Pride and Humility

...God is opposed to the proud, 

but gives grace to the humble.

For though the Lord is exalted,

yet He regards the lowly, but 

the haughty He knows from afar.

James 4:6, Psalm 138:6

Here are ten things the Bible teaches us about pride and humility. 

  1. Pride ultimately exalts itself over God, and humility ultimately makes itself low before God.  

  2. Pride pushes God away, while humility draws near to God.  

  3. Pride depends on itself, while humility depends on God.  

  4. Pride boasts on itself, while humility boasts on God.  

  5. Pride credits itself, while humility credits God. 

  6. Pride follows its own path, while humility follows God's path.  

  7. Pride is self-seeking, while humility is God-seeking.  

  8. Pride always leads to disobedience, while humility always leads to obedience.  

  9. Pride is the opposite of godliness, while humility promotes godliness. 

10. The proud will be destroyed from the earth, while the humble will inherit the earth.

A Working Definition of Legalism

Legalism is a morality, a code of conduct,
which holds to a form of godliness, which 
smells of religion, which promises acceptance;
but ultimately is not grounded in Christ, in 
His person and His completed work.

Whitefield and Pastoral Leadership

In his biography of George Whitefield (Volume II page 155), Arnold Dallimore gives us some insight into George Whitefield as a leader.  

...Whitefield did exercise an effective leadership of this movement. It was not, however, a leadership by domination and the giving of commands; rather it was one of affection and example. Most of the exhorters had been converted under his ministry and looked on him, as many of them stated, as a spiritual father  In turn, holding him in such high esteem and seeing in him an embodiment of so much of their own Christian ideal, they delighted to be his co-laborers and to co-operate with his plans. Whitefield was inflexible in matters of moral rectitude and expected the men to maintain a life of strong Christian discipline and tremendous activity, but in general his relationship with the people and exhorters throughout his movement was by his heart-felt concern, his unfailing encouragement, and his personal example. (Italics mine)

If you think about it, this is where pastoral leadership, spiritual leadership starts. And these elements should never depart or be de-emphasized.

Christmas and the Incarnation

As we celebrate the incarnation, the appearing of God in the flesh, I thought this quote from Charles Spurgeon would be appropriate, both for its profundity, and its succinctness.  It is taken from Steve Lawson's book The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon page 91.

"He is not humanity deified.

He is not Godhead humanized.

He is God. He is man. He is all

that God is, and all that man is

as God created Him."

And because Jesus Christ is both God and man, He then is solely and uniquely qualified to be the the Savior. The Word became flesh. He was the only begotten God, the Savior born for us in the city of David, Christ the Lord.  So along with the angels let us praise God by saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." (Luke 2:14).  

Let us preach this Savior and His salvation.  Let us tell the world of the appearing of the grace, kindness, and the love of God for mankind in the birth of Christ.  For Christmas is the heart of the gospel message.

Christ, Our Example

but so that the world may know that I love the Father,

I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.

John 14:31a

As Christians, we know that Christ is our model, our exemplar, and as such view Him as the example of how we are to live our Christian life.  While this is true and right, what we miss so often is that He is the model for how our relationship with our heavenly Father should look, as well.  

I don't know if you have ever thought about what your relationship with God should look like, but to know what it should look like you have to look no further than Christ.  In going through the Gospel of John, you will see Christ in a much more personal way than in the other gospels, and one of things you will notice about Him is His relationship with the Father; and how He fulfills all righteousness by first fulfilling the greatest commandment, which is to love the Father above all else.  

Loving the Father was His greatest desire and was the springboard for all that He did.  As you go through the Gospel of John you will come across verses that give you insight into His love of the Father and how that is manifested in His life here on earth.  Let's look at some of them:

John 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish all His work.

John 5:19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son does in like manner.

John 5:30 I can do nothing on My own initiative....I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 8:28b-29...and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father has taught Me.  And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.

John 12:49-50 For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.  I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.  

So we see in these verses that the things Jesus did were what He saw the Father doing and the things He said were what the Father gave Him to say.  We also see that what sustained and nourished Him was doing the will of the Father, and that He always did what pleased the Father.  And what was His motivation, His foundation, if you will, for this great desire to please God and accomplish the Father's will in His life.  We see it expressed in John 14:31 above. Out of His great love for the Father came forth the desire to please the Father, and the desire to please the Father manifested itself in His obedience to the Father.

And what kind of obedience was this? It was a loving obedience.  It is obedience that was born out of love and its accompanying desire to please the One who is the object of that love.  My friends, it is to be the same for us.  Our obedience to the Father should not be a legalistic obedience or the obedience of duty or the obedience of fear, but an obedience that springs forth from a heart full of love for our heavenly Father.  In fact, our obedience is directly connected to our love.  This is why Jesus told His disciples (and is meant for us, too), "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."  Jesus could make this statement without the slightest twinge of the guilt of hypocrisy, because that is exactly what He did.

So let us love the Father and the Son by being obedient to them, and may our obedience to them be an obedience born out of love; and may our love and its obedience know no bounds.

  

The Surpassing Value

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view

of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus

my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of

all things, and count them but rubbish so that 

I may gain Christ.

Philippians 3:8

The other day I was thinking about my relationship with Christ, and how its value far surpasses anything else; and how He is worth the sacrifices I make for Him   And in the process of thinking about this, I had a scene come into my mind.  A scene that comes up occasionally when thinking on sacrificing for the Lord, and how He is worth sacrificing for.  It is a scene from my own imagination, that came about as a result of reading a missionary biography a few years back.  I wish I could remember the missionary's name, and where I read it, but here is the gist of it.  

There was a family that felt led of the Lord to go and witness to the natives of the New Hebrides, and were dropped off on the island to begin their ministry.  The inhabitants were cannibals, and were fierce warriors.  Over the next couple of years the children and the wife died and were buried, and the father/husband slept on their graves every night for fear that the cannibals would dig up their graves.  This man would later remarry and return to the island to continue to share the gospel with these people.  Of course, there is more to the story, but the scene that keeps coming to my mind is one where this man, having given up all his possessions, comforts, and security to come to this foreign and hostile land; and then losing his entire family, is alone in the darkness and stretched out over the graves of his wife and children.  And in my mind the man is proclaiming to the Lord, "You are worth it!  You are worth it!"

My friends, I don't know what you are giving up to serve the Savior.  I don't know what sacrifices you are making or have made; but I do know this, "He is worth it!  He is worth it!"  He is worth the work of our faith and the labor of our love.  He is worth the taking up of our cross. He is worth the suffering of shame for His name sake.  He is the pearl of great price who is worth all of what we have.  He is the One who paid it all, and so He is the one who is worth it all.  Let us take our lives and offer them up, so that along with Paul, we too may gain Christ and may be found in Him on that day. 

Thoughts on the Gospel

The gospel is not a sale to be made,

but a story to be told.

The gospel is not about man making his peace with God,

but about what God has done to reconcile man to Himself.


You don't speak the gospel at people,
but you share the gospel with people.

The gospel is not about what man must do

to come to God, but about what God has done

to bring man to Himself.

The true gospel will always point you
toward Christ and away from yourself.

The gospel presents salvation as the
need, and Christ as the answer.

Christ and Our Sin

...our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus

who gave Himself for us to redeem us

from every lawless deed.

Titus 2:13b-14a

Redeem, lutroo in the Greek.  It means to set one free by means of a ransom.  Every lawless deed (NASB)/all lawlessness (ESV), pas anomia in the Greek.  The phrase here means every type, every form , every kind of sin.

So this small section in Titus tells us that our great God and Savior Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, to ransom us and set us free from any and all sin.  This is not a broad brush of sins in a general sense, but sins in a particular sense.  Christ did not die for sins in general, but sins in particular.  He died for our particular sins, each and every one of them.  Therefore, it is not a universal salvation, but a particular salvation.  We have been freed from the penalty and power of every type and every form of sin.

The ransom has been paid and we have been set free from the bondage and power of each and every type of sin, every kind of sin.  Therefore there is absolutely no sin that can have dominion over us.  We are no longer slaves to sin, any sin, there is no longer any sin that can be master over us.  That means that we have been released from the power of pornography, immorality, homosexuality, bitterness, selfishness, gluttony, arrogance, lying, unforgiveness, and a host of other sins.  Christ has paid the price with His very own blood, and has effected our ransom so that we would be set free from the power and dominion of any sin. 

He has also redeemed us, set us free, from the penalty of each and every sin.  Each and every sin has a just recompense and each and every sin must be accounted for; and Christ has paid the penalty for each and every one of our sins for us.  Therefore we have been released from the damning effect of each and every sin, the eternal consequences of each and every sin, the eternal weight of judgment and the eternal wrath of God for each and every sin.

So, how dare we take sin lightly, any sin, so as to not even speak of sin at all.  There is no such thing as a little sin, or an innocuous sin.  There is no such thing as an inconsequential sin.  Each and every sin must be, and will be, accounted for.  Each and every sin has its just penalty and must be atoned for.  Each and every sin merits the eternal wrath of God, and no sin is overlooked or swept under the rug by God.  Christ redeemed us, each and every one of us, by paying the redemption price for each and every sin for us all.  So let us not take our sin(s) lightly, don't blow them off, don't shrug them off because they seem too small.  Confess your sin, be broken and contrite over your sin, each and every one of them; because Christ died for each and every one, to pays its penalty and to set you free from that sin.

This is the great salvation we are not to neglect.  Let us pay great attention, and give great praise to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the greatness of His saving us.

Apart from His Word

The word of God is integral in living the Christian life.  In fact, it is the key to living the Christian life, and we can't live the Christian life apart from it. It is a necessary ingredient that must be included in our life.

So, the word of God is required...

To give us the wisdom that leads to salvation.
To live a holy life.
To live a life that pleases Him.
To live a spiritually fruitful life.
To live a meaningful life.
To live a life that produces eternal rewards.
To live a life that blesses others.
To live an exemplary life.
To live of life of integrity.
To live a life that has substance to it.
To live a life of joy.
To live a life that has eternal value.
To live a life that brings Him glory.
To live a life without regret.
To live a life that imitates Him.
To live a life that testifies of Him.
To live a life that proclaims I am a Christian.
To know His will for our life.
To grow in grace.
To grow in our knowledge of Him.
To increase our faith.
To enlarge our heart.
To grow in our love for God and for others.


Apart from His word, it is impossible to live the Christian life. It is truly the Christians's treasure.

The Key to Pressing On

In Philippians 3:12-14 Paul talks about his pressing on and reaching forward.  For Paul, this life was about preparing for the next.  What a great perspective, and Paul shares that perspective with Titus in Titus 2:13, when he talks about looking forward to the blessed hope and the appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.  This attitude of looking forward to heaven, looking forward to the resurrection, looking forward to glory, keeps the present in perspective.  It lets us know that there is something greater, something better, something richer, something more beautiful, something everlasting, and therefore something much much more than all this present world has to offer, which awaits us in the life to come.

While this is the perspective we are to have, what is the key for us in living out life, daily living out life, in the here and now; the pressing on for the upward call of Christ Jesus?  Again, Paul gives us the answer, and the key to us pressing on in this life, in both waiting and preparing, is faithfulness.  Not too sexy is it? But it is the key.  Paul gives us insight into this in I Timothy 1:12 when he tells us that the Lord put him into service because He considered Paul faithful.  Paul also mentions the issue of faithfulness in I Corinthians 4:2 when he said that the requirement for stewardship is faithfulness/trustworthiness (which parallels with the parable of the talents).  He echoes this in II Timothy 2:3-6 when he uses the metaphors of the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer; and what ties them all together is that they are all faithful in their undertakings.  Paul finishes this line of thinking later with a personal example in II Timothy 4:5-8 when he tells Timothy to fully complete his ministry, and then tells Timothy that is exactly what he, himself, has done..."I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."   In other words, Paul has been faithful to the Lord, faithful to his calling, faithful to fulfill to completion his ministry, faithful to the end of his life here on earth. 

Psalm 37:5 also speaks to the importance of faithfulness.  In this verse we get the picture that our faithfulness should both grow and flourish, and is part of our growing in the Lord.  In Hosea 4:1, what the Lord had against the inhabitants of Israel, is that they were not being faithful.

Christ, Himself,  talks about faithfulness in Luke 16:10 and 19:17, and the context is being faithful in the small things given now as a prelude to being entrusted with true riches in eternity.

Faithfulness can also be described and manifested in loyalty, fidelity,and trustworthiness, but it is not momentary loyalty, fidelity, and trustworthiness.  It is the loyalty, fidelity, and trustworthiness of a lifetime, not just when it is easy or convenient; but in season and out of season.  It is to put your hand to the plow and to not look back, and to continue until the plowing is finished.  It is faithfulness in pressing on, pressing on to the finish.

Without faithfulness, not only can there be no pressing on, there can really be no Christian life.  This is the true perseverance of the saints, the perseverance in faithfulness.

Take a Look at Your Life

Take a step back and look at your life, but look at it with spiritual eyes with this verse in mind, Philippians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure.  

The at work in this verse is in the present tense, which means His work in us, in our inner man, is an ongoing activity.  The active voice in this verb means that it is God who initiates the action, who is responsible for the activity.  So we see that God has initiated an ongoing activity in our life in order to accomplish His good pleasure in our life.

So, can you see where God is working in you, or has been working in you over a period of time?  Can you see where He is developing godly character, and where He is polishing a facet of the diamond of Christlikeness in you so that it will shine more brightly?  Can you see where He is busy rooting out and destroying entrenched sin?  Can you see where He is transforming your mind to think more like Him and think of Him more; and replacing the false with the true?  Can you see where He is changing the way you view life, others, and yourself?  Can you see where He is weaving the thread of godliness more and more into the the fabric of your character?

The great work of salvation never stops.  The gospel constantly bears its fruit in us, reproducing the life of Christ in us.  So take a step back and look at what God is busy doing in you, and offer up a prayer of gratitude that He is busy working His good pleasure in you so that you will be able to please Him all the more.

A Christian Response to the Election

I am hoping that the elections this week will be the final stroke that causes the Christians in America to turn and place their hope on the Lord, and stop placing their hope on politicians and elections to stem the tide of immorality and depravity that has been sweeping through our nation like a giant tsunami over the last few decades.  The people of this country have elected someone with the same morality as theirs, and have kept a party in power that has as its professed agenda, the murder of the innocent and defenseless unborn and the legitimizing of depraved sexual behavior.  As I said in a previous post, who we elect is a clear barometer of where this country is morally; and the moral wreckage of our country is a greater calamity and more disastrous than the wreckage from Hurricane Sandy.  Even if the other candidate had won, he would have no power to combat the rampant evil and its carnage in our land, he would not be the deliverer or the healer...even if he was an evangelical Christian instead of a Mormon.

Politicians cannot deliver, only the Lord can. Politicians cannot heal, only the Lord can.  A good case study is reading through the books of Kings and Chronicles; for even when a good, God-fearing and righteous king was reigning in Israel, the people were not changed.  So when an evil king took over the throne, the people were back to being worse than ever.  Why?  As Peter tells us, "The dog returns to its vomit, and the pig to its mud."  When the demon is swept out of the house, and then returns, he brings seven times as many demons back with him.  So let's don't be naive and think, that if someone else would have gotten elected things would get any better spiritually.

So how do we respond, as Christians?  By turning to the Lord, and if this election doesn't highlight the necessity of  the people of God turning to God for deliverance, I don't know what would.  How then do we turn to the Lord?

1. Pray and confess, or should I say confess and pray.  First for our own sins, then for the sins of the Church in America, and then for the sins of our country.  Follow the model of Daniel as he prayed and confessed his and his countrymen's sins to the Lord, and asked for deliverance from the God-imposed captivity for their decades of sinfulness (which is nothing more than rebellion against God).  Next, pray for gospel opportunities and gospel receptiveness.  It is the gospel that will change this country...one person at a time, as the gospel is the only known antidote for sin; and the sin of a country is the total of the sin of its people.  

2. Act...act godly.  Be godly everyday as you follow the instructions of Paul in Titus 2:12 by renouncing and rejecting ungodliness and worldly desires, and at the same time living wisely, righteously, and godly in this present time.  This is how you go about being salt (a preservative that stops corruption when it encounters it) and light (that exposes sin and does not let it hide, while at the same time showing what godliness looks like).  This draws the line, a distinct line, between what is godly and what is not, and who is godly and who is not; so that the unbeliever can see his sin clearly, and clearly know which side of the line he is on.  As Paul quotes the OT in I Corinthians, "Come out from their midst and be separate."  It is not being relevant to the culture that attracts, but being distinct from the culture.

3. Speak...the truth; but don't speak it in a condemning manner, but speak it in love. Speak so that others will be reconciled to Christ and always be ready to share your confident expectation of heaven.  Point out their sin, and then point them to the Savior.  Again, not in a condemning way, but as someone who is genuinely concerned for their soul and its eternal state.

4. Seek...the Lord and His righteousness.  Seek to please Him above pleasing men.  In the final analysis, He is the only One whose approval is necessary.  We can be God-seekers or pleasure-seekers, God-seekers or self-seeking.  Seeking the Lord above all else guarantees that our treasures are being laid up in heaven.

5. Understand...that if the world hated the Lord it will hate you.  Expect...persecution and ridicule, censure and ostracization, slander and malice.  If they persecuted the Lord they will persecute you.  Being distinct from the culture means you stand out as being different, and therefore you will be readily targeted.  But remember when you are being reviled and mistreated for His sake, His glory rests upon you and you are storing up for yourself an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

Friends and fellow Christians, now is the time for Christ to shine more brightly in us than ever before.  Now is the time for us to seek Him more than ever before.  Now is the time for us to take our faith and its accompanying commitment more seriously than ever before.  Now is the time for us to be a better witness, and to witness more than ever before.  Yes, it is only the Lord who can turn this country around, but He has always used means to accomplish His purpose; and we as His body are His chief means.  So let us follow the admonition of Paul in II Timothy 2:21 and cleanse ourselves from all the stains of this world so that we can be holy, useful to the Master, and fit for every good work.

Saying "NO"

We are surrounded by a world that says "no" to nothing.  When we are surrounded by this sort of mentality...then suddenly to be told that in the Christian life there is to be this strong negative aspect of saying "no" to things and "no" to self, it must seem hard.  And if it does not feel hard to us, we are not really letting it speak to us...

We have a society that holds itself back from nothing...Any concept of a real "no" is avoided as much as possible...Absolutes of any kind, ethical principles, everything must give in to affluence and selfish personal peace...

Of course, this environment of--not saying "no"--fits exactly into our natural disposition, because, since the fall of man, we do not want to deny ourselves...And this natural disposition fits in exactly with the environment which surrounds us the the twentieth century.

Francis Schaeffer as quoted in
To Guard the Deposit
Commentary on I & II Timothy and Titus
Bryan Chappell and Kent Hughes
Page 345

A Credible Gospel

Does the way we live our lives proclaim

that the gospel makes a difference?  Does

the way we live our lives give credibility

to the gospel?  Does the way we live our

lives give credibility to our confession that

we belong to Jesus Christ?

Being Ambassadors for Christ

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled

us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry

of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ

reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their 

trespasses against them, and He has committed to 

us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are 

ambassadors for Christ, as though God were 

making an appeal through us; we beg you on

behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

II Corinthians 5:18-20

To be an ambassador of Christ we must speak

for Christ by speaking as Christ would speak,

and act for Christ by acting as Christ would act.

Which really means, that we live for Christ by

living as Christ would live.

Luther and the Contemporary Church

For the anniversary of the Reformation, Carl Trueman writes on how Luther would view the contemporary church and its issues.  Carl at his pithy best.


http://www.reformation21.org/articles/95-theses-on-martin-luther-against-the-selfindulgences-of-the-modern-church.php?utm_source=Twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

For Those of Us Who Preach

For those of us who preach, we would do well 

to remember that we are nothing special, but His 

word is.  It is not our words that save, and heal,

and bless, and restore; but His.  It is not our

words that have power and cut to the heart, 

but His.  It is not our gospel, but His. It is not 

our eloquence, but His unction that moves 

the heart. We are earthen vessels who 

preach the unfathomable riches of Christ.  

We are not the attraction, but merely the messenger.

A Prayer for Sunday...A Prayer for Worship

In the congregations I shall bless the Lord.

I will tell of Your name to my brethren;

In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that

is within me, bless His holy name.

Psalms 26:12b, 22:22, 103:1

Lord, cause us to ever be mindful of

why we are gathered here today.  May

You be blessed in our praying, in our 

praises, and in the preaching; and may

all of these bring blessing to Your holy name.

To You and You alone, as Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit belong blessing, honor, 

and glory.  May blessing and glory be

given to You through us this day.

Amen.

The Source of Sin

Battling sin and its accompanying temptations is an internal battle.  As much as the temptation might come from the outside of us, it is the inside of us where the battle takes place.  Sin always occurs in the heart, before it manifests itself in our actions or behaviors.  James 1:14 tells us this, "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust."  Notice here that is is not someone else's lusts that we are battling against, but our own; it is not someone else's lusts that we are dealing with, but our own. This was Paul's point in Romans 7 as he talked about indwelling sin.

Unlike the old comedy skit by Flip Wilson, where he cried out, "The devil made me do it!"; we are complicit in our sin, because it starts and ends with us.  The source of sin is within, within each one of us; and although we have been washed and made clean through regeneration, we still live in a body where sin lurks, and where it is all too ready to respond to temptation, all too ready to indulge its desires in both our flesh and our mind (Ephesians 2:3).  James paints a graphic picture for us in 1:21 where he tells us that filthiness and wickedness still remain with us, as part of us.

What's the point?  Be aware, be very aware of the ease with which we are tempted.  Be aware, of how easy it is to sin.  Be aware that we, as Christians, are still in a body of unredeemed flesh, in which filthiness and wickedness still remain.  This is why Christ was chiding His apostles when they could not even fight their flesh to stay awake; and told them to watch and pray that they might not enter into temptation, because even though their spirit was willing, their flesh was weak.  This is also why we are told in the Lord's prayer to  pray to be led away from temptation and to pray that evil would not have its way with us.

So let us not be lulled to sleep, let us not be deceived, as sin is still crouching at the door desiring to master us; just as it has done from the beginning (Genesis 4:7).  But let us be strong in the Lord, and the strength of his might, let us be watchful and praying, let us be ever diligent in awareness of our own weakness.  Let us who stand, take heed lest we fall.

Humor and Perspective

Not only do Atheists have no song, they also have no hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogta8alHiU

Eternal Life

Eternal life is not only everlasting

but also shares the qualities of

the life of God Himself,  its

indestructibility and its joy.

I. H. Marshall

The Pastoral Epistles

Page 125

Keeping Elections in Their Proper Perspective

One of the great blessings and freedoms we have in our land is the ability to vote and have a voice in those who occupy the places of decision and determination in the governmental system that rules over us.  We have that privilege from city to county to state to the federal level.  It is a freedom and blessing that we should not take for granted; and it is a responsibility that we should not take lightly.  As Christians, in considering elections, politics, and the state and future of our governing entity we should also keep in mind that in all of this the Lord is still sovereign over the affairs of man, including those who govern and what form the governing system takes,  from despots and dictators, to military juntas, to kings, and to elected officials.

So let’s start with understanding the sovereignty and providence of God as it regards governing authorities and countries.  First, Romans 13:1-7 tells us all governing authorities that exist have been established by God, and they have a God ordained purpose.  So governments are no accident, but necessary and purposeful.  Another good place to gain insight is in the book of Daniel, as he was held captive in the most powerful empire in the world at that time. 

Daniel 2:20-21 Daniel said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him.  It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings.  Here Daniel understands that the Lord is in charge of this kingdom, its king, and its time on the earth.

Daniel 4:24-25…this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king: that you be driven away from mankind and your swelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.  This was Daniel’s pronouncement of God’s judgment on the king of Babylon, the most powerful king on the planet. 

God determines who rules, whether it is a king or an elected official or a military takeover.  Yes, we vote and campaign, but in the end it is the Lord who works in and through the process and determines the outcome.

What about the nations, their time and place in history, and their rise to power and fall from power.  Let’s look to Acts for this:

Acts 17:24 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.

Yes, just as the Lord removes kings and establishes kings, He also establishes nations and removes nations; having already determined the length of time of their existence and their physical boundaries. 

So let us keep the elections in perspective.  God is ultimately in charge and works all things after the counsel of His will in accordance with His eternal purpose, the one purpose which runs through the millennia of the ages and the one purpose to which everything works together to accomplish. 

Also, we need to keep the end in mind, the end toward which all things are working together.  The end in which our Lord Jesus Christ shall come back to earth to set up His physical kingdom.  This is pictured for us in Daniel chapter two, especially verses 44-45; and also in Daniel chapter seven  (Also, Revelation 17:12-18).  God is at work even now in bringing all this to pass, and our country has its own part to play in all of this. 

In praying about an election we should always ask the Lord for His mercy and compassion upon us in not giving us as a city, state, or country what we deserve in the way of leadership.  There is no such thing as a Christian city or state or country, as these entities are made up of the people that inhabit them.  As those people go morally, so goes their government.  We have seen this over the last couple of decades here in our country as sin and an anti-God attitude has taken the driver’s seat in our culture.  And as the church has less and less influence upon our culture, we see the exacerbation of immorality of every kind, and the loss of a Christian consensus in our culture.  Therefore, we see God’s judgment on the people of a nation as the outcome of their voting highlights the extent of their degradation and depravity.  God gives them the desires of their heart by giving them over to a deeper level of depravity.  So, in essence, they elect the person they both desire and deserve.  You can see this pattern in Romans 1:18-32.

With all of this, what should we keep in mind regarding the current election?

*We are electing a government official, not a pastor or a spiritual leader.
*The elections do not determine the spiritual course of our country, but are an indicator of the spiritual    condition of our country.
*As Christians, part of the way we are salt and light in this culture is through our vote.
*There is never a perfect person to vote for.
*However, decisions are never made in a moral vacuum.
*All officials bring their morality into the office with them.
*As such, we should vote for the person that would bring a greater level of morality to the position.
*We should remember that that elected officials also appoint officials of like mind and morality.
*As citizens, voting is part of our civic responsibility.
*As Christians, we should be a citizen of this country as unto the Lord, and therefore be the best citizen we can be.
*We must not pin our hopes upon man, any man, but on the Lord.  Regardless of who gets elected the Lord is in charge, and in His good providence this elected official is part of God's plan for the culmination of all earthly kingdoms into the kingdom of His Son.

Remember, that we are instructed in I Timothy 2:1-2 to include those who rule over us in our prayers; and should do this keeping in mind Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes."

Pastors and Discouragement

This is some interesting information regarding pastors being discouraged or lonely.  What I did find interesting is the correlation between age and being discouraged or lonely.  I wonder if it is purely an age issue or an age/length of time in the ministry issue.  Here is the link.

http://www.thomrainer.com/2012/09/pastors-are-hurting.php

When the Gospel is Banned from the Church

There are times you want to say things about things that have made an impression on you or affected you or stirred you up. This is one of those times, but it is also one of those times that I know that I won't be able to convey the entirety of what I was thinking and feeling, maybe because I had several thoughts and feelings about what happened.  In the big scheme of things, well, even in the little scheme of things, it probably isn't that big.  But, to me, it is a sign of where we are in our life in the church here in the US; and it bothered me. It made me a little sick at my stomach, it caused me to have an anti-smalzy reaction, made my hypocrite alarm go off, and left me with sense of disgust. And, I'll admit, it played right into my prejudice towards the types of churches I mentioned in this recent post http://morris-pressingon.blogspot.com/2012/08/another-gospel.html

This was brought about when I was recently standing in line at Starbucks.  Our Starbucks is the number two grossing Starbucks in the state of Texas, so you usually have a bit of a wait to make your order.  So as I was waiting in line, a thirty-something year old man came in and queued up behind me.  As we were waiting he made a phone call, and being as close as we were, I could not help but hear some of the conversation.  His tone was fairly crass for most of the conversation, and he used a couple of inappropriate terms that were in step with the tone of the conversation.  I chalked it up to just another person in the world doing what people in the world do.  Well, after I received my order I was talking to a friend of mine, and up walks this same man who was having the conversation.  My friend introduced us, and lo and behold, this man was on staff at one of the local churches that were referenced above.  In fact, he was the staff person in charge of the elementary school age children.  After my friend told him that I was a pastor the tone of his voice changed and he was so sugary that my anti-smalzy alarm went off; I mean it was to the point of being insincere.  You would not have been able to reconcile the person in line behind me with the person I was introduced to.

I wondered if there was any conviction on his part about having two personas, or if he even sees the problem with having two different personas, or if he even is aware that he has two personas.  One, which is obviously the way he normally is, and the other, which is his church staff persona.  Two masks representing two different people.  But, I don't think that those who hold to a Moralistic Therapeutic Deism philosophy (see post referenced above) see any problem with hypocrisy such as this.  They don't make the connection between their profession and their life, in fact they don't see that there should be a connection to what you profess and how you live.  And just to add to this, another man told me of a conversation he recently had with a member of one of the churches I alluded to in the post above.  They were telling him about how they would follow their pastor no matter where he went, and then in the same conversation talked about getting drunk the last weekend and having a hang-over the next day.  Again, seeing no problem with talking about being a church member and drinking so much you feel bad the next day, all in the same conversation.

This bothers me for these people, and reminds me of Titus 1:15-16.  I am concerned for their spiritual state, that they can go to church, or be a staff member at a church, and not see the disconnect between what they say they are and how they live.  I am concerned not only for them, but for others in those churches, and also for the churches themselves.  But you see, when you are preaching messages designed to make people feel better about themselves, or improve their worldly lives, or preaching sermons designed to attract the worldly,  this is a logical result.  And I wish these were isolated incidents, but they are not.

You might say, Morris, we have always had hypocrites in the church and always will.  And I would agree with you, but at the same time, I don't think this type of compartmentalization of the Christian life, this type of disconnect between profession and lifestyle has ever been this rampant and this rife in our churches, nor has it ever been as accepted as normal to the point that most have become oblivious to it, as it is now.

If you never preach and teach on sin, never talk about man's sinfulness then there is never a need for a Savior.  If people do not see their sinfulness, then they won't see the disconnect between their profession and their lifestyle, much less see their need for a Savior.  The true Gospel tells man the truth about his sin, his  separation from God and his alienation from God on account of his sin.  The true Gospel tells man of God's remedy in Christ for his sin and the reconciliation with God that is provided through Christ.  The true Gospel tells man the truth about himself, not so he will feel good about himself, but so he will place his faith in what God has done for him in Christ.  And, actually, nothing should make you feel better than to know the mercy, grace, love, and compassion of God that He bestows upon you in salvation.

Unfortunately, this Gospel, the true Gospel, has been banned from so many churches and replaced with the false gospel of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, the false gospel of self.  Friends, let us make sure the true Gospel is preached in our churches.  Hold fast to the faithful word, do not be ashamed of the Gospel, as it is God's power to save, to heal, to restore, to reconcile, to make holy.  If there will be hypocrites in our churches, let it not be because we have banned the true Gospel.

Pastor-Holistically Disciple Your People

We as pastors must disciple (train, educate, teach, counsel, and encourage) our people with the finished product in mind, which is our people being complete in Christ, and Christ being fully formed in our people.  We must design the ministries of our church with this in mind, and we must engage our staff as well.  A tall task, the task of a lifetime, both for our people and for us. 

This means that our goal cannot be making them Reformed, or Covenental, or Dispensational, or Denominational.  Our goal cannot only be for them to be a good tither, or someone who gets grace, or more loving, or more patient, or happier, or better adjusted, or forgiving, or more knowledgable, or more....I think you can get my drift here.  Our goal for them must be all of Christ, in all of His fullness.  This will take you, your staff, and your church all pulling in the same direction with the same goal in mind.  Paul was laboring so that Christ would be fully formed in those whom he taught, so must we. 

Don't be a one-dimensional discipler, don't be a hobby horse pastor, have it as your goal to teach and train the whole person; so that when you see them, you see Christ in them, and the longer they are under your care, the more of Christ you see in them.

Growing in Sanctification

Growing in sanctification is growing in personal holiness.  As such it is a practical, progressive, holiness.  It is a growth in holiness that, as Peter puts it in II Peter 1:8, leaves us neither useless nor unfruitful in our knowledge of Him.  So then, growing in holiness is also growing in our practical knowledge of Him.  Conversely, as our practical knowledge of Him grows, so does our holiness; and as our holiness grows, so does our sensitivity to sin.  As such, we will repent more readily and more deeply and more completely.

Additionally, as we grow in sanctification we also grow in our faith; and the heights of holiness we attain are matched by the depth of our faith.  Growth in faith gives us a greater ability to trust His Word, to trust in Him, to entrust ourselves over to Him regardless of the situation.  This depth of faith is really the bedrock of our sanctification and is the rich soil out of which our holiness grows.

Also, growing in sanctification is also growing in love.  It is the enlarging of the heart to love Him more, to love your neighbor more, and to fervently love your fellow Christians.  It becomes the great motivation in your living out your Christian life, the great motivation in growing in your faith, the great motivation in your desire for holiness...the great motivation behind the sacrifice and service of your faith.  It is this love that gives you the desire, indeed the increasing desire, to please the Lord in every respect.  Since all the Law and the prophets are fulfilled in the commands to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as our self; then as we grow in our love for God and neighbor we will also be growing in holiness.

Growing in sanctification, therefore, is not an isolated event, but affects the whole of our spiritual life.  There is not an area or aspect of our spiritual life that is not touched.  We are set further and further apart from the person we used to be.  We become less like that old man, and become progressively more like the new man that is being conformed into the image of Christ; and in the daily renewing of our inner man we grow in all aspects into Him

Growing in sanctification, then, is the progressive reality of our salvation.  Friends, I hope this reality is yours.

Raising the Spiritual Bar

Pastors should not be afraid to set the spiritual bar for their people as high as it is set in Bible. Of course, the bar the Scripture sets is Jesus Christ, Himself. He is the One against whom we all are ultimately measured. He is the One whom we all are being conformed into, and it is Him that we all will be like on that day (Ephesians 4:11-15, Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:28, I John 3:2). If this is true, rather, because this is true, then pastors should be concerned with the personal holiness of their people, not their personal happiness.

Pastors need to exhort their people to be great Christians. They need to lay out an expectation for them to be the best Christians they can be. They need to entreat their flock to love the Lord with all their heart, so they will be filled with an ongoing desire to please Him. They must to encourage them to pursue Christ. They need to keep the Gospel fresh, so that the joy of  salvation will not grow stale. Pastors need to extol the greatness of God, so that the people's reverence for Him will not wane. They must not hide the cost of discipleship, but encourage their people to press on. They must prepare them to be diligent and to persevere, and cheer them on to not grow wearing in doing good.They must be faithful in giving them the Word, so by it all under their charge and care may grow with respect to their salvation.

This is tough and demanding, because if pastors raise the bar for their people then they must also raise the bar for themselves. They must then raise the bar for their own personal holiness and its pursuit; raise the bar for their personal Christ-likeness; raise the bar for their preaching and teaching; raise the bar for their spiritual leadership; raise the bar for their own diligence and perseverance; raise the bar for their worship; raise the bar for their prayer life; raise the bar for how they do church. But is that not the task pastor's have been assigned, is it not the stewardship they have been given? Is it not why the warning is given in James 3:1? Daunting as that may seem, His grace is sufficient, and it is the Lord that makes us all adequate as His servants.

Pastors, press on in the fulfillment of your calling. Press on to be the best shepherd you can be. Press on to be great shepherds of the sheep, as any less of an effort is a disservice to them, a dishonor to your calling, and a disappointment to the Master.  And on that day may you all hear, "Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master."

Made Clean in Christ

To the pure, all things are pure; 

but to those who are defiled and 

unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both

their mind and their conscience are

defiled.  They profess to know God,

but by their deeds they deny Him,

being detestable and disobedient and

worthless for any good deed.

Titus 1:15-16

What makes people worthless (unfit, unqualified, incapable, examined and rejected as useless) for any good deed?  Is it because they are detestable or disobedient?  No, because these are the by-products of the real issue.  Is it because they profess to know God, but deny Him through their deeds?  No, again, this hypocrisy is but a by-product of the root cause.  Is it because their mind and conscience are defiled?  Once again, no, as these are the result of their real condition.  Well, then, what is the root cause that renders one unfit for any good deed?  It is the one fact, the ultimate condition of their being...they are unbelieving...unbelieving in the Gospel, unbelieving in Christ as their sin-bearing substitute, unbelieving in the work of Christ, unbelieving in the person of Christ, unbelieving in the necessity of Christ, unbelieving in the awfulness of their own sinfulness and wickedness, unbelieving in their own personal defilement and its stench before God, unbelieving in God's own holiness and its demands upon them.  

What then does this mean in regards to unredeemed and unbelieving man's place before God?  It means that no matter what he does, it is not good.  It cannot be good.  It will never be good.  Why?  Because man's unbelief has defiled him and rendered him incapable of doing anything good; and, in fact, according to Titus 1:15 everything he touches becomes impure.  Well, what if they are fighting aids in Africa?  Impure!  Okay, what about feeding the hungry and clothing the poor?  Impure!  What if they are doing something to stop the sex-trafficking of young girls? Impure!  What about the person who donates a kidney or bone marrow?  Impure!  Surely, if they give their life to save another that would be good enough?  Sorry, still impure!  Why, you ask?  Because God has said so (Isaiah 64:6...and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.). Because God Himself is the standard (Matthew 5:45..you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect). Because He alone is good (Luke  18:19...Why do you call Me good?  No one is good, but God alone.) Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  

What then makes the believer pure, so pure, in fact, that all things are pure to him?  He is baptized into Christ, and Christ's righteousness has now become his (Romans 6:3-4).  Yes, he now has the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, and he is seen as righteous, just as Christ is righteous (II Corinthians 5:21, I Corinthians 1:30). He has been washed and made pure by Christ (John 13:8,15:3, Ephesians 5:26, Hebrews  10:22, I John 1:7).  This is the reality of being united with Christ.  We are now capable of performing good works (Titus 2-3, James 2), whereas before, nothing we did was good because we were incapable of doing anything good.

Once again we see the wonderful and magnificent benevolence, the gracious favor of God to those who come to Him in faith.  We are now able to please Him, to perform works appropriate to Him, and these works will follow us when we come back to rule and reign with Christ (Revelation 19:7-8).

So, my friends, are you depending on your own good works to save you?  Are you hanging your eternal destiny on what you have determined as meritorious?  Have you determined for yourself what is good? If so, how good is good enough?  How many deeds will it take?  Where is the bar of righteousness set?  How will you know if you have hit the mark?  Don't be blinded by your own self-righteousness.  Obtain the righteousness of Christ, the only Righteous One, by placing your faith on what He has done in your stead, by placing your faith in Him instead of yourself, by confessing that you are a sinner who can never be not just good enough, but good at all in the eyes of God.  Come to God acknowledging your own defilement, and ask Him to cleanse you and give to you the righteousness of His Son, which He will gladly do.

If you have already done this.  If you have already been made clean in Christ.  Then take this time to praise Him and thank Him for the Holy Spirit who indwells you and the righteousness He has placed you into.

Giving to the Lord

Giving to the Lord is an act of love,

not an act of duty.  When He has captured 

your heart, the money will follow.

Rejoice this Day

Rejoice this day!  Rejoice and be glad, 

rejoice and let your heart exult in your

salvation.  Give thanks to the Lord for

the greatness of His mercy to you.

Rejoice this day!  Rejoice in the eternal

love with which you have been loved, and 

in which you will be loved for all time.  Be 

thankful with a heart full of gratitude for His

bestowal of His great love upon you.

Rejoice this day!  Rejoice that your name

is graven upon His hand, and written in 

His book, never to be forgotten.  Give 

thanks that you are kept by the 

power of God. 

Rejoice this day!  Rejoice in the reality

of His indwelling presence.  Rejoice 

in the reality of His power at work

in your inner man.  Rejoice that sin

no longer has its way with you.  Give

Him thanks for sharing His holiness 

with you.

Rejoice this day!  Rejoice that He

is conforming you to the image of

His Son.  Rejoice that you are being

made complete in Him.  Give thanks

that the old self becomes less, and 

the new self becomes greater.

Rejoice this day!  Rejoice in the hope

laid up for you in heaven.  Rejoice in

the imperishable, undefiled and unfading

inheritance reserved in heaven for you. 

Give thanks to the Lord for preparing a 

place for you, and the reality of His

coming back for you to take you

to Himself forever.

Rejoice this day!  O, yes, rejoice this 

day for all the Lord has done for you.

Is it Us or God?---Enabled by the Spirit

By by the grace of God I am what I am,

and His grace toward me did not prove

vain; but I labored even more than all of them,

yet, not I, but the grace of God with me.

I Corinthians 15:10

...sinners are moved from death to life, from passivity to activity, as they are enabled by the Spirit to participate in Christ.  The new life of the Spirit in sanctification is received as a gift.  But it activates our capacities.  As we see in Jesus Christ, true humanity (in harmony with God) is active humanity--actively obedient to the Father, active in loving God and neighbor.  While Christians receive participation in Christ as a gift, the result of this reception is an enlivening of our capacities by the Spirit.  As Calvin says in the Bondage and Liberation of the Will, God does not "cause" faith or action in us without our assent. Yet "assent is properly called ours, but not in such a way that it should be understood to derive from us."  Declaring that God deserves the credit for the fruit of the preaching of the gospel, Calvin warns that "this is not because in doing everything by the power of his own Spirit [God] excludes the ministry of his servants, but so as to secure for himself the entire praise for the action, just as the effectiveness derives from him alone, and whatever labour people do without him is empty and barren."  Thus, communion with the Spirit is what makes our faith and action our own.  Stated differently, God does use our will , our mind, our ministry, and our efforts to preach the gospel and to live faithful Christian lives.  But wherever there is fruit, the credit should not be divided between God and us.  When we pray and the prayer is answered, we should not congratulate ourselves for praying with wisdom and diligence.  No.  In all things, we should give praise to God, because even sanctification is a gift, first and foremost, that we receive from God.

At this point, in seeing not only justification but also sanctification as a gift received in union with Christ, we are at the heart of the issue on an experiential level for Christians.  If sanctification is a matter of me drawing deeply on my self to do good things for God, then my own holiness--and my own effort--becomes an end in itself, and preaching should focus on Christ only to the extent that he is a moral exemplar who goads us to work harder.  Why?  Because in this way of thinking, since Christ's justifying work is done, it is up to us to achieve our sanctification.

J. Todd Billings

Union with Christ

Page 46

Our Great Purpose

We are to exalt his name because it is the great purpose of our beings.  For this we have been created.  As the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it in the first answer:  'Man's chief end
is to glorify God...". God has made us to praise, worship, and honour him--to recognize and declare all that we know and can learn about him.  By his Spirit we are to bring ourselves into line with him and his glory--so that, ever more fully, his name will be exalted in the world and heaven will come down to earth more and more......

......We, God's people, are the only beings whom he rescues from hell.  He makes us his children, transforms us into holiness and brings us to heaven, all by the person and work of his Son.  Our redemption displays so much about God--Father, Son, and Spirit.  In no one and nowhere else in the universe can such reality be displayed--'things into which angels long to look' (I Pet. 1:12).  What a wonder it is and will be for us alone to tell this story for all eternity!  Here is why, on earth and in heaven, we are to exalt his name together.  

Edward Donnelly
Let Us Exalt His Name Together
Banner of Truth
August/September 2012
Page 35

Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism = Another Gospel

Post cards, I am sure you get many of them, not so much from friends on vacation, but those which advertise the latest and greatest.  They are a good marketing tool, and a relatively inexpensive one.  And they are a marketing tool which many churches are using as a promotional piece.  I am sure, if you live in the United States, that you have received many over the span of the last decade.  Well, one of our church members gave me a post card he had received in the mail from an area church, which was promoting its up and coming sermon series.  He looked at me with a grin that was anticipating the response he knew was coming.

I did not disappoint him, but at the same time my heart was saddened by the latest iteration of what has come to be labeled as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, MTD for short.  It has become the religious philosophy, the religious viewpoint of our age, and unfortunately several of the churches in our area have knowingly or unknowingly succumbed to it.  MTD as a religious philosophy has also attached itself to a religious methodology that has become prevalent here in our country.  In their drive to be appealing to the masses, the Willow Creek, seeker sensitive, Purpose Driven adherents have assimilated this view of church and religion into their methodology.

This sermon series being promoted by a local church is a great example of how this philosophy has infiltrated the church.  Here is what the postcard said:

Life in the Permian Basin is a little crazy right now.

With unemployment low and the price of oil high,

opportunity is everywhere, but with that opportunity

comes new challenges.  Managing the balance of work,

relationships, finances, and recreation can be difficult 

at times.  But how should our faith influence our normal, 

but crazy everyday life?  Join us for "Babylon, Bucks,

Babes, and Brewskies,"  a new sermon series beginning

August 5.

Pretty catchy, eh, as each B word is the heading of that week's sermon?  You can come learn how to deal with, and find balance in, our crazy life here in the Permian Basin.  Besides being catchy and cool, it sounds as if it will be problem solving, help giving, encouraging, comforting, and anything but convicting or confronting.  You know, I wouldn't be quite as upset if this just wasn't so prevalent in our area.  Here are recent sermons/series from two other major churches in our area:

1. A four week series on God in the movies.

2. How to handle stress, and being too busy.

And these are the sermon topics for the last few months at these churches.  We have had other post cards from these and other churches over the last few years with similar topics.  Honestly, this is not new, as Robert Schuller (Self Esteem, the New Reformation), Emerson Fosdick, and Norman Vincent Peale espoused this philosophy during the last century.  We can also see elements of it during the Down-Grade controversy in England during the time of Charles Spurgeon. However, it has now become mainstream, and is the dominant philosophy/methodology in the religious life of our country, and its adherents know no denominational or tradition boundary.  What has bothered me is the blindness that so many who say they hold to the authority and inerrancy of the Sciptures have in this area.  Yes, even many of the young, restless, and reformed group are caught up in this as well. 

This philosophy exalts man and lowers God. It deemphasizes salvation and marginalizes the gospel. It eliminates sin from the church's vocabulary. Its emphasis is on happiness not holiness with the goal of personal betterment, not sanctification; in other words become a better you instead becoming more like Christ (which would automatically make you a better you, right?) The church service is designed to comfort you, not confront you; to entertain you, not train you; to make you feel better about yourself, not feel bad about your sin.  

MTD is nothing more than a refined legalism, with each individual determining his own set of rules. It redefines good to whatever each person determines is good. It bears the slogan, "Deeds not Creeds" proudly. It is a subtle form of self righteousness. It is narcissism with the veneer of religion, and plays to the exaltation of self, instead of the exaltation of God. It is all about what God can do and should do for the individual instead of the individual's responsibility to God. It is truly the religion of self as humility, thankfulness, and gratitude are foreign concepts.

Of course this is a different gospel. It is the gospel of self-improvement, self gratification, self-awareness, the gospel of anything that makes the self feel better....about its self. And we know from the Scripture that a different gospel is no gospel of all. This gospel of self does not save, it damns. It doesn't lead you to Christ, but leads you away from Him. It truly is the broadest of the broad paths that lead to destruction. 

Our Savior, the Savior of the true gospel, was self-emptying, self-denying, and self-sacrificing; and He has called us to do the same, and has said that these are what we must do to be a true disciple. 

My friends, be on guard against the leaven of self, perhaps the most pernicious of all the leaven.  Listen to Michael Horton as he gives us insight into this philosophy and how it is spread.

Michael Horton gives a good thumbnail sketch of MTD in this short interview.

http://youtu.be/OfnJ9lW8XxM

And he gives a more detailed presentation here.
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/conferences/christless-christianity-2010-west-coast/moralistic-therapeutic-deism/

The True Christian

The True Christian understands that his good works

are but the product of the grace of God in his life.

The True Christian

The true Christian understands that it is God's glory

to save sinners of every stripe:  from the social 

sophisticate to the social misfit, from upper class

 to no class, from the well-known to the unknown,

from the prince to the pauper.  It is His glory to save,

and to save all whom He saves.  The true Christian  

understands that is God's glory to save those who  

 are not just like him. 

It's Sunday

It's Sunday!

Are you honoring God by your praise?

Are you honoring God in your prayers?

Are you honoring God through your preaching?

Is honoring the Lord your first and greatest priority in your church service?

If not, then why have you gathered together?

The True Christian

The true Christian understands that he has been

united with Christ; and that once united with Christ

he can never be separated, torn, or carried away from Him.

The True Christian

The true Christian looks not at anything he has done,

or can do for his salvation, but looks to what Christ

has done for him.  He looks not at his deeds, but looks

to Christ's deeds.  He looks not at his righteousness,

but looks to Christ's righteousness.  He looks not to 

his own way, but looks to Christ as the way.  He looks 

not to anything else, but looks to Christ and Christ alone.

The True Christian

The true Christian understands that he is

a sinner in need of a Savior.

The True Christian

The true Christian understands that he is saved

not because he is good, but because God is good.

Law and Gospel

The Law is for the self-righteous, to humble their pride; 

the Gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.

Charles Spurgeon

All of Grace

Page 32

Faith and Good Deeds

Good deeds are faith's constant and faithful companion.

Titus 1:16, 2:7, 2:14, 3:1, 3:8, 3;14

James 2:14, 2:17, 2:18, 2:20, 2:22, 2:24, 2:26

(Who says that Paul and James disagree?)

Revelation 19:7-8

How well will you be clothed?

Spurgeon on Sermon Preparation

...Spurgeon said:  "The ministry demands brain labor.  The preacher must throw his thought into his teaching, and read and study to keep his mind in good trim."  In other words, power in gospel preaching demands arduous study.  He admitted:  "I scarcely ever prepare for my pulpit with pleasure.  Study for the pulpit is to me the most irksome work in the world."  But he understood that if he refused to pay this high price, he would have no business in the ministry:  "An idler has no right in the pulpit.  He is an instrument of Satan in damning the souls of men."  Again, he warned:  "He who has ceased to learn has ceased to teach.  He who no longer sows in the study will no more reap in the pulpit."  Even for a genius like Spurgeon, Bible study was hard work.  But depth in the Word is absolutely necessary if there is to be depth of conviction and soundness of conversions.

Steven Lawson
The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon
Page 32

Embracing the Cross

True Christian expectations centre on the cross and involve an acceptance, if not the willing embrace, of the suffering, weakness and marginalisation which inevitably come to those who follow in the footsteps of the Master.  These are to be the horizons of expectation of the believer as an individual and of the church as a whole.

Carl Trueman
Reformation:  Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Page 53

And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take

up his cross daily and follow Me." Luke 9:23

Notice that the "was saying" in this verse is in the imperfect tense, which means Christ was saying this repeatedly, over and over, so as to make His point as to the earnest seriousness  one must have in following Him.  He did not want them to miss this important point.  Later in  Luke 14:26-27, Jesus has this to say,

"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.  Whoever does notcarry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Again in Luke 21:17 Christ says, "and you will be hated by all for My name's sake."

The embrace of the cross, for us as Christians, must be a personal embrace of the entirety of the cross.  Too much has been made today of the benefits to Christians of Christ's cross while ignoring the costs and necessity of our carrying our cross.

A Good Thing to Keep in Mind

Keep this in mind, you only have
what you have been given.

For who regards you as superior?
What do you have that you did 
not receive?  And if you did receive
it, why do you boast as if you had
not received it?
I Corinthians 4:7

Where then is the cause for boasting,
arrogance, and pride?  Wouldn't it
be better to concentrate on wisely
using all you have been given, and
to keep in mind that He who has given
you all things will hold you accountable
for how you make use of what He
has given you?

Matthew 25:14-29

Milestone V

Well, on the third Sunday in June Grace Covenant Church passed another milestone, our fifth anniversary.  It certainly does not seem like it has been five years since we started, but by God's grace and in accordance with His eternal purpose we are still here.  And we are thankful for His calling us to this work, and are thankful for the provision of His grace to empower us to do what He has called us to do. 

As with any church plant there have been ups and downs, but I can truly say that even though we have experienced frustration and disappointments at times, we have never been discouraged; and that is because the Lord has been with us and has not let those times of frustration and disappointment turn into discouragement.

And I said all of that to say this, this has been the most interesting year so far, and in some sense the most daunting year.  We have had more families visit this year, and not come back.  We lost four families this last year that had been coming regularly, one for three years.  There were different reasons that we lost them, but lose them we did; and when you are a small church, that is noticeable.  However, we have had a sense of this being God's pruning of us so that not only will we bear more fruit, but that He will receive the glory for what is done.

But the good news is, as a church, we are richer spiritually now than we have ever been, more spiritually attuned, and more spiritually mature.  In the final analysis, this is the purpose of the church, any and all churches, to be the instrument of God in the lives of His people (His people being His people doing what they are gifted and called to do) to bring about a deepening Christ likeness in those He has placed in each church (Ephesians 4:11-16).  It is a deep and abiding joy to me as the pastor to see more of Christ in our people now than I saw in them a year ago. 

This year we finished the Gospel of John, which took about three and a half years to preach through.  We went through the book The Holiness of God, and are half way through Knowing God in our men's group.  We, again, took six of our men to the Shepherd's Conference, and the consensus was that it was the best one our group has attended.  Our ladies went through a couple of Precept studies and several attended the Gospel Coalition's Women's Conference last week.  Our children continue to hear the gospel consistently during their Sunday School time, and we are counting on the Lord's Word not to return to Him void.  Our people do love the Lord, and those that are here are developing and demonstrating faithfulness in their walk and service to the Lord.  It is indeed a great thing to be part of.

We are going through Psalm 119 and Titus over the next few months.  I have already preached out of Psalm 119 for the last couple of months, and will start the series on Titus next week.  I will take a few breaks in Titus to preach on Psalm 119.  In September we will be blessed to have Nigel Shailer, the Academic Dean of the Shepherd's Bible College in New Zealand, come to preach to us and to share with us what they are doing to train, equip, and evangelize in that part of the world; and we are having him come to prepare us, as a church, to support their work. 

All in all, it is a great and glorious blessing to be a part of Grace Covenant Church, to be its pastor, to lead and shepherd its people.  The Lord is indeed good and does good, to Him and Him alone be all glory, honor, and praise.  May His name be blessed forever and ever.