Notable Quotable 3/31/2017

"Theologian S. Lewis Johnson points us to Ephesians 2:1–5 and says that man “was either tried in Adam and fell, or he has been condemned without a trial.” Clearly, only the former is true."
The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips 

"Other than the fact that they all had holes, none of his socks matched."
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts by Julian Rubinstein


“Under the auspices of Nineb, my patron, I killed 120 lions in my youthful ardor, in the fullness of my manly might on my own feet, and 800 lions I killed from my chariot. All kinds of beasts and fowls I added to my hunting spoils.” Tiglath-Pileser
The Rise and Fall of the Assyrian Empire  by Zenaide Ragozin











"On average, there were about 6,046 men killed every day of the [WWI], a war that lasted 1,566 days."

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte

By the By...
It's been almost 10 months since the flood ripped through this area. Road crews are still working on the the road near my house and there are some places they haven't even started on yet. If you are interested in seeing more or if you like fly-fishing, check out the upcoming Fly Fishing Chronicles.

http://www.wvva.com/story/34996443/2017/03/Saturday/special-flood-episode-of-fly-rod-chronicles-to-air-this-weekend

Remember Me

1 Corinthians 11:24 …Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Christians have bad memories. Jesus in His mercy provided a way for us to worship Him and have our blessed Lord's work to the forefront of our minds. The closer we get to the world, or the more we give our hearts over to worldly pursuits, the further our hearts are from God. One purpose of the Lord's Supper is to see the Lord with eyes of faith, and remember what He did for us. Our Lord Jesus has been gracious to us in giving us means to remember him. This does not mean Christians forget Jesus exists, but rather Jesus is not thought of as we go through our lives.

Vasily Polenov's The Lord's Supper

God's people need to daily look to Jesus and remember our sins, confess them, and then know that our sins were dealt with by the sacrifice of Jesus. Remember, the Lamb of God came to lay down His life for His people, to save them from their sins. Remember Christ shed His blood, the just for the unjust. Remember Jesus shed his blood for the remission of your sins. Remember, Jesus bled to purge and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Remember that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins and this real blood spilled from His real and true body. The same body that was beaten and the same body in which the Lord bore our sins laid dead in the tomb. The same body from which his life blood poured out, laid cold and dead and buried for three days and three nights . Remember, that the same body which was broken for you, and died for you, and was in the tomb for you, raised from the dead for our justification.

Jesus said to take the Lord's supper in remembrance of Him. This is a blessed gift to the Lord's church. Are you saved but deny yourself the privilege of partaking of this Heavenly ordinance by not joining the Lord's church? The Lord Jesus established a supper and uses it to draw our hearts and minds to His sacrificial work on the cross; and will you forsake this? For what? What could be so important? What other object in this world could be so worthy of your time and your attention that you will forsake the Lord's Supper for it? Don't discard the blessed means of remembrance. Do not ignore or abandon the gracious invitation to fellowship with Christ. Do not renounce the kind command given for your benefit. Do this. Do this for remembrance – not for regeneration. These are memorial aids, not sacrificial offerings. These are pictures of the Lord, not the Lord Himself. To say the Lord is sacrificed afresh with each observance of the ordinance is blasphemy. You cannot take the Lord's Supper in remembrance of the Lord if you have never come to meet him the first time.

Widows indeed. Tuesdays with Timothy #63

1 Timothy 5:3-25

The church has a responsibility to the widows in the church. As we are instructed how to behave in the house of God, Paul has instructions on helping the widows, but he is clear about defining which widows. This passage will win us no friends in the world. It has more 'triggers' than a Spaghetti Western. But we are not those who apply the progressive mindset of the world to the Scriptures.

The church is not to keep and financially support every woman whose husband dies. Paul is talking about is the church keeping and caring for the daily needs, not a help or a gift. The church is to care for widows, but the churches first responsibility is to the members of that congregation. Paul is clear that the continuous support of widows is a very narrow category of people.

Paul doesn't hate widows. What Paul does hate is those who shirk their responsibility or take advantage of the church.

(3) Honour widows that are widows indeed. (4) But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.

The church is to take care of true widows. Those who are truly destitute and have no place else to turn. But, if the widow has living children or nephews, they are to care for their mother or aunt. Piety is proven in the home when they take up their God given, God pleasing responsibility and care for their mother. God is pleased when children repay their parents by caring for them when they can no longer care for themselves. Isn't it odd that in a culture that is supposed to be so progressive and so in tune the plight of the downtrodden and the poor, the idea of middle-aged sons and daughter caring for their parents is almost a foreign idea? We have shirked our responsibilities and given them to the State. "Caring for the elderly is important, but I'm busy and have a life, so the Government will do it, and they'll make you pay for it". Piety here begins at home, not in Washington, D.C. But what if she has no place to go? She is what Paul calls a "true widow".

(5) Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

A true widow, that the church is to care for is:

• Desolate
• A believer
• A believer who is dedicated to the worship and service of God

A desolate widow has no family, no kin that can come along and help her. She is all alone in the world. A "true widow" that the church is to care for is a believer. Not only a believer, but one that spends her time in prayer. When the church decides on whether or not to take up the case, these are the qualifications.The field of candidates has been narrowed to church members, not every woman in the community that needs help. Why not?

(6) But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. (7) And these things give in charge, that they may be blameless.

The church is not to be a means by which a woman can be supported to live an ungodly life. The church is not to care and support those who won't worship. The church should not support a woman who will not pray for the church or will not support the church in prayer, attendance, and service. A widow who lives for herself and not for God is as dead as her husband. The church and the pastor must keep the line here so that the church would be blameless and the widows be blameless. This is where it takes godly men and woman to have a backbone and not cave it just because a woman is in a rough spot. Ultimately, they show her no love and the church no good to support a sinful life.

What if the kids won't help?

(8) But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

This verse is usually applied to father's who won't work. But as the context shows, it is being applied to children and nephews who won't support their aged, destitute mother's or aunts. These men have denied the faith. It doesn't matter what their doctrinal statement says. It doesn't matter how much they love "church truth", they deny it by their actions. They prove that they don't really know the Lord. They are worse than infidels. At least infidels have somewhat of an excuse that they don't hold to the truth of Christ.

(9) Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, (10) Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

Now that we see that there are distinctions concerning whom the church will support, Paul specifies which Godly women should be supported with some more qualifications of the widow indeed.

• She has to be over 60
• She has to be the wife of one man
• She has to have a good reputation of good works
• If she raised children
• Hospitable
• Humble (washed the saints feet)
• Given herself to the poor
• Lived a godly life

What we have is a woman with a history of godliness. She has shown and displayed herself has a consistently, godly woman who had and continues to live for God's glory. The woman in view is an older widow, whose husband is dead and did not remarry. It cannot mean that Paul is against second marriages because in verse 11, he urges younger women to marry again, and a young widow who marries again, is likely to be a widow for the second time. I can't see that a women who followed Paul's instruction would be ineligible for support. I believe we need to refer back to the pastor's qualifications and apply the same rules as we did there. Just as no man can fully and perfectly fit the qualifications in every step of his life, it's the same here. There are destitute women, who have had only one husband, lived their lives for God's glory, but are barren, so is she ineligible for support because she was also barren? Who among us has "diligently followed every good work?" We understand that Paul is not saying that this widow must have been a perfect woman, but her life should have been a demonstrated life of godliness. If a woman was in ungodly relationships through her life, if she did not hold to the sanctity of marriage and then gets to the end of her life and because of age, has no place else to turn, she shouldn't be taken in by the church. This is an overall picture of her character. And if you disagree that these are guidelines, but think these must be followed by the strictness of the letter, invite me to your next foot washing service, and we'll talk it through. 

The woman that the church supports is expected to continue to serve the church. She is expected to be a woman in continual prayer and service to the Lord's people. 

(11) But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry; (12) Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith. (13) And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. (14) I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. (15) For some are already turned aside after Satan. (16) If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.

What if a younger woman requests to be supported by the church? The answer is no. They should get married. Again, this isn't a love offering, or helping the young woman out in need. But the church is not going to take her in and pay her way.

Why? Because they will learn to be idle. They are young enough to be engaged in caring for a family and the church shouldn't support idleness. If they are not taking care of their God given responsibilities, they will become troublemakers. They will go from house to house, spreading gossip, speaking things they shouldn't be.

Younger women shouldn't be supported by the church, but should apply themselves to family life. Get married again. Have kids. Take care of the family. Apply themselves to the work God gave to women. Take care of your own house instead of being involved in house of other's. This will lead women to their doom and God's church should point and direct people in holiness, not in ungodliness. The church is not to support the work of gossips, the work of spreading lies and discord.

This will take courage. This will take boldness. This will make people mad. This is meddling in people's lives. This is telling people things they don't want to hear and going against the grain of society. This will take the men of the church telling a woman of the church no. And it is the churches responsibility. But, if the church has widows, relive them. It's the churches job to help those are widows indeed.

Preaching and Preachers, Chapter 2: No Substitute

"...The moment you consider man's real need, and also the nature of the salvation announced and proclaimed in the Scriptures, you are driven to the conclusion that the primary tasks of the Christ is to preach and to proclaim this, to show man's real need, and to show the only remedy, the only cure for it."

Sin and rebellion is the "ultimate disease" that plagues humanity. Unhappiness, suffering, poverty, social problems are merely the symptoms of the disease. Because man is in darkness because of his rebellion, he is ignorant of his problem and the solution. Therefore, those called by God out of darkness into light are the only ones that have the answer to the real problem. Preachers of the gospel have the answer, and their primary task is to proclaim the good news.

Churches get it backwards. They want to treat the symptoms. They make their primary task about social justice, feeding the poor, volunteer work and then lay aside their real work. When the gospel comes in power, people are changed, and social changes occur. Lloyd-Jones started his career as a medical doctor and uses the example that it is cruel and deadly to treat symptoms when you don't know the disease. You make the patient happy, content, and comfortable while hiding the symptoms that point to the problem. Churches that abandon preaching to make men comfortable are hiding the symptoms of their sin and withholding the cure. We have the answer - the gospel of Christ. And yet so many ministers of the gospel spend so much time and energy devoted to temporal and earthly matters. At the judgment seat, all our political efforts and candidating for this party or that will be burnt up in flames.

Lloyd-Jones has an interesting take on listening to messages in other mediums (radio or book). Especially since his messages are available for download. I heard an interview about the Doctor that his messages were recorded so he could use those for the basis of books, not to be listened to by the public. I believe that the message of the gospel should be broadcast by whatever means we have available to us, but it is a poor substitute for church. There is something spiritual that happens when God's people meet on the Lord's day and hear the Lord's Word from the Lord's servant that you cannot reproduce on MP3. I have to disagree with his perspective, but I do see his point. If you listen to a recorded sermon you can shut it off if you aren't "enjoying" it and that isn't how you listen to sermons. 

Notable Quotables 3/24/2017

The evidence of God’s Word is CONFIRMED in our hearts by the real experience of faith.
“This evidence is gloriously confirmed by present experience, which adds to the documentary evidence that wonderful directness and immediacy of conviction which delivers us from fear. Christian experience is rightly used when it helps to convince us that the events narrated in the New Testament actually did occur; but it can never enable us to be Christians whether the events occurred or not. It is a fair flower, and should be prized as a gift of God. But cut it from its root in the blessed Book, and it soon withers away and dies.”
J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

All that worship for nothing.
"I believer there ought to be a preparation before the Lord's Supper. I don not believe in Mrs. Toogood's preparation, who spent a week in preparing, and then finding it was not the Ordinance Sunday, she said she had lost all the week."
C.H. Spurgeon, The Remembrance of Christ, New Park Street Sermons, vol. 1, sermon 2

 Phatic Hiatus, indeed
"The cardinal difficulty,'said MacPhee, 'in collaboration between the sexes is that women speak a language without nouns. If two men are doing a bit of work, one will say to the other, 'Put this bowl inside the bigger bowl which you'll find on the top shelf of the green cupboard.' The female for this  is 'Put that in the other one there'. And then if you ask them 'in where?' they say 'in there of course'. There is consequently a phatic hiatus."

CS Lewis That Hideous Strength

Jesus Alone

The book of Hebrews is a brilliant epistle. The author points us to Jesus and then expounds the superiority and exclusivity of Christ as the only way of salvation. If you read the book of Hebrews in one sitting, you can see the flow and get the overarching theme: Christ is superior, Jesus is the way. But, if you slow down, and examine word by word and line by line, you see the depth of theology and meaning in the text. Notice one small section of the books first sentence: “when [Jesus] had by himself purged our sins, sad down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3b).

Jesus purged our sins. Jesus cleansed us from our guilt and transgression against God's law. Christ Jesus took our sins, bore them and removed them from us as far as the east is from the west. Jesus, by himself, purged our sins. The Old Testament tells the story of thousands of priests and thousands of years of sacrifice and offerings; yet the sum total of all those offerings  could not, once and for all, deal with sin. There were many priests who had daily priestly tasks. Yet Jesus, by himself, dealt with sin, once and for all. 

Jesus purged the sins by himself, without your help. The priests could not do the job alone. It was not physically possible for one man to do everything that needed to be done in the service. One man could not provide all the animals and offerings, and then offer all the sacrifices, be the judge of controversies, keep the cities of refuge, judge case of leprosy, pray and bless the nation and provide the spiritual needs of the people, just to mention a few. Jesus, by himself saved us, without your assistance. He did not need your opinion or your help. He doesn’t need you to offer your good works along with His. Jesus fully and completely and perfectly saves. There is no other way of salvation. Jesus is the only way.

Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father. When a priest walked into the temple, he would pass the altar, the table that held the shewbread. The smell the incense wafted from the altar and the lights flickered from the lamp-stand. He would gaze upon the veil that separated him from the Holy of Holies, and once a year, would enter and behold the ark of the covenant. But what he did not see was a chair. There was not a seat to rest or a throne to sit upon. The job of the priest was never done. But Christ, after he purged our sins, rose from the dead and ascended on high. And he sat. He sat down because the job was finished. He sat down because the victory was won. He sat down at the right hand of the Father because the wrath of God was satisfied, sin was paid for, and the work of redemption was accomplished.

Preaching and Preachers on sale

If you don't have Preaching and Preachers, the Kindle version is on sale right now for $3.99.

Preaching and Preachers: Chapter 1, The Primacy of Preaching

What is the job of the church? What should we be doing? Preaching and Preachers, chapter 1, The Primacy of Preaching, Lloyd-Jones makes the Scriptural case that the primary task of the church is preaching.

"…the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and the most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called." And that "…the most urgent need in the Christian church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also."

But, if this is true, why has preaching suffered a downward spiral in so many churches? Why is there a decline in great preaching? Lloyd Jones says the problem is threefold:

1.       Decline in the belief of the authority of Scripture

2.       Men want to be 'pulpiteers' rather than preachers

3.       Men don't understand what a sermon is.

Great preaching, or great speaking for that matter, depends on great themes. He says that as preachers relinquish confidence when men drift from the authority of the Bible, they forfeit power in their preaching. They begin to "suggest" rather than proclaim. Style is more important than substance, and sermon is a dirty word. I've noticed this among the big-named evangelicals giving "talks" at their conferences. Sermons might offend and preaching is foolish, so they'll "talk".  He also pointed to "personal counseling" as a result of bad preaching. That people believe that they need  more personal attention and that their problems cannot be dealt with from the pulpit. What I think he means, is that people think that their problems are so unique that a sermon could never address their problems. For example, they are not covetous, but their desire for things has its root in some story from their childhood and how much they were hugged as a toddler. Whereas a sermon on covetousness and a call to repentance would not make the people unique snowflakes, but categorize them as sinners among sinners. Thus, the rise of personal counseling for their unique and special "issues". Sometimes (often?) the answer is: You are sinning. Stop it.

The second section of the chapter deals with the positive; preaching must be the most important thing. Not politics, not social justice, not trending topics, but preaching. He provides many examples of Jesus leaving crowds who wanted their needs fulfilled, but going to the next place to preach and teach. His miracles were signs, but not the primary purpose. He moves from our Lord's example to the apostles example in the book of Acts, showing that preaching was their mission and anything else was a distraction that would sidetrack them. The same is throughout the history of God's people.

"What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or Revival? It is renewed preaching."