Truth Is In Jesus

Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats

2011-12-22T21:03:00.002-07:00

An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom
done a cleverer thing, than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church - if it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature'. That is clear enough, so it would have been if He had added, 'and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel'. No such words, however, are to he found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, 'He gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry'. Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted
because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world? 'Ye are the salt', not the sugar candy - something the world will spit out, not swallow. Short and sharp was the utterance 'Let the
dead bury their dead'. He was in awful earnestness!

Had he introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission, He would
have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear Him say, 'Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow - something short and attractive with little preaching - we will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get
the people somehow!' Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the epistles be searched to find any trace of the gospel of amusement. Their message is. 'Come out, keep out, keep clean out' - anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.

After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the Church had a prayer meeting, but they
did not pray, 'Lord, grant unto thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are'. If they ceased not for preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments - scattered by persecution they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down, that is the only difference! Lord, clear the Church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her and bring us back to apostolic methods.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. It works among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the Church met them half way, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the
drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment had been God's link in the chain of their conversion, stand up! There are none to answer! The mission of amusement produces no converts.

The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship, joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is Biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.

-- CH Spurgeon

Bad self-image or bad character?

2011-04-27T09:11:00.003-06:00

In our modernized societies in the West, we are faced with an epidemic of lying, theft, abuse, rape, and other predatory behavior, but we are far more likely to blame it on bad self-image than on bad character. Even in the church, the story is not much different. We have seized upon the language of our therapeutic culture and insist that our preachers toe this line and speak to us in this language. What is often missed, however, is that this language comes out of a psychological world, not a moral world, and the chief consequence of this is that responsibility has vanished. We do not accept responsibility because we have no sense at all that we stand in the presence of a God of blazing, majestic purity. And when we lose this sense {of God} we lose all moral urgency. Indeed, we lose our gospel and the whole point of Christian faith.

David Wells
The Courage To Be Protestant
p. 239

What the resurrection of Christ does for the bone-aching reality of life

2011-03-06T07:42:00.002-07:00

By D.A. Carson

THINGS ARE NEVER QUITE AS GOOD as they might be. Or if for a brief moment they are as good as you can imagine them, if for a while you seem to suck in the nectar of life itself with every breath you breathe, you know as well as I do that such highs cannot last.

Tomorrow you go back to work. You may enjoy your job, but it has its pressures. Your marriage may be well-nigh idyllic, but in a sour mood you may marvel at how much you cannot or will not share with your spouse. The warm west wind that tousles your hair metamorphoses into a tornado that destroys your home. One of your parents succumbs to Alzheimer’s; one of your children dies. There is so much around you to enjoy, yet just as you begin to chew on a filet mignon that your children have bought for you for your birthday, you remember the millions who starve every day.

There is no escape from the brute reality that, however wonderful your experiences in this broken world, others suffer experiences far more corrosive, and you yourself cannot ever believe that what you are experiencing is utterly ideal.

That restlessness is for our good. It is a design feature of our makeup, of our nature as creatures made in the image of God. We were made to inhabit eternity; by constitution we know that we belong to something better than a world (however beautiful at times) awash in sin.

Paul understands this point perfectly (2 Corinthians 5:1–5). He anticipates the time when “the earthly tent” (our present body) will be destroyed, and we will receive “an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Cor. 5:1)—our resurrection body. “Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor. 5:2). It is not that we wish to “shuffle off our mortal coil” and exist in naked immortality: that is not our ultimate hope, for “we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Cor. 5:4).

Then Paul adds: “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor. 5:5). God made us for this purpose, i.e., for the purpose of resurrection life, secured for us by the death of his Son. Moreover, in anticipation of this glorious consummation of life, already God has given us his Spirit as a deposit, a kind of down payment on the ultimate inheritance.

Small wonder, then, that we groan in anticipation and find our souls restless in this temporary abode that is under sentence of death.

People Do Not Drift Toward Holiness

2011-01-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. -- D.A. Carson

From his devotions on Nehemiah

A prayer for the days you don't feel like praying

2011-01-12T18:22:00.002-07:00

By Scotty Smith

Dear Father, this is one of those days when I could create a long prayer list and methodically go through it, but I’m not sure I would really be praying. I could go through the motions, but to be quite honest, it would be more ritual than reality… more about me, than the people and situations I’d bring before you. I’m feeling a bit distracted this morning, scattered and not very focused.

It’s one of those days I’m glad the gospel is much more about your grasp of me than my grip on you. It’s one of those days I’m grateful your delight in me is not contingent upon my delight in you. It’s one of those days I’m very thankful for the prayer ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Gracious Father, I have no problem or reluctance in acknowledging my weakness this morning. In fact it’s freeing to know your Spirit doesn’t abandon us when we’re weak, but helps us in our weakness. Just as Jesus constantly prays for us, the Holy Spirit faithfully prays in us with “wordless groans.” Though I don’t understand everything that means, I do get the part about you searching our hearts and you knowing the mind of the Spirit, and that brings me great comfort today.

No one knows our hearts better than you, Father. And you search our hearts to save us, not to shame us… to deliver us, not to demean us… to change us, not to chide us. You know my dignity and my depravity, my fears and my longings, my struggles with sin and my standing in Christ. No one but you knows how little or how much of the gospel I actually get.

And at this very moment your Spirit is praying inside of me… perfectly tuned into my needs and in total harmony with your will. I cannot measure the peace that brings. I surrender right now, Father. I will gladly groan to your glory. I know you are at work for my good in all things, including this season.

All I have to do is look at Jesus and know these things are true. You have called me to life in him and you will complete your purpose in me… and in each of your children… and in the entire cosmos. I do love you, I would love you more. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ merciful and faithful name.

Authority and capacity precede invitation

2011-01-11T08:43:00.006-07:00

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you wil find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light. -- Matthew 11:27-30

Jesus' invitation to come to him so that one can find rest for their soul is rooted in Christ's God-given authority and his unique capacity to make the eternal Father knowable (11:27). It is in knowing the Father where there is rest for our souls and Jesus has been given the exclusive right and means to reveal the Father. In that unique role Jesus invites people to come to him so that they may know the Father and there find rest.

There is no catch, no fine print, no hidden clause -- whosover will may come. However, coming requires yoking oneself with Christ and Christ alone.

How can bearing a yoke be 'easy'?
Jesus can assure us His yoke is easy because he alone reveals the Father -- in other words, He does all the work. Yoked to Christ does require going wherever he leads (no doubt we will stumble and even have to be dragged at times as we are yoked to him). However, he alone reveals the God who is life eternal. So where Christ is taking those united to him, in the end, is worth the yoke!

On the ceasing of eating grass and transforming culture

2010-11-29T14:52:00.001-07:00

The gospel isn’t primarily about saving or transforming temporal culture, though salvation does have a positive impact on culture. Spiritual work makes material differences. Demoniacs clean up and go to town dressed and in their right minds. Nebuchadnezzars no longer eat grass like cattle, and return to sanity and responsible government. Zacchaeuses quit robbing the citizens and make restitution. But spiritual work isn’t mainly about improving the community. The redemption spiritual work does is far deeper, far bigger, and more long-lasting than the betterment of a temporal village or state. -- Sam Crabtree

'Boys will be Boys' Not an Idea God Knows

2010-10-02T16:12:00.005-06:00

When a man wanders into certain beds, he does not find peace there. In the sixties, that time of sexual infantalism, we were frequently urged to make love, not war. The assumption was that lovemaking was a peaceful activity, regardless of who you were in the hay with. But James tells us where war comes from -- warring desires.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. -- James 4:1-4

Sexual revolutions must necessarily end in blood. And to consider the truth of this we do not need to look off in the distance at all the trouble caused by Helen of Troy. James tell us that men war and fight because of lust. On whom they make war may vary, but the result is the same. The sexual laxity of our nation, to take an example close to home, has resulted to date in 38 million abortions. Considered from another angle, that means 38 million orgasms, 38 million temporarily satisfied men, 38 million good times in the sack that ended badly for the inconvenient by-product. In short, millions of men thought that someone else's life was a reasonable price to pay for the pleasure of getting off.

Friendship with the world is. . . contempt for God. And when we show contempt for God, we soon discover that he is not the frail deity many have assumed Him to be. It is not as though He does not know how to respond when we show contempt for Him. The God of the Bible, as one writer put it aptly, is not a buttercup. When we set ourselves against Him in enmity, He responds in judgment:

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of the were, as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and rose up to play.' We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. I Cor. 10:6-8

The stories of the Bible are given to us so that might we might take warning. The God of the Bible judges the sin of fornication both within history and at the end of history. He visits a man with sexual diseases, conflict, guilt, turmoil, lack of peace and satisfaction, a miserable family, and death. At the culmination of history, He closes the gates of everlasting life in the face of those who did not repent of their fornications.

In short, we have to say that God does not take a 'boys will be boys' approach.

-- Douglas Wilson, Fidelity, pgs. 47,48

Being built up in the faith requires knowing what it is

2010-09-29T07:21:00.006-06:00

I Timothy 4:15-16 --Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that everyone will see your progress. Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

Christians, if they are to be an alternative to postmodern relativism, need to confess their faith, in word and deed. This means knowing what that faith is.

Christians in every church body might begin by returning to their own doctrinal heritage. Lutherans, Calvinists, and other historical churches have formal written confessions of what they believe. . . Other denominations have less strictly defined doctrinal positions, but they still have their confessions of faith and their Bible-based heritage, which they should reclaim. In doing so, they might regain their vitality and testify to a core of Biblical truth that will stand as a blazing witness to the relevatistic culture. Biblical churches with doctrinal integrity will have a stronger witness than muddled, easy-to-please-everyone congregations that do not stand for anything in particular.

Emphasizing doctrine will highlight the doctrinal differences between the various Christian traditions, but this need not mean destructive religious warfare. The various traditions need to be recovered before they can be either appreciated or challenged. Once they are reestablished, debates about which theologies are most in accord with Scripture could resume, because theology would be taken seriously again. Vibrant theological debate would invigorate the church. The ecumenical method of unity -- extinguishing all characteristic beliefs -- has failed.

-- Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times, p. 220

2 Timothy 4:1-5 -- I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 4:2 Preach the message, be ready whether it is convenient or not, reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and instruction. 4:3 For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. 4:4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths. 4:5 You, however, be self-controlled in all things, endure hardship, do an evangelist’s work, fulfill your ministry.

At the tail end of perversion

2010-09-24T11:23:00.001-06:00

We live in a time when marital fidelity is under assault. Driven by the forces of relativism, our society attacks sexual faithfulness on numerous fronts. The push for homosexual marriages, for example, comes at the end of the fall into perversion, not the beginning (Romans 1). Faithless husbands began the fall long ago, and our culture, with all its washed-out self-help books, fails to address the real problem—sin.
-- Douglas Wilson

Not the strength of faith that saves

2010-09-06T09:22:00.002-06:00

"With a weak faith and a fearful heart, many a sinner stands before the altar. But it is not the strength of his faith, but the perfection of the sacrifice, that saves; and no feebleness of faith, no dimness of eye, no trembling of hand, can change the efficacy of our burnt-offering. The vigor of our faith can add nothing to it, nor can the poverty of it take anything from it. Faith, in all its degrees, still reads the inscription, 'The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin;' and if at times the eye is so dim that it cannot read these words, through blinding tears or bewildering mist, faith rests itself on the certain knowledge of the fact that the inscription is still there, or at least that the blood itself (of which these words remind us) remains, in all its power and suitableness, upon the altar unchanged and unaffected."
- Horatius Bonar

Courage Brother

2010-05-16T19:58:00.002-06:00

Courage brother, do not stumble,
Though our path be dark as night;
There's a star to guide the humble --
Trust in God and do the right.

Let the road be rough and dreary,
and its end far out of sight;
Foot it bravely, strong or weary --
Trust in God and do the right.

Perish policy and cunning,
perish all that fears the light;
Whether losing, whether winning --
Trust in God and do the right.

Trust no party, sect or faction,
trust no leaders in the fight;
But in every word and action --
Trust in God and do the right.

Some will hate you, some will love you,
some will flatter, some will slight;
Cease from man and look above you --
Trust in God and do the right.

-- Norman McCleod

Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted

2010-03-31T09:30:00.002-06:00

Thomas Kelly (1804)

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis a true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

-Thomas Kelly (1804)

Others may, you cannot

2010-03-29T12:13:00.003-06:00

Others may, you cannot. But you have Christ, what want you more?

If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. God’s call will put such demands of obedience on you that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians. At times, He will let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians who seem very religious will push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans. You cannot, and if you attempt it, you will meet with failure and rebuke from the Lord.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you to despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor. God wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may demonstrate His faithful love for you in supplying your needs day by day.

God may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity in order to produce some fragrant fruit for His coming glory which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it now. The reward for your work is held in the hands of Jesus and you will not see it until He comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love. He will rebuke you for the little words and feelings or for wasting your time. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He does not owe you an explanation of these mysteries. But if you give yourself to be His child, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and give you the precious blessings for those who belong, heart and soul, to Him.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit. It is His option to tie your tongue, or chain your hand, or close your eyes in ways that He does not seem to use with others. And when you are so possessed by the living God that your heart delights over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

—G.D. Watson

Why I NEED a friend in Jesus

2010-03-16T10:16:00.001-06:00

When we appear at the Judgment Seat before that Father and that Son, and the secrets of our hearts are laid bare, we will finally realize the depths of our depravity. But we will find that it’s an inconvenient time to discover the terrible holiness of God.
- Max Curell

http://clearnotefellowship.org/Resources/Blog/2010/02/22/I-got-friend-Jesus

Preach the Gospel, even when in Assisi

2010-03-11T22:26:00.013-07:00

The Gospel is the big news of something that happened 2,000 years ago. But due to its nature it is always the breaking news, the top story, the lead paragraph. That Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and that he appeared to numerous witnesses in a resurrected body is the news. Even today. The Gospel is both, history and doctrine. Christ died and was buried and rose again is the history. Christ died for our sins is the meaning of that event. The one who gets to determine the meaning is God -- the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was according to the plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:22-24) and it is he who made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). The meaning of that death, burial and resurrection was determined in heaven. Because of who He is the only way God could uphold his righteousness and forgive God-belittling, hell-deserving sinners was by pouring out his wrath on his son in the place of sinners. But to uphold his righteousness -- his reputation -- the substitute must be without blemish, must be perfect. The substitute must perfectly represent man and God to appease or propitiate God's wrath (Romans 3:25, 26). That's the Gospel. The only response that is of any benefit is believe its necessity and its sufficiency to declare you right before the one true God and be rescued from his righteous, deserved judgment. Once again, the big news: There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5). The lead paragraph: God is calling all men everywhere to repent having fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness having furnished proof by raising one man from the dead (Acts 17). That's the news bulletin. That's the Gospel. You and I are not the Gospel. We can be tellers of the Gospel, proclaimers of the Gospel, preachers of the Gospel, heralds of the Gospel, singers of the Gospel, readers of the Gospel, but we are not the Gospel. To preach the Gospel we must use words at all times, even when in Assisi. Not only are you and I not the Gospel, we also are not the power of salvation. It is the Gospel that is the power of salvation (Romans 1:16) to everyone who believes. Uncool geeks can get the message out, mismatched misfits can mumble the Gospel, paralytics can preach the Gospel, cowpokes can yodel the Gospel. What we cannot do is empower the Gospel. It is the Gospel -- the very message itself -- that is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). -- TWMathis

What the Gospel is NOT

2010-01-27T11:51:00.002-07:00

“The gospel is not, “Give your hearts to Christ, and you shall be saved.”

The gospel is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,”- that is, trust him, “and thou shalt be saved.” When you do that, you will be sure to give him your heart by-and-by, if not at once. Salvation is not by your giving anything to Christ, but by Christ giving something to you. I am glad that you have given your heart to Christ; but have you learnt first this lesson, that he gave his heart for you?

We do not find salvation by giving Christ anything. That is the fruit of it; but salvation comes by Christ giving us something - something, did I say? - by Christ giving us everything, by his giving us himself. I used to notice that a good deal of Sunday-school teaching to the children was, “Dear child, love Jesus.” That is not the way of salvation. The way of salvation is to trust Jesus. The fruit of salvation is that the dear child does love Jesus; but that is not the way of salvation. The way of salvation is to take Christ, to trust Christ.

When you are saved, the proof of it will be that you will give your heart to Christ; but do not let us turn things upside down lest, beginning with a little blunder, we should go on to some great error, and set up again the ruinous doctrine which once sank the world in darkness, the doctrine of an imaginary salvation by our own works.”
- Charles H. Spurgeon, Sychar’s Sinner Saved

The difference between fearmongering and warnings

2010-01-23T10:14:00.003-07:00

Arousing alarm is easy, teaching is tough. It takes patience and discipline to teach; any bozo can drop a book on the floor and make people jump. - Garrison Keillor

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. - Apostle Paul (Acts 20:28-32)

The point of every disaster

2010-01-14T08:54:00.001-07:00

The point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. Lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. Let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of his Son.

-- John Piper after the 2004 Indonesian tsunami

Live in Romans 8

Beware of an incomplete Christ

2010-01-13T06:42:00.005-07:00

Revelation 5:5,6 - Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered. . . And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain. . .

Consider the admirable conjunction of diverse Excellencies in Christ. In Jesus Christ (there is) infinite highness and infinite condescension; infinite justice and infinite grace; infinite majesty and transcendent meekness; deepest reverence toward God and equality with God; worthiness of good and the greatest patience under the suffering of evil; a great spirit of obedience and supreme dominion over heaven and earth; absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation; self-sufficiency and an entire trust and reliance on God.

- Jonathan Edwards, The Excellency of Christ (paraphrased by John Piper in The Pleasures of God)

For whom is the gospel not fitted

2010-01-12T14:45:00.002-07:00

Never lose heart in the power of the gospel. Don"t believe that there exists any man, much less any race of men, for whom the gospel is not fitted.
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The offense of defense

2010-01-06T08:30:00.001-07:00

"A sin is two sins when its defended." -Henry Smith

Christmas In Six Words

2009-12-24T01:42:00.010-07:00

I and the Father are one.
- Jesus

I have been meditating on the incarnation the past few days. The weight and immensity of what I claim to believe regarding God the Son taking on human flesh makes me groan with how casual I am and how absolutely and totally dependent I am on God's grace as I believe in Christ. There is no way to grasp the solemness of the season -- that we offensive, God-belittling, bored-with-the-fountain-of-delights people should be saved from what we so justly deserve. Yet, we read, 'he shall save his people from their sins.'

So when I come to John 10 -- I delight deeply in Jesus' words that the Father who is greater than all has given the sheep to Him and no one is able to snatch them out of His hand (10:29). Salvation procured and secured by the Father and the Son is the kind of salvation I need, and that's exactly what's offered. And there is the joy of the incarnation -- which is not seasonal but always present. What God the Son came for was completed, it was accomplished. The Christmas story -- as we like to label it -- is not complete without the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ. We don't have a faith secured in a baby, our salvation is secured in a Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father ruling. So when Christ states that he and the Father are one I find myself resting in something I can't add to or take away from and that no season can enhance or diminish. My hope is built on nothing less. . .

-- TWMathis

The phantom of liberty and true liberty

2009-12-16T19:30:00.003-07:00

When I hear the cry about liberty, I think of the old cry, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians'. Civil liberty is a valuable blessing but if people sin it away, it is the Lord who deprives them of it. . . However a believer has a liberty with which Jesus has made him free which depends upon no outward circumstances. It grieves me to hear those who are slaves to sin and Satan, make such a stir about that phantom which they worship under the name of liberty, and especially to see not a few of the Lord's people so much conformed to the world in this respect.

August, 1775
- Letter from John Newton to John Ryland, Jr.
From Wise Counsel edited by Grant Gordon

A stable peace, a constant strife

2009-12-07T21:07:00.005-07:00

Strange and mysterious is my life;
What opposites I feel within!
A stable peace, a constant strife;
The rule of grace, the power of sin;
Too often I am captive led,
Yet daily triumph in my Head.
- John Newton

What Jesus knew and when did he know it

2009-11-26T17:49:00.005-07:00

John 2:24, 25 – But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Jesus could not trust the people he came to save. His lack of trust had nothing to do with unfounded or half-baked suspicion – like so many of us and our distrust of others. Nor was it a “once-burned-twice-shy” kind of distrust. Rather, he knew what was in man.

He knew in absolute and no uncertain terms what people were thinking and feeling. He knew exactly how easy it is for people to praise and worship today and scream, “Crucify! Crucify!” tomorrow.

He knew the exact length of their attention spans and exactly when their distractions turned to lust, or envy, or greed, or fear, or anger -- or arrogant boredom.

He knew their mental twitches of impatience as they listened to the very Word made flesh. He knew their belief had yet cost them anything, how untested their faith was, how the praise of men is a never-absent motivation.

He knew every sinful thought and word and deed that oozes and spews from sin-sick deceitful hearts.

He knew how miraculous and spirit-wrought saving faith is.

He knew all that and much, much more and still he went to the cross in their place – in my place – knowing all people and what was in all people.

In this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. – I John 4:10

-- TWMathis

Seeing suffering as great gain

2009-11-19T08:05:00.007-07:00

Hebrews 5:8, 9 - Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Hebrews 12:5-7 - And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.' It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Learn today the secret of never suffering loss in the soul by the sufferings of life -- yea, rather, of always making them your greatest gain. Link them to God and to Jesus. It is God who sends them. He sent them to Jesus and perfected Him through them. He sends them to thee in the same love, and will make them thy highest gain. "Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Savior." - Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All

On schedule, on target

2009-11-18T21:37:00.008-07:00

Jesus: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show what kind of death he was going to die. - John 12:32,33

"And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock. . . You do not believe because you are not of my flock. . . My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them ouf of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." - John 10:16-30

The Gospel is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. The sheep are being brought into the flock. They are hearing the voice of Jesus. They are in the Father's hand. The Son and the Father are one.

No need to tweak the message to speed things up or slow things down. No need to sweeten the offer, the Gospel needs nothing added or removed; we're not believing it ourselves if we think adjustments are needed. Our father, who is greater than all, is on schedule and on target with his plans determined in eternity past. The intensity of our proclamation cannot change the outcome nor hasten the timing of what God is doing; rather, our zeal is for the message itself and the glory it reveals of God in the face of Christ Jesus.

Faithful is He who called you, and He will bring it to pass.

-- TWMathis

Connecting with culture overrated

2009-11-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

In our quest to be missionally engaged, hip and cool, I think we have lost the "edge" for a radical, passionate engagement with God. Connecting with culture is overrated; connecting with God is underrated. - Scott Thomas, Acts29 Director

All-Sufficient Bread

2009-11-08T07:40:00.004-07:00

John 6:35-39 Jesus is all-sufficient for eternal life because he came down from heaven not to do his own will but the will of him who sent him. Human response did not determine the value of his offer (see 6:66) The will of the father who sent the Son is that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and (the Son) will raise him up on the last day.

The God-head of God

2009-10-31T09:37:00.002-06:00

http://newdemonstration.com/reformed-theology/reformation-theology-an-introduction

Excerpt from excellent article:
That which was seen as generally crucial and core to the Christian faith generations ago, in the vast majority of what names itself evangelicalism today sees is as non-essentials and minor issues.

Why is this? Because a low view of God has been the main creed of postmodern Christian religion. A faith not grounded on the revealed Word and God-hood of God but faith grounded on faith itself that is grounded on what men perceive of what faith is. Whether or not it be drawn from emotion or a philosophical conception it does not matter as long as it feels Christian, filled with love and is intolerant.

In our world today full of widespread ignorance of the truths of Scripture we do not have the luxury that the Reformers had in their time. To discuss and present a Biblical case of the doctrines of the reformation will not and can not be understood with out a proper view of God.
When I talk about the God-hood of God, I mean God’s proper right of Kingship. God’s sovereign right over all His creation. The sovereignty of God.

Quite honestly this concept is difficult to understand in our day and age. Why? Because we don’t have anymore any real apprehension of what it means to be ruled by a king. Men love democracy and the freedoms that come from the Republic’s constitution and bill of rights. We want our freedom to choose and our freedom to pick those we want to ruler over us. To have a sovereign king over us is the last thing we as postmodern human beings would want.

This idea reverberates even in the Christian psyche. We see Christians all over affirming Christ as their personal Savior, some sort of Lord, but never would you openly hear a main stream evangelical say: “The Lord is my King and I am His servant, His slave.”

“Slave? Servant-hood? What are you talking about? Don’t you encroach on my rights and my ‘freedom’ in Christ!”

How willingly do people go to hell?

2009-10-29T08:43:00.001-06:00

Does anyone stand by the lake of fire and jump in? http://ow.ly/xdKq

Talking Back To Your Self

2009-10-29T08:27:00.002-06:00

The main art in the matter of spiriual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: 'Why are thou cast down' -- what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself 'Hope thou in God' -- instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world and say with this man: 'I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.'

- Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Lessons from Psalm 42)

Worth quoting

2009-10-27T08:23:00.003-06:00

Men will never worship God with a sincere heart or be roused to fear and obey him with sufficient fear until they properly understand how much they are indebted to his mercy.
- John Calvin

He is your friend who pushes you closer to God.
- Abraham Kuyper

A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.
- Doug Larson

What to Do if Revivial Comes

2009-10-26T17:05:00.002-06:00

http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/2003_what_to_do_if_revival_comes.pdf

The above link is an article by D.A. Carson printed in Modern Reformation in 2003. Another great resource on revival is Iain Murray's book, Revival and Revivalism, Banner of Truth, 1994

Prayer of an alien child

2009-10-26T13:47:00.003-06:00

O, most merciful, holy Father --
my self. my real me is only before me when it is before You.
and i am always before You.

A self-confident religious world
tells me to pull off masks. to be authentic.
be real.

Before You, the only one who is True –
i have no mask. i have no authenticity.
realness for others is falseness before the Real.

The burning gaze of Your holy word
pays no heed to a shell. It sees me. me.
Exposing all. Missing nothing.

To call you my Father –
to call upon Your Name as progeny
calls into question the essence of fatherhood.

There are no identifying family characteristics
You of pure sight. i bored glance.
You of righteous right arm. i stealing hand.
You of merciful heart. i dead stone.
You of purposed mind. i distracted lust.
You of eternal holiness. i common death.

A True Son You have.
A True Son who is pure radiance of You.
A True Son in whom You are forever pleased.
A True Son in whom there is no need.
A True Son who speaks You. Who is You.
A True Son You have.

This alien calling you Father has no recognition.
i have Only a Mediator –
a bloody document of adoption.
Your True Son taking on what i am supposed to be.
Your True Son appeasing.
Your True Son made sin.

This alien calling you Father has no recognition.
i have Only a Mediator --
a bloody document of adoption.

Your True Son sent. By You.
Your True Son forsaken. By You.
Your True Son slaughtered. By You.
Your True Son raised. By You.

for me. me.

O, most merciful, holy Father --
My Mediator is only before me when I am before You.
and i am always before You.

Before You, the only one who is True –
Your alien child comes.
bringing My true sons.
Praying.
they will know.
You.
as alien children.

tedd mathis
october 2009

An indictment of goodness

2009-10-23T06:52:00.003-06:00

Philippians 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Philippians 3:7"

Notice now that he does not only say, But what was gain to me I later saw as indifferent, as unimportant -- no: as loss. To repent . . . does not mean to be liberalized, to become indifferent to what we formerly were, to the former objects of our devotion and the former conduct of our lives, but to be horrified by it all. . . . Recognition not of some imperfection but precisely of the guiltiness, perversity, and reprobateness of his glorious Pharisaism, irreproachable and upright as it was en sarki (in the flesh), recognition of the indictment not on his wickedness but on his goodness -- that is what came upon him dia ton Christon (for the sake of Christ), that was the meaning that Christ's work had for his attitude to these things."

Karl Barth, Epistle to the Philippians, page 97.

From http://christisdeeperstill.blogspot.com/

Putting 'Spirit's Leading' Under Scripture's Authority

2009-10-19T09:09:00.002-06:00

Note: The following is from a man who considers himself a charismatic.

http://ow.ly/v7OF

The divine value of the utterly uneventful life

2009-10-11T20:50:00.001-06:00

John Piper on hymnwriter William Cowper, who wrote, God Moves in A Mysterious Way, and, There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood:

From the standpoint of adventure or politics or public engagement his life was utterly uneventful. The kind of life no child would ever choose to read about. But for those of us who are older we have come to see that the events of the soul are probably the most important events in life. And the battles in this man's soul were of epic proportions.

What C.S. Lewis found while meditating

2009-10-08T14:28:00.003-06:00

C.S.Lewis on subtleness and depths of pride

During my afternoon “meditations,”—which I at least attempt quite regularly now—I have found out ludicrous and terrible things about my own character. Sitting by, watching the rising thoughts to break their necks as they pop up, one learns to know the sort of thoughts that do come.

And, will you believe it, one out of every three is the thought of self-admiration: when everything else fails, having had its neck broken, up comes the thought “what an admirable fellow I am to have broken their necks!” I catch myself posturing before the mirror, so to speak, all day long. I pretend I am carefully thinking out what to say to the next pupil (for his good, of course) and then suddenly realize I am really thinking how frightfully clever I'm going to be and how he will admire me...

And then when you force yourself to stop it, you admire yourself for doing that. It is like fighting the hydra... There seems to be no end to it. Depth under depths of self-love and self-admiration. (quoted in The Narnian by Alan Jacobs, 133)

Personal space and the gospel

2009-09-30T13:44:00.001-06:00

Facebook entry from missionary friend in Japan:
Darwin Stoesz thought that it was very fitting to be listening to "I surrender all" on my iPod and being shoved around on a hot sweaty crowded Tokyo train. I surrender even my personal space to Him to eventually proclaim the Good News in Japanese to the Japanese people.

The Precious Blood

2009-09-30T07:22:00.002-06:00

Blessed Lord Jesus,
Before thy cross I kneel and see the heinousness of my sin,
my iniquity that caused thee to be 'made a curse,'
the evil that excites the severity of divine wrath.

Show me the enormity of my guilt by the crown of thorns,
the pierced hands and feet,
the bruised body, the dying cries.

Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God,
its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought.
Infinite must be the evil and guilt that demands such a price.

Sin is my malady, my monster, my foe, my viper,
born in my birth, allive in my life,
strong in my character, dominating my faculties,
following me as a shadow, intermingling with my every thought,
my chain that holds me captive in the empire of my soul.

Sinner that I am, why should the sun give me light,
the air supply breath, the earth bear my tread,
its fruits nourish me, its creatures subserve my ends?

Yet thy compassions yearn over me,
thy heart hastens to my rescue,
thy love endured my curse,
thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.

Let me walk humbly in the lowest depths of humiliation,
bathed in thy blood, tender of conscience,
triumphing gloriously as an heir of salvation.

From The Valley of Vision. . . A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

When Believers Should Be Pitied

2009-09-29T08:01:00.016-06:00

Paul has to remind the Corinthians of the Gospel because people in the church were trying to tweak it to fit the conventional wisdom of the day (i.e., there is no resurrection of the dead). Paul did not take a pragmatic approach to the problem -- "Well, even if there is no resurrection of the dead, being Christians will make the world a better place." Paul wrote: If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied (I Cor. 15:19). Consider the ramifications of his emphasis on the resurrection and its relationship to the ultimate purpose of the Gospel -- seeing and savoring God's glory forever:

Being loving, gentler, more patient -- a nicer person in this life because of Jesus -- most to be pitied. Jesus said too many strange things to be a good example of 'nice.'

Singing songs of worship to Jesus -- most to be pitied. What's the point? He's dead.

Going as or supporting missionaries to people groups who do not know Christ -- most to be pitied. Why, don't they have nice people to imitate?

Taking up one's cross, dying for the cause of Christ -- most to be pitied. Just exactly what is the cause?

If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Consider a gospel by which God delivers up His Son to bring us to God - I Peter 3:18

Consider a gospel where the Son glorifies the Father to the point of death, even death on a cross so that sinners' minds, blinded by the god of this age and easily distracted by shiny trinkets, can be given sight to see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus -- John 17, Philippians 2, II Corinthians 4.

Consider a gospel in which we purify ourselves in these mortal bodies because our hope is that one day we shall see Christ in his glorified state; we will be able to see Him just as He is because we shall be like Him -- I John 3.

Consider a gospel in which the Father has given all judgment to the Son and that at His voice, one day all people will be raised from the dead and the Son will make the judgment as to who receives a resurrection of life and who will receive a resurrection of judgment - John 5.

Consider a gospel in which the Son asks the Father that all whom the Father has given the Son would one day be with Him in order that they would see His glory - John 17.

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. . . then comes the end when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and authority and power. . . Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord -- I Corinthians 15:20, 24, 58

-- TWMathis

Why I Pray John Piper Will Finish Well

2009-09-24T10:02:00.000-06:00

http://ow.ly/qSjx

Neither Boomer nor Gen-X, neither Greek nor Jew

2009-09-24T09:13:00.010-06:00

The following is my portion of correspondence with a good friend about styles of music, church services, etc. As you will see it scratches the surface of the topic and does not address many practical decisions that have to be decided, nor does it address the role of style and arts in trying to introduce the gospel to our culture. My intent in posting it is for all those reading to humbly consider what we have been given in the knowledge of Christ Jesus and the sufficiency of that knowledge as our source of joy and hope and that knowledge being the root of how we 'do church' and love one another in the local church.

1. You mentioned generational differences in perspectives/values and the gap between boomers and Gen-X. Do you think those generational identifiers or labels can become a source of pride and, for believers, an unnecessary source of division? When I was a pastor in a small rural church, the conflicts were often (though not always) along generational lines. While generational experiences cannot be ignored (wars, depressions, social mores, music styles, political expectations/shifts etc.) I wonder if, in the body of Christ, we make too much out of them and too little of what we have in common in the Gospel. Now, maybe that's a baby boomer throwing his self-centered weight around but I'm bringing it up based on two things:

First, the biblical doctrine that we are all children of Adam and all in the same moral boat before a holy God essentially erases the issue of generational differences. God’s self-glorifying solution is to provide one means of salvation and hope for all people – a faith once for all delivered to the saints in the person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ. That work places all who believe in one body – the church. I think that sinner-humbling, Christ-exalting, God-glorifying truth greatly diminishes our attention to generational differences – believers are now all together in the ‘boat of Christ’ and we should teach that and act it out. I think this is one of the truths Paul is getting at in Galatians 3:28 - There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Second, while I am no expert in the recent development of sociological/psychological self-awareness and understanding, I think it would be safe to argue that since the 1950s the influence of Freudian views of self have shaped our thinking far more than we want to admit. My point here is that whether or not we're Boomers or Gen-X, we're all drinking the same Kool-aid of viewing our inner self as unique (David Wells does a really good job addressing this in his book, 'Above All Earthly Pow'rs - Christ in a Postmodern World). So the very labels and assumption of the importance of those labels and distinctives are, I believe, the worlds ideas squeezing us into its mold (Romans 12:1,2 Phillips) of self-understanding. Sadly, many churches today are trying to synchronize it with the Gospel. The result, I fear, when it comes to the local church, is lots of focus on style based on presumed uniqueness and not on what God has done in Christ for children of Adam.

2. That leads me to my second topic: As I have grown in knowledge of what the Bible teaches, I see very little on style and lots on doctrine/theology and personal virtue or character. Example: when two women in the church at Philippi couldn't get along, Paul pointed them to the high, high doctrine of Christ emptying himself and taking on role of a bond servant, man, to the point of death, etc. In other words, Paul addressed differences and conflict with theology -- deep, serious theology -- not personality tests or excuses.

Another example from John 5 which records Jesus healing one person from a multitude of people needing physical healing, then warns the one healed not to go on sinning lest something worse befall him. Jesus healed the man with the intent of that man's future holiness (i.e., character). The point of everything Jesus did in his earthly ministry had a heavenly purpose for us and for God, not simply an earthly experience. Again, I fear our emphasis on style and relevance as determined by a shifting cultural standard is settling for too little. God's Word is preparing us for something eternal not temporal.

So, those are some scattered thoughts that I hope will stir us on to pray and ponder and talk about together.

Thanking Him for you,
Tedd

Thinking is not optional for loving God and others

2009-09-22T12:54:00.003-06:00

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/1990/2768_Think_Deeply_and_Clearly/

Prudent life lessons from doofus dad, dead hamster

2009-09-17T13:38:00.002-06:00

http://www.slate.com/id/2228493/?GT1=38001

Real Church and Happy Endings

2009-09-17T12:56:00.003-06:00

Excerpt from Why We Love the Church

This Sunday's sermon is from 2 Corinthians 5:11-15, which begins, "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men" (NIV).

"Our church doesn't exist to give you ten ways to deal with stress, or to help you become a better person," Pastor Kevin says from the pulpit. "We're here to persuade you. We're here to preach to you."

This, partly, comes from knowing what it is to fear the Lord. Currently, if publishing trends are any indication, we serve a Lord who is our friend, our camping buddy, someone with whom we have intimacy, etc.

As I look around the room this morning, I see a great man with Lou Gehrig's disease, holding hands with his sweet wife. I see another husband just diagnosed with cancer that will probably take his life in six months or so. I see a weird military vet guy who fried his brain on drugs in Iraq, and who we follow out to the lobby when he goes to the bathroom because we're afraid for the safety of our kids. I see my father-in-law who has a degenerative brain disease that has destroyed his intellect and ability to communicate and will take his life before it's all done.

As evangelicals we've become addicted to "happy ending" stories where we go through "x" (hard thing) and then start praying and then -- Shazam! -- God makes everything better and we have a nice, utopian story to tell where we are the hero who ends up with the great job, the great family, the time off, the free plane ticket, the lost purse, or the great healthy kids. The fact of the matter is (often) the happy ending is heaven, and the getting there is a really difficult but formative part of our sanctification. And sometimes, what God wants in the interim is for us to find our happiness, holiness, and identity in Him, rather than our perfect jobs, perfect 2.5 kids (or 6.5 kids in the case of our church), and perfect testimonies.

If I could leave you with one thought, it's this: Go. Go to church. Don't go for the coffee, the presentations, the music, or the amenities. Don't even go for the feelings you may or may not get when you go because, no offense, these feelings may or may not be trustworthy most of the time. Go for the gospel. Go for the preaching. Go to be near to God's Word. . . There are many people leaving the church, and supposedly finding God. But I found Him here, and by His grace, I'll keep finding Him here. I love my church.

From Why We Love The Church, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Moody Publishers, 190-196

What's at stake for God to forgive my sins today.

2009-09-11T07:44:00.007-06:00

I John 2:12 - I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.

The substitutionary punishment of Christ in place of sinners satisfied God -- it met His lawful demands and demonstrated His love for sinners. Thus He could impute (credit) Christ's righteousness to us.

If the offering up of the perfect lamb of God was not enough, or if God changes His mind, then it is His name that is at stake -- it would be His reputation rightfully called into question. He should not be trusted or believed or loved or worshipped. He could be ignored as one of the other gods of our imaginations. But the heavenly Father is satisfied and those who believe are declared righteous; the proof is in the resuurection (Romans 4:25). Christ did rise from the dead (unlike all the other blood sacrifices offered up for the covering of sins - Hebrews 9:11-14) and right now He is seated at the right hand of God.

So, when I sin today (and I will -- at this mountain elevation it's rather common), my response is to confess what I know of my sins. It is the Father's job to consider those sins paid for by His Son and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That's the righteous thing for Him to do (I John 1:9). Hallowed be His name.

What a gospel.

-- TWMathis

Control of world leaders -- and our peace and hope

2009-09-07T09:06:00.004-06:00

Cyrus was the powerful king of the Medes and Persians. http://www.iranchamber.com/history/cyrus/cyrus.php

Isaiah 44:28-45:12 (excerpts) - It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' . . . Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him. . . I am the LORD and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD and there is no other. . . It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, and I ordained their host.

-- TWM

Discussions and sharing

2009-09-05T14:54:00.002-06:00

This is the disturbing legacy of the 1960s and 1970s. A generation brought up on guitars, choruses, and home group discussions. Educated, as one of them put it to me, not to use words with precision because the image is dominant, not the word. Equipped not to handle doctrine but rather to “share.” A compassionate, caring generation, suspicious of definition and labels, uneasy at, and sometimes incapable of, being asked to wrestle with sustained didactic exposition of theology. Excellent when it came to providing religious music, drama, and art. Not so good when asked to preach and teach the Faith.

- Michael Saward, As quoted in Iain H. Murray, Evangelicalism Divided ( Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust: 2000), p. 254.

See How Great A Love

2009-09-05T08:12:00.005-06:00

John 13:34,35 - The new command is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practice: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. . . The more we recognize the depth of our own sin, the more we recognize the love of the Saviour; the more we appreciate the love of the Saviour, the higher his standard appears; the higher his standard appears, the more we recognize in our selfishness, our innate self-centredness, the depth of our own sin. With a standard like this, no thoughtful believer can ever say this side of the parousia, 'I am perfectly keeping the basic stipulation of the new covenant.'

-- D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John

The condemnation of affirmation

2009-09-02T08:09:00.005-06:00

Romans 1:32 - "And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things (see 1:18-31) are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

John Murray observes, "However severe has been the apostle's deliniation of the depravity of men, he has reserved for the end the characterization which is the most damning of all. It is that of the consensus of men in the pursuit of iniquity. The most damning condition is not the practice of iniquity, however much that may evidence our abandonment of God and abandonment to sin; it is that together with the practice there is also the support and encouragement of others in the practice of the same.

"To put it bluntly, we are not only bent on damning ourselves but we congratulate others in the doing of those things that we know have their issue in damnation. . . Iniquity is most aggravated when it meets with no inhibition from the disapproval of others and when there is collective, undissenting approbation."

[The New International Commentary on the New Testament. . . The Epistle to the Romans]

On pride of fearing man

2009-08-31T14:53:00.002-06:00

Isaiah 51:12, 13 - I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies; and the son of man who is made like grass; that you have forgotten the LORD your Maker. . .

Scattered thoughts on Romans 5

2009-08-19T07:24:00.004-06:00

When humans express their love for another human -- man seeking woman to be his wife, parent to child, redneck to Sid, his hunting dog, invariably in that expression of affection a positive quality is expressed about the object of one's love. For example: "I love your blue eye, not to mention the brown one, too." "Your smile makes my day." "Your sweet attitude keeps me coming back for more." "Whenever you retrieve a duck my heart goes pitter patter."

In Romans 5:5 we are told that the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (NASB). Below are a few observations from Romans 5 as to what that looks like:

Verse 6 - While we were in a state of helplessness evidenced in being ungodly Christ died for us.
Verses 7,8 - Christ did not die a hero's death saving someone who was righteous or good but rather in love for us God slaughtered His own Son in the place of sinners (See also Romans 8:32; Is. 53).
Verse 9 - The act of killing His own Son was an act of substitution -- Christ was punished in our place --thus satisfying the righteousness of God and saving us from the wrath of God.
Verse 10 - Enemies of God -- that is us -- were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
Verse 11 - Exultation in God is through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Evidence of the Holy Spirit in one's life: The Spirit glorifies and bears witness of Christ (see John 15:26; 16:14). Because He is the Holy Spirit of God, He causes us to see ourselves apart from Christ as separated from God: helpless, sinners, ungodly, enemies of God. He reminds us when we are wandering that we have been bought with a price, that we are not our own.

Evidence we have or are coming to a proper understanding of salvation: We exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ (see also I Peter 3:18). To exult in God is to have a higher estimation of God. Salvation through Jesus Christ causes a higher view of God, a delight in God not our specialness or uniqueness. We see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus through the gospel (2 Cor. 4).

Boasting in the Lord

Pridebreaking knowledge

2009-08-18T12:50:00.001-06:00

Autistic boy's mom re grace: When I scraped my son's feces off the wall, God said, "Your sin was more repulsive and I cleaned you." - Noel Piper on Twitter

Merit pay

2009-08-17T20:22:00.000-06:00

From www.desiringgod.org

My Happy Confession of Having No Merit
August 17, 2009 By: John Piper Category: Commentary

This is my confession:

I was born into a believing family through no merit of my own at all.

I was given a mind to think and a heart to feel through no merit of my own at all.

I was brought into the hearing of the gospel through no merit of my own at all.

My rebellion was subdued, my hardness removed, my blindness overcome, and my deadness awakened through no merit of my own at all.

Thus I became a believer in Christ through no merit of my own at all.

And so I am an heir of God with Christ through no merit of my own at all.

Now when I put forward effort to please the Lord who bought me, this is to me no merit at all, because
...it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)
...God is working in me that which is pleasing in his sight. (Hebrews 13:21)
...he fulfills every resolve for good by his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

And therefore there is no ground for boasting in myself, but only in God’s mighty grace.

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:31)

Singing to praise, singing toward heresy

2009-08-16T17:38:00.005-06:00

I am convinced that congregations learn more theology (good and bad) from the songs they sing than from the sermons they hear. Many sermons are doctrinally sound and contain a fair amount of biblical information, but they lack that necessary emotional content that gets ahold of the listener's heart. Music, however, reaches the mind and the heart at the same time. It has power to touch and move the emotions, and for that reason can become a wonderful tool in the hands of the Spirit or a terrible weapon in the hands of the Adversary. Naive congregations can sing their way into heresy before they realize what is going on.
- Warren Wiersbe, Real Worship, p. 137

Contend earnestly for the faith

2009-08-13T21:06:00.000-06:00

"If we must needs pass in review the erring thoughts and words of men, let us be sure that our final object is not a criticism of error but the clearer apprehension and possession of truth. They who believe may, by reason of the very loyalty and fervor of their devotion, so anxiously and eagerly watch the fleeting, earth-born mists which for a moment have threatened to veil the face of the Sun of Righteousness as to forget that the true weal [well-being] and safety of the soul is only assured while her eye is persistently fixed on His imperishable glory."H. P. Liddon, The Divinity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, pages 43-44. (Posted by Ray Ortlund, http://christisdeeperstill.blogspot.com/

God never gives us discernment in order that we may (merely) criticize, but that we may intercede. - Oswald Chambers

With whom we are dealing

2009-08-12T20:59:00.000-06:00

From Vance Havner -- written back in the 50s

Some today are trying to follow a Galilean Teacher, but a lot has happened since Jesus walked on earth in the days of His flesh. Cavlary has taken place and the resurrection and Pentecost. We are not dealing now with only a meek and lowly Jesus going about doing good, with nowhere to lay His head, and upon whose breast John laid his head. That chapter is past. We are dealing now with a crucified, risen, ascended, glorified and coming Lord with His countenance as the sun, His eyes like fire and His voice like the sound of many waters, and before whom John fell as dead.

2 Cor. 5:16 - Therefore, from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

How to live as a postmodern

2009-08-10T21:00:00.001-06:00

What time is it? Sociologists and historians answer: Age of Enlightenment. Industrial age. Age of Aquarius. Modern. Postmodern.

Apostle Paul: Last days
In these last days difficult times will come. . . You however continue on in the things you have learned. . . You have the sacred writings able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. . . All Scripture is God-breathed and still profitable. . . Preaching the Word is still done in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. . . . At some point you will probably want your ears tickled rather than hear sound doctrine. Stick with the sound doctrine.
II Timothy 3:1-4:8

-- TWM

Ticket to Ride or Priceless Jewel?

2009-08-10T19:09:00.000-06:00

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFBrHB70RF8&feature=PlayList&p=295BFC789E3F2EC2&index=14&playnext=3&playnext_from=PL

Dogmatic Thoughts from 1923, 2009

2009-08-10T07:10:00.001-06:00

Jesus said to His disciples, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up" (Matthew 20:18,19)

J. Gresham Machen wrote the following in 1923:

'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' The Gospel which Jesus proclaimed in Galilee consisted in the proclamation of a coming Kingdom. [By doing so He was not merely declaring] general and permanent principles of religion, [but rather] made the message depend upon something that happened. . . Jesus was certainly not a mere enunciator of permanent truths, like the modern liberal preacher; on the contrary He was conscious of standing at the turning-point of the ages, when what had never been was now to come to be.

[Therefore] when He gave an account of the meaning of the event, no matter how brief that account may have been, He was overstepping the line that separates an undogmatic religion, or even a dogmatic religion that teaches only eternal principles, from one that is rooted in the signficance of definite historical facts; He was placing a great gulf between Himself and the philosophic modern liberalism which today incorrectly bears His name. (Christianity and Liberalsim, pages 31-33)

My observation:
The same Bible that tells us to turn the other cheek and judge not lest ye be judged also records Jesus telling His disciples He was going up to Jerusalem to die. According to an eye witness's intepretation, going up to Jerusalem to die and be resurrected was a demonstration of the love of God by being the propitiation for our sins through His death on a cross (I John 4). Another eyewitness of Jesus' life, death, burial and resurrection called what He saw as being the root of a living hope and an act of grace (I Peter 1).

These Christian teachings (dogmas) about love, hope and grace are directly tied to a unique and particular historic event. And yes, while the Bible does tell us to be kind, patient when wronged, etc. those characteristics are not necessarily unique to Christianity. That is not meant to demean the importance of generosity or kindness, or helping blue-haired ladies across the street, but rather to recognize the message of God's grace is rooted in the unique and particular death of Jesus. The living hope of which Peter writes is explicitly tied to the bodily resurrection of Christ. The love of Christ, the grace of God, the hope we can have are not based in esoteric, generic, universial niceties but rather in Jesus Christ being a particular person and doing a particular thing in time and space.

Consider, if John Newton had read the Scriptures in a non-dogmatic way and allowed Jesus to be merely another human demonstrating a higher god-consciousness: Newton wouldn't have penned those dogmatic and demeaning words, "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."

We preached Christ crucified. . . foolishness and stumbling block. . . that no man should boast before God (I Corithians 1).

-- TWMathis

Nevertheless He saved them

2009-08-09T19:33:00.001-06:00

Psalm 106:6-8 - We have sinned like our fathers, We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Thy wonders; They did not remember Thine abundant kindnesses, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, that He might make His power known.

Romans 5:10 - while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son

Eph. 1:6 - to the praise of the glory of His grace.

-- TWM

Creative, yes, but, man of God more

2009-08-09T19:01:00.001-06:00

As you can see by it being almost a month since my last post, I'm not real good at this. No doubt the multitudes have been anxiously awaiting the next blog.

Just saw this at www.desiringgod.org

What Kind of Men Are You Looking For?August 8, 2009 By: Lukas Naugle Category: Commentary
"Seeking creative-types who want to reach out to a culturally diverse and post-denominational world."
I read this advertisement today from a seminary. I asked myself, "If I was a seminary recruiter what kind of man would I be looking to train to teach and lead the church of the future?"
Does the church need self-labeled creative-types in leadership? What is a creative-type?
Do they have a mac? Do they have messy hair? Do they not tuck their shirt in? Do they create something? Are they the ones who appreciate all kinds of art? Are they entrepreneurial? Do they have a reputation for bucking the establishment?
If we were to look to God's Word about this, especially 1 Timothy 3:1-8 and 2 Timothy 2:2, we would find descriptors like:
above reproach
husband of one wife
sober-minded
self-controlled
respectable
hospitable
able to teach
not a drunkard
not violent but gentle
not quarrelsome
not a lover of money
manage his household well
not a recent convert
well thought of by outsiders
dignified
not double-tongued
faithful
Whether we think of ourselves as a creative-type or not, my hope is that all men who aspire to leadership in the church would desire the label of man of God (1 Tim. 6:11), workers for your joy (2 Cor. 1:24), servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1), men of sincerity (2 Cor. 2:17).

A provoking quote about how we approach our study of Scripture and how we think about its proclamation: "The thrust of true theology is gratitude not novelty. So memory is more important than innovation." - Jim Houston

A question to ponder: If God's love is unconditional was it so for the people of Ai?

Of Michael, John, Elvis and Fanny

2009-07-09T07:24:00.001-06:00

With no desire to mock or diminish the death of any person -- famous or anonymous, my mind has been ruminating on the events of the past few days.

One hundred years from now there will be a new King of Pop (should the Lord allow those days to be). In his lifetime Michael Jackson sold more than 750 million records. That's a lot of pop. But all kings are eventually deposed. On August 16, 1977, I heard of Elvis Presley's death. December 9, 1980, I helped print a daily newspaper recounting John Lennon's murder.

These three kings of my generation proclaimed a message for this world only: Jackson told us we are the world and we can make a better day. Lennon was confident all we needed to do was imagine and give peace a chance. Presley -- well, if we just had a little less conversation and a little more action we could be dancin' to the jailhouse rock. Their music and personnas brought fabulous wealth and global reknown. But all their confidence in this world and toe-tapping little ditty's couldn't save them. Jackson died while his security guards kept the world at bay; Lennon was gunned down by a fan outside his front door. Presley: fallen from his personal throne after trying to get one more high his success couldn't get him to.

Their songs, their cultural iconography are for this life only; this world is passing away and also its lusts. Consider another poet and songwriter from a few generations past.

Fanny Crosby wrote:

Take the world, but give me Jesus,
All its joys are but a name;
But His love abideth ever,
Through eternal years the same.
Oh, the height and depth of mercy!
Oh, the length and breadth of love!
Oh, the fullness of redemption,
Pledge of endless life above.

Crosby (1820-1915), who became blind shortly after birth, wrote more than 8,000 poems and hymns. Critics have observed that much of hymnody of the 18th and 19th centuries (including Crosby's) wasn't the best poetry. But compared to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and lyrics like hunka-hunka burnin' love, Crosby deserves a Nobel Prize in Literature.

Highly unlikely was there ever a candlight service in Times Square to commemorate Crosby's death. Doubtful her gravestone is noted on a tourist's map. Her songs might not even be known 100 years from now. But Crosby saw something and gave us a taste of something the three kings couldn't. She saw the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. She tasted of the eternal river of delights. And it showed up in her life. She was content, downright happy, even thanking her Creator for her blindness. No cocktails of prescription drugs to get through the day. No need to hide from the world. No fan club or entourage required. Crosby had Christ and He was enough.

Take the world but give me Jesus.

-- TWMathis

Greetings from the Mountain Top

2009-07-08T16:10:00.000-06:00

This is my first entry on my own blog so pardon my first attempts to appear swell, hip, cool, and virtually with-it. My hope is this format will be used to discuss the Bread of Life, good books, things I'm thinking about and learning and to encourage others to think with me on things above (Col. 3:1,2).

Below are two items to get this started.

First, a thought from First John 4:1,2 in relationship to spirituality. According to these verses, there is a baseline as to determine what is truly of the one, true God. That is, there is spiritual talk/teaching that is true and there is spiritual talk that is false. The main test: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, and this is the spirit of the antichrist. . .(4:2,3 NASB).

It's quite apparent that John the writer is making a person's confession regarding the incarnation as ground zero regarding what is being heralded as 'spiritual.' I find it somewhat ironic that this focal point regarding spiritual talk is about One Particular Man, Jesus Christ. John does not discuss the characteristics of spirits but rather insists his readers test what is true based on the Only Begotten Son who has explained God (John 1).

Second, a poem from Horatius Bonar that has been an encouragement:

I hear the words of love

I gaze upon the blood.

I see the mighty sacrifice

And I have peace with God.

'Tis everlasting peace,

Sure as Jehovah's name;

As stable as His steadfast throne,

Forever more the same.

The storms may come and go

And clouds may sweep my sky

This blood-sealed friendship changes not;

The cross is ever nigh.

My love is ofttimes low

My joy still ebbs and flows

But peace with Him remains the same;

No change Jehovah knows.

I change, He changes not;

The Christ can never die.

His word, not mine, the resting place,

His love, not mine the tie.