Christian Values Or The Cross?

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
Matthew 4:8,9

Challenging and sobering message. Christian values or the cross? Which of the two do our lives reflect? They're not the same thing.

Download MP3 Audio (8.9 MB)

HT: Between Two Worlds

In the City, For the City

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29:7

"That is not how Christians usually think about the city. Many Christians write the city off. At most, they try to establish their own fortresses within the city. But God does not tell his people to seek peace in the city; he tells them to seek the peace of the city."

Philip Graham Ryken Jeremiah, page 415.

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

Preaching: No Small Task

Who is sufficient for these things?
2 Corinthians 2:16

Nobody.

God's Foreknowledge and the Exclusivity of a Husband's Love for His Wife

This post was prompted by the following excerpt from John Piper's sermon on John 3:16 yesterday.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined...
Romans 8:29

The word that we translate as foreknow in the Greek is proginosko. It breaks up into two parts: pro and ginosko. Ginosko means to know. And pro means beforehand. So what does it mean that God knows some people beforehand and not others? I think this will begin to make sense to us if we look at how the word ginosko is used elsewhere.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
Matthew 1:24-25

When Matthew tells us that Joseph didn’t know his wife until she had given birth to a son, what is he talking about? He’s talking about sexual relations. Joseph was not sexually intimate with his wife until after she had given birth. This is what the word ginosko means in this context. It refers to sexual intimacy.

Just to be clear, ginosko isn’t always used to refer to sexual intimacy. It’s used throughout the New Testament and often is just used to refer to knowing that something is true, to know information. But this way of using it to refer to sexual intimacy is one way that it can be used. And I think that if we use it this way, we can begin to understand what proginosko means, what it means that God foreknows some people and not others. If ginosko refers to the sexual intimacy that is an expression of love that is exclusively reserved for a particular person, then it seems to make sense that proginosko refers to the way a person would go about exclusively setting his or her love on that one person and no other. Before a man ever expresses his love to his wife through being sexually intimate with her, he must set his love upon this woman, choosing to love her exclusively in a way that he doesn’t love all women. And that is perhaps the main way that a wife knows herself loved by her husband. She knows that she is loved because he loves her in a way that he doesn’t love any other woman in the world. He sets his love upon her and no one else. Is this now why many wedding vows speak of forsaking all others? Which wife is happier? The one who knows that her husband loves all women exactly the same way he loves her or the wife who knows that, though her husband may love other women generally, she alone has his heart? There is a reason God built women that way.

And this, I believe, is what God does in foreknowing some and not others. He has set His love upon some people and not others, though He does love them generally (John 3:16). And it is because He sets His love on individuals that He chooses to elect them. Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined.

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you that he is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8

Moses says that God’s choice of Israel, His election of Israel, is interconnected with the fact that He has set His love upon Israel. In electing Israel as His people, God showed that He had set His love upon them. In not electing any other of the peoples, God showed that He had NOT set His love upon the other peoples in the same way. In other words, why did God elect Israel and no one else? Because He had set His love upon them and no one else. And why did God set His love upon Israel and no one else? Because He set His love upon Israel and no one else.

Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
Amos 3:1-2

This is what Paul means when he speaks of foreknowledge in Romans 8:29. Before the foundation of the world, God set His love upon a group of individuals and not everyone that He would create. Why did He love them? Because He loved them. That’s as deep as we can go in the purposes of God in according to what He has revealed to us in His word. And it is this group of individuals that God has predestined, or elected, to salvation.

By Faith...

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

This is the definition of the word faith given by the author of the letter to the Hebrews. He will go on in chapter 11 to catalog the peculiar lives of many saints of old, calling attention to faith as the decisive means by which these men and women were able to live the kind of radical lives that they did. "By faith..." he will say again and again and again and again....

What's so interesting about each of the examples of faith that the writer gives in chapter 11 when he says "by faith" is that in none of them does he ever call attention to faith itself. But instead we only see what the faith produces. This means that the chapter isn't actually so much about faith, but rather about the kind of lives that faith produces.

But it's clear from this chapter that this faith isn't an afterthought. What this faith is isn't something to lightly skim over. Therefore, it's worth digging deep to understand what the essence of this term is. Because, if it is that faith and that faith alone that motivated these men and women to live the kind of lives that made God not ashamed to be called their God (Hebrews 11:12), then I want that faith and that faith alone. I need to know what that faith is, not just by my standards, but by God's standards. When Paul says in Romans 14:23 that "whatever does not proceed from faith is sin," should that not grab our attention? Should that not set us on a quest to make sure that the faith that we have is the kind of faith that God wants motivating all of our thoughts, words, and actions? A verse like Romans 14:23 has that kind of staggering effect on me.

And the stakes for me have only been increased since God spoke decisively, undeniably, and irrevocably to me through Hebrews 11:24-27 (quoted in the 'About Me' box to the right) last year, issuing His call on my life to leave the privilege of being a first generation American to move back to Kenya, the country my parents immigrated from, for the sake of His gospel. If it was only by faith that Moses could refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, consider the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, and leave Egypt without fear of the king, then there is no doubt in my mind that I am without a glimmer of hope if I have anything other than that very same faith that Moses had.

So I am on a quest to know what that faith is, Hebrews 11 faith that receives commendation from God. What is underneath this faith? What strengthens and stabilizes it? How does its power work? Why does God place such a high premium on it?

And I have employed the services of an able guide, a Puritan preacher by the name of Thomas Manton, who preached a series of sermons on Hebrews 11 that spans over 700 pages! I've read about 300 pages so far and he's still in verse 6! And it's sections like the following excerpt that give me great eagerness to read another 400 pages and make me want to keep on peeling back the layers of this faith:

Oh, consider, to quicken you, [faith] is the grace that bringeth God most glory, and doth you most good. Some cry up charity, because they mistake the nature of faith--they depress it, they omit what is chiefest in faith, and they speak of it as if it were nothing worth. And so others make faith a pendulous hope, and therefore cry up obedience and love.

1. It bringeth God most glory. It is notable that faith doth that to God in a way of duty, which God doth to the creature in a way of grace--it justifieth, sanctifieth, and glorifieth. It justifieth, and that is a relative word, against the slanders and contempts of the world. So it is said, Luke 7:29, 'And all the people heard him, and the publicans justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John;' it defendeth his hounour and the truth of his grace. The pharisees said, It was a foolish doctrine. How a believer justifieth God against contempt of the world and the suspicions of his own heart! Whatever conscience saith to the contrary, the Lord is just, gracious, merciful. Unbelief slighteth God and Christ, as if he were not worth the taking; the truth of the gospel, as if it were not worth credit; his worth, as if he did not deserve respect; his power, as if he were not able to save a sinking soul; it putteth a lie upon the whole contrivance of grace. Oh, how sweet were it if we could justify God against the prejudices of our own hearts! they make the blood of Christ a base thing, the Spirit of Christ a weak instrument. So it sanctifieth God: Numbers 20:12, 'Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel.' To sanctify, is to set apart for special uses and purposes; so we are said to sanctify God when we give him a separate and distinct excellency from all the powers in the world. He is not a common help and saviour, none so holy and gracious; it setteth the Lord with admiration above all created powers, for trust, fear, and dependence: Isaiah 8:13, 'Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.' When we see man is not to be trusted nor feared, but God, we set him on the highest point of eminency, aloof from the creatures. Is there any like him for pardon, for power, for holiness? So it glorifieth God: Romans 4:20, 'He was strong in faith, giving glory to God.' God doth as it were receive a new being from faith; though he be infinitely glorious in himself, yet he counteth himself glorified by the faith of the creature; he hath a second heaven in the heart of a believer, there he dwelleth by faith and displayeth the pomp of all his excellencies. Now unbelief dethroneth God, it will not let him set up a new heaven or place of residence in the conscience.

--Thomas Manton, Works of Thomas Manton, Volume 14, p.118

May we not trifle with this word that we've become so familiar with. May we not confuse this faith for something that's not it. But instead, Lord, we pray as Your apostles did, "Increase our faith!" In Jesus' name, Amen.

Freedom Summit

Freedom Summit. May 15-16. Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, CA.

Come. Learn. Pray. Fight.

T4G 2008 - Sweet and Awful

How Sweet and Awful Is the Place

1. How sweet and awful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores.

2. While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was I a guest?"

3. "Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"

4. 'Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

5. Pity the nations, O our God,
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

6. We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.

-by Isaac Watts

More Of The Greatest Story Ever Told

HT: Unashamed Workman

It Never Grows Old

... and it's still being written!

You Are Here

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Your Kingdom Come ...

... Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10

Amen.

Let The Nations Be Glad!

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Psalm 67:4

Don't Waste Your Life: The Video

Deep.

A Happy Song That Makes Me Sad

"Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshipped.
Revelation 5:9-14

Verse 1
Let the children sing a song of liberation
The God of our salvation set us free
Death, where is thy sting? The curse of sin is broken
The empty tomb stands open, come and see

CHORUS
He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!
Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb.
He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!
Alive forever. Amen

Verse 2
Let my heart sing out, for Christ, the One and only
So powerful and holy rescued me
Death won't hurt me now because He has redeemed me
No grave will ever keep me from my King

CHORUS
I'm alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive! praise and glory to the Lamb.
He's alive, alive, alive. Hallelujah!
Alive forever. Amen

Bridge
Worthy is the Lamb, worthy of our praise
Worthy is the One who has overcome the grave
Let the people dance, let the people sing
Worthy is the mighty King.

Alive, Forever, Amen by Travis Cottrell

If you've never heard this song, you can listen to it in the previous post (second youtube video). I heard this song for the first time two years ago when I first started attending my current church. It was the last song we sang at our outdoor Easter service. I remember that even though I had never heard it before, my joy in singing it that first time reached higher than it did for most other songs that I sing. Today we sang that song as a corporate body for only the third time since I've been at West Hills. We only sing it once a year. It's always the last song we sing on resurrection Sunday.

As we came to the end of this song that first time I sang it three years ago, I just wanted to keep on singing. I didn't want to stop. A happy song isn't supposed to make you sad. It's supposed to make you happy. So why does this song make me sad? Because I don't want to stop singing it. And each year the song always comes to an end.

This morning as we closed our resurrection celebration service, I gained some insight into why this song makes me sad. Overwhelmed with joy and vocal chords wearied, I paused for a moment and just watched the choir on stage that was singing, almost all of them displaying clear expressions of joy. And as I looked at them, the Holy Spirit prompted me to open my Bible to Revleation 5. As the singing continued, I read verses 9-12 and it hit me: These words that we are singing aren't just our grateful response to Jesus for His death and resurrection for us. More than that, these words, this very song, is the reason why He went to the cross. He died in order to hear this song. This song is the whole point. I was created by the Word who became flesh, purchased by the blood of the Lamb, justified with the righteousness of Christ, and am being sanctified by His Spirit so that I will sing this song forever. This song is my reason for being that will be realized when I one day am present before the throne of the Lamb.

But as I sing today, I know that the song will come to an end and we will all go home and go on with the rest of our day. Will we forget about the song? I don't want to forget about the song. And yet I know that if I stop singing, part of me will forget as I get bogged down with the affairs of this world, losing sight of what an infinitely glorious reality it is that the Lamb was slain ... for me. And that's why I don't want to stop singing. That's why it makes me sad to stop.

As much joy that I feel singing this song with a gathering of hundreds of men and women in Morgan Hill, this is nothing compared to the myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands from every tribe and language and people and nation who will one day sing this song. This is the smallest foretaste of what it will sound and feel like on that great day. So as this resurrection Sunday comes to an end, my heart longs not just to keep singing that song, but to hear more men and women who look nothing like me and speak nothing like me singing that song. And my greatest hope is in knowing that on that day the song won't end.

Thank You, Jesus, for Your passion. And thank You that You designed a universe in which praise isn't just the expression of our joy but is the consummation of it. When we stop singing, our joy decreases. And oh, how we long for our joy to be made complete! So give us the grace to labor faithfully to finish Your Great Commission so that we might hasten Your coming, if we don't go home to be with You first. And grant us the grace to live each day as resurrection Sunday in the wonder of Your gospel. In Your great name, Amen.

Resurrection Sunday!

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
John 2:19

That's My King

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

The Center Of The Whole Bible

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:21-26

And more on the cross and resurrection from one of my favorite Bible teachers:

The Strange Triumph of a Slaughtered Lamb - Revelation 12

A Miracle Full of Surprises - John 11

Why Doubt the Resurrection of Jesus - John 20:24-31

The Ironies of the Cross - Matthew 27:27-51

Good Friday

Hail the perfect Lamb of God
A kingly ransom paid
When You, my Lord, were slain
Love unrivaled here displayed
Calls my heart to praise
The perfect Lamb of God

The light of day was cloaked by night
And heaven closed its eyes
Wrath unspared for countless sins
The guiltless crucified
Hands of kindness driven through
Back on splintered beam
The holy curtain torn in two
Atonement made for me

Insults mock the Son of God
The angels are restrained
But all the cup must be endured
For sinners to be saved
Can grace prevail in such a day
Of scandal and of scorn?
But with a cry “Forgive” You claim
Traitors as Your own

As You drew Your final breath
My debt was satisfied
And love divine in glorious might
Would vanquish death and rise

-Perfect Lamb of God by Sovereign Grace

Sunday is coming.

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday: On this day four events are commemorated: the washing of the Disciples' Feet by Jesus Christ, the institution of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains

Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day
And there may I, though vile as he
Wash all my sins away

Away
Away
Wash all my sins away

E'er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die

And shall be till I die
And shall be till I die
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die

Wash all my sins away
Wash all my sins away
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die

Song originally written by William Cowper

And here are two stanzas from the original not included in this modern version:

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power
’Til all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more.

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.

Thank You, Father, for the gift of music and those who are able by Your grace to compose it and write it. For many of us who You were pleased to give other gifts to, we rejoice to express with these words and these songs the truths that You enabled these dear men and women to articulate in ways that we long to but probably never could. Thank You for the diversity of the body of Christ in which we are all united because of the body of Christ broken. In His precious name, Amen.

Dwell

HT: Between Two Worlds

Heart Searching Words

From the blog of a brother and shepherd in Toronto (who I had the great privilege to meet last April at Together for the Gospel):

I am re-reading Dallimore’s masterpiece, George Whitefield: The Live and Times of the Great Evangelist of the 18th Century Revival. The first time I read this work, it was almost too much for me. My takes on evangelism, godliness, sacrifice, endurance, ministry, work and faith were all shattered.

Half way through volume one I am newly impressed with the godliness of Whitefield and those who laboured with him. Page after page speaks of nights spent in prayer, seasons of almost tangible closeness to God and their hard striving after true fellowship with the real God. They trained for godliness and perhaps none so much as George Whitefield.

I get the feeling he would not have watched a lot of television.

I watched some DVD’s the other night. I was excited to do so. I was “ready” for a break and some entertainment. (I generally only “get” to watch something 2 or 3 nights a week.) But the day after brought a tough realization. Not only had I wasted a lot of time, but I had trained my mind for sensuality.

Maybe nobody else experiences this when they watch television, but I find that its promise of smooth, effortless happiness is deceptive. Rarely does TV keep its promise. And if it does, it tends to add two other things.

First, there is the obvious slipping in of sin that almost without exception accompanies anything good we might watch. Adultery is justified, immorality exalted, the Lord’s name used vainly and a host of other sins all nicely packaged in humour or mystery or a great story. Rarely does the devil force-feed sin.

Secondly, the promise of pleasure orients my heart to look for the same from the rest of life. My TV may turn off, but my desires for effortless happiness have been awakened. I want the rest of life to be like TV – flip the channel or switch the DVD if it’s boring or not satisfying and keep on doing so until I find that happiness.

So, I brought the DVD’s back to my friend and didn’t watch the TV last night.

And I am praying that my gracious God would not only forgive me for hours of life wasted in front of that box, but would enable me to train for godliness like never before.

Keep us, O God, from forgetting that it's always a slow fade. Almost everything we watch on television trains us to desire ease and think that this is our home. But remind us again and again that we are pilgrims in conflict and grant us the diligence to constantly train for godliness, knowing that this is not our home. In Jesus' name, Amen.