GOSPEL DELTA

John Piper – Gospel

// March 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Affection, Doctrine, Life

Christian Happiness

// March 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // Affection, Doctrine, Life

When Jonathan Edwards was 18 years old he preached his first formal sermon, titled, “Christian Happiness”.

The thesis of the sermon is simple and large:

Christians should be happy.

Why should Christians be happy? The sermon answers this question in 3 points.

Point 1: Our bad things will turn out for good.

Point 2: Our good things can never be taken away from us.

Point 3: The best things are yet to come.

You can read the whole sermon [here].

Here’s an extended quote from point #2 that encouraged me this morning (paragraph breaks added):

The godly man is happy in whatever circumstances he is placed because of the spiritual privileges and advantages, joys and satisfactions, he actually enjoys while in this life. How great a happiness must needs [it] be to a man to have all his sins pardoned and to stand guilty of nothing in God’s presence: to be washed clean from all his pollutions; to have the great and eternal and almighty Jehovah, who rules and governs the whole universe, and doth whatsoever he pleases in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth, reconciled to him and perfectly at peace with him.

How great a pleasure and satisfaction must it be to him to think of it, and not only that God is reconciled to him or has nothing against [him], inasmuch as all is pardoned; but also that this same almighty being who created him, who keeps him in being and who disposes of him and all other things every moment, loves him, and that with a great and transcendent love; and that He has adopted him and taken him to be His child, and given Himself to him to be his father and his portion, and that takes care of him as one that is very dear to Him, continually guides and directs him, and will lead him to the fountain of living waters.

And how joyful and gladsome must the thoughts of Jesus Christ be to him, to think with how great a love Christ has loved him, even to lay down His life and suffer the most bitter torments for his sake, Who also now continually intercedes for him at the throne of grace; to consider that so great a person as the eternal Son of God, who also made the worlds, is his lord and master, and is not ashamed to call us brethren, Who will come in and sup with him, and He with him, and to see His arms expanded to embrace him and offering Himself to be embraced by him. And beside, what a satisfaction and pleasure must it give to his mind to think that he is now sanctified and made holy, adorned and beautified with those lovely graces that make him lovely in the sight of God and excellent in the sight of saints and angels; to reflect on himself and consider that he acts rationally and doth that which the best of beings has commanded, that he in some measure acts worthy of the nature of a man, in some measure answers the end of his coming into the world in glorifying God and doing good to his fellow creatures, and that he has not lived altogether in vain: not as it is with many; they live in the world and burthen the same, and had better be dead than alive for all the good they do in it, or any they do towards manifesting the glory of him that made them.

The reflection on these things affords such a peace and pleasantness to the mind, as far exceeds and is immensely above all outward delights. What there is no wicked man doth know, neither; neither hath it entered into their hearts to conceive how great are the comforts and pleasures of the godly, and how great [the] things God hath prepared for all those that love [him], even in this life; their pleasures are of vastly a more refined, higher and more noble kind than those of the wicked, besides the many other advantages that this has above that, but especially that taken notice of in the Doctrine: that no worldly afflictions in the world are able to deprive them of them, but they, as rightly improved, do only serve to give them a quicker and more lively sense of spiritual enjoyments.

HT: Justin Buzzard

Are there Two Wills in God?

// March 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Doctrine

In correlation to my personal study of the doctrine election/predestination in Romans 8 and 9, I recently sat down to listen to a talk by Matt Chandler on the issue of God’s will.

Here’s his message: Does God have two wills? AUDIO, NOTES

Here’s an article by John Piper: LINK

Here are some articles from my boy Sam Storms: LINK, LINK

and a message from him I listened to a few months ago:

“Enjoying Election: Finding Delight in God’s Decree“: AUDIO

The Bible Will Really Screw Up Your Theology 1.0

// March 18th, 2010 // No Comments » // Doctrine

In Anglican devotions, you’re supposed to read Psalm 95 every morning. As I was reading that psalm today, I was blown away by the stark juxtaposition of God’s love and God’s wrath. Verse 6 and 7 are heart-warming. The Psalmist starts off with a rousing call to worship:

6   Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.

10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”

Most Christians would wonder, “Why in the world would you want to start every morning with that?!” That’s a frightening set of verses. You see this all throughout the Psalms. The whole spectrum of God’s character, his love for his people and his hatred for his enemies, set right next to each other. The wrath of God is an attribute of God as much a part of God as any other attribute, an attribute without which God would be less than God.

Many Christians have a hard time reconciling the reality that God’s is both loving and wrathful. We struggle to believe that God would hate anyone. But the Bible is replete with the reality of God’s judgement, and the reality of Hell. This is a hard truth to swallow. A. W. Pink observes:

It is sad to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or at least they wish there were no such thing. While some would not go so far as to openly admit that they consider it a blemish on the Divine character, yet they are far from regarding it with delight; they like not to think about it, and they rarely hear it mentioned without a secret resentment rising up in their hearts against it. Even with those who are more sober in their judgment, not a few seem to imagine that there is a severity about the Divine wrath which is too terrifying to form a theme for profitable contemplation. Others harbor the delusion that God’s wrath is not consistent with His goodness, and so seek to banish it from their thoughts.

Yes, many there are who turn away from a vision of God’s wrath as though they were called to look upon some blotch in the Divine character, or some blot upon the Divine government. But what saith the Scriptures? As we turn to them we find that God has made no attempt to conceal the fact of His wrath. He is not ashamed to make it known that vengeance and fury belong unto Him.

Levels of Doctrine – Justin Taylor

// March 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Doctrine

In answer to that question, I’ve found Erik Thoennes’s perspective to be thoughtful and helpful. The following is from his first essay on Doctrine in the ESV Study Bible.

The ability to discern the relative importance of theological beliefs is vital for effective Christian life and ministry. Both the purity and unity of the church are at stake in this matter. The relative importance of theological issues can fall within four categories:

1. absolutes define the core beliefs of the Christian faith;
2. convictions, while not core beliefs, may have significant impact on the health and effectiveness of the church;
3. opinions are less-clear issues that generally are not worth dividing over; and
4. questions are currently unsettled issues.

These categories can be best visualized as concentric circles, similar to those on a dart board, with the absolutes as the “bull’s-eye”:

Where an issue falls within these categories should be determined by weighing the cumulative force of at least seven considerations:

1. biblical clarity;
2. relevance to the character of God;
3. relevance to the essence of the gospel;
4. biblical frequency and significance (how often in Scripture it is taught, and what weight Scripture places upon it);
5. effect on other doctrines;
6. consensus among Christians (past and present); and
7. effect on personal and church life.

These criteria for determining the importance of particular beliefs must be considered in light of their cumulative weight regarding the doctrine being considered. For instance, just the fact that a doctrine may go against the general consensus among believers (see item 6) does not necessarily mean it is wrong, although that might add some weight to the argument against it. All the categories should be considered collectively in determining how important an issue is to the Christian faith. The ability to rightly discern the difference between core doctrines and legitimately disputable matters will keep the church from either compromising important truth or needlessly dividing over peripheral issues.

(Diagram copyright 2009 Crossway Bibles. Posted with permission.)

Another helpful resource on this is Albert Mohler’s A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity. Dr. Mohler distinguishes between first-order doctrines (a denial of which represents the eventual denial of Christianity itself), second-order doctrines (upon which Bible-believing Christians may disagree, but they create significant boundaries between believers, whether as distinct congregations or denominations), and third-order doctrines (upon which Christians may disagree, but yet remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations).

Finally, I’ve been helped by Michael Wittmer’s excellent book, Don’t Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough. He classifies Christian beliefs into  three categories: what you must believe, (2) what you must not reject, and (3) what you should believe. He illustrates this as follows:

In a 2008 interview with Dr. Wittmer, I asked him to explain these categories:

These categories are my attempt to describe the relative importance of Christian beliefs, distinguishing between those beliefs essential for salvation and those essential for a healthy Christian worldview.

In the book of Acts, the bare minimum that a person must know and believe to be saved was that he was a sinner and that Jesus saved him from his sin. As Paul told the Philippian jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:29-31; cf. 10:43). This is enough to counter the postmodern innovator argument that we can be saved without knowing and believing in Jesus.

But any thinking convert will inquire further about this Jesus. While he may not know much more at the point of conversion than Jesus is the Lord who has saved him, he will quickly learn about Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, deity and humanity, and relation to the other two members of the Trinity. Anyone who rejects these core doctrines should fear for their soul.

According to the Athanasian Creed, whoever does not believe in the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus is damned. However, since it seems possible for a child to come to faith without knowing much about the Trinity or the hypostatic union (this is likely not the place where most parents begin), I take the Creed’s warning in a more benign way—that we do not need to know and believe in the Trinity and two natures of Christ to be saved, but that anyone who knowingly rejects them cannot be saved.

The final category is important doctrines which genuine Christians may unfortunately misconstrue. I think that every Christian should believe that Scripture is God’s Word, know its story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, and know something about the nature of God, what it means to be human, and what Jesus is doing through his church. However, many people have been genuine Christians without knowing or believing these things (though their ignorance or disbelief in these facts significantly diminished their Christian faith).

Thus, I believe that every doctrine in this diagram is crucially important for sound Christian faith. And some are so important that we cannot even be saved without them.

Diagram posted with permission of Zondervan.

12 Cities – 12 Conversations

// March 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Life

“Upon a Spider Catching a Fly” – Edward Taylor

// March 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Affection

Wasp killing a spider

Here is another wonderful poem by Edward Taylor:

Thou sorrow, venom elf.
Is this thy play,
To spin a web out of thyself
To catch a fly?

For why?
I saw a pettish wasp
Fall foul therein,
Whom yet thy whorl pins did not clasp
Lest he should fling
His sting.

But as afraid, remote
Didst stand hereat
And with thy little fingers stroke
And gently tap
His back.

Thus gently him didst treat
Lest he should pet,
And in a froppish waspish heat
Should greatly fret
Thy net.

Whereas the silly fly,
Caught by its leg,
Thou by the throat took’st hastily
And ‘hind the head
Bite dead.

This goes to pot, that not
Nature doth call.
Strive not above what strength hath got
Lest in the brawl
Thou fall.

This fray seems thus to us:
Hell’s spider gets
His entrails spun to whipcords’ thus,
And wove to nets
And sets,

To tangle Adam’s race
In’s stratagems
To their destructions, spoiled, made base
By venom things,
Damned sins.

But mighty, gracious Lord,
Communicate
Thy grace to break the cord; afford
Us glory’s gate
And state.

We’l Nightingaile sing like
When pearcht on high
In Glories Cage, thy glory, bright,
And thankfully,
For joy.

The Rage Against God – Peter Hitchens

// March 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Doctrine

What if notorious atheist Christopher Hitchens, bestselling author of God Is Not Great, had a Christian brother? He does. Peter Hitchens details a very personal story of how he left the faith but dramatically returned. And like many of the Old Testament saints whose personal lives were intertwined with the life of their nation, so Hitchens’ story is also the story of modern England and its sad spiritual decline. Hitchens brings his work as an international journalist to bear as he documents firsthand accounts of atheistic societies, specifically in Communist Russia, when he lived in Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union. He shows that the world’s bloodiest century, the 20th century, entailed nothing short of atheism’s own version of the Crusades and the Inquisition. The path to a secular utopia, pursued by numerous modern tyrants, is truly paved with more violence than has been witnessed in any era in history. With warmth, with humor, with undeniable truth, Hitchens provides hope for all believers whose friends or family members have left Christianity or who are enchanted by the arguments of the anti-religious intellects of our age. It may actually be true, he writes, that “the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”.

Coming May 2010…

Gospel-Centered Leadership

// March 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Doctrine, Life

To supplement what I’m learning in the 5-week Gospel-Centered Leadership class I’m taking at River West Church, I have been listening to a few resources that I have found invaluable and would highly recommend to anyone involved in leadership or considering it for the future. The first is a 5-part seminar from two pastors from Sovereign Grace Ministries examining what it means to be called to leadership in God’s church. I found the wisdom and teaching of Dave Harvey (author “When Sinners Say ‘I Do’” and “Rescuing Ambition”) to be incredibly edifying. The second is a conference that took place last year in conjunction with the release of Colin Marshall and Tony Payne’s latest book “The Trellis and the Vine”, and focused on exploring the paradigm shifts that need to occur in our thinking if we are going to build ministry around people not programs.

The Summons: Exploring the Call to Ministry (Sovereign Grace Ministries)

Dave Harvey and Jeff Purswell

• In December of 2004, men from three nations and representing more than 20 churches gathered at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania for this one-day seminar. The teachings presented that day are designed to provide pastors, leaders, and potential leaders with a biblical framework for exploring a sense of calling to full-time ministry.

1. The Caller and the Summons Part 1 (Dave Harvey)

2. The Caller and the Summons Part 2 (Dave Harvey)

3. Eldership and the Call to Character (Jeff Purswell)

4. The Call to Prepare (Jeff Purswell)

5. Q&A Panel Discussion (Dave Harvey and Jeff Purswell)

GOSPEL GROWTH = PEOPLE GROWTH (Matthias Media)

Gospel growth happens “in” people and “through” people.

• IN PEOPLE: You can have growth in numbers, in budgets, in programs, in activities, in staff, in baptisms, in buildings, in reputation, and even growth in the quality of preaching, but unless individual people are growing in knowledge, in faith, in godliness, and in love as disciples of Christ, it’s all a noisy clanging gong. Are your people really growing? How would you know whether they are or not? Who is discipling each person in your congregation?

• THROUGH PEOPLE: Jesus commissioned every disciple for disciple-making, and a pastor-teacher’s job is not only to proclaim and to pray but also also to equip, train and mobilize People for the task. Gospel growth multiplies as Christians get involved in the three P’s: Proclamation, Prayer, and People — in prayerfully speaking God’s word to other people, in whatever way they can, large or small, at home or at work, in small groups or one-to-one. Is this happening where you are? Or is the ministry basically done by the staff? How many people in your congregation, for example, would be willing and able to do the foundational personal discipling work of following up a new believer and establishing them in the basics of the faith?

Pastor-Manager? Pastor-Therapist? or Pastor-Theologian?

// March 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // Doctrine

Not all pastors make time to read great works of theology. They are too busy preparing sermons, visiting their people, organizing the church’s evangelistic program and so on. Why should pastors make the effort to become pastor-theologians?

KV: Both parts of the Great Commission, evangelism and making disciples, require theology. Theology is a form of the ministry of the Word; specifically, theology is a the ministry of Christian understanding. We need theology in our evangelism because theology is about preserving the integrity of the word, the message of the gospel an evangelist proclaims. We need theology in our disciple-making because theology is about reminding us who we are and what we are to say and do as followers of Jesus Christ in this or that situation.

The world is filled with therapists and managers. What the church needs now is people who can (1) articulate from the Bible the truth about God, the world, and ourselves in terms that are faithful to the Bible and intelligible in the contemporary context (2) exhort their congregations to say and do things that corresponds to the truth of Jesus Christ as attested in the Bible.