Crooked can't be made straight - Ecclesiastes 1:14-15

14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

Looking at the world, Solomon sees the problem he is dealing with everywhere. He is not just not having a bad week - the vanity of life is a universal problem. The vanity of life under the sun is a common human experience. Living life in this cursed earth is vanity and vexation. The world is bent and it cannot be straightened out by any means under the sun, or with human hands. The different ways life is difficult and vanity and vexation, the various ways that we are tried are so great, they can’t be numbered. 

Though hardly uplifting, this is true. Much better to hear and know the truth so we can deal with life honestly than live in a fantasy world sailing off into eternity. Much better to see reality and know that we cannot find satisfaction and eternal joy and peace through the works of our hands than to spend a life looking for something that is not there. 

An Ordained Minister

Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

Last week, I flew to Texas to be part of a service to ordain my brother, Joseph Newell, to pastoral ministry. It was a powerful service and one that I will remember for a long time. Seeing a man enter in this great work -- to pastor of one of the Lord’s churches blessed my soul and encouraged me in my own ministry. I’m sure you have heard of an “ordained minister” and know that a man needs to be ordained, but maybe never thought about what it means to be ordained.

The word “ordained” in this verse means to “appoint, to elect, or to vote by stretching out the hand.” Paul and Barnabas planted many churches in areas where Christ had not been named. The goal of every missionary should be to evangelize the lost, baptize, teach, and then organize those believers into a church, and then move on to the next place. These assemblies were organized into churches, but they all couldn’t have Paul stay and be their pastor. They needed pastors of their own. Within that assembly, the church appointed men to the office of pastor.

Ordination in the ministry is simply the act of a man being called, voted in, and appointed to the position of pastor or deacon. The task of “ordaining” men to gospel ministry falls to the authority of a local church. The church must take into consideration several factors when calling men to one of these offices. The church has a Biblical guide as to what to look for in a man (and yes, it must be a man) when calling a pastor. 1 Timothy 3:1-9 covers the character of the candidate, but there is much more than character, the man has to know the word of God and be sound in the faith and strong in doctrine. When the church votes the man into the position, after  much prayer and fasting, customarily, the elders present, lay hands on the man and pray the Lord would bless and strengthen him in the ministry (I Timothy 4:14).

The pastor spends his life mining and uncovering the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus the Lord, and the make those truths known. To watch over the souls of the people the Lord has given him. At the same time, it’s a job where  more than a few men lost their heads. It's a vocation that has left more than one man in jail. It's a field of labor that left more than one man bearing the physical, and emotional scars of the Lord in their body.  But it is worth it. God blessed the Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Silsbee, TX with a man who, I am confident, will watch over their souls, care for them, and do the good work of an undershepherd.

This Sore Travail - Ecclesiastes 1:12-13

12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.

I believe the Preacher is Solomon. He fits the bill. As we will see, the Preacher has unimaginable financial wealth. We also know that he is a wise man. He was King over Israel in Jerusalem. If we take Israel (all tribes, before the divide) as the nation, then there are only two options: Solomon and Rehoboam. Verse 1 says the Preacher is the son of David, and Solomon’s son, Rehoboam was King during the divide. Even if you take “Israel” to be the people of God in general and place him after the divide, that would only be 7 other good kings of Judah to choose from, and given Solomon's wealth and wisdom, and knowing that he wrote two other books of wisdom, I Solomon is the man. 

Speaking of wisdom, Solomon gave his heart to seek it and search it out concerning all the things under the sun. Life is hard and “this sore travail” is the common experience of man. Solomon wants to know why. What’s the point of it all? I think all men feel this despair. Some will bury these feelings. Most won’t ever think deeply about them. One way or the other, most people will attempt one of the methods Solomon searches out in the remainder of the book, to try and find some sort of meaning and purpose to life.

Solomon tells you what this sermon is about and how he set out to come to his conclusions. He tried, experienced and tested different theories and paths looking for meaning and happiness. It’s a social and spiritual experiment. He needed to know, so he set his mind to find out and wouldn’t rest until he got his answer. The great thing about this book, is we can see what works and what doesn’t without having to experience the pain of trial and error.

this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.

The sore travail, or the hard and bitter ordeal of life is given to us by God so we can be humbled by it. Life in a cursed world is not going to be Eden. We lost that. No amount of work or labor or “redeeming the culture” is going to reverse the curse. This life is difficult. God ordains our steps and ordains our trials to exercise us and to try us. Life works as a refining fire in our sanctification.

Study Tools. Full Commentary Sets

Pastor David Green has begun and excellent work by recommending books that every Baptist preacher needs to have. I’m going to try my hand at adding to the list and using his format. I’m not disagreeing with his list. There are some books he has that I haven’t read and I’m sure vice versa. First, check out David’s list.

I’m going to go section by section and then give a short overview of why I like them. Today's installment will cover Full Commentary sets. These are my favorites. 

Full Commentary Sets.

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible. The Good Doctor is a staple for any Baptist library. He’ll give you most of the information that you want and a lot of the information that you don’t want. As Spurgeon pointed out, he likes to firstly, then secondly explain what the text doesn’t mean before telling you what it does. But the man was such a giant intellect it is worth the effort. Not so hot on eschatological issues.

Matthew Henry

If you need the sense of the passage and how to apply it, Matthew Henry is great.

Albert Barnes.

Might be my favorite. Would probably be the happy medium between the overabundance of information with Gill on each verse, but with the clarity and insight of Henry. Like Henry, he did not finish the whole Bible and it was finished for him, some areas weaker than others, especially on church doctrine.

Matthew Poole

Short and sweet comments. I’ll follow his lead.

B. H. Carroll

I absolutely love this collection. Sometimes I’ll just take one down and read a little section. They are full of insightful observations and witty stories and illustrations. The book recommendations he makes are also gold. These are Carroll’s classroom lectures as he took his seminary students through the English Bible. Obviously, not a verse by verse commentary, but it you are going to preach through a book or do a book study, I would say that this set should be on you list to read in your early study of the book. I disagree with his eschatological views.

The Pulpit Commentary

I usually look at this once I’m finished with my outline and my study. I rarely look at the exegetical work, but I enjoy the homiletics section. It’s a collection of sermons and sermon outlines from various preachers.

 Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 

Another favorite when I'm just looking for the sense of the passage. Often good application. 

Review: Passion in the Pulpit

Passion in the Pulpit: Delivering Persuasive Sermons Without Being Manipulative

by Jerry Vines and Adam Dooley

Rhetoricians all agree effective persuasion must have, as Aristotle said, the logos, ethos, and pathos for effective communication. It's important what you say, it's important who says it, and it's important how it is said. This book deals with the pathos, an emotional side of persuasive communication. But how can you consider the pathos of a sermon, without being manipulative and deceiving? The key is to get in the Scripture, understand what it says until you feel the message yourself. By doing that, your emotion and delivery will match the original author’s emotion and pathos.

This book teaches that you need to read the passage and see the pathos and emotional flow of the original author, and the speaker must match that emotional delivery. If the text is sad, then the speaker must then communicate this sadness of the text through his delivery, illustrations, and mannerism. The text itself will set the bounds for our emotional delivery in the pulpit. In other words, screaming at the top of your lungs, "God loves you!" while banging your fists on the pulpit with an angry scowl probably doesn't communicate the emotional flow of the text. Giggling over the destruction of Jerusalem doesn’t convey the Weeping Prophet’s pathos.

The first section deals with how to determine the Scriptures own pathos in the text, and then moves to ways to incorporate that in the message through language and lastly through delivery. In other words, we exegete the Words of Scripture, we ought to also exegete the pathos of Scripture.

The book is co-authored, but it's clear who is writing what. Dooley writes the majority of the book and Vines has a section called In The Pulpit at the end of every chapter where he summarizes and illustrates the principles of that chapter. This book doesn’t give you whiplash like many co-authored books do when going back and forth between the author’.

Many good thoughts to consider.

Thanks to Netgalley.com for the review copy.

There was a reason, after all

"In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

G.K. Chesterton - The Thing

A Good Place to Start Theological Study

It's important where you begin your theological study. Your heart needs to be right if you are going to profit from theology. Since we are all fallible and all have our predjucies, James Boyce gives 6 ways we need to approach theological study.

1. With reverence for truth, and especially for the truth taught in the Word of God.
2. With earnest prayer for Divine help.
3. With careful searching of heart against prejudice.
4. With timidity, as to the reception and propagation of new doctrine.
5. But with a spirit willing and anxious to examine, and to accept whatever we may be convinced is true.
6. With teachable humility, which, knowing that God has not taught us in his word all the truth that exists, not even all the truth on many a single point, accepts with implicit faith all that he has taught, and awaits his own time for that more full revelation which shall remove all our present perplexities.

Abstract of Systematic Theology – James P. Boyce

A Problem with C.S. Lewis

If you are going to be a popular writer in Christian circles, you are going to have to have a few Lewis quotes from time to time. He's the perennial favorite among the evangelical elite. He really isn't anyone we should lift up as a Christian leader. We treat Lewis with doctrinal kid gloves when we really shouldn't and wouldn't treat anyone else. For example, Rob Bell, and rightly so, was called to the carpet and labeled a heretic for his, well, his heresy. So, why do we uphold Lewis, who had the same Universalist bent, with more heresy besides?

Michael John Beasley wrote in My Banner is Christ:

"By itself, [Rob] Bell’s book [Love Wins] was certainly problematic, yet reactions to what he wrote were even more problematic and even ironic. I say ironic because many of Bell’s greatest critics also happen to be the loudest advocates of C.S. Lewis, whose theology of purgatory was no less dangerous than that of Bell’s. In 1998, J.I. Packer noted the irony of C.S. Lewis’popularity within Evangelicalism, despite his views on purgatory and many other things:  

'By ordinary evangelical standards, his [Lewis’] idea about the Atonement (archetypal penitence, rather than penal substitution), and his failure ever to mention justification by faith when speaking of the forgiveness of sins, and his apparent hospitality to baptismal regeneration, and his noninerrantist view of biblical inspiration, plus his quiet affirmation of purgatory and of the possible final salvation of some who have left this world as nonbelievers, were weaknesses; they led the late, great Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for whom evangelical orthodoxy was mandatory, to doubt whether Lewis was a Christian at all. His closest friends were Anglo-Catholics or Roman Catholics; his parish church, where he worshiped regularly, was 'high'; he went to confession; he was, in fact, anchored in the (small-c) 'catholic' stream of Anglican thought, which some (not all) regard as central. Yet evangelicals love his books and profit from them hugely.'

I understand the appeal of C.S. Lewis. He is an excellent writer and a good thinker. I do not understand the infatuation with Lewis as a Evangelical Christian leader. From what I understand, C.S.Lewis would not have considered himself an evangelical. I am not one of those who say that you can only read only with people who agree with you, otherwise you'll only read your own journals. I'm not even saying that I think that you should avoid Lewis all together, but I believe that to put him in the category of a safe and trusted guide in doctrine is dangerous. When I read C.S. Lewis, I have to remember that there are a lot of really, very serious problems with his theology. If Rob Bell is dangerous (and he is) then shouldn't the same caution be shown to Lewis, seeing they taught similar doctrines? Lewis is an excellent writer and a really bad theologian.

I think part of it comes from the fact that Lewis was not a clergyman, but a professor. Bell was/is a pastor and he is held to a high standard, as he should be. But Lewis, by being a Christian writer, took upon himself the role of a teacher and should be read with as much strict discernment as any other book.

Several have pointed out that comedians who like to be politically active will rail on their political enemies with great passions and fervor. When they are called to give an account for what they say or believe they say "I'm just a comedian, what do you expect?" They have coined it as "clown nose on...clown nose off." They want to speak with authority without having the responsibility that comes along with authority or to be held accountable. Recently, Jimmy Kimmel had not problem being the voice of the American conscience when he was politicking for heath care. But when it came to other issues that would cost him, "hey I'm just a late night show host." Clown nose on. I do not believe Lewis played this game, but the game is being played with his works. I believe this is why Lewis is given that same leniency. When he is good, he is praised. When he is heretical, it is "well, he was not a preacher, he was a professor." When Lewis is good, he is great and when he is bad, he is awful.

Even in his fiction, he's got lots of problems.

The much lauded "That Hideous Strength" (the final book in his Space Trilogy) is, strange. Even more strange that conservative Christian's praise and recommend this book. As a story, it was pretty good. As a critique of modernism, and the dangers and failures of treating the intellectual and scientific communities as priests in a new religion (new religion, same as the old religion) it was great. Lewis can rightly diagnosis the problem and then skillfully give us the end that we all want. Peace, God, illumination, things that are true, things that are lovely, things that are wholesome. The spiritual realities of the world we live in are true.

But Lewis never tells the reader how to get from A to B. The book makes the case that Christianity is the answer, but what does Lewis mean by Christianity? I know this wasn't meant to be a gospel tract, but making conversion a major theme of the book and then having the "awakening" to be "there is someone, something out there" in my opinion, is a failure and the danger far outweighs any good that might come. Lewis provides a taste of Christianity without Christ. If you lay That Hideous Strength along side the book of Colossians, you'll find that the characters would have much more in common with the proto-gnostics than with the Apostle Paul.

So why do celebrity preachers praise C.S. Lewis so? I have no idea. I think it's trendy. I think that he's an author that you can wink to the world and have some credibility. Maybe we Christians like our celebrities too, and we feel validated when the world likes someone who says he's on our side. I really can't explain why pastors would promote Lewis and recommend him.

I'm not calling for a boycott or a book-burning. But can we not treat him as a good Christian author? I recently made a comment in a sermon about Lewis, and the idea that Lewis wasn't a good, solid, Christian was remarkable. Why? Because we have lifted him up as one. Let's warn and be cautious of quoting and promoting a dangerous man.

The Children Shall Lead

Isaiah 3:4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

Judah was on the eve of judgment. God had warned and warned, but His people wouldn’t listen. God is going to judge them by giving Judah the leaders she deserved. God often judges people by giving them what they want in heaping spoonfuls, with cherries on top. This is hardwired in the universe He created, you reap what you sow.  The sins men love often are the rope they hang themselves with. God’s people would not listen to the men He sent, they would not heed to the godly kings, so God gave them leaders suitable to their immaturity. Sinful rebellion is childish and immature behavior, so they'll be led by children.

Sound familiar? Members of the media and politicians are fawning over the leadership of children and following them. Being passionate and earnest is not enough to lead and emotions do not equate to leadership, wisdom, and maturity. The Biblical commentators are quick to point out the Hebrew in Isaiah 3:4 doesn’t necessarily restrict this to mean young in age, but could refer to the immature. What we have are immature people in positions of power, encouraging immature teenagers to rise up and lead them. This is not a blessing, it's a curse, and it will not end well. The children who are “leading us” are being used, and they don’t know it. One of the leaders of the French Revolution reportedly said,  "There go the people. I must follow , for I am their leader." True, Biblical, godly leadership will guide the people in truth and righteousness with wisdom, not find out where the wind is blowing, find some young people to repeat their talking points, and get behind them.

This is the country we wanted. I recently read a biography of Calvin Coolidge. He was a great man and a great president, in my opinion. He couldn’t get elected dogcatcher today if he was the only one running and his Mom cast the only vote. Why? He had no charisma and wasn't a brilliant speaker. His qualifications, his leadership, his resolute commitment to what he believed would be meaningless today. Never mind moral character. Never mind actual credentials and qualifications. We have ignored God’s Word. We have ignored God’s laws. We have made entertainment and amusement the gods of our decant age. Behold your leaders.

This same type of judgment falls on churches when leadership fails and the immature take charge. When children lead the parents judgment comes on the family. Fathers decide where (or if) they go to church based upon what the kids want. Sunday is no longer the Lord’s Day, but  the Children's day. We cannot change the country, but we can take care of our own back yards. We can lead our families in righteousness. We can lead our churches and model the godly order of mature leadership and wise counsel. We can pray for mercy.