Bold sinners and fearful saints

O how uncomely a sight is it to see, a bold sinner and a fearful saint, one resolved to be wicked, and a Christian wavering in his holy course; to see guilt put innocence to flight, and hell keep the field, impudently braving it with displayed banners of open profaneness; [to see] saints hide their colours for shame, or run from them for fear, who should rather wrap themselves in them, and die upon the place, than thus betray the glorious name of God, which is called upon by them to the scorn of the uncircumcised. Take heart therefore, O ye saints, and be strong; your cause is good, God himself espouseth your quarrel, who hath appointed you his own Son, General of the field, called 'the Captain of our salvation,’ Heb. 2:10 . He shall lead you on with courage, and bring you off with honour. He lived and died for you; he will live and die with you; for mercy and tenderness to his soldiers, none like him. 

The Christian in Complete Armour – William Gurnall

One Generation after the Other - Ecclesiastes 1:4

1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

The earth has not always been and the earth (as it now is) will not abide forever. Scripture is clear in both cases (Genesis 1:1; Revelation 21:1). But Solomon is thinking in terms of “under the sun” so from the perspective of a man without an eternal perspective, the earth was here when I was born, and when I die, they will bury me in it. I recently went to the cemetery and saw several generations of my family buried in the earth. One generation after another came and went, but the earth in which they did all their labor still remains.

Sunset and evening star, And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar.

Tennyson

Another Gospel?

Galatians 1:6-7  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another;

What would be a better gospel? Would it be better if God required you to live in sinless perfection? Would you prefer that God require you to achieve a certain level of righteousness to earn your way to Heaven? Do you think it would be better to base salvation on your works and on your merit? You can have peace by having faith in what Christ did or you can have peace by keeping the law of God. All of it. All the time. Now, I know that most people know that you can’t do that, so they have a hybrid gospel. That is what the Galatians had, or at least they thought they had it. But there is no such thing as a “hybrid”. Another gospel, is no gospel at all.

The gospel is the “good news” that God the Son, entered into his creation. The eternal word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and offered himself unto the Father, as a substitute for sinners. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree and suffered the wrath of God for our sins, satisfying the Father. The ransom was paid with his life. We are redeemed by His blood. He was laid in the tomb for three days and three nights, his body dead and lifeless. But at the dawning of the first day of the week, the tomb was empty, Jesus arose. We have a living Saviour.

If you trust that Jesus died for your sins, and you turn from your self-reliance and self-righteousness to Christ Jesus, He will save you. Freely, by his grace. Trust in the risen saviour and you’ll be saved. That is the gospel Paul preached. That is the only good news there is. If you add to that message, or take away from that message, it is no longer good news.

There is no such thing as another gospel, as if spiritual life is cafeteria set up where you can pick and choose your own way. There is no other gospel. By looking to and heeding to and listening to another message, another way of salvation, they were turning away from Christ Jesus. The blood of Christ was not enough. The death of Christ was not enough. The wrath of God poured out on the God’s only begotten Son was not enough for these Galatians.

There are two paths before us. The gospel, and every other message of salvation, which is no gospel at all. If you turn from the true gospel, where will you go? “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life”. When they turned from the gospel, they have no place else to go for salvation. Every other gospel is taking you away from Jesus.

Monody by Herman Melville

To have known him, to have loved him
After loneness long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong;
And now for death to set his seal—
Ease me, a little ease, my song!
By wintry hills his hermit-mound
The sheeted snow-drifts drape,
And houseless there the snow-bird flits
Beneath the fir-trees’ crape:
Glazed now with ice the cloistral vine
That hid the shyest grape.

Amazing Grace, Amazing Apostasy

The gospel of Christ is amazing. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. We are saved by grace, through faith and the gift of faith that God gives us, is accounted to us for righteousness. We are forgiven and justified by faith in the sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ.  All my sins are forgiven. I’m no longer condemned since I’m in Christ Jesus. I am free from the condemnation of God’s law, born again, and an adopted Son of God, a joint-heir with Christ Jesus. I didn’t have to do a thing in this world to earn God's love. Freely, by God’s grace, He saved me from my sins, delivered me from the just punishment of Hell, and delivered from this present evil world.

Paul was amazed by grace. But he was also amazed at the Galatians. It is rather astonishing the Galatians could know God and receive the news that God saves sinners and reconciles sinners to himself by free grace, and then thumb their nose at  this glorious gospel, turn their back on God and follow after another gospel (Galatians 1:6-7).  The Almighty God called sinners into the grace of Christ. The Lamb of God came and bled and died for them and freely gave them all things. The Eternal Son, shed his life’s blood to give them life. God imputed the righteousness of Christ to their account and then called them to this gospel, and they left and turned their back on God.

It’s amazing they had forsaken the gospel, but also amazing they had done it so quickly! Not much time has passed since the "hour they first believed” and it didn’t take too many dangers, toils, and snares to trap them in a dangerous heresy. New converts are delicious to ravening wolves. In these churches men, with prestige and experience,  had come to help these poor ignorant Galatians see the “truth” and rescue them from that intolerant Paul.  

It’s amazing they had forsaken God and his Christ, and had done it so easily! What a priceless treasure we have in Jesus. There are unsearchable riches in Christ. There are unfathomable depths to his love. Untrackable glories in his death. I truly believe we will spend eternity gazing into the glories of the gospel of Christ. And yet, how amazing one could so quickly leave Christ. How telling that wretched sinners, who beheld the Son of God through faith and have tasted of his grace, could leave and go looking for pasture away from their shepherd. How weak and frail we are, and how dependent we are on the Holy Spirit to keep us.

It’s amazing they went from Christ to another gospel. When you think of apostasy in these terms, it is a marvel that people will leave the gospel for anything else, because everything is inferior. Because grace is so amazing, it's astonishing we can be tempted to look for another way for peace with God.  

The Affectionate Theology of Richard Sibbes by Mark Dever,

The Affectionate Theology of Richard Sibbes by Mark Dever, is latest book in the Long Line of Godly Men Profile series.that introduces and profiles significant Christian men in history. I know Richard Sibbes only through his book, A Bruised Reed. I am guilty of putting all the men of this era in the same general category of “Puritans” and “Nonconformist”. Dever’s book has corrected me in that assumption and helped me to understand Sibbes and his life and the context which he ministered. Dever explains through a few second hand sources Richard Sibbes is wrongly identified with the Nonconformist and was more of a moderate, hoping for long slow reform of the Church of England.

Since Richard Sibbes was a moderate man, who was a Consenter, yet leaned towards sympathies with Nonconformist, he is claimed by both sides. If you don’t know what these terms mean, you will before you get very far into this book.  Dever's goal was to "...recover Sibbes as a historical and theological whole” and to view Sibbes in his historical context for the moderate man he was. Rather than engaging in the controversies of the day, Sibbes had a heart toward the people in his congregation and sought to help those under his preaching.

I can’t say that the book has moved me to appreciate Richard Sibbes more, but it does give me a better understanding of who he is and how to go about reading his works in the future. In the light of many of his contemporaries who suffered for their convictions, I can’t say a moderate man who avoided controversial topics and toned down doctrines he professed is awe-inspiring, but these books are much better when we know the truth about a man instead of making him a sort of superhero. For this, I am thankful for the honest look at Richard Sibbes.

Thanks to Netgalley.com for the review copy.

Fare Thee Well

1 Timothy 6:20-21  O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:  Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. The first to Timothy was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana.

As a man of God, Timothy was committed to the truth of God's Word, (1 Timothy 1:18-19). Timothy has a priceless treasure in the doctrine he received and preaches, and he must secure it and guard with his life. As ministers of the gospel and preachers in the Lord's church, we have received the valuable treasure of truthful doctrine and our task is nothing short of faithfulness. We need to hold to the truth in our own lives, never wavering in what God has commanded us to do. We need to keep that truth in the forefront of our preaching, and guard our preaching from slackness and error. We need to protect the truth in the church and guard who takes the pulpit. We need to protect the truth from the influence of false teachers by a bold proclamation of God's Word. We need to keep the truth by diligence in reading and studying doctrine, to keep our theology tight and our doctrine sharp. Taking the long view, we are tasked with teach and passing the truth on to the next generation and to be able to leave this world having committed the truth to another group to carry on the work.

While he keeps the truth he is also to avoid profane and vain babbling. Don't flirt with or imbibe profane teachings and false science, or that which purports itself to be the way of knowledge, but is no knowledge at all. There is no contradiction in the truth. So science and higher learning is not in conflict with God's Word. It is a "so-called" science and higher learning that we are to avoid.  Why? Because it's the path to error. The danger  is that it will cause you to go off into error in the faith. I'm defiantly not anti-education or anti-learning, but be careful who you let teach you. Whether it's the science of evolution or the science of theology, be cautious of anything that contradicts God's Word and the doctrine given to your charge. It's the path to error, to be so enamored by 'higher learning' that you'll begin to doubt the plain truth of Scripture. Don't think so? Paul reminded Timothy that it had already happened to men that they knew. Don't think it can happen to you? Repent of your pride and be on guard.

Doctrine. Truth. Steadfastness. That's the theme of this epistle. There can be no compromise to the truth, and the man of God needs to be focused on preaching, studying, learning, teaching, and living the truth.

That ends our study in I Timothy. Maybe someday I'll tell you why I did this. Maybe soon we'll start 2 Timothy.

What profit? - Ecclesiastes 1:3

 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

This verse provides a clue to interpretation of the book. The phrase “under the sun” tells us Solomon is not thinking in terms of an eternal perspective at this point. Everything “under the sun” is what we do on this earth, in this life. Solomon is considering life as if his was all there was. What profit is there in all our work, if this is all there is?

There is profit to our labor. Beside the financial purposes and the ability to provide, there are mental benefits with having work to do and accomplishing the job you set out to accomplish. There is profit for those you serve in your work and the general common good of the community. But there is not satisfaction to the soul. As the saying goes, no one on their deathbed wishes they spent more time at the office. What profit does all our work count for if we die and leave it all behind to be forgotten?

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Ozymandias By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Passive Voice Preaching

Preachers know how to punch in their sermons. We also know how to pull punches.When the Word is coming in fast, doing its work, a preacher can pull the punch at the last second to lighten the blow, as some false teachers like to do. See? I just pulled the punch. I said something hard, then I let you off the hook at the last second by attributing this to false teachers. I said what I wanted to say, but I pulled back so you wouldn't get made at me and request a refund for this post.

You can also hide the truth in lingo and unclear turns of phrase.  In Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction, Tracy Kidder wrote:

Institutionalese tends to obscure responsibility for what is being said, or to locate it in a heavenly source. One hears that old bugaboo, the passive voice: “Mistakes were made”; “Actions will be taken.” Everyone recognizes the phenomenon. Why does it continue? The skeptical reader will credit the offending writer not with ineptitude but with a positive talent for obfuscation. The annual report writer declares, “Year-end results were negatively impacted by seasonal downward profit adjustments, consistent with global trends, insufficiently offset by labor force reductions.” It’s not that the guy doesn’t know how to say, “We lost money last fall, fired some people, but it was a tough year all around.” He either doesn’t want to say that, or, more likely, would get fired if he did. Sometimes people simply have to give the appearance of saying something without the risks that come with doing so. Then prose becomes dowdy clothing, concealing more than it reveals.

Don't hide what you are trying to say in passive voice mumbling or obscure wording. Be clear and speak plainly. Kidder said, "It takes some confidence to write clearly." Indeed. When you say what you mean clearly and precisely, then everyone knows were you stand. Don't say "sins were committed" but "you sinned."

He closes the chapter saying, "And if you should find yourself sounding that way, ask yourself what you are trying to avoid." If your preaching or writing is obtuse, are you doing that on purpose? Sometimes it is just bad writing, or trying to sound eloquent. But make sure that you are not concealing instead of revealing. Are you trying to say something without anyone noticing? By avoiding clear language, what are you trying to avoid?

Grace and Peace

Grace, Peace, and Love

Don’t believe the lie about God or buy the perception that God the Father is harsh and angry while the Lord Jesus is kind and loving. God the Father is stern and strict while God the Son is gracious and mercy, pitting two persons of the Trinity against one another. I’m afraid that many Christians have a faulty view of the Trinity due to a wrong view of God the Father. God the Father and God the Son are not opposed in their will. Notice, in Paul’s introduction in the letter to the Galatians 1:3-5  "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Grace, or underserved favor and blessing to you and the result of this grace is having peace with God. Where is the fountain from which this grace and peace flowed? It’s from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we get this grace and peace? Through the Substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, who “gave himself for our sins” to deliver us out of this evil world. Christ Jesus came and died for sinners, to pay our sin debt, to redeem us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The penalty for our sins is death and hell, and Jesus bore our sins in “his own body on the tree” and paid the penalty we deserved on the cross, so we can have peace with God. Jesus came according to the will of God our Father. Jesus came to die for those whom the Father had loved and chosen to be children and heirs. Before the foundation of the world, God the Father chose from sinful humanity, individuals to whom he would show His great love and mercy to deliver them from their sins. It was the Father’s will that these sinners be saved. The Father loved the elect and according to His own good purpose, chose them unto salvation. The Son, in covenant with the Father, came to die and save those whom the Father had given him. Don’t believe the lie about God the Father. Don’t project your ideas about earthly Fathers on to the character and nature of God the Father. We say a "mother's love" is the ultimate example of love and devotion, but the Bible speaks of the Father's love as the apex of love. 1 John 3:1  "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." Know that the Father loves, provides for, and personally cares for and hears the cries of His people. God the Father loves his children. He so loved the world, that He gave His Son as a substitute to die for them and give them eternal life.