What Our View of the Wrath of God Tells Us

Are we feeling like a multitude of people who have nothing but scorn for any ideas about hell and everlasting punishment?  Do we consider the wrath of God as a primitive or obscene concept?  Is the very notion of hell an insult to us?  If so, it is clear that the God we worship is not a holy God:  Indeed He is not God at all.  If we despise the justice of God, we are not Christians....If we hate the wrath of God, it is because we hate God Himself.  We may protest vehemently against these charges, but our vehemence only confirms our hostility toward God.  We may say emphatically, "No, it is not God I hate....God is altogether sweet to me.  My God is a God of love."  But a loving God who has no wrath is not God.  He is an idol of our own making as much as if we carved Him out of stone.

R. C. Sproul
The Holiness of God
Page 176

The Responsibility of the Pew

Nearly every Christian wants their church to be healthy. 

But few Christians have contemplated their part in

making their local church family spiritually strong and vibrant.

 ...overall there exists a desire for healthy churches

 but not enough thinking about the pews’ responsibility for it. 

Thabiti Anyabwile

2011

True Obedience

True obedience is an active submission to the

will of God, which is expressed in the

Word of God, which keeps you in the

way of God.

The Key to Freedom

...just as truth is in Jesus.
Ephesians 4:21

Through the knowledge of the truth

we are set free and kept free.

Action and Confirmation

Our actions will either confirm our unbelief,

or confirm the validity our faith.

The Gospel and Good Works

What is the relationship between the Gospel and good works/social justice ministries/mercy ministries?  This is one of the current intramural debates among Christians.  Paul actually addresses this issue in his epistle to Titus. The phrase good deed(s) is used six times in this short letter, and after dealing with the issue of establishing order-appointing elders-refuting and silencing false teachers (yes, they all go together), he emphasizes the role of good deeds in the life of the believer and therefore the life of the church.

In 1:16 we see that there are those who profess Christ but whose deeds deny him, and Paul calls them detestable, and worthless for any good deed.

In 2:7-8 Paul exhorts Titus, as the spiritual leader, to be an example of good deeds, which along with purity of doctrine, dignity, and soundness of speech, will put the opponents of the gospel to shame and give them no reason to malign Christians.

In 2:14 we see that Christ redeemed us from every lawless deed so that His people would be zealous for good deeds.

In 3:1 we see that we are to be in a state of readiness/preparedness for every good deed.

In 3:8 we see that we, as Christians, are to exercise thought in engaging in good deeds, and that these deeds are good and profitable for men.

In 3:14 we see that we must be in the habit of/accustomed to engaging in good deeds that meet pressing needs, so that as Christians we will not be unfruitful.

It is obvious that engaging in good deeds is a key theme in this book, something that Paul, speaking on behalf of the Lord, views as important. And if you follow the flow of thought concerning good deeds (from 1:16-3:14) you will see that deeds will either be contrary to and therefore contradict our doctrine and profession, or they (good deeds) will concur with and therefore confirm our doctrine and confession.

In reading this epistle we see that those who are not Christians are worthless for any (truly) good deed. We see that for Christians good deeds adorn the doctrine we preach, put the opponents of the gospel to shame and causes their maligning to fall flat. We see that, as Christians, we are to have a passion for goods deeds, to be always ready and prepared for good deeds, and are to thoughtfully engage in good deeds. These good deeds are beneficial to men, not just Christians but to men in general; and in performing these good deeds pressing needs will be met, and we will not be unfruitful (in other words, God will take them and use them for His glory...compare with John 15:1-11).  As Martin Luther said, "Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."

Paul doesn't define what these good deeds are...probably because He knows that Christians who have a heart for good deeds and give careful thought as to when, where, why, and how, will not only be guided by the Holy Spirit in their endeavors; but through the Spirit will also be given the opportunities for them as well, as the Lord always matches God-given desires with God-given opportunities (see Psalm 37:3-6).

I don't think there is a tension between good deeds and Gospel proclamation...they do go together. How can you love someone enough to give them the gospel to meet their spiritual need, and not be moved to provide for their physical needs, or vice-versa?  Doing one without doing the other tears the heart right out of the Gospel.

As is always the case, the Scriptures give us the mind of God concerning these issues.  So instead of debating one another, let's get busy and stay busy doing all that the Scriptures tell us to do.

Faith and Conformity

True faith always produces real conformity to Christ.

R. C. Sproul

The Holiness of God

Page 165

For His Glory Today

Father, today in Your church, from the rising

of the sun to its setting, make Your praise

glorious.  Give us lips and lives that will

will not only praise You, but will bring praise

to You.  Give us no other desire today than

to bring You praise, than to bring honor

to You in accordance with the greatness of

Your name.  Today, in Your church,

be glorified. 

Amen.

For His Glory Today

As we go forth this day, O Lord, may the

meditations of our hearts be acceptable in

Your sight.  Cleanse us as we begin this day,

and keep us clean throughout the day.  Guard

our hearts and minds with what is true, right,

honorable, beautiful, pure, lovely, and

praiseworthy; so that what comes out of

us in word and deed manifests the sweet aroma

of Jesus Christ.  Work out through us what You

have worked within us for the display of the

greatness of the glory of Your grace.

Amen 



For His Glory Today

As the Psalmist says, "Not to us, O Lord,

not to us, but to Your name give glory."

Use us today to fulfill the purpose for

which You have made us.  And in fulfilling

that purpose may we bring You great glory.

Manifest Your life through us.  Manifest Your

love through us.  Manifest Your righteousness

through us.  Manifest Your mercy and compassion

through us.  Cause the radiance of Your glory to

be seen in us as we live as Christ would live.

Amen.

For His Glory Today

Father, apart from glorifying You, apart from being

agents of Your glory and for Your glory, we have

no reason to exist.  Keep us mindful today, that

whether we eat or drink, whatever it is we do,

should be done for Your glory. Today, use Your

church, Your living body, to manifest Your glory

throughout this world.  Make Your matchless

worth to be seen through us, so that all the world

around us can truly say, "God has been in this place."

May it be so wherever we are in this world, so that

the world may be keenly aware of Your Divine glory.

Amen.



For His Glory Today

Today, O Lord, work in us that which is

pleasing in Your sight, so that we may

bring You glory.  Today, cause our salt

to be salty, our light to burn bright, so that

we might bring You glory in each and every

circumstance of our day.  Shine forth the

beauty of Your holiness in us, so that Your

glory may shine brightly round about us.

Let us, Your servants, be and do, so that

our very lives shout, "Glory to God, glory

to God, glory to God!"

Amen.

For His Glory Today

Father, may all that we say today, every word

that is on our tongue, every word that passes

through our lips, bring glory to You.  Make us

cognizant this day of bringing you glory by what we say. 

 Let no careless word, let no unwholesome word,

 proceed from our mouth, but only that which gives

grace to those who hear; so that whether they are

a believer or an unbeliever You will be glorified 

in their presence by our speech.  This day, make us, 

Your children, a people of purified lips.  Glorify Yourself

through what we say, and how we say it.

Amen. 

For His Glory Today

Today, let Jesus Christ be magnified wherever

a breath is taken, to the glory of God the Father.

The Seducing Spirit of Our Age

Following my last post on Francis Schaffer's quotes from The Great Evangelical Disaster, I thought I would repost this with a few updates.  This was originally posted in November 2006.

There is a seduction and deception going on in churchdom in America today. It is reminiscent of the admonition that Paul gave the Corinthians in II Corinthians 11:3-4. This seduction is to be relevant to the culture, to be radical or primal to win people to Christ. While these may sound good on the surface the reality is that the church is being deceived into accepting another gospel. Without going into all the ways this other gospel is being perpetrated on the church I want to give some keys so that people can recognize when their church, pastor, or leadership is succumbing to the seduction of this spirit of our new age.

1. When "evangelism" is touted over theology
2. When confrontation is traded for comfort
3. When results are more important than truth
4. When sin is relabled as poor choices, bad decisions, falling down, failure, shame,
     or having problems
5. When requiring commitment is exchanged for providing convenience
6. When preaching/teaching becomes speaking or conversation
7. When pastorisms are substituted for Scripture
8. When doing it because it is right is replaced by doing it because it works
9. When research and response dictate the church service instead of Scripture
10. When fellowship becomes community
11. When the sacred becomes like the secular
12. When being relevant is more important than being righteous
14. When being distinct gives way to blending in with the culture
14. When books, or movies, or current events are sermon topics instead of the Bible
15. When it becomes all about life change instead of becoming like Christ
16. When worship becomes man-centered entertainment instead of
      God-focused exaltation
17. When offending the saints is okay, but offending the sinner is not
18. When the church corporate is put ahead of the church as a body of believers
19. When individual Christians are deemed expendable for the sake of the
      church corporate
20. When sin is ignored or tolerated among church members by its leadership
21. When more emphasis is put on telling people that God loves and accepts
      them like they are, instead of telling them that Christ died because of their sin
22. When video clips of movies, television shows, or youtube spots are used to
      make a point in the sermon instead of the Scriptures, therefore elevating secular
      entertainment to being equal with Scripture
23. When secular songs are used as worship music
24. When attendance numbers are used to justify what is being done or to bless
      what is being done
25. When there is an attitude of good riddance when people leave, instead of remorse
26. When there is no thought about God liking what is happening, but every care
      given to the seeker/unchurched/community liking what is happening
27. When the staff/leadership substitutes pleasing God with pleasing men

The thing that is disturbing is that all of this is being done in the name of Christ while He is being denied His rightful place of preeminence.

A Word from Francis Schaffer

If you have not read any of Francis Schaffer, you should. He was probably the greatest prophetic voice in evangelicalism in the last century. Even though he has been with the Lord for a number of years, his is still a prescient voice today...maybe because he had his finger on the humanness of evangelicals and their weaknesses, but nevertheless his voice still rings true, and issues he pointed out are still with us today.

I read his last book, The Great Evangelical Disaster, in 1984, the year he went home. It was one of the defining books that I have read, and I have been re-reading it the last few weeks. I am going to quote some of it as he draws the book to a conclusion, as it hits the church where it lives today.

"We need a revolutionary message in the midst of today's relativistic thinking. By revolutionary or radical, I mean standing against the all-pervasive form which the world spirit has taken in our day. This is the real meaning of radical....We need a young generation and others who will be willing to stand in loving confrontation, but real confrontation, in contrast to the mentality of constant accommodation with the current forms of the world spirit as they surround us today, and in contrast to the way in which so much of evangelicalism has developed the automatic mentality of accommodation at each successive point.....the evangelical accommodation has constantly been in one direction--that is, to accommodate with whatever is in vogue with the form of the world spirit which is dominant today. It is the same world spirit which is destroying both church and society. Balance must be considered constantly. But the accommodation we have been speaking of has constantly taken the form of giving in to the humanistic, secular consensus which is the dominant destructive force of our day.'

'It does seem to me that evangelical leaders, and every evangelical Christian, have a very special responsibility not to just go along with the "blue-jean syndrome" of not noticing that their attempts to be "with it" so often take the same forms as those who deny the existence or holiness of the living God.  Accommodation leads to accommodation--which leads to accommodation..."

A true prophetic voice is timeless. This was written in 1984, but we see the same issue alive and well in the church today. As Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun." We see the same accommodation today, as so many pastors/churches/Christians have fallen into the "we must be relevant to the culture" trap. The pursuit of relevance has led to accommodation. It is only when we are truly counter cultural, truly radical to the culture that we have any true impact. We are not salt and light by accommodating the world spirit of our times, but only when we are stopping the corruption of the world spirit, and exposing the corruption of the world spirit can we call ourselves truly radical; and you cannot be relevant and radical at the same time. 

I would recommend that you read this book.  Think about what Francis Schaffer has to say, and see how he recaptures the true meaning of living the radical Christian life.

Making the World a Better Place

I think it is safe to say that wanting the world to be a better place would be common sentiment the world over.  In many places it is even a popular sentiment.  And we see great efforts from many quarters of society to achieve this goal, from breast cancer awareness, to clean water initiatives, to homeless shelters, to aids research and education, to disaster relief, to famine relief, to refugee aid, to save the whales, to anti-abortion measures, to racism awareness, to anti-poverty campaigns, to enviromental concerns, to soil conservation, to water conservation, to energy conservation, to operation Christmas child, to no child left behind, to school drop-out initiatives, to Unicef, to UN peace keeping, to Mid-East diplomacy, to anti-terrorist measures, to social justice concerns, to mercy ministries, to the Salvation Army, to food banks, to welfare, to...whew, the list goes on and on.

All of us, who inhabit this world, want it to be a cleaner, safer, nicer, peaceful, friendly, beautiful, and even loving place to live.  But, alas, it is a sentiment doomed to failure, and a desire that will never come to fruition.  Why, you might ask?  Because the root issue of all of the problems in this world, sin, is ignored by the world; and all the attempts that those in the world make to make the world a better place to live, treat the symptoms, not the disease. 

Man is a slave to sin, he is blinded by his sin, he is deceived in his sin, he loves his sin, he is an inventor of sin, he is an encourager of sin, he flaunts his sin, he feeds his sin, he exalts his sin, he is incapable of not sinning, he excuses his sin, he justifies his sin, he promotes sin, he uses sin to accomplish his purposes, he won't give up his sin, he cherishes his sin, he worships his sin, he speaks sin, he thinks sin, he acts sin; in other words he is thoroughly permeated and dominated by sin.  He is born in sin, and sin is inescapable.

The earth is cursed because of sin.  All creation groans because of sin.  The world and all that is in it is passing away because of sin.  Man is condemned because of sin.  Since man rules over the world and sin rules over man, therefore sin is the ruling and guiding force in this world.

Enter the church, the greatest sin-fighting agent in the world; and not the corporate or organized church, but the church as the body of Christ, the church as represented by each individual Christian as they live out the life of Christ in their daily affairs.  Christ told us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are salt and light.  Salt stops the corruption of sin in its tracks (Matthew 5:13), light exposes sin and causes it to flee (John 3:18-21, Ephesians 5:8-13).  In addition to this, through the church the gospel is proclaimed; and it is the gospel, the living Word of the living God, that brings cleansing to sinful man (John 13:8-10, John 15:3, Ephesians 5:25-27).

The church has been given the mandate to go into all the world and make disciples, and the church does that by preaching and sharing the gospel, the Word of God.  It is the gospel that cleanses man from sin, it is the Word of God that keeps man's way pure, and keeps him from sinning (Psalm 119:9, 11).  True believers do not practice sin, but practice holiness (I John 3:7-10), and as they do they are salt and light in the world.  It is the gospel that deals with the sin that dominates and controls man; first by cleansing him from sin and freeing him from the bondage to sin, and then by empowering him to have victory over ongoing sin as he is obedient to the Word of God. 

So, what is the most important thing the church must do to make the world a better place?  What is its mandate from its head, the Lord Jesus Christ?  It is to preach, teach, and live the gospel.  So as we, the living body of the living Lord, go about our daily affairs, sharing the gospel and living the gospel, the world is made a better place, literally one Christian at a time.  But if all of God's people, those that are truly His, would make this their focus; we would see the world become a better place, not a perfect place...that is yet to come (Revelation 21-22).  So as we minister to those around us, our neighbor, let us make their world a better place by introducing them to the One who has overcome the world and all of its sin, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Crushing Weight of Glory

An excellent post by Tim Challies on having an eternal perspective on suffering.

http://www.challies.com/christian-living/the-crushing-weight-of-glory#more

Great Last Words

"I am going to the three Persons, with whom I have had communion...My bow abides in strength.  Is Christ divided?  No, I have the whole of His righteousness; I am found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God, , which is by faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.  Christ cannot love me better than He doth.  I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God...Now I shall be ever with the Lord.

These are the last words of Thomas Goodwin
Banner of Truth
November 2011
Page 3

In our final hour, may we all have this confidence spawned from a life that has experienced the fullness of communion with the triune God.  May we all be swallowed up in God.

Preaching and Relevance

...we have to face the fact that the pursuit of relevance as being constantly timely is a mirage.  When relevance is invoked as self-authenticating concept, it becomes meaningless and dangerous because it begs the questions, Relevance for what?  Relevance to whom? 

Such questions are commonly ignored in today's headlong rush after the unholy trinity of the powerful, the practical, and the profitable.  But if we don't ask them, the constant appeal to relevance becomes an idol, a way of riding slipshod over truth, and a means of coralling opinion deceptively.  Until, that is, we finally deceive ourselves.

The fact is that nothing is finally relevant except in relation to the true and the eternal....Only truth and eternity give relevance to "relevance."  To think or do anything simply "because it is relevant" will always prove to be irrational, dangerous, and a sure road to burnout.  It may tast like unpleasant medicine to our practical modern thinking, but in fact it's a powerful antidote to perpetual folly.....God has broken into our silence.  He has spoken and has come down Himself.  And in His written and living Word we are given truth from outside our situation, truth that throws light on our little lives and our little world.  This word of God is the only true Archimedean point to gain the leverage to raise us above the forces of gravity in our human condition.

Os Guiness
Prophetic Untimeliness
Pages 106-107