Resolved 2008: Session #3

John MacArthur

Luke 12:1-12

With thousands gathered to hear Jesus, so many that they were trampling each other, what He chose to speak about among all things He could have chosen was the subject of hell.

When Jesus tells these people to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, He is essentially saying “Beware of the religion you are a part of otherwise you will end up in hell.”

Many people are OK with a hell for the Hitler’s, Stalin’s, murderers, and such high profile crime committers, but the truth is that these people will only make up a small minority of heaven. The majority of hell will be religious people, people who follow a religion that cannot save.

The illusion is that we are good people who God would never send to hell and most certainly would send to heaven. That is what Jesus is getting at in this text. These were all Jews who believed in a Messiah, in heaven, in hell, and the laws of God. But most of them were all headed to hell and that’s why Jesus speaks as He does. Jesus constantly warned such people. He most constantly condemned the religious people to eternal damnation.

There are the religious people. And then there are the disciples, the genuine learners. Jesus is referring to these also. Jesus is offering both a warning them to avoid what the others were walking in. They needed to beware of the deadly pervasive influence of the Pharisees.

Jesus was full aware of sin. But He spoke so much more about false religion than He did of gross iniquities because false religion locks so many up in subtle deception.

How do we avoid false religion?

1) We need to be motivated strongly to abandon false religion

What will motivate us? The fact that there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be made known (v.2-3). We must escape false religion because God will uncover the truth. And if we are hypocrites, we know that we are hypocrites when we are honest with ourselves. We must flee this hypocrisy because we are in severe danger.

The heart of hypocrisy is the fear of man. Jesus tells us that to defeat this we must not fear men, but rather to fear the One who after He has killed us, has authority to cast us into hell—namely, God.

Why should we fear God? 3 reasons:

1) God will unmask all hypocrites

2) He will send them to hell

3) He knows everything

The fact that God knows everything is comforting news for the genuine believer. It is frightening news for the hypocrite and unbeliever. And God knows those who are his and those who are not.

2) We must make a true, open, public confession of Jesus Christ (v.8).

To not do so is hypocrisy if we think we are Christians. We will never be confessed by God as one of His own before the angels until we have acknowledged Jesus before others as the Lord.

Luke 13:1-9

Here in the same occasion as Luke 12 (v.1), a group of people look for a reason why some Galileans had been slaughtered and had their blood mixed with that of their sacrifices (v.1-5). Jesus responds in saying that what they experience is not because they are worse than any others. The point is that all people are sinners just like those victims and unless a person repents, he too will likewise perish. This is the gospel. The message is simple. All must repent or perish.

Then in the parable to follow (v.6-9), Jesus teaches that everyone is living on borrowed time. This is the gift of common grace. But unless we produce the fruit that God seeks, that time will be cut short.

We must examine ourselves, whether we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Hell is real. And we will go there if we don’t pass the test.

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Resolved 2008: Session #2

Randy Alcorn

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Revelation 21:1-6

Some have us have come groaning and longing for the redemption that will come with the resurrection of the sons of God (Romans 8). That redemption doesn’t come in snatching our souls from this world. It comes in God bringing His very presence down to the new earth, setting up His throne, and dwelling with us forever.

This used to be the great encouragement to the people of God, the North Star by which Christians navigated their lives. But heaven has largely fallen off our radar screens in the day we live in today because we think we have the capacity to create our own heaven.

When we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s ultimate answer to that is in the fulfillment of what is written in Revelation 21.

We were made for one person and one place. Jesus is the person. Heaven is the place. We will never be satisfied with anything less than Jesus or anything less than heaven.

In Colossians 3:1,2 that we are to set our hearts and our minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and not on earthly things.

Jonathan Edwards’ resolution #22: Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world (heaven) with as I possibly can…

When we seek that happiness that we will have only in the presence of God when we dwell with Him, God gives us, as a byproduct, happiness in this life as we eagerly await the fulfillment of that certain time to come.

Jesus, born into the family of a carpenter, is the ultimate Carpenter. He created the world and He fixes the world go wrong. He will make us even better than Adam and Eve were before they sinned in the garden.

When many people think of heaven, they think merely of the place we go to be when we die. This is called the intermediate state. But this present heaven is not the same as the eternal heaven. Once the resurrection takes place, God will create a new heaven and earth that will be eternal.

It is this eternal heaven that is really the focus of Scripture and should be the focus of our Christian lives (2 Peter 3:13). The present heaven is like a layover on our way somewhere else. Even though we will be in the presence of Jesus, something even more wonderful awaits us after our resurrection. At that point we will receive resurrected bodies and be part of a resurrected world as we serve God and have dominion over the earth as God intended from the beginning. Satan didn’t defeat God’s plan when Adam and Eve sinned. God’s original plan in Genesis 1 and 2 is perfected in Revelation 22. God never gave up or lost His plan (Genesis 1:1, Revelation 21:1).

When Scripture speaks of a new earth, new is an adjective that modifies the noun earth. It speaks of an improvement of the same object, not of an entirely new object. This is also true of the new bodies that we will receive.

The essence of heaven, in Revelation 21, is the fact that God is with men (v.3). Even though God is omnipotent and is therefore everywhere and always with men, this speaks of His permanent dwelling place which is currently on the throne in heaven. Revelation 22 :1 speaks of this throne as being on the new earth.

This world is the closest the unbeliever will come to experiencing the reality of heaven. This world is the closest the believer will come to experiencing the reality of hell.

The intermediate state should not be devalued because Paul spoke of it as being far better than this life (Philippians 1:21, 23) and so did Jesus when he told the thief on the cross when he told him that on that very day he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43).

Death is not a hole or a wall. It is a doorway into another world. Paul speaks of it as a departure (2 Timothy 4:6).

Jesus Christ experienced hell on the cross so that we would be able to spend eternity with Him after we die or when He comes.

We are all homesick for Eden because we are connected to Adam through our sin natures.

This present world is not our home. But this world, as it will be transformed by Jesus Christ, is our home, the home that we are to long for.

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
Job 19:25-27

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Resolved 2008: Session #1

Rick Holland

And just as it is appointed for a man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who ware eagerly waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:27-28

The resolutions of Jonathan Edwards were based primarily on death, dying, heaven, hell.

As 19 years olds (the age Edwards was when he wrote his resolutions), do we have commitments and convictions that we will not compromise no matter what we do?

Our theme is heaven and hell and it is impossible to talk about these realities without talking about death because death is the doorway to heaven and hell.

We must think about death as Edwards did because if we are ready to die, then we know how to live. But we, in the Western world, are very insulated from thinking of death. We are insulated from it when it comes to the food that we eat, our friends and family dying.

This wasn’t true for the people in the book of Hebrews. The readers of this book were Jewish Christians who were exposed to death constantly through the animal sacrifice system. Hebrews is a bloody book about sacrifices in which Jesus Christ is set forth as the ultimate sacrifice that is superior to all that came before Him.

The 3 most important facts of life

1) Death is unavoidable (v.27)

It has been appointed for us to die. Someone has arranged for us to die. We have all brought this appointment upon ourselves (Romans 3:23, 6:23). Death is the right and the righteous judgment of God on the sin of every man. Every man is born with a death sentence. We are dying from the moment we come into this world. We are dying right now and are closer to our death at this moment than this morning when we woke up. Are we, like Edwards, aware of this fact and living light in light of the reality that we will one day die?

There is a fundamental relationship between the life and death of every person and the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Why had death made death the sentence for our sin and not something lesser? This leads us to understand how serious sin is. It is so serious to God that He demands our death for it. Yet it is so serious God to resolve this problem that He killed His own Son to pay our death penalty.

2) Judgment is certain (v. 27)

Psalm 50:6, Ecclesiastes 3:17, 8:11-13, 12:14

Judgment is certain because God is the judge. Everyone has an appointment at the day of their death to meet with God. And at that judgment we will have to account for what we’ve done with the sacrifice of His Son.

God is so serious about sin that He would put us to death. But He is more serious than that in that this death is an eternal one in hell.

And apart from His Son, this hell is our eternal destination. Hell is right now filled with people who are suffering and who would love to plead with us this very moment to believe on Christ and receive the salvation that is in Him in order that we might be spared from what they are experiencing.

There are no second chances. It is appointed for a man to die once and then comes judgment.

3) Salvation is possible (v.28)

This is the gospel. Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. Jesus is the final, real, ultimate sacrifice. It’s not amazing that judge would judge us by death and hell. What’s remarkable is God would take that punishment and replace it with the righteousness of Christ because Christ himself received our punishment on the cross. Jesus was absolutely alienated so that we ourselves wouldn’t have to be alienated ourselves.

We were born with a stiff arm in God’s face clawing at His eyes that we might have our own way and yet He still makes salvation possible for us.

Jesus is coming again with a robe dipped in blood to make war on all except those who don’t believe, those who eagerly await Him. Why don’t we more eagerly await Him? Because we love this life too much.

Resolution #55: Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I shall wish to do if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and the torments of hell.

Matthew 13:44 – Is Christ so precious to us that we will give up all that we have in order to receive all that He is for us?

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Do You Preach To Yourself?

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
Psalm 42:11

I know I need to do so more often.



Get the entire sermon here: Spiritual Depression in the Psalms

How To Waste Your Theological Education

No, I am not in seminary. But by God's grace I am receiving a theological education through the Spurgeon Center. After spending a short time in Kenya a few weeks ago, I have been newly awakened to the greatness of the grace that it is not just for me to be able to have a doctrinally precise ministry equipping center at my church but to be part of a church where the full counsel of God is proclaimed, where the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in Christ are unfolded week after week so that all the saints might be presented mature in Christ (Colossians 2:2-3, 1:28). There is a way that Christianity is about receiving a theological education. And there are more people than we could dare to imagine who don't have access to a theological education, places where ministers of the gospel have no way to feed the sheep and build up the saints because they themselves are unequipped and untrained. Therefore, I believe that the list at the following link about how to waste your theological education is applicable to all believers who have the privilege of regularly sitting under biblical preaching.

How To Waste Your Theological Education

Yes, there is a way that Christianity is about receiving a theological education. But there is a way that it is certainly not.

Father, please spare us from this. Remove every impulse in us to waste the theological education You graciously provide for us, especially in a land full of scholars and theologians. And in its place would You please plant a passion to take the gift of a theological education to the nations that are starving for it, as sheep without a shepherd. For Christ's sake, Amen.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Feed My Sheep

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? ... Feed my lambs.
John 21:15

The way a pastor will love Jesus most and best satisfy his people's deepest need is one and the same: for him to unfold the meaning of all the Bible so that they might know God.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
Psalm 119:130

HT: Pure Church

Looking Behind David's Sin ... And Ours

Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
2 Samuel 12:9

This is David's offense, right? This is the sin he has committed that has displeased the LORD (2 Samuel 11:26b) and brought the rebuke of Nathan, right? This is what is evil in God's sight, right?

Before I answer with a conclusive "yes," I must ask myself why, then, did the LORD's response to David after David essentially condemns himself begin in verse 7 and not verse 9? After Nathan relates a parable to David in which a rich man with many lambs takes the only lamb of a poor man to kill, prepare, and set before a visiting guest instead of using one of his own, David pronounces judgment over any man who would do such a thing, not realizing that the man is himself in his dealings with Uriah the Hittite and his wife, Bathsheba. And Nathan responds:

Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.'
2 Samuel 12:7-9 (emphasis added)

And then Nathan continues to speak the LORD's words of judgment towards David.

But as I listen to the words of the LORD to David after Nathan first pronounces David to be "the man," I must ask myself why God doesn't just begin with verse 9. If the LORD had begun with the section where He asks "Why have you despised the word of the LORD...?", would you think that something was missing? My answer is that I wouldn't. So I must ask myself why God says what He says prior to that (the bolded text). Why does God list what He has done for David, how He has:

• anointed David king over Israel?
• delivered David out of the hand of Saul?
• given David's master's house and David's master's wives into David's arms?
• given David the house of Israel and of Judah?

And on top of this, God says that if all this were too little, He would have given David much more! Why does God take the time to speak of all that He has done for David and would do for David instead of just getting to the actions that David has committed?

I think the answer is that, without this, we wouldn't see the reality behind sin and what makes it so evil in the eyes of God. And to put another spin on it, we wouldn't see the reality behind sin that enables us to effectively battle and defeat it. This reality is the reason why David's sin is described:

• by God as having despised God Himself (12:10)
• by David as having sinned against the LORD (12:13, Psalm 51:4)
• by Nathan as having utterly scorned the LORD (12:14)

Without in any way wanting to belittle the fact that Nathan wronged Uriah (an understatement) and Bathsheba as well, committing adultery, deceit, and murder, the issue doesn't ultimately lie in what David's actions show about David, sinner that he is, but rather the issue ultimately lies in what David's actions show about God, the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes from heaven above (James 1:17).

When David looked down at Bathsheba bathing from his palace rooftop, all he could think about was this woman that he didn't have. He had forgotten all that the LORD had graciously bestowed upon him, including three wives. It seems like this is were his sin began. Is this not why God begins His indictment of David by listing the benefits He had bestowed upon him?

Was this not the same place that Adam and Eve went wrong, forgetting all in the garden that they were granted to eat because they didn't have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Was this not the same place that both the young prodigal and his older brother went wrong, one desiring the inheritance and the other desiring a goat to celebrate with his friends, forgetting that all that was their father's was theirs (Luke 15:31)?

Is this not where we go wrong, forgetting that He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all will also with Him graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32)?

And so we take things into our own hands to get for ourselves what we want, showing God to be a withholder of something that is good when He has told us that no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). And in so doing, we heap scorn on His name as David did, instead of magnifying Him as the all-satisfying grace Giver that He is. This is the heart of the evil in all of our sin. We steal glory from the One who does all things for His own name's sake (Isaiah 48:11). We do all this in spite of the fact that God has told us, just as he told David, that if we are lacking in any way, He will give us what we need (Psalm 23:1, Matt. 6:31-33, Matt. 7:7-11, Philippians 4:19). Perhaps we do so because we know that if we ask God for what we want, He will not give it to us. And yet the evil in our hearts supplants the Almighty in His grace-giving power and wisdom by replacing Him with ourselves as the orchestrator of our lives. I think we can see how this plays out for David if we contrast the way David takes Bathsheba to be his wife (2 Samuel 11) with how the LORD grants Abigail to be his wife (1 Samuel 25).

In his book Future Grace, John Piper's thesis is that "sin is what we do when we aren't satisfied in God." In other words, sin is what we do when we are blinded to and forgetful of all that God is for us and has given us in Jesus and through Jesus. And satisfaction doesn't come primarily by looking to the past, but rather by looking forward to the certainty of what God will do for us and be for us from this moment forward ("If this were too little, I would add to you as much more.").

This means that the primary way that we fight against sin is by continually praying, as Paul prayed for the Ephesians, to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we might know what is the hope to which God has called us, what are the riches of God's glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19), giving God the glory in doing so by rejoicing in God's work.

We pray that God would enable us to never lose sight and esteem of the worth of what He has done for us through Christ in the gospel according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20) after the Son had lived a perfect life to be credited to our account and died a perfect death to absorb the punishment that we deserved.

And we fix our eyes on Jesus, the One who was without sin because He never lost sight of His Father's all-satisfying worth and all that His Father had given into His hands, which we see in the act before His death that most clearly symbolizes what He has done for us in taking on human flesh.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
John 13:3, 4

Chrstian Hedonism: Our Best Evangelism Strategy

Our power in drawing men to Christ springs chiefly from the fullness of our personal joy in him, and the nearness of our personal communion with him. The countenance that reflects most of Christ, and shines most with his love and grace, is most fitted to attract the gaze of a careless, giddy world, and win restless souls from fascinations of creature love and creature-beauty. A ministry of power must be the fruit of a holy, peaceful, loving intimacy with the Lord.

-Horatius Bonar

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him not just because only then do we honor Him as the all-satisfying Treasure of the universe that He is but also because when the world sees our satisfaction in Him above all else, they will notice that He is more than just One to be obeyed. He is One to be enjoyed. Nobody is looking for something or someone to obey. Everybody is looking for something or someone to enjoy. This means that not only is Christian hedonism our best evangelism strategy, it is also our best discipleship strategy.

The implications for this are staggering. Above all else, what this means is that the soul winner's and disciple maker's primary business isn't daily to talk to men, but rather daily to get his soul as happy as possible in God.

The Only Way To Pay God Back

What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD ...
Psalm 116:12, 13

Overwhelmed by all the benefits he has received from the LORD, the psalmist asks how he can render back to the LORD what He has given him, how he can return what the LORD has given so generously, how he can pay God back.

And he provides for us the only answer that doesn't commit blasphemy by dishonoring God and nullifying grace. The very cup of salvation that God has placed in his hands and filled with grace, he will lift up and cry out to God to fill with more and more grace that leads to salvation.

On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.
Psalm 138:3

So what does David do in response?

He pleads with God for more strength and deliverance:

Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Psalm 138:8

The only way to pay God back is to go deeper and deeper into debt by continuing to call on Him and, in so doing, let Him display Himself as the always greater grace-Giver. And nothing delights Him more. He gets the glory. We get the help, satisfaction, and joy. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. What a God, infinitely worthy of our love!

[He is not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Acts 17:25

A Theology Of Praise

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 113:9

According to the psalmist in this Scripture, the end result of praise begins with people God has made poor and placed in the dust and a woman God has made barren.

---

There was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah...He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah and the name of the other, Penninah. And Penninah had children, but Hannah had no children.
1 Samuel 1:1, 2

God closed Hannah's womb and caused her to endure the scorn and ridicule of her husband's other wife, Penninah, until it brought her to the point where she could bear it no longer, weeping and refusing to eat.

Why did He do this?

So that He could make her the joyous mother of children ...

"My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD."
1 Samuel 2:1

Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters.
1 Samuel 2:21

... and so that, together with her experience, He could teach her the exact same theology that He taught the psalmist:

He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.
1 Samuel 2:8

Amazing.

The Unexpected Place Of Refuge

All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!
Ruth 2:11-12

Where do we go when we look to find shelter? When we want to be safe? When we want to be secure? We usually go to a place we know, a place we are familiar with.

When Ruth decided to leave her hometown of Moab in order to go back to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi after Naomi's husband and two sons had both died, she was leaving everything that she had ever known. She was leaving everything that she had ever been familiar with. She left what she knew--father and mother and native land--to come to what she did not know--a people in Bethlehem.

This is how the Scriptures, spoken by Boaz, describe what Ruth has done in going from Moab to Bethlehem. But there is another description the Scriptures give of what Ruth has done in going from Moab to Bethlehem: she went to take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel.

One action, traveling from Moab to Bethlehem, is described in two ways. Ruth leaves the known for the unknown. Ruth goes to take refuge under the wings of the God of Israel.

And the conclusion I arrive at is this: refuge is found in unexpected places. If Ruth had held on to what she knew, she wouldn't have found her refuge under the wings of the God of Israel.

Faith is a funny thing. It calls for obedience. And it does so in such a way that when we walk this path of obedience we really don't know how things will turn out. But could faith be any other way? If we know how things are going to turn out, then faith wouldn't really be faith, would it?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

And yet the path of obedience is the only place of sure refuge because this is where we know for certain that God will reward us. We just don't know what form that reward will take in this life. We only know that ultimately the reward is God Himself.

We are people who find our security in knowing. When we know, we feel like we can manage. We feel like we have control. And we enjoy that. But let us not confuse what it is to know with what it is to be certain. Even when we know that things are what they are, we can never be certain that they will stay that way. But we can be certain that when we seek God in obedience, He will reward us because He says so (Hebrews 11:6).

When we trust God, though our visible reward is unknown it is never uncertain. When we trust ourselves, though our visible reward is known it is never certain.

So let us go against the impulse within us to find comfort in what we know and instead seek refuge in the God who knows all as we walk the path of obedience wherever it may lead. It feels risky. It feels dangerous. It even at times feels foolish. But, in the end, it is the only place of certain refuge.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8

Oh LORD, May It Be True Of Me!

He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.
Psalm 112:7

Firm. Unwavering. Satisfied. He is not afraid not because God will give Him a life free of bad news but because God will satisfy Him in and through the bad news.

I love this verse. As I read over Psalm 112 a couple of times last night, it was as if this verse had been burned in my heart and mind. On a side note, this is how I most love to interact with Scripture. Though I may cover an entire chapter or two in a sitting, I am always looking for one verse or idea or two from the whole to pinpoint and make my meditation for the day. Few things are sweeter to me than this practice.

The reason I love this verse so much is that it goes to the very heart of my theology: that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him, especially when all my circumstances should cause me to be dissatisfied, frustrated, fearful, or angry. Then, and most fully then, does God look like the Treasure of infinite worth that He truly is.

So this morning, this verse continued to reverberate in my heart and mind as I sang to the LORD.

...When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot,
Thou has taught me to say,
Even so, It is well with my soul.

What will make me able to sing that it is well with my soul when (not if) the bad news comes? Only if I have a heart that is firm, trusting in the LORD.

High king of heaven my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys O bright heaven's sun,
Heart of my own heart whatever befall,
Still be my Vision O Ruler of all!

What will enable me to keep God as my Vision, Heart of my own heart, whatever bad news does befall me? Only if I have a heart that is firm, trusting in the LORD.

Great is Thy faithfulness,
O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not,
Thy compassions they fail not,
As Thou has been Thou forever will be.

What will enable me to believe that God has not changed and that His compassions have not failed when the bad news comes? Only if I have a heart that is firm, trusting in the LORD.

So how can I cultivate a heart that is firm, trusting in the LORD so as to prepare for the bad news?

One way is for me to consider that no matter how bad the news is that I will receive, there is absolutely no way that it can overshadow or change the good news of what God has done for me in Christ. He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for me, how will he not also with Him freely give me all things (Romans 8:32)? As John Piper points out, calling this the solid logic of heaven, the hardest thing in the world for God to do was to crush His Son, whom He delights in with infinite pleasure. So if God did the hardest thing possible for me, the good news is that everything else is infinitely easier. No good thing will He withhold from me (Psalm 84:11). Indeed, for Him to withhold a good thing from me would make Him the loser in the end. And this He is not. He is irrevocably, irreversibly for me. Infinite wisdom and omnipotent strength fueled by holy wrath were once against me so as to make me as miserable as possible forever. But now infinite wisdom and omnipotent power fueled by endless streams of mercy and grace are for me so as to make me as happy as possible forever. Infinite wisdom and omnipotent strength. Forever.

We prepare for the bad news by pondering the good news because the good news always overshadows the bad. And from this side of the cross, the good news is what Christ has wrought on the cross. Because of Christ, it's all good news. Because of Christ, though Satan may mean it as bad news, God means it as good news in the long run (Genesis 50:20).

Though I don't expect this to lessen the pain and the tears that may follow when the bad news comes, I pray that meditating on and clinging to the good news of Jesus will make the heart underneath to be one of joyful confidence and satisfaction in the LORD then and fearlessness now.

He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.
Psalm 112:7

Oh LORD, may it be true of me!

A Word For Christian Hedonists

If you are a Christian hedonist, like I am, you believe that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. You believe that joy is not peripheral in the life of the Christian. As John Piper would say, "It is not icing on the cake of the Christian life." Instead, it is the substance of our lives as Christians. The essence of the Christian life is joy in Jesus.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4

Paul's command, and the frequency with which we are to keep it, is quite clear. But listen to God Himself speak to His covenant people in the Old Testament about the consequences of not rejoicing in Him:

Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whome the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.
Deuteronomy 28:47, 48

As Jeremy Taylor, the 17th century minister in the Church of England says, "God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy in Him."

For me, what naturally follows from believing this biblical truth is that joy in God is the ultimate goal of all of my life because this is what it means to seek His highest glory, which is the end for which He created the world. And when I say joy, I'm talking about a feeling, an affection, something in my heart and not just my mind. I want the books I read to produce in me greater joy in God. I want my times in the Word to produce in me greater joy in God. I want my prayer times, my times of writing and reflection, fellowship with other believers, sitting under the preaching of the Word, listening to music, and everything under the sun that I do to produce in me ever-increasing affections of joy in and love for God.

But here's the problem. Though pretty regularly the affections are there, often times they are not. And when they are not, it makes me feel like something is wrong. It worries me. I know some will say that there's a difference between joy and happiness, that joy is deep and happiness is more superficial, that joy is constant and happiness is not. But whatever we call it, if we are not seeing ourselves affected with brokenhearted joy or awe-struck joy or sin-defeating joy that produces contentment in our hearts as we encounter the living God especially in communion with Him through prayer and Scripture, this is spiritual numbness that should scare us.

Some of us don't focus on our affections enough. But if you are like me, then often times you will focus on your affections too much. It shouldn't be any surprise, as with most things in the Christian life, that most people probably fall on one end of the spectrum or the other when the goal is to fall in the middle. In his book Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus in All Cases and Conditions, Puritan Robert Asty provides this word of tremendous help and encouragement to those who, like me, are tempted to focus too much on their affections as they seek to rejoice in the Lord Jesus continually:

Darkness of evidence [of our fellowship with Christ] sometimes arises from peremptory [final, decisive] conclusions as to our state, upon the reports that sense makes when we look at our feelings.
The reason for our darkness [lack of evidence] is that we lay the stress of our condition upon sense, and upon what we can feel in ourselves, and not upon a simple venture upon Christ Jesus; not upon a gospel-throw upon Christ Jesus, whatever be the issue. The soul goes to its feelings, and makes a judgment of its state upon and from them. When a man can find his heart warmed for Christ, when he can find his spirit under any gospel enlargement for Christ, when he can find his graces begin to grow and thrive, and when he can find speedy returns made unto all his seekings after the Lord, then he concludes, "Now all is well; here is an interest, and behold the fruits of it." But now, when the soul's graces are a little clouded, when he misses that enlargement which sometimes he has experienced, when he comes under some difficulty, and when Jesus Christ is for a while silent unto his prayers, why, then, he concludes against himself: "Oh, there is no interest! Why, if I were in Christ Jesus it would be otherwise in me. Christ would answer me, Christ would enlarge me, and Christ would heighten and brighten my graces. Chris would not leave me in such an uncomfortable condition. He would fill me, lift me up, and set me on high! Oh, surely there is nothing of truth and reality that has passed upon my soul!"
Now, Christians, while you draw up peremptory [final, decisive] conclusions as to your state, upon the reports of sense in your hearts, you will never come to be settled and established while you are in this world. Conclusions drawn from changeable, mutable principles will never be relieving or comforting to you (Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus in All Cases and Conditions, p.90-91).

Why?

Because, even after conversion:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

So I think the key to rejoicing in the Lord Jesus always is not to focus on our rejoicing always, but to focus on the Lord Jesus, His person and His work, always. And by God's grace, the rejoicing will soon follow.

The Prayer of David and the Son of David

They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
Psalm 109:3-5

When David's enemies attack him with hatred and accusations and evil from all sides despite the love that he has shown them, his response is to give himself to prayer. Oh, that we would learn from him simply on this front! What does he pray for?

Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children! May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation! May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out! Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
Psalm 109:12-15

This is just a small sampling of curses that David gave himself to praying down on those who were against him.

When the Son of David's enemies attack Him with hatred and accusations and evil from all sides despite the love that He has shown them, His response is to give Himself to prayer. What does He pray for?

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Luke 23:34

No doubt, this is just a small sampling of blessings that Jesus gave Himself to praying down on those who were against Him.

It is a mind-blowing thing to ponder that the hatred that Jesus met with in response to the life of love that He lived towards all those He came into contact with in the gospels overflowed with the fullest expression of love at the moment it should have overflowed with the fullest expression of hatred. This is the difference between David and the Son of David. This is the difference between being a man after God's own heart and being a man having God's own heart.

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of Your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:43-45

Need we ask whether Jesus would want us to model our prayers after David or the Son of David?

The One Who Works Wonders

So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching.
Judges 13:19

When Manoah's wife comes to him to tell him that an angel of the LORD appeared to her and informed her that she would give birth to a son (Samson) that would be set apart for God, Manoah prays to God to send this angel once again. When the LORD grants Manoah's request, the angel returns and repeats the things he had previously said, now in the presence of both Manoah and his wife. Manoah, seemingly as an act of honor, wants to prepare a goat for this man of God. The angel kindly tells him that he would not eat it if he did prepare it. Instead he ought to prepare and offer a burnt offering to the LORD. So Manoah does as the angels says. He prepares a young goat with a grain offering and then after lighting the fire ... he waits. He and his wife wait. They've made all the preparations, they've set the burnt offering on the rock, and then they stand back and watch. What are they watching for? For the One who works wonders.

I can just picture Manoah and his wife standing there watching and waiting, the gaze of their eyes constantly alternating between the rock and the sky as they expectantly wait for the One who works wonders.

And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.
Judges 13:20

He's done it again. And all they can do is bow with their faces down before the awesome majesty of the One who works wonders.

As I read through this story, I kept coming back to the phrase "the one who works wonders." Why did the inspired writer choose to add this modifier to describe the LORD? He could have left it out without in any way altering the story. But this is the way he chooses to describe the LORD. Is this the way that I choose to describe the LORD in the day in and day out grind of everyday life? When I wake up each morning, is my heart marked by an expectancy that eagerly desires to watch for the new wonders that God will work today ... in me ... in those around me? If I'm honest with myself, my answer to these questions is no.

I'm glad the same wasn't true of Jesus. As five thousand hungry people stood before him and having only five loaves and two fish to feed them with, what did the Son of God do?

And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
Mark 7:41

He took this small offering and, looking up to His Father, offered it to Him. Then Mark tells us that he said a blessing. I wonder what words came out of Jesus' mouth. You alone are the One who works wonders, Father. Glorify your name.

And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.
Mark 7:42, 43

The fire fell, as it were, and the One who works wonders had done it again.

And the wonder of wonders of this story is that the One who looked to the One who works wonders was Himself the One who works wonders! He is the One who divided the two fish among them all. And those who were closest to Him had to have known that they were in the presence of the One who works wonders.

And so are we. The same God who calls us "friend," talking with us in the morning when we rise, and walking with us through all the ins and outs of mundane every day life is the One who works wonders. Oh, may God grant that we would not lose sight of His infinite transcendence as we enjoy His infinite condescension! That the two of these would be true at the same time, in itself, should be enough to cause us to marvel continually at the One who works wonders.

But the greatest wonder of all that God could work is to fold depraved sinners such as us into the overflowing fullness of the fellowship of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, executing the plan of salvation by putting forward His Son as a propitiation for our sins in order that He might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus and qualify us for such a glorious inheritance that we deserve no part in. What greater wonder has God worked than to remove hearts of stone from those who hate Him from birth, replacing them with hearts of flesh so that we would love Him for all eternity?

This work of wonder in the gospel that we behold in ourselves and in the lives of those around us is the very work of wonder that angels long to watch but are not granted the privilege to (1 Peter 1:12). In light of this, what should be our response?

Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!
Psalm 105:2

And then watch and wait expectantly for the wonders, especially of this great salvation, that He has yet to work!

Together For The Gospel 2008: Session #8

C.J. Mahaney

Sustaining A Pastor's Soul

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:3-8

Chuch life is a carousel of defeat and victory. Ups and downs.

There is no true pastoral ministry apart from faithfully proclaiming the gospel and holding fast to doctrinal truth. But pastoral ministry also calls for personal holiness and pleasing God in our hearts. Pastoral ministry is not just about our minds. It is also about our souls. And our souls are often overlooked.

So C.J.’s aim is to care for our souls this morning. He wants to give us a personal word to prepare us for the difficulties that will come when we return to the carousel of real life in ministry, that of blessing, power, and joy alternating with defeat, loss, and struggle.

There is a sense in which we have not been experiencing real life here: free books, relentless preaching of the Word, continual praises being sung to our Savior, staying in nice hotels, eating good food.

The transition is already beginning. So C.J.’s goal is to prepare us more fully.

Paul knew of the daily pressures from his anxieties over all the churches he shepherded (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). Paul was familiar with the carousel. But there is something that sets Paul apart. He did all of this with joy. He served and sacrifice and suffered, all with pervasive joy. He served the Lord with gladness. Is this distinctive in Paul, that he was filled with joy in all that he did, present in our lives?

C.J. doubts that the majority of pastors are daily serving the Lord and His church with joy. In order for a pastor to fully please the Lord, he must serve joyfully and not just faithfully? So are you a joyful pastor?

We are not talking about a superficial happiness or an aspect of one’s personality. But even when we experience sorrow and defeat, is there a joy that characterizes us? Can we say with Paul that we are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10)? Would your wife describe you this way? Would your children describe you this way? Those who work with you? Those who are in your congregation? Would they describe you as joyful? Or as normally burdened? Moody? Irritable? Easily discouraged?

Is joy a distinctive characteristic of your church, something that marks your people by and large?

Humbly ask these people that are closest to you and that you have most contact with on a daily basis if they see you as one whose life is marked by joy.

This word is especially for those who are discouraged but it’s a word for everyone, that we should have hope. And we will find hope by looking at the apostle Paul, the happiest pastor in the world and also the pastor who had more responsibilities than any of us. Looking at Paul should give us hope.

How did this man serve the Lord with gladness?

We will focus on these verses from Philippians, the letter of Paul that exudes the most joy, and yet was written from prison.

3 characteristics we must cultivate in our hearts if we will sustain our souls in the ministry:

1) Gratefulness to God (v. 3-5)

Paul assigned a high priority to gratefulness. In private he gives thanks to God for people. And he expresses that thankfulness for his people in his letters to them. There was probably no more grateful man than Paul.

What is it like when people converse with us? Is it obvious that we assign a high priority to the practice of gratefulness?

Gratefulness as a result of the grace of God in the life of others was a dominant experience in the life of Paul.

Is gratefulness a priority in our lives? Is it a priority in our churches? If not, we need to isolate this topic. Study it throughout the New Testament, especially in the letters of Paul. If we apply this topic to our souls, we will experience the transforming power of the grace of God in our lives. If we don’t, we will be vulnerable to a subtle, serious, and predictable temptation to complain and joy will be foreign to our souls. The sin of temptation is a daily temptation especially for pastors.

This is a serious sin against the nature of God. God hates our complaining. The Puritan Thomas Watson says this (paraphrase): Murmuring is rising up against God. That sets us against God as though we were wiser than Him.

Anytime we express complaint towards God’s providences, when we see no reason for the things that happens in our lives, we are contending for supremacy with the Almighty by exalting our wisdom above His.

Only gratefulness will combat a complaining spirit. We must focus more on the evidences of grace in our church rather than the things that are wrong. If one were to overhear our prayers for our church, what would they hear?

The practice of gratefulness in Paul’s life is informed by the gospel. According to Paul, the gospel is the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24) so that everything coming to us including the ministry itself is mercy (2 Corinthians 4:1) and grace that we should only be thankful for. This makes all the difference in his ministry and in ours.

2) Faith for the future (v.6)

You must be certain, as Paul was, of the fact that God is at work and that He will continue to be at work in your church if you will be able to press on in the carousel of church ministry. Your faith in God must be unwavering.

In his book “The Christian Ministry,” Charles Bridges attributes every failure in ministry to a lack of faith. The difficulties we encounter don't primarily come in the things we do but rather as we struggle internally to trust God. This is where the battle is primarily fought.

We must continually be placing our confidence in God and not in our own gifts, education, experience, or abilities. Spurgeon said that though Whitefield and Wesley might be able to preach the gospel better than him, they couldn’t preach a better gospel than him. The gospel is God’s gospel and that is why it will always be successful. We must believe day in and day out that, as the Lord spoke through Isaiah, the when the LORD sends out His word it will not return to Him empty but it will always accomplish that which He purposes and succeed in the thing for which he sent it.

3) Affection for your people (v.7-8)

Paul yearns for the Philippians with the affection of Christ Jesus? Do you have this kind of love for your people? Do you feel affections for the people in your church? Are they the object of your affection? Rather do you see them as the object of Christ’s affection?

How can you cultivate affection? When you look at your people, learn to look at them as those who have been bought by the blood of Christ, those who have been redeemed by the precious blood. Meditate on and never lose sight of the fact that your flock is one over which the Holy Spirit has set you as overseer, having been obtained with His own blood. As you learn to see them as precious in Christ’s sight, they will become precious in your sight.

Download the audio here.

Together For The Gospel 2008: Session #7

John Piper

How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice

My recommendation: don't even bother spending the time reading below. Download and listen to the audio here.

We must be able to correctly answer these four questions to understand how the supremacy of Christ creates radical Christian sacrifice:

• What is the great reward?
• What is the better resurrection?
• What is the joy set before us?
• What is the city yet to come?

Piper’s answer to these questions is that the answer is found in the book of Hebrews and all of these refer to the supremacy of Christ experienced as the all-satisfying treasure of our lives.

• Hebrews 10:32-35 - a better and abiding possession
• Hebrews 11:6 - a reward for those who seek God
• Hebrews 11:24-26 - Moses looked to the reward
• Hebrews 11:35 - a better life (or resurrection)
• Hebrews 12:2 - the joy set before Christ
• Hebrews 13:12 – therefore, let us go to Christ outside the camp.

May our lives and ministry have a radical, risk-taking, gutsy, counter-cultural, wartime flavor that makes average American people in our churches uncomfortable, that which keeps people off-balance, a saltiness and a brightness about or lives and our churches. Salt and light are joyful embrace of suffering. That’s what the world is waiting for.

Preach and live in such a way that over a decade, or two or three, the church we minister in would produce crazy people who meet death, and cancer and suffering with unflinching joy in Christ in being known and loved by Him.

We must remember the rich, young man. We must not only flee from fornications but ostentations and copulations.

We’ve heard the apostle Paul and have blazed it in our minds and hearts: those who desire to be rich plunge themselves into snares (1 Tiomthy 6:9).

We have eaten the words of Isaiah: all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The flower falls and the grass withers but the word of the LORD stands forever (Isaiah 40:6-8).

Oh, that our lives and our ministries would have a radical flavor. The world is not going to glorify Christ because they see that Christians are wealthy and healthy and prosperous. There’s a simple reason why: that’s what they live for. We just use Jesus to get it. They use other means. They are not impressed. Jesus is the ticket. When the show starts, we throw the ticket away. They don’t need our ticket. They are not impressed. We should want them to be impressed.

The world may not like it. They may crucify it. Stephen’s face shone like an angel and they could not withstand his wisdom. So they killed him. But they weren’t bored. It cost Stephen his life for Acts 1:8 to be fulfilled.

We must have a flavor about our lives that is risky and radical and different.

• Risk
• Simplicity
• Love
• Joy
• Adventure
• Sacrifice

Where are the pastors who say with the apostle Paul: I don’t count my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I may finish my course and the work that He gave me to do to testify to the gospel of the grace of God? (Acts 20:24)

Where are the pastors who say with Joab: brothers, be courageous and let us take the cities and may the LORD do what seems good to Him? (2 Samuel 10:12)

Where are the women who say with Esther in the cause of serving her people: if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:16)

Where are you Joab? Where are you Esther? Where are you Paul?

The world desperately needs to see these kinds of people.

A radical willingness to risk and suffer and sacrifice is the only kind of authentic ministry. Why? Because Jesus said that if we were serious about following, we WILL suffer. A servant is not above his Master.

Paul built his ministry on these truths Jesus taught. Through many trials and tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). All who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:12).

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, death, sword, etc. (Romans 8:35)? Is the reason they won’t separate us because they don’t happen to us, since we are king’s kids? Or is the reason that they won’t separate us because He ordains that these things happen to us but He sustains us and keeps us through them. The next verse tells us the answer: For your sake we are being killed all day long.

But in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).

If we are left without divine discipline, we are illegitimate children and not sons. Suffering for the following of Christ is the sign that God is our Father. Every kind of suffering. We groan inwardly awaiting the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23).

Beloved, Together for the Gospel attendees, do not think it strange when you come into various trials as though something unusual were happening to you (1 Peter 4:12).

We should not want to escape from this. We must embrace this if the world will even consider embracing the Christ who is our Treasure. May we not desire to be carried to the heavens on flowery beds of ease.

So the question is: what creates such a ministry? What creates radical Christian sacrifice? How do we experience this?

The whole book of Hebrews aims at answering this question. The way that the writer creates this impulse is by giving glimpses of the supremacy of Christ throughout the book.

Hebrews is probably the only book that is a sermon delivered to Christians. This book is about creating radical, joyful Christian sacrifice.

The point of all the messages we’ve heard up till now is to make us radically, joyful, sacrificial Christians. The point of hearing all those who slander penal, substitutionary atonement is to make us crazy for Jesus.

Hebrews 10:32-35 – Some believers were put in prison and other believers were faced with the question: what should we do? What created radical, Christian sacrifice was their complete emotional persuasion was that what they were going to inherit in the life to come was so superior that it made whatever loss they were about to experience as nothing.

What creates the radical, crazy lifestyle of risking the plundering of your property for the sake of visiting Christians in jail was the belief that heaven is better. They were free from material possessions. Stuff we own is killing us. These folks had their iPhones thrown away, lost their computers in airline baggage, and they rejoiced. What creates this other worldly impulse is the reward that is coming.

Hebrews 11:24 – How does Moses radical, sacrificial impulse to embrace pain created? He considered the reward. Present sacrifice is sustained by the hope of future reward.

This reward is the supremacy of Christ. The reward is the experience of Christ as our Treasure.

Hebrews 12:2 – How did Jesus bear up in doing radical, crazy, counter-cultural sacrifice? He did it by looking to the reward. He is our model in learning how our motives are to work in the Christian life.

If we haven’t experienced this, we must get on our face and pray for it the way Paul did for the Ephesians that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened to know the glorious inheritance to which they have been called, the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us (Ephesians 1:18, 19).

Hebrews 13:13 – Therefore, let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach that He endured. How? Because we know that here we have no lasting city. It’s all coming down.

It’s all coming down. Don’t live for this. Only what’s done in the love of Jesus will survive that fire.

What does Hebrews 13:13 mean for us? What does it mean for you as an individual to go to Jesus outside the camp? This is the question that we must all answer for ourselves.

May our answer be: I’ll go anywhere.

If we are yielded to this kind of life, God will not leave us without direction.

All these texts work the same way. When we treasure our future reward vastly more than we treasure the comforts and securities of our earthly life, that is how radical Christian sacrifice is created.

But is Hebrews not about Christ’s work as mediator and sacrifice and perfecter of our faith? Are these not just a means to an end? So where do we get the idea that Jesus is the end?

The answer: in doing all this work, Christ displays the majestic, incomparable, beautiful glory of God in all that He does. This is why we will spend eternity singing about horrible things. Slaughter of the Son of God will be our song forever. We will never put the horror of the cross behind us forever. In His means work, Christ becomes the end. The means and the end are not two different things.

So all these pictures in Hebrews of His glory are not just to fit Christ for His means work. They are fitted for that. They are written so that, even more than that, we would see Him as our Treasure in all the glorious work that He does.

Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp. When we really consider who that Him is, we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. The sweetest fellowship we can have with our Savior is in His sufferings. It doesn’t get any better. And anyone who’s been there knows this.

For here we have no lasting city, we seek the city that is to come, the city whose builder and founder is God, the city whose lamp is the Lamb of God that was slain.

Together For The Gospel 2008: Session #6

Al Mohler

Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution

Reflecting on Acts 16:26, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn. The first verse says this:

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood! Died he for me? who caused his pain! For me? who him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

This hymn is like a short, poetic, lyrical exercise in systematic theology. And though it’s hard for us to imagine, there are those who hate the words, images, and truth claims contained in this hymn. There is resistance all around us to the blood of Christ, the wrath of God, penal atonement and this resistance is not new. There are those who hate it so.

But our focus tonight isn’t why the unregenerate hate it so. Rather why would those who claim to be Christian hate it so?

There are three main understandings of Christ’s death and its meaning:

1) The cross has its effect entirely on humanity
2) The cross has its effect primarily on hostile, spiritual forces
3) The cross has its effect first on God by propitiating His wrath towards sinners

There are three main views of humanity’s greatest need:

1) Humanity’s great problem is the need to be delivered from spiritual forces.
2) Humanity’s great problem is the need to know God’s love for us.
3) The main problem is God’s righteous wrath against us.

The third in both cases is what Scripture teaches and this is why a penal, substitutionary atonement is required. It must be both penal and substitutionary. When we deny the penal, substitutionary nature of the atonement there are always ripple-effect like ramifications on our theology.

Four major categories of objections to the penal, substitutionary nature of the atonement:

1) Biblical
We (those who believe in penal substitution) have misunderstood the Scripture in whole or in part. We are wrong because we have the whole Bible storyline wrong. Here’s how:

• We misunderstand sin. Sin is not a transgression against God’s holiness but rather entering into the powers of darkness.
  

• We misunderstand wrath. Wrath is a natural consequence of sin. Sin brings about its own punishment. God allows the natural world to work out its own consequences.

• We misunderstand sacrifice. The animal is not really being punished. We are misled when we believe God required sacrifice.

• We misunderstand expectation. Prophets weren’t looking ahead for one who would deliver from sin.

• We misunderstand the relationship of the Old Testament to the New.

• We misunderstand the words of Jesus. Jesus never wrote anything.

• We misunderstand the New Testament language of wrath.

• We miss the fact that the main message of Jesus is non-violence.

Yet some say that we understand properly. They just flat out reject it.

2) Theological
Some theological objections:

• The idea of penal, substitutionary atonement makes it sound like God wanted Jesus to die and predestined Pilate and Caiphas to make it happen. Surely not. Jesus is God’s beloved Son.

• The cross demonstrates the compassion of God. The real issue is a broken relationship, not a broken contract. It is we that need to be changed and not God. We need to be delivered from the power of evil and become people who love God again.

• Jesus doesn’t change God’s disposition towards us but rather our disposition towards God.

• In experiencing suffering through the incarnation, God the Son only did so to learn how to identify with humans.

• God is not foremost an angry God who desires to punish humans. He is a God of love.

• Many live in fear of a God who is unwilling to forgive sins.

3) Moral

• A penal, substitutionary atonement is divine child abuse.

• Supposedly, women have been counseled to accept beatings from their husbands as Christ accepted the punishment of cross.

4) Cultural

• Penal, substitutionary atonement is irrelevant. Postmoderns don’t believe that they are sinners in the first place.

• Penal, substituionary atonement is just too individualistic.

So once again, why do they hate it so?

They reject the Scriptures. They reject wrath. They reject the character of God. They reject imputation of sin from Adam. They reject the biblical idea of salvation.

When you reject the penal, substitutionary nature of the atonement, to name just a few things that must necessarily follow:

• You undermine the exclusivity of the gospel. If the problem is primarily that something in us needs to change, then there is no exclusive need for Christ.

• You undermine the church.

• You undermine the idea of hell. No wrath. No punishment.

When they ask us what the gospel is, let us be clear and simple, telling them: for our sake God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In the panel session that followed, the first question that C.J. asked was about how guys like those who reject penal substitution get to where they are and how we are to relate to them. The name he named is Clark Pinnock. Pinnock is a unique example in that he used to have, for the most part, a solidly orthodox theology. But now he's wandered not only into open theism, but rejecting penal substitution. As I pondered this question , I think this is one of the biggest takeaways from Al's talk. It just doesn't make sense to me that people who are smarter than me can't see what's clearly in the text. It's not rocket science. And at the bottom of this is that God has simply withheld grace from them. Period. The only reason we aren't in error that isn't grotesquely worse is purely because of sovereign grace that has opened our eyes to see the truth and keeps them open. Why does he hate it so and I don't? In light of my similar total depravity, the answer is that God has given me grace and withheld it from him. So I ought not be naive to think that this could never happen to me but instead I ought to pray with trembling that God would keep me from intellectualizing my theology so much that I become hardened, ceasing to worship the One who desires my affections and end up rejecting the only basis of my hope. And how do I relate to such men? My only answer is to lift them up to the judge of all the earth who will most certainly do what is just: Lord, have mercy on them and grant them repentance that leads to a knowledge of the truth.

Download the audio here.

Together For The Gospel 2008: Session #5

R.C. Sproul

The Curse Motif of the Atonement

For all who rely on works of he law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, rather "The one who does them shall live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" -- so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:10-14

It has been over 50 years that Sproul has meditated on and studied the cross of Christ. And yet he still believes that he hasn’t been able to more than touch the surface of the depth and riches contained in that one moment of redemptive history.

When we read about the cross in the NT, there is no one image that can comprehensively convey the fullness of its significance. It is like a garment woven together by many finely woven threads to compose a prolific, indescribably beautiful work of art.

Some of these aspects are those of Christ as ransom, vicar standing in our place, victor over Satan, kinsman redeemer of the bride…

But one aspect has receded in our day into almost total obscurity. We flee from any mention of a curse inflicted by God upon His own Son. We skip over the fact that in Isaiah 53 it pleased the Father to bruise His own Son.

When we think of a curse today, we think of the occult. We think of voodoo. We think of those putting spells on people, superstition, and such. But biblically speaking, there is nothing superstitious about a curse. The idea of it is biblically rooted. In Genesis 3, God curses the serpent and God curses the earth.

We also find a curse in the giving of the law by Moses to the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 28). If the people obey, they will be blessed. If they don’t, they will be cursed.

One of our favorite carols we love to sing at Christmas speaks to the fact that Jesus comes into a world that is under the curse of God:

He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found. (Joy to the World)

We see throughout the Scriptures the interweaving of blessing and curse. The prophets spoke both. In America, we have come to be very comfortable with hearing about blessings, but we have conveniently pushed curses aside. We have come to think that God blesses only and doesn’t curse.

The famous blessing given for Aaron to give to Israel (Numbers 6:24-26) uses a Hebrew structure called synonymous parallelism. Essentially, this means that the same thing is said in three different ways.

The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26

In order to know how the Jew understood a curse, we must know how he understands blessing. The Jew believed that to be blessed by God is to be bathed in the resplendent glory that emanates from His face. This is what Moses begged for, but was refused. Moses could only see the backside of God and yet his face still shone.

So here is Sproul’s antithesis to the blessing of Aaron:

May the LORD curse you and abandon you.
May the LORD leave you in darkness and give you only judgment with no grace.
May the LORD turn his back on you and give you no peace.

In the concept of the atonement, the sacrifice consisted of propitiation and expiation.

What’s the difference between propitiation and expiation?

Propitiation: the Son does something to satisfy the justice and wrath of the Father (vertical transaction)

Expiation: the Son removes our sins from us and takes away the guilt and shame that come to us with them (horizontal transaction)

The scapegoat carrying the sins of the people was driven outside of the camp to the place where the blessing of God is not present while the people are allowed to remain in the camp where the blessing of God dwells as He tabernacles in their presence. Christ doesn’t just redeem us from the curse, He becomes the curse for us. Christ became the ultimate obscenity and carries not only satisfies God’s wrath but carries away from us, allowing us to remain in God’s presence where there can be no sin.

God cannot look upon sin. So when Christ bears our sin, God removes the light of His countenance from His Son. He ceases to make His face shine upon the Son. He removes His blessing from His Son. He curses His Son.

When the light of God’s countenance is removed from His Son, even the sun is shut down on Calvary. For Jesus to become the curse, He has to be utterly forsaken by the Father.

In a room this big, it is undeniable that there are people here who are still under the curse. You are trying to justify yourself by works of the law and you are cursed because there is none of us who has been able to keep the entire law for even five minutes since we were born.

You will either bear the curse fully yourself or you will flee to the One who takes it from you and bears it for you.

The reason we cannot see the face of God isn’t because our eyes are insufficient. The reason we cannot see the face of God is because our hearts are insufficient. Who shall see God? The pure in heart (Matthew 5:8). This was only true of Jesus.

If we believe this, and the reality of the curse, we will stop adding to the gospel because it is the only hope we have. And it is hope enough.

Download the audio here.