It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
(Isaiah 2:2-3)

God’s word MUST prosper. Many must come and hear his ways. His mountain shall indeed be the highest of all. Given this, surely this verse gives support to those who, like Spugeon, believe that there will be a large end-time revival, and that more will be saved than not.

It is surely also, whatever your belief on the extent of salvation, quite right to pray for success for your own church both in terms of those in it learning to follow God’s ways better, and for others also to come. Spurgeon certainly expected growth, and urged his students to seek for salvation at every service. Not every church is called to become large. But every church is called to grow spiritually and to see some have their lives transformed by God as a direct result of coming into the church’s sphere of influence.

Simon Pettit once preached a movement transforming sermon here at this conference on remembering the poor. Dave asked the question, how have we done since?

1 in 4 families struggle go get food on their table in the USA.

In the UK inner cities half of the children live near the poverty line.

Dave took us to Isaiah 58.

What is the broad context?

Everyone was expected to be involved in the care of the needy. There was no welfare state.

We are told to give the poor whatever they need. Deuteronomy 15. Personal and civic life is meant to be marked by generosity. The poor were meant to stop being poor. The freedom from poverty that the year of jubilee represented was not just about a handout. They were given grain and or livestock to help them take responsibility for themselves. Concern in OT is not just individual righteousness but social righteousness. OT asks what has the people as a whole done wrong. Corporate sin is discussed. How have you cared for others?

Broad context is that the poor are cared for. We are meant to be an example of what it would be like if God lived among his people.

What is the immediate context?

They look like they are doing the right things. They pray a lot. Seek God. Long for his presence. Fast a lot. But there is a big problem. They do not care for the poor. We tend to think ministry to the poor is a secondary role to get to when we can. Isaiah puts a much higher priority on it. He says it is an indication of where your hearts are at.

What is our motivation to be for caring for the poor?

A clue is in the term fasting. Our first motivation is worship. When you come to the cross, you understand the heart of the gospel: he who was rich became poor so we who are poor could become rich. When you care for someone who can’t pay you back, it draws you closer to the Father. Giving money causes us to rejoice. Again, it’s because we draw close to God. Prayer, fasting, giving and caring for the unlovely should be characteristics of the people of God.

It enables us to avoid Gods judgment. Paul warns the Corinthians that their lack of care for each other had led to judgment. If we do not care for the needy, and instead horde our blessings, God may lift his hand of blessing. This should therefore be at the heart of our discipleship

How do we go about it?

Isaiah says, v6. Loose chains of Injustice. If anything is stopping people getting clothing shelter and food it should be challenged. Break every yoke.

If men and women are treated like animals it must be stopped. Where structures or laws are unjust they need to be changed. Good laws and systems foster good behavior and bad laws foster bad behavior. For example the slave trade was legal, so many were involved in it. Only for 100 years have women been allowed to vote in the UK. That previous unjust law brought problems between the sexes.

Salt must be as pervasive as sin. Sin get into structures. We must be aware of injustice in our society. Some must learn to bring change.

We get filled with the Spirit so that we can burst out of our churches and into the world.

V7 care for individuals. Share your food with the hungry. Care for your own family first.

1 Tim 5:8. If you don’t care for your family Paul says you have denied the faith.

V10 spend yourself. Personal involvement. What about your street, workplace or school?

God is after your heart primarily.

Ultimate expression of love is the preaching of the gospel. But that is not an excuse for not caring for the poor. Bible assumes we will do both. You can care for the poor without putting at risk everything else you are doing. Sometimes it’s fear that holds us back.

We extend mercy but demand responsibility. Don’t just continue to bail people out. Rather help someone take responsibility for their own life.

If we would do what the prophet asks what might happen?

• God promises to work in you. V8 healing appears quickly. Our needs will be satisfied in a desert v11. Even when it’s difficult God can help us be like an oasis
• God promises to work though you. Light will shine to the Gentiles. People will be drawn to us. As we care for the poor authorities ask what are you doing. Nobody else expects transformed lives. If you want to build relationships with your local authorities then care for the poor. More influence and evangelistic strength results.
• God promises to go with you: like a reputation going before us.
• God promises to create something together with us. Corporate blessing. Rebuilding the ruins. That God would dwell with men. Communities that are known for their love for the poor. Not just mercy but transformed lives. Expressing love. Showing the heart of the gospel.

Is that center place in our hearts?

Tope Koleoso preached this last Sunday on entering the New Year purposefully and with prayer. We are beginning the year with a week of prayer and fasting at church, so I have asked a guest blogger to join us here later in the week after I have shared a sermon I have set on auto-publish for tomorrow.

Tope is passionate about inspiring Jubilee to be a church that is continually more devoted to prayer. At the beginning of this recording he prays a blessing on us as a church. Why not pray along with him and then watch this fantastic sermon:

download video or download audio

I have been doing some thinking about wisdom before I began this blog break. I want to share some notes with you over the next few days that I made that basically do a whistlestop tour of what the Bible has to say on this subject.

1. Wisdom in the Bible Seems to Get off to A Bad Start

Gen 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

She could have got wisdom from her husband and from the Lord
The husband was foolishly silent, which should not be confused with the silence of wisdom

So-called “wisdom” tells us we can be independent. Godly wisdom is dependent on others and especially God.

2. The Mark of God’s Favour: Joseph

Gen 41, Pharaoh’s dream interpreted,

Gen 41:39 “Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.”

Another example of this is found in Daniel, especially chapter 1.

3. There Are Clear Capacities of Wisdom

Deut 1: 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes

They were to judge, but cases they found too hard to go to Moses.

God gives wisdom in unequal packages deliberately to make us depend on each other!

4. Leadership Wisdom is a Gift From God

Deut 34:9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Wisdom was imparted through laying on of hands, and because it was there they followed him. Like them, we would do well to follow wisdom when we see it in others!

5. A Wise Person Can Sometimes Even Negate the Actions of a Fool

Abigail and Nabal 1 Samuel 25

6. Wisdom should be desired more than wealth or power

Solomon asked God for the best gift of all and God blessed him.

1 Kings 4:29 God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, . . he was wiser than all other men
Prov 8:11 “for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.”

1.The God we come to.
These opening verses seem to encourage us to fix our gaze on the God who made a universe that is at least 100 billion light years across and says it is just a throne for him. His hands flung stars into space as easily as a child flicks paint. The ESV study bible says “He cannot be walled in”. So he says, you cannot build for me a house. We mourn at the state of the church v10 BUT, Jesus says “I will build MY church” (Matthew 16:18)

Tope Koleoso preached an outstanding sermon last Sunday on the subject of God’s compassion. The challenge he gave us to share this compassion of God made the book of Jonah come to life in a fresh way. You can download the audio or video or watch it right here:

Interview With Liam Goligher from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

One of my favorite memories from this year’s New Word Alive is meeting Liam Goligher. If you only want to watch one video from the event, watch this one. I am thrilled that this is the post I am sharing with you on my sixth blog anniversary (it was the 16th April 2003 when this journey began!)

Liam and I have spoken on the phone before, and from the first call I immediately knew that he was a real defender of the gospel. I heard him preach at NWA, and I was blown away. He has the full package: a thoughtful intelligent approach to the text, relevance, humor with biting illustrations, passion, and a big dose of that hard to measure thing called “anointing.” His preaching brought the tangible presence of God and conviction. To be honest, and this is not an exaggeration, I think he is something of a British John Piper.

But it was only in meeting him face-to-face that I realized how much fun he is. We laughed a lot, as well as speaking about many important subjects. This included the need for preachers to let their sermon grip them personally and to pray for the work of the Holy Spirit, which must empower preaching. We also spoke about aspects of the gospel which are under attack and must be vigorously defended.

Liam also spoke about the need to remember to emphasize important aspects like the resurrection, which might not be under attack in the same way. We spoke about my book, and at one point he ribbed me mercilessly, but then was very kind about his own reaction to reading it.

Liam Goligher is the senior pastor of Duke Street Church, Richmond London, which is growing rapidly and currently has around 600 people who attend on a Sunday. Liam is on the committee which organizes New Word Alive, as well as being a regular conference speaker at other events. His preaching is available to listen to free online or to purchase on CD. He is currently preaching on Isaiah in the mornings and Revelation in the evenings.

There are two miracles. One is God using Jonah. The second is God working in the city. Jonah has already seen God at work in saving himself, and the sailors have also been saved. Tomorrow we will see him at work in Jonah himself.

There is a “giant test motive” everything in this book is on a grand scale. Huge task. The fear was great. The storm was overwelming and the city was humungous. The repentance was total. Its beyond our comprehension. It communicates that our sin is big, God’s mercy is big and the mission is huge! We will look at the surprising mercy of God that he should choose Jonah, use Jonah, and save Ninevah.

God choose Jonah
Word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. It’s a remarkable reminder of the surprising grace of God that takes the initiative in reaching out to broken people. We live in a dysfunctional world, and we are all dysfunctional in some way. Sin means we are all right at one level, but other layers that you are only beginning to quarry. God gives a second chance. Not too many chances in the secular world. A whole career can end on one mistake. This is not the way God deals with us. Instead the steadfast love of the lord never comes to an end. When we are faithless, he is faithful. Even if you have stumbled and fallen in a major way and you cannot enjoy the presence of God, the word of God is coming to you a second, third, forth, ninety ninth time. God wants to come to you again with a refreshing embrace of God. We are to live for him and enjoy him forever. He stoops to those who have rejected him. Undeserved acceptance given to an unworthy person. Jesus tells us “I died that you may live” There is a second look from the savior to rebels. It is surprising that God would choose someone like Jonah and someone like you and me. God had not spoken to Jonah since that first time.

God chose to use Jonah
He still has a task for him to do. The message is the same as the first time, “arise, go!” There is a history of God using people who don’t follow God perfectly – Abraham who lies, Moses who kills, David who commits adultery and murder, Peter who denies the Lord repeatedly with curses.

He discovered three principles – rebellion led to chastisement, to brokeness, but then rehabilitation into God’s service. The Word reveals our rebellion against God. God does not show us all of our sin all at once. God never gives up on us.

God saved Ninevah
It was great to God. Its significance and importance was more than its political, social and cultural significance. God cared about it. Its an evil city, and its surely the last place you would expect to see an outbreak of God’s grace. There is no apparent consolation or comfort in Jonah’s message. He may have said more than this. Jonah may have just been going through the routine. It may have been that he spoke about his own experience. The people of Ninevah are described as receiving the sign of Jonah. Where would they have heard that Jonah had experienced what he did except from Jonah? Through the proclamation of Jonah the light goes on in their head. The people of Ninevah believed God.

How did this miracle happen? It is the Word of God that is driving this story. God does things through words. God spoke to the fish and Jonah was vomitted to the land. God’s word accomplishes power. It brings forth. We must set forth the Word of God and proclaim it but that Word is full of his power. It is Spirit and life. When in Acts we hear of the church growing, it is said that the Word spread. Life is found in God, located in Christ and mediated by his Word. It is powerful in its effects.

Faith comes by hearing. God uses the breath of a human being as they speak his Word to create life in the hearts of men and women. God has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. God has power to accomplish his will. It was always God’s plan to bring revival to Ninevah, and he uses Jonah as the vehicle to do this. Calvin speaks about “verbum externum” the word of God comes from outside of us, has to be given to us. But also the word has a power in it.

God uses the speaking of his Word to accomplish great things. They heard Jonah, but they believed God. They received his words as the Word of God. There was a surprising work of God. Even the King removed his robe. There was a genuine sorrow. They seek the pardoning grace of God. Who knows, they say, maybe God might be merciful to us. God relented of the disaster that he was going to do. God pardoned them freely. He did not do what he said what he would do. Does this make God arbitrary and indecisive? How can he relent and still expect us to think he is unchanging? This whole question has led to the idea of the “openness of God” they argue that God does not know the future, is acting without a script, that he has no purpose, that he changes his mind in response to surprising events. They argue that his is waiting for us to act. But the Bible teaches us that he is unchanging in his being. He is changeless in his essential nature.

God is dependable, and can be relied on. There is a mystery though, as he does change in response to God’s people. In 1st Samuel 15:11 God says “I regret…” in verse 29 he says “I will not lie or have regret” These two things are put together. There is always an emotional aspect to the word – sorrow or regret. We can only know God as he reveals himself to us. He uses language that we understand. When God pronounced his judgment it was a wicked city. When God refused to judge Ninevah it was a changed city. They had changed. For God to be consistent to his own character, he had to keep his word. Jeremiah tells us that if people repent, God will refrain from judgment. If God was always planning to judge Nineveh, then why did he bother to call Jonah? It was all so unnecessary. God only sent Jonah because he intended to use him as a vehicle through which people would hear, respond and believe. This is not God changing in the way the Open Theists say, it is God being true to his character. We have changed. We are no alive to God, and our relationship with him has changed. God calls us to repentance and the judgement will not come if we will hear his voice and repent.

The message to the Christian is to get the word out. Get on with the work of sharing the gospel. The fallen Christian can hear the word of God a second time. Take the mercy of God you are offered. God is sincere and offers to an unbelieving world that his wrath is coming, but he says “turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God there is none other”

At the beginning of his talk Liam confessed to his love of 24, which I share. At risk of making him as pleased as punch, I can report that people twittering from the event reckon he actually looks a bit like Jack Bauer! As soon as Jonah hit the water, the storm ended, and the sailors were safe. His God must be powerful, so they worshipped him. We see God’s salvation in operation in action in Jonah’s life.

Salvation of Jonah
Introduction of the big fish, and mentioned in the conclusion. In between there is a theological reflection: salvation belongs to the Lord. Jonah had no hand in it. Salvation is always a sovereign act of God. It is God who appointed the fish. God is in control of the whole of creation, see for example Psalm 147 where it is the stars God appoints. God is over all in creation and in redemption. Nothing that happens is outside of the control of God. Whatever comes to pass is in his hands. We could spend a lot of time looking at the arguments how people could be swallowed by a fish. For example people have been swallowed by a sperm whale. Word fish is a general word for any aquatic beast. Jesus uses a word of an indefinite but huge sea creature. Jonah did not know that there was going to be any rescue. He has no guarantee. He is disobedience to God. The storm demonstrates God is chasing him. He surrenders to the judgment he so richly deserves. But God is not finished with him. We should have no problem believing this if we believe in the God of the Bible. God wanted to underline that salvation is all of God.

Song of Jonah
The water is the fear of death. The fish is the place of refuge. The prayer is the plea for help. By verse 9 he is still not safe. He is thanking God even though the odds might seem that he would live in the belly of the fish for the rest of his life. He knows that God still loves him. He bursts into a new song. The Bible has lots of new songs. The new songs always describe the salvation of God.

There is genuine thanksgiving. Something is happening in the heart of the prophet. He describes the act of drowning. Suddenly he is able to breathe. In his desperation and distress he realizes the fish has been provided by God. He knows he didn’t deserve to be answered by God. His freedom has gone. God is in the driving seat. He could contribute nothing to his saving. Has God hemmed you in and stopped you in your tracks. Has something happened to you that has made you cry out “where is God in this?” Having heard the voice of God we can respond in different ways. The central feature of the Christian life is that the heart of our Christian lives is a relationship rather than merely an experience. God reveals himself to us in Christ and by his word. We hear God speaking to us by the word, and respond to him in prayer, shaped by the Word. Bible prayers are shaped by the language of the Bible. We should pray the Bible, sing the Bible because it is God’s voice. He takes the initiative. God was demolishing all his props and comforts.

God is the one who takes the initiative. There is something else in this prayer. There is an undercurrent of self-righteousness. There is quite a lot of “I” there. Then says those who cling to idols, forsake the hope of steadfast love. Jonah dislikes pagan sailors and Ninevites. Verse 8 There is no “we” there. There is no recognition of his need full repentance. It is a theologically correct statement, but is not applying it to himself. He didn’t pray for the salvation of the sailors, or the Ninevites. If I fear lonliness, I worship relationships. If I fear not fitting in, I worship others approval. If you want to know what is your idol, ask what it is that if it was taken away it would be the end of life for you. In chapter 4 he wants to die because something was taken away. Its to do with his attitude to people outside the covenant of God. He is eager to underline the difference between a pagan and a believer. He doesn’t realise the sailors have already repented. We are curved in on ourselves. We cannot see beyond ourselves. God is dealing with him.

Sign of Jonah
We must look at the New Testament input into our understanding of this book. Jesus uses this as an analogy of his own death and resurrection. In God’s name the gentiles will hope is the background to Jesus saying that the sign of Jonah was coming. The symbolic death of Jonah points to the real death of Jesus. The virtual resurrection of Jonah points to the real resurrection of Jesus. We need to move from a knowledge of the truth to a knowledge of the power of the truth. What I need is God to do something that is a God thing. I need God to be active in my life, and he is because he is the King. The King is coming. He is not safe. But salvation is from him.

We decided to go to the second Bible reading this morning so we could catch at least some of the Formula One. As it started at 11-30am we were probably the only people in the world glad that the race got suspended when it did! (Though we only got to hear that the race was definitely stopped an Button had won by text which arrived on my phone while the notices were begin given!)

There was an eager sense of anticipation in the room to listen to God’s word through Liam, who is a good friend of the Evangelical church in the UK. Liam began by saying that last night he dreamt he was preaching this sermon with the passion of John Piper, the depth of Don Carson, the crispness of Dick Lucas and the coolness of Mark Driscoll. If you had been there you would have had the experience of a lifetime. Unfortunately, he said, you will have to cope with me as I am when not dreaming.

This is a very familiar story. Some people say its an allegory or parable. But parables are usually basic. The story itself has historical and geographical elements. Whoever wrote it seemed to want us to believe that this was a real event. It assumes historical correctness. Jesus likens himself to Jonah and spoke of the people of Ninevah as real people who really repented. Jesus took it seriously, so if we want to follow him so should we.

Salvation is of the Lord. God’s sovereingty is stressed here. God appointed the wind, the ship, the whale. There is a commission, and a recommission, and the sailors are saved, and the ninevites are saved. There are two prayers of Jonah – one greatful for his own salvation, one bitter when the foreigners were saved. Its beautifully structured, full of humour irony, etc. Jonah is a ridiculous figure. He is like a skulky, pouting, spotty teenager.

Its not about a big fish, as much as it is about a big God. Kindness of God to the biggest meanest city of the time. God has more trouble with his own people than with the others.

1. Jonah is running from God
God’s people were still rebelling. In 2 Kings 14, God saved Israel through Jonah. He understands the word of God and his message has been one of salvation. He came from Galilee, like Jesus and was the only prophet Jesus likened himself to. A prophet is a vehicle of God’s word to God’s people. Amos 3:7 says that God does nothing without revealing his secret to the prophets. The Christian life begins by listening to God. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God. There is an urgency in the words “arise, Go!” This commission is more like the Great Commission than anything else in the Old Testament.

“Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” Ezekial 19:30-32

In the above verse we see a classic example of God commanding us to do something we simply cannot. When I read this recently everything inside me yelled out “but I CANT do that God!” How can I create ANYTHING, let alone a new heart and spirit within me? And then it struck me. God urges us to do the impossible so that we will turn to him in desperation and plead with him to do for us what he has commanded. So, we see for example David praying,

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

We are now drawing to a close of our weekend together, although there will still be swimming, and other activities this afternoon. I was pleased yesterday to get a fastest lap time on the gokarts of 21.150. If any of my readers were here and got a faster time, do feel free to let me know!

Terry came to speak to us again on Jonah 2 and 3. Perhaps the key verse in this passage is God’s word coming again to Jonah. God is glorious and holy but gives people a second chance repeatedly in the Bible. For example Abraham took over and tried to do what God was meant to do. He made something happen. Moses spent 40 years in the desert.

The Jonah Prayed – Wouldn’t you? In the deep in the belly of a great fish where else has he got to turn? He should have started by praying, but at least he finished by doing so. The prodigal son turns when the unpredictable struck. God sends crises to teach us to get to know him. Life can be very hard. Real prayer isn’t just worrying out loud. Those who cling to idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs (NIV) We often allow certain values to become more important than our God -eg worrying about schools.

What did Jonah Pray? He cried for help. John Wimber used to encourage us to pray “God, Help!” He knew that God had brought him to this place. He couldn’t run away from God really. Don’t resist the tug of God, you can’t guarantee that God wont banish you. Romans 1 says “God gave them up”. Hell is when God gives up on you.
He turns back to the temple, recognizing that he is in covenant with God. He said he would pay his vow. Psalm 66 says “I will pay you my vows…” We must say “I will do it Lord!” Don’t think you are disqualified.

What did God do? Jonah is at his lowest point, and then God acts. God can command anything – even a fish! God commanded the walls of jericho, the red sea, the river jordan, the lions, the flames. Jesus is in the mission with us. He is not back there wondering how we will get on. He says to Paul “I have lots of people here”.

God doesn’t send him back onto the water, but onto dry ground. He hits the ground walking. God can get you right out of your trouble. God can control our circumstances. We MUST be strong in prayer.

God forgives him absolutely and he is completely reinstated. He took things up back where he left off. We have to learn how to re-gather and pick up the broken. There are not many who never trip. We need to get people back on their feet again. Jonah then obeyed “according to the word of the Lord.” In our marriages, in our workplaces, everything must be done according to Biblical principles. Eg we still do marriage! But we do it God’s way. The son has always submitted to the Father, so our marriages reflect that. He will always be submitted to the father. That is his happy lifestyle. He is totally equal to the Father, but loves to do his will.

God was then mightily with Jonah and a revival struck. But, God’s blessing on him still did not make him the perfect man. He messed up in the last chapter. God didn’t say “stay in the fish till you are thoroughly sanctified”.

Terry began by giving a report about his trip to Australia and New Zealand which really helped to put his talk into the context of a movement that spans the globe and is on a mission together. It was so exciting to realize how small we are here in this conference even though we are here with 3600 people on a site that is fully booked. This conference is a local one just for a part of the UK. Across the UK and across the world other similar conferences are happening and groups of churches are gathering to form this grace-filled movement. Events like this remind me of how glad I am to be a part of Newfrontiers. Terry then turned to Jonah 1 and read the whole chapter.

2 Kings 14:23-28 tells us Jonah was a popular prophet in a successful state when God interrupts him with a call to go to Ninevah. The whole story turns on the phrase “but Jonah”. God had already told Abraham that through them he would bless the ends of the earth. Jonah had slipped away from that, and wasn’t interested in other nations. Jonah has only 8 words of prophecy, and the rest of the book is all about him. Its the book of Jonah, not the taking of Ninevah. 120,000 saved is the biggest revival in the Bible, yet God calls it the book of Jonah. He is interested in us as individuals when big challenges come on the scene. God didn’t move to plan b when Jonah backslid and ran away. God is always interested in winning back his children.

Jonah failed to submit to God.  He was not too impressed with what God had to say. When God speaks, you are supposed to arise and go (as Abraham and Elijah for example responded to God), not run in the opposite direction. God wants obedience, not just in the big calls, but also in the thousands of words you find in the Bible. God says lots of things very plainly, and we need to very plainly obey. God doesn’t give up on people. He wants to include you. He doesn’t just want to take Nineveh he wants you to have a story. He loves people and wants them to come through to a place of trust and obedience.

Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord In his disobedience, he trusted his own reasoning. A prophet needs presence. Hebrew word for presence is “face”. Jesus said “he is always with me, I always do what pleases him” He refuses to leave the presence of the father. Jesus came from the glory of the father and modeled sonship. We should always make it our aim to please him. Not living as legalists, but living as sons. Our Father is always with us. Beholding the beauty of the Lord sustains us. Beware the danger of living by rules. The prodigal son had run away, but his brother who was compliant and home-staying son but although he had never left had never really been in the fathers presence. He didn’t appreciate what it meant to be a son of his loving father.

Jonah found a ship We can sometimes think ” it just all fell into place”. People sometimes say “we were just thrown together” we were led by circumstance. That can be an excuse for sinful relationships.  We are not led that way. We mustn’t throw away everything because of what is in front of us.

Jonah fell asleep He got into the ship that was going nowhere and lost all his sense of direction. Sometimes sleep is totally appropriate. But there is a sleep of lethargy and aimlessness. We can be extremely busy but very lazy at the same time. You can be on a shop that’s going nowhere. The sluggard rarely says no. He just makes little decisions that robs him of obedience. A sluggard is hinged to his bed. Christians get spiritually depressed because they don’t get control. We must press through. While Jonah was asleep he failed the world. Things don’t stay the same. You cant afford to be asleep because you don’t know when a storm is coming. Suddenly the world is in a storm, its time for the church to be awake. We need to show the world God has the answers. The church is the answer to the world. We are the salt of the earth.

Jonah Found Himself  As the storm breaks, and people are worried, Jonah says “its all about me”. He uses the technical language “I fear the Lord” but the reason he was there was because he didn’t! But suddenly he was beginning to again. He realized he had missed the boat. He suddenly woke up to the fact that he could have been a blessing. The rest became very afraid. That is revival. Revival happens that way. People who know God begin to express fear of God. People start to pray, and blessing can go right around the world. When the world sees that the church really fears God they begin to take God seriously. Jonah says just throw me away to save you. For the first time he begins to care about other people. Hes not yet a whole man. But he is saying I want to get back into line with God and I don’t want you suffering because of my disobedience. Jesus looked on our plight and said I unreservedly give myself for you. Jonah 2 could be Jesus’ prayer. Jesus has paid a price so that even when we have messed up we can be reinstated. We must take seriously what God has told us to do. We must give up our right to take our own decisions. God wants an obedience that is rooted in faith.

It has become something of a habit for me to watch a Piper sermon as part of the preparation of my heart to preach. I don’t mean the preparation of my sermon material; rather I mean the preparation of my heart. Getting my heart into the right place to preach is a bigger challenge for me than writing a good set of notes. Piper stirs my heart in ways no one else I listen to does—in order that I should be grateful to God and sensitive to other people. He cares for his listeners and is passionate about his God.

The talk I want to highlight today certainly is a clear example of all those things, and it is also the single most important topic we can ever speak about. There is nothing more important than helping us to understand the new birth correctly. We need to know for certain that we are saved. In this talk Piper explains seven reasons why we need to be born again, which I will share here:

1. Apart from the new birth, we are dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1-2)

2. Apart from the new birth, we are by nature children of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3; Psalm 51:5)
3. Apart from the new birth, we love darkness and hate the light. (John 3:19-20)
4. Apart from the new birth, our hearts are hard like stone. (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 4:18; Romans 1:18)
5. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to submit to God or please God. (Romans 8:7-8; John 3:5)
6. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to accept the gospel. (Ephesians 4:18; 1 Corinthians 2:14)
7. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to come to Christ or embrace him as Lord. (John 6:44, 65; 1 Corinthians 12:3)

— John Piper

I want to introduce you to a very unusual book by Mark Driscoll and his writing buddy and professor, Gerry Breshears. I would go so far as to say that this is a unique book in that I have never seen anything quite like it.

If their first book together, Vintage Jesus, was a light cheerful book that offended some by its use of humor and at times edgy topics for illustrations, this new book by these two men is more of a grungy, almost dark book. The video over at the ReLit site leaves you in no doubt that this is a book that will wrestle with darkness, pain, and even demonization.

Certainly this book represents just a tiny sample of the ocean of pain that a pastor of a large church has to handle over the years. Some neoliberals argue that people who believe in penal substitutionary atonement do not engage with the real suffering found in the world. This book demonstrates emphatically that in Driscoll’s case this is simply not true. Such critics also argue that the evangelical’s gospel can become overly narrow, eventually focusing solely on the “felt need” of the feelings of guilt many still experience. Guilt, however, is far from the only reason people come to Christ. The New Testament is full of helpful ways we can understand what Jesus did on the cross.

Without in any way softening his commitment to the centrality of Jesus taking the punishment of sin in our understanding of the cross, Driscoll is far broader in his understanding of and application of the cross to hurting people’s lives today. From convicted child molesters, to cheating husbands and raped women, Driscoll shares pen outlines of the destruction manifest in the lives of specific people to whom he has ministered. He then shows in a letter written to each individual how a specific aspect of what Jesus has done on the cross can bring wholeness and salvation to them.

This is a vital book that should be read by every Christian who is serious about reaching out with the gospel into this dark and damaged world. I will share a video of Mark speaking about the book, followed by an excerpt from one of those letters that particularly struck me. You will have to buy the book to see exactly how Driscoll and Breshears apply the gospel to Bill and his violent, abusive father.

“As a little boy you rightly felt angry at your dad, and that anger rightly compelled you to confront his injustice and protect the rest of the family. Therefore, anger can be a righteous virtue, which explains why God gets angry at sin too. The Bible is full of examples of God getting angry at sinners. A few examples will illustrate my point clearly, but a reading of Leviticus 26:27-30, Numbers 11:1, and Deuteronomy 29:24 for starters, speak of God’s anger as being hostile, burning, and furious.

Flaccid church guys will often accept that in the Old Testament God did get angry, but they will say that Jesus was a nice, emotionless, flaccid church guy, just like them, who chose a hollow, fake smile over anger every day. But even Jesus got angry, furious, and enraged . . . [Here Driscoll cites Mark 3:5 and Revelation 19, but one could also add Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-17.]

In speaking of God’s anger, I want to be careful not to give permission for us to lose our temper and rage, because that is a sin—the very sin your father committed repeatedly. However, because God is perfect, his anger is perfect and, as such, is aroused slowly (Exodus 34:6-8), sometimes turned away (Deuteronomy 13:17), often delayed (Isaiah 48:9), and frequently held back (Psalm 78:38).

Furthermore, God feels angry because God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-19, Zechariah 8:17). Sadly, it is commonly said among Christians that “God hates the sin but loves the sinner.” This is as stupid as saying that God loves rapists and hates rape, as if rape and rapists were two entirely different entities that could be separated from one another. Furthermore, it was not a divinely inspired author of Scripture but the Hindu, Gandhi, who coined the phrase, “Love the sinner but hate the sin” . . .

Regarding God’s anger and hatred, it is commonly protested that God cannot hate anyone because he is love. But the Bible speaks of God’s anger, wrath, and fury more than of his love, grace, and mercy. Furthermore, it is precisely because God is love that he must hate evil and all who do evil—evil is an assault on whom and what he loves.

Therefore, Bill, your anger toward and hatred of your father are justifiable and are the healthy response to seeing your dad beat the mother and siblings you love. However, in a mysterious conflict of deep emotions, you continued to love your father just as God continues to love unrepentant sinners whom he simultaneously hates . . .

I know this will be difficult for you to comprehend, Bill, but Jesus has fully experienced what you have, and much more. Jesus was mocked and beaten, though he was without sin. He willingly substituted himself for those he loved and wanted to save . . . ”

From Death By Love by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, copyright 2008, pages 127-129. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

The ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) launch date of October 15th is approaching fast. The Study Bible team has been busy sharing samples and features online to entice us. Their goal is to help people know what’s inside the Study Bible and how it might best serve them.

From an e-mail sent out by the Study Bible team, here is a summary of what is available at this time:

Free Book Introductions and Sample Chapters Online
In addition to the previous posts from Jonah, the Psalms, and Revelation, the introductions have now been uploaded,including sample chapters, for the following books:

• Ezekiel
• Isaiah
• Ephesians
• Colossians

Free Articles Online
A number of the fifty articles that will be in the ESVSB have now been uploaded:

• Overview of the Bible: A Survey of the History of Salvation, by Vern Poythress
• Reading the Bible
  • Reading the Bible Theologically, by J. I. Packer
  • Reading the Bible as Literature, by Leland Ryken
  • Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God, by John Piper
  • Reading the Bible for Personal Application, by David Powlison
  • Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public Worship, by R. Kent Hughes
• The Bible and World Religions
  • Contemporary Judaism, by Marvin Wilson
  • Islam, by Timothy Tennent

City Plan of Rome
The Introduction to the Book of Romans contains a city plan of ancient Rome, which has been posted online, along with an excerpt of some of the information on Rome found in that introduction. Other city plans that you’ll find in the ESVSB include the cities of Ur, Nineveh (see page 9 of the Jonah PDF), Babylon, Jericho, Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi.

Interviews With Contributors

• Andy Naselli interviewed David Reimer about the book of Ezekiel (blog interview)

• Michael Spencer interviewed David Powlison about the application of Scripture (blog interview)
• Colin Adams interviewed Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. about the book of Isaiah (blog interview)
• Andy Naselli interviewed Clinton Arnold about the book of Colossians (blog interview)
• Andy Naselli interviewed S. M. Baugh about the book of Ephesians (blog interview)
• Beginning with Moses interviewed Vern Poythress about biblical theology and seeing Christ in the Old Testament (blog interview)
• Owen Strachan interviewed Harold Netland about pluralism and world religions (audio, mp3, approximately 45 minutes)

New Videos
A video page has been launched for the ESVSB.

Some of you have probably already seen the five-minute YouTube preview, but that was just part of a thirteen-minute video that goes into more depth. Each of the nine chapters from the video is available individually. Some of you might be especially interested in this one-minute overview of the Online Study Bible, which hasn’t been discussed much yet.

All the videos are available to download as high-quality mp4s.

The following video is an interview with Wayne Grudem, J. I. Packer, and Lane Dennis of Crossway, and is hosted by Justin Taylor:

Facebook
If you want to interact with others about the ESVSB, you can now join a Facebook group.

If you live in North America you can pre-order from the ESV Study Bible website or from Amazon.com using the following links, which seem to be offering significant discounts:

If you live in Europe, then visit Amazon.co.uk using the following links:

Even my regular readers may not remember that some time ago I decided I wanted to work my way through John Piper’s sermons on the new birth. I know it has been awhile since I mentioned this, but I don’t want to rush this process, and let’s just say I’vebeen busy with other things. So far I have shared my quotes and thoughts from the first and second sermons.

Watching this third video, it was very refreshing to see Piper emphasize that the new birth really does change us. It was a very helpful reminder of the need for God to, as he puts it, give us new life by connecting us to Jesus.

My guilt must be washed away. Cleansing with water is a picture of that. Jeremiah 33:8 puts it like this: “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.” So the person that we are—that continues to exist—must be forgiven, and the guilt washed away.

But forgiveness and cleansing is not enough. I need to be new. I need to be transformed. I need life. I need a new way of seeing and thinking and valuing. That’s why Ezekiel speaks of a new heart and a new spirit in verse 26 and 27: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Here’s the way I understand those verses: To be sure, the heart of stone means the dead heart that was unfeeling and unresponsive to spiritual reality—the heart you had before the new birth could feel. It could respond with passion and desire to lots of things. But it was a stone toward the spiritual truth and beauty of Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the path of holiness. That is what has to change if we are to see the kingdom of God. So in the new birth, God takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. The word flesh doesn’t mean “merely human” like it does in John 3:6. It means soft and living and responsive and feeling, instead of being a lifeless stone. In the new birth, our dead, stony boredom with Christ is replaced by a heart that feels (spiritually senses) the worth of Jesus.

Then when Ezekiel says in verses 26 and 27, “a new spirit I will put within you. . . . And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,” I think he means that in the new birth, God puts a living, supernatural, spiritual life in our heart, and that new life—that new spirit—is the working of the Holy Spirit himself giving shape and character to our new heart.

The picture I have in my mind is that this new warm, touchable, responsive, living heart is like a soft lump of clay, and the Holy Spirit presses himself up into it and gives spiritual, moral shape to it according to his own shape. By being himself within us, our heart and mind take on his character—his spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:23).

So now let’s step back and sum up these last two weeks. What happens in the new birth? In the new birth, the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith. Or, to say it another way, the Spirit unites us to Christ where there is cleansing for our sins, and he replaces our hard, unresponsive heart with a soft heart that treasures Jesus above all things and is being transformed by the presence of the Spirit into the kind of heart that loves to do the will of God (Ezekiel 36:27).

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

On the 24th of August, I preached a sermon at Jubilee during our summer series on some famous psalms. I took Psalm 121, which served as a starting point for me to share some of the most important planks of my personal doctrinal framework—a framework that has sustained me through hard times.

As blogging around here at least begins to return to normal—if there is such a thing at adrianwarnock.com—I thought I’d share both the audio to download and a condensed version of the message below. You can also listen right here:

Christians should be characterized by hope, and as a result, should live in such a way that brings up questions in other’s minds. “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect . . .” (1 Peter 3:15).

The question is, how do we obtain such a hope and how do we live in the good of it?

Hope requires a biblical outlook — You will not find real hope anywhere else, other than in the Bible, where we find help to live, help to rescue us, help to have hope.

Hope requires a lifted head — we must first be lowered, and God graciously sends trouble our way to teach us we cannot help ourselves.

Despair of self. Self-help is no help at all. Our solution is not found on earth. It’s found in heaven. Many people expect that their problem is based around what they’re experiencing. And they say something like this, “If only I could find a husband or a wife, then I’d be okay.” Or, “If only I had a different husband or wife, then I’d be okay.” Or, “If only God changed him, then I’d be okay.” Or, “Perhaps I need a new job, then I’d be okay.” “I need to be healed, then I’d be okay.” All of those things are secondary—our help comes from heaven. Our help comes from God. For you to have hope, you have to lift your head. You have to look up. And there’s something about the body language involved in doing that—looking up and praying with your head raised to God, saying, “Help me!”

Many people think Christianity is “Do this! Do that!” Rules. “If I just try harder, I can please God.” None of that counts for anything. There is nothing you can do to make God happy with you in your own strength—nothing! You really are helpless. You really are hopeless. You’re weak, I’m weak. We’re all the same. Don’t we say it sometimes? “I just couldn’t help myself.” Have you ever said that? “I’m so sorry for what I just did to you to hurt you, to upset you. I just couldn’t help myself,” you say. There’s never a truer word said than that. 

“The preacher’s work is to throw sinners down in utter helplessness that they may be compelled to look up to Him who alone can help them” (Spurgeon).

Hope requires a God who is in control — a God who really is in control and a God who can therefore help us. It’s very important that we understand that. Help comes from God, not from other people. Others can help you a bit, but the way in which they’ll help you is simply this: by pointing you to God and by strengthening you in God.

For example, in 1 Samuel 23:16 — “Jonathan strengthened David’s hand in God.”

Any leader will let you down because he is not God. He can’t be there all the time. You’ll try and ring him one day and his phone will be switched off or engaged. You’ll find that God’s phone is never switched off.

But it must be the right sort of God who we can believe in. Some people just say, “Well, I believe in God. Isn’t that enough?” No, we need to understand some things about God. It’s no good, for example, if God is as clueless as the rest of us, is it really? And some people believe in a God like that. But it’s not true. God is the God of all comfort. “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others who are suffering afflictions with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God.” ( 1 Corinthians 1)

This is God’s description of himself in Isaiah 46: “I am God.” And YOU are not, by the way. He is, but you’re not. And neither am I. “I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning.” In other words, he knows the end of time from the very beginning of time. He knows everything that will ever happen. “And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying this, “My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purposes. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it.”

That’s the God we worship. There are some people who say that God is surprised by things. They say, well, you know, there are some things that are unknowable and that until something happens, even God doesn’t know what will happen. I’m sorry. That’s not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible knows the end from the beginning. He’s not surprised by anything. And it’s so important because when you’re counseling somebody, you have to bring them to that God, not to some kind of weak God who is surprised. I once heard of a situation—this is a true story apparently, and I think I read it in a book somewhere. (If anyone remembers the reference for this, I would appreciate knowing that.) A lovely young lady married a guy who was also a Christian (they were both Christians). Everything looked fine. And then after a while this guy basically did the dirty on her and went off with somebody else and the relationship broke up and they got divorced. And this woman’s pastor (shame on him) said this: “Well, when God guided you to that marriage, he had no more idea than you did what would happen. He was as surprised and as shocked and as hurt and as disappointed as you by what happened.” Now that might seem cute, but it doesn’t give me any hope. Does it give you hope? If God was like that, I think I’d rather not be a Christian. No, God is not like that. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what will happen. He will accomplish all his purposes. There is no plan B with God.

God is NOT surprised by anything!

Hope requires a God who is loving — he’s the God who cares for you. If God was all-sovereign and all-powerful and all-knowing, but actually was a bit of an evil, capricious God who hated you, then well, the world would not be a very good place, would it?

But the Bible is very clear. It says that God is love (1 John 4:16).

Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in this; that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” So if Jesus died for us, if he would come from heaven to earth, live as a man, the great invincible God becoming a little baby and then living as a man, and then dying a cruel death in our place that we might know God, do you not think that this demonstrates that he loves us?

Paul makes this argument in Romans 8:32 when he says, “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If we’re coming to God and say, “Oh, well, God, you know. I’m not sure if you really love me or not,” we’re making God into a liar and we’re just despising the cross. Jesus loved us enough to die for us. That should be enough to give us hope. Hope that this sovereign God is for you, and that this God is in control and knows the future; that he will make sure things map out for your good.

Romans 8 continues: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (verse 28). So if you love God, God will work out everything for your good.

He keeps you. He will not let your foot be moved. It says “He keeps you” six times in this psalm. He’s your keeper. He’s your watchman. He watches over you. He doesn’t sleep.

Hope requires a God-centered gospel — some people say, “Well, you know, God is lucky to have me.” There is a sense in which God is knocking at the door. But people can say it sometimes as though Jesus is the needy one; as if he’s a bit lonely and he needs another worshipper or feels insecure or needs a relationship or needs his ego boosted a bit.  No, God isn’t like that. God is the eternal one who out of his self-sufficiency and his joy of being eternally one with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternally a community, lavishes love on us through grace. Through unmerited favor. Through his all-sufficiency.

There are five aspects of the gospel that I think give us a stable foundation. It says in this psalm that God keeps our foot from being moved. It also says in another psalm that God put our foot on a rock. People sometimes call these five points the five points of Calvinism. I would rather just say they’re the five points of a stable view of the gospel, which enables us to have hope. Sometimes people use these points under the acronym TULIP. So if you like acronyms, you can use TULIP to help you remember them.

But sometimes our Christianity is like another flower. I don’t know if, in other countries, people do this, but English children very often find a nice daisy in the lawn, pick it, and usually thinking about a boyfriend or girlfriend, they remove one petal at a time. “He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not. Oh no! He loves me not!”

Some of us approach God like that — if I’m doing well, God loves me. If I’ve just sinned, he doesn’t love me anymore. If I make a commitment to him and follow him, then he’ll love me. But if I backslide, then he won’t love me anymore and I won’t be a Christian anymore. I don’t believe that gives us a stable foundation for hope. So what are these five points? I’ll go through them quite quickly.

T — Total Depravity of Man
Now most people actually have very little problem believing this. I think there are very few Christians who don’t believe this. There are a few who say, “Oh no, people are basically good.” But I don’t think any of them are parents. I’ve got a 16 month old child. We don’t have to train him to hit his brother and sister; to steal from his brother and sister; to scream if we give his brother and sister something and don’t give it to him. And he has already learned how to bite. He’s 16 months! But people say that human beings are born good. They’re not born good. They’re born with a sinful nature. We are born with a bias towards sin, as the Puritans used to say. So basically, if you don’t believe in the total depravity of man, if you don’t believe that we have a sinful nature, then I would suggest that you borrow a two year old for an hour. That’s all you need.

But let’s look at the Scriptures. The Scripture is what we stand on. The Scripture is very clear about this in Ephesians 2: “And you were dead in trespasses and sins . . .” Dead people can’t help themselves. If we’re dead without Christ, we need him to make us alive.

U — Unconditional Election
In other words, God chooses us; we don’t choose him. Ephesians 1:4—he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. John 15:16—You did not choose me (says Jesus) but I chose you. Terry Virgo likes to say he imagines somebody in the congregation saying, “Hang on. But haven’t I got a free will?” And Terry says this, “Yeah, but God’s is freer.” The truth is this: actually we do have a free will, but we all freely choose to reject God. It’s only as God intervenes and woos us and changes our hearts and sends out his grace on us that we actually can be saved.

L — Limited Atonement
This is one that causes a bit of controversy and a lot of disagreement, but it’s mostly about a misunderstanding. I think all Christians will agree with two things about this. The first is this—that everything that Jesus did on the cross, the good of it, the full goodness of it, the eternal value of it, only gets applied to those who are Christians. Obviously, in order to benefit from Jesus’s death, you need to be a Christian, so in that sense it is a limited atonement. It is especially for the believer. It is especially for us. Jesus said this, “He laid down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). There’s a sense in which the death of Jesus was specific to certain individuals.

The second thing that we all can agree on is this: that actually Jesus’ death does have some benefit to everybody, and that the offer of the gospel is available to everybody as well. And it’s an honest gospel that says that if you are willing to repent of your sins and follow God, then you will be saved. So I think we need to be very careful in what we say about this. 1 Timothy 4:10 to me, sums this up, “We have set our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.” So the very fact that the world is sustained at all and that Jesus didn’t just wipe it out the second that somebody first sinned is because of Jesus’s death. So everybody lives in the good of the cross all the time actually, and the offer of the gospel is a genuine offer to everybody, but the full benefits of the cross are only ever applied to those who are truly saved. I think sometimes this one is expressed in a way in which I would not agree.

I — Irresistible Grace
Jesus said “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). When God sets his mind on you, when God sets his grace on you, your resistance is futile. You can run, but you can’t hide. And there may be some of you reading this who have been running. You’ve been fighting. And God is saying, “Stop fighting. I’m here. Now is the time to surrender.”

P — Perseverance of the Saints
I prefer to state it in this way: the persistence of God. “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:39-50).

Now, we all know people who appeared to be Christians and drifted away. The thing is this—it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). I believe the balance of Scripture is very clear on this, that there are actually three possible verdicts on that day.

The first verdict is this—You’re not a Christian; you never were a Christian, and that means an eternity without God. It means hell. We do believe in hell. That’s one verdict. The second verdict is what I call a “well done” Christian. What I mean is this. When God looks at you and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve followed me. You’ve served me. I’m pleased with what you’ve done.” And that’s what I pray for each of us. The third possible verdict is one that I call the “skin of the teeth” Christian. 1 Corinthians 3 talks about it like this: “As one saved through fire.” All your good works get burned up, but somehow, because of God’s grace, you somehow scrape in.

Now I would say that the difference between the slightly “scraping in” Christian and the person who is not a Christian at all is not one that we can sometimes easily discern. And that’s why we need to make sure really, brothers and sisters, that we are following after God. Because we don’t want to be those who miss it.

So, for those who have appeared to backslide, it may be that they were never Christians. It may be that actually they will be among that “skin of the teeth” brigade, or it may be actually—and this is what we should pray—that God will bring them back because God is in the business of restoring people. God is in the business of bringing people back, people we thought would never ever do it. And God says, “No. I will do it. I will do it. I will bring them back. I will complete the work I started.” And that’s the way to pray. Say, “God, you promised that you would complete the work that you started. I remember what you did in that person . . .”

Hebrews 3:14 actually says something interesting about this idea of perseverance. Because it really isn’t just the idea of “once saved, always saved” in a very simplistic way. You think if you go forward at a crusade that’s it. No! What it’s saying is that we’re expecting God to preserve our faith and keep us until the end. It says this in Hebrews 3:14—For we have come to share in Christ (and that’s the past tense—it has happened to us in the past) if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” So we should expect that God will sustain us to the end, and at the end of our lives, to be able to look back on a lifetime of trusting God.

I don’t want any of us to drift away. Please don’t play fast and loose with God because he’s not mocked. It is appointed once for man to die and afterwards to face judgment.

Hope requires eternal security, but it is not passive — we don’t just say, “Oh well. I’m okay now. Let me sit back and put my feet up and coast to heaven.” 2 Peter 1:3—His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him, who called us by his own glory and goodness. Therefore my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. But if you do these things, you will never fall. And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Why not aim for a rich welcome?

Hope also requires a resurrection — Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:19 where he says, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ we are of all people most to be pitied.” Because actually, eventually it will seem as if God has let us down because we’ll die and evil will, in fact, touch us. Well, the truth is this, eternally these words are always true— God will keep our lives. God will keep evil from ultimately harming us. There is a glorious day coming. Jesus promised, “In this world you will have trouble.” I don’t see very many people naming and claiming that promise! And Jesus does keep his promises. But he also said this: “Take heart. I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

So we need to know this—death is coming. We can’t stop it. We can fight it and we can try to delay it, but we must remember that the timing is ultimately in God’s hands. But it’s also okay to walk in faith and obedience, trying to follow God faithfully, because actually, even under the New Testament, God does sometimes terminate somebody’s life early. Look at Ananias and Sapphira. We can pray for healing, and rightly so when someone gets sick. We can eat in a healthy manner. We can try to keep that weight down. We can stop smoking. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your life. Three holes, one bullet—a “one in three” chance of dying early—not a good idea. We can exercise. We can see doctors. But the point is this. Our hope goes beyond the grave because death is coming, even if we do all those things.

One day we will see him face-to-face. And what does that say? It tells me that we will still have a face. It’s not that we’re going to be some sort of ethereal spirit floating in heaven. We will know each other. We will be able to recognize each other. We have a hope that goes beyond the grave, And we will meet our departed brothers and sisters again one day. We will see them. And together we will see God.

Notice this: it says that he will keep our life, and he will also keep our going out and coming in. To me, that’s a physical thing. You don’t go out and come in if you’re a spirit floating ethereally, not even knowing if you’re you. You will be you. Hope requires that there is a resurrection. Hope requires that there is eternal security, and that God will keep us, but it’s not passive in that knowledge. Hope requires that God sends his gospel. Hope requires a God who is loving. Hope requires a God who is in control. Hope requires a lifted head. Hope requires a biblical outlook.

Hope requires an alert God. It requires a God who is keeping us and a God who is not sleeping. God never sleeps so that you can sleep. He’s watching over you. When you’re in the desert and you’re worried about wild animals coming to eat you, one of you needs to stay awake. You don’t all need to stay awake. You just need one to stay awake. One that’s trustworthy. God would say this to you—”I am trustworthy. Cast your anxieties on me. Don’t you realize that I care for you, and that I don’t sleep so that you can sleep?”

God doesn’t sleep when somebody dies. He doesn’t sleep when somebody gets news that they may die. And he doesn’t sleep when somebody gets news that someone they love may die. He’s never asleep. He is aware of all those things and he can meet you in all those settings. He is your keeper. He will protect you through all those things.

God wasn’t sleeping when your name came up in the tally in heaven as to who’s going to get married and who’s not, and how we’re going to sort that out. You weren’t one he missed. He’s controlling your life. He is guiding your steps. And he will guide you, either to the perfect mate or to actually feeling content in the midst of your situation.

We think we can hide our sin from God. We’re fools. We think the darkness will hide it. Maybe we think that if we come out at night we can do certain things that no one else will see, and therefore sometimes God won’t see. But he never sleeps. He doesn’t slumber. He sees everything you’ve ever done, everything you’ve ever said, and everything you’ve ever thought.

He didn’t see all these things with a view to condemning you, saying you’re useless, and telling you deserve hell (although that’s true). He did it so that you might be forgiven. And he wants to highlight that to you right now. Your sin is worse than you think it is. But this is also true—God is better than you think he is, and he’s more gracious than you think he is. He chose David, an adulterer and a murderer, and said, “This is a man after my own heart.”

God can take the shame that you feel, the hurt you may feel, the dirtiness you feel. Jesus carried our shame on the cross that you might be full of hope, that you might be able to stand firm before God, aware of him, and fully in love with Jesus, fully secure in hope.

Yesterday at Jubilee we were privileged to have Mark Driscoll here with us. This is the first time he remembers preaching in another church in many years. You can dowload the sermon or listen to it right here:

Mark took us to Jeremiah 29. Cities are marked by two things—density and diversity. London seems to be the most dense and diverse city he has ever seen. Originally Christianity was a city-based urban movement, although now it tends to be rural. Culture flows like a river downstream. By 300 A.D. around 50 per cent of people living in cities were Christian, while 90 per cent of those living in rural areas were not. Today that tendency is reversed and fewer Christians live in the cities than in rural areas. By 2030, 60 per cent of all people will live in cities.

The city of Babylon has a lot in common with Greater London. The Babylonians colonized many nations, a bit like the English did. Babylon was founded by Nimrod.

The local church is a small city living within the city living according to the values of God. In the kingdom of God there is racial harmony so it should be so in the Church. We should see repentance from sin and love for God. Our church needs to grow to become a city. With Jesus there is a better way of life. We do sex, marriage, love, parenting differently. We invite them to meet Jesus and have him change their life.

Verse 5 — Tells them to build houses, plant gardens, etc. Plan on being there for awhile. We shouldn’t merely use the city, but invest in it. God will call some of us to move on, but many of us need to strongly consider staying here and giving our lives to London, investing our lives here for the good of the city. The first thing that a missionary needs to do is stay. Driscoll has given his life with his wife for one city, Seattle. Unless God shows up he will be staying there. Don’t make decisions on economic ease, but on the kingdom.

Verse 6 — Take wives (well, the men, only!) and make babies. Multiply there and do not decrease. We must honor family, gender, sexuality, and parenting. If you are single, then aspire to be married. Men today shirk responsibility. We have to get the young men if we want to change the city. Single guys in their 20’s tend to shun masculinity, maturity, and responsibility. They are ruining the city—they take advantage of women, commit crimes, wives and girlfriends have to look after them, they murder their own kids by encouraging abortion. Young men must learn to be men—find their pants, get a job, marry a woman, and stay out of trouble. Men are like trucks, the more weight you can put on them, the straighter they drive, i.e. men who are lazy get distracted and tend to sin, load them with things to do and they will be better.

Men have to be independent and provide for their family. Anyone who doesn’t provide for the needs of his family is worse than an unbeliever. His ten-year old daughter said of a girl kissing two different boys, “She doesn’t have a good father.” In the city there is rape and abuse going on, as well as treating each other with contempt. We live differently here and we want the outsiders to have a better way of life and future.

We need to know and love the city. At the moment Muslims are moving into the city and having lots of children knowing that in a few generations they could control the culture. Do what is best for those who live in the city. Think about ways to do good for the whole city. If the schools are terrible, let the Christians go in and volunteer. Pray for the city, it moves the hands of God and it changes the hearts of men and women. God will change our hearts so that we will work to bring change to the city. Let people around notice that the church loves the city.

Verse 8 — Do not listen to false teachers. Satan will try and teach us false things so that we will do evil in the city. We need to know the truth well and defend it.

The gospel is that we are all sinners. We don’t do what we are supposed to do, and we do do what we are not supposed to do. There is a broken relationship with God. It was only through God himself becoming a man and a missionary into human history that we can be reconciled to God. He went to the cross and substituted himself for us and for our sins. 2 Corinthians 5:21 — God made him sin so we might become righteous. The great exchange. Death to him, life to us. Separation to him, relationship to us. Condemnation to him, salvation to us. He is resurrected and ascended to heaven to build his city on earth. The storyline of the Bible is from the Garden of Eden to the city of the New Jerusalem coming from heaven. We will live together in a city. He will wipe tears from our eyes. Our hope, salvation, life, eternity, joy, is all in Jesus. There are two primary enemies of the gospel—idolatry and religion. Jeremiah says to watch out for false teaching. The temptation to idolatry would have come from the Babylonians, while the temptation to being religious would have come from the Jews.

Who or what do you worship? Your spouse? Your health? Your comfort? Your children? These are all good gifts but they are not GOD. Don’t worship them instead of God. If our spouse doesn’t meet all of our needs, then we get disappointed. If you expect comfort and peace and sinless relational harmony from your spouse, then you will get angry because that is something you can only get from God.

This is the final set of notes I will post. But come back over the next week or two for a series of video interviews, and over this weekend for some notes from other talks Driscoll will be giving around London. As mp3s are posted, we will also be adding download links to the individual summary pages, but you can also check online or subscribe to the podcast.

The final main session of the Brighton Leaders’ Conference was taken by Terry Virgo. More posts from this conference can be found on my TOAM08 label page. You can download the mp3 of Terry’s talk or listen to it right here:

Both Stephen and Philip are introduced as men who are playing their part in a rapidly growing church. Terry described Stephen in his first talk on Tuesday. Today he completes this mini-series with a look at Philip.

There seems to be two halves to the description of Philip. In the first half he is in a domestic scene looking after the needs of widows. Foundations must be built into lives before they can have a public ministry.

This evangelist wasn’t a loner with a ministry. He was known and loved in a local church. He wasn’t isolated. He wasn’t someone who just hadn’t fit in so decides to leave the church to “go and do his evangelism thing.” Rather notice what is said about him. He’s selected by the church. He has a good reputation. When the church wants someone reliable, his name comes up. He was recognized for being “full of the Holy Spirit” when thousands were full of the Holy Spirit. He somehow stood out in that way, suggesting, incidentally, that there are degrees of being full of the Spirit. He was gifted, but he didn’t push for his gift; he served, took his place so others could get on with their ministry. He didn’t demand to be recognized. He was willing to take a lower profile, to put God first.

Later on, he goes and preaches. The Apostles come and he doesn’t tell them to “get out of here,” he receives them. They came to bring the Spirit’s fullness and to remove someone who was getting too much profile. In our family life, we should teach our kids to be team players. Don’t insist on your own way. Don’t just “let them do their own thing.” Prepare them for the kingdom. Ephesians 4 says that the gifts are given to equip the saints so that they may become mature. A mature man looks like Jesus — someone who knows he has come from God and is going to God, and yet he washes his disciples’ feet!

Through love become one another’s slaves. Don’t take the attitude, “I’m not appreciated here so I’ll go somewhere else where I am appreciated.” Be a team player. His household was good. His daughters later are described as having prophesied regularly. [Incidentally, as a side note apart from what Terry actually said, it struck me once again as I was listening that there is no record of these daughter's prophecies being viewed as Scripture, and they are not recorded in the Bible. It still surprises me that some people persist in seeing all prophecy as equivalent to Scripture.]

Back to Terry. These daughters were not rebellious, but full of the Spirit. They were respected. They had been taught to listen to him. Must have been good relationships and an honoring of women. Philip had an exemplary home. It’s such a joy to have children of whom you can be proud.

Suddenly things change. Stephen is martyred. Philip moves into his second half. God in his sovereignty scatters the believers that the world may hear the gospel. Philip is alive to the opportunity. He knows God’s will. He follows the prompting of the Spirit. He is gospel intoxicated, not waiting for an official strategy. He goes with what God is doing. He is willing to move. He shares and takes every opportunity to speak. Philip heralded the good news. He preached Christ. What Christ did he preach? Not just enough to make vague statements. What kind of Christ should we present?

A Jesus rooted in Old Testament revelation.
The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, which was, of course, something of a gift. Tim Keller says people are reacting to abstract theologizing that’s not rooted in the truth. We need to be assured of the message we have. This passage is classic and about the atonement. We must focus there, we must preach the cross. Don’t abandon that as our central theme. The cross didn’t need much description in those days, everyone knew what it was like. These days we need to explain it. We must break through that film that comes on people. We should publicly placard Christ crucified. God’s fury against sin was dealt with. We must feel it strongly. Let the cross captivate our hearts.

A Jesus with the good news of the kingdom of God. Philip was speaking of a phenomenal event. Jesus is the Messiah, the one God sent. He is raised and seated on high ruling and reigning. They glory in the resurrection. They proclaim that the tomb was empty. It’s not just a case of a man whose teachings were so great that “the dream lives on.” His death may have looked as if he were a fraud, as if it’s the end, without the resurrection. But he’s not only alive, he’s reigning. He is the Son of God with power.

A Jesus who had not lost his power to heal.
Philip is preaching and we see amazing things happen. The crowds heard it and saw it. These two men are provocations that our hearers also see the mighty implications of this Jesus being alive, being raised from the dead. Terry encouraged us to get behind Lex Loizides and the Front Edge program. Jesus is alive. Terry realized recently that he’d never taught on healing all these years. He was challenged to proclaim this and teach about this biblical Jesus. Speak about the Bible Jesus. Faith arises, hearts are stirred. “He preached Christ, not healings and miracles” say some commentaries. But it’s amazing at the end, so they were baptized. But then the text doesn’t mention baptism. He must have mentioned baptism then, just didn’t record that he said that. So he proclaimed the sort of Christ who can heal the sick and oppressed of the devil. He presented him as he was in the Bible. People got healed because he told people what Jesus was like and what he did. He didn’t present substitutionary atonement alone, but spoke of other things that Jesus did. In Galatians it is Jesus who supplies the Spirit to them and performs miracles among them. In the gospels he is either healing, coming from a healing, or about to do one. He is performing healings all the time. To preach Christ without even mentioning it is to preach an incomplete Christ. Jesus is still the same, yesterday and today and forever. Often uncomfortable with the teaching of those who go for healing. Well then it’s time for US to preach it like it is and go for it!

A Jesus who expected a whole hearted response.
He baptized them. For joy he sells everything to get the pearl. We need to be absolutely besotted with Christ and the kingdom. It is vital.

A Jesus who could bring joy to the city.
Mark talked about the cities yesterday. Church planting is not just going up the road to the next town. We need to go for it. God wants our tragic cities with their multiple problems. The gospel must break out in our cities. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit.

A Jesus with the nations in mind.
The nations come to our cities. We must be on our toes. God wants to go to the ends of the earth.

When I write these notes, I do sometimes slip in things that strike me, so please understand they are never meant to be accurate transcripts. One thing strikes me about this passage, which Terry didn’t have to say, speaking as he was to a room full of charismatics — healings and miracles are not enough. Baptisms and repentance are not enough. It is so striking that none of those things particularly impressed the magician, Simon. It is surely one of the most obvious demonstrations that the receiving of the Spirit is not meant to be a private intimate secret affair that even the recipient might not realize it has happened. No, the man who had seen all those miracles was only impressed when the Apostles came, laid hands on people, and they received the Spirit. We are not told here exactly what happened. But it was enough to make this man offer money that he could also impart the Spirit. If it had been us, many of us would instead have offered money to be able to heal people! Whatever your theology of the Spirit is, make sure you have room for a dramatic encounter that somehow is so visible and impressive in its results that it is more dramatic even than healings. We have to expect an anointing of the Spirit that is tangible and vivid and has dynamic results.

Back to Terry. We also see here the need to be like Philip, who was eager to bring in someone from outside. We need to be those who ask for people to come from the outside, to ask for help. We need people who are like Stephen and Philip, who can say with humility, “It’s not mine, it doesn’t belong to me. It’s God’s ministry.”

Philip is whisked off from the multitude to one guy. He has a passion for the crowd, but also for the individual. He is not caught up in the moment of high profile.

Terry then spoke of how some leaders get as far as they can go in their gift and they have to make room for someone else to take over and take the lead. That takes a humble heart. It’s not failure. You can be fulfilled by doing this. Make room. I want you to move in and take over! That’s a difficult thing for a pastor to say. We need to hear stories that people in the churches have stepped down. It takes a lot of grace to do that. Wives can be jealous for their husbands. Be flexible, be humble. Stephen lost his life, Philip laid down his life so others could play their role.

What comes first is the kingdom. It’s about being besotted with Jesus. Having a passion for him. Let’s talk about the WHOLE Jesus, the Bible Jesus. The one who began to work, and is still working today. It will be hard, it will be tough. But let’s go for it! As we have as our motto on all of our literature at Jubilee Church, “It’s all about Jesus.”