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.

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 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 this is simply not true in Driscoll's case. 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 feel. 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:

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:


Psalm 121 is A Song of Hope in a world without hope. Today we see how true it is that unbelievers are well described as “having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12).

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.

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:


Terry began by thanking us for the great personal affection of which he was very aware yesterday. He then read almost the whole of this interesting chapter in Acts 8 on the character of Philip, the only named evangelist in the New Testament.

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.”

UPDATE
Desiring God has now made the audio of this sermon available for free online.

Once again, Piper prayed and acknowledged his sense of unworthiness.

Romans 8:20 makes it plain that all suffering is judicial. It is a judicial act of God that brings these things on the earth. Because you have done this God says, “I will surely multiply your pain . . .” (Genesis 3:16). Natural evil is a weak testimony to the ghastliness of evil. This sin includes even our mere preferring of other things to God.

Having said that all suffering is a judicial sentence on the universe, verses 1 and 3 of chapter 8 make an important qualification. That is that no Christian experiences suffering as condemnation. Jesus absorbed all the condemnation of all the people who are united to him by faith. All of your suffering is not judgment and punishment—it is something else. It would be a tremendous dishonor for you to feel judged by God if you are in Christ.

Suffering in the Bible has many designs. For those who are unbelievers, all suffering is punishment, but all suffering is purification for believers. For those who are on their way to being Christians, suffering is to awaken them. For a non-Christian, what will happen with suffering will depend on what they do with Christ. If they turn to God it will have been in order to get their attention, and is thus redemptive, or it will be part of an everlasting life of judgment culminating in hell.

In the fall, God was doing more than merely responding to sin. He never is merely responsive. Instead he was permitting it by design so that he could carry out his purposes. God was fulfilling an eternal plan in order that the apex of his glory would be revealed through grace. The apex of his grace would be Christ. The apex of Christ's manifesting of grace would be his death on the cross. This is the reason the universe exists.

WHAT MORE WAS GOD DOING IN UNLEASHING SUFFERING?

Ephesians 1:6 says that we were predestined “to the praise of his glorious grace.” We exist to bring praise to the glory of his grace. Grace means being treated better than we deserve. Grace assumes demerit. If we were perfect we could not receive grace. Only fallen people can receive any grace! The world had to be allowed to fall in order for this to happen. This is not mere logic—it is driven by verses of the Bible! “. . . because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” (2 Timothy 1:9). The grace was all there and planned and given to us before the world was even made.

“. . . everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8). The word literally means slaughtered. It was not clean; it was not quick; and it was gross. You would have thrown up, or screamed, or run away. If the book was called the book of the killed one before the foundation of the world, then the slaughter was planned before the foundation of the world. If so, then the world was created and the fall allowed so that we might be forgiven. Some people say that in heaven we won’t remember horrible things. But the main thing we will remember is the most horrible thing that ever happened in the world.

We should not be thinking big thoughts about suffering, but big thoughts about Jesus’ supremacy. He is the center, the reason for everything. It is all about Jesus. Everything is pointing to Jesus as Creator and Redeemer of the universe. The main expression of grace is the crucifixion of Christ. When God subjected the world to Judas-like murderous treachery, he was preparing the cross in order for us to be saved.

In Christ's death on the cross there is a glory that is manifold. First, he purchased deliverance from pain for all those who are in him. “By his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53). Second, he purchased our faith. This faith is sustaining and will uphold us when we are not healed.

God is both healer and the one who satisfies the suffering soul. We can glorify God by being healed. Piper said he believes wholeheartedly in the gift of healing. He thinks we should ask God to heal people by placing hands on the sick person’s shoulder. No need to add magic words. “If it be your will.” Just ask. Do what you would want someone else to do for you. If you love people, you will pray for them.

But in verse 23 we groan inwardly. In the midst of suffering that is not removed by healing, the cross purchased the grace to still be satisfied in God. Even we groan. This is there to prevent over-realized eschatology. Since Christ has purchased healing some say it is all now. Excessive charismatics get the notion that we can have every healing now. In fact, the sustaining grace is normal in this age, and the healing grace seems less common. God wants the people around us to marvel at the worth of Jesus when we love him in pain.

Why does the proportion of these two graces work the way it does? When a person is miraculously healed of a cancer, there are several things about that which do not bring as much glory. There are several ambiguities about healings that mean less praise might go up to God. First of all, people doubt the medical side of it and say that the original pictures were wrong. Second, are people praising the glory of Jesus or are they giving glory to health? Third, a few years later the healing is probably largely forgotten and there are no more prayer meetings for that man. In a sense that is perhaps why God doesn't always heal—in order that the value of Christ might be seen in a man who goes on loving God in the midst of suffering.

WHAT HELPS ARE THERE FOR US?

• After this time there will be a glory for us to see, that will satisfy our soul. We love to see greatness. We will be granted the soul-satisfying sight of the greatest reality in the universe.
  
  
• But, as we see in verse 19, there will be a revealing of the sons of God to the universe. We don't look like children of God yet. Our faces will shine like the sun in the kingdom. We will be changed (verse 21). Creation will be set free into the freedom of the glory of the children of God! We will be glorified. There is a freedom. We are bound up. We will become fit to see and enjoy. Our British restraints won't matter any more, or the fact that your dad beat you up. It’s all going to change. The sting of death will have been taken away. We will be capable of infinite happiness in Christ.
  
  
• We will see a rearrangement of creation that will allow all this to happen. The universe is about people. He changes us, then changes everything. Mountains and seas will not be thrown away. The new heavens and earth are this world renewed. We will be satisfied.
  
  
• God promises that the miseries of the universe are not death throes, but birth pangs. If you are in the kingdom now, every pain is about something new coming. If you hear a scream in a hospital, you will interpret it differently, depending on if you hear it in a cancer ward or a labor ward.
  
  
• We are to be more than conquerors. Not just death lying dead before you. What is better is if you say, “Death, get up and serve me well!” Your enemies become your servants in Christ. Whatever suffering comes your way will serve you. All things are ours—even life and death. (1 Corinthians 3:23) "Death, you think you are my enemy. Make my day!”

Piper finished with a quote of which I only caught a snippet. He said he longs for us to “Hold our lives cheap, live dangerously, and be reckless in his service!”

Yesterday morning I preached a sermon at Jubilee. The following notes are almost identical to the notes I used while preaching. You can download the audio or listen to it right here.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

Do you remember the Mars bar advertisement? “A Mars a day helps you work, rest, and play!”—That was smart, because the advertisers knew that we all value those things. And some of us are much better in one of these areas than in others. Are you a good worker? Do you love your work? Are you committed to it? Many jobs these days demand much from us. Do you feel imprisoned by work? I found this on the Internet:

IN PRISON—You spend the majority of your time in a 10x10 cell.
AT WORK—You spend the majority of your time in an 8x8 cubicle.

IN PRISON—You get three free meals a day.
AT WORK—You get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.

IN PRISON—You get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK—You get more work for good behavior.

IN PRISON—The guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK—You must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself.

IN PRISON—You can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK—You could get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON—You get your own toilet.
AT WORK—You have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.

IN PRISON—They allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK—You aren’t even supposed to speak to your family.

IN PRISON—All expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK—You pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON—You spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK—You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

IN PRISON—You must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK—They are called managers.

Are you a workaholic? Here's my definition of a workaholic:

Like an alcoholic, the problem is not work itself any more than it is alcohol. The real problem is simply not knowing when to stop!

People are workaholics for different reasons. For some of you this is due to fear of losing your job, or because things aren't good at home so you throw yourself into work outside of the home. Or maybe it’s because your identity is with your work, and you want people to value you. Maybe you feel indispensable. The truth is, you are not! All of us have an identity in our work (or what we do instead of work). After the service when we have our teas and coffees, lots of first-time meetings between people will occur. People will say, “What do you do?” It's not wrong to get a sense of who we are from our work. It IS wrong to let it totally define us. We should be defined by who we are—A CHILD OF THE KING. This is why I am so glad that often people here don't even know what I do for a paid job. Or do you wish you had a paid job? Or a better job. Work is what we do with our hands or our brain or a combination of both, so we ALL work. Never ever say, “I am just a housewife” or “I am only a cleaner!”

Or are you like some who say, "Sure I love work, I really love work—I could watch it for ages!". Some people make it their goal in life to do as little as possible and earn as much as possible. The image that springs to mind is the 'surfer dude—you have every TV channel going and your idea of a great day is when you watch a WHOLE series of “24” in one sitting! Or maybe you are someone who spends a lot of time on hobbies or sports.

The Bible has a lot to say on the topic we are looking at today. In the Bible there are 652 verses on work, 643 verses on rest, and 65 verses on play. Today’s message is, in a nutshell, that God wants us to be good at all three of these and to do all of them in an appropriate rhythm—rather like marching. “Left, right, left—work, rest, play, work, rest, play.” Let’s look in more detail at the words we just read from Exodus 20.

What Did This Commandment Originally Mean?

1. To keep one day each week special to remember God and to rest. But notice that it also says to work hard for six days!
   
   
2. Be a good employer, and give rest to those under your charge.
   
   
3. If God could take a rest, so can you! God is God and you are not. Rest reminds us we are not indispensable, and whenever we sleep the world goes on just fine without us!
   
   
4. What we see here is a biblical principle that says,” You need a rhythm in your life.” You need good habits, you need work, rest, and recreation. All of these need to be properly balanced.

How Did Legalism Distort This Commandment?

The Old Testament contains ever more complicated rules about what you can and can't do on the Sabbath. There are 39 categories of work described. For example, “winnowing” (separating wheat from chaff) becomes any activity to separate edible food from inedible, so picking out fish bones or filtering water is prohibited. On the other hand, “lighting a fire” leads some today to ban driving a car or switching on an electric light, or even going in a lift.

How Does the New Testament Apply This Commandment to Us?

Jesus was criticized for breaking strict Sabbath rules, and also for doing good on the Sabbath:

“One Sabbath he was going through the grain-fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him" (Mark 2:23-3:6)

Jesus seems to argue that the Sabbath is for man, i.e. for his benefit. It is not to become an oppressive law. He also says it is fine to “do good” on the Sabbath.

It’s amazing how easily we tend to turn something that’s meant for our benefit—first into a duty, and then into a legalistic command. For example, take church attendance, small group attendance, and prayer. Each of these things is designed to give us a break from our weekly routine and to refresh us; to give us a chance to worship and/or study the Bible together. We would do well to get into the habit of just doing them every week. But too often we think of each of these things as “work” and “an effort.” We come home from a busy day and think, “Shall I go to small group?” That is our mistake right there. We would do well to build it into our lives in such a way that we don't have to make a decision, we just go! For when we try and decide, we are tempted instead to watch TV. I, for one, don't think I have ever regretted forcing myself out to small group because when I get there I am refreshed, invigorated, and I go home feeling so much better than when I started. But we don't ask you to turn attendance into a duty, still less a law. Rather, we commend it as good for you! If you love God and want to grow in your faith, just resolve now that you are not going to constantly be deciding whether to go or not, but instead you build it into the rhythm of your life—you make it a habit.

The New Testament clearly says that we are not under law (Romans 6). So when it comes to the Sabbath, the key issue is not following precise rules about what we can and can't do. Under the New Covenant, God's laws are written on our hearts and it becomes a heart attitude rather than a ritualistic legalistic rule. As Christians we are not bound to keep the Sabbath in the way that the Jews were. In two places Paul declares our freedom from the Sabbath and such religious festivals:

“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain” (Galatians 4:9-11).

Every day is a Sabbath day for the Christian—separated to God, for worship, and to rest from our labors.

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest. . . .

[God's] works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. . . .’

[T]here remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:1-11).

How Do We Strive To Rest?

Abandon our trust in our own righteous acts to please God both here and/or to get us into heaven! Grace truly does mean there is nothing I can do to make God love me more or less than he does.

“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:2-5).

We enter into a glorious liberty of knowing we have no law, no duties. But instead we have a relationship with Jesus and we love him and want to follow him.

Work with all the energy he gives us.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Do everything for him, and do it well.

Expect to be successful at work, be the best you can be! It’s not wrong to earn money as a Christian!

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

“. . .obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:22-24).

God is not glorified by Christians who are slack at work, and have no desire to work well, and perhaps no desire to even pursue a career. He wants us to be his representatives at work, or in the home as we work—what has God called you to be? To be the best you can be at work! Work is your mission. We have been SENT! We are:

SALT—to make our workplace less rotten!
LIGHT—to show Gods glory.
YEAST—to quietly infiltrate and multiply.

Sometimes it is hard to speak much about the gospel in certain careers. We should live the kinds of lives that lead people to ask questions of us.

I do believe God wants us to enjoy our work. Sometimes we don't enjoy it because we fail to appreciate what work gives us. Without work we couldn't afford to eat, drink, or for that matter play! We should be happy we have that job and try to enjoy it as best we can. I remember meeting people in factories when I was working there as a student. I was mainly doing it for the paycheck, but many had the same job for years and some said they liked the fact that it didn't tax their brains too much so they didn't feel tired when they got home. What are the good parts about your job? If you really hate it so much, is there possibly another job you could do?

Find your calling.

God is not looking for a place for you—he made you for a place! When you know you are in the right place, the place God has placed you, it will lead to contentment and a sense of ease.

WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LOVE TO DO, AND OTHER PEOPLE NEED YOU TO DO, ENOUGH TO PAY YOU?

Learn to be intentional and disciplined in your lifestyle.

1. Come to church EVERY Sunday, not as a duty, but because it brings refreshing. Similarly, come every week to your small group where tiredness will give way to renewal for your souls. Know when it is the right time to STOP work, go home, or take that holiday. But don't live for the beach!
   
   
2. Build a rhythm of work, rest, and play into your life. Make resting and playing a part of your discipline.

We need different spheres in which we can find identity. This can be through relationships and shared activities. It can be with workmates, family, or friends. It was good enough for Jesus. That was how he lived on earth.

“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2)

If we get our rhythm right, we will not only thank God it's Friday, but we will also thank God it's Monday!

WE TEND TO PLAY AT OUR WORK and WORSHIP OUR PLAY. GOD INTENDED US TO WORK AT OUR WORK, PLAY AT OUR PLAY, and WORSHIP at OUR WORSHIP.

Come to JESUS and allow him to strip away your weariness and false sense of responsibility.

“Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
(Isaiah 40:30-31)
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Come to Jesus. He has:

• A word to the workaholic or the weary person who is in need of refreshment—RECEIVE GOD'S REST.
  
  
• A word to the lazy—RECEIVE GOD’S YOKE—new enthusiasm for the work he has for you.
  
  
• A word to the non-Christian or backslidden—STOP STRIVING TO LIVE YOUR WAY.

Come to Jesus and find rest.

This sermon was preached by me on the UK's Mother's Day, which was on March 2nd. The audio can be downloaded or played here.


It was based on a number of verses:

Isaiah 66:13
“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 49:15-16 Good News Bible
“Can a woman forget her own baby, and not love the child she bore?
Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you.
Jerusalem, I can never forget you!
I have written your name on the palms of my hands.”

Luke 13:34
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”

Isaiah 40:1-2
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.”

Psalm 131:1-2
“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”


1. GOD IS LIKE A MOTHER, BUT HE IS A FATHER

We are right to talk of God as a father, for the Bible speaks of him repeatedly as a father. The verses we have read liken God to sharing attributes of a mother. There are, however, no verses that say God actually IS a mother; however, God is compared to a mother, and he is even likened to a hen brooding over her chicks. But we should no more worship him as “Mother God” than we should pray to God the Holy Chicken!

Since men and women are both created in the image of God, it should really be no surprise to us that God reflects attributes of mothers as well as fathers in his dealings with us.

Matthew Henry, writing more than 300 years ago, reminds us that God comforts us and he does so “not only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother.” (Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, Isaiah 66:5 (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991).

Some things never change!


2. GOD IS COMPASSIONATE LIKE A MOTHER

Women tend to be compassionate, although one mum said when I spoke to her this week, “It depends on the time of day!”

When an accident happens in our home, my instinct is to ask what happened, how did the child get hurt, where is the bruise, was one of the other children somehow responsible? Andree often says, “Darling, please just pick them up and give them a cuddle.”

God created the world. Is it any wonder he should feel the same intense degree of warm love and care towards his children that a mother so clearly demonstrates to hers? In one of our verses God says in effect “no way would a woman reject her own baby,” before acknowledging that, then as now, sadly there are a few women who do indeed forget the child they bore. But God can NEVER forget! Why? Because of what happened on the cross when he “engraved our names on his hands.”


3. GOD IS SACRIFICIAL LIKE A MOTHER

Mother with a baby might say, “O-o-oh, do you need a nappy change, poor little boy?” But Dad might say , “O man, could you not have waited to do that? It was changed only a few minutes ago!”

Women put their careers on at least a temporary hold, and go through the pains of pregnancy and childbirth to have a child. Jesus once said when that “when a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” (John 16:21)

God understands the pain that mothers go through, not just in labor but in the decades that follow. He has seen us his children go astray and reject him, but still he loves us. How amazing knowing that he was going to a city that had killed prophets before and would kill him, that he doesn't go in as a conquering manly warrior king. Rather, he says, “I am like a mother hen, cooing over you, wanting to gather you under my wings.” Surely God understands the thankless task of trying to win over kids when they are rebelling and think you hate them. The thousands of sacrifices the average mother makes for her children reflects upon the ultimate sacrifice of his life that Jesus would make.

Jesus died so he COULD gather his unwilling creation, like a mother hen would gather her chicks. He is hunting for them and searching for them right now to love them, forgive them, cleanse them from their guilt and shame, and make them into true children of God.

Jesus scorned the shame and pain of the cross because of the joy set before him— the joy of US as his children.

What a wonderful cry we heard from the prophet Isaiah—it was only made possible because of the cross. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.” (Isaiah 40:1-2).


4. GOD IS COMFORTING LIKE A MOTHER

When it comes to hugs and kisses, especially if they are upset, my kids look to their mum for comfort. They say I am prickly and need a shave! Do you think of God as prickly?

Just as a skillful mother is able to pacify and soothe the woes of her child, so is God with us. Who here is distressed? God will soothe you. Who is sorrowful? God will calm your troubles. Who here is stressed? God will cause you to rest in him.

God is the God of ALL comfort. Jesus told us he was sending “another comforter” to replace himself, which tells us that his role and that of the Spirit was to comfort us.

Our response to being comforted?

We feel understood, We feel calmed. Stress lifts. Anxiety passes. Our problem now belongs to the one whose wings we shelter under.

This is surely the perfect description of the mature Christian:

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:1-2)

If you feel you are not there yet, you are probably right! Which of us is? But, that is our goal, arriving at a place where we trust God so much that we are not worrying about the events of our life, where we are calm and able to face the day.


5. GOD WANTS US TO OFFER COMFORT TO OTHERS

Perhaps you struggle with the question, “Why, God?” when you question something that has happened to you. There are a myriad of different circumstances life throws at us that make us ask that question. Bereavement, divorce, abuse by others, disappointments, sickness.

There are no easy or complete answers to the question “Why?” One answer is that God wants you to quiet yourself, stop examining things “too lofty for us to understand,” and instead be comforted by him so that you, too, can comfort others. But perhaps you need the comfort of others today . . . maybe you are far from the place that you can help someone else. Who here needs a touch from God? Maybe you need a touch from your neighbor.

Who here already knows from bittersweet, personal experience the truth that “God is the God of all comfort” — it is time you learned to pass that on! He comforts us SO THAT WE CAN COMFORT OTHERS. "But," you say, "I am not a pastor or a theologian." "I say," "God tells us to comfort each other with the comfort he has given us!" Church, are our conversations seasoned with the salt of comfort? Do we listen to the troubles of each other and show that we care? Do we help each other to find the strength that only God can give?

RESPONSE: Salvation, need of comfort, need to comfort others.

This is the first post in several I'll be doing in what I call “remote blogging.” A few times when Tim Challies and others have been at conferences, I've shared extracts from their posts here on my blog. This time Tim is not at the Resurgence Conference on Preaching, but the Resurgence folks are offering live videocasts of their sessions.

Here, then, are my thoughts on Mark Driscoll's talk, which is taking place right now as I'm listening to it sitting in my room here in London. (Incidentally ... No! I'm not in my pajamas!) The usual "rules" apply—these are my notes taken in real time, and I may well have missed important bits or imported a few of my own ideas as I go along! This was posted within seconds of Driscoll ending his sermon. I'm trying to decide whether to stay up another hour or so to cover Mahaney. I know I won't be able to do all of them! Whether I do CJ's will depend on if they have worship or start straight with him at 4 p.m. Seattle time.

In the first session Driscoll began with a rallying call to put preachers in their rightful place. The world came into existence with a sermon preached by God. The Bible is full of “God said ...” God's Word does what it is intended to do and brings life. We preachers are following God's example. God is not the only preacher. In Genesis 3, the serpent preached a false message. Satan tells us we need not preach because he would like his voice to be the only one heard. Our forefathers listened to the wrong sermon, but even after that, God preached another sermon which promised the coming of Jesus.

Proclamation is crucial—Jesus was announced by John the Baptist's preaching. Jesus' own ministry began with preaching, and so should ours! Jesus was a proclamation preacher; he didn't say, "Let's discuss it in groups"! It infuriates Driscoll that ANYONE can call into question the validity of preaching when God does it, then comes to earth and preaches! Yes, Jesus did other things, but he was a preacher first and foremost. He drew crowds. Jesus had thousands come to hear him.

The first thing that must be proclaimed is the cross of Jesus for our sins and in our place. Liars who work for the devil will tell you that you don't need to proclaim the cross centrally as it is offensive. But if you don't preach it you will offend God. Seeker insensitivity is “hot.” Preaching needs to be anointed by the Spirit. When the Spirit came at Pentecost, they immediately went out and preached! And the Church was born! The preached word brought forth the Church, just as God's original preached Word brought forth creation.

We should connect the ground war with the air war, that is, connect the small groups to the Sunday sermon and apply them there. The Apostles were devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word. Driscoll went through Acts showing the emphasis that was placed on proclamation preaching.

We must keep on preaching in spite of persecution. Some of us are too cowardly. After one lousy e-mail, we're in the fetal position and our wives are rubbing our backs. We need courage. People will react. When people say we need to do things in the way the early Church did them, Driscoll agrees. “Let's yell at people!” We have to protect our people from the wolves! The world is full of wolves—they're publishing books, making videos, etc. There is so much preaching in Acts. Don't let your people dishonor the pulpit. Some of us, in an effort to be humble, allow others to be proud.

The reformers defined the Church. The Church is both universal and local. The Church is both visible and invisible. They discussed what constituted a rightly gathered Church. They said it was about preaching the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. The Church is led by Jesus. He is not just our example. He is no longer merely a humble marginalized peasant. If we could see Jesus today we would see him like Isaiah saw him—glorified! We must teach Jesus' exaltation, not only his incarnation.

The Church needs qualified leaders. These need to be male. This issue is a "border issue." If you don't teach male elders, then you are in a different country! Everything will be seen differently. The gospel must be preached by those men. The sacraments must be administrated—baptism and communion, and Church discipline must be carried out. In preaching, the Word is heard, in sacraments the Word is seen, and in Church discipline the Word is protected.

Driscoll challenged us. When was the last time you called your people to repentance and brought them to the Lord's table? When was the last time your church disciplined someone who persistently lived an unrepentant life while claiming to be a Christian? The authority comes from the head of the Church. Elders must be godly. Their life styles need to be worthy of imitation. Preaching is not all that we must do in churches—but it is the FIRST THING WE MUST DO! It is the air war. Everything else comes after it—the ground war. Everyone is looking at the effects, no one is asking about the cause!

Driscoll was very clear about the invalidity of many groups today who function as "house churches," but have no authority and no preaching. God's grace is one-way, and so is preaching. Many emerging churches try to build communities without leadership, and without a declaration of God's Word. How can such a group be a church if no one is preaching the Bible?

The devil tried to have a debate—did God really say? Why should anyone tell you what you have done wrong?

Preachers—you must preach FOR your church. You must preach knowing what a church is. Leaders must build, defend, protect, and shepherd their church. "Internet churches" are not churches as there are no sacraments, no authority, no relationships, and no church discipline. Multi-campus churches need a bit more than just a screen for the preaching to be displayed. Although Driscoll's church does have many campuses, each campus has its own pastor who performs the sacraments, disciplines, and pastors.

Driscoll ended with the last sermon preached—that in Revelation 14. It was preached by an angel. God was the first preacher. An angel is the last preacher. In-between, we are to preach. What an awesome responsibility!

No. 8 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on October 10, 2005, when I had the honor of interviewing C. J. Mahaney via e-mail.

C. J. has, in recent years, been introduced to a new audience because of his friendship with Mark Dever and Company. I have known of him since the 1980's, and loved to listen to him live at early Newfrontiers Bible Weeks.

In January 2008, C. J.began blogging at the Sovereign Grace Blog—C. J. Mahaney's View From the Cheap Seats and Other Stuff. The headlines from that blog will be appearing in my Warnie Winners Box from now on.

Adrian
It is my great pleasure to welcome to the blog one of my greatest heroes in the faith, C. J. Mahaney. C. J. is well-known as a preacher and the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries. More recently he has been gaining fame in the world of blogs as the husband and father of the writers of GirlTalk. He is also the mentor of another well-known blogger and author, Josh Harris, who I have also interviewed.

Welcome to the world of the blogosphere, C. J. It was great of you to join us for this interview. I would like to talk to you today about your new book, Humility—True Greatness. First of all, what prompted such a book? Whose idea was it, and how was it born?

C. J.
Adrian, I'm honored to be interviewed! I can assure you the idea for this book was not mine! I didn't volunteer to write this book, and there were countless times while writing it that I had the following thought: "You idiot! Why did you agree to write this book?" I was approached by my publisher to write the book, and I was encouraged by my wife and friends. After some initial reluctance, I agreed to do it. I can assure you that writing about humility is a humbling experience.

Adrian
It seems from what you are saying and from my reading of the book that humility is actually something of a lifetime message for you. Am I right in that assessment? Do you believe that one of the biggest needs of the Church today is for leaders to emerge who have the authority to lead, but the humility to do so graciously? If so, how will this book and other resources help in producing such leaders?

C. J.
Adrian, you ask good questions and you ask a lot of questions! It is true that I have been studying both humility and pride for many years for the purpose of weakening pride in my own life and cultivating humility by the grace of God. And I think Scripture is clear about the priority of humility, not just for leaders, but for everyone who professes to love and serve the Savior. In Isaiah 66:2 we read the following astonishing statement:

This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word."

Although God is aware of all things, he is searching for something in particular, something that acts like a magnet to capture his attention and invite his active involvement. And that something is humility. God is decisively drawn to the humble. It is my hope that this book will remind the reader of the priority of humility in the divine economy and the gracious promise of God "to give grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

Read more . . . Interview With C. J. Mahaney

Part of the reason for my blog holiday has been, hopefully, to fit more time for prayer into my schedule which, even without blogging, remains tightly packed. As usual, I have not found that as easy as I would like—although I am praying more than I normally do. What is it about prayer that we find so difficult?

I thought I would interrupt this blog break to bring you the following prolonged extract from Sam Storms' forthcoming book on Colossians. The daily devotions I am sharing here are all on the subject of prayer, and I have found them helpful to me as I look again at this vital subject. This is taken from The Hope of Glory: 100 Daily Meditations on Colossians, by Sam Storms, pp.309-324, © 2008. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, http://www.crossway.org/.

The Easiest Thing About Prayer
Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
The easiest thing about praying is quitting. Giving up seems so reasonable, so easy to justify. It’s always been that way, which is why Paul wrote in Colossians 4:12, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Persevering in prayer when no one seems to listen strikes many people as a sign of fanaticism, if not mental instability.

Not long ago I received an e-mail from a friend who was facing the impending deaths of several people in his church. Soon after, I learned of the untimely passing of an incredibly godly Christian man who left behind a grieving wife and two young children. In any given week I hear the same stories you do: a loved one dies, a job is lost and another not found, bills go unpaid, relationships are shattered, dreams fail to materialize. Rain does not fall and crops fail. A teenager is loved and cared for, yet rebels and abandons God. What makes such incidents especially disturbing is that they all occur notwithstanding persistent and fervent prayer that they not. Why is it that a man or woman prays for relief or deliverance or some essential blessing to alleviate intense aggravation, but hears nothing? In humble faith, with sincerity of heart, not for a moment doubting that God is able both to hear and answer their prayers, they pray. But heaven is silent, or so it seems.

I recently saw the film The Island (that’s not a recommendation!) in which unsuspecting clones are nourished and sustained to serve as organ donors for their wealthy sponsors who aspire to live as long as possible. These “folk” know virtually nothing of the outside world or its ways. Two have escaped and are in conversation with a rather strange man who happens to mention “God.” “What’s ‘God’?” asks one of the clones.

“Oh, well, you know when you close your eyes and ask for something?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, God’s the one who doesn’t answer you.”

It’s a bad joke, but for many people it rings all too true. People in Paul’s day faced the same temptation to quit that we do. But too much was at stake. Though defeated at the cross, Satan and his demons are still active. The weakness of the flesh abides. The threat of schism in the body of Christ is ever present. Great opportunities to share the gospel are at every turn. So, don’t quit, says Paul. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Keep watch at all times lest you despair. Be thankful for all God has done and will do in response to your petitions. Much has already been said in Colossians concerning perseverance in prayer, so I won’t repeat myself here. . . . Instead, I want to briefly address the reasons why a good God who can help often seems not to, or at least not to in accordance with our schedules. There are surely reasons other than these, but here are a few suggestions that I hope will encourage you to “continue steadfastly in prayer” (Colossians 4:2a).

First, we are a presumptuous people. We just assume that God ought always to do what we ask, when we ask, precisely in the way we ask. By delaying his response, God awakens us to the gracious character of all answered prayer. In other words, that God says or does anything at all in response to our petitions is sheer, undiluted grace. Resolute continuation in prayer, watchful perseverance, is often the best way for us to learn this invaluable lesson.

Second, steadfast endurance in coming again and again to the throne of grace is God’s way of cultivating in us a sense of absolute and utter dependence upon him. We are by nature self-reliant, self-sufficient folk. If God were instantly and at all times to answer our every prayer, we would gradually lose our sense of urgency. Truth be told, most of us would soon lose sight of the fact that it is God alone who is the source of all good. By suspending his response, God is saying to each of us: “Just how desperate are you? How conscious are you that I am your only source, your sole and all-sufficient supply?”

Third, persistent praying puts us in that frame of mind and spirit in which we may properly receive what it is that God desires to give. In other words, it isn’t so much that God is reluctant to give, but that we lack preparation to receive. Try to envision what a mess your life would have been if your parents granted you everything you asked for as a child! God often delays his answers because, quite simply, we are in no shape to receive them. Few of us are willing to admit that, but deep down we know it’s true.

Fourth, steadfast, watchful continuation in prayer helps us differentiate between impetuous, ill-conceived, selfish desires, and sincere, deep-seated, Christ-exalting ones. Persistence in prayer thus enables us to weed out improper petitions.

Fifth, endurance at the throne of grace purifies the content of our petitions. By repeating our prayers we are forced to think and rethink what we are saying. We are compelled to evaluate our motivation and aim for asking God for something in particular. It’s a bit like how I read, reread, and read yet again each of these meditations. It helps me identify mistakes, locate typographical errors, and rephrase something that otherwise might be false or misleading. I can almost envision God saying in response to my first articulation of a prayer, “Sam, are you sure you want me to answer that one? Think about it. Contemplate the long-term consequences of a yes. Then come back and ask me again in different terms, with a purified purpose.”

Sixth, perseverance cultivates patience. By withholding an immediate response, we learn how to wait on God. Waiting on the Lord is far from a passive posture. It’s an active, expectant, persistent pressing in to the heart and purposes of a loving God. How might we ever learn to do this were it not for steadfastness in prayer?

Seventh, oftentimes God wants to give, but not now. The answer will come in better circumstances, at a more opportune moment. By delaying his response, a greater and better and more God-glorifying end is secured than by an immediate answer.

Finally, even if none of the reasons given above makes sense to you, persevere anyway! God isn’t asking you to understand; he’s asking you to be faithful.


Pray Thankfully!
Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
There’s always a possibility that someone reading this passage might walk away with the idea that prayer is an anxious, troublesome, fearful endeavor. Paul’s language might easily contribute to that, were it not for the final two words of the text. Let me explain.

If I were to exhort you concerning some spiritual activity and insisted, perhaps with great urgency, that you “continue steadfastly” in it and that you remain alert and watchful, you might be inclined to worry, perhaps wringing your hands, biting your nails, and pacing nervously back and forth in doubt of the ultimate outcome. Now let’s be clear about one thing: prayer is serious business. James put it pointedly: “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). If we fail to pray, we most likely will not receive. It is utterly presumptuous to think that God will do for us apart from prayer what he has promised to do for us only through prayer.

But this reality must be held in delicate balance with the equally biblical truth that God is sovereign: nothing slips his mind or through his fingers. He will accomplish all his purposes. He “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

This is the point, I believe, of Paul’s insistence that when we pray, and we should pray always and alertly, we should do so “with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2b). Why does he insist on this? And more important still, how do we do it? How does one pray thankfully?

First, I believe Paul includes this qualifying phrase because he wants to instill confidence in us rather than fear and uncertainty as we pray. It’s his way of saying, “Yes, by all means be faithful and fervent in your prayers. But know this: God is always and ever on his throne. The battle in which you fight is ultimately his, on your behalf. Let gratitude for what God has done and will do permeate your petitions. In this way you will never lose hope or fall into despair or live in fear that he has abandoned you in your hour of need.”

But second, and most important, how do we do this? What does it mean to pray “with thanksgiving”? Here are a few thoughts.

First, pray with gratitude that God is actually there, alive and alert and never asleep. We do not speak into a vacuum or to a God who is preoccupied with other, allegedly more important matters.

Second, pray with gratitude that God not only lives and loves but also actually listens to what we say. He hears us! “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. . . . He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you” (Isaiah 30:18–19). As you pray, therefore, thank God that he loves to listen and to be gracious.

Third, pray with gratitude that the God who lives, loves, and listens is also more than able to do above and beyond all we ask or think (cf. Ephesians 3:20). I’m so thankful that the God to whom I pray isn’t a wimp or a weakling, but an omnipotent and infinitely wise Father who delights in giving good things to those who ask (Luke 11:13).

Fourth, pray thanking God that he has chosen to include you in the process. God could have ordained that all his will be accomplished independently of our participation. But he didn’t. He has chosen to achieve his ultimate ends through means, the latter being primarily our prayers.

Fifth, pray thanking God for all the ways he is changing you as you pray. Wholehearted and humble intercession transforms the intercessor. Our ideas of God are elevated. Our awareness of personal dependency is intensified. The magnitude of God’s power and providence is manifest in ways that we otherwise might never behold. Our dreams and hopes and desires are cleansed and purified as we humbly submit to his will and crucify our own.

Sixth, pray thanking God that what you are asking him to graciously do in the lives of others he has already done in yours. If we are not grateful for the salvation and healing and mercy granted us, how can we possibly be fervent and diligent in asking that God do the same for others?

Seventh, and finally, pray with gratitude to God not simply for what he has done but for what he will do. Thank him in advance for what he will do in response to your requests. Without being triumphalistic or sinfully presumptuous, we should pray with Thank you, Lord!

The bottom line is this: it’s hard to be fearful when you are immersed in gratitude. Thankfulness turns the human soul toward heaven and away from self. Thankfulness, by its very nature, requires that we fix our focus on the fact that God is and who God is and what God has done and will do. Thankful prayer is necessarily theocentric.

Do you recall the incident in 2 Chronicles 20 where Jehoshaphat and the kingdom of Judah came under siege by the Moabites and Ammonites? After their prayer seeking God’s assistance, the prophet Jahaziel came to them with a bizarre word of counsel. “He appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, [to] say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever’” (2 Chronicles 20:21).

He instructs them to be thankful on the front end of the battle, before the enemy is ever engaged. Let the reality of God’s steadfast love fill your heart, he told them. Praise him for who he is. Rest peacefully in what he will do. “Stand firm,” he said, “hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf” (2 Chronicles 20:17).

Thus, “when Paul says our praying is to be done with thanksgiving, he means that we should keep our eyes on the victory of God. We do not fight as losers or even as those who are uncertain. We know God will win. And if we have eyes to see, we will recognize the path of his power again and again.”


Just Do It!
Colossians 4:3–4
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Now, wait just a minute. We all agree that God loves lost souls and wants them to hear the gospel of salvation in his Son. So why does he suspend the opening of an evangelistic door on the prayers of the Colossians? I’m tempted to say, in the words of the Nike commercial: “God, ‘just do it!’” Or, perhaps more reverently, “God, why don’t you directly open these doors rather than telling Paul to tell us to ask you to do so? What’s the point of our asking you to do what you’ve already revealed is in your heart to accomplish? As I said, Lord, ‘just do it!’” I suspect God’s response to me would be: “No, Sam. That’s not how I operate. Yes, of course, I could ‘just do it’ directly and instantaneously, without your involvement or anyone else’s. But I prefer to do it when you ask me to. In fact, in most instances I won’t do it unless you ask me to.”

Here’s another question that comes to mind. Why does Paul encourage the Colossians to pray for him? What’s the point of his asking them to ask God to open a door for the Word? Why does he urge them to pray that God would give him clarity of speech? Isn’t it enough that he ask God himself? I’m assuming he did, but he evidently believed that it would greatly help his cause if others joined him in beseeching God for this blessing. Does this imply that God is more inclined to say yes to our requests if more people are united in asking him for them? That seems odd.

Or is it primarily to aid his cause that Paul enlists the prayers of others on his behalf? Could it possibly be that for the sake of God’s greater glory he makes this request of the Colossians? I’ll return to that momentarily.

Let’s be clear about one thing. I didn’t ask these questions because I intend to solve the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. I couldn’t solve it even if I wanted to, and how prayer factors into the equation is ultimately something beyond my intellectual ken.

Rather, I’m concerned about the nature of prayer. Or, more accurately, I’m concerned about the purpose of prayer. Why has God chosen to incorporate it into the way he governs the world and accomplishes his purposes?

One thing we know: God loves to be asked, and there’s good reason for it. Consider Psalm 50:12, one of the most sarcastic verses in Scripture. God says to the Israelites: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine,” which is to say, if God were hungry (which, of course, he’s not), he wouldn’t need the Israelites to provide him with a meal. “Every beast of the forest is mine,” says the Lord, “[not to mention] the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10).

So, if God doesn’t need us or our prayers, why does he create us and then command us to ask him for things? That’s a pretty profound question, but it comes with a fairly simple answer.

In Psalm 50:15 God says again, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” When you’re in trouble, says God, when you have needs and problems and trials and obstacles to overcome, pray to me and ask that I intervene and make provision. If you do, I’ll deliver you. And in your obvious dependence upon me I will be glorified. We both win. You get delivered. I get glorified. You receive a blessing. And people and angels and demons see that I’m the all-sufficient supply, the infinitely resourceful God, the one being in the universe who exists to overflow in abundant goodness to weak and needy people like you!

It’s amazing how asking a few questions about the nature and purpose of prayer drives us directly into the reason why God created the universe. God didn’t create us because he was needy or lacking in some profound way. We don’t supply God with anything. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25).

So, that being true, why did he make it all? He made it all so that in its (our) utter and absolute dependence on him for everything, his glory as God might be seen and savored. Our need magnifies his supply. Our lack draws attention to his abundance. God honors and glorifies himself by overflowing in bountiful blessings to those who otherwise deserve only death. And how do we get these blessings? By praying for them! God suspends his work on our prayers not because he can’t do it alone but because our prayers highlight our dependence and his supply. We are humbled as dependent and he is exalted as depended upon.

Not only does he get the glory for being depended upon but we get the gladness for being dependent. Yes, please read that again. There is no greater joy than getting what God gives (and he is himself, of course, the greatest gift). And there is no greater glory than for God to be giving.

Jesus commanded his disciples to pray, and here’s why: “Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Although there are undoubtedly other reasons why God chose to incorporate our prayers in the accomplishment of his purposes, his glory is preeminent.

One more thing: earlier I asked why Paul felt it important to enlist the prayers of the Colossians on his behalf. It’s not because God is stingy and Paul thought that a multitude of intercessors might have greater success in prevailing on God’s otherwise reluctant heart than would he alone. Once again, it’s all about God’s glory. In 2 Corinthians 1:11 Paul wrote, “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

Note carefully why it’s important that the Corinthians (like the Colossians) pray for him. It is so that “many will give thanks” for the “blessing” that God grants to him in response to their prayers. God’s glory is more readily seen and known and savored when many rise up in unified gratitude for what he has done than if only one or a few do. So, when we pray for one another we get gladness in receiving what God gives and God gets glory for giving what we get.

Open Doors for the Gospel
Colossians 4:3–4
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Political correctness notwithstanding, Christianity is an evangelistic religion. Its aim is to proclaim the good news that there is eternal life in only one: Jesus Christ. Its aim, by the grace of God, is to bring about the deliverance of men and women out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light. There are some things, no doubt, for which we as Christians ought to apologize, but declaring that faith in Jesus Christ alone is essential for eternal life isn’t one of them. We should never hesitate to proclaim the “mystery of Christ” or shrink back from seeking the conversion of every soul.

Here in Colossians 4:3–4 Paul solicits the prayers of these believers, not for his own health or freedom or prosperity but for the opportunity and clarity to proclaim Jesus as Lord to lost and dying people. There are two elements in Paul’s request that call for our attention.

First, he asks them to ask God to open “a door for the word” that he might proclaim “the mystery of Christ” (v. 3). This isn’t the first time he’s used this imagery for evangelistic opportunities (see also Acts 14:27; 1 Corinthians 16:8–9; 2 Corinthians 2:12).

The “door,” evidently, is closed. This may suggest political opposition; social, cultural, and educational barriers to sharing the faith; adverse weather that hinders travel; or any number of factors that make evangelism difficult from a human perspective. It may be that Paul is asking God to grant him favor with those who have the authority to give him access to certain arenas of activity or platforms from which he might declare his message. In any case, Paul believed that God is sovereign over all such circumstances and that he can remove obstacles and overcome resistance and restrain the enemies of the faith when asked to do so by his people.

That an apostle, no less, would ask ordinary Christians like these Colossians to pray for his evangelistic success is stunning. Paul refused to trust in his skill or eloquence or theological knowledge alone. He needed the intercessory support of other believers. It’s almost as if he’s saying, “I’m helpless if you don’t ask God to help me.” Amazing!

And what might Paul do should the door be opened? He has one goal, one solitary purpose: to proclaim the mystery of Christ. The word mystery doesn’t mean what it does in a P. D. James novel or in a Sudoku puzzle. Paul typically uses this word when he has in mind a truth formerly hidden but now made known in Jesus Christ.

The mystery of Christ is the revelation of what God has done in and through his Son to make possible atonement for sin and its forgiveness. That the Word should become flesh (John 1:14) is a mystery now made known for our salvation. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19) is a mystery now revealed for our justification. That faith alone in a crucified Messiah is the power of God unto salvation is a mystery now made known for our eternal welfare.

Where Christ is not proclaimed, the gospel is not known. No matter how psychologically soothing a sermon may be, if the mystery of Christ is not center stage, the gospel has not been preached. The focus of our message is not self-esteem, social justice, the plight of the poor, or world peace (as important as those issues are in their own right), but Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the salvation of lost souls.

Paul’s second request is that they ask God to enable him to proclaim this mystery with clarity (v. 4). “Pray that God will work in me,” says Paul, “that I might have the words to speak in the most persuasive manner and at the most appropriate time. Ask God to operate in my heart and mind and soul so that my message will ring true and will reverberate with passion and conviction and courage.”

Stunning, isn’t it, that a man of Paul’s spiritual caliber and gifting felt so desperately dependent on the prayers of others for his effectiveness in ministry! He made a similar plea to the Roman church, appealing to them to strive together with him in their prayers to God on his behalf, that he might be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that his service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the
saints (Romans 15:30–31).

His request of the Colossians raises an interesting question: What precisely might serve to inhibit or hinder his clarity of speech or prevent him from proclaiming the gospel in the way he desired? It may be that he anticipated trick questions from a hostile crowd and needed the assistance of the Spirit to see through their deception and speak truth into the fog of error. It may be that he sensed the importance of using just the right illustration or parable or analogy to make a point that would penetrate a closed and calloused heart with the truth that brings light and life. Paul, no doubt, felt confused at times and needed the quickening ministry of the Spirit in his mind. “Pray that God would clear my head of intellectual cobwebs and overcome any sluggishness of speech that would be unworthy of the gospel I proclaim. Pray that the Father would fill me with the Spirit of boldness and confidence and drive from me all fear of man and concern for my own reputation or physical safety.”

If he felt this burden, how much more you and I! Have you committed to praying consistently for your pastor each time he preaches? Have you interceded for that Sunday school teacher who tells the story of Jesus to indifferent and mocking junior high students? Have you petitioned God for yourself as you prepare to share your testimony with an unsaved neighbor? We are all desperately in need of such anointing and spiritual support from on high every time we open our mouths to speak of Christ.

“O, grant us open doors, Father, that we may speak boldly and clearly and joyfully of your Son and all that you have done for sinners in and through him! Work in us by your Spirit that we might have just the right story, the most telling illustration, the most persuasive phrasing as we declare the mystery of Christ Jesus! Amen.”

This morning I preached a sermon at Jubilee. The following are almost exactly the notes I used to preach from. In the meantime you can download the audio or listen to it right here.

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Imagine Jesus . . .

Baby Jesus—weakness, stooping down, becoming one of us, close to us. OR, Jesus on the cross; suffering the wrath of God for us. Closest description of Jesus did NOT look like the cross, or a “gentle Galilean peasant,” or the baby Jesus.

Consider the scene . . .

The aging John—an island prisoner who has NOT recanted. He has not said, “We all made it up.” Perhaps they would have let him go. But how could he deny his friend? He was no Judas. ?the only one of Jesus' disciples left. There had always been speculation that he would not die his gospel denied. Soon he would be with Jesus again. O how he had missed him.

Jesus' best friend on earth . . .

“The twelve”—the inner circle of three. Only one who leaned his head on Jesus. Others understood most of the time! And Jesus was kind about it. If anyone had known Jesus, he had. NO flaws, perfect. Being with Jesus had been the most amazing experience of his life.

The change in John . . .

Sons of thunder plus wanting position. Now oozed the love of God. People said they could tell he had been with Jesus. It’s still true today—those who have truly been with Jesus are changed. NB Jesus is with us through his Spirit.

Perhaps he thought about possibly the strangest words he had ever heard Jesus say. Back then, must have struggled to believe that Jesus' leaving would be better for him, BUT he had known the Spirit of Jesus living inside him, working through him, assuring him that he had been saved. These past years he had not been alone. But, there was a part of him that missed being able to see Jesus, to hug Jesus.

Suddenly he was caught up into heaven. He had seen Jesus look a bit like this once before. The risen, ascended glorious Jesus.

READ Revelation 1:9-18

Immediately this Jew who had been schooled in worshipping only the one God fell on his face as though dead in order to worship his best friend. Who could stand before him?

Before he fell John managed to see enough of Jesus to give us this wonderful description. Have you ever thought about this image of Jesus? Have you let it fill your mind? Have you gazed on him? As we gaze on Jesus we will become like him says Paul in 2 Corinthians 3.

“Seeing is becoming.” (John Piper)

No full image, no statues, no worship.

“One like a son of man.” Earth, a few pounds lighter, new creation—a physical body.

God has incorporated human flesh into the divinity. Not only did God become man, a Man was now ruling in heaven as God. Everything about him was glorious.

Even his hair seemed to gleam. Reminds us of Daniel on the 'ancient of days.' Jesus who always has been and always will be. Another figure in Daniel—Jesus is mediator between man and God—he is both the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days! White hair could also symbolize his wisdom and judgment.

He was wearing a robe—like Christians in heaven. Jesus was dressed in his own righteousness—that he had also given his people to wear. A golden sash speaks of his authority. Like the high priests’ garments or those of a king.

His eyes flash like fire. One glance of some people’s eyes can make your knees go to jelly—teenage boy when the hottest girl in the school looks at him. Authoritative look of judge, parent. Jesus’ eye is watching you. He can see everything. He can look through walls and into hearts. Those eyes say, “I love you, but you don't want to mess with me.”

His eyes were confident, authoritative, but also gentle and full of love. Often we are over-familiar with Jesus and see him as a figure as it were in soft-focus—an English gentleman, perhaps Mr. Darcy. We need to see his majesty, glory, authority, power, and wrath against sin. O beloved, just one glance of his eye would be enough for our weak, timid, overly-gentle, soft caricatures of Jesus to disappear in an instant.

Even Jesus’ feet exuded strength and authority. For such an important part of our bodies, our feet can be pretty weak and pretty ugly at times. They are also incredibly vulnerable—e.g. a small stone in your shoe. Jesus' feet were solid bronze and symbolized God's glory in OT writings.

But the thing that would probably both terrify you and thrill you most about this figure was his voice. Like thunder, waves, Niagara falls.

When this Jesus speaks the world shakes. “Let there be light!” “A new heaven and a new earth.” When he says “NO!” to Satan, the devil just melts away. What this voice says goes. No one can challenge him. Just be quiet and obey. Do as he tells you before he deafens you.

When he says “This one is forgiven,” you are forgiven. When he says, “This one is righteous!” your sins evaporate and righteousness is credited to your account—something really does change inside so you will become what you are. If he says, “Be free!” you will be free indeed. If he says “Be healed” your sickness will go. If he says “It’s not good for them to be alone!” your perfectly designed by God marriage partner will be just around the corner. I hear you say “Where?!?!” Maybe you have met them already! Maybe they are right here in this room. Perhaps you need God to speak: “Open those eyes and look!”

Brothers, it is not for nothing that the ancient hymn says:

“He speaks, and listening to His voice, new life the dead receive.
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice; the humble poor believe.
Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ.
Ye blind, behold your Saviour come; and leap, ye lame, for joy.”
Out of his mouth came a sword. Some say this is justice. But, even if it is, with what does Jesus judge the world? By his Word – his living, active, sharp Word which pierces us. (Hebrews 4:12) For me, I think the sword here is indeed the Word of God, as we saw when we spoke about Ephesians 6. It is encouraging to realize that Jesus himself is fighting. In fact it’s his battle.

Then there was his face. What a wonderful face. What a shining face. What a gentle, but powerful face. Can’t see his face for intense brightness. But drawn anyway.

What is the appropriate response to this Jesus? That of Jesus’ best friend, the only appropriate one. Shock, reverence, awe—look it was FEAR! Like Isaiah who said, “Woe to me,” he FELL as though DEAD. WE MUST TOO! We were dead in our trespasses and sins, nothing to give, helpless and in need his help. OUR weakness, his superiority. Are you angry with God, saying “When I get to heaven I will have a few questions for him to answer!” You fool! If Jesus was to walk into this room today, you would not be able to remain in your seats. God could not be seen or else death would result. His nuclear-hot holiness burns up every trace of sin.

We are right to fear him. We would be fools not to. And, when the Bible says, Fear him,” it means simply that. FEAR HIM! Sometimes people come to us and say they are afraid of God. We would do well to tell them you are probably not frightened enough.

But the passage doesn't end there. Instead we see—wonder of wonders—that amazing word BUT. There are few words more welcome than that word in the right place. John is terrified in the presence of the fearsome risen Christ. He is there on his face. He thinks that’s it, I am undone. At that very moment, the passage tells us, “BUT JESUS reached out his hand, his right hand no less, and touches him” O, what is he going to do? Is he going to kill him? Is he going to beat him up a bit? Is he angry with him? Is he going to scold him for not being good enough?

What does he say? Does he say, “Be afraid, be very afraid!” No—he says “Fear Not!” Oddly enough, the Bible is full of commands to fear God. But when God turns up on the scene he always seems to say “Don't be afraid!” The reason for this is that God both wants us to fear him, and doesn't want us to be terrified of him!

Why doesn't John need to, in that sense, fear Jesus? Because of what Jesus has just done for him—he has reached out and touched him. Because of who Jesus is- the great eternal one who never had a beginning and never had an ending. Because his best friend, Jesus, is now revealed for all to see as the eternal God—“The First and Last” Because he is also the one who is the living active one—the God who still delights in doing things. He is the one who died, FOR YOU, John. He is the one who was RAISED for you, John. And he is the one who holds the keys of death and hell in his hands. If he says you are one of mine, then the devil can't touch you, and the door of hell is locked to you and heaven is open wide!

This is the Jesus we come to today, beloved. The living one. The terrifying one. And yet the loving one, who delights in reaching his hand out and touching you. And when he touches you, amazing things can happen. Do you need Jesus to touch you? Do you need a healing? He is the healer. Do you need your guilt removed? He died so that you could be forgiven. Do you feel dirty because of your own sin or the sin someone else committed against you? His blood cleanses you from all shame and all uncleanness. Do you need a victory in your personal life? Your relationships? Your work? This Jesus is the triumphant one, and nothing, but nothing can stand in his way when he chooses to act on your behalf.

Let’s fall on our faces. Let’s worship him. Let’s feel his touch. Let’s get right with him. Become a Christian, or get so close to Jesus once more that it almost feels as if we are born again again! Then let’s stand up, and go from this place a people who are changed by him. Let’s go full of joy. Full of faith. Full of the boldness that comes from being with Jesus. Let’s invite people to our Christmas event to meet this wonderful Jesus so they, too, can feel his touch. Amen.

UPDATE The Audio of this talk is now available to download.

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Tonight's event took place in an ex-cinema, so I felt at home! It is the home of Destiny Church, Edinburgh. Destiny is a family of churches across Scotland, and they have some churches elsewhere in the world as well. The audience that gathered was a young one, and following an energetic time of worship, Mark Driscoll came to the platform to share with us. Here is a short video clip from the message. Following this, I will share my notes with you.

Mark spoke about the person of Jesus and his work on the cross. He said that he believed that it was important for preachers of the gospel from time to time to sit and hear the gospel.

He began in 1 Corinthians 2 — “... I resolved to know nothing when I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified ....” The only thing that must be preached is Jesus and him crucified. Apart from Jesus and his death, we have nothing to offer anyone.

It takes three generations to lose the gospel. One generation believes, the next assumes too much, and the third forgets it or denies it. We cannot assume anything. If we say Jesus, Bible, God, cross, sin—we must not assume that anyone has any idea what we are talking about!

Martin Luther said that in our preaching of the cross, we should “ ... beat it into their heads continually!”

Many traditions love one side of the jewel of Jesus' death. Mark believes we must appreciate eleven sides of the cross. We must also think of it in the context of Jesus' whole life—his incarnation, holy life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We need to emotionally encounter the significance of the crucifixion and all that it has accomplished for us. The Jews couldn't understand how God himself could be cursed by hanging on a tree.

It is perhaps the most amazing thing that has ever happened—that the cross should become the most popular symbol in human history. To call the day Jesus died “Good Friday” is also astonishing. We must understand the theological aspects of the cross.

ELEVEN ASPECTS OF THE ATONEMENT

1. The Central Theme—Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA)
   
   We cannot assume anything. A war is brewing over this issue. This is the issue we must be willing to fight over. If we lose this, we lose the gospel. Mark said that if you deny this, you have essentially lost the Christian faith. Isaiah 53:5 — “ ... FOR our transgressions.” Romans 5:8 — “Christ died FOR us.” 1 Corinthians 15:3 — “Christ died FOR our sins.” Sin results in death. In the Garden of Eden, our first parents sinned in our place. They substituted themselves for God—they made their own rules and lived as though they were God.
   
   As we substituted ourselves for God, God substituted himself for us to fix this. Sin is only atoned for in substitution — e.g. in the sacrifices of atonement.
   
   What does this mean practically? I MURDERED GOD! He died for MY sin! He paid MY penalty of death. As MY substitute he endured what I deserve in order to give me what I don't deserve. If you lose substitution, you lose all sense of gratitude.
   
   
2. Jesus is Our Victor
   
   Jesus conquered Satan and demons. We don't like demons, so this is a good thing! Colossians 2:13-15 — “ ... disarmed the rulers and authorities ...” It looks as if Jesus is defeated on the cross. Isaiah 45:15 — “God hides.” He hid victory in defeat because God is humble. Those who are proud (like Satan) don't see it! We aligned ourselves with Satan. Being "spiritual" is not good if it's not the Holy Spirit. Satan is real. There is a real war. Revelation 12:10 — Demons accuse people: “You are a loser; you are not a real Christian ...” The devil condemns people and haunts them with past sin. He loves death and wants to kill. Jesus cancelled the rights that Satan and demons have towards the children of God. He has been defeated and disarmed. There is victory over Satan and demons for the people of God.
   
   
3. Jesus is Our Redemption
   
   Don't teach this from the pagan slave market. Rather, speak about God redeeming his people from the slavery of Pharaoh—in slavery to sin. We can't stop. We are not free. We can't escape. But just like the people of Israel, we have been set free to worship God! We are liberated to live new lives. To have joy. To worship God together as his people.
   
   
4. Jesus is the New Covenant Sacrifice
   
   1 Peter —“... precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb.” Blood disgusts us. We must identify the horror of blood and death as sin. God is as disgusted with sin as we are with blood. God is horrified by sin. We should be as horrified by sin as we are by blood. God was the first person to shed blood in the Bible—to cover the sin of Adam. The Bible is a bloody book. The first thing Noah did after the flood was to sacrifice. Noah was not "a good guy." Noah found GRACE. He found unmerited grace, and then he became righteous. After the flood, it was as though Noah said, “God should have killed me, too”—that was why he had to offer a sacrifice. “I deserved to die.” He, of course, promptly went on to demonstrate why— by getting naked and drunk.
   
   Hebrews is clear on this. We don't need a temple or a priest or a lamb because we have Jesus. His blood was shed for our sins. When sinned against we often say, “I want blood!” Well, you already have it. The gospel is the good news that we should have died, but instead we are loved. So we must show love to others!
   
   
5. Jesus is Our Justification
   
   No one will be justified by works of the law. God would not be good if he let everyone into heaven. If he did that, when we got there it would be like earth, full of hatred and sin and evil. God's heart is gracious mercy and forgiveness. But because of his justice, he has to deal with our sin. God's standard is perfection. No one can say they are perfect. Lust counts as adultery and anger counts as murder. People want righteousness, which is why hard firm religions attract people. When you go to the bathroom, that's about how impressed I am with your righteousness. Our righteousness is described by the Bible as human excrement and menstrual rags. God hates religion. He despises it. You must call sinners to repentance, and also call "righteous" people to repent of their religious righteousness. Righteousness is GIFT righteousness. It is the righteousness of God. “Jesus was the most despised thing in all creation on the cross” (Luther). Righteousness only comes from faith in Christ. When we stand before God it will be imputed righteousness—that is what will appear on our resume. I trust Jesus.
   
   It doesn't end with imputed righteousness. He gives us a new heart and a new nature. This gives us a desire to do right things. He gives us new power through the Holy Spirit to live life. He gives us a fulfilling life. We are regenerated. We change.
   
   
6. Jesus is Our Propitiation
   
   Four times in the Greek New Testament. 1 John 4:10 — This is love—not that we have loved God. It's not because you are a good person that God loves you. You don't obey so God will love you; you obey because God already does love you!
   
   Propitiation is how God demonstrates his love. God hates sinners. You have been told that God loves sinners, but hates sin. No, Gandhi said that! God often says he hates people. We are by nature sinners. “I hate the essence sum and total of what you are, but I really love you.” We have a sinful nature and commit sins. “God hates all who do evil.” God hates a lot of people. God's wrath is mentioned more than 600 times in the Bible. More verses talk about the wrath of God than those which state that he loves us. The gospel starts with “God hates you and it's going to go really really bad forever and ever!” Jesus suffered the wrath of God, and it is thereby taken away from sinners who are in Jesus. The question is not, "How can a loving God send anyone to hell?" The real question is, "Why does a holy God take anyone to heaven?" The passover demonstrates the wrath of God passing over the ones covered by the blood of Jesus. Jesus is our passover Lamb.
   
   
7. Jesus is Our Expiation
   
   This is different from propitiation. Propitiation takes away our wrath. Expiation deals with our defilement. This is often overlooked. Sins have also been committed against us. In 1 John it says that Jesus' blood purifies us from all unrighteousness. Expiation deals with the feeling of being dirty, a feeling that is experienced by both sinners and those sinned against. “Dirty people do dirty things.” Our identity is sometimes about what people have done against us rather than what Jesus has done for us. Feeling defiled, feeling dirty, is a huge issue. The scapegoat was set free. Sin was laid on Jesus and it was taken away. The blood of Jesus CLEANSES us. We are clean. We are clothed in white by Jesus. We should see ourselves and others that way. We can be clean. We don't need to manage, shift blame, or excuse sin; rather we need to face it and deal with it.
   
   
8. Jesus is Our Ransom
   
   There is only one mediator. Music, Bible translations, etc. don't mediate. If the music changes, we can still worship God. We owe a debt to God. Every sin or omission is a debt. We have a mountain of debt. We cannot possibly pay it to God. Doing good for awhile doesn't reduce our debt, it just doesn't increase the amount of our debt! A mediator pays the debt on our behalf.
   
   
9. Jesus is Our Example
   
   1 Peter 2:21 and Philippians 2 — “Christus exemplar.” Jesus has always been God. He came into human history as man. How did Jesus live his life? It wasn't a fake—like Superman and Clark Kent— i.e. God can't be tempted. Jesus DOES sympathize with our weaknesses because he was tempted. Jesus did not cease to be God. He set aside the use of his divine attributes. God knows everything, but Jesus had to learn. How did he do it? It was by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit filled Jesus. He was the Anointed One. All was done by the power of the Spirit. We can now also live Spirit-filled lives. Being spirit-filled means living the life of Jesus. We do what Jesus did. The Spirit led Jesus into temptation, into suffering. We suffer too (Philippians 1). We will be led into difficult times. We are perfected by our suffering, when we suffer like Jesus did, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't waste your pain or your suffering. Use it for a witness, use it for the gospel. Christians are like nails—the harder you hit us, the deeper we go.
   
   
10. Jesus is Our Reconciliation
    
    Sin separates us from God and each other. The cross brings us together. “... be kind ... forgiving one another as God forgave you ...” We are sinned against and either become bitter or become like Jesus. That is the choice we have. We often have two standards. When we sin, we want mercy; when others sin, we want hell. Bitterness is often caused by the person we love the most sinning in a little way against us. There are only two problems in a marriage—the man and the woman. We can either learn to forgive or let sin destroy our relationships. We can only be true community and reconciled in the cross. We need the Prince of Peace to know true peace.
    
    
11. Jesus is Our Revelation
    
    Who is God? Where do we begin? Start at the cross. Jesus reveals God to us. The centerpiece of Jesus' life is the cross. Look at the cross to see what God is like. Love and justice. Holiness and mercy. No other religion has a concept of God like that. Our God is not a god who asks for blood; instead, he offers his own. You can talk about the attributes of God all day; it is only in the cross that it all makes sense. The revelation of God comes together at the cross.

Mark closed with a few comments on 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 — the gospel must be reiterated to us, and we must remind our people of it. We must not assume it. If we do, they will deny it. It must be continually proclaimed and declared—not offered as a helpful suggestion! Jesus must be magnified. It must be RECEIVED. It is personal. We must be changed by it. We must go on believing it. It is central in every way. You can't teach marriage, parenting, work, or for that matter, anything, without the cross. It precedes everything else. The gospel gets passed on. Paul received it and passed it on. If anyone changes it, they are a demon. They are sent from Satan and they are going to hell. We don't change what we received!

It's all about Jesus!

• It is penal—Christ died.
  
• FOR our sins—it is substitutional.
  
• It is eschatological—Jesus didn't remain dead, but was raised. Forever is a really long time!

UPDATE
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 20th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 21st most popular post was my interview with Mark Dever.

This post introduced us to a remarkable new approach to a study Bible, brought to us by Crossway. In January 2008, I'm still working my way through this, reading it from cover-to-cover. I'm enjoying it very much.

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Crossway has made the preface of its new ESV Literary Study Bible available online. They have also made the text available for electronic purchase. I am very impressed with the introductions they offer to every passage in the Bible. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Too many Christians think that the literary study of the Bible necessarily implies that we do not believe it is inspired by God. This is, of course, not true. The Bible is, after all, a book. You will almost certainly find the comments in this new work totally different to those you have read in any other study Bible. As far as I know, this is the first truly literary study Bible.

Crossway has kindly given me permission to share the following extract here. It explains twelve literary features of the Bible which together make it unique:

1. A unifying story line.
   
   Although the overall genre of the Bible is the anthology of individual books and passages, the Bible possesses a unity far beyond that of other literary anthologies. The technical term for a unifying superstructure such as we find in the Bible is metanarrative (big or overarching story). In the Bible, the metanarrative is the story of salvation history—the events by which God worked out his plan to redeem humanity and the creation after they fell from original innocence. This story of salvation history is Christocentric in the sense that it focuses ultimately on the substitutionary sacrifice and atonement of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from death. The unifying story line of the Bible is a U-shaped story that moves from the creation of a perfect world, through the fall of that world into sin, then through fallen human history as it slowly and painfully makes its way toward consummation and arrives at the final destruction of evil and the eternal triumph of good.
   
   
   
2. The presence of a central character.
   
   All stories have a central character or protagonist, and in the overarching story of the Bible God is the protagonist. He is the unifying presence from the beginning of the Bible to the end. All creatures interact with this central and ultimate being. All events are related to him. The story of human history unfolds within the broader story of what God does. The result is a sense of ultimacy that comes through as we read the pages of the Bible.
   
   
   
3. Religious orientation.
   
   The subject of literature is human experience, and this is true of the Bible, too, but a distinctive feature of the Bible is that it overwhelmingly presents human experience in a religious and moral light. Events that other writers might treat in a purely human and natural light—a sunrise, a battle, a birth, a journey—are presented by the authors of the Bible within a moral or spiritual framework. Part of this moral and spiritual framework is the assumption of the biblical authors that a great conflict between good and evil is going on in our world and, further, that people are continually confronted with the need to choose between good and evil, between working for God's kingdom and going against God.
   
   
   
4. Variety of genres and styles.
   
   Every literary anthology of the Bible's magnitude displays a range of literary forms, but the Bible's range may well top them all. We need to be alert to this, because the religious uses to which we put the Bible can easily lull us into assuming that the Bible is all one type of writing. The list of individual forms, if we include such specific motifs as the homecoming story or trickster or love poem, keeps expanding. (A complete guide to these literary forms as we find them in the Bible is Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998].) The variety that we find in the Bible stems partly from the large categories that converge—history, theology, and literature, for example, or prose and poetry, realism and fantasy, past and future, God and people.
   
   
   
5. Preference of the concrete over the abstract.
   
   While the New Testament contains a great deal of theological writing, the general preference of biblical authors is for concrete vocabulary. This is especially true of the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. In the Bible, God is portrayed as light and rock and thunder. Slander is a sharp knife. Living the godly life is like putting on a garment or suit of armor. Heaven is a landscape of jewels. To read the Bible well, we need to read with the "right side" of the brain—the part that is activated by sensory data.
   
   
   
6. Realism.
   
   The prophetic and apocalyptic parts of the Bible give us a steady diet of fantasy (flying scrolls, for example, and red horses), but the general tendency of the Bible is toward everyday realism. The Bible displays the flaws of even its best characters (Oliver Cromwell famously said that the biblical writers paint their characters "warts and all"). Although the Bible does not delineate the sordid experiences of life in the extreme detail that modern literary realism does, it nonetheless covers the same real experiences, such as violence, murder, sexuality, death, suffering, and famine. Of course the Bible differs from modern realism by showing us that there is a realism of grace as well as a realism of carnality. In other words, the Bible is not content to portray the degradation of a world that has fallen into sin without also portraying the redemptive possibilities of a world that has been visited by the grace of God and is destined for glory.
   
   
   
7. Simplicity.
   
   Although the Bible is certainly not devoid of examples of the high style, especially in the poetic parts, its overall orientation is toward the simple. The prevailing narrative style is plain, unembellished, matter-of-fact prose. Shakespeare's vocabulary is approximately twenty thousand words, Milton's thirteen thousand, and English translations of the Bible six thousand. Biblical writers often work with such simplified dichotomies as good and evil, light and darkness, heroes and villains. Of course there is a simplicity that diminishes and a simplicity that enlarges. The simplicity of the Bible paradoxically produces an effect of majesty and authority.
   
   
   
8. Preference for the brief unit.
   
   Linked with this simplicity is a marked preference for the brief literary unit. Biblical poets tend to write brief lyrics, for example, not long narrative poems. Most long narratives in the Bible such as the story of Abraham or the Gospels are actually cycles of stories in which the individual episodes are briefer and more self-contained than what we find in a novel. The prophetic books are actually anthologies of self-contained oracles and snatches of narrative. Other familiar biblical genres reinforce this tendency toward simplicity—proverb or saying, parable, lists of individual commands or rules, summaries of what various kings did, occasional letters (epistles) in which the author responds to a list of questions that have been asked or a crisis that has arisen in a local church.
   
   
   
9. Elemental quality.
   
   The Bible is a book of universal human experience. It is filled with experiences and images that are the common human lot in all places and times. The Bible embraces the commonplace and repeatedly shows ordinary people engaged in the customary activities of life—planting, building, baking, fighting, worrying, celebrating, praying. The world that biblical characters inhabit is likewise stripped and elemental, consisting of such natural settings as day and night, field and desert, sky and earth. Even occupations have an elemental quality—king, priest, shepherd, homemaker, missionary.
   
   
   
10. Oral style.
    
    Even though the Bible that we read is a written book, in its original form much of it existed orally. This is true because ancient cultures were predominantly oral cultures in which information circulated chiefly by word of mouth. The literary forms of the Bible show this rootedness in an oral culture. The prevalence of dialogue (directly quoted speeches) in the Bible is without parallel in literature generally until we come to the novel. Everywhere we turn in the Bible, we hear voices speaking and replying. The spare, unembellished narrative style of the Bible arises from the situation of oral circulation of the stories. Additionally, many of the nonnarrative parts of the Bible show signs of oral speech—the prophetic discourses and oracles, the psalms (which were sung in temple worship), the epistles (which were read aloud in churches), and the Gospels (where the words of Jesus are a leading ingredient).
    
    
    
11. Aphoristic quality.
    
    An aphorism is a concise, memorable statement of truth—in the words of English poet Alexander Pope, “What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.” The Bible is the most aphoristic book of the Western world. It is filled with sayings that are part of the common storehouse of proverbs and idioms: “pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18); seeing “eye to eye” (Isaiah 52:8); a “house divided against itself” (Matthew 12:25). This quality is present not only in the wisdom literature of the Bible, but in all parts of the Bible and most notably in the sayings of Jesus.
    
    
    
12. The literature of confrontation.
    
    When we read Shakespeare or Dickens, we find ourselves moved to agreement or disagreement, but we do not ordinarily feel that we have been confronted by someone or something that requires us to make a choice. By contrast, when we assimilate the Bible we feel as though we have been personally confronted with something that requires a response. While this choice is ultimately for or against God, the ideas of the Bible, too, require us to believe or disbelieve them. The Bible displays a vivid consciousness of values—of the difference between good and evil—with the result that it is virtually impossible to remain neutral about the ideas that confront us as we read the Bible.

Summary
Perhaps none of the twelve features noted above is unique in itself. But if we put them together, they produce a book that is unique. Reading the Bible is not just like reading another book. It has an affective power and aura of authority that cannot be duplicated. It possesses a quality of encounter that other books do not display, so that as we read we are confronted with the voice and presence of God and are virtually compelled to believe or disbelieve what we are reading. The Westminster Confession of Faith provides an apt summary of the things that make the Bible unique: “the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole [which is to give all glory to God], the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God.”

From The Literary Study Bible, copyright 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For more information see also my previous posts on the ESV Bible.

Today we continue with the fourth part of my interview with Greg Haslam, pastor of Westminster Chapel in London (pictured here with his wife, Ruth). The previous three parts of this interview included an introduction to Greg and his ministry, on leaving Newfrontiers for Westminster Chapel, and Haslam on the primacy of preaching.

Adrian
Yesterday we spoke of the remarkable advance for church unity that your preaching conference represented. Despite the unity displayed in your conference and book, there were surely doctrinal differences that divided your collection of speakers, and even more issues that separate the rest of the Church. You obviously decided that you could work with a wide range of people. How do you weigh different issues on which you disagree, and decide which differences are important enough that you would not want to share a platform with someone?

Greg
Having a big heart for the unity God is looking for helps greatly (see John 17 and Ephesians 4:1-16). I suppose that order distinctions are helpful here: first-order truths and second-order truths. We cannot compromise the former, and we can learn to live with the latter. The first category includes the reality of an infinite-personal God, the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and the Holy Spirit, as well as the doctrines of salvation, atonement, regeneration, adoption, justification, sanctification, and glorification. The latter includes denominational differences, ecclesiology, styles of worship, church order, and eschatology. Meldenius' advice is good: “In all things essential, unity. In all things non-essential, liberty. In all things, charity.”

Adrian
What issues are facing the Church today where you feel you have to say you cannot work closely with someone who thinks differently to you?

Greg
Some of the things that most concern me are the ever present realities and influence of liberal theology and the attractions of Roman Catholicism in its worst forms. Recent controversies over penal substitution and the atonement are due to a rehash of 19th century liberalism as if this battle had never been fought before. I can be cordial with such people and make bridges so that the Gospel can be heard, but I wouldn't like to pretend or give the impression that our differences are minor, for they are not. I'm also alarmed by our frequent willingness to bed down with “the spirit of the age” and ignore the fact that this is the “Age of the Spirit.” We are never more relevant than when we obey the Holy Spirit's leadings and declare the Bible in all of its raw power.

Adrian
How should the Christian approach people who take these views?

Greg
In humility that we were once deceived about the truth ourselves, and charity that has a care and compassion for those who are presently misled. We needn't be humble or apologetic about the truth itself, though, nor muted in voicing what we really think. It is nasty and negative polemics we should avoid. But we should be very clear about where we stand on controversial issues.

Adrian
Given the doctrinal disputes and the press coverage about shrinking church attendance, are you depressed about the future of the Church in the UK?

Greg
No, I am not depressed about the future of the Church anywhere. Christ wins! The Church will still be here when everything else has gone. The best days of Church history lie ahead of us. Worldwide revivals will sweep the continents. Many have already happened or begun. This is the “Age of the Spirit,” and “The Holy Spirit will never allow the blasphemy to be voiced against his name that he was unable to convert the world!” (C. H. Spurgeon). I am at heart a great optimist where the Gospel and the work of God is concerned. Setbacks are never permanent, only temporary. Britain is in a state of apostasy at this time, and culpable for her rejection of history, the Bible, and the honor of Christ, and for her contempt for Christ's people. But this is no problem for God to remove and reverse. It's what I'm praying, preaching, and working for. “Of the increase of Christ's government and peace, there shall be no end” (Isaiah 9).

Adrian
I am glad to hear it! What are your hopes and dreams for the UK church in the next decade or so?

Greg
I long for several key things:

1. A recovery of the Gospel.
   
   
2. A renewed faith in the inspiration and authority of Scripture.
   
   
3. An increase in the honor of the Holy Spirit and his work to glorify Christ.
   
   
4. An increase in the number of healthy churches and church plants everywhere.
   
   
5. A respect and reception of Ephesians 4 ministries, increasing unity in the true Body of Christ.
   
   
6. Massive missional emphasis in the churches.
   
   
7. Genuine Holy Spirit reformation, renewal, restoration, and revival in the lives of the people of God . . . all fired by an “eschatology of victory,” not an “eschatology of escapology” which the Left Behind series of novels seems to have generated!

Continued in part five, "Greg Haslam on Being Reformed and Charismatic"

To find out more about Greg Haslam, visit Westminster Chapel’s website, or download mp3s of conference messages by Greg Haslam.

There are few places where one can go to study church history more rewarding than Dr. John Piper's biographical talks. He has a way of opening up the life of a great hero of the faith and showing us what we can learn from them. I'm finding myself in John Owen's Communion with the Triune God quite consistently at the moment, and am now over half-way through the book. I am finding it to be sweet to the soul and, thanks to Justin & Company, relatively easy going on the eyes!

I thought I would have a look at what the modern John has to say about his namesake. Piper begins his biography by emphasizing just how prominent an influence Owen has had in the centuries since his death. He even quotes approvingly those who elevate John Owen above Piper's other theological hero, Jonathan Edwards! Certainly his list of modern greats who express their debt to Owen is impressive.

But what I want to draw your attention to this Friday is the section which speaks about the experiential nature of an event that happened to John Owen years after he had become intellectually convinced of Calvinism. The event below is often described as Owen's conversion, although Piper, in introdcucing it, expresses some doubt about that. When confronted with events as experiential as those described below, we are faced with a dilemma. Many Christians today never experience this kind of personalized assurance of salvation. For many of those who have come before us, until they knew something of the love of God shed abroad in their own hearts, they could not confidently claim to be Christians.

Thus, one of two conclusions become possible. First, we might infer from reading about previous heroes of the faith that all salvation MUST be accompanied by an experience. Thus, we would have to conclude that many alive today in our churches have never truly been saved. Second, we could infer that while it is possible to become a Christian without any great emotional fireworks being set off, there is a distinct experience of God's Spirit that is available and brings assurance.

Ironically, a doctrine of a distinct experience of God could, in fact, be necessary precisely to allow for the fact that believers differ in the extent of their awareness of the presence and love of God. Far from creating "second class" Christians, it could be that this doctrine is necessary to ensure that people whose conversion expereince is not as dramatic as those outlined below can still be classed as Christians.

Can anyone read these accounts and be satisfied with an inferior experience of God? Or, like me, does reading them make you yearn for more of God? If the latter, let me encourage you to pray that God will reveal himself personally to you in the way he has to so many others before you. Then, read the Bible, sit under sermons, and continue to trust in God irrespective of what you feel while earnestly seeking the God who loved you so much that he came and died for you.

Let's see how John Piper describes the conversion of John Owen, which he writes about in a section detailing five events that shaped Owen's life:

The first is his conversion—or his assurance of salvation and deepening of his personal communion with God. It is remarkable that it happened in a way almost identical to Charles Spurgeon's conversion two centuries later. On January 6, 1850 Spurgeon was driven by a snow storm into a Primitive Methodist Chapel where a layman stood in for the pastor and took the text from Isaiah 45:22, "Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." Spurgeon looked and was saved.

Owen was a convinced Calvinist with large doctrinal knowledge, but he lacked the sense of the reality of his own salvation. That sense of personal reality in all that he wrote was going to make all the difference in the world for Owen in the years to come. So what happened one Sunday in 1642 is very important.

When Owen was 26 years old he went with his cousin to hear the famous Presbyterian, Edmund Calamy, at St. Mary's Church Aldermanbury. But it turned out Calamy could not preach and a country preacher took his place. Owen's cousin wanted to leave. But something held Owen to his seat. The simple preacher took as his text Matthew 8:26, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" It was God's appointed word and appointed time for Owen's awakening. His doubts and fears and worries as to whether he was truly born anew by the Holy Spirit were gone. He felt himself liberated and adopted as a Son of God. When you read the penetrating practical works of Owen on the work of the Spirit and the nature of true communion with God it is hard to doubt the reality of what God did on this Sunday in 1642.

Later in this biographical article Piper quotes Packer to further elaborate on this vital issue of communion with God:

Packer says that the Puritans differ from evangelicals today because with them ". . . communion with God was a great thing; to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology—but rarely of their daily experience of God."

But God was seeing to it that Owen and the suffering Puritans of his day lived closer to God and sought after communion with God more earnestly than we. Writing a letter during an illness in 1674 he said to a friend, "Christ is our best friend, and ere long will be our only friend. I pray God with all my heart that I may be weary of everything else but converse and communion with Him." God was using illness and all the other pressures of Owen's life to drive him into communion with God and not away from it.

But Owen was also very intentional about his communion with God. He said, "Friendship is most maintained and kept up by visits; and these, the more free and less occasioned by urgent business . . ." In other words, in the midst of all his academic and political and ecclesiastical labors he made many visits to his Friend, Jesus Christ.

And when he went he did not just go with petitions for things or even for deliverance in his many hardships. He went to see his glorious friend and to contemplate his greatness. The last book he wrote—he was finishing it as he died—is called Meditations on the Glory of Christ. That says a great deal about the focus and outcome of Owen's life. In it he said:

"The revelation . . . of Christ . . . deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations and our utmost diligence in them . . . What better preparation can there be for [our future enjoyment of the glory of Christ] than in a constant previous contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the Gospel?"

Lest we be in any doubt about how personally challenging John Piper finds the life of Owen, he states:

"Owen was authentic in commending in public only what he had experienced in private.

One great hindrance to holiness in the ministry of the word is that we are prone to preach and write without pressing into the things we say and making them real to our own souls. Over the years words begin to come easy, and we find we can speak of mysteries without standing in awe; we can speak of purity without feeling pure; we can speak of zeal without spiritual passion; we can speak of God's holiness without trembling; we can speak of sin without sorrow; we can speak of heaven without eagerness. And the result is a terrible hardening of the spiritual life."

Piper goes on to quote Owen as follows:

"A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may be poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us."

I preached the following sermon at Jubilee Church, London yesterday. You can read the notes, download the audio, or listen to it right here:




HEROES—At the outset I should warn you that Jacob is not your typical biblical hero. We often go to the Bible to learn about how to behave. We want to read about great men of God who we can model ourselves after. We want to learn how to behave, how to be a good father, a good husband. Jacob is not that kind of hero. Actually it is fair to say that none of the biblical heroes are without flaws. Jacob, I am sorry to say, had many flaws. He was not a good husband. He was not a good father. In fact, there is very little that we can positively learn from the way he lived his life. He constantly made mistakes. Initially, I wondered why this story was even in the Bible:

1. Because it is TRUE—an evidence for the Bible’s truthfulness we often forget is the terrible flaws of its heroes. No other nation on earth describes its founder in such unsavory terms.
   
   
   
2. It is there to teach us a message—possibly one of the hardest messages we come across in the whole of Scripture.

Romans 9:13 ". . . when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

I guarantee that you will have all kinds of questions about that verse; I know I do But the life of Jacob shows us that what the Apostle Paul says in Romans is true —God chose him not because of anything in him, but because he chose him. God's love for Jacob is so great that in comparison it is as though he hates Esau.

We have to ask ourselves a simple question: If we are a Christian, is it because of something in us or is it because of something God has done for us? When we look at an unbeliever, do we feel superior to them, or does it make us tremble to think that God could also have passed us by and left us in the mess we have made of our lives?

We might say, “Haven't I got free will? Yes, but God’s is freer!” (Terry Virgo)

God is the initiator. He can never be forced to act. He is sovereign and we must remember—HE IS GOD AND WE ARE NOT!

John Piper says it in this way, imagining what God might have said to Jacob:

"I have loved you with free, sovereign, unconditional, electing love; that is how I have loved you.

• My love for you is electing love because I chose you for myself above your brother Esau.
  
  
• My love for you is unconditional love because I chose you before you had done anything good or evil—before you had met any conditions—while you were still in your mother's womb (Genesis 25:24).
  
  
• My love for you is sovereign love because I was under no constraint to love you; I was not forced or coerced; I was totally in charge when I set my love upon you.
  
  
• And my love for you is free because it's the overflow of my infinite grace that can never be bought."

". . . Why do I tell you this?

• To humble you.
  
  
• To take away your presumption.
  
  
• To remove every ground of boasting in yourself.
  
  
• To cut the nerve of pride that boasts over Esau as though your salvation were owing to anything in you.
  
  
• To put to naught the cavalier sense of self-reliance that lets you dally in my presence as though you were an equal partner in this affair.
  
  
• To make you tremble with tears of joy that you belong to God.”

The story of Jacob is the story of God's unstoppable mission. Nothing Jacob can do will stop God's determination to bless him. It’s not about Jacob, it’s about God.

Actually that can be very encouraging for us. As I have been spending time getting to know Jacob, I have been encouraged. Here is a man who makes me feel like saying, If God can use him, perhaps he can use me too!

We see in the life of Jacob that it really is not all about him. We often say in this church that it’s “all about Jesus.” Jacob's life truly was “all about Jesus.” It was all about a plan that God had set in motion to call a people to himself. Jacob’s grandfather had received promises. Despite being a man of faith—the father of faith—he hadn’t really founded a nation. Isaac, Abraham's son, had repeated many of his father’s mistakes (passing off his wife as his sister) and had also not fathered a nation.

Jacob was an “expressive” leader, but he was not always received; he lived in the future, but tried to help God out. He got angry; he told people what to do; he wasn’t reserved. But somehow he was charming. He had strong reactions.

We can look at JACOB’S CHARACTER by examining some of the words he said.

Jacob’s first recorded words: “Sell me your birthright now.” (Genesis 25:31). And also verse 33: “Swear to me now.” He steals from and blackmails his brother, and then cheats him again.

“Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” (Genesis 27:11). Not “But mum, that would be wrong!” and then lies to his own dad and steals from his brother.

We then see Jacob, whose name means “grabber” or “supplanter” or basically “thief” running away. When God appears to him, we might expect God to punish him, maybe strike him dead.

“He was in disgrace, had incurred the bitter hatred of his only brother, and had shown himself a thief, liar, and scheming, mercenary wretch.” (McMillin, Bib Sac Volume 91 [1934]: Jacob At Penuel).

But by his grace, God instead reaffirms his promise to bless him. God makes an unconditional promise to an unreliable man.

Genesis 28:13-15: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

JACOB’S RESPONSE was to make God a conditional promise!

“If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God . . . .”

He would have made a good 20th century Christian—if God will look after me, I will follow him. Too often our faith is about what we can get out of God rather than how we can serve him.

We then see that when he meets the shepherds of Laban, he immediately begins to boss them around and tell them what to do!

He then BUYS his wife! “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Then he was tricked himself as he and Laban try to outdo each other in trickery.

He was a terrible husband (Genesis 29:30-31) “So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.”

He was incredibly insensitive. “Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” (Genesis 30:2)

He even let himself be bought for the night.

He had a RIGHTS BASED approach to life. He argued with Laban about who had tricked each other the most. Christianity is not a rights-based religion. Instead, it is about our responsibility.

Finally, having left Laban and heading back to an uncertain meeting with Esau, he humbles himself. His prayer is finally something we can copy!

Genesis 32:9-12 “And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

God never could prevail against one who used the weapons of “weeping” and “supplication.” (McMillin)

Jacob's wrestling with God was in some ways reminiscent of his life—he had been one who fought with God and man. God doesn't get rid of the fighting spirit, but directs it appropriately, and even names his people “one who struggles with God.” Are WE those who struggle with God?

“I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Genesis 32:26)

“For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:31)

Why delivered? It was Jesus who would save him and allow him to be hidden in his brother, not as a deception, but by the will of the father, and not so that he remained unchanged, but that he would be changed by being united with Christ. In fact, he was changed.

God made him say and own his name one more time before it could be wiped away. This is what God wants us to do. It’s not “I had a bad father; he loved my brother, Esau, not me" or even “I am struggling with a problem.” NO . . . it was “I am a deceiver, I am a cheat, I am selfish. I am in need of you. I need your blessing, Lord. I have messed up my life, but you keep blessing me.”

Actually lots of so-called "fighters" are as fearful and weak underneath as we later realize Jacob was. We are just better at hiding it! Fear leads some to be timid, and others to put a brave face on things.

GOD OPPOSES THE PROUD BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. (James 4:6)

God does take on fighters sometimes. He certainly isn’t frightened of them. If, like me, you are a bit of a fighter by nature, then know that if God takes you on, it might be a painful process. He will bring you low. He will take the brash over-confidence of youth and strip it away like he did with Jacob. As an older man he is almost quite timid, frightened of Esau. Then when God gets you to a timid, dependent state, he will cause you to rise up again—this time in HIS STRENGTH rather than your own, acknowledging HIM as King, and this time because ONE MAN PLUS GOD is the majority. No one will be able to fight against you. Why would you go on fighting against people and God? Why not surrender to the KING and let him lead you to fight on HIS side?

GOD IS GOD AND WE ARE NOT!

Finally became humble. Then he humbles himself with his brother, and is honored for his faith in passing on the blessing at the end of his life.

“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” (Genesis 48:15-16)

I love the way Isaiah 41 describes this way of God handling us:

But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand . . .
Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;
you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

To become a valiant warrior for God we must first surrender to him and recognize we are “a worm.” Some of us have issues we need to resolve with God today.

Illustration of my debate with myself about getting up to go to the prayer meeting. You know what the outcome of this debate is going to be—give up the struggle and walk with God today!

This past Sunday I preached on Abraham. You can download the sermon or listen to it here. I will share some brief notes with you here.

Isaiah 51:1-3
51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.”

We should obey this passage and consider Abraham - we have much to learn from him.

In Genesis 12:1 The Lord said to Abraham, go and leave your fathers house and family to the land I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and I will bless those who bless you and those who dishonour you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. And Abraham went...

These verses tell us that we can be in the blessing of God.

We might make a big event involving the media etc, but God starts a mission in other ways. He went to one man and said, 'GO!'

We can feel like an alien, being the only christian in our context. Abraham had to leave all that was familiar.

Summary of God's mission: 'Go, be blessed, be a blessing to others!'

Israel was characterised by being blessed and being persecuted.

God has put us on a mission....its His mission: To start a people.

GOD takes one man to bless the world contrast with what came before. Different nations initially a punishment but throughout the rest of scriptures were seen as a positive thing - multi-coloured wisdom of God.

God always chooses one person to bless the many. The summary of God's mission is this - GO, I will BLESS and then make YOU a blessing! Are we a blessing at school? Workplace? Family?

We will look at most of the words of Abraham since there are few better ways of getting to know someone than examining their words


1. THERE IS A TIME NOT TO SPEAK
Chapter 12

He doesn't speak in first half response to God "so Abraham went"

"So he built" SOMETIMES ITS BEST NOT TO SAY ANYTHING JUST OBEY
Don't give up the habit of meeting together, for example. When the bible says do something, we should do it, and when the bible says don't do something, we shouldn't do it.



2.THERE IS A TIME TO SPEAK MORE OPENLY

The first time Abraham is recorded to have spoken he makes a mistake. In verse 11 he tells his wife to say she is his sister, ie. lies by telling a half-truth. Being economical with the truth is not appropriate!

When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” Gen 12:11-13

When caught the first time he was perhaps wise to keep quiet and slip off...

Like us sometimes he didn't learn from his first mistake!

Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

Genesis 20:11-13
Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.’”

He was a man of no tact!


3. THERE IS A TIME TO LAY DOWN OUR RIGHTS

He was meek, despite God having given him the whole land. He did not stand up for his rights.

Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. [1] Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.”

But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand [1] to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.” Gen 14:22-24

Meekness should be the characteristic of all christians.


4. THERE IS A TIME TO BE 'REAL' WITH GOD

He was honest with God BUT TRUSTED HIM

FAITH- trust but we can be honest "Oh Lord I believe help my unbelief"

Genesis 15:2-3 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue [1] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”

He is not 'making a faith declaration', but is being honest with God. God, you promised, but what is going on here? Abraham faced the facts, yet believed God. Do we face the facts?

....v6 And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.


FAITH=TRUST and it is THE critical thing to our salvation and our ongoing walk with God.

We have all done things we are ashamed of, but we can still trust in God, like Abraham.

Romans 4:3-5, 16-25 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in [2] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness...

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24
but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

His faith was not perfect, and he is still called the father of faith despite his struggles TWENTY FIVE YEARS before had son

....v8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”


5. THERE IS A TIME NOT TO LISTEN TO OTHERS! or THERE IS A TIME TO NOT RUSH AHEAD OF GOD

Gen 16:2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children
[1] by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Gen 16:6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

6. THERE IS A TIME TO BE BOLD WITH GOD

There is a fine balance - sometimes we need to hold back and be patient, other times we need to boldly press in - knowing which takes wisdom.

Genesis 18:23-25, 27
Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”...

Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”.......

There is a contrast between when we need to be patient, take a step back and wait for God, and times when we need to press in and be bold. Other wise Christians can help you make that distinction. It is important to make that distinction.


7.THERE IS A TIME TO TAKE MASSIVE RISKS AND MAKE MASSIVE SACRIFICES

Jesus said, that if we will not lay down everything for Him, we are not worthy to be called his disciples.

Remember, we do not have such an accurate route of communication with God. God WILL NOT ask you to copy Abraham by killing your son, but he might ask you to kill your dream. GOD MAY BE BRINGING SOME DREAMS BACK TO LIFE BUT MAY BE ASKING YOU TO LAY DOWN OTHERS.

Sometimes God might ask you to kill a bad relationship, for example, or to kill a good dream. You can sometimes lay down a dream with the faith that it will come back. Later God may say, 'let the dream live again!'

Issac represents the PROMISE OF GOD. Looking at the words of Abraham throughout this story is revealing....

Genesis 22:1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.”

Genesis 22:5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy [1] will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Genesis 22:7-8 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a
burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a
burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Genesis 22:11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.”

Genesis 22:14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

ABRAHAM UNWITTINGLY PROVIDES POSSIBLY THE RICHEST PICTURE OF WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE CROSS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. THERE IS NO ANGEL TO STAY GODS HAND WHEN HE KILLS HIS SON. THERE IS NO LAMB TO TAKE JESUS PLACE, BECAUSE HE IS THE LAMB WHO TOOK OUR PLACE.

Isacc carried the wood up the mountain, as Jesus carried his own cross, both willingly. We can get caught up with blaming God for not looking after us properly but the truth is the only thing he "should" do is wipe us out the moment we first sinned. Jesus was the lamb who took our place, who took the wrath we deserve. God is more angry with sin than we think He is. It is only because of Jesus that His wrath can be turned away. That love that Abraham felt for his son, God feels for us.

The way Abraham trusted God should inspire us to serve the GOD who sacrificed so much for us and who has made us a part of the people of Abraham and hence caught up on the same mission Abraham was.

God wants us to go from being a consumer, to being a producer, in the context you are in. Have a part to play, however small. It is still a crucial part.

Rob Rufus
Rob was saved out of the Hare Krishna movement. He has been used to release the power of the Holy Spirit and to bring healings to many people. Rob planted and led Victory Faith Centre, South Africa for twelve years and then worked with Dudley Daniel at Coastlands Christian Centre in Adelaide, Australia. In 2005 he moved to Hong Kong to plant a church, which is growing rapidly.

Rob began his talk today by sharing his story, and how God brought it back to him as he was preparing for this talk. God demonstrates his love to us with his manifest presence. When he was living away from God, there was a time when he suddenly experienced the presence of God in such a way that it terrified him. Eventually he gave up running from Jesus. Then the presence came in such a way that he felt special and precious and valued by God. Since then, he says the pursuit of his life has been seeking the presence of God. Seeking the power of God leads to a life of utter unfulfilment.

We need to be sane, not religious. Some people who seem to move in the most power seem strange and almost insane. Jesus was not like that. He enjoyed being with people, would be in the middle of festivities. Jesus turned gallons of water into wine. Evangelicals have been trying to turn it back again for centuries. God wants us to be full of the abundant power of God. When we are filled with the glory of God we will be changed. This new ministry found in 2 Corinthians 3 is something fresh and delightful, bringing life. Liberty and freedom and grace come upon us and we are seen as perfect forever (Hebrews 10:14). We now carry the power of God in our frail bodies.

We can't live for the crowds, success, and miracles. We will never be satisfied with the power. We will only be satisfied with who God is, not just what God does. The presence of God thrills us and fulfils us. Enjoy the presence of God. Become a close friend of God. We need God-encounters to hear his voice, to experience him. In his presence there is always fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

Acts 9. Saul asked a question and answered it in the same verse: “Who are you, Lord?” Saul was saved on the Damascus road, but only filled with the Spirit when Ananias prayed for him. While Saul was persecuting, he (unbeknown to him) had already been set apart to be an Apostle. We are told he had been set apart from his mother's womb. When the glory comes, you are suddenly in the eternal realm. We are commanded to “Arise and shine, for your light has come!” Isaiah 60. We must take God out of the box in which we place him in our minds. He is eternally glorious and can do anything.

The Bible is full of signs and wonders. The best way to contradict counterfeit signs and wonders is to see the genuine wonders of God. The true prophetic sees the future and becomes the future in the now by coming into the cloud of the glory. What we are looking for is the powers of the age to come to break back into this current realm.

Once again this was a very difficult talk to take notes on. There was a strong sense of the presence of God in the room, and a desire to see more of God's glory manifest in our experience. This is a talk to listen to rather than read about. At the end of the message, a number of people testified to having been healed this week, mostly without anyone having prayed for them. It will be interesting to hear the confirmation of what God has been doing.

A number of logistical and technical challenges have been conspiring against live-blogging here over the last day or so — hopefully those are now resolved and normal service can return. I am glad that Andrew Fountain has been posting — I hope you are enjoying his posts. I am thrilled to have now been able to make it here — last night at one stage it looked as though storms would prevent me from getting here this morning, but in the providence of God — here I am!

We have just had a great time of worship. It focused around the cross and that phrase in Isaiah 53: “He crushed him”! There was also a sense of commissioning from the risen Christ to go out into the world with a mission inspired by the cross.

P-J Smyth
Married to Ashleigh with three sons — Jack, Ben and Sam — P-J leads Godfirst Church in Johannesburg, which is now two and a half years old. P-J is involved with helping plant new churches around Johannesburg and Southern Africa. His book, The World Needs More Elders, is helping many churches accelerate their development of leaders.

See also Andrew Fountain's notes on this talk: Joshua Part 2 - A New Phase in the Kingdom.

P-J Smyth spoke first today. He asked us to turn to Joshua 13:1 — the exact halfway point of the book. He began by explaining that this verse acts as a junction between two phases of the book. The first phase is all about being together and fighting battles together — a “we” phase.

Phase 2 begins when Joshua was old and much ground had been taken. “You are very old and there is still much to do.” Now there is a change, it's no longer all together. It's time to distribute it. Divide up the land. Pass the ball. The shift is to have trust in others. The purpose is to both hold what was taken already and to push on to more. Each of us has our own inheritance within our joint inheritance. We also have our own individual responsibility within what God has given us all to do together.

The second-half phase is critical to any ministry. This applies to small groups, eldership teams, a church itself, church movements. If we maintain things too tightly, we can drift into "headquarter-ism," passivity, or frustration. But it is not about unhealthy individualism, either.

Tips from the book. In chapter 13, we see everybody got an allotment. In verse 14, we see that the Levites did not have an inheritance of land, but the offerings. God is their inheritance. They did have a clear role, but a different one to the others. It was not as visible. They did not have clear territories. It wasn't easy to pin down. There is a role in not having a role!

Caleb, an older man in chapter 14:7, was, in contrast, very specific. “Now, give me my mountain.” ME is okay as long as it is part of the WE. He had waited for forty years because of the corporate need. He loved the together, refusing to do it alone for all those years. There is a time for individual response and a time to move together. Are you still in pursuit of your mountain? Or are you tired of waiting?

Chapter 15:17ff is a younger lady — Caleb's daughter. She asks for a special favour. We can go to the Father direct. God has an inheritance for each of us. She wasn't just grateful for what she had, but asked for more. We need to be very cheeky in what we ask for! Simon Pettit used to pray, “Lord, you say we don't have because we don't ask. Well, here we are asking .....”

Judah couldn't do it. Perhaps they should have asked for help. Or maybe it's just one of those sovereign things that are associated with living in a fallen world. We will have some disappointments. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be discouraged. We need to be looking forward, longing for heaven. We need battle experience.

The tribe of Joseph in chapter 17:14ff responded by reminding Joshua how blessed they were. In verse 15, Joshua says “go for it.” They replied to that by saying we need more, and reminding him of the strength of the people. Suddenly they seem weak, and so Joshua encourages them further. The “me moment” is really scary, but we must press on through. Joseph seemed to think the others should clear the land for it. Joshua didn't offer to clear the land for them. Sometimes it's just us and God. Don't do too much for them, rather let them do it. Allow their gift to make room for them. But do prophecy and speak faith and life.

Each of us has a specific role. Don't look at others and say, “Why can't I be like that?”

Simeon and Judah in 19:1. Joshua gave from Judah to Simeon as they had more than they needed. All have an inheritance, but for some it seems like it's part of someone else's. Some of us are "number two" type leaders. It's still your inheritance in the Lord, but wrapped up in another's. We need to learn to be content with that. Be delighted with people like Titus.

In chapter 22, we see those who had served others and were told it is now time to return to what is yours. Civil war nearly arises. There is an investigation, and they said that they were concerned that in the future they would be told they were not part of it. We need to take initiative, and sometimes others might even think we are rebels. Leaders at every level need to rise up. Sometimes, like David, we will be called proud and conceited. It is not a question of being motivated by our own glory; rather it is the glory of God. We can't go much further without each of us being all we are meant to be in God. We need to take responsibility to hold land and take land. Let's rise to the challenge. We must each play our part submitted to the leadership and the whole vision. We are still together, but each having a part to play in fulfilling the promises God has given us and the vision God gives us.

This is it. The end. My final post in this series. Of course, I am sure I will return to this subject from time to time — especially if there are other developments in the wider scene. But this really is the conclusion of my series — it is time to move on to other matters.

It is only appropriate that the final quote in this prolonged series on the cross be given to that stalwart champion of penal substitution who recently finally retired — John Stott.

"The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us."

"The crucial question we should ask . . . is not why God finds it difficult to forgive, but how he finds it possible to do so at all.”

“When . . . we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely hell-deserving sinners, then and only then does the necessity of the cross seem so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.”

— John Stott

“The Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.”

(Isaiah 53:6)

Some say only Christians, some say the whole world. The “L” of the TULIP acronym is definitely one of the most controversial and most misunderstood. I refer you to my previous series for more detail on the “limited” nature of the atonement, but today I want to stress some points that we can surely all agree upon.

Firstly, we can surely agree that Jesus’ death was enough for the whole world, but will not be permanently applied to the whole world—so while unrepentant sinners do benefit temporarily from the death of Jesus, they will not benefit forever. It is only those who are united with Jesus that will ultimately benefit. Thus, to me the Scripture teaches that there is a sense in which Jesus died for the whole world, but another sense in which He died especially for those of us who are Christians.

“. . . we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all people, especially of those who believe.” (1 Timothy 4:10)

I like the way that Lloyd-Jones explains the benefits that come to the whole world from Jesus’ death:

“ . . . the only thing that made it possible for God to continue to have any dealings or any relationship with this world at all was the work that our Lord was going to do. So it was the cross, as it were, that spared the world and allowed it to continue. And in the same way, it is the cross and the cross alone that spares the life of anybody who ever sins at any time. It is only because of the work of the cross that God can even tolerate sin in any shape or in any sense.”

— Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1996). God the Father, God the Son (362), Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois.

Ultimately, of course, Jesus died for THOSE OF US who are being saved.

• Isaiah 53:14 — “ . . . he bore the sin of many . . .”
  
  
• John 15:13 — “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.”
  
  
• 1 John 3:16 — "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.”
  
  
• 1 Corinthians 5:8-9 — “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”

Believe it or not, I am now very close to the end of this series. All that remains is for me to share a few of my favorite quotes on the atonement from other authors. As I close my own thoughts, I want to thank God that we have, indeed, been “saved by Him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:8)

As we finally draw towards the close of our series on the atonement, I thought it would be helpful to use the following tool to help us review where we have been. I found this helpful quiz online. Many of these questions address doctrinal issues that we have discussed, although some of them are factual and may not have been answered directly in my posts.

The quiz is meant to be answered from the perspective of what John Stott says in his book The Cross of Christ. It can also be used to helpfully clarify your own position. It’s a simple true/false answer for each question. Why not jot down your answers and then see how they compare to John Stott? You may remember that earlier in the series I shared a quote from Stott with which many today would feel uncomfortable. How much do you agree with Stott?

Before we get to the quiz itself, there are two questions that the writer considers crucial to delineating where we stand on the cross—and I would certainly agree with him.

• Where is the cross directed? Is it directed toward human beings to change our minds and to bring us to repentance or to change our feelings, or is it directed toward God Himself?
  
  
• Was it absolutely necessary for God to become a man and die in our place?

TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Crucifixion was regarded with horror in the ancient world.
   
   
2. Jesus did not die of His own choice.
   
   
3. Because Judas' betrayal of Jesus was foretold in Scripture, he is not to be regarded as responsible for the betrayal.
   
   
4. We must attribute Jesus' death simultaneously to the plan of God and to the wickedness of human beings.
   
   
5. Human death is not a natural, but a penal event.
   
   
6. It is exaggerating that in the Last Supper Jesus viewed His death as a divinely appointed sacrifice by which the new covenant with its promise of forgiveness would be ratified.
   
   
7. The cup from which Jesus drank in Gethsemane was the emotional and physical trauma of crucifixion.
   
   
8. The cross of Christ shows the gravity of our sins.
   
   
9. Scripture consistently treats human beings as morally responsible agents.
   
   
10. An acknowledgement of human guilt before God diminishes the dignity of human beings.
    
    
11. Because human anger is so often tainted by sin, it is wise never to speak of God's anger or wrath.
    
    
12. All inadequate documents of the atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and man.
    
    
13. Anselm taught that the major effect of Christ's death was to move the hearts of sinners to love God.
    
    
14. For God to be able to forgive sinners, He Himself needed to be satisfied in His inner being.
    
    
15. There are a few things in God Himself that are incompatible with His true deity.
    
    
16. Christ's death is rarely presented as a sacrifice in the New Testament.
    
    
17. Theologians have successfully retained the vocabulary of substitution while rejecting penal substitution.
    
    
18. Jesus applied Isaiah 53 to Himself.
    
    
19. The Father and Son should be separated when we are thinking about the atonement.
    
    
20. In the cross, divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.
    
    
21. It is impossible to hold to the historic doctrine of the cross without holding to the historic doctrine of the person of Christ.
    
    
22. There is no sense in which God needed to be propitiated.
    
    
23. The New Testament never presses the imagery of redemption to the point of telling us to whom the ransom was paid.
    
    
24. Christ's blood does not stand for His death, but for the release of His life.
    
    
25. Justification is the opposite of pollution.
    
    
26. Since the publication of Hans Kung's book, Justification, there has been widespread proclamation of justification by grace alone through faith alone in the Roman Catholic Church.
    
    
27. Justification should not be separated from union with Christ.
    
    
28. Christ reconciled the cosmic powers by disarming them.
    
    
29. God did not need to be reconciled to us.
    
    
30. In the book of John, the cross is a manifestation of God's glory.
    
    
31. Although in His forbearance God had temporarily left sins unpunished, now in justice He has punished them in Christ.
    
    
32. Peter Abelard is the father of the moral influence theory of the atonement.
    
    
33. Gustav Aulén, in Christus Victor argued for the importance of the moral influence theory of the atonement.
    
    
34. In the cross, the conquest of our enemies was achieved and consummated.
    
    
35. We ought not to ascribe saving efficacy to both Christ's death and resurrection equally.
    
    
36. Because Christ has set us free from the law, Christians have no obligation to obey God's law.
    
    
37. Because Christ died for our sicknesses as well as for our sins, there is healing in the atonement.

The quiz was written by Robert Peterson of Covenant Theological Seminary, and there is a great article online that has the answers and an explanation for each question.

One of my commentators didn't like my last post when I said that God really does change us when we become a Christian. I am not going to get into the philosophical arguments he does. As O don't think the Bible All I can say is that when God declares someone to be righteous, in some mysterious way he makes us righteous.

I remember well what Terry Virgo who is one of my theological heroes once said in a comment I read in one of his books. He began a sentance as follows - "When I was a sinner..."

Do you still think of yourself as a "sinner"? Or do you think of yourself as a saint - a holy one? I think it is revealing that this concept of us as made righteous is one of the casualties of the denial of Penal Substitutionary Atonement. For without a notion of Jesus bearing our sins away (Is 53) how can we believe that they are no longer ours?

Lets read together a few verses that speak to this issue of us being made righteous--

• Romans 5:19 "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."
• Psalm 51 "Have mercy on me, O God,according to your steadfast love;according to your abundant mercyblot out my transgressions.Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,and cleanse me from my sin. . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness;let the bones that you have broken rejoice.Hide your face from my sins,and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God,and renew a right spirit within me. . . Then I will teach transgressors your ways,and sinners will return to you."
• Isaiah 6:7 "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
• John 1:29 "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
• Acts 22:16 "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name."
• Hebrews 9:26 "..he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
• 1 John 3 "..Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. . .he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. . .Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous."
• Romans 6 "...can we who died to sin still live in it? . . .our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. "
• Psalm 103 ". . .He does not deal with us according to our sins,nor repay us according to our iniquities.For as high as the heavens are above the earth,so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;as far as the east is from the west,so far does he remove our transgressions from us."
• Isaiah 43:25 "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,and I will not remember your sins."
• 2 Cor 5:21 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

If God does not remember our sins, and has cleansed our guilt, then they no longer exist. We have a clean slate. We are free. It is "just as if I'd never sinned" but more than that it is "Just as if I'd always been holy"

Praise God for his wonderful mercy and love that he should provide a way that cost him so much to rescue us from the mess we have made of our own lives. We deserve nothing but wrath from him, and he gives us everything. What love. What grace. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

There has been a certain amount of reaction to yesterday's post on the atonement. Clearly there are two issues here -
1. Do we accept that Isaiah 53 teaches us about Jesus' death or is the suffering servant somebody else?
2. If we accept that Isaiah 53 is about Jesus, does it teach Penal Substitution?

The answer to the first question is very straightforward if you believe the bible is without error and Jesus can be trusted. For he himself tells us who the prophet is speaking of -

Luke 22:37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.”

So, can we now all accept that Isaiah 53 is about Jesus? Jesus himself might not have had a theological degree, but I do think we should take his exegesis seriously!

The Oxford Bible Commentary cited in the posts of one of my commentators actually begins as follows

"No passage in Isaiah, or indeed the whole Hebrew Bible, has attracted more attention than this the fourth and last of Duhm’s Servant Songs. It is disputed to what extent it was the subject of speculation and interpretation within Judaism before the Common Era. Certainly the portrayal of the servant here was applied to Jesus within the NT, most notably in Acts (cf. 8:32–5) and in 1 Peter (e.g. 2:22), and probably in many other places as well; in view of what we have said in the introduction about the importance of the reader, it would be quite wrong to dismiss such understandings as illegitimate. This is what the Christian reader may well discern in these verses. Characteristically Jewish tradition has given a corporate interpretation to this poem, seeing it as prefiguring the persecution undergone by the Jewish community. Until the last century Christians in general followed the NT in applying it to Jesus. The rise of critical scholarship has led to an enormous variety of suggested ‘identifications’ of the servant...

The picture in these verses is clearly of the death of the servant, and the appropriateness of the NT application to Jesus is clear enough, given the presuppositions of its writers." Oxford Bible Commentary.

Despite having begun in that way, the commentary continues to argue that the servant could instead have been Israel. Evangelicals ought not to follow such paths. Surely we can all agree on an answer to question 1?

Now, as far as question 2 goes, I simply cannot see how Isaiah 53 can possibly be stripped of the idea of punishement and substitution. Dave Warnock claimed in this comment section to have found commentaries that disagree. He does not quote or explain their arguments. I do not agree that the "but" in verse four can possibly mean that there is a complete change happening in the meaning. If Isaiah had wanted to say Jesus was not actually punished by God this seems a pretty strange way of saying it.

To paraphrase the argument on the other side - it seems that they are claiming Isaiah meant something like this "We considered Jesus to be punished by God and afflicted....but he was almost but not quite punished - he carried our sins but please dont think that meant he was punished be God...." This seems like a very very odd way of reading this passage.

It is much more natural to read it something like this again paraphrasing horribly "We thought he himself was being punished by God because of his own sin, how wrong we were as he was actually punished because of OUR sin, carrying our sin - so everything he experienced he experienced instead of us and it was in fact God's will and purpose that it should happen"

It is to me an open and shut case. I am as always open for others to explain how this passage can be stripped of any penal element, but so far I just cant see it!

If there is one passage in the whole of Scripture that contains the doctrine of penal substitution in its most clear form, it is Isaiah 53. Here, truly, we stand on holy ground! Those who criticize the traditional view of the atonement must become contortionists to escape the implications of this passage. Some claim this is not referring to Jesus at all, and yet Jesus Himself and many of the New Testament writers clearly apply this passage to Him. For example, this is the passage which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading, and which Philip used to explain the Gospel to him clearly applying what the prophet had to say in Isaiah 53 to Jesus. (Acts 8)

In Isaiah's prophecy we see that Jesus takes on Himself our sins, griefs, and sorrows. We see clearly that He is ACTIVELY punished by God with words like smitten, afflicted, wounded, chastised, and crushed all being attributed to God. We see that it was Jesus’ suffering that made our salvation possible. What more do we need to convince us? I will simply let the passage speak for itself:

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all … it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin … out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities … he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:4-12)

UPDATE - I have commented on criticism this post has received in a post entitled "Who is preaching another gospel?"

The history of the Church is quite simply the history of unlikely heroes who God raises up to meet the challenges of the hour. It was a great delight for me to recently spend some time with two such heroes—Dr. Andrew Sach and Dr. Steve Jeffery. They are both Anglican ordinands studying at Oak Hill Theological Seminary and yet, together with their new Principal-Elect, Dr. Mike Ovey, they have written a book that is shaking the evangelical world.

As we sat and ate mushroom soup in a very ordinary flat, I couldn’t help but give thanks to an extraordinary God who uses ordinary people for His purposes.

Pierced For Our Transgressions is a substantial theological book, yet it outsold its first print-run in just a few days. It has also had the longest list of endorsements of any recent evangelical book. When I spoke with Andrew and Steve, it had not been long since N. T. Wright had issued his strong rejection of their work as “profoundly unbiblical.”

I asked the two of them how they felt about Wright’s rejection of their work and the acclaim it had received from others. They both exuded the quiet, unconcerned response of those who know they have been commissioned by God. Yes, they had expected opposition, but no, they hadn’t realised it would come from N. T. Wright. As far as the long list of endorsements is concerned, this was to them not so much a reflection on the quality of the book itself as on the absolute importance of the topic to such a broad sweep of evangelical leaders. This is what Andrew said:

“We’ve been teased a bit about the length of the endorsements list! And some people have misunderstood it, thinking that it’s there just as a marketing ploy, or as evidence that we are very insecure! But those pages and pages of names at the start of Pierced for Our Transgressions are not there primarily because everyone loves the book. They are there because those people believe that penal substitution is of critical importance, and they fear that the Church will lose the Gospel if it is abandoned. The fact that such a range of people is represented—bishops, seminary professors, church leaders, songwriters, charismatic and non-charismatic, Baptist and Presbyterian, British, American, African, Australian—is testimony to the consensus that exists: penal substitution is fundamental ...

On another level, the endorsements do help with our insecurities! We’re not Old Testament specialists, and so to have top-rate scholars like T. D. Alexander or Tremper Longman III say “They got that right!” is a huge comfort. The same goes for the likes of Don Carson or Peter O’Brien on the New Testament. We’re humbled and surprised by the calibre of people who have backed us, to be honest, but if that strengthens the credibility of our work, especially in the face of opposition like that we’re getting from N. T. Wright, then we’re thankful.”

Their sense of commissioning by God was so palpable that it was no great surprise to hear from them a very similar story to what I had heard from Liam Goligher about the origins of his book on the atonement.

Andrew’s involvement in the current atonement controversy began at Spring Harvest Word Alive in 2004, when Steve Chalke’s book, The Lost Message of Jesus, first hit the shelves. One of his friends in their chalet read out the now infamous portion which speaks of penal substitution as “cosmic child abuse,” and Andrew realised that some kind of response was needed. A couple of weeks later he teamed up with his tutor, Mike, to write a review of the book for the newspaper Evangelicals Now.

Later that year, the Evangelical Alliance hosted a public debate in response to the furore caused by The Lost Message. During the debate, a friend leaned over to Steve and simply asked, “Where is the book that responds to this?” To Steve this came as a challenge that wouldn’t leave his mind. Whilst there were plenty of books that taught penal substitution—John Stott’s classic, The Cross of Christ, for example—they did not deal with recent objections. Steve felt an unshakable conviction that he should do something—he put it down to “providence.” At this point we had a good laugh about how what he had called providence I might well have called prophecy.

Before long Steve had Andrew and Mike on board and the book was born. A publishing contract with IVP UK was obtained, and the American rights have now been taken up by Crossway (rather than American IVP, who have recently published material opposed to penal substitution). Andrew and Steve spoke glowingly of the joy writers experience when they have a publisher behind their book who really cares about the message and not just the profit margin. They were eager to thank the team at IVP UK that helped them so much.

The style of the book is a little different from many previous theological works. They have revived an old model of doing theology which states your position and then interacts with every possible objection to it. At times it almost reads like blogging. I think a book like this serves us well in the age of the online conversation. Interaction and discussion can only help to bring clarity, and ultimately strengthens us theologically. Whilst the writers cannot possibly anticipate every objection, certainly the major ones are highlighted and addressed.

Andrew and Steve are two charming, gentle men who are, however, clearly passionate about our view of the cross. We spent some time discussing the implications of recent events in the evangelical scene—especially in the UK. We all agreed that a reconfiguration of the evangelical culture seems inevitable. Old alliances have broken, and new ones will be forged. Suddenly the old dividing lines do not seem to be as important as what is quite definitely the most important issue facing evangelicalism today. Andrew said:

“We were worried that things could split along charismatic versus conservative lines. Prominent critics of penal substitution, such as Steve Chalke in the UK and Brian McLaren in the States, have most influence in charismatic circles, whereas Steve, Mike, and I—and Liam Goligher for that matter—would probably be identified as “conservatives.” The fact is, though, that there are many charismatic brothers who stand exactly where we are. Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor has identified himself as an ally; Greg Haslam from Westminster Chapel has written a passionate article supporting penal substitution for Christianity magazine; New Frontiers are with us, and many in New Wine.

In the States they have this thing called “Together for the Gospel” which has brought together Christians from very different places on the charismatic/non-charismatic spectrum, united by their common commitment to the evangelical essentials. I think we’re beginning to see the same thing over here with New Word Alive. It’s very exciting.

But, yes, there are those who have taken the other side, and we must have the courage to part company with them.”

These two gentlemen do not pull any punches when required, as this short extract from the book which interacts with the now infamous section from Steve Chalke shows:

Consider this extract from Steve Chalke and Alan Mann's book, The Lost Message of Jesus:

John's Gospel famously declares, 'God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son' (John 3:16). How then have we come to believe that at the cross this God of love suddenly decides to vent his anger and wrath on his own Son? The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement 'God is love.' If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus' own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil.” (Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), pp. 182-183.

This example has it all. First, penal substitution is criticized, but in vague and unspecified terms; it is said to contradict the Christian teaching about God's love, but we are not told exactly how; it is said to be 'morally dubious', but we are not told why; it is said to contradict the Sermon on the Mount, but there is no careful exegesis to enable us to assess this claim.

Secondly, penal substitution is misrepresented. Whoever said that God's decision to punish his Son was 'sudden,' as if to imply that it was a capricious outburst of rage? Certainly no proponent of penal substitution we have read. Was the penal suffering of the cross not carefully planned, even prophesied in Isaiah 53 many centuries before the event?

Thirdly, there is the ultimate example of guilt by association. Penal substitution is portrayed as 'a form of cosmic child abuse.' This sticks in the mind, tugging at the conscience, for there are few crimes more despicable than violence towards an innocent, defenceless child.

The fact is that none of it is true. Nowhere in Chalke and Mann's book do they even attempt to argue that it is true. The above quotation amounts to a form of verbal bullying, a scare tactic calculated to coerce people into abandoning long-held beliefs out of fear of being associated with something nasty.”

That kind of courage and direct talking is much needed in the Church today. I am very glad that Steve, Andrew, and their Principal-Elect, Mike Ovey, have been raised up by God to make such a spirited and needed defence of the Gospel.

It struck me that despite the fact that the church I attend is just a few miles from Oak Hill, if it had not been for the recent attacks on the atonement, I would probably not have met these too delightful servants of God. Sometimes theological controversy in the Church has a helpful outcome. If there had not been ancient heretics, we would never have had the creeds.

Our opponents think we are divided, think that we care more about modes of baptism and the definition of prophecy than we do about the cross. They are wrong. There is a newfound mood of determination among many confessional evangelicals such as Andrew and Steve; the list of endorsements shows a willingness for people from across the evangelical spectrum to unite around the Gospel.

Whilst many in the evangelical movement in the UK are eager only for peace and would prefer that we did not speak about issues like the atonement, the words of people like Andrew and Steve are definitely finding a resonance in many ears. A new generation is rising up who are not prepared to be silent. A generation who are saying “Enough is enough!” A generation who are convinced that our views of the cross must not be modified to become more acceptable to the culture.

As I left them I couldn’t help but be grateful for the way God chooses unassuming people like Andrew and Steve for great tasks in His Church. I suspect that they never dreamt that they would write a book which would become something of a touchstone for a generation of Christians. This issue and this book of theirs demands a clear response that will bring definition to a movement rapidly drifting into oblivion.

Where do you stand? Will you join arms with Andrew, Steve, and a whole generation of those of us who feel this issue is quite literally one of life and death?

Or will you seek to compromise, maybe downplay the importance of precisely how Jesus saves us, and adopt a gospel message that, whilst sounding more acceptable to the modern ear, is in the opinion of many of us nothing less than “another gospel.”

The stakes couldn’t possibly be higher.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)

In the last post in this series on the atonement, we examined some wrong ideas about the cross. Today we will simply list some verses for us to meditate on which address the terrible problem of sin.

This series is based on teaching I first gave at Jubilee Church. If you want a sneak preview of what is coming you can download the audio (you may need to right click and save to your PC) or listen online here:

Today I want us to spend some time thinking about the following verses. Go away and look them up in their context. Mull them over. Ponder them. Worry about them. The truth is — unless we understand the depth of our problem, we will never understand the wonder of the solution God has provided for us.

• “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
  
  
• “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:23-24)
  
  
• “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” (Romans 1:18)
  
  
• “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
  
  
• “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
  
  
• “. . . your iniquities have separated you from your God.” (Isaiah 59:2)

Continues with "The Atonement - N. T. Wright Attacks Both Sides of the Debate"

In a previous post in this series on the atonement, we asked, “Does the Cross of Jesus Matter?” Today we will look at the historical background surrounding the cross in the Bible. You will find a list of some of the most recent posts about the atonement from my blog at the end of this post — and if you follow the xml link you will see a longer list.

This series is based on teaching I first gave at Jubilee Church. If you want a sneak preview of what is coming you can download the audio (you may need to right click and save to your PC) or listen online here:

Mark Dever’s masterful book, The Message of the Old Testament — Promises Made, rightly states that the message of the Old Testament is that there were certain promises being made. These promises were all to be fulfilled in Christ. It is not a cliché to say that, in one way or another, the whole of the Old Testament points to Christ — and in particular to His cross.

From the fall of Adam, to the flood, to the Exodus, the Passover, animal sacrifices, the life of heroes like King David, and the encounter of Isaiah with a terrifying God who cleanses his sin, we see the coming of Jesus prefigured. Many of these images simply require a form of atonement in Jesus which includes some of the difficult concepts like a God of wrath who hates sin and will punish it.

The God of the Old Testament has made certain demands on us which form the law. We cannot seem to obey the law without sinning. Therefore, we are left in a terrible place — being under his wrath.

Some people believe they can make a different God from the New Testament than the wrathful, jealous, and vengeful God we see in the Old Testament. The problem with that is — the New Testament nowhere repudiates the image of God that we are left with from the Old.

The Old Testament, however, does not merely portray God as angry and full of hatred towards sin. From the first pages of Genesis — where we see God promising to kill Adam and Eve the day they eat the fruit, and yet He does not do so, promising instead a future deliverance — we see a mystery.

The mystery is simply this: how can a holy and just God love and forgive sinful mankind whilst remaining just? This is the question of the Old Testament. We are left with a massive question after an honest reading of the book. How can God be just and still forgive sin?

This question is raised nowhere more clearly than in Exodus 4, where the two sides of God are clearly described. Since we are all guilty, we are left with a problem for which the Old Testament largely does not offer a clear solution. God is both loving and forgiving, yet never “clears” the guilty. Any understanding of the cross has to contain within it the answer to this dilemma.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty . . .” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Continues with "The Atonement - The Mission of Jesus"

The latests posts from my blog about the atonement can be seen below. For more, follow the xml link:

This sermon was preached at Jubilee Church on Easter Sunday 2007. The audio is available to download (you may need to right click and save the file to your PC) or to listen to online here:

Let’s turn in our Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians. As you are turning there, you need to know that right now you are in the best place you could possibly be this Easter morning. You are right where God wants you to be. God has made an appointment with each and every one of us this morning. Some of you might be thinking, “Why did I come?” Well, at this moment you have come here to have this book, the Bible, explained to you. You need to know that this is the most important book in the world. If there is one day of the year that is the most important of the Christian year, it is Easter Sunday. You are here on the most important day of the Christian year. If there is one message that is central to this book it is the message of the Gospel. If there is part of the message of the Gospel that is so vital it simply cannot be ignored, it is the good news of the resurrection. We are going to look together today at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. He is risen indeed!

We celebrate the resurrection every Sunday — for that is the reason why Christians from the earliest times switched to meet on Sundays rather than Saturdays like the Jews. They would gather early every Sunday before the dawn because Christ was risen early on a Sunday morning. Today, this is a meeting WITH Jesus, this is a meeting FOR Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15 — Verses 1-6 and 12-22
There are two groups of people — those who are standing firm in the word of their salvation and those who Paul warns might have “believed in vain.” If I was a “politically correct” preacher, I would begin my message by being inclusive, and perhaps speaking about the brotherhood of man. The trouble is, Paul doesn’t do this. Instead he distinguishes between people, and claims only some of them as his brothers. As a messenger, I have to be true to God’s Word! Paul is clear that there are certain things that are true of those who he can truly call his brothers. You have felt something of the “family feel” of this place, I’m sure, and afterwards you will be most welcome to join us. But I suspect that for some of you right now, you are thinking — what is it about those people — do they have something I don’t? The answer is, “Yes, you are right — we do!”

Some of you right now are thinking, “At least I am a Christian — I might not go to church much, I might not practice my faith much, but I am here today — what more does he want?” The truth is — a recent survey revealed that the majority of adults in the UK still think they are Christians. Paul would have one thing to ask us all this morning, “Are you holding fast to the word preached to you?” For many, sadly, they have not really had the Bible explained or preached to them. Perhaps you are one of them — you go to church for christenings, weddings, and funerals — hatch, match, and dispatch! Perhaps some Christmases and Easter, too.

I want to draw a clear line this morning — not so much between the Christian and the non-Christian, but rather between the Christian who is standing firm in his faith, who is walking with God, who is confident of his salvation — who knows God is pleased with him and he is on his way to heaven. On the other hand, there is everyone else. Paul issues that warning right at the beginning of our passage — “unless you have believed in vain.” Look, as James says, even the devils believe in God. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19)

I want to give you a chance this morning to cross that divide and make your faith sure. There is one place to do that more surely than anywhere else, and it is the place we are gathering this morning. You might expect me to say we will come to the cross — and we will, of course, speak about the cross — but, in fact, we are coming to the empty tomb. For it is at the empty tomb that we meet Jesus — He is not dead, He is risen!

The good news is the story of Jesus and how the events of his life 2000 years ago still have a major impact on us today. What does Paul say is the most important thing?

What is the “good news” or “gospel” according to Paul?

There are three aspects:

• Christ died
  
• He was buried
  
• He was raised from death.

Historians are very clear about two things about Jesus — He existed, and He was crucified. There are no serious thinkers who doubt those two facts. Indeed, the whole edifice of history comes tumbling down if you claim that they are not true for there are no events of history that are better attested to than those. If we cannot be sure Jesus lived and died, then we cannot be sure of any event in history.

But the fact that there was a man who lived 2000 years ago, then died, is not a “hold the presses” news story. The fact that He was a great teacher is not even a major news story. The fact that He was reported to work miracles is not even as totally unusual as you might think. The fact that He founded a religion does not even make Him unique — although, admittedly, fewer people manage that one! Actually the fact that he hung on a cross and was crucified through no fault of His own is not even unique to Jesus — thousands of people were crucified.

• He really died – a professional executioner saw and confirmed it — the spear demonstrated it . . . THERE WAS NO BACK-UP HEART = “Drat! One has gone, just as well I have got another one spare” — He’s not Doctor Who!

There is, however, one fact about Jesus that makes Him unique. There is only one thing that marks Him out as totally different from every great figure in history. That is the fact of the empty tomb! Again, even secular historians admit that there was an empty tomb. So we have seen, there is no doubt Jesus lived, there is no doubt He died, and we can be sure He was buried. We can also be sure that there was an empty tomb and a movement was born in the months and years after His death that claimed He had been raised from the dead and was now worthy of worship.

Something dramatic happened to transform a timid group of good Jewish boys who knew very well that there was only one God and they must worship Him or go to hell. They became a bold set of preachers who would turn the world upside down and do so with a message that said “this man who you crucified God raised him from the dead, and we are now to worship him.” Not exactly a message that is easy to believe is it? Not something that you would make up.

One thing is for sure. If the Jewish or Roman authorities could have lead us to the body of Jesus, they would have done so. It simply is untenable to believe that explains the empty tomb. So what other options do we have — that the disciples stole the body and knew all along they were lying? That simply doesn’t make sense psychologically — for people lie to gain some kind of benefit; if these guys lied, they got killed for it — not one of them broke ranks and said, “Oops, we were only kidding.” YOU CANT SCARE ME WITH DEATH — Jesus already conquered it! No, Paul could point to 500 people who were willing to say “I saw Him.”

Could it have been a hallucination? No, hallucinations don’t happen to a crowd all at once like that.

We also have to explain the amazing phenomenon that has been the Church of Jesus Christ. No religion ever grew more quickly, and no religion today is as widespread. And the one thing the Church agrees on is this — Jesus rose from the dead. Millions of people have claimed to have met Him. Paul is very clear — if this didn’t happen, every Christian who has ever lived is to be pitied more than anyone. Everyone who has, at a funeral, believed their loved one had gone to be with Jesus is deluded if He is still buried somewhere in Israel. The apostles and every believer has falsely testified about God that He raised Jesus from the dead.

And if He is not risen, every great transforming work of the Jesus is somehow a delusion. Every great social reformer like Wilberforce or Newton who claimed to be driven by a call from Jesus should be locked up rather than revered as a great historical figure.

• Without the resurrection, the Christian religion comes tumbling down — like taking the bottom piece out of jenga.
  
• Christianity is the meanest cruelest HOAX if Jesus is still dead — it is cruel and sadistic. Here we are singing to a dead man, praying to a dead man, preaching about a dead man, worshiping a dead man, trusting in a dead man! If Jesus is dead, everything is changed.
  
• The resurrection is crucial. If it wasn’t for the resurrection, we would still be in our sins. How could Jesus work in us to forgive us and make us like Him if He is still dead?
  
• “BUT,” as Paul simply says here, “IN FACT, CHRIST HAS BEEN RAISED!”
  
• Jesus is NOT dead – He is alive. Every other religious leader is dead — no one else conquered death — only Jesus.

The resurrection was Jesus’ justification — it was God’s stamp of approval that He still loved His Son, and that the work had been done. Jesus had died for our sins; now He was being raised up for our justification (as Romans 4:25 puts it). It is not just that our sins are dealt with and that we are made morally neutral before God. It is not only “just as if I’d never sinned,” but also “just as if I’d lived a perfect life for eternity and was as pure and righteous as Jesus!”

Jesus still had merit left after the cross — it is not as if sin swallowed His merit up — quite the opposite! His goodness and merit swallowed up sin so that, although on the cross God couldn’t look on Him, God simply couldn’t abandon His perfect Son to the grave!

THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS! “All the love and acceptance which perfect obedience could have obtained of God, belong to you because Christ was perfectly obedient on your behalf.” (C. H. Spurgeon).

“Remember God has accepted us. The gospel of grace is a message of breathtaking freedom. It must be embraced with faith and thanksgiving. You are thoroughly accepted just as you are. Jesus Christ is your righteousness, and He is never going to change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you wake tomorrow, He will still be your righteousness, before you have done anything to enjoy God’s favor. You have to earn nothing. Your spirit needs to bask in the brilliant sunlight of this reality. You need to know it inwardly and celebrate it on a daily basis.” (Terry Virgo).

The resurrection is also the one thing that gives us hope. For if Christ has been raised, then as Paul says here — we, too, shall be raised if we trust Him.

The Bible is not very complementary about us without Jesus — it says we are “without hope and without God in this world.” (Ephesians 2:12).

• We are born spiritually dead.
  
• As we go through life, false hope simply makes us more desperate because every disappointment is like death to hope — “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
  
• We go through life feeling something is missing. “There must be more to life than this.”
  
• We are so far from truly living life to the full as God intended it that we are effectively dead already — we are dead men walking.
  
• We spend our lives trying not to talk about death, but knowing it is coming.
  
• When we come face-to-face with the man whom death could not hold, we have a hope. For the Christian, what Peter says in chapter 1 of his epistle, verses 3 onwards, is true.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead . . .

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3–5).

Is that true of you this morning? If not, it can be! You can meet Jesus. You can be born again because of the resurrection. Your spiritual death can be swallowed up

• Sin does not win — Jesus does!
  
• Death does not win — Jesus does!
  
• He really did die for our sin and rise for our salvation, and we can sing to Him today, and can confess our sins to Him because He is alive.

He said — I am God. I have come to take away sin. I will die, and three days later come back to life again to prove it. He did prove it!

Solidify your faith this morning — dwell on this resurrection of Jesus, let it give you a firm foundation. Start with this issue when talking to the unbeliever about the message of the Bible — this is the big one!

What is the outcome for us of the resurrection?

• Our sins are dealt with and we are declared righteous.
  
• Born again — a new beginning, with the old behind us, including our fears and our guilt.
  
• A hope for the future that goes beyond the grace.
  
• A hope for now that transforms our lives.
  
• A relationship with Jesus — we can know and love Him even though we don’t see Him with our eyes.

I have come to the end of what I want to say to you, but let me give Jesus an opportunity to speak. This is what he once said, and I believe He would say to us today:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Do YOU believe this?

How do we become a Christian? It is a matter of becoming united with Christ — of putting our trust in Him. Of taking a public stand — “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Baptism is the way we publicly demonstrate what has happened — we die with Christ, we are buried with Him, and we are raised back to life. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus — it really is good news. Do you believe it?

BACKGROUND QUOTES

“If the Lord Jesus Christ had not literally risen physically from the grave, we could never be certain that he had ever really finished the work. And what was the work? It was to satisfy the demands of the law. The law of God demands that the punishment for sin shall be death, and if he has died for our sins, we must not only be certain that he has died, but that he has finished dying, and that there is no longer death. He has answered the ultimate demands of the law, and in the same way he has answered all the ultimate demands of God. The argument of the New Testament is that when God raised his Son from the dead, he was proclaiming to the whole world, I am satisfied in him: I am satisfied in the work he has done. He has done everything. He has fulfilled every demand. Here he is risen—therefore I am satisfied with him.

Not only that. The Resurrection proved that he has conquered every enemy that was opposed to him, to God, and to us. He has not only satisfied the law and conquered death and the grave, he has vanquished the devil and all his forces, and hell and all the principalities and powers of evil. He has triumphed over them all, and he proves it in the Resurrection. The devil cannot hold him; death and hell cannot hold him. He has mastered them all; he has emerged on the other side. He is the Son of God, and he has completed the work which the Father had sent him to do.

And all this, of course, is of vital importance to us. It is only in the light of the Resurrection that I finally have an assurance of my sins forgiven. It is only in the light of the Resurrection that I ultimately know that I stand in the presence of God absolved from guilt and shame and every condemnation. I can now say with Paul, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1) because I look at the fact of the Resurrection. It is there that I know it.

You notice how Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15:17 when he says, ‘If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.’ If it is not a fact that Christ literally rose from the grave, then you are still guilty before God. Your punishment has not been borne, your sins have not been dealt with, you are yet in your sins. It matters that much: without the Resurrection you have no standing at all.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Assurance of Our Salvation: Exploring the Depth of Jesus' Prayer for His Own: Studies in John 17 (Originally published separately in four volumes, 1988-89, Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Books, 2000), p. 492.

“. . . though Scripture, when it treats of our salvation, dwells especially on the death of Christ, yet the Apostle now proceeds farther: for as his purpose was more explicitly to set forth the cause of our salvation, he mentions its two parts; and says, first, that our sins were expiated by the death of Christ, — and secondly, that by his resurrection was obtained our righteousness. But the meaning is, that when we possess the benefit of Christ’s death and resurrection, there is nothing wanting to the completion of perfect righteousness. By separating his death from his resurrection, he no doubt accommodates what he says to our ignorance; for it is also true that righteousness has been obtained for us by that obedience of Christ, which he exhibited in his death, as the Apostle himself teaches us in the following chapter. But as Christ, by rising from the dead, made known how much he had effected by his death, this distinction is calculated to teach us that our salvation was begun by the sacrifice, by which our sins were expiated, and was at length completed by his resurrection: for the beginning of righteousness is to be reconciled to God, and its completion is to attain life by having death abolished. Paul then means, that satisfaction for our sins was given on the cross: for it was necessary, in order that Christ might restore us to the Father’s favor, that our sins should be abolished by him; which could not have been done had he not on their account suffered the punishment, which we were not equal to endure. Hence Isaiah says, that the chastisement of our peace was upon him. ( Isaiah 53:5 .) But he says that he was delivered, and not, that he died; for expiation depended on the eternal goodwill of God, who purposed to be in this way pacified.

And was raised again for our justification. As it would not have been enough for Christ to undergo the wrath and judgment of God, and to endure the curse due to our sins, without his coming forth a conqueror, and without being received into celestial glory, that by his intercession he might reconcile God to us, the efficacy of justification is ascribed to his resurrection, by which death was overcome; not that the sacrifice of the cross, by which we are reconciled to God, contributes nothing towards our justification, but that the completeness of his favor appears more clear by his coming to life again.

— John Calvin, Commentary on Romans, chapter 4

Beloved, the dying Christ has purchased for us our justification, but the risen Christ will see that we get it. The risen Christ has come to bring it to us, and herein we rest. Oh, that you would all rest in the finished work of Jesus on the cross, which is set forth to you in all its brightness by his rising again from the dead! Put the two parts of our text together, “Who was delivered for our offenses,” “and was raised again for our justification.” You need them both, trust in them both; trust in the Savior who died upon the cross, and trust in the Christ who rose again, and is now the living Christ; trust, in fact, in Christ as he revealed himself to John in Patmos: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” Lord Jesus, as such we trust thee, as such we trust thee now, and we are saved!

— C. H. Spurgeon, Sermon 235

“Our reflections here on the Resurrection need to be set against a broad historical background. As a generalization - no doubt subject to qualification but still fair as a generalization - we may say that in the history of doctrine, especially in soteriology, Christ's resurrection has been relatively eclipsed. In Eastern Orthodoxy, if I rightly understand, the accent has been on his incarnation (with a view to salvation understood as theosis or deification). In Western Christianity (both Roman Catholic and Protestant), especially since Anselm (eleventh century) and the ensuing debate triggered, say, by the views of Abelard, attention has been focused heavily and at times almost exclusively on Christ's death and its significance. The overriding concern, especially since the Reformation, has been to keep clear that the Cross is not simply an ennobling and challenging example but a real atonement - a substitutionary, expiatory sacrifice that reconciles God to sinners and propitiates his judicial wrath. In short, the salvation accomplished by Christ and the atonement have been virtually synonymous.

My point is not to challenge the validity or even the necessity of this development, far less the conclusions reached. But in this dominating preoccupation with the death of Christ, the doctrinal or soteriological significance of his resurrection has been largely overlooked. Not that the Resurrection has been deemed unimportant, but all too frequently it has been considered exclusively as a stimulus and support for Christian faith (which it undoubtedly is) and in terms of its apologetic value, as the crowning evidence for Christ's deity and the truth of Christianity in general . . .

An unbreakable bond or unity exists between Christ and Christians in the experience of resurrection. That bond is such that the latter (the resurrection of Christians) has two components - one that has already taken place, at the inception of Christian life when the sinner is united to Christ by faith; and one that is still future, at Christ's return. From this it will be readily apparent how Paul's teaching on the fundamental event of resurrection reflects the overall already/not-yet structure of eschatological fulfillment in the period between Christ's resurrection and his return.”

Richard B. Gaffin, Redemption and Resurrection: An Exercise in Biblical-Systematic Theology Themelios, volume 27.2, Spring 2002, pp. 16-31. Online here.

Continues with the series "The Resurrection Empowered Life"

Today we draw to a close our series on the attributes of God—which has been inspired by the T4G Statement—by publishing an article which, in an abridged form, has already been published in the online Comment magazine.

The article addresses the nature of God, but focuses on the fact that we need to learn to love this God—which is surely a good way for us to round off this series.

For more posts on the T4G Statement, Articles 1-4 see Ten Conclusions About Expository Preaching, and for more on Articles 5 and 6, see the following posts:

• Book Review on How Much Does God Foreknow?
  

• T4G Articles 5-6 — Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Trinity and Attributes of God
  

• International Federation of Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches Issue Warning — Do Not Jump in Church This Weekend
  

• T4G Articles 5-6 — The Attributes of God and the Trinity
  

In the light of eternity, we are all beginners in the task of learning to love God. It is the most significant challenge faced by the Christian. When asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” It is a measure of our spiritual weakness that we see this challenge as somehow less critical than the challenge to live morally.

How can I love someone I have never seen? We may experience a form of “love” for a character we read about in a book or see in a movie, but is that anything like the love we feel for someone we actually know? Is our love for God just a form of admiration that we might feel for a hero in a novel or the long-deceased subject of a biography. God is not the long-dead subject of a book. He is a living, breathing Person. How then can we learn to love Him as a real person?

I am convinced that the way we learn how to love God is to think of our relationship with Him in the same way we do with people we can physically see. God wants us to be His friends and to enjoy loving the One who is the most worthy of our love. We grow in our love for God in the same way we grow in our love for anyone else. In this article I will show you ways in which we build our relationships with other people and then apply them to how we can learn to love God Himself.


Love Goes Beyond Mere Feelings
The first thing to consider is, what does love actually mean? Many people think that love is simply an emotional feeling — like the way you feel when your knees go weak when you meet that someone of the opposite sex for the first time. Too often songs and sermons tell Christians to relate to God as if He were their heavenly boyfriend. Not surprisingly, that picture is frequently not very appealing to men. As Mark Driscoll says, “It's hard to worship someone you can beat up.” We must learn to love the real Jesus—not a weak imitation.

The contemporary concept of love is far from the biblical one. It is dangerous to think of love in merely emotional terms: Love is a “doing word,” a word full of action. It requires choices—hard choices sometimes. Love is about sacrifice, about faithfulness. It requires commitment. It doesn't always feel so good, and sometimes may even be very painful. As Daniel Bedingfield sings, “Nothing hurts like love, nothing causes your heart so much pain.” Loving God is no different. It, too, will at times be painful.

The first step toward learning to love God is to respond to His love for us. We do this because of what He has done for us: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Like any other covenant relationship, we decide to love irrespective of how we feel or, indeed, how it appears to us another person is treating us. The extent of true love for someone else is not measured by how we feel about him when everything is going well. Satan's words could as easily have read, “Does Job love God for nothing?” (Job 1). Our challenge is to love even when we feel things are not going well — to love from the core of ourselves even when we feel despair attempting to take hold.

What is love? Love is a deep-seated orientation of your life towards someone else. It involves your whole being. It usually involves deciding to put the needs of another person before your own. Just ask any parent. Our relationship with God is no different, except that He doesn't have any needs—we are needy. We come to God determined to centre our lives around Him, and to put ourselves in the position of needy recipients of His grace. He calls us to serve Him and worship Him, but it is not because He is deficient in any way. We come to God as receivers, not givers. We love God as little children love their parents, and serve Him in the same way a good mother will ask her child to help her in the kitchen so the child will learn and so they can be together.


Love Requires Spending Time Together
There are no shortcuts to loving someone. Love demands interaction and communication, and these require an investment of time. Imagine a friend who comes to you complaining about his girlfriend. He explains that their relationship just doesn't seem to be going anywhere. You ask him how long they have been going out, and what their conversations are like. Your friend replies, “Oh, we don't actually go out and talk with each other!” Many Christians spend little or no time with God and then wonder why they are not growing in their relationship with Him.

What does spending time with God look like? Clearly one of the most important ways we spend time with God is in prayer. But how do we pray in such a way that we actually feel that we are in the presence of God — that we are in a real conversation with Him? Prayer must not be merely reciting a shopping list to God. Instead of rushing to ask Him to do things for us, we start by praising Him for who He is and thanking Him for what He has done for us. As we do this and experience clear answers to prayer, just as in any relationship, more of a sense of a shared history with God will emerge and love will deepen. The longer we know Him and the more we remember how He has helped us and answered our prayers, the more we will love Him. But prayer is not only about setting aside special periods of time to be with God. It's that sense of continually communing with Him in our daily routine. It is critical that we also spend time with God in repentance and receiving forgiveness. Jesus said that those who are forgiven much will love much (Luke 7:49).


Love Requires a Deep Knowledge and Understanding of the Other Person
There is no substitute for getting to know and understand God by reading the Bible. We must grow in the biblical knowledge of who God is and what He is like. Many Christians have only a vague idea of the character of God and are unable to identify where the Bible teaches what we assume about Him. To grow in our love for God, the Bible must shape our beliefs about God. I believe it is important that we know why we believe what we do, and that we do not merely parrot theories taught by others.

Do we merely “assume” certain truths about God? Unfortunately, not all of these can be assumed these days. Where C. S. Lewis was able to say, for example, “Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow” (Mere Christianity), we can no longer assert it as something generally understood by our culture. If we compromise on these truths and we end up with a God who doesn't know everything or who isn't all-powerful, our ability to love such a weakened God is severely diminished.

As we learn more about God—His glory, His perfection, and His existence as the Trinity—I believe our love for Him will grow. We can trace throughout the Bible the unique characteristics of God, and see how Jesus shares every one of these. It is said of Jesus that "in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). He is the revelation of God to us. The more we learn of Him, the more we love Him.

We must understand God in all his transcendence and immanence. As the book of Exodus describes God: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7). Many Christians emphasize one or the other of these aspects. It is only as we understand that God is both loving and holy, near to us yet separate from us, that we will learn to love Him for who He is. The following table will help you to allow the Scriptures to shape your understanding of God and the way that Jesus shares all of His attributes:

GOD EXISTS ETERNALLY
God: Psalm 90:2; Revelation 1:8
Jesus: John 1:1-5; John 17:5; Revelation 22:13

GOD IS LOVE
God: 1 John 4:8
Jesus: John 17:24

GOD IS THE CREATOR
God: Romans 11:36; Psalm 104:24; Acts 17:24-25; Ephesians 3:10
Jesus: Colossians 1:15-17

GOD IS OMNISCIENT - HE KNOWS EVERYTHING
God: 1 John 3:20; Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 139
Jesus: John 2:24-25; John 16:30

GOD KNOWS THE FUTURE
God: Isaiah 46:9-11
Jesus: John 13:19

GOD IS NOT BOUND BY TIME
God: 2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4; Exodus 3:14
Jesus: John 8:58-59

GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE
God: Malachi 3:6
Jesus: Hebrews 13:8

GOD IS WISE
God: Romans 16:27; Psalm 147:5
Jesus: 1 Corinthians 1:24

GOD IS TRUTH
God: Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2
Jesus: John 14:6

GOD IS OMNIPRESENT - HE IS EVERYWHERE
God: Psalms 139:7-10; Jeremiah 23:24
Jesus: Matthew 18:20

GOD IS OMNIPOTENT - HE IS ALL POWERFUL
God: Jeremiah 32:17; Ephesians 3:20
Jesus: Mark 4:41

GOD IS UNCONTAINABLE
God: 1 Kings 8:27
Jesus: Matthew 17:2-6

GOD IS LIGHT
God: 1 John 1:5
Jesus: John 8:12

GOD IS SPIRIT
God: John 4:24
Jesus: John 1:14

GOD IS HOLY
God: Psalm 99:9
Jesus: Luke 4:34

GOD IS RIGHTEOUS AND JUST
God: Luke 18:19; Matthew 5:48
Jesus: 2 Corinthians 5:21

GOD IS JEALOUS AND FULL OF WRATH
God: Nahum 1:2
Jesus: John 2:17

GOD'S WILL ALWAYS ULTIMATELY COMES TO PASS
God: Ephesians 1:11; Job 42:2; Proverbs 19:21; Psalm 115:3
Jesus: Matthew 28:18

The Spirit Helps Us to Love God
It is sad that the arguments over charismatic gifts of the last century have led so many of us to forget that for hundreds of years many Christians understood that our birthright is an experience of God mediated by the Holy Spirit.

Christian leaders of the past spoke of a pouring out of the Holy Spirit that would help us to experience God's love. That is rarely spoken about today—even charismatic Christians sometimes have a tendency to over-emphasize the gifts instead of the Holy Spirit’s work in promoting the intimate knowledge of God that we are intended to have. The Bible describes the Spirit as follows: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). Clearly it is not an option to ignore the Third Person of the Trinity if we want to grow in our love for God.

Jesus is very clear about how we demonstrate our love for Him, and what the results are. He links obedience with love, and then He promises that those who obey Him will know the presence of God by way of the Spirit’s presence in the world: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him . . . my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:21).

The Apostle Paul describes it this way: “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5) He also writes, “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6). If we need help in loving God, we should ask His Spirit to aid us in our weakness and teach us how to love Him.

Jesus says an incredible thing: “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). I am increasingly provoked that few Christians would say that their experience of the Spirit was preferable to Jesus’ living in the world bodily. But Christians should seek a deeper experience of God's Spirit — not for experience's sake, but that we might love God more.


We Learn to Love Others by Spending Time With Their Friends
How often do Christians effectively say to Jesus,, "I love you, but I don’t really like your bride," by their indifference and their lack of commitment to a local expression of the Church? For all of us who are beginners at loving God, playing active roles in local congregations will help us learn to love God in all of the way I have mentioned so far. But more than that, by giving and receiving love from other members of the family of God, we will be exposed to the many facets reflecting the glory of God. The church is intended to demonstrate the multicolored wisdom and glory of God (Ephesians 3:10). We cannot love God properly without loving His Church. As we learn to give ourselves sacrificially in love to our spiritual family in the same way we love our natural family, our love for God increases. This is of such vital importance that Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

I believe God has put the Church on earth to love God, to love each other, and to love the world. I pray that God will give us the desire and ability to do each of these better.

Read more about loving God on Adrian's blog:

• What is Love?


• What is God Like?

There is little doubt as we continue a short look at the attributes of God, inspired by the Together for the Gospel Statement, that possibly the attribute which currently has the most controversy surrounding it is that of God’s foreknowledge.

For some neoliberals, it is preferable to think of a God who is every bit as surprised by the actions of people as we are. God can — according to some of them — sympathize with people's hurt because He, too, is shocked by how events unfold. He is either powerless to stop certain events or has chosen to limit His power. It is my belief that this view of God strips Him of His dignity and sovereignty and creates a “god” in our own image who no longer deserves the name of the God of the Bible.

Steve Roy’s book, published in 2006, aims to be a comprehensive biblical study on the subject of the foreknowledge of God. I believe he achieves his goal in every way. Roy is not afraid to address the concerns of the “open theists,” and lists their arguments, addressing the Scriptures that they commonly use to support their view of God.

Roy doesn’t merely counter the arguments of the detractors, he restates, explains, and supports from the Bible the traditional Christian view of a God for whom the whole of time is as a twinkle in His eye — who knows the end from the beginning.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. It was such a help for me when I was preparing for my talk on the attributes of God.

Here are just a few quotes from the book:

“God knows the future! His foreknowledge has rightly been prized hy Christians of all generations. Much of the confidence, hope, and joy of the Christian life traditionally has heen based on the conviction that God knows the future . . . Thus throughout the various traditions of the church, Christians have taken great comfort in God's response to their prayers, precisely because He knows all things perfectly, including all of the future. Indeed, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus encourages his disciples to a robust life of prayer precisely because "your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask" (Matthew 6:8).

“In what ways could God's repentance be different from human repentance? John Calvin is helpful here. He seeks to understand how humans might come to change their minds and then asks whether any or all of those factors might be present in God. Calvin proposes that a change of mind can come in a human being when one is "ignorant of what is going to happen, or cannot escape it, or hastily and rashly rushes into a decision of which he immediately needs to repent.” In other words, human beings might repent if they learn something new that they had been previously ignorant of, or if they realize they do not have the power to do what was originally planned, or if they develop a new perspective in which what was originally thought to be a good plan is now understood to be not so good. Calvin, then, argues that none of these conditions (lack of power, lack of knowledge, lack of a proper perspective) apply to God. "Concerning repentance, we ought so to hold that it is no more chargeable to God than is ignorance, or error, or powerlessness ...”

“So how should we understand the repentance of God if we affirm his foreknowledge of free human decisions? I suggest that divine repentance denotes Gods awareness of a change in the human situation and his resulting change of emotions or actions in light of this changed situation . . . this does not necessarily imply that the changed human circumstances were unforeseen by God and that God has learned something new as a result of these free human decisions.”

The book ends with the following words from Isaiah 46, which seem to me to be pretty conclusive:

“I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose’
...I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.”

The next two articles in the Together for the Gospel Statement discuss the nature of God. The concept of the Trinity is so entwined with God’s attributes and who He is I have decided to roll these two articles into one. I have already posted an extensive set of notes and an audio on the attributes of God and the Trinity. In my talk I demonstrated that Jesus can be shown from the Bible to share every major attribute of God that theologians describe. Enough of these are also ascribed clearly to the Spirit for us to say He must hold all the unique attributes of God also. There are also more articles on the trinity elsewhere on my blog.

Today, after sharing the two articles, I will share a long quote from what may possibly be the best article on the Trinity in the world. It is cited as by "Desiring God Staff" tho I am sure Piper was involved in it somehow. I encourage you to go read it all—I think it will be incredibly helpful.

Article V

We affirm that the Bible reveals God to be infinite in all his perfections, and thus truly omniscient, omnipotent, timeless, and self-existent. We further affirm that God possesses perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including all human thoughts, acts, and decisions.

We deny that the God of the Bible is in any way limited in terms of knowledge or power or any other perfection or attribute, or that God has in any way limited his own perfections.

Article VI

We affirm that the doctrine of the Trinity is a Christian essential, bearing witness to the ontological reality of the one true God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of the same substance and perfections.

We deny the claim that the Trinity is not an essential doctrine, or that the Trinity can be understood in merely economic or functional categories.

“WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT GOD IS A TRINITY?

The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons; (2) each Person is fully God; (3) there is only one God.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3-4). Are these just three different ways of looking at God, or simply ways of referring to three different roles that God plays?

The answer must be no, because the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as the Son. Likewise, after the Son returned to the Father (John 16:10), the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world (John 14:26; Acts 2:33). Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be distinct from the Father and the Son.

In the baptism of Jesus, we see the Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove as Jesus comes out of the water (Mark 1:10-11). In John 1:1 it is affirmed that Jesus is God and, at the same time, that He was "with God"—thereby indicating that Jesus is a distinct Person from God the Father (cf. also 1:18). And in John 16:13-15 we see that although there is a close unity between them all, the Holy Spirit is also distinct from the Father and the Son.

The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Jesus is God, but He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the Son or the Father. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at God.

The personhood of each member of the Trinity means that each Person has a distinct center of consciousness. Thus, they relate to each other personally—the Father regards Himself as "I," while He regards the Son and Holy Spirit as "You." Likewise the Son regards Himself as "I," but the Father and the Holy Spirit as "You."

Often it is objected that "If Jesus is God, then he must have prayed to Himself while He was on earth." But the answer to this objection lies in simply applying what we have already seen. While Jesus and the Father are both God, they are different Persons. Thus, Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying to Himself. In fact, it is precisely the continuing dialog between the Father and the Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; John 5:19; 11:41-42; 17:1ff) which furnishes the best evidence that they are distinct Persons with distinct centers of consciousness.

Sometimes the Personhood of the Father and Son is appreciated, but the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is neglected. Sometimes the Spirit is treated more like a "force" than a Person. But the Holy Spirit is not an it, but a He (see John 14:26; 16:7-15; Acts 8:16). The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that He speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). These are all qualities of personhood. In addition to these texts, the others we mentioned above make clear that the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Personhood of the Son and the Father. They are three real persons, not three roles God plays.

Another serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the passages we have seen imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all eternal.

While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities.

Each Person is fully God. If God is three Persons, does this mean that each Person is "one-third" of God? Does the Trinity mean that God is divided into three parts?

The Trinity does not divide God into three parts. The Bible is clear that all three Persons are each one hundred percent God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God. For example, it says of Christ that "in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9). We should not think of God as like a "pie" cut into three pieces, each piece representing a Person. This would make each Person less than fully God and thus not God at all. Rather, "the being of each Person is equal to the whole being of God." The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into "parts."

Thus, the Son is not one-third of the being of God, He is all of the being of God. The Father is not one-third of the being of God, He is all of the being of God. And likewise with the Holy Spirit. Thus, as Wayne Grudem writes, "When we speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together we are not speaking of any greater being than when we speak of the Father alone, the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone."

There is only one God. If each Person of the Trinity is distinct and yet fully God, then should we conclude that there is more than one God? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one God: "There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 45:21-22; see also 44:6-8; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4-5; 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:60).

Having seen that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, that they are each fully God, and that there is nonetheless only one God, we must conclude that all three Persons are the same God. In other words, there is one God who exists as three distinct Persons.

If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." First, notice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. We baptize into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second, notice that each Person must be deity because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, would Jesus have us baptize in the name of a mere creature? Surely not. Therefore each of the Persons into whose name we are to be baptized must be deity. Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their name (singular), not names (plural). The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. This can only be if they share one essence . . . .

How is God one? He is one in essence. How is God three? He is three in Person. Essence and person are not the same thing. God is one in a certain way (essence) and three in a different way (person). Since God is one in a different way than He is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. There would only be a contradiction if we said that God is three in the same way that He is one.

So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. But how does it show us why there is only one God instead of three? It is very simple: All three Persons are one God because, as we saw above, they are all the same essence. Essence means the same thing as "being." Thus, since God is only one essence, He is only one being-not three. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. For if we deny this, we have denied God's unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God).

What we have seen so far provides a good basic understanding of the Trinity. But it is possible to go deeper. If we can understand more precisely what is meant by essence and person, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will then have a more complete understanding of the Trinity.

ESSENCE AND PERSON
Essence. What does essence mean? As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. God's essence is His being. To be even more precise, essence is what you are. At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the "stuff" that you "consist of." Of course we are speaking by analogy here, for we cannot understand this in a physical way about God. "God is spirit" (John 4:24). Further, we clearly should not think of God as "consisting of" anything other than divinity. The "substance" of God is God, not a bunch of "ingredients" that taken together yield deity.

Person. In regards to the Trinity, we use the term "Person" differently than we generally use it in everyday life. Therefore it is often difficult to have a concrete definition of Person as we use it in regards to the Trinity. What we do not mean by Person is an "independent individual" in the sense that both I and another human are separate, independent individuals who can exist apart from one another.

What we do mean by Person is something that regards himself as "I" and others as "You." So the Father, for example, is a different Person from the Son because He regards the Son as a "You," even though He regards Himself as "I." Thus, in regards to the Trinity, we can say that "Person" means a distinct subject which regards Himself as an "I" and the other two as a "You." These distinct subjects are not a division within the being of God, but "a form of personal existence other than a difference in being."

How do they relate? The relationship between essence and Person, then, is as follows. Within God's one, undivided being is an "unfolding" into three personal distinctions. These personal distinctions are modes of existence within the divine being, but are not divisions of the divine being. They are personal forms of existence other than a difference in being. The late theologian, Herman Bavinck, has stated something very helpful at this point: "The persons are modes of existence within the being; accordingly, the Persons differ among themselves as the one mode of existence differs from the other, and-using a common illustration-as the open palm differs from a closed fist."

Because each of these "forms of existence" are relational (and thus are Persons), they are each a distinct center of consciousness, with each center of consciousness regarding Himself as "I" and the others as "You." Nonetheless, these three Persons all "consist of" the same "stuff" (that is, the same "what," or essence). As theologian and apologist, Norman Geisler, has explained it: "While essence is what you are, person is who you are. So God is one 'what' but three 'whos'."

The divine essence is thus not something that exists "above" or "separate from" the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. Neither should we think of the Persons as being defined by attributes added on to the being of God. Wayne Grudem explains: "But if each person is fully God and has all of God's being, then we also should not think that the personal distinctions are any kind of additional attributes added on to the being of God . . . Rather, each person of the Trinity has all of the attributes of God, and no one Person has any attributes that are not possessed by the others. On the other hand, we must say that the Persons are real, that they are not just different ways of looking at the one being of God...the only way it seems possible to do this is to say that the distinction between the persons is not a difference of `being' but a difference of `relationships.' This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human `person' is a different being as well. Somehow God's being is so much greater than ours that within His one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons." READ MORE . . .
© Desiring God. Website: http://www.desiringgod.org/

We have been speaking about preaching and the importance of Christians understanding the message of the Bible. We are drawing near to the end of this extended series. I felt, however, that I should not leave the series without sharing a few resources with you that are still fairly new and will definitely help you to study the Bible yourself.

The last year or so has been a great year for Christian publishing, with some fantastic books being published. The following list is some of the best of these newly-published books that will serve as good tools to help you explore the Bible.

My only regret is that, as far as I know, only one of the following books is available as an electronic version that will work with Logos Bible Software. These days I prefer to have books that I can search on the PC, but I know that is not everyone's desire. It is also nice to have a row of good reference books on the shelf to turn to for years to come.

ESV Reverse Interlinear

First up is a revolution in publishing. I'm talking about the ESV reverse Interlinear edition of the Bible — which is also the only book with a Logos-compatible edition. The concept is a simple, yet revolutionary, idea. Instead of jumbling the English words as a traditional Interlinear does, why not reorder the Greek words so that it is easy to read the English translation? The words are numbered so that in the unlikely event that you know enough Greek to understand the rare times that word order actually can change the meaning, you can reorder them in your own mind. For most of us, though, having the Greek re-ordered really doesn't make any difference.

If you have this book you will probably be as impressed with it as I am. It comes from a collaboration between my two favorite Christian companies — Crossway and Logos Bible Software. You guys both rock — please do more together!

The ESV version of the Bible is taking the theological circles I move in by storm, and for good reason. Owning this will help you see why. Even as a non-expert, you can begin to understand how almost every word in the ESV New Testament corresponds in some direct way to a Greek word in the original.

You do not even have to be able to read Greek letters as there are three lines — one the ESV, the other re-ordered Greek words to correspond to their English counterparts, and the final one a transliteration

Even my 8-year old son, Henry, understands the concept and has been caught having taken this Bible into his bed to read. He is learning how some of the Greek words are translated. He is beginning to value the original words, asking me once, "Why is kai left out of the English sometimes, Dad?"

This version will give the advocates of non-literal translations a headache as it will allow even non-Greek experts to understand something of the way in which our English versions come to us. Once we begin to value the original words we will want our translation to be as close as possible to the word-for-word meaning of those words.

They say knowing a little Greek is a dangerous thing (and, no, I don't mean the guy who runs that kebob shop round the corner!) but surely it is less dangerous than knowing none at all?

Apart from my wide-margin journaling ESV with its growing collection of notes and underlinings, this is my favorite paper Bible. The Logos edition of the Interlinear (only available with the library compilations) allows me to search the Bible for an individual Greek word and get a list of verses in English as a result, among all kinds of other tricks. If you just want to sit down with a paper Bible and study on your own, this is an invaluable buy.

Mark Dever — Promises Made and Promises Kept, The Message of the Bible

It is one thing to read the Bible, it is another thing to understand it. The next two books I want to recommend are both by Mark Dever. Many people want to buy a guide to the Bible, and it is good to do so — I will, in fact, be recommending a couple further on in this review. Dever has gone a step further, and in the course of these two books helps us understand the unifying message of this book.

I like this series because it is based on a series of sermons — one per book of the Bible, and overviews of each Testament and the Bible as a whole. Because of this route in preaching, the books make the Bible live today in a way that a more purely academic guide cannot. If you can only buy one "introduction" to the Bible, this should be it.

I cannot commend these books highly enough, but I thought I would include a few testimonials about them which speak for themselves:

"Many Bible readers are familiar with individual trees, while failing to see the forest. They are in great danger of misinterpreting the parts of the Bible they read because they do not see the entire structure of a Gospel like John or an Epistle like Ephesians. Mark Dever fills a gaping need with his sermons on each of the individual books." (Thomas R. Schreiner)

"These expositions are theologically rich, biblically faithful, and loaded with superb introductions, illustrations, and applications." (Ligon Duncan)

"Whether you are a Christian seeking a better understanding of the Bible, or a pastor seeking to preach 'the whole counsel of God,' this unique and invaluable resource provides a wealth of insight that will serve you for years." (C. J. Mahaney)

"Is biblical exposition a lost art? Not if this book is any indication. This book is a gem and it belongs on every Christian's bookshelf." (R. Albert Mohler, Jr.)


Moo and Carson's Introduction to the New Testament

Moo and Carson are surely two of the most widely respected evangelical scholars of today. This new introduction to the New Testament certainly lives up to the expectations we would have of such men of God. It deserves its place on my shelf, and will be dipped into for years to come.

Full of information and references to the published literature, yet simple to read, this is a textbook that I am sure will serve the seminary student, as well as the beginning student of the Bible. Due to its recent publishing date, it is more up-to-date with scholarship than many similar resources from the past.

Don't look to this book to have the same pastoral wisdom as the two books by Mark Dever I have already mentioned. It is not written with that in mind — and as such, if budget is not an issue, having both of these on your shelves is a good idea.

Alec Motyer - Discovering the Old Testament

A small paperback of just 200 pages, this is an accessible and concise introduction to the Old Testament. The book describes its mission as taking the reader on a journey through the Old Testament. Its aim is to show how the Old Testament has the same message as the New. Motyer is well known to us through his commentary on Isaiah. This popular treatment of the message of the Old Testament should be understandable by all.

Unfortunately, it seems to only be available from IVP books in the UK at the moment.

IVP Introduction to the Bible
This book has the advantage that it is a single volume covering the Bible — and a slim one at that. It does, of course, mean that it is not as in-depth as some of the others. I will forgive it for using the TNIV. I am convinced that it is a useful introduction for the student of the Bible. It has earned a place on my shelf and will be referred to from time-to-time for years to come.

I thought one of the most helpful ways you could compare and contrast these books would be to share short excerpts from each of them on two books in the Bible. I have chosen Genesis and Ephesians.

GENESIS

"Interestingly, the early church presented Noah's ark as a symbol of Christ. Some of the earliest drawings of Christ are representations of an ark affixed to a cross, indicating that Christ is our ark. He is the vessel of mercy that we, once inside, can safely ride through the floods of God's judgment. God has always been merciful, and never more so than by giving Himself in Christ. Our only hope is God's mercy. As Christians, we have no ground for pride. We have sinned against God and are morally bankrupt. We have completely spent our small resources and now cannot provide for our most basic spiritual needs. We are entirely dependent upon God's mercy and grace for salvation.

This is why the cross of Christ must always be at the center of our worship, whether public or private. I don't mean a physical cross for us to stare at, but an understanding and a pronouncement of what God has done in the cross of Christ. These first chapters of Genesis present no hope for the human race apart from God's mercy! We know today with clarity what the characters in Genesis only dimly perceived: how God would specifically accomplish our salvation by giving himself in Christ. So we should praise God as Creator and Redeemer. We should sing of His truth and His mercies. We should praise the Lamb who was slain for us. As we sing in the hymn, God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory — "Our sins have spoiled Thine image; Nature, conscience only serve as unceasing, grim reminders of the wrath which we deserve. Yet Thy grace and saving mercy in Thy Word of truth revealed claim the praise of all who know Thee, in the blood of Jesus sealed." Isn't that a marvelous truth about God? The holy one is the merciful one! Yet this leaves us with another question: How can he do that? How can God act with such holiness and mercy?" (Mark Dever — The Message of the Old Testament)

"We must now step back into the shorter opening section of the Pentateuch, the eleven chapters with worldwide themes, with which Genesis opens. As with all Bible history-writing, we are not told everything we might wish to know, but only what we need to know. The narrative fixes our attention on three typical events: the fall (Genesis 3-6), the flood (6-9), and the scattering (11:1-9). They are all stories of loss: how mankind, by sin, lost its home in God's Garden, brought destruction on his world, and shattered human fellowship. Each loss found us blameworthy and brought us under divine judgment, but each time judgment was inexplicably mingled with mercy.

God is Still on the Throne
The theme of these chapters is not really the world at all, but the sovereignty of God over the world. It is one of their most striking features that when, in Genesis 3, the great rebellion has taken place and mankind, in the individual Adam, has made its bid to be 'like God', the Lord God steps into the Garden with his sovereignty unimpaired. The once voluble serpent is now silent, and neither the rebellious human pair nor anything else in all creation can resist the sovereign will which decrees a curse upon a world of sinners (3:14-19). Yet the curse is not the whole story." (Alec Motyer — Discovering the Old Testament)

"The contribution of Genesis to a biblical understanding of both God and humanity cannot be underestimated for it establishes the basis and agenda for redemptive purposes in the world. Genesis poses other questions, which can only be noted here without discussion. Its historical veracity has often been assessed negatively on the grounds that no known extra-biblical sources confirm the Genesis record of the patriarchs. While this is undeniably so, we are dealing with accounts that relate to around 2000 B.C. and are largely concerned with the lives of a semi-nomadic family that migrated from north Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Not surprisingly, archaeological investigations and extant texts are highly unlikely to provide explicit evidence about the biblical patriarchs and their families. Such limitations need to be remembered when assessing views for and against the truthfulness of the Genesis record.

Other considerations need to be taken into account when considering the historicity of the early chapters of Genesis. This is especially so regards ch. 1, given modern theories about how the world was created. We need to appreciate that this chapter sets out to answer the question, 'Why did God do it?' not 'How did God do it?' As many biblical scholars now recognize, the entire chapter is a literary-artistic representation creation, designed to establish the status, in relation to each other, of objects and creatures mentioned within it. Since ch. 1 is not an attempt to describe the 'how' of creation, the chapter sheds little light on the mechanism by which God created the world. We need to remember the biblical writers want to communicate particular truths. As readers we need to attune ourselves to what these ancient authors wished to say, not impose our present-day agenda on their writings. We must not expect the biblical text to answer questions that its authors were not addressing." (IVP Introduction to the Bible)

EPHESIANS

"Wow, doesn't that get your heart? There is Paul in prison, an old man, praying and asking others to pray that God would make him fearless. "Paul," you might ask, "how much more fearless can you get? You are giving your whole life away, choosing to be in prison because you want to reach people like me, a Gentile, with the gospel." Paul knew courage was needed to continue, and he knew God's Spirit had to provide what did not come naturally. So he asked for it. It was plain and obvious that sitting in prison was his duty, given by God. His suffering could not obscure God's design. Indeed, Paul's instructions on submission in this letter were hard-won. Languishing in prison, Paul certainly knew what was involved in submission, as much as any slave. Yet he knew he had the freedom to obey. No authority on earth could take that away from him.

Is it an accident that two of the New Testament's clearest statements on God's sovereignty come from the pens of two older men in captivity—John exiled on Patmos in the book of Revelation, and Paul in a Roman prison here? When this world exerts its fullest powers to oppose the gospel, it only serves to reveal the powerlessness of rebellion against God." (Mark Dever — The Message of the New Testament)

"The letter's emphasis on the church is unmistakable; Ephesians clearly tells us more about the church than do other writings in the Pauline corpus. This has generated a great deal of discussion. For many, this focus on the church is a natural and acceptable development, but for Kisemann (among others) it is a distortion of the real Christian message. In Ephesians, he writes, "the gospel is domesticated." The world "may be its sphere. But it is so only as the frame into which the picture of the church fits." He goes on to complain that here "Christology is integrated with the doctrine of the church .... Christ is the mark towards which Christianity is growing, and no longer in the strict sense its judge." Yet in some ways this is too narrow a perspective. The massive vision of a new humanity, a new household of God, rising together to reconcile warring human beings to each other and to God (chap. 2)-and all of this the product of God's predestining love (1:3-14) and unqualified grace (2:8-10)-is entirely in line with Pauline emphases on God's sweeping sovereignty in constituting his people (Rom. 9-11) and giving them the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5). More theologically telling are those studies that recognize distinctive emphases in Ephesians, but relate such emphases to central themes in the Pauline corpus. For example, Lincoln examines what it means to be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6) and concludes that it is a kind of spatial equivalent of inaugurated eschatology. Caragounis and Bockmuehl have examined many traditions that are reflected in the letter. Peter T. O'Brien finds that much of the language of the prayers in Ephesians can be paralleled in the Qumran literature." (Carson & Moo — An Introduction to the New Testament)

"Paul wrote Ephesians from prison (3:1; 4:1; 6:20). The letter is fairly general in content and may even have been a kind of circular letter intended for several congregations in Western Asia Minor since some early manuscripts do not have 'Ephesus' as the specific destination in 1:1. However, certain emphases in the letter do suggest some of Paul's reasons for writing. The emphasis on the unity of Jewish and Gentile Christians may well be intended to address tensions in the church. Additionally, the fact that the devil and various 'powers' are mentioned sixteen times in the letter suggests a concern to encourage believers in their struggle with pernicious spirit-forces. Acts 19 associates demonic activity with Ephesus, and archaeology has uncovered ancient Ephesus as a center for magical practices, the Artemis cult, and a variety of Phrygian mystery religions and astrological beliefs. Paul wrote Ephesians to celebrate God's mighty work of redemption, which includes the forgiveness of sins and raising up of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, to new life in the power of the Spirit . . . The letter has a basic two-part structure, with chs. 4-6 setting out conduct appropriate to the gospel which Paul expounded in chs. 1-3. The transition comes in 4:1: 'I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling [to salvation] you have received.'

Ch. 1 opens with an inspiring thanksgiving for the gift of salvation, planned from eternity past and now being realized in the lives of believers. Paul then prays for the spiritual progress of his readers in light of Christ's supreme power in the universe. Ch. 2 recalls the readers' hopeless situation of death and condemnation and God's astounding deliverance. The barriers between Jews and Gentiles have now been demolished and their reconciliation through the cross has been achieved. Those who believe in Jesus are now united in one body on an equal basis. (IVP Introduction to the Bible)

The following is a full set of notes, including background information and quotes I used whilst preparing my sermon entitled, "The Reviving Power of God's Word," which was preached at Jubilee Church on the 11th of March 2006. This sermon was the third part of a series on Revival. The earlier messages, "Revival" and "Reviving Prayer" are also available.

Much of this material was never designed to form part of the sermon — instead it is, if you like, part of the "iceberg" that lies beneath the surface supporting what I actually said. You can download the audio (you may need to right click and save the file onto your PC) or listen right here using the following embedded player:

INTRODUCTION
There is a series of adverts on TV that arrests me every time I see them. You see someone crying, hugging a loved one. Your heart goes out to them, even before you begin to hear the words of the commentary. But then the commentary starts, and if you are a big softie like me, you feel like you are about to cry — even if you have seen it before. The person says "when I was diagnosed with cancer . . ." For the first few seconds you hear about the terrible impact those words had on the individual. You can picture them in the doctor's room. Then, the voice says, "Today I was told I have my life back." You suddenly realize that the person is crying for joy, not anguish, and in their tears a smile appears. You see the impact that a single sentence from a doctor can have.

We sometimes talk about “MERE words,” and yet SOME words mean everything — they can literally bring life and death. Words are powerful. They can steal away hope, and they can give it back again.

Words affect us all the time. I remember when I asked Andrée to marry me. I had shocked her by turning up earlier than she expected with a bunch of roses and a ring that I had designed. As I was kneeling there for what seemed like an eternity, first she laughed, then she cried, then she said, "No . . ." Fortunately, she meant this in disbelief rather than as a rejection! I just wanted to hear one word. That was all, one word. And if that word had been “no” and not “yes” I would have been a very different man!

If our words can feel like they take away life and give it back again, is it any wonder that God’s Words can do the same? It's no wonder that Ravi Zacharias made the astute observation: "In the beginning was the Word, not video."

I love the following quote: ". . . in OT times the word was regarded as being alive, and so was portrayed as being sent out of the heart (mind/brain/mouth) of a living person, to leap to the goal at which it was directed. Then, when it arrived, it did the work of the speaker who had sent it forth, for it conveyed the power of the speaker to change the heart or the mind of the hearer of the word." [1]

We as Christians are a people who value words, although we live in a world that values image. Last week,at our joint celebration,we heard about how the image of God is actually described as the Word of God. It is hard to think of a stronger way that God could express Hs high view of “words” than that. The Bible — so-called "mere words" written down on a page — is what God has left us by which to know Him. The Bible is not God — we don’t worship it. But, as we read it, as we listen to it, the God of the Bible leaps off the page at us. These words shape us. They can save us. They teach us how to live, but more than that, they give us life.

Today we are going to look at God’s reviving Word. In revivals, a hunger for God's Word returns. Sermons often become longer — sometimes lasting all day! (As an example of this, see Nehemiah 8 and 9). People cannot hear enough of God's Word. Amazing things happen to people as they hear and read God’s Word during revivals. I could tell you story after story — but I won’t.

If we have learnt anything as we have been studying how God revives us, it is this — what is true of the multitude in a revival can be true of you and I, even outside of a revival. I am convinced that God wants us as a people to become more and more aware of just how God's Word can revive us and help us become the people of faith we are convinced He wants us to be.

What does the Bible say about words, and God's Word in particular? Those of you who have been with us for awhile may remember that during the series we preached on Proverbs there was a message on Proverbs 18:21 which says, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

It is no wonder that the Apostles declared, "We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6:4)

If there is one place in the Bible that honours God’s Word more than anywhere else, it is Psalm 119. It is the longest chapter in the Bible and it comes just two psalms after the shortest chapter in the Bible — Psalm 117 — which just so happens to be the middle chapter of the Bible. You will find it somewhere in the middle of your Bible.

BACKGROUND ON PSALM 119

• “of David” — a man who loved God “after God's own heart.”

• He loved God's law because it was God's Word. He loved God's Word because it showed him his God.

• For him, the Word of God was almost exclusively the law, and presumably Judges, Ruth, and maybe Job.

• If he can love these bits of the Bible that are only beginning to reveal God, we should love it all, since progressive revelation means that more comes later.

• An acrostic poem — “It consists of twenty-two strophes of eight lines each. Each strophe has the same Hebrew letter at the beginning of every one of its eight lines, going in succession, by strophes, from alef, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as the first letter of each line in the first strophe, to taw, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as the first letter of each line in the last strophe.” [2]

• Eight different Hebrew words are used to speak of the Law . . . The following Hebrew words are used: (1) torah (see "law" and comments, 1.2); (2) ‘eduth (see “testimony” and comments, 19.7c); (3) mishpat (see “judgment,” 7.6); (4) mitswah, always in the plural, except in verses 96, 98 (see “commandment,” 19.8c); (5) choq, always in the plural (see “decree” and comments, 2.7; “statutes,” 18.22); (6) piqudim, a plural form (see “precepts,” 19.8a); (7) dabar; (8) ’imrah (see “promises,” 12.6; 18.30). Torah is always singular and means the whole law of God, the Mosaic Law; dabar and ’imrah mean “word, saying,” and sometimes have the specific meaning of “promise.” The other words refer to rules or commands or instructions . . . All of these eight words are synonyms; they all refer to God’s Law as contained in the Mosaic legislation recorded in the first five books of the Scriptures. The Law is not seen as having a human origin, but always a divine origin; Yahweh is the author of the Torah. It should be noticed that in every one of the 176 verses in this psalm, God is either addressed or referred to.” [3]

• The Psalm in some way reminds me of the Proverbs, because it does not flow well — it is almost a collection of random words or sayings about God’s Word.

• WESLEY — “. . . the word of God is here called by the names of law, statutes, precepts or commandments, judgments, ordinances, righteousness, testimonies, way and word. By which variety, he designed to express the nature and perfection of God's word. It is called his word, as revealed by him to us; his way, as prescribed by him for us to walk in; his law, as binding us to obedience; his statutes, as declaring his authority of giving us laws; his precepts as directing our duty; his ordinances, as ordained by him; his righteousness, as exactly agreeable to God's righteous nature and will; his judgments, as proceeding from the great judge of the world, and being his judicial sentence to which all men must submit; and his testimonies, as it contains the witness of God's will, and of man's duty.” [4]

• SPURGEON – “I have been bewildered in the expanse of the One Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm . . . Its dimensions and its depth alike overcame me. It spread itself out before me like a vast, rolling prairie, to which I could see no bound, and this alone created a feeling of dismay. Its expanse was unbroken by a bluff or headland, and hence it threatened a monotonous task, although the fear has not been realized. This marvellous poem seemed to me a great sea of holy teaching, moving, in its many verses, wave upon wave; altogether without an island of special and remarkable statement to break it up. I confess I hesitated to launch upon it. Other psalms have been mere lakes, but this is the main ocean. It is a continent of sacred thought, every inch of which is fertile as the garden of the Lord: it is an amazing level of abundance, a mighty stretch of harvest fields. I have now crossed the great plain for myself, but not without persevering, and, I will add, pleasurable, toil. Several great authors have traversed this region and left their tracks behind them, and so far the journey has been all the easier for me; but yet to me and to my helpers it has been no mean feat of patient authorship and research. This great Psalm is a book in itself: instead of being one among many psalms, it is worthy to be set forth by itself as a poem of surpassing excellence. Those who have never studied it may pronounce it commonplace, and complain of its repetitions; but to the thoughtful student it is like the great deep, full, so as never to be measured; and varied, so as never to weary the eye. Its depth is as great as its length; it is mystery, not set forth as mystery, but concealed beneath the simplest statements; may I say that it is experience allowed to prattle, to preach, to praise, and to pray like a child prophet in his own father's house? [5]

• EULOGIUM — “This Psalm is a prolonged meditation upon the excellence of the word of God, upon its effects, and the strength and happiness which it gives to a man in every position. These reflections are interspersed with petitions, in which the Psalmist, deeply feeling his natural infirmity, implores the help of God for assistance to walk in the way mapped out for him in the divine oracles. In order to be able to understand and to enjoy this remarkable Psalm, and that we may not be repelled by its length and by its repetitions, we must have had, in some measure at least, the same experiences as its author, and, like him, have learned to love and practise the sacred word. Moreover, this Psalm is in some sort a touchstone for the spiritual life of those who read it. [6]

• BARCLAY says of this word “Law”: “We must be clear, however, what the word law means in the original Hebrew. We have met it in earlier psalms where we found that it is the word Torah. We found that this word does not mean “law” in the classical Roman sense of lex which has formed the basis of our western legal system. Torah actually means “teaching”, so that it means teaching that has come out of the mouth of the Living God. When the disciple hears the words of his master’s teaching, he receives through it a revelation of what is in the mind of his teacher, and so here, of what is in the mind of God. Torah then means both teaching and revelation, in fact, both these at once—from God!” [7]

ON THE LAW
Although Psalm 119 is really about God’s Word in its widest sense, perhaps partly because so much of the Bible that David would have read would have been the law of Moses, he speaks many times about God’s law. David loves God’s law. This is a very different attitude to what we tend to have. So I cannot avoid giving a very brief introduction here to our view of the law. This is not a sermon about that — one day perhaps we will address this more fully — I did address some of this more in my talks on Galatians last year. But just to help us as we approach this psalm, let's look at how we should view the law.

1. Our Attitude Toward the Law

   • We tend to rebel whenever we hear rules — e.g. “Don’t walk on the grass.” Law teaches us what sin is, and unless empowered by the Spirit, actually provokes us to sin more whilst making us feel condemned.

   • According to Paul, the law exists to lead us to Christ — to make us feel helpless so that we will seek Him for the free gift of salvation which is not dependent on what we have done, but what Christ has done.

   • Those who are Christians tend to say, “We are not under law, but under grace.”

   • Sadly many go one step further and do not want to read the law, nor do they value it as part of God’s Word for us today.

2. Jesus' Attitude Toward the Law

• Is very different to the over-simplified view many of us have today. Listen to what He said:

• "Scripture cannot be broken." (John 10:35)

• "For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18)
3. The Solution

• God does want us to live righteously, and so the law does have a role for us.

• We are to see the law as revealing God's character and making us fall in love with Him — actually much like David does in this psalm.

• As we fall in love with Jesus, our hearts change and we WANT to keep His commandments.

• Paul calls this the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5)

• Tim Keller puts it this way: "Religion is — I obey so I can be accepted. The gospel is — I am accepted so I can obey."

So, with that bit of introduction over, let’s get into our text — Psalm 119. I think that, on the basis of that introduction, for our purposes in our studies we can replace the word "law" for the word “word” whenever we want to. The psalmist speaks about the law and word interchangeably because that was all he knew of God's Word at that point. If the law was all David knew and he could say all these things about it, how much more should we be able to say the same things of the whole counsel of God, including the law that David knew? So let's turn to Psalm 119.

You will be pleased to know that I am not going to read the whole psalm today, but I would encourage you, in your own time, to read it over several times.

We are going to pick out a number of verses from this psalm today which speak of the effects of God’s reviving word. What exactly does God's Word do for us when we read and listen to it?

1. THE WORD OF GOD BRINGS REVELATION

   "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." (Psalm 119:18)

   The psalmist prays to God — and you will notice how much of this psalm is a prayer, if you like a prayer about God's Word — he asks God to reveal Himself to him in His Word. He says something similar in verse 105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

   The last time I spoke, I mentioned that the Bible is clear that we are blind and cannot even see God without His help. We need God to shine into our hearts. Like the writer of that great hymn, "Amazing Grace," the Christian is aware that “I once was blind, but now I see.”

   "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

   We don’t see the face of Jesus today — how do we see Him? It's in the Scriptures — that is the place for us to meet God! As we read and pray over the Words of this book, let the God of the Bible leap off the page at us!

   Notice that the revelation is about Jesus — Jesus makes this astonishing claim Himself.

   • "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me." (John 5:39)

   Through the Scriptures, we are meant to hear God’s voice. Jesus says this — "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27) He means both spiritual guidance and the Bible — we hear His voice in the Bible. As we read the law, even then we see Jesus. He is revealed. The whole book is about Him.

   This experience of looking to Jesus, of revelation, is not a once-for-all experience. I am sure we can all think of moments when either listening to a sermon or reading from the Bible, it is like a light gets switched on in our heads – “I see it now”
   

   But as we begin to see Jesus there is something else that happens. Remember that God is a reviving God, as we have been saying. So is it any wonder that as we read God's Word, it revives us? Let's see what our next verse has to say.

   QUOTES

   • Chicago Statement — “God who is himself truth and speaks only truth has inspired Holy Scripture (HS) in order thereby to reveal himself...”

   • “Insight into the meaning of God’s law depends not only on prolonged study and meditation; it depends also on God’s guidance. So the psalmist prays, Open my eyes; only in this way can he discover the wonderful truths, or teachings, in the Law. It is God who will enable him to appreciate and understand the Law.” [8]

   • “The word of God is central to the life of God’s people. Our God is a God who speaks and it is the possession of that verbal revelation which marks his people off from all others on earth”. [9]

   • Wesley — “Enlighten my mind by the light of thy Holy Spirit, and dispel all ignorance and error.” [10]

   • Boston:
     1. “That there can be no sufficient knowledge of the duty which we owe to God without the scriptures. Though the light of nature does in some measure show our duty to God, yet it is too dim to take up the will of God sufficiently in order to salvation.
     

     2. That there can be no right obedience yielded to God without them. Men that walk in the dark must needs stumble; and the works that are wrought in the dark will never abide the light; for there is no working rightly by guess in this matter. All proper obedience to God must be learned from the scriptures.

     3. That there is no point of duty that we are called to, but what the scripture teaches, Isaiah. 8:20; men must neither make duties to themselves, or others, but what God has made duty. The law of God is exceeding broad, and reaches the whole conversation of man, outward and inward, Psalms 19; and man is bound to conform himself to it alone as the rule of his duty.” [11]

   • Boston — “The scriptures teach but externally. It is the Spirit that teaches internally. The scriptures externally reveal what we are to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man; but the inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the scriptures.”[12]

   • William Cowper — “If it be asked, seeing David was a regenerate man, and so illumined already, how is it that he prays for the opening of his eyes? The answer is easy: that our regeneration is wrought by degrees. The beginnings of light in his mind made him long for more; for no man can account of sense, but he who hath it. The light which he had caused him to see his own darkness; and therefore, feeling his wants, he sought to have them supplied by the Lord.” [13]

   • Spurgeon — “The light which they beg is not anything besides the word. When God is said to enlighten us, it is not that we should expect new revelations, but that we may see the wonders in his word, or get a clear sight of what is already revealed.” [14]

   • "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

2. GOD'S WORD REVIVES US

   Verse 25 — "My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!"

   As we recognize our desperate state before a holy God, as we get to the end of ourselves, God in His grace comes to us by His Word and says “LIVE!” Again this is definitely referring to what happens when we become Christians — but it is also an ongoing experience of the Christian who immerses himself in the Word of God with prayer. There are a few other places in the Bible where this is also stated:

   • "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." (Psalm 19:7).

   • "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3)

   • "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

   We who are privileged to have a complete Bible in front of us should, like David, be always able to find a verse that will sustain us and give us that feeling of a life renewed when we are feeling low. If you are low in energy and life this morning, what do I have to offer you? I can give you a pat on the shoulder and some well-meaning words of support, or I can give you a lifeline from this Book. I know which I prefer!

   This life-giving force of the Bible is also described in a slightly different way in verse 28.

   QUOTES
   "Now we reach the key-word of the whole long psalm. It is the word live. Our biological life is a gift from God. We do not create it ourselves. The Torah, however, uses this word quite differently from Plato and the Greeks. For the Torah, God is the Living God. This Living God offers his children his life, and that is not mere biological life. "It is life in the Spirit, to which physical death has nothing to say." [15]

   Spurgeon — "When there was so little Scripture written, yet David could find out a word for his support. Alas! in our troubles and afflictions, no promise comes to mind. As in outward things, many that have less live better than those that have abundance; so here, now Scripture is so large, we are less diligent, and therefore, though we have so many promises, we are apt to faint, we have not a word to bear us up." [16]

3. GOD'S WORD STRENGTHENS US

   Verse 28 — "My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word."

   God’s Word really is robust and strong enough for us to lean on it when we are feeling weak and depressed. I knew someone who suffered from depression who quite literally used to take God's Word as though it were medicine three times a day. Over time she was strengthened and eventually did not require medication any more. Now, of course, depression can sometimes be biological, and that is not to say that antidepressants do not sometimes have their place. But, there is no doubt that God's Word, if you let it shape you over years, will go a long way towards strengthening you and lifting you up.

   As I was preparing, I felt God drop into my heart that there were some here who have struggled with depression and feel that there is nothing you can do. You feel a failure. Well, I want to tell you that even great men of God like Elijah, and in modern history Spurgeon, suffered from depression, so you are not alone. But God would say to you today, there is something that you can do in addition to taking medication, if that is needed. You can feast yourself on God's reviving and strengthening Word. It may take years — don’t expect a quick fix — but consistent exposure to God's Word will help you — come and talk to us afterwards if this is you, and we would love to give you some ideas about which verses would be especially helpful for you to add to your daily medication list.

   There is another thought that came to me as I was studying these few words. For God's Word to strengthen us reliably it has to be trustworthy and reliable — imagine, if you will, someone who says, "I will cover you" to Jack Bauer and then doesn’t — some today who believe the Bible has errors in it — we addressed this in our Bible study — but I want you to know this is God's Word. If God doesn’t lie, then neither can His Word!

   • "The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever." (Psalm 119:160)

   • "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

   It is important that we fill our minds with God's truth and not lies. That we focus on righteousness and not sin. That we — as Paul puts it — fill our minds with what is pure. In fact, as we read the Word, it begins to do something to us so that our appetites and desires change. The Word changes us, as we shall see in verse 37.

   QUOTES
   Berkouwer —"There can be no doubt that for a long time during church history certainty of faith was specifically linked to the trustworthiness of Holy Scripture as the Word of God ... From its earliest days the church held that Scripture is not an imperfect, humanly untrustworthy book of various religious experiences, but one with a peculiar mystery" [17]

4. GOD'S WORD CHANGES US

   Verse 37 — "Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways."

   It is interesting that it is mentioned here that God changes our eyes from looking on and valuing things we shouldn’t, and that it is “according to his ways” or words. But, we cannot ask God to do something like this for us and then do nothing about it ourselves! Job puts it this way: "I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?" (Job 31:1)
   
   Paul says: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8).

   This amazing change that happens on the inside of us — from desiring to look at sinful things and then commit sin, to desiring to do good — is called repentance in the New Testament. But it comes from the Word of God – it is God's message that has the power to change us from sinners to saints.

   • "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

   Repentance is a gift from God — you may remember that verse in Elijah’s prayer that said it is God that