and was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another; “here comes a psalm-singing Methodist—one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life, and here he is!” No greater eagerness will ever be seen among satanic tormentors than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back door into hell. Watch out for that back way to hell, professors! “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.”* Pay attention to your condition, and see whether you are in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give high marks when grading your own paper. Be honest and fair. Be gracious to all, but be rigorous with yourself. Remember, if you are not building on the rock, your house will collapse. May the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.
* 2 Cor 13:5
July 20, 2009 at 7:51 am (Regeneration)
Tags: Godliness, Spiritual Warfare
So although 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Ezekiel 36:26 speak of a decisive change that always occurs in the heart of every new believer, the outworking of that change is not instantaneous and absolute. Instead it is progressive over time and never complete in this life. However, the awareness of this internal struggle with sin should never be used as an excuse for sinful behavior. Rather, we should always keep in mind that we are saints called to live a life that is set apart for God.
July 19, 2009 at 9:45 am (Faith)
Tags: Belief
July 19, 2009 at 8:11 am (* Favorites, Trials and Suffering)
“The Lord our God hath shewed us His glory.” –Deuteronomy 5:24
God’s great design in all His works is the manifestation of His own glory. Any aim less than this were unworthy of Himself. But how shall the glory of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man’s eye is not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honour, has too high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold the glory of the Lord. It is clear, then, that self must stand out of the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the reason why He bringeth His people ofttimes into straits and difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when He comes forth to work their deliverance. He whose life is one even and smooth path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being filled with the revelation of God. They who navigate little streams and shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who “do business in great waters,” these see His “wonders in the deep.” Among the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness of man. Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is this which has given you your experience of God’s greatness and lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as He did His servant Moses, that you might behold His glory as it passed by. Praise God that you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of His glory in His wonderful dealings with you.
July 18, 2009 at 12:15 pm (Atonement, Cross, Grace, Trials and Suffering)
As I’ve already said, I don’t think I have answers for all my intellectual questions about suffering and pain. I guess I could write another book on all the stuff I don’t know about suffering. But what I learnt as an 18-year-old, as I was wondering what God understood of my loss, has changed my perspective forever. In the great work of art we call the universe, I cannot always follow the hand of the Artist: some of his work just eludes me. But what the biblical narrative tells me—and, in particular, the account of Christ’s passion—is that while I may not be able to trace the Artist’s hand at all times, I can always trust his motives. The God who is in control of all things, who acts behind the scenes in all things, is also the God who willingly suffers. He is the one I can shout at, cry with and find comfort in. His heart, if not all his ways, is clear to me because on the cross he wore it on his sleeve for all to see. This God is able to sympathise with those who suffer not simply because he is `all-knowing’—an attribute ascribed to any version of divinity—but because he has experienced pain firsthand. . . .Having said this, God’s wounds speak to more than just our wounds, they address something even more fundamental. . . Christ’s death is more than an identification with us. The Bible makes clear it is a substitution for us. On the cross God not only stands alongside us, he stands in our place. Here we arrive at perhaps the most liberating dimension of biblical faith: in that god-forsaken moment on the cross Jesus bore the god-forsakenness I deserve for rejecting my Maker and mistreating my neighbour, or in biblical shorthand, for my ’sin’. Jesus’ death, therefore, is God’s invitation to experience not just his comfort but his mercy as well.
July 17, 2009 at 6:01 am (Calvinism)
Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.” –1 Thessalonians 1:4
Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by “looking unto Jesus.” If you desire to ascertain your own election;–after the following manner, shall you assure your heart before God. Do you feel yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? go straightway to the cross of Christ, and tell Jesus so, and tell Him that you have read in the Bible, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” Tell Him that He has said, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Look to Jesus and believe on Him, and you shall make proof of your election directly, for so surely as thou believest, thou art elect. If you will give yourself wholly up to Christ and trust Him, then you are one of God’s chosen ones; but if you stop and say, “I want to know first whether I am elect,” you ask you know not what. Go to Jesus, be you never so guilty, just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry about election alone. Go straight to Christ and hide in His wounds, and you shall know your election. The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be given to you, so that you shall be able to say, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to Him.” Christ was at the everlasting council: He can tell you whether you were chosen or not; but you cannot find it out in any other way. Go and put your trust in Him, and His answer will be–”I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” There will be no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have chosen Him.
“Sons we are through God’s election, Who in Jesus Christ believe.”
July 16, 2009 at 7:22 am (Grace, Law)
Tags: Gospel, Moralism
ROMANS 3:21-31 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe”.
Lutheran theology is well-known for the sharp antithesis it draws between law and gospel. This finds its root to some degree in the teaching of Luther who emphasized what is often called the “pedagogical” use of the Mosaic law, its use as a schoolmaster to accuse us of sin that we might look to Jesus to save us. Christians in the Reformed tradition typically see more continuity between the covenants, but this use of the Law is biblical and a major part of the Reformed heritage.
Often this use is based on Galatians 3:19-29. This use of the Law can certainly be derived from this passage, although it is more of a secondary application when it comes to the Law’s use among Gentiles, since the apostle is talking chiefly about Israel’s experience with the oracles of God. Perhaps a better place to go are the first few chapters of Romans wherein Paul discusses the role of natural law in condemning Gentiles alongside Jews who face the same condemnation at the hands of the Mosaic law (1:18-3:20). In any case, the Lord’s commandments serve both to make the non-Christian aware of his sin that he might trust in Jesus and to convict the Christian of his remaining sin that he might return to the cross repeatedly for cleansing, reaffirming his utter inability to save himself.
That such a use of the old covenant law is defensible is found in Paul’s statement in Romans 3:21-31 that the only way the sinner convicted by God’s law can be justified is through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. Consequently, the proclamation of God’s law should be a regular part of the preaching, for by hearing the Law the believer will be reminded of his need for the gospel, and any non-Christian present for the sermon will learn that he is under the righteous judgment of the Creator and must therefore trust in Jesus.
But God’s law must never be preached apart from the gospel. If this is done, we end up reducing Christianity to moralism, giving the message that people can by their own efforts do the right thing. We must never forget that the grace of God sets us free to love and serve him (Gal. 5:1), and so this grace must always be preached as well. Without the gospel, the Law is an impossible burden.
Our relativistic age does not like to hear that there is an eternal, unchangeable law that convicts all people. But the central message of the gospel is that we have broken this law and need to be reconciled to God, the great Lawgiver. If we do not know His law, however, we cannot tell people the bad news that they are estranged from God, and if we cannot preach the bad news, how can we preach the good news of salvation?
July 15, 2009 at 10:03 am (Holiness of God)
Any understanding of the meaning of sin must begin with an understanding of the holiness of God. God is the benchmark in which we gain an understanding of what sin really is. “Every culture differentiates the sacred from the secular and has terminology to make that distinction. Canaan already had such terms when Israel adopted its language. The problem was that what was holy to the Canaanite was abominable to Jehovah. In Canaan the temple prostitute was a holy woman and the homosexual priest was a holy man (cf. Gen. 38:21-23; Deut. 23:17-18). You see, sin is defined by any person’s concept of “God.” If God is a loving, easygoing pushover whose love for man overrides His own holiness, then they will live and respond in conjunction with that belief. If one believes that a loving God would not send anyone to an eternal torment in hell for sin, then their life and actions will most likely reflect that. Some believe that the way to heaven is determined by God weighing their good and bad in the balance, and if the good outweighs the bad, then they will go to heaven. Our concept of God determines our response to that “God.” What one considers holy determines how they will live. No person lives beyond his or her concept of God.
July 14, 2009 at 6:28 am (Atonement, Works)
“If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.” –Exodus 20:25
God’s altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labor might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all. All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word are defilements and pollutions. The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are put forth, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well if sinners would remember that so far from perfecting the Savior’s work, their carnal confidences only pollute and dishonor it. The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man’s chisel or hammer will be endured. There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with thy tools, and fall upon thy knees in humble supplication; and accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of thine atonement, and rest in Him alone.
Many professors may take warning from this morning’s text as to the doctrines which they believe. There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord.
July 13, 2009 at 6:52 am (Holiness of God, Lifestyle, Sanctification)
1 TIMOTHY 4:7b-9 “While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present
life and also for the life to come” (v. 8).
The problems Timothy confronted in Ephesus were such that many of the Christians there no longer paid close attention to the biblical gospel. Instead, they had become focused on speculative matters such as the lives of those many individuals whom Scripture names in its genealogies without telling us anything else about them (1 Tim. 1:3-4). Correcting this error meant that the leaders in Ephesus had to abandon their speculations and get back to the foundations of the faith. This charge Paul gave to Timothy so that he could convey it to the elders and teachers who were entertaining errors. The apostle did not hold back in calling these conjectures “irreverent, silly myths” (4:7a), or as maybe translated literally, “old wives’ tales,” for he wanted to make sure that everyone would see their futility.
Yet fixing the problem of false teaching, then as now, involves more than leaving falsehood behind. Diligent pursuit of truth and godliness is also required. The Greek word translated “train” in verse 7b is a form of the verb gymnazo, from which we get the English terms gymnasium and gymnastics. Paul is using an athletic metaphor, telling us that training in godliness requires persistent effort. Gymnasts and other athletes have to train for months and years to hone their skills; similarly, we must realize that godliness and holiness are not developed overnight. Regular prayer, Bible study, worship, fellowship, and the like are necessary if we would subdue our flesh and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26). Matthew Henry says, “Those who would be godly must train themselves to be godly; it requires a constant exercise.”
Godliness, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4:8, brings eternal benefits. We have been given everything that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), and as we make an effort to supplement our faith with virtue, love, self-control, and a host of other virtues, we will grow in our full assurance of salvation and even find ourselves with a greater reward in the life to come (vv. 4-11; see also Matt. 25:14-30). All of this is possible only through the grace of God who is the one who granted us the ability to have faith in the first place (Eph. 2:8-9). +
Godliness and holiness, mature saints will tell you, are virtues that reinforce themselves. As we grow in holiness we become more aware of our own sin and, consequently, our own need for His empowering to defeat sin and become even more holy. Where does the development of a life that pleases God rank in your scale of priorities? What can you do this very day to expand
your knowledge and practice of that which pleases God?
July 10, 2009 at 4:04 am (Total Depravity, Works)
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
July 8, 2009 at 9:41 am (Atonement, Calvinism, Salvation, Will - God's)
Tags: Elect
Reformation Study Bible notes:
July 6, 2009 at 7:38 am (Israel, Regeneration)
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
New Bible Commentary:
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:
