Its time I reinstated Piper Friday here, It had never been canceled, merely put on hold! Writing a book has taught me that many tasks take a lot longer than our instant coffee generation wants us to believe. My deadline rapidly approaches now, but I hope that in many ways my book is the product not just of the 2 years or so that I have been studying specifically the resurrection, but also my entire Christian life to this point.

Often, however, I do still feel like I am merely a beginner in this walk of ours. I still have much to learn. Piper is one great source of such learning, and his series on Romans 6 is a great place that has helped me much in my thinking about how the resurrection of Jesus affects us. If I went there looking for a "quick fix" solution to all my problems and the troubles of the church, today's Piper quote disabuses me of that notion!

Here's the difference between the pragmatists and the Puritans: pragmatists do not have the patience to sink the roots of hospitality and brotherly kindness and authentic love in the deep rock of Romans 6-8. We want to jump straight from justification to the practical application of chapter 12. Just give us a list. Tell us what to do. Fix the problem at the immediate surface level, so it goes away. But the Puritans were different. They looked at the book of Romans and saw that life is built another way. Being a sage, being a Redwood, being unshakable in storm and useful in times of indescribable suffering – that does not come quickly or easily. Romans is not two chapters long. It is 16 chapters long. It does not skip from chapter 5 to 12. It leads us down deep into the roots of godliness, so that when we come up, we are not people with lists, but people with unshakable life and strength and holiness and wisdom and love. John Piper on Romans 6 September 24, 2000 READ MORE.

I should say up front that this is an illusion. I may seem to be back from my blogging break over Christmas and the New Year, but the truth is, I am not. I need all my spare time at the moment to work on my book. So I'm planning to share some extracts from a series of posts I wrote previously on preaching. I have set up my blog to do this entirely automatically every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy this series. Please, also, remember to pray for me as I am writing.

This extract comes from a post in which I was exploring whether expository preaching has to always be a part of a very long series working slowly verse by verse through a book of the Bible. Part of the post was to share the following potential dangers found in these types of slower series, which sometimes have gone on for a decade for a single book.

1. Preaching through a book can introduce the very imbalance that it is designed to remove.
   
   Spending a decade in certain biblical books will inevitably mean that the congregation is not going to get the balanced diet we all agree they need. Yes, preaching through books forces preachers to focus on the issues that the book addresses. But there is surely a danger that the preacher will choose a book that is not sufficiently broad enough to give a good diet to the congregation. It might also be a book that reflects his own pet subject; for example, the charismatic might choose 1 Corinthians, the Calvinist Ephesians or Romans, and the eschatology fanatic would head straight for Revelation. So, a very slow preach through a book is not necessarily going to provide a good diet for every church.
   
   
2. Preaching slowly through a book requires a highly skilled preacher in order to remain interesting.
   
   Death by exposition is a real risk when the average preacher tries to emulate a Lloyd-Jones, Boice, or other gifted expositor. Sermons that are nothing more than recycled commentaries are surely boring. It is, of course, possible to preach this way and impart life, if God has gifted you in that way. But as one preacher admitted to me recently, spending even just a few months in one book can—even for the preacher—begin to feel a bit repetitive. Not everyone has the skill-set to be Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
   
   
3. Insistence on a long series may hinder our aim of making visitors feel welcome.
   
   In this era of floating church populations and weekend breaks, we may not have the same people listening each week. In addition, surely we want our visitors to feel welcome. Imagine discovering on visiting a church for the first time that you have some 50 or 60 (or more!) sermons to catch up on to understand where the church is in their series. This is avoidable by making each sermon in the series stand alone and be more or less self-explanatory. But if we do this, then how is that different from a sermon which exposits a verse or paragraph seeking to put it in its context, but outside of a series?
   
   
4. Long series bind the preacher and could quench the Spirit.
   
   Whether we do have long series of sermons or not, I do feel the Doctor is definitely right when he says we must build into them the flexibility to respond to the needs of the congregation and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Read more . . .

John Piper is a great preacher—not just to listen to, but also to watch. I find God stirring my heart through him every time I play one of his videos. It also reminds me of what I'm aiming for when I preach, which is "logic on fire." I pray that God will draw many into his purposes in the way he has drawn John Piper.

Today I want to highlight one of the sermons in his series on the new birth - Why Do We Need To Be Born Again? (Part 2). Here is an excerpt of this excellent sermon, which serves as a wonderful reminder of how desperately we need GOD to act in saving us. This is one of the sermons that form the basis for his forthcoming book, Finally Alive, which is now available for only $5 on preorder!

No man can make anyone else become a Christian. May God move and bring many into his kingdom.

1. Without the new birth, we won’t have saving faith, but only unbelief. (John 1:11-13; 1 John 5:1; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 1:29; 1 Timothy 1:14; 2 Timothy 1:3).
   
   
2. Without the new birth, we won’t have justification, but only condemnation. (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:17; Philippians 3:9).
   
   
3. Without the new birth, we won’t be the children of God, but the children of the devil. (1 John 3:9-10).
   
   
4. Without the new birth, we won’t bear the fruit of love by the Holy Spirit, but only bear the fruit of death. (Romans 6:20-21; 7:4-6; 15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; Galatians 5:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 John 3:14).
   
   
5. Without the new birth, we won’t have eternal joy in fellowship with God, but only eternal misery with the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41; John 3:3; Romans 6:23; Revelation 2:11; 20:15).

— John Piper, Why Do We Need to Be Born Again? (Part 2)

Last week Lex Loizides shared this fantastic quote from Martin Luther in his church history series:

"I was seized with the conviction that I must understand [Paul’s] letter to the Romans. I did not have a heart of stone, but to that moment one phrase in chapter one stood in my way.

I hated the idea, ‘in it the righteousness of God is revealed’ . . . according to which God is righteous and punishes the unrighteous sinner.

I lived without reproach as a monk, but my conscience was disturbed to its very depths and all I knew about myself was that I was a sinner.

I could not believe that anything I thought or did or prayed satisfied God. I did not love, nay, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners.

Certainly, and with intense grumbling (perhaps even blasphemy), I was angry with God and said, ‘As if it were indeed not enough that miserable sinners who are eternally lost through original sin and are crushed again by every calamity through the Ten Commandments, God Himself adds pain to pain in the gospel by threatening us with His righteousness and wrath!’

At last, meditating day and night . . . by the mercy of God, I gave heed to the context of the words, ‘In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’

Then I began to understand that the righteousness of God is . . . a gift of God, namely by faith . . .

Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through gates that had been flung open.

An entirely new side of the Scriptures opened itself to me . . . and I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the loathing with which before I had hated the term ‘the righteousness of God’.

Thus, that verse in Paul was for me truly the gate of paradise.

My friend, P-J Smyth, is a popular Newfrontiers speaker, and the leader of GodFirst Church Johannesburg. He has recently overseen a rather nice-looking update to his church's website. A number of sermon mp3's and a range of e-books are all available. P-J is a punchy, impactful, and clear communicator. I recommend his material highly. As just one example, the following quote comes from a book on the Bible, available free on his site, entitled The Sword.

"The Word will bring you faith. Romans 10:17 makes this one crystal clear. Do you want that kind of faith that pleases God, causes the impossible to become the possible, moves mountains, destroys satanic strongholds, and violently advances the kingdom of God? It comes from hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing the things that God has to say!

You can have faith in your feelings, in which case your feelings will govern your life. You can have faith in your fears, and so be paralyzed into inactivity. You can have faith in others, and often be disappointed. Or you can have faith in God’s Word, and learn that He is utterly trustworthy in every situation. Smith-Wigglesworth said, “Except the word of God, everything else is sand. It’ll stand forever, it’s settled in heaven, not one jot or tittle will fail, it can’t be broken or improved upon, and those who believe in it shall be like Mount Zion that cannot be moved.”

— P-J Smyth, The Sword

If you live in or near Johannesburg in South Africa, you should consider at least a visit to this church which, from what I hear, is a vibrant multicultural place where Jesus is worshiped as Lord and the Word of God is honored. What more could you ask for?

Christmas seems like it's just around the corner. In these times of financial pressure, surely we all feel the need to make good choices in our gifts this year and not be wasteful. A new Bible for a loved one (or dare I say for yourself?) is certainly an excellent investment. But what Bible? And what format? In this post I will look at a few examples, some of which I can recommend.

At the top of my list would be the ESV Study Bible. The translation is essentially literal and as close to a word-for-word correspondence with the original inspired text as you can get, while still being able to understand it. Its language is more traditional and readers of the King James version will find the adjustment to this one easy, but will also find that it is much easier to understand than the archaic language found in what is, of course, a classic piece of English literature. I commend the Study Bible, as well as other versions of the ESV, very highly. There are several mp3 audio versions available, and if you fiddle with the preferences on ESV.org you can choose between them. My family tends to prefer the Max McLean version, but your taste may be different to ours.

If you live in the UK, you may be struggling to get a copy of the ESV Study Bible. Your best option is Amazon.co.uk, which is usually the cheapest, but is having some problems with fulfilling orders from what I hear. Certainly many editions are out of stock.

You will be glad to know, therefore, that I have been able to negotiate a special discount from a leading Christian online bookstore. 10ofthose.com is a site that helps fund various Christian ministries. They have access to a stock of these study Bibles, and promised me they can deliver for Christmas. A box of ten will be even cheaper than their special offer, and if you enter adrianwarnock.com as the discount code before checkout, in most cases you will see a further drop in the price you are charged. Explore the following links; I am promised that they can immediately dispatch copies of the Study Bible, at least at the moment.

• Single/buy 2


• Bulk (packs of 10)


• Trutone

You might be surprised to know that if you have already bought an ESV Bible, I would recommend you to get another Bible version as well. No translation is perfect, so I recommend that you own at least two to maximize your understanding. Bibles exist along a spectrum from the essentially literal, such as the King James, ESV, NASB, and NKJV, to the more dynamic versions which aim to capture the meaning and, in some cases, the emotional impact of the Bible and communicate that in a fresh way for modern readers. In choosing your Bible, it's vital to consider where on that spectrum the version you are considering lies.

These days I don't tend to recommend the once ubiquitous NIV or its gender neutral update, the TNIV. That's because it sits in a slightly awkward place on that spectrum. These two versions are sufficiently close to the ESV to mean that switching from them to the ESV is straightforward. But it also means that reading it doesn't usually add much to the understanding you would gather from the ESV itself. As a main Bible, the NIV versions have the major disadvantage, in my view, in that while they tend to be fairly accurate in their attempts to render the actual meaning of the text into English, at times they insert a more dynamic interpretation. Therefore, it's difficult to know with any given phrase whether or not you're getting a literal translation.

Other more dynamic translations can be useful, provided one realizes that the translations often help you to understand the text rather than translating it in a literal sense. For me, chief among such translations is the New Living Translation. I have enjoyed looking at their new study Bible, which I think will complement the ESV Study Bible nicely by providing another perspective in comments on the text.

The NCV translation is also marketed as the International Children's Bible and is worthy of special mention. It's important to introduce children to the Bible from a young age. I find that this translation is very accessible to young children and, as such, have recently given a copy to my 7 year old. She has since developed a voracious appetite for reading it to herself, so I'm very happy. We looked together at the NLT and the ESV, and she explained to me that both of those versions had words in them she could not understand, whereas the NCV/ICB did not. So, as an introductory Bible, I'm obviously quite pleased with it.

I have previously enjoyed paraphrases of the Bible, such as The Message. Providing one understands what one is reading, they can help us feel the emotional impact of the message of the Bible, and at times can function much as a sermon would to help us understand what the Bible really means to us today. I have no hesitation in recommending such works to people, but I think they should only be read in conjunction with a more literal translation as your primary Bible.

Because of my enjoyment of a wide range of translations, I looked forward to getting a copy of The Voice, listed as a brand new translation for a new generation of Bible readers. The website looks nice. The text layout is attractive and modern-looking. The team involved in translation stressed their creative credentials. Clearly a lot of work has gone into engaging with the Bible's text and making it relevant for us today.

The problem, however, is that I simply cannot bring myself to recommend this translation in any way. If you open it up without reading the introduction (as I did) and value the actual words of the Bible itself, you are in for a big shock. In an effort to make the text more accessible to modern readers who allegedly don't like looking at footnotes, explanatory comments have been included in the text of the Bible. Many of these comments are put in the mouths of the writers of the Bible, allowing the ignorant to believe they are intended to be part of the Scriptures themselves. Admittedly, the introduction explains that these additions have been made. It also explains that words added to the text are in italics, and that additional material is contained in boxes throughout the text. If only The Voice had worded its explanatory comments as footnotes and kept them out of the text itself, I probably would have welcomed it.

I am all in favor of helpful explanations, but to present commentary as if it was part of the text itself is very unhelpful. It undermines our respect for the Bible. It can mislead us in our understanding of the Bible. It is in direct disobedience to a command that occurs in the final chapter of the Bible not to add to its words! In fact, not all of their additions to the text have been italicized, as is seen in the final example below.

To give you a flavor for just how disconnected with the Scriptures' original language the italicized sections can become, let me give you a few examples comparing The Voice with the ESV.

MATTHEW 4:1-3
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him . . . (ESV)

Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. After this fast, he was as you can imagine, hungry. But he was also curiously stronger because of his fast and so he was able to withstand the Devil, the tempter, when he came to Jesus . . . (The Voice)

I find this total fabrication of a scriptural text placed inside the main translation to be shocking, italics or no italics! The appalling ignorance of many believers today about the Bible makes this much more dangerous since many might assume that because a respectable Christian publisher has published this book, the words contained in it will reflect the inspired words of God, not the suppositions of some man.

HEBREWS 13:1
Let brotherly love continue. (ESV)

Let love continue among you. Let it be the air that you take in, that uncurls within you, and extends between you." (The Voice)

This poetic addition is completely unjustifiable, and again has no roots in the actual Bible that God inspired! Unless we think we dare improve upon God's Word, what business do we have in producing such drivel and labeling it as a new Bible translation?

I wanted to close this post with a single verse taken from each of several versions to illustrate their differences. You will see that there is a lot of similarity in how most of the translations handle this verse. The ESV text has almost direct word-for-word correspondence with the underlying Greek. Some of the more interpretative or paraphrase translations do replace the phrase "bearing the sword" with some kind of explanation of an expectation of punishment. This could help an English reader who could not understand that concept. But, shockingly, as we can see merely from looking at the length of the paragraph, The Voice adds a lot of material to the text, only one phrase of which is italicized. This is unnecessary, unhelpful, and examining this verse on its own would be enough to make me disinclined to recommend the purchase of this new translation. Each of the other translations listed below have something to contribute to our understanding of this passage.

ROMANS 13:3-4

ESV
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

TNIV
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

NLT
For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong.

NCV
Those who do right do not have to fear the rulers; only those who do wrong fear them. Do you want to be unafraid of the rulers? Then do what is right, and they will praise you. The ruler is God’s servant to help you. But if you do wrong, then be afraid. He has the power to punish; he is God’s servant to punish those who do wrong.

THE MESSAGE
Duly constituted authorities are only a threat if you’re trying to get by with something. Decent citizens should have nothing to fear. Do you want to be on good terms with the government? Be a responsible citizen and you’ll get on just fine, the government working to your advantage. But if you’re breaking the rules right and left, watch out. The police aren’t there just to be admired in their uniforms. God also has an interest in keeping order, and he uses them to do it.

THE VOICE
You see, if you do the right thing, you have nothing to be worried about from the rulers; but if you do what you know is wrong, the rulers will surely make you pay a price. Would you not rather live with a clear conscience than always have to be looking over your shoulder? Then keep doing what you know to be good and right, and they will publicly honor you. Look at it this way: The ruler is a minister of God called to serve and benefit you. But he is also a minister of God executing wrath upon those who practice evil. If you do what is wrong, then you better be afraid because he wields the power of the sword and doesn't make empty threats.

This is the last in my short series on Steve Chalke and The Atonement Debate. The previous posts in this series can be found by clicking on the links below:

• Update on Steve Chalke and The Atonement Debate
  
  
• Steve Chalke Confirms He Does Not Believe in Penal Substitution
  
  
• Steve Chalke Argues Against Penal Substitutionary Atonement
  
  
• Steve Chalke and Neglect of the Resurrection

In his chapter of the book, The Atonement Debate, Steve Chalke continues with a classic argument from silence. He claims that Jesus did not teach this doctrine himself and therefore it is questionable. He also argues that before Jesus’ death he would not have had any gospel message to share if PSA is true. The second aspect of this is easy to dispatch since it betrays a very linear view of time. Romans 3 makes clear that it was Jesus’ death that enabled God to overlook sins committed beforehand. In addition, I have often wondered what Chalke believes about hell. Jesus teaches a lot about hell, and a number of his parables refer to eternal suffering. Surely he is describing the problem he is about to solve in doing this. Also, at the climax of his ministry the necessity of his death is very clear to Jesus, and his words describing it as a cup he must drink are poignant. If PSA is not true, it is difficult to see how Jesus’ death was so absolutely necessary. In any case, Jesus did not have to directly teach this doctrine in order for it to be true.

Chalke tries to negate concepts of God’s anger by essentially claiming that God is defined as love, and that fact trumps any mention of God as a God of wrath and anger and presumably holiness. He then devotes an entire section to the cultural implications of PSA, which he says plays into notions of violence and “might is right,” from which the rest of the world is moving away. He also claims it is too individualistic. In fact, in this section he seems to be in danger of removing altogether the importance of the individual’s relationship with God. There is even a statement that he does not like the notion that someone can believe they are saved in an instant, claiming that “separates salvation from discipleship” (page 42). It is vital for us to separate salvation from discipleship, or legalism and justification by works is the result. We do not live good lives in order to be saved. I have long been suspicious that removing the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement inevitably weakens our belief that it is Jesus who saves us in favor of the notion that we have to do something in order to earn our way to heaven. Without fully expressing this, Chalke certainly seems to be implying it. He does not clearly elucidate his views on justification here, however, so I need to be careful, but remain very curious about the implications of what he is saying.

Finally, and perhaps most helpfully, in his closing section Chalke explains what he has put in the place of PSA. Basically he believes in the Christus Victor model whereby it is the victory won by the death and resurrection of Jesus that is key to our salvation. But before he gets there, he makes a clear statement about attempts to “soften” PSA, some of which he believes are even present in The Atonement Debate, to which he is a contributor.

“Since my book was published, and in the serious theological debate that has followed it, some have sought to readdress their definition of penal substitution. I have witnessed various attempts to redraw, redefine, recast, remodel, and rehabilitate the theory as “not really as violent and retributive a concept as The Lost Message of Jesus suggested.” But the problem is simply this: this is not how the situation is perceived either within or beyond the church. So, whilst I applaud these attempts to manufacture a kind of “penal substitution theory lite”—some of which will, no doubt, be presented in other contributions to this book—in my view, what we need is not a reworking but a renunciation” (page 42).

Chalke and I do agree on at least one thing. PSA should not be softened. We should either reject it completely as he is calling for, or, as many millions have, accept it as a precious truth despite all its shocking gruesomeness.

If you would like more information about the atonement, I would recommend the book Pierced for Our Transgressions, or you could read through my previous atonement series in the links found in the following posts from my bog,“Atonement Wars” and “More Atonement Wars.”

In his chapter in the recent book The Atonement Debate, Steve Chalke begins to argue against penal substitution (PSA). He starts in a surprising, and to me, a deeply concerning way. One of my major concerns about this whole debate is what a rejection of PSA does to our view of the Bible. The concept of God’s wrath is very prominent in the Bible, culminating in the famous dilemma of Romans 3 where Paul essentially asks how can God be both JUST and yet FORGIVE our sin. In the context of Romans, to me that answer is simple—because Jesus took away that wrath and bore our punishment.

Chalke sidesteps the issue of the wrath of God by attempting to remove the issue of the sacrifices of the Old Testament from the discussion by claiming:

“The emphasis on Yahweh’s apparent appetite for continuous appeasement through blood sacrifice, present within some Pentateuchal texts, is to be understood in the light of later prophetic writings as a reflection of the worship practices of the pagan cults of the nations that surrounded the people of Israel. However, the story of Israel's salvation is the story of her journey away from these primal practices towards a new and more enlightened understanding by way of Yahweh's self-revelation.” (page 38, The Atonement Debate)

This quote is simply breathtaking coming as it does from the pen of a professed evangelical. First of all, it seems that Chalke takes a very different view of Scripture to that of the majority of evangelicals. The books of Moses are not to be contradicted by later revelation! These sacrifices were demanded by the actual audible voice of God recorded infallibly by Moses. Chalke's comments only make sense if he doesn’t believe that the Pentateuch is actually God’s Word. Moses records that God did not merely “accommodate himself” to the local culture; he actively commanded sacrifice!

Of course it's not just the Pentateuch with which Chalke’s comments seem to disagree. In his attempt to separate what Jesus did on the cross from biblical notions of sacrifice, one has to wonder what he would make of the book of Hebrews. On page after page the writer to the Hebrews directly connects Jesus’ death with that of the lambs and goats of the Old Testament sacrifices. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” and clearly declares of Jesus in verse 26, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

We can't just airbrush out of the Bible the teaching that it is a wrath-removing bloody sacrifice for sin that is absolutely necessary in order that we can be saved. In his comments on the Pentateuch, Chalke seems to imply that he does not believe those passages to be truly God’s infallible Word, or at least he believes that those passages were contradicted later on. Would he view Hebrews in the same way? We will continue to look at Chalke's reasons for rejecting PSA tomorrow.

Last Sunday, I preached a sermon at Jubilee Church in our series on the book of Nehemiah. A video of it is now available to download. You can also download the mp3, listen to it right here, or read my notes below:

“Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock. God actually spoke to me. There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words were in English, but they had about them an absolutely self-authenticating ring of truth. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks today.

I couldn’t sleep for some reason. I was at Shalom House in northern Minnesota on a staff couples’ retreat. It was about five-thirty in the morning. I lay there wondering if I should get up or wait till I got sleepy again. In his mercy, God moved me out of bed. It was mostly dark, but I managed to find my clothing, got dressed, grabbed my briefcase, and slipped out of the room without waking up Noël. In the main room below, it was totally quiet. No one else seemed to be up. So I sat down on a couch in the corner to pray.

As I prayed and mused, suddenly it happened. God said, ‘Come and see what I have done.’ There was not the slightest doubt in my mind that these were the very words of God. In this very moment. At this very place in the twenty-first century, 2007, God was speaking to me with absolute authority and self-evidencing reality. I paused to let this sink in. There was a sweetness about it. Time seemed to matter little. God was near. He had me in his sights. He had something to say to me. When God draws near, hurry ceases. Time slows down . . .”

— John Piper

GOD DOES SPEAK TODAY! THROUGH HIS WORD!

Read Nehemiah 8:1-12

INTRODUCTION
Nehemiah has come, the wall has been built, and the opposition has been dealt with. It's now time to begin to build the people. God not only rebuilds walls, but restores lives. Fixing the people—that was the real plan. God is less interested in walls and more interested in people. Building the people of God.

How do we go about building the people of God? Nehemiah knew that when it came to fixing lives, he wasn’t the man to do it. Even though he was the leader, he had a sense of teamwork, so he called for Ezra to bring the book, to open the book. Nehemiah realized that it wasn’t only the trowels that were needed; now the people needed to hear from the book of the Law. He made room for the preacher. He knew everyone had a role. He gathered a big group—50,000 people. And they came and listened to the Word of God for six hours! Why would they do that?

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORD OF GOD
   
   2 Timothy 3:15-17
   “. . . from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
   
   What does that mean? First, this Book is holy. It also means it's possible for it to save us. And it means it can equip us for everything God has for us. In order to be saved, there are some things we need to understand.
   
   Romans 10:9-17
   “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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. . .So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
   
   It’s not a man who will save us. Only Jesus can save us, and the way he saves us is through our understanding of what’s in this Book.
   
   Psalm 119:130
   “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”
   
   Romans 15:4
   "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
   
   Matthew 4:4 and Deuteronomy 8:3
   “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
   
   It sustains spiritual life and shapes our everyday life. Without it we will starve, have no hope, no endurance, no instruction, no wisdom, not be equipped for what God wants us to do, have no faith, and ultimately be foolish and unsaved!
   
   
2. HOW DO WE TAKE HOLD OF THE WORD OF GOD?
   
   People died in order that we can have this Book in our hands. People were killed just for owning this Book. The Reformation restored the Bible to the common people from the priests, who had maintained an exclusive right to it. And now, in our times, a generation is again emerging that is IGNORANT of this Book!
   
   How then do we take the Word of God in?
   
   
   • TAKE IT IN CHUNKS
     It’s good to have a system. Use a Bible-reading plan. Maybe have it read to you. Use the CD player in your car. I use Every Day in the Word. It provides OT reading, NT reading, Psalms, Proverbs—a varied diet. Not all meat for a month and no vegetables! Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything! Or use an iPOD (you can subscribe to it as a podcast). Take fifteen minutes a day and you will be able to read or listen to the entire Bible in one year. Don’t feel condemned if you miss a day.
     
     
   • PRAY AND MEDITATE ON IT
     Take a phrase and chew on it and pray it back to God. Mull it over. Let it emotionally impact you. Believe it. Ask God for the promises, believe the truths. Change in response to it.
     
     Psalm 119:15
     “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.”
     
     It’s not just academic; it’s experiential, faith arises. Nehemiah does this in chapter 1 by praying back to God a verse from Deuteronomy—“God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.” The advantages of meditation gets us up close and personal with the Bible. We can remind God of his promises. Mould ourselves to the Word.
     
     
   • STUDY IT
     Get a study Bible, such as the new ESV Study Bible. Use notes, commentaries, books, word study, Grudem's Biblical Doctrine, Bible software, etc. God wants us to be those who labor at his Word. We work hard at our jobs, why not work hard so you can do the job of life? Don’t be tossed to and fro. Ezra knew that it was his job as priest.
     
     2 Timothy 2:15
     “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
     
     Sometimes we don’t understand the Bible very well, and sometimes we have no shame in that fact. “Oh, I’m a “spirit person, I’m not a Word person.” But what did the Bereans do?
     
     Acts 17:11
     “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
     
     
   • SEEK HELP FROM OTHERS
     We need to study this Book, understand it, meditate on it, such that we won’t be blown away. Do we always understand it all? Sometimes we need others to teach us—our church, small groups, someone to lead us individually. In addition, listening to sermons, some perhaps repeatedly, may help our understanding.
     
     The Bible is not like normal food in the sense that we can’t get too much of it! We won’t become obese eating too much spiritual food.
     
     BUT, there is one danger, and that is the danger that we only read it, maybe even study it, maybe even become an academic expert on it, but somehow the vibrancy and the life of God’s Word doesn’t touch us, doesn’t impact us. If we are left untouched by God’s Word, there will be two main consequences in the life of the believer—we will be hearers of the Word, but not doers of the Word. The Word is about action, in our lives and in sharing the gospel. It’s about living in response to it. The second is that we wil become proud of our knowledge and be academic and dry, devoid of the Spirit.
     
     1 Corinthians 8:1-2
     “Knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
     
     
   • SEEK HELP FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT
     The goal is to KNOW GOD—not just to “know about” the Bible.
     
     Hebrews 4:13
     “For the word of God is living and active.”
     
     The Word has a power of its own, breathed into it by the Spirit who inspired it! We must read it, meditate on it, pray, study it, marinate it with the Spirit That’s the key. If we do that, the Word of God will make sense to us. THERE IS NO CONFLICT BETWEEN THE WORD AND THE SPIRIT!
     
     1 Corinthians 2:14
     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.
     
     We need the help of the Spirit to make it clear to us. It’s tragic that some Christians emphasize the Word, but don’t want to know about the Spirit, and other Christians emphasize the Spirit, but don’t want to know about the Word. It’s time to bring the Word and the Spirit back together. There’s never been a battle between them!
     
     
   • MEMORIZE IT and VALUE IT APPROPRIATELY
     
     Psalm 119:11
     I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
   
   
   
3. WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF THE WORD OF GOD?
   
   
   • THAT WE MIGHT NOT SIN
     That we will repent. That we will turn our backs on sin and obey God.
     
     John 14:15
     “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
     
     The Word adjusts conduct, character, and the course of our lives. Because we are on our way to heaven, we live in a way that is worthy of that calling.
     
     
   • TO DEFEAT THE DEVIL
     It’s like a sword in our hands. Ephesians 6 says, “The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” When Nehemiah built the wall, the workers had a sword and trowel in their hands.
     
     
   • TO BE THE ANSWER FOR ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS
     The Bible says to ask God for wisdom and he will give it to you—in marriage, relationships, sex, parenting, work, success, money, suffering, etc. We live in a lost world and the world doesn’t know where to go for guidance. But this Book has all the answers.

BUT sadly many Christians read all this and feel “I can’t do it.” MANY CHRISTIANS REMAIN IN THE PLACE OF CONDEMNATION. Many of us came to the same place that the people did when they heard Ezra reading the Law. They come to the place of sorrow and guilt. There was weeping. The Word shows us our sin. Pricks our deadened conscience back to life. Convicts us.

2 Corinthians 7:10
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation.”

The Word exists to bring us to the one who is called “The Word.”

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

Jesus is the hero of every passage in the Bible, even if you can’t see it at first. Every Scripture takes us to Jesus. Because of him, the Word can wash us clean. With the Word marinated by the Spirit we are converted. It’s the gospel that is the power of God to save us. Faith comes. We are born again.

It is so right when we listen to the words of this Book that sometimes we want to weep, we feel helpless, guilty, like we’ve messed up. May I suggest it’s because we have messed up? But God doesn’t want to leave us there. So many people go through life starting each day with “Oh God, I’m sorry for all the things I’ve done. Thank you for forgiving me, but I feel guilty.” And they go through all the sins they’ve committed. Not to say there is no place for confession, there is. But it’s interesting that the Lord’s prayer begins with “OUR FATHER . . .”

The Lord’s prayer doesn’t start with sin—it begins with the fatherhood of GOD. We need to relate to God as a father who has loved us, who has forgiven us, who sent his Son to take our place, to bear our punishment in order that we can be forgiven. He sees us as holy, as if we’ve obeyed every command in this Book. He sees us as if we never did anything wrong. When we understand that, a great joy should well up inside of us!

JOY TO KNOW WE ARE FORGIVEN!

JOY IN JESUS, NOT WORLDLY THINGS—He is the goal of the gospel.

JOY IN JESUS MAKES SIN LESS APPEALING.

SANDWICH MEAT versus SIZZLING STEAK!

JOY OF THE LORD.

Nehemiah 8:10
Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

CONCLUSION
The Word of God brings us through conviction to repentance, and through repentace to joy. Joy is not that everything is perfect, but rather it is a joy the world cannot take away since we know that in the end we will be with Jesus.

Many Christian speakers, especially those from a similar school as Mark Driscoll, put a lot of emphasis on the cities these days. I believe it’s right for us to have a heart for the cities because Jesus has a heart for cities. Cities are like a magnet to anyone who loves people. There is an endless stream of people who you see every day. In a city you can never meet everyone. In a city, you can be in a crowd of people and still feel totally alone.

People wonder why cities are such unfriendly places, but the truth is, you simply can’t stop and say hello to everyone you pass in a city, still less, pause and have a conversation. If you want to be stared at, try breaking that city social convention and even smile at someone you are passing in the street. They may well look at you as if you are about to rob them.

This aspect of living in a city reminds me of my attempts to engage a McDonald’s server when out with my son. In a city, when faced with that kind of experience, you have a choice. You either join everybody else in retreating like a shocked tortoise into the warm, protective, comforting, secure environment of a well-developed shell, or you resolve to continue fighting that tendency. Of course, as a city dweller you will have to develop your shell, which is essential when your face is squashed into someone else’s smelly armpit on a rush-hour train. But please try and remember, you can poke your head out of your shell from time to time. It’s right for us as Christians to try and be nice to people. I gave a couple of examples of my more recent attempts at reaching out to people in the city at the beginning of the audio of my sermon on Psalm 121.

Whether we like it or not, the truth is that what happens in our cities is influential on the rest of our culture. The shapers and influencers tend to live in cities. Cities lead a nation. The cities do truly shape the culture. Driscoll claims that cities are “upstream,” and that a society is shaped by its producers of culture, who mostly live in cities. In the past Christianity was an urban movement and the cities led us towards godliness. Today, in both the UK and the USA, the church has become a rural phenomenon by and large as the cities have led the way in rejecting the gospel. Sadly, cities are now leading our nations astray. It’s time that this trend is reversed. I thank God for the many Christians faithfully serving him in towns and villages. But I wonder—is it time for us to think carefully about our strategy for reaching the nations? It is time that we called our cities to repentance.

There is no doubt in my mind that one of the best things we can do for the towns and villages is support the establishment of large churches in the cities. If we allow the perverse trend to continue that has led to Christianity becoming largely irrelevant in the cities, then we doom the Church to an ineffective existence, with the best that we can hope for being small pockets of success surrounding those churches which are growing within a town or village. Most towns have limited influence outside of themselves, except perhaps on nearby villages or other local towns. Cities influence whole nations and beyond. A good city church should spill over into planting other churches around it, and even distant from it. It is not an accident that in the New Testament we find Paul planting reproducing churches in all the major cities of a region, and then saying, “I no longer have any room for work in these regions” (see the whole of Romans 15 for the context).

The battle for the souls of our nations is taking place in the largest cities of those nations. It’s time for us as Christians to take up arms and join this fight aggressively. For some, it may mean moving from a town or village to a city. There is no shortage of harvesting work to be done in our large cities. Jesus, for example, was born in obscure Bethlehem, raised in the town of Nazareth, and although he began his work in rural Galilee, it was not by accident that he headed to the biggest city of his nation for the climax of his ministry. He was born in a village, but died in a city. Perhaps we need an army of people prepared to do the same.

City people are different from country people. They have a tendency as a group to hold their opinions more aggressively, and be more anti-God, so you will see more opposition. They don’t respond as well to church fetes and other community building activities, or at least not all of them. They are more likely to find a church from a billboard or an Internet website than country folk. Still, having seen such an advert makes them more likely to say yes to that invite from a friend, which remains the best way of growing our churches. The trouble is, city folk may not have many friends. In a city it seems to be less about the building than in the country. A village church can be the center of the community, even for unbelievers. In a city, a church can grow large without a traditional building of its own. Schools and even theaters can be quickly transformed into church meeting places.

When you live in a city, you join a tribe that is mobile. You find people moving from one city to another with alarming speed. That movement could be for a quick business trip, a month of training, or two years or more of work placement. It’s no use trying to persuade such people to stay in a city; they won’t feel loyalty to the local that is felt by many in the country. There are many cities of Europe I can fly to more quickly than I can drive to parts of my own country. Many people living in cities feel much more connected to cities in other nations than they do to the rural areas of their own country.

Cities are such transient places that they need—even more than towns and villages—churches that will provide some stability for them. Those churches need a core of people who have bucked the trend and decided firmly that they are staying for the long haul. Could you be one such person? Is God calling you to move from a village to a city and settle there? Can you establish a community in a place where everything about life is fighting to disintegrate that sense of togetherness? Are you called to be a part of a church plant, or maybe even to lead one? Are you called to commit to putting down some roots and bringing stability to a church within a city? Are you called to engage in culture-changing activities within the so-called “secular space” of the influential workplaces of the city? Will you be one of the laborers our cities so desperately need?

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

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

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

— John Piper

A week ago we shared an unsettling quote from Dr. Piper about the vital need for us to fight lust or face an eternity without God. Since that fight is so critical to our well-being, I thought I would share another quote in which he goes on to explain how this fight can be won.

Suppose I am tempted to lust. Some sexual image comes into my mind and beckons me to pursue it. The way this temptation gets its power is by persuading me to believe that I will be happier if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier. No one sins out of a sense of duty, when what they really want is to do what’s right.

"Another reason I am eager to focus on the new birth is to help you know what reallySo what should I do? Some people would say, “Remember God’s command to be holy (1 Peter 1:16), and exercise your will to obey because he is God!” But something crucial is missing from this advice, namely, faith in future grace . . .

How then do you fight lust by faith in future grace? When the temptation to lust comes, Romans 8:13 says, in effect, “If you kill it by the Spirit, you will live.” By the Spirit! What does that mean? Out of all the armor God gives us to fight Satan, only one piece is used for killing—the sword. It is called the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) . . . The Word of God cuts through the fog of Satan’s lies and shows me where true and lasting happiness is to be found. And so the Word helps me stop trusting in the potential of sin to make me happy. Instead the Word entices me to trust in God’s promises.

When faith has the upper hand in my heart I am satisfied with Christ and his promises. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “He who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). When my thirst for joy and meaning and passion are satisfied by the presence and promises of Christ, the power of sin is broken. We do not yield to the offer of sandwich meat when we can smell the steak sizzling on the grill.

John Piper, Future Grace (Sisters OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1995), 334. Also available electronically from Logos Bible Software.

Once again the Doctor diagnoses the human condition with timeless pinpoint accuracy in this quote:

We are creatures of lust and desire and passion. Let me give you the best description ever given of humanity without Christ, humanity as it is by nature. In his epistle to Titus, Paul writes:

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

— Titus 3:1–3

And is that not true of all of us by nature? Is that not true of our society? Behold those at a glittering party—how fond they all are of one another! But they have daggers in their hearts; they hate one another: “hateful, and hating one another.”

That is why the world is as it is—greed and avarice and envy and lust and passion and desire. It is in us all. Paul also describes this in the second half of Romans 1, and it is because of this that the world does not want Christ. “He spoils life,” people say. Christianity is seen as narrow, as contemptible, as something to be dealt with by sarcasm and ridicule and derision. It is a joke on your favorite television program. Christ is the spoiler of life, the one who introduces you to just a narrow, miserable, cramped little existence. Is that not the outlook?

There is only one explanation for such a view, and I say again that it has nothing to do with intellect; it is the state of the heart. It is the clever people who are leaders in vice at the present time. They have amazing ingenuity, but notice how they use it. They cater to the animal, and that which is even lower than the animal."

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Glorious Christianity, 1st U.S. ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004), 129. Also available electronically from Logos Bible Software.

For more information on Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones see this summary post or the MLJ Recording Trust.

Anger is very much associated with our sense of rights. We feel that we have been violated and "deserve" better treatment. The truth is, none of us deserve anything but hell. We build up for ourselves a mental picture of our ideal life, of what we want, so that it becomes an idol. When we don't get our own way, we start to throw our toys out of the pram and feel justified to be angry.

James challenges these thoughts in 4:1-2: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel." John Piper explains this further as follows:

Humility does not feel a right to better treatment than Jesus got . . . Humility does not build a life based on its perceived rights . . . Much of our anger and resentment in relationships comes from the expectation that we have a right to be treated well. But, as George Otis once said to a gathering in Manila, “Jesus never promised His disciples a fair fight.” We must assume mistreatment, and not be indignant when we get it. This is what humility would look like. Peter (1 Peter 2:21–23) and Paul (Romans 12:19) give us great moral assistance in this difficult task by reminding us that God will settle all accounts justly and that temporary injustice will not be swept under the rug of the universe. It will be dealt with—on the cross or in hell. We need not avenge ourselves. We can leave it to God.

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals : A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 163. Also available electronically from Logos Bible Software.

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.

I wasn't the only one who found they had a hoarse voice when our service ended over at Jubilee, London last Sunday. As part of our worship we had a run of African-style songs, and as we sang, we began to relax a little and get a bit excited about our Lord Jesus. At the end of the planned sequence of songs something happened that has never occurred before. Spontaneously, worshippers began crying out, "MORE! MORE!" It was an amazing moment, and as some of the leaders joined in the calls, our worship leaders ripped up the plan! We sang another African song, followed by "Shout to the Lord, All the Earth!"

As the song finished, I felt a prompting that shouting to the Lord was exactly what God wanted us to do at that moment. So, with a glance at one of our elders to check that they were happy for me to proceed, I headed to the front and said something close to the following:

"As we were worshipping just now, I felt it was almost as if I could see a cloud over us being blown way. It was as though that cloud had the words "the myth of Englishness" written in it. It isn't just for the English, but also for those who have come here and live under it as well. It's a reserve, and a fearfulness of speaking to others, of getting excited, and especially of shouting in church." But it IS a myth! Have you ever seen the English at a football match or a rock concert!? God is driving it away from us."

The people were still in an excitable mood as I was saying that. I went on to tell them that if they weren't used to shouting in church, they had better get used to it because there is shouting in heaven. I told them I would read some words from Revelation, and that then after I finished we were to all shout out as loud as we could our praise to God. Which was exactly what we did. I am not sure if it was that shouting or all the vigorous singing, but by the end of the service my voice was ruined for a few minutes.

Here is the passage I read out:

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory

— Revelation 19

There are perhaps a few things worth pointing out to put all this into context.

1. I do believe that God is not deaf, so we don't always have to shout. But I also believe he is not nervous either.
   
   
2. Worship needs, at different times, to be vigorous and noisy, but also contemplative and quiet.
   
   
3. While I do believe it's right to refer to our singing together as worship, we also worship with our whole lives. That means the work you are meant to be doing for your employer right now is worship, too. (see Romans 12:1-2)

If you are interested in learning more about corporate worship, do feel free to attend the Worship School I mentioned yesterday.

A City in a City

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


Incidentally, Tim Chester has shared his notes from one of the sessions of the Dwell Conference and plans to share from one of the others. I will post notes and video from the rest of the sessions from this Acts 29 day conference over the next few days. I also have video interviews to share from a number of people, including Mark Driscoll.

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

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

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


Jeremiah 29:4 “I have sent …” We are called of God to be a missionary wherever we are. Sent to the London area. We can reach the nations of the earth if we reach London. It’s like a hub or a crossroads. This is one of the most important cities, or probably the most important city in the world. Babylon was like that in previous days. God determines the times and places in which we live. If this city of London meets Jesus, the entire world will hear about him.

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

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

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

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

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

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


Idolatry is THE sin according to Martin Luther. Sin is turning our worship from God to something else. The opposite of Christianity is not atheism, it is idolatry. We must keep ourselves from idols. If we don't worship idols, we won’t sin. The first of the commandments tell us that there is only one God and we must worship him alone; the rest are the implications. So if we worship God and not our image, we won’t lie. If we worship him alone, we won't covet. We put something in the prime place of glory and we then worship it by making sacrifices of time, etc. IF it is Jesus, then we will enjoy what God gives. But, if someone or something else is in that position, then it is idolatry. Romans 1 says people changed from worshiping God to worshiping created things.

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

One of the great joys of this conference is that it is a gathering of friends. I had a lovely tea at the Grand Hotel on the Brighton seafront with my dear friends, Ian and Megan Jukes, Andrew and Cheryl Cottingham, and Tom Eaton. We had a lot of fun, and the connection was re-established. I suddenly realized that around Brighton many such reunions of longstanding friends who are also attending this conference are undoubtedly happening.

During the worship time there were some stirring prophetic words that spoke of us becoming more prominent and that there would be new openings for us as a movement.

Terry Virgo was the speaker last night. He is based right here in Brighton at Church of Christ the King, and leads the Newfrontiers team. A well-known Bible teacher, Terry speaks at conferences around the world. He has written several books, including No Well-Worn Paths, God's Lavish Grace, and The Tide is Turning. Terry blogs here, and I have interviewed him at the following pages:

• Terry Virgo on the Future (June 2007)
  
  
• Terry and Wendy Virgo at New Word Alive (Video Interview, April 2008)
  
  
• Terry and Wendy Virgo at New Word Alive (Transcript of Video Interview)

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:


As a background, Terry was praying with his wife, Wendy, about other things. Suddenly he heard the phrase, “Stephen and Philip.” It was so clear that he asked his wife, “Did you just say Stephen and Philip?” He felt that God had asked him to look at these men, who were not front line people, not Apostles, but served God's purpose in a remarkable way.

Terry began last evening's session by reading extracts from Acts 6-7 to us.

In Acts 2 we see the Holy Spirit came on the disciples and a large number repented. The Spirit then fell on thousands of other people. No longer was it just one or two people. There was a sudden invasion of the presence of God. God himself flooded the place. Five thousand people were saved in one day, but since only the men were counted, when the women and children were included, it would probably have been around 20,000 people!

It then goes on to speak of large multitudes being added to the Church. All were healed—vast numbers. Thousands. Jesus had conquered death and was out of a sealed grave. The Sanhedrin took the leaders and locked them in prison, and almost like another resurrection, they were gone the next morning and were in the temple preaching. It was impossible to hold down these people!

Stephen and Philip arrive on the scene at a time when much growth is occurring. There is a crisis of growth. It was a social thing. God is interested in the poor and the orphans. We need to express our love in terms that help the poor and needy.

Contention arises between the Greek and Jewish widows. There is a challenge to justice. The Apostles know they must prioritize prayer and the preaching. They don't just want sharp guys who can administrate; they ask for men full of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables them. It is that filling by the Spirit that confirms that they are equipped and chosen by God.

Both of these men were so flooded with God that they did more than they had been appointed to do. They overflowed with God and began to preach and heal despite not being Apostles. They did signs and wonders. [Incidentally, the thought struck me here that those who claim that healings were only intended to attest to the original Apostles are not really taking into account these two people, among others!]

The servants of God are backed up in the Bible by supernatural evidences that God is with them. There are seasons in the Old Testament when people are far from God and it seems the supernatural is far from them. Then, again and again, when they turn back to God, signs and wonders occur.

Romans 15:18 — “What Christ has accomplished through me ... by the power of the Spirit of God.”

There are some who argue that signs and wonders ceased when the Scriptures were closed. But we believe God wants to do things to confirm and affirm his Word. Some are saying that it is not for today. Jesus told us that we would do the same things he did. He has received the Holy Spirit and all authority, and he now sends the Spirit and says, “Go and do the things that I do!”

In recent years we have seen an escalation of healing among us—more than in previous decades. Terry asked who had seen a healing in their own church in the last five years. Almost every person in the room raised a hand. Because of the lights, Terry wasn't able to see everyone and said “hundreds” were raising their hands. The truth is, it was thousands.

We must break through our cynicism and unbelief and come back to biblical Christianity—Word and deed. We must press on and ask for more.

It's no good only arguing for the authority of Scripture. We must also act as though we believe in the reality of the supernatural God. Present contact with the supernatural is not far off and strange.

Francis Schaeffer, in Death in the City, claims that too many Christians act as if they come into contact with the supernatural twice in their lives—at conversion and resurrection. Instead, we live as materialists:

"Christianity is not just a mental assent that certain doctrines are true—not even that the right doctrines are true. This is only the beginning. This would be rather like a starving man sitting in front of great heaps of food and saying, “I believe the food exists; I believe it is real,” and yet never eating it. It is not enough merely to say, “I am a Christian,” and then in practice to live as if present contact with the supernatural were something far off and strange. Many Christians I know seem to act as though they come in contact with the supernatural just twice—once when they are justified and become a Christian, and once when they die. The rest of the time they act as though they were sitting in the materialist’s chair.

The difference between a Christian who is being supernatural in practice and one who says he is a Christian but lives like a materialist can be illustrated by the difference between a storage battery and a light plug. Some Christians seem to think that when they are born again, they become a self-contained unit like a storage battery. From that time on they have to go on their own pep and their own power until they die. But this is wrong. After we are justified, once for all through faith in Christ, we are to live in supernatural communion with the Lord every moment; we are to be like lights plugged into an electric socket."

Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City, page 147

Stephen was a "wisdom and power" man. These days there are two lots of websites—there are power websites and there are wisdom websites. If you go to the power site, there is no wisdom. If you go to the wisdom site, there is no power. Why do websites where we hear much about power have little in the way of good teaching? Why do the sites where we love to listen to the teaching know nothing of the power?

We can't say, “Let's forget the wisdom and get into the power.” You don't get into power by blowing your brains away. Paul doesn't depend on wisdom, but he is described as reasoning and persuading people about the kingdom of God. There can be a powerful people raised up who also know such wisdom that it cannot be contradicted.

We need apologists, people who can help people think. Too often we close our minds to the gospel unreasonably. We need to break through that in a fresh way. In some ways this whole section of Terry's talk reminded me of my post on “I Don't Want Balance, I Want It All.”

This is the second installment of my interview with Terry and Wendy Virgo which began yesterday. That segment can be read here. The video version of this part of the interview can be seen here.


*************************
Adrian
Wendy, I want to ask you something now because it’s been awhile since you’ve had a chance to get a word in edgewise—I suspect you might be used to that! (Laughter) How has it been for you with your husband—obviously in the younger years, away a lot—leaving you at home with the kids—five I think?

Wendy
Yes.

Adrian
This is a very personal question, because my poor wife has the same problem.

Wendy
Oh, yes, she has five kids, too.

Adrian
And me traveling more for work, of course. But how did you cope being left alone, like she is right now, with five children and actually no car, I’m ashamed to admit.

Wendy
Oh, right. Well, when Terry was away, usually it was abroad, so I did have the use of the car, which was very helpful.

Adrian
Well, she usually does as well. This is, in fact, the first time since we went down to one car that we’ve been in this situation.

Wendy
Oh, right.

Adrian
Well, what about you? You were left at home; he was away . . .

Wendy
Well, our main focus is to build churches, which are really all one another in context, so we aren’t left alone, in fact. I was very much involved in church life and very beautifully loved and served by the church that I’ve been in now for twenty-five or six years. And, I didn’t actually feel that I was left alone. Obviously, I missed Terry a lot when he was away, but life was very busy and very full, and I never felt solitary, if you know what I mean.

Adrian
Yeah, yeah.

Wendy
And it has been great that as the children have grown up and now have their own homes (they’re all married now) that I can travel much more with Terry. I think it is a new season. Terry always used to travel with another guy or a group of guys because it was part of his training of them and part of introducing them to our values and helping them to see how an apostle works and how to work with an apostle, and developing a whole understanding of apostolic work. So, to take a group of guys with him was very helpful and instructive to all concerned. But now we have a number of men who would be in that position, like David Holden, Dave Devenish, and so on, who would also take groups of people with them, teams I would say. But as they have developed teamwork as well, they are now going off with their wives because their children are also grown up. So it’s becoming a bit of a pattern, I think.

Adrian
You’re very much involved, right in the thick of things, then?

Wendy
Probably not as much as say, some people like Dave Devenish, who goes into a place for several weeks or months at a time.

Adrian
And he’s taken his wife in those situations?

Wendy
Well, yes, that’s the thing. It’s quite a sacrifice, I think, at times. Tramping around places like Kazakhstan, places I can’t even pronounce. But, actually, Terry now will be going to Australia for three months at the end of this year, and that will be a new adventure for us.

Adrian
But you went to America for three years, didn’t you?

Wendy
Two years.

Adrian
Two years!

Wendy
Yes, yes. Actually that was a very positive time, too.

Adrian
Yes. So, I’m going to move back to Terry for a moment now because your wife just mentioned this funny “a” word—apostolic, apostle work. What about that? Because obviously there will be a lot of people who will, I guess, not really understand what that means for Newfrontiers.

Terry
Yes. I think it’s very important to say that we see different types of apostles, even in the Bible—Jesus the great apostle; the twelve, unique obviously, in the book of Revelation. But then you see in Ephesians 4—Jesus ascends on high and gives from his ascended position apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—so there’s that ongoing ministry. He says this will be until the Church comes to fullness of stature, to a mature man. So, in a sense, this is an ongoing thing that God will continually give these varied ministries. So one isn’t looking for more Bible writers. I think very often we from the reformed tradition have thought—well, an apostle writes the Scripture and that’s his role. But, really, I don’t think that stands up to close inspection. Several of the twelve did not write Scripture. Several of the people who wrote Scripture were not apostles, so it’s not really the point. The point is more church planters. Paul says as a wise master builder, “I lay the foundation”—he traveled, he planted churches. We feel that’s really what we’re talking about—modern day church planters. People who pioneer new ground, establish eldership, establish churches, and a fathering, ongoing care for those churches, strongly built on relationship, so that we’re friends in the ministry, as Paul referred to people. Even at the end of Romans, in chapter 16, there are all these personal greetings to people. So we’re building very relationally. We’re building new churches, planting churches. And now various teams have been raised up doing apostolic work. [Ed: See post Apostles Are Meant For Today for more information.]

Adrian
Right. So I guess in summary what you’re talking about, for those people who have different vocabularies, is someone who can church plant and help establish churches. That’s obviously exciting. I mean, there are 500 churches in Newfrontiers now, aren’t there? Is that right?

Terry
It’s probably nearer 600 now.

Adrian
Wow! Last time I checked it was 400, so the number must be going up very quickly.

Terry
Yes, it is. I’ve been in touch today, just a moment ago, with Edward Buria in Kenya, where there are now some 130 churches, which he has helped start, and we served with him and are very much in touch with him at the moment with the political tensions there. And then we have churches in South Africa, and indeed, around the world. So when you add them all up around the world, it’s untold. It’s difficult to keep up because Edward plants so many churches in Kenya. But we’re also planting churches in West Africa, South Africa, and into Asia, and as Wendy was saying, Australia now, New Zealand. So we’re planting churches very widely.

Adrian
You didn’t mention anything about America, though.

Terry
Yes, we are. I’ve been to the USA, and in fact, we’ll be at the . . .we’ve been in March to the Leaders Conference, and then we’re going again in June to our midwest family camp [ONEBLAZE] held in Warrensburg [Missouri] just outside Kansas City, and then in August we’re going across to the West, where we have growing involvement in Oregon, and in Idaho and Montana—a number of churches that are reaching toward us. Quite a lot of these pastors are coming over. I understand thirty pastors are coming from the West to our Brighton Conference, Together on a Mission, in July, where there will be about 5,000 gathered there. But just from that part of America, we have thirty coming. So I would think there might be something in the region of sixty coming over from the US to our conference in the summer. [Ed: For more details see Newfrontiers events in the USA.]

Continued in part 3 . . .

Today I am going to share the written transcript of the first segment of a three-part interview with Terry Virgo and his wife, Wendy at the New Word Alive Conference in North Wales. The video of that segment can be seen here. I have also previously interviewed Terry here.

In this segment I ask them to tell us a little bit about what they do, what is Newfrontiers, and how Terry came to speak at the New Word Alive Conference this year.


*************************
Adrian
Hi. I’m Adrian Warnock. I blog over at adrianwarnock.com and I’m part of the leadership team at Jubilee Church in London. I’m here at New Word Alive in North Wales, and am actually in Terry and Wendy Virgo’s chalet. Terry and Wendy very kindly agreed to join us for a short interview about the conference and whatever else we decide to talk about, I guess. So, thanks for joining us, Terry and Wendy.

Terry
Thanks, Adrian. Good to see you.

Adrian
Yeah. It’s great that you were able to find some time to chat with us, and to just be here at this conference. I just wonder, how have you found the conference so far?

Terry
Well, we’ve really enjoyed the opportunity for fellowship with a number of people we wouldn’t normally see. First of all, I’ve never met Don Carson, and it’s been magnificent to listen to him, and John Piper—inspiring again. It’s good to make new friends—people whose names I’ve known, like Wallace Benn. This is the first time I’ve got to meet him. It’s been an excellent time. Thank you.

Adrian
Good, thanks. And what about you, Wendy?

Wendy
Yes. I wasn’t quite sure what I was coming to, but I was relieved to find it is set in an absolutely beautiful location. And also I have so enjoyed especially Don Carson’s and John Piper’s messages. I’ve really been blown away by their passionate delivery of theology.

Adrian
Yeah, it’s been great, hasn’t it? So, Terry, there will be a few people watching this [and reading it] who perhaps won't know who you are. I mean, I find that amazing; you probably don’t find that amazing. But people do watch this in the States, and also some other places. I wonder if you could, in your own words really, talk a little bit about what it is you do with your life when you’re not in a chalet in Wales.

Terry
Yes, which is pretty rare! I’m based in Brighton on the south coast of England, and I’m an elder of a church there called Church of Christ the King. From there, I travel out with Newfrontiers, which is a group of churches that works in about 40 nations now. In the UK we have about 220 churches, and then globally we’re pressing on towards 600 churches. So I travel a lot. Later this month we’ll be in Russia at a pastors and wives conference, and then we’ll be in the States in May and June, and we’ll be in France with our pastors and wives there from the Newfrontiers churches. So we travel quite a lot.

Adrian
You say “we.” Is that the two of you, or just you, or sometimes a mixture of both?

Terry
We have five children who are all now married and have left home. And we often travel together now.

Adrian
Oh, that's the "we."

Wendy
Yes.

Adrian
So what does Wendy get up to, then, when she’s not holding your bags? Well, I hope he carries your bags Wendy!

Wendy
Yes, traveling does take up a lot of our time, but when I’m at home I love to be involved in things like Alpha Courses, although increasingly I’m not able to do that. But I do write for various Bible notes such as TWR and Day By Day, the Bible Reading Fellowship, Scripture Union obviously for as well. I speak at ladies’ days around the country, and I’m also engaged in writing a book at the moment.

Adrian
That’s very interesting. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Or are you sworn to secrecy on that?

Wendy
Well, yes, perhaps it is a little bit premature, but it’s about the effect that women can have in a Church for good or bad.

Adrian
Very good. That sounds really interesting. I look forward to reading that, no doubt, sometime in the future. Now you’re going to have to finish it as you’ve said it online.

Wendy
I know.

Adrian
(Laughing) There you go! So, obviously both of you are incredibly busy, traveling an awful lot, all around the place, looking after all these churches. What made you decide to accept the invitation to come here? I know you’ve been involved with UCCF for quite awhile as well, haven’t you? Is it some kind of advisory board you’re on with them, or . . .

Terry
Yes. The invitation came from UCCF. I’ve made a very good friend in Richard Cunningham. He’s a fine guy. I like him. He asked me to be involved with UCCF, and then having agreed to that, I was then invited to speak at their Leaders Forum a year or two back, and had a very happy time working through Romans and then leading Bible studies. And I’ve enjoyed the fellowship. I’m so glad that they have embraced us. We come from a charismatic perspective. Our church life is charismatic. UCCF has not been famously charismatic, but they’re making a statement of openness, and I’ve been received very warmly, both in their Forum, which I’m due to speak at again next year (2009), and then here as well. And so it’s an interesting coming together of people who love Scripture, love doctrine, love the truth of God. And it’s great to have Stuart Townend here, and Phatfish, who come from my home church. We're very proud of them. Stuart’s written some magnificant songs, as have Phatfish, and I know they are welcomed around the world. It’s great to be together with them here as well. So we’ve enjoyed that.

Adrian
Yeah, and we’re singing the same songs as well, aren’t we? It’s interesting. Those divisions, at least in terms of songs, just don’t seem to be there anymore, really, you know?

Terry
I was fascinated when I was invited to speak at the Keswick Convention, probably three years ago now, and again I felt as the worship took place before I spoke, I think three-quarters of the songs we sang had been written by people in my home church. I felt remarkably . . .

Adrian
What is it about the sea water down there? You guys seem to keep producing singers, don’t you?

Terry
Yes, we have some great songwriters . . .

Adrian
I guess that church is a sort of resource church, really, isn’t it? I guess that would be one way of describing it in terms of—you have all kinds of different people going out and serving in various different way from there, haven’t you?

Terry
I think David Fellingham originally was with us from the beginning when we started our church. We started with 38 people back in about 1980, and David joined us quite early on with tremendous musical skills and devotion to God. He started writing songs that became very famous. And then others joined us like Stuart Townend, Paul Oakley, then his other son, Nathan Fellingham, came through writing songs. Kate Simmonds. More recently Simon Brading. In fact, we’re starting a worship school again this coming autumn, and we trust people will want to book in and come for the monthly program that will take place through this coming year.

Adrian
That’s great. So I mean, coming here, I guess we’re joining hands with people who perhaps years ago we'd never have imagined we'd be joining hands with. I mean, would that be a fair way of describing it?

Terry
Yes, it’s true. For me, when I was first converted from a completely non-Christian background, my sister had joined All Souls Langham Place, and I first responded to the gospel publically there. So I met John Stott on that day. So my roots go back to an evangelical context. And while I was at college, I listened to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. So one feels so at home with these truths. Then I had an experience of the Holy Spirit, opening up the gifts of the Spirit in our church life. Which means we're certainly not cessationists. We believe in the presence and the power of God. We’ve never abandoned these great evangelical truths which we greatly love and have always preached during this time of enjoying the presence of the Spirit as well—seeing people being healed, and prophecies, and things of that order. So that we can find a very happy combination of those things.

Adrian
Yeah, I think that people are sort of almost feeling that this is a new thing—this combination of reformed and charismatic. I guess it’s newly prominent. It’s something that’s been around, I guess what you’re saying, all along. Is that right?

Terry
Well, I think I’ve always held that position going back many years. Joel Edwards, who has been the Evangelical Alliance leader for some years, said he felt that we at Newfrontiers in England were fairly unique for being famously charismatic and famously reformed theologically. He thought we were unusual. But we’re friends right across the board, and I’m very grateful for that.

Adrian
Good. Thanks.

Continued in part 2 . . .

Today I wrap up my interview with John Piper in this last segment. It is based on the video version of the interview, which can be viewed here. John talks about preachers he listens to and describes the circumtances which led him to the pastorate of Bethlehem Baptist Church. The three previous parts to the interview can be read at the following pages:

• John Piper on New Word Alive
  
  
• John Piper on Passionate Preaching
  
  
• John Piper on Prayer and Bible Study

Adrian
We have just been talking about studying the Word, and obviously books, but I guess for most preachers, they like to listen to other preachers as well. I guess you’re probably no exception to that. So who have you got on your iPOD that you’re actually listening to?

John
I do have an iPOD. It happens to sit in my speaker base in my bedroom as kind of an alarm clock. But my computer is in my study, and my treadmill is in my study. That’s the only time I ever listen to preaching—when I’m running. So three times a week, for thirty minutes or so, I’m listening to other people speak. So I download them from the Web, usually. Who are the last ones I listened to? I listened to [Don] Carson. I listened to R. C. Sproul. I listened to Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Somebody gave me the whole series of MLJ on Romans. I listen to C. J. Mahaney. I listen to John Sailhammer on the Old Testament. I listen to Carl Trueman on, what’s the topic? I can’t remember. A little while back. Basically, I’m looking for two things—one, contemporary relevant issues that I might want to dig into, or model preaching. So, whoever at that point, and they’re not always the same people, the model preachers and the ones who are talking about the things I feel like I need to get to know about.

Adrian
Okay. You’re obviously deeply committed to preaching and to pastoring, and you’ve been at Bethlehem an awful long time. I wonder, first of all, how did you make that decision to join Bethlehem, and was it a lifetime commitment at that moment, or was that something that evolved? How did it then develop into a long-term thing?

John
I was teaching Bible and Greek for six years at Bethel College from 1974 to 1980. I had a sabbatical and I was working on Romans 9—the book on justification of God—the odyssey basically, Romans 9. And while I was doing that, the Lord, I believe, just kept saying through the words of that chapter, “I will be proclaimed and not just analyzed.” And I couldn’t resist it after awhile. Finally, I began to ask those who knew me best, “What would you think if I left academia and took the pastorate as a preaching pastor?” And they all said, “Do it.” So, in December of 1979, I gave my resignation and started looking for a church. I said, “I’d like to spend ten years here.” Well, they said, “Ten years would be good.” And ten years went by like that. And now it’s twenty-eight. And I have no intention of going anywhere else until I’m done.

Adrian
Do you think that kind of longevity is important for a pastor?

John
It’s important, at least in volatile urban settings. In other words, where there’s a lot of change in the people, there needs to be less change in the pastoral ministry. Where the people are stable, say in a small town that has very little coming and going, the stability lies very much in the people. In an urban setting of growth, with a lot of people in and a lot of people out, there’s no stability in the people. And if it isn’t in the staff and elders, then it’s not going to be anywhere. So the degree to which there is movement among the people, it seems to me to be good. And I think it’s healthy for the pastor himself to press on in preaching in a way that doesn’t redo the same stuff over and over again. I mean, after the first five years I thought to myself, “I would not want to do this anywhere again.” I mean, those first five years are hard. You’re figuring out everything; you’re rebuilding everything. You’re trying to make some changes. And to start all that over again instead of building on it would have felt very discouraging to me.

Adrian
So for you the pull of the church was a stronger pull than the pull of Bible college or seminary?

John
Yes, oh yes. And the reason in that day was because, in the college, I felt like, year in and year out, I had the same age group (18-22). They were culturally basically the same. Their questions were, every year, the same. They always revolved around Calvinism and free will and sovereignty, and whatever. And in the church you’ve got cradle to the grave. You’ve got ethnic and cultural differences. You’ve got people all over the spiritual map on their questions. You’ve got dying and birth. You’ve got weddings and funerals. The reality of the totality of life—what that said to me was — “If this is real, if this Book is real, it will relate to all of that instead of this little slice of humanity that comes to college.” And I just wanted to see the Word of God take root in a people.

Adrian
That’s really interesting. Would you say, then, that part of your development as a pastor and as preacher is just being there in the long-term and seeing that kind of development?

John
Absolutely. I had probably preached fifteen times in my life when I came to this church. I was 34 years old and I was a teacher. I taught Sunday School. I didn’t preach around. Most of my colleagues preached on the weekend in addition to teaching. I said, “I’m not going to do that. I’m going to be with my family in church, sitting with my children at my side and my wife, listening to the Word of God every weekend, and I’ll teach a Sunday School class.” So I had done a few weddings, and I had done a few little sermons here and there. But I was an absolute green preacher when I came to Bethlehem. So all of my development as a preacher has been through these 28 years in the same pulpit.

Adrian
Okay. So, you’re a busy guy because you’re a preacher there, you preach regularly. You go to all these conferences. And I’ve noticed you almost always bring, if not a completely brand new message, at least a newly reworked version of it, perhaps slightly different . . . How do you manage to find all that time? Or is it just that you prioritize that and don’t watch too much TV?

John
I don’t watch any television. I don’t have a television.

Adrian
That’s what it is probably.

John
That certainly helps. And I have a wonderful wife who tolerates a very absent husband, even when I’m home. I ask her—I’m always taking her temperature as we do our dates on Mondays and go out. “How we doing, Noel? Do you want to make any changes?” She’s just so incredibly flexible that I married the right woman. And ever since we’ve been married, I’ve always worked, both in the day and in the evening. I’ve raised four sons, and now I’m working on one daughter. And they’re all married, and they have sons, and they’re following the Lord. So I feel some deep, deep gratification about that. But I always took from 5:30 to 7:00, and that was their time. I ate with them and then we had play time. We were kicking the ball around in the backyard or we were building towers and knocking ‘em down — this is your time. And I went to all their ballgames. A pastor has his own time. He can do whatever he wants. So 3:30 in the afternoon, while other guys are working, I’m banging my fists at the soccer match, or you’d call it football, to make my son, Benjamin, run faster . . .

Adrian
You played soccer?

John
I didn’t — I watched it.

Adrian
But, no, still, I mean . . .

John
Oh, I love it. We try, we try! (Laughing.)

Adrian
You have David Beckham now, of course.

John
Well, he did score a goal the other day. I think it was headlines. One goal out of this billion dollar deal. So . . . where were we?

Adrian
We were talking about football playing . . . you were just talking about all the time . . . .

John
Oh, the time to do things, yeah. The point was that even though I work in the evenings (at 7:00 I’m back in my study or with a book in my hand or at some meeting) and Noel is doing her handwork, or working on her projects, and I’m working away. But, really, the key is — I’ve been in the church long enough that they let me do what I want to do. And we’ve got such diversification staffing, that I’m the preacher guy. They want me to feed this flock on the weekend, and they want me to provide vision for the staff. That’s my title — Pastor of Preaching and Vision. I’m here in Wales, and I’ll be back to preach next Sunday, and most of them won’t even know I was gone.

Adrian
Yeah, sure. You write books. What would be the three books that you’ve written that would be your most important books, in your opinion? Three most important books you’ve written, or three significant . . .

John
I will be interested to watch from heaven to see what the answer to that question will prove to be, because I don’t think my answer really has any authority. I don’t know. Don Carson told me he thought Pleasures of God was the most important thing I’ve done, so I think I would put that in the top three. I’m going to put Desiring God there just because it’s the seminal book from which everything else flowed. And after those two, God’s Passion for His Glory maybe. That’s my [Jonathan] Edwards—Edwards is half of that and I’m half of that. And because Edwards is so important, and that essay, The End for Which God Created the World, is so absolutely foundational to everything I do and what I think, that may be the other one.

Adrian
Great. Well look, thanks very much for joining us, John. It’s just been wonderful to have a few moments here just to pick your brains . . .

John
Yeah. I wish we had more time. Thank you very much!

Adrian
God bless.

This was shown at the New Word Alive conference earlier this year. I have to say that it is one of my favorite passages of Scripture in the whole Bible. This Sunday, why not just take in these glorious words in a fresh format.

To whom is Paul referring when he writes the following words?

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

— Romans 7

There are some theological questions that are not important. There are others that are potentially important. And then there are some that are always important. The question I want to throw out today falls into the middle group. It is very possible for us to disagree over who the man in Romans 7 is intended to be and still love each other, work together, and actually even have similar theologies because of how we interpret other Scriptures. But different opinions about this chapter can lead to a significant problem in our life if we come to certain conclusions.

There are two main interpretations that are frequently held (although see Piper's work below for a fuller list of different viewpoints). John Piper, for example, believes that this man is intended quite simply to represent the typical Christian life. John MacArthur would support him, as would many reformed scholars. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Terry Virgo are among those who would disagree and say, as Virgo did in the third of a series of talks on Philippians, that this is a “description of life before and outside of Christ, but looked at from the perspective of life in the Spirit.”

When Piper taught on Romans 7 he argued that his perspective on this verse would help protect against the idea, on the one hand, that Christians can ever become perfect and sinless in this life, and on the other hand, a passive failure to fight against sin. You can decide for yourself how well you feel he holds this balance. Here, though, are some of Piper's introductory words:

One of the biggest disagreements over this text is who this man is. Whose experience is Paul describing? Is this the experience of Paul, the believer? Or is this the experience of Paul, the unbeliever? Christian or non-Christian? Or should we pose the question with more precision: Is this a morally awakened but unconverted Paul? Or is this the spiritually quickened converted Paul who is new and immature in the faith? Or could this be the mature Christian Paul, but in times of lapsed faith and vigilance? I don't think I will tell you today what I think the answer is. I would like you to be thinking and studying this passage for yourselves without being sure what I think.

I do believe you can make a more or less plausible case for all of these possibilities and that none of them necessarily leads you into false teaching on the larger, over-all view of sanctification. In other words, it is possible to be wrong on our interpretation of one text but right in our view of the Christian life. You might say, "This text is not about Christian experience," and still believe that Christians have experiences like this - sometimes doing what we don't want to do. Or you might say, "This text is about Christian experience," and still believe that much more victory over sin is possible than this in the Christian life.

So what we conclude (about whether Romans 7:14-25 refers to Christian experience or not) does not describe our whole view of Christian experience. There are dozens of other very important texts in the New Testament that we have to stir into the mix to see the bigger picture of the Christian life. Beware of people who build their views on isolated passages. That is where most cults and quirky interpretations come from . . .

If the man is a Christian or not a Christian, in either case his misery ("O, wretched man that I am," verse 24) is caused by his indwelling sin, not by the Law. The Law is not sinful and the Law is not poison. I am sinful, and my sin is deadly poison.

Three times at least Paul makes the point. Verse 14: "The Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh." Verse 16: "If I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good." Verse 22: "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." So the Law is "spiritual" and "good" and a "joy."

This is true whether we decide that this divided man is a struggling believer or a conscience-quickened unbeliever. In either case, Paul's main point is the same: Justification by faith apart from works of the Law (3:28) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison. And sanctification by faith through death to the Law (7:4) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison.

Piper goes on to state that he believes this man of Romans 7 is, in fact, a normal Christian. I do agree with Piper that it is possible to come to different positions on Romans 7 without it affecting one's overall theological position. However, I also believe it is indisputable that if you do hold Piper's position—that this indeed represents the Christian—there is a very real danger that, unlike I am sure Piper himself, you might actually conclude that it is all right for a Christian to feel pretty helpless against sin and, frankly, become despairing.

Because of this result, and in light of my study of the matter, I am unusually ready to say here that I think Piper is wrong and Lloyd-Jones and Virgo are right. Why do I say this?

First, Romans 7 and Romans 8 seem to be setting forth two different life styles that are mutually inconsistent. The man who knows no freedom in Romans 7 has been set free from the law in Romans 8. While it is true that without the Spirit we can have the will to do good, but lack the ability to do it, with the Spirit it is no longer true that we cannot carry out good. Paul seems to almost yell at us in Romans 8—you CAN do it! I am no believer in Christians becoming perfect, but I do so hope that your view of Romans 7 doesn't lead you to a feeling of despair against ever enjoying living a victorious Christian life.

Lloyd-Jones expresses some of his reasons for believing the man of Romans 7 does NOT reflect the normal Christian life as follows:

"When the Christian talks about his sin and failure he does not talk about it primarily in terms of the law; he talks about it primarily in terms of love, about his failure to live to his glory. The Christian does not go on speaking in terms of the law as the man in Romans 7 does. He is no longer ‘under the law’ but ‘under grace.’ Furthermore, as the Apostle will show us . . . the Christian must never allow himself to feel the condemnation of the law . . . the whole object of this great 8th chapter is to emphasise that: ‘No condemnation . . . no separation.’ [MLJ Romans 7:1 to Romans 8:4 pp. 262-263. Cited online here.]

As one writer who holds a similar position to Virgo and Lloyd-Jones on this passage explains, with the understanding of Romans 7 that it does NOT represent the ideal Christian life, greater optimism about our fight against sin is possible:

"If, however, we, Christians, have "died to sin" (Romans 6:2), have been "freed from sin" (Romans 6:7) and are now "in (not 'controlled by') the Spirit" (Romans 8:9), then the possibilities of living lives that glorify God are as high and wide and broad and deep as the God who has called us. As people who are "spiritual," not "fleshly," we need not fall helplessly before the onslaught of sin (which was our life before Christ) but may with full confidence place our trust in Christ, through whom we have been freed from sin. Whereas before we had no choice but to go on doing the evil that we hated and not the good that we wished, now there is a choice."

I found the earlier quote from Virgo as part of my preparation for a sermon I will be preaching on Sunday on Philippians. Terry made the link between Romans 7 and the problems with willpower and inability, contrasting it with Paul's glorious challenge to us which shows that God gives us both the willpower and the ability to be broadly successful in our battle against sin.

". . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)

I want to share with you today a quote that I first put on this blog back in 2006. It is a quote which came towards the end of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' life. It helps explain why his monumental series of sermons on Romans, which is available in mp3 and book form, stops at Romans 14:7. The Doctor was taken into hospital for emergency surgery due to bowel cancer after preaching the second of what was to be three sermons on this verse. The Doctor recovered sufficiently to live another twelve years, but never attempted to complete his series. Here is his explanation for this:

“I was at Romans 14:17. I had dealt with 'righteousness', with 'peace' on March 1st, and there I was stopped. I was not allowed to deal with 'joy in the Holy Ghost'. I have the feeling that this was not accidental. God intervened and I could suggest a reason why. I was able to deal with righteousness and peace (I had fleeting experiences of it), but the third thing is the profoundest of all. Why was I not allowed to deal with it? Because I knew something, but not enough about it. 'I want you to speak with greater authority on this,' God said . . .

Here is what I would put before you. For six months, until September, I did not preach at all. For four months I have had the most valuable experience of being a listener. My general impression is that most of our services are terribly depressing! I am amazed people still go to church; most who go are female and over the age of forty. The note missing is 'joy in the Holy Ghost'. There is nothing in these services to make a stranger feel that he is missing something by not being there.”

These words from the greatest preacher of the 20th century should make us sit up and take notice. This missing factor of phenomenal, unexplainable, uncontainable joy is the biggest need of our churches today. There are many things about my mentor, Henry Tyler, that I will never forget. But one of the most prominent was his infectious joy. He was the very antithesis of the miserable legalist sadly so common among churchmen in his day. I don't think I have ever met a happier person who enjoyed life more than he did. He attended the Doctor's Westminster ministers fraternal, and would have concurred with this assessment of church life at that time. My question is—"Are our churches sufficiently full of joy today?" Church should be the happiest place on earth. I am convinced that if we let the Holy Spirit have free reign in our meetings, then such joy, such a sense of the presence of God, will be the result.

NOTE
This photo of "the Doctor" is quite rare, according to Philip Eveson, principal of the London Theological Seminary, where this portrait hangs inside the Lloyd-Jones library. Although pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London for many years, the Doctor was originally born and raised in Wales, and he also pastored his first church in South Wales. (Photograph and historical information courtesy Areopagus.)

For more information on Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, see this summary post or the MLJ Recording Trust.

Here are notes from a sermon I preached on the 27^th April at Jubilee Church. The mp3 is available to download here or listen to using the following embedded player-

“You shall not murder.” (Ex 20:13)

Ok, right at the outset, do we have any murderers here? No? Anyone planning on committing a murder? No? Good, so then we can all go home, yes? We got it straight, since we live in a Christian country means its Chicken for dinner tonight rather than human. Lets go get some coffee.

Actually there is some more to this commandment than first meets the eye.

No careless killing ESV footnote "also causing human death through carelessness or negligence" so see for example Ex 21:28-29 “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 22:8: “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring blood-guilt on your house if anyone falls from it.”

Risk assessment is biblical! “[The Jew] was to do everything humanly possible not to cause the death of another person” -The Master's Seminary, Master's Seminary Journal Volume 11, 11:206 (Master's Seminary, 2000; 2003).

- Therefore, human life is precious we should take good care of it. Every human is made in Gods image and therefore worth looking after. It is the Christian faith that teaches us we are not just the outcome of millions of years of chance reactions. We don't kill because life itself is a gift of God. We should also support initiatives that reduce the risk of death or serious injury.

eg car and road safety - 1 in 200 risk of dying on the roads! So driving at no more than 30 mph in built up areas is a good idea due to the dramatic risk of death if hit faster. 95% live if hit at 20mph, 90% die at 40mph. Also wear seat belts, pay for proper maintenance, and buy the safest car you can afford.

-also health measures, smoking in public bans is good as it will lead to less premature death. Form of Russian Roulette – 50% will die prematurely loosing ave of 16 years of precious God-given life. In country after country smoking bans have led to dramatic drops in the rates of heart attacks – 17% in Scotland for example in one year. Christians should support the provision of good health care and also simple social changes that can make massive impact by saving lives. Especially in developing world eg lack of clean water.

However, although this commandment applies to careless killing, there were clear distinctions made in the punishment depending on the intent “(1) the weapon used, (2) the enmity of the killer toward his victim, and (3) premeditation” (Numbers 35. 16–24) -The Master's Seminary, Master's Seminary Journal Volume 11, 11:205 (Master's Seminary, 2000; 2003).

Similar rules are still used today.

What other things that might be called murder?

-We have seen that negligence such as careless fighting or driving, is surely potential murder by the broader hebraic definition. But what of some areas that may be less clear to some. Lets be very clear here -

-Euthanasia or so-called “mercy killing”- so far even the unbelievers cannot bring themselves to legalize this in the UK. How could we know someone really understood what they were asking for and weren't coerced or depressed? Bible simply says "no killing". This surely even applies to some of the grey areas being discussed such as removing food and drink via tubes from brain damaged.

-Assisting Suicide remains illegal, but what about neglecting to prevent it?. Psychiatric services should be used appropriately... sadly the quality of our services vary. But people have a right to be treated against their will when they pose a danger to themselves and are not in their right minds.

-Abortion? We all agree that life exists after birth. We believe it is wrong to murder a newborn baby. So surely life exists just before. When then does it start? There is no logic to our current term limits for abortion- loosely based on when a child might survive "independently" outside the womb. But when technology improves will that mean the date changes? And, since a baby is not truly "independent" are they less fully human?

Our question should simply be is this a human? Does he or she have the image of God? If so we must protect, not kill. John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mothers womb whom when he met Jesus (Luke 1:44) and Psalm 139 makes plain God saw us and knew us there as he knit us together.

-Contraception? Pre conception fine, anything that definitely acts post conception is clearly not. Some methods are controversial as to their mode of action (eg oral contraceptive pill, coil etc). Christians should examine the evidence for themselves, pray, seek advice if needed then make the decision their conscience is happy with.

-IVF? Christians undergoing this procedure may wish to speak with their doctors about the fate of so-called "spare" embryos. Although they are routinely discarded, this need not be the case.

-War? The police? Romans 13.1-4 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.”

In the end this boils down to a simple question. If you were holding an armed gun, and had a chance to kill someone who was definitely about to kill another, would you be wrong to pull that trigger? The balance of the bible strongly suggests that you would not be wrong to do that.

So far, though, for the vast majority of us, none of this will have touched us. Perhaps there are some in the room who have had an abortion, if so, please bear with me as there is forgiveness for you as we will explain later.

But for the rest of us there is a danger that we will feel morally superior and proud of ourselves. So we haven't murdered... Big deal! If we think that makes us worthy of praise by God we are deluded!

Jesus punctures that bubble by saying “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5.21-24

Words can kill!

“Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” 1 Jn 3:15

“It is not only the act, but also the sentiment underlying the act, which is evil” - Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Map on lining papers., 2044 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1988).

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning” Jn 8:44

Actual murder is just the extension of anger and bitterness. Billy Grahams wife was once asked if she had ever considered divorce during their long marriage her answer- "divorce, NO! Murder, YES!"

If murder is sometimes the ultimate punishment for some imagined harm done by its victim, forgiveness is the opposite. Far from merely not murdering our enemies, God calls us to love them and forgive them.

We are told to forgive as we have been forgiven and warned that he will not forgive us if we do not forgive others.

Christians should be recognized as those who practice the reverse of murder. If murder is treating someone as sub-human and a less valuable object then the opposite is surely thinking of others as more important than you and selflessly loving them expecting nothing in return.

You can't murder someone you love. Jesus said love fulfills the law - love God covers the first few commandments, love your neighbor covers the rest.

God is the ultimate forgiver. We see this in the sad story of King David. We see the king who is described as the man after Gods own heart that the smallest sin can grow to become a major one. Most murders happen as a result of an argument between for example husband and wife. It is even possible that by causing us to stop and realize how dangerous anger is that this sermon might prevent a future murder.

Owen once said “be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

In Davids case, laziness led to a roaming eye. In our day he'd have visited certain websites or the top shelf at the news-agent. Then, he went on the roof to catch a glance at a woman bathing. That led to adultery. That led to deception and trickery. That led to murder.

Sin is sin. We stand before God bankrupt. When you are bankrupt it doesn't really matter if you owe a few thousands or a few million. You simply can never pay. An eternity in hell facing the wrath of God wont wipe away our sins.

The scandal of the cross is that on it, a man was murdered. Without removing the moral responsibility for that act, and the fact that we are all guilty of killing the son of God....ultimately there was something else going on.

The cross was a judicial killing. God the Almighty poured out his righteous wrath and punishment on his son. Jesus paid our debt. Not only did he cancel our debts, he credited our account with his righteousness. If you are a christian this morning he is as pleased with you not just as if you never sinned but just as if you were always righteous or put another way he is as thrilled with you as he is with Jesus!

Murderers are Invited to become Christians. Why? Because God can even forgive murderers, So he can forgive you.

If you're anything like me, and were at New Word Alive, or if you have listened to the audios online since that event, John Piper's two talks on "Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer" may well still be resonating with you.

You can read my notes on part 1 and part 2, of these messages, or listen to the audio at the following pages:

• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 2

If you want to hear him in more detail on the same subject, he spoke for four sessions at the beginning of the Wheaton College fall session in September of 2007. This is a different session, so may have a different tone to the passionate preaching we heard at New Word Alive, but if you want to understand the concepts more deeply, these messages may well be worth listening to.

• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 2
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 3
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 4
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Q&A Session

This is not really a political blog. And I am not a campaigner for any one political party. Nor have I ever even been a member of a party. Nothing in this post should be taken as a personal endorsement of any candidate or even as a suggestion that I have already cast my own vote. As of yet, I don't know that much about Alan Craig myself. I just want to give you this opportunity to hear more about a Christian who is standing for office and clearly not getting as much media coverage as Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson.

Over the last few days I received, via e-mail, the following two press releases, which I thought I would share with you in their entirety. Before I do, let me say a couple of things myself about the forthcoming London mayoral elections. For my American readers, some useful background for you is that in the UK very rarely will an openly professing Christian stand for any political office as it is considered a handicap by all our main parties.

When thinking about the fact that there is a Christian standing for London mayor and deciding whether to vote for him, it is worth considering two little-known facts. First, if every churchgoer in London were to actually vote and they all used their first preference vote for Alan Craig, then he would easily become mayor. Second, if even just a small percentage of Christians voted for him as the first choice, then put one of the main party candidates second, he would definitely serve on the London Assembly.

The election will be decided by a simple process as I understand it. The top two candidates from the first preference votes will go into a run-off where the second preference votes are added to the first preference ones to decide who will be mayor. Thus, one should always vote for one of the smaller candidates first if you support them, and want both your preferences to be counted as, contrary to popular understanding, a second preference vote for a less popular candidate is wasted.

Here is the text of both press releases, with the newest one first:


Election Broadcast by the Christian Peoples Alliance and Christian Party
On Wednesday 23rd April 2008 television viewers in London will have the chance to see a Christian vision of London for the GLA Elections.

6.25 pm ITV
6.55 pm BBC1
It will also be available on the BBCi-player and broadcast on BBC Radio.

A preview will be published from 11.55 pm Monday 21st April on the Christian Choice website:

http://www.thechristianchoice.org.uk/
A speech by Alan Craig on the importance of marriage made at the Kensington Temple Hustings is now available on YouTube at:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kxNKeWMiI6c

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



For Immediate Release: Sunday 20th April 2008

Christian Leaders Announce Backing for Alan Craig's London Election Campaign
Christian leaders are urging London voters to back Alan Craig of the Christian Choice in his campaign for mayor and the London Assembly. The group comes from a range of church backgrounds—Anglican, Roman Catholic, the Black Majority Churches, and the Free Church—and say Alan Craig is the outstanding candidate to run the capital. Councillor Craig also tops the London List of Assembly candidates for the Christian Choice, and needs just 5% to qualify for a seat.

Human rights campaigner and a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords, Baroness Cox of Queensbury said:

“Among all the candidates running for London Mayor, Alan Craig stands out above the crowd. He has shown leadership in industry and for years he's been devoted to bringing change to the inner-city through serving the community in London's East End.

But it is his Christian qualities which make him distinctive—brave in facing-up to political correctness, standing by ordinary Londoners and confronting issues like the threatened Mega Mosque, which other politicians won't touch. London won't do better than to choose Alan for mayor.”

Mgr John Armitage, Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood, praised Alan Craig for his years of service in London's East End:

“He is a committed Christian, a man of integrity who has a passion for the common good. His service of the people in one of the most socially deprived areas in the country has given hope and encouragement to many people. He has a true desire to serve and help to build strong local communities in London.”

Prominent leader in the Evangelical Alliance and founder of Icthus Christian Fellowship, Roger Forster, said:

“A vote for Alan Craig of The Christian Choice can put the name of Christ officially onto the Greater London Authority, which after so many years must be a good thing. I have every confidence concerning the Christian commitment, integrity and intelligence of Alan.”

Dr Sola Fola Alade leads the Trinity Chapel congregation of major black church, RCCG. He wrote:

“Alan is an honourable and compassionate Christian man. I know him to be a visionary leader who is not afraid to stand for justice and truth. He has shown himself to be a selfless leader, one who has now become a voice of the voiceless and a defender of the helpless. Though a Christian, he is one who reaches out to people regardless of class, colour, or creed.”

Rev Lyndon Bowring, Executive Chairman of campaign group CARE, said:

“Alan Craig is an outstanding Christian leader and a man of the people. London and the GLA needs him and I wholeheartedly commend him to you in the forthcoming mayoral and GLA elections.”

Writing in Christianity Magazine, Premier Christian Radio broadcaster and Chief Executive, Peter Kerridge, wrote:

“Personally, I hope Alan Craig gets onto the London Assembly where I believe his influence would make a positive difference.”

Former London mayoral candidate for the Christian Peoples Alliance, Ram Gidoomal CBE, praised Alan Craig's business credentials:

“London deserves better than simply a politician for mayor. That's why Alan Craig is so different—he walks the talk—spending years in sacrificial service in one of London's most deprived communities. But unlike other mayoral candidates, he comes with significant business experience. He understands that to stay ahead, the capital has to stay competitive, have a high quality of life for all its citizens, and be the British engine-room of innovation and investment. He makes a formidable candidate.”

Christian author, speaker, writer, and founder of Pioneer, Gerald Coates, concluded:

“Alan Craig is just what we need and is suitably equipped to be Mayor of London. He was a successful senior businessman, has more recently worked among the deprived and vulnerable, and is a politician with considerable experience and expertise.”

Colin Dye of Kensington Temple and J. John of the Philo Trust are also backing the campaign.

The Christian Choice is the united electoral option of the Christian Peoples Alliance and Christian Party. It is committed to serving all Londoners regardless of race, faith or background.

For more information:
E-mail: press@cpaparty.org.uk
Telephone: 07873 625396
View: http://www.thechristianchoice.org/?page=endorsements

Promoted and published by P Vickers, The Christian Choice, 85 Tarling Road, London E16.

The following video is the one referred to in the first press release above:

The second sermon that John Piper preached at New Word Alive is now available online. You can download the audio for free or read my notes.

New Word Alive 2008 is now over. Here is a full list of my reports and interviews of the conference. I will be releasing some video interviews with John Piper, Don Carson, and Terry Virgo over the next couple of weeks.

You can also visit the New Word Alive website to order CDs, and links to free mp3 downloads of the two Piper talks will be available from my reports of the sessions in the following list:

APRIL 7, 2008

• A Conference is Born
  
• Video on the Road to Pwllheli in North Wales
  
• Photos on the Road to Pwllheli
  
• My First Audio Impressions
  
• Terry Virgo Preaching on Grace

APRIL 8, 2008

• Audio Impressions From Participants
  
• Don Carson on 1 John, Part 1
  
• Mike Ovey on Humanity
  
• Interview With Stuart Townend
  
• John Piper on Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1

APRIL 9, 2008

• Audio Response to John Piper's Sermon on Suffering
  
• Don Carson on 1 John, Part 2
  
• Remembering What Really Matters
  
• John Piper on Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 2

APRIL 10, 2008

• Audio Response to John Piper's Second Sermon on Suffering
  
• Audio Interview With NWA Exhibitors
  
• Don Carson on 1 John, Part 3
  
• Interview With Hugh Palmer
  
• Interview With Bishop Wallace Benn
  
• Hugh Palmer on Treasuring Christ and the Call to Service
  
• Interview With Phatfish

APRIL 11, 2008

• Dave Bish Interviews Me
  
• Final Audio Comments

APRIL 13, 2008

• Richard Cunningham on Romans 12

APRIL 14, 2008

• Don Carson on 1 John and Assurance
  

While I was driving through the night, Richard Cunningham was speaking to the students at New Word Alive. Thanks to the wonders of technology, I can listen to this, and so can you if you pop over to the NWA site and order CDs. I will share some short notes here.

We are told by Paul to act in a certain way in view of God's mercies. We are not to be those who conform and fit in. It’s not the easy-going lifestyle, but the considered one.

Richard’s 11 year old nephew was recently told he will die. Without hesitation he said to his doctor, “I am not afraid of dying. I have a friend in Jesus. He is going to take me to be with him.” If our life is built on something solid, we will live differently. We offer all we have and are to the Lord.

We cannot start with exhortations. We have to put theology before ethics. The first chapters of Romans show that we are all guilty before God and need his mercy. Our sin is our only contribution to our forgiveness.

Sometimes we find security within the rules. Grace is unflattering and uncomfortable. Some of us are more naturally pleasure-seeking. We need to get off the beach and onto the altar.

Often we think following God will be tough and that he will ruin our lives. If we understand his mercies, how could we think that? God wants us to be those who make the glory of God known throughout the world.

Offering our bodies is first of all a rational and sensible thing. The word “spiritual” there can be translated reasonable or rational. It is not about dividing your lives between spiritual or secular. It is, instead, rather foolish to exchange the real God for worshiping the created. If we have experienced the mercy of God, how can we continue to offer our bodies in slavery in sin?

The full potential of humans is to serve God. It is only when we treasure God that we will offer ourselves to him. We exercise gifts because of the abilities God gives us. Men can have a tendency to be passive. It is only when we are active that we will find the purpose for which we were made.

We don't serve because of the debtor’s ethic. We wouldn't say to our wives, “I had no choice; I didn't want to be in your debt, I felt guilty, so I bought you these flowers.” We serve God because we love him, not for some half-hearted reason. He loved and died for us. How could we do anything other than give him everything back?

God loved us while we were abusing ourselves. Knowing where we are going will drive us to make this life last.

Earlier today I interviewed Hugh Palmer. Tonight, in typical wry self-depreciating humor, he began his talk by saying that we would be moving from the American passion we saw demonstrated last night, to the British understatement we could expect to experience now.

He began by telling us that we don't tell people the gospel for one of two reasons—either because we don't believe the gospel or because we don't love them. Hugh says he still struggles with evangelism and is looking for a third option, but can't find one. We saw in Romans 8 “from no condemnation to no separation.”

Hugh pointed us to the heart that Paul had for his countrymen. Too often we don't really share Paul’s attitude—which was “curse me, not them.” It’s like Moses when the people had worshipped the golden calf. Neither Moses nor Paul can be cursed for others or blotted out of the book. Only the innocent Christ was cut off for others’ sins. There is a curse for those who turn their backs on God. It is Christ-like to long for our friends to know what we have known. If we don't recognize ourselves in this attitude, does it mean we don't love or we don't believe the gospel? We need to pray that God will give us the evangelist’s heart—actually the Christian’s heart.

God has given over people to disobedience so he can have mercy on them. We are urged by Paul to present our bodies to God as an act of worship. It is striking that he uses ritualistic cultic language, but then he ignores it all. We have an empty life full of guilt without God, which Jesus fills. We don't deserve God’s love, but because of his mercy he loves us. Gripped by the mercy of God, we are then to offer our bodies. He doesn't ask us to give just our hearts to the Lord, but our bodies. Don't try and keep God in the so-called “spiritual” part of you. It’s carried around in our bodies. All the rest comes with it.

In the temple, sacrifices would be living, but end up dead. Here it’s the other way around—we are to offer sacrifices as those who have been brought to life. We worship by driving for Christ, by resting for Christ, by working in our workplaces for Christ, etc.

Evangelists are awkward people once things are going well. Suddenly they want to plant a new church! They throw all the pieces up in the air and leave the pastor to put them back together. But we are all to have the heart of an evangelist.

We are to be transformed. It is our minds that have to radically change. Beware of comfortable Christianity! Hugh said he was respectably godless before his conversion. But he discovered that his existence was shriveled. In the Christian body we have different parts with different functions. We are committed, we belong, we are serving. When people say they don't feel they belong, it's often because they're not serving. It is about putting people before ourselves as more important than we are.

Be willing to associate with people of low position. Relate to people who are different to you. There are 55 different nationalities represented at All Souls Church. May the gospel define us—it's more important than Anglican versus Free Church, old versus young, excited versus understated. Be careful about being too settled or the job is done now. Whether we move or not, we should have a godly restlessness.

We need the Spirit to take his word and re-tune our thinking to be more like him as we read our Bibles. Only then can we test and approve what God’s will is. It is only then that life will feel like a round peg in a round hole. What attracted Hugh to Christ was not the preachers, but a Christian friend who wasn't like everybody else. He was like nobody else Hugh had met before. May we be among those who won’t settle for anything less than a radical change. In view of God's mercy, let’s offer him our bodies.

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!”

UPDATE
The audio version of Piper's evening session, "Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1" is now available. You can listen to it right here or download it from the Desiring God website.

Romans 8:1-35. I have often said that this chapter in the Bible is surely one of the most foundational for Christian living. I was therefore thrilled to discover that John Piper would be preaching from it this evening. In fact, Piper went on to claim that this is the greatest chapter in the entire Bible. As is always the case when he preaches, the audio and video of this sermon will be made available very soon, and I will add the links to this post.

Dr. Piper began by saying that he believes in what this New Word Alive conference event stands for. The text this evening, like the one that Don Carson spoke on this morning, hit upon the very reason for the existence of this conference. Even Piper's opening prayer was instructing. It was clear that he was leaning heavily on God’s strength and ability to help him in preaching. He prayed for us, his hearers, that we might be prepared to face future suffering that will inevitably come to each of us.

There is a real danger that Christ becomes merely the means and not the end of our salvation. Why is this? It’s because he is the means of our salvation. If he had not died, we would be judged. But there are forms of teaching, such as the “prosperity gospel” and other less obvious ones, that all mean we never quite get to the end of the gospel. Even forgiveness and justification are not the end. They are in order that God might bring us to Christ.

Treasuring Christ would change everything in our lives. It is the answer to our current world. Matthew 13:44 is Piper's favorite parable. The man found a treasure, and in his joy he went and sold everything he had and bought that field. When Christ came into the world and offered himself for us it was in order that we might have him. He is to us a treasure beyond all value. There is no sacrifice when we give up things in order to have Jesus. He is that valuable. If we love even our family more than Jesus, we are not worthy of him. He is more important than our life. Love of the Lord is better than life.

Do we truly treasure Christ? It is right to receive him as Lord and Savior. But we have to get beyond merely those things that Jesus has done for us. He wasn't simply useful to get us to heaven. He is not just “useful”—he is everything! He is King.

In John 17 Jesus prayed for you and me—that we might be with Jesus and see his glory. How thin is our concept of this. Even some Evangelicals are fearful of this idea. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” The good news is the glory of Jesus! We will spend eternity beholding—with ever increasing joy—his glory.

Decisions are easy. Perfection is impossible. If you feel you don't treasure him enough, join the club. Every day John Piper prays about his failing emotions. He said that his main battle is with the way his own heart is drawn to his computer, his family, etc. This is what the Christian walk is all about.

Turn the word "treasure" from a noun into a verb. Then preach in such a way that your people learn to value Christ above their jobs and careers, above money and health.

The experience of life that causes the value of Christ to be seen most clearly is when he is treasured in suffering. When he is treasured in spite of all the terrible statistics, or maybe even because of them. When everything goes wrong and you say, “Christ is all.” That is how we move from conviction to action. In Acts, a persecution led to 10,000 Christian refugees. It seems that this was needed for the Great Commission to be fulfilled. They went everywhere telling the good news. Only because they treasured Christ more than the church and city they had just lost could they have shared the gospel in those ways.

If all is going well and you say you follow Christ, no one will be impressed. But what if you lose your wife, your home, and your health? What it they then look at you and see that you are contented. They will ask you, “What are you hoping in?” Your reply should be, “Christ is more valuable than all of this.” And then they just might believe you.

In Romans 8:16-17 we see the call to suffer. There is a condition here. That we suffer with him. We suffer in order that we may eventually be resurrected and be glorified in heaven. If you reject the call to suffer, you will not go to heaven. Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God. This is not meant to call into question our standing with God. In verse 30 we see the clear affirmation that the called are glorified. Thus, God will see that those who he has justified will come through their sufferings looking like gold. Eternal security is not mechanical. It is absolutely certain, but this is in the sovereignty of God. Tomorrow morning God will make sure you wake up wanting to get to glory. Don't run from suffering, embrace it. The glory makes suffering worth it.

Verses 1-17. You are now free from all divine condemnation. Verse 2 offers evidence, not grounds. The receiving of the Spirit is the evidence. The grounds are what God did in sending his own son so that the Spirit could be unleashed into us. He condemned sin in the flesh. Whose flesh? Jesus' flesh. Whose sin? Our sin. That is why this conference exists. That is the heart of the gospel, and it is precious beyond words. That this gospel is being rejected in this nation and in America is appalling beyond words.

Someone might argue, “Sin was condemned, but not Christ.” Piper then explained: Imagine I got you on stage and said, “I’m going to hit you in the face, but it’s not you I'm hitting, it’s just your attitude.” NO! It was the will of the Lord to bruise him. God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He was wounded for us. His punishment set us free. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He struck him. It was God the Father who killed Jesus. It is considered today to be appalling to teach or sing this. Piper said it is not appalling to him, it is his very life!

The Spirit manifests himself in many ways later in the chapter. Then we come to suffering in verses 18 to 25. He starts as follows—it is worth it. Sufferings are not comparable to the glory. It’s hard to feel this when we are in it. He steps back from our pain. We have to be careful how we do this. There is a regular rhythm between standing by a sick bed and behind a pulpit in a long-term pastoral ministry.

Suffering is Universal
God is not included, nor are the non-fallen angels. Everyone else and everything else suffers. The whole creation is groaning. It was given over to futility. It is not just about me. It is not because of my sin specifically necessarily. Something global has brought this horrid reality to pass.

Suffering is Historical
It has a beginning in history, and will continue to the end of “this present time.” There was a specific event that led to suffering—it “was subjected.”

Suffering is Judicial
This is most important, most controversial, and most helpful. In verse 20 it is clear that somebody took the universe and disordered it. Someone brought painful disorder to our relationships, workplaces, etc. GOD did it. We know it must have been God because it was done in hope! There can only be two other candidates—Adam and the devil. Did Adam and Eve sin in the hope of a future new heaven and earth? They didn't have a clue about that when they fell! Was it the devil's design to do it in hope? No! Only God did this in hope. God judged the universe because of sin. This is not moral consequentialism. Hell is explained that way, the atonement is explained that way, your suffering is explained that way. People are becoming deists. Without Romans 8 deeply gripping your soul, our first reaction is to distance God from suffering. It is as though we want to defend God! Deism hasn't comforted a human soul in the midst of pain in a thousand years. Piper said he has buried many people, has walked through people's divorces, and has seen wayward children. We need something that will help us face suffering.

The meaning of all misery in the universe is that sin is horrific. All natural evil such as floods, disease, etc. is a statement about the horror of moral evil. God looked upon sin, and he said, "Here is my response to that." He subjected the entire creation to this. Until you see the moral outrage of sin in proper proportions, and the magnificence of God in proper proportions, that will seem to you like an over-reaction. The world will say, “That’s ridiculous! He saw one sin and he did all that?” The reason for suffering is to teach you about your heart. You don't even get close to understanding the horror of the way you treat your wife. There is a moral scandal about falling short of God's glory.

If you see a soldier tripping over his own entrails and then dying, choking on his blood, you see a tiny fraction of the horrors of the world. Without this text that God subjected the world to futility in response to moral evil, we don't understand how bad sin is. He has to use bodies to show that to us. We wouldn't understand otherwise.

Nobody says it was unjust of God to save us! We all think we deserve him to save us. He says to us, "If you want to know how horrendous your sin is, look at AIDS and cancer.”

The gospel is good news for everybody who will receive the Jesus who suffered for them. Don't conclude that because there is no condemnation we will have no suffering. Our light and momentary troubles will appear as nothing when we are with Christ.

Piper then closed with prayer, thanking God for the smell of the green pastures that we have coming towards us. The day is coming when suffering will be over. He promised to explain all this further tomorrow evening.

If you listened to my podcast, you heard me say the conference site seemed full of students. The reason why this was the case was because I arrived so late that the first adult celebration was well underway. In fact, the worship was almost over by the time I got into the tent.

I love worshiping God in a tent. I guess this goes back to my childhood, when I attended Bible Weeks, not to mention the family heritage of being the grandson of a tent-preacher. Worship was being led by some familiar faces—Stuart Townend and Phatfish. A rousing hymn was being sung as I crept in, looking for an inconspicuous place to sit with my laptop.

Shortly after I arrived, Hugh Palmer briefly interviewed Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Keith is an Irish songwriter based at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently touring the United States of America. Stuart is a worship leader at Church of Christ the King in Brighton. Together they have written a number of modern hymns which have had an incredible reception in the wider body of Christ. I would be surprised if any reader of my blog has not heard of or sung In Christ Alone, which last year Tim Challies reported was the only song sung at every one of the conferences he live-blogged. Not surprisingly, that hymn is somewhat controversial with some who argue about penal substitution.

Hugh asked the two songwriters how they came to work together. Stuart answered that at any given time he often had a lot of lyrics floating around, but that there were also times when composing a melody was more difficult. Keith, it seems, had exactly the opposite issue, so early-on in their friendship Keith gave Stuart a CD which had three melodies on it for which he had no words. The very first tune Stuart listened to struck him powerfully, and he wrote the lyrics for it. That song became In Christ Alone. Stuart explained that the process isn't quite as simple as it sounds, and that the lyrics and melodies can sometimes go back and forth between them several times before they become finalized.

Keith graciously claimed that at one point he had given up on Christian music altogether. He said he would wait until the preacher was about to start before he entered a church. This changed when he heard one of Stuart's songs one day, which inspired him to get back into worship music. His wife then sung a beautiful song.

Just before he began to preach, Terry Virgo (for more information on Terry see my interview with him) was asked by his introducer why he had come to preach here. His answer? “Who could refuse an invitation to come and hear John Piper and Don Carson?!!” Also, he mentioned his confidence in the local church as the main way in which discipleship is worked out, but explained that such a belief does not in any way diminish his belief in gathering saints together from many churches to hear the exposition of God's Word.

Terry began in Romans 5 and spoke of the way we want to live in the good of some of the glorious phrases we find in Paul's epistle. We read about “reigning in life,” but fail to read the small print. Terry said our mistake was to think that we will be able to live the victorious Christian life by setting ourselves rules and regulations. We are suddenly putting ourselves back under the law. But Paul is very clear that Christians should NOT be under the law. He cited Romans 6:14, Galatians 5:4, Romans 10:4, and Romans 7:1-12 in support of this idea that Christians have been released from the law. He expressed his surprise at how many Christians still believe we are under the law.

If the law is like "a husband," we are then unable to argue with him, nor are we able to leave the law and become married to another. The law is an oppressive, overbearing husband. He is right. He is authoritative. He never lifts a finger to help us. Jesus adds that the law will never pass away. So we are permanently married to a fault-finding husband who will never die. The good news of the gospel is that through the body of Christ we have passed away. In Jesus, we have all died to the law.

Jesus perfectly obeyed the law. He could challenge anyone to prove him guilty of any sin. But he also fulfilled the law in taking the full curse of the law. He substituted himself. He was made to be sin. Paul's favorite description of Christians is that they are “in Christ.” We have been crucified with Jesus. Our relationship with the law is completely over. We have been discharged—like a soldier who has been commanded and shouted at. The day when he is discharged from the army comes. Imagine if the sergeant then cries, “SOLDIER”—it doesn’t matter! He has been discharged! He is no longer under that authority. In the same way, the Christian is no longer married to the law. We have died to the law in order that we might be joined to another—to him who was raised from the dead.

The law cannot save us. Most Christians agree with that. But many people think that once we have been saved apart from the law we are meant to come back to the law in order to be sanctified. But we have died to that old impotent husband that we might be joined to the new raised-from-the-dead husband. He is not impotent, he is very potent. He doesn't come and say that we need a bit of law! The law kills, but the Spirit gives life. Why do we still think we need a bit of death?! Often when someone is saved, they immediately are told to follow rules about what they can and cannot do. Am I justified? Am I accepted? Or do I still have to try and please him?

Jesus transforms us from the inside by his grace. He gives us life. There is a real change that happens inside of us. We reign in life because of what Jesus does to really change us on the inside and through the free gift of righteousness. We must not listen to the devil who accuses us day and night; he wants us to stop trusting in Jesus’ righteousness. We don't earn God’s favor by, for example, fasting twice-a-week. We can't cover our guilt and condemnation by establishing our own righteousness. If we are doing well, pride grips us. If we are doing badly, we no longer feel that we are right with God. The truth is, we are right with God solely because of what Jesus did!

Terry made us all laugh at ourselves and our futile efforts to change in our own strength. He then took us to the story of Esau. In an important way, our hiding in Christ is different to that. We were placed there by God himself. We are not trying to deceive God. We can pray, “Catch the fragrance of your son as I come to you.” We are not against prayer or reading the Bible, but we do not do these things to somehow impress God. Jesus is the way. I don't need “a way to the Way.”

John Bunyan realized that Jesus’ righteousness is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is nothing we can do to add or take away from that. We should not trust our frame of mind or our emotional state.

Christ's righteousness is freely given to us. We are not up and down. Sadly, often we go from husband to husband. We say “sorry” to Jesus and promise that we will do a whole lot of regulations to try and improve. Imagine saying to a new husband that you will try and improve your relationship with him by building a relationship with your previous husband! We reign in life through the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. It is accomplished. We are now in a beautiful relationship with God through grace and faith.

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.

Today we reach the fifth of my correspondent's questions. It is, in many ways, the most admirable and crucial of all of them.

Having not been baptized by the Spirit, what would you recommend that I do now?

I began to answer this question in some ways in my previous Ask The Blogger post. In essence, the critical thing is to begin to desire this and to seek the experience God has for you. Of course, in order to desire this, you have to be convinced that it is from God, and that it is for you. I would advise some careful study of the Bible texts, focusing on Ephesians 1, Romans 5, Romans 8, Luke 11, and the whole book of Acts. As with salvation, faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Until you are convinced in your mind, your prayer will be half-hearted.

James 1:5-8 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

We could easily substitute for the word wisdom there, the words “the Holy Spirit.”

Fear is a common barrier to truly faith-filled asking. We worry that what we will receive will not be from God. The parable in Luke speaks of how the good father will give good gifts to his children. That is a very helpful place to go for prolonged meditation to ease one's doubts on this matter. God often tells his people in the Bible not to fear when he reveals himself to them. As his children we have nothing to fear from him.

Since faith comes by HEARING the Word of God, I would also like to strongly encourage you to LISTEN to helpful teaching on this subject, ideally in a face-to-face environment. If you are not near a good church where you can go to hear such teaching, and are not able to get to a conference like Together On a Mission, I very strongly recommend Terry Virgo's talk on “Receiving the Spirit.” This was linked on the first day of this series.

Ultimately, if you do not experience a filling of the Spirit from simply asking, it is perhaps time to humbly seek out a godly believer who can lay hands on you and pray for you that you might be filled. Don't set yourself up for a disappointment, however, by asking for such prayer until you are convinced that an experience is available and that you are qualified for that experience. Many people think they need to somehow “earn” the Holy Spirit. The truth is, all believers are qualifed. As Peter says in Acts 2, the promise for EVERYONE who God has called. So if you are called, the promise is availble for you. It is as if a check has already been written and signed by God and is now waiting to be cashed.

On Thursday we began a series looking at several questions asked by an e-mail correspondent of mine. Today I will address his second question:

Does baptism by the Holy Spirit have to be accompanied by tongues? Does it have to be by the laying on of hands? How do you know that you have been baptized in the Spirit?

I will take these in reverse order. The last one is, in some ways, the easiest, although it is more difficult to put into words. It is like asking, “How do you know you are in love?” or “How do you know that was a beautiful painting?” At its center, the baptism of the Spirit is about the love of God being poured out into our hearts (Romans 5:5). I love John Piper's description of it, which he credits to Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It's not that the Spirit is entirely absent from the lives of believers before they receive him—far from it! No one can come to faith except by the Spirit; no one can exhibit any of the fruits of the Spirit without his work; every impulse to love and obey God comes from the Spirit. It’s just that we are not always very aware of his work within us. We often don’t relate to him as a person. We have not “received” him, nor do we feel him. He has not yet “fallen on us.”

The truth is, even those who have received the Spirit often forget him. I often need to come back to him, asking that I be made more aware of his work in my life. It is not an “all or-nothing” phenomenon. The most Spirit-filled believer has yet more to receive of him! Spurgeon expresses this very well as follows:

"Have ye then received the Spirit since you believed? Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power? Put the question personally. I am afraid some professors will have to admit that they hardly know whether there be any Holy Ghost; and others will have to confess that though they have enjoyed a little of his saving work, yet they do not know much of his ennobling and sanctifying influence. We have none of us participated in his operations as we might have done: we have sipped where we might have drunk; we have drunk where we might have bathed; we have bathed up to the ankles where we might have found rivers to swim in. Alas, of many Christians it must be affirmed that they have been naked, and poor, and miserable, when they might in the power of the Holy Spirit have been clad in golden garments, and have been rich and increased in goods. He waiteth to be gracious, but we linger in indifference, like those of whom we read, "They could not enter in because of unbelief." There are many such cases, and therefore it is not improper that I should with all vehemence press home upon you the question of the apostle, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Did ye receive him when ye believed? Are ye receiving him now that ye are believing in Christ Jesus?

. . . Does any man know what the Spirit of God can make of him? I believe the greatest, ablest, most faithful, most holy man of God might have been greater, and abler, and more faithful, and more holy, if he had put himself more completely at the Spirit's disposal. Wherever God has done great things by a man, he has had power to do more had the man been fit for it. We are straitened in ourselves, not in God. O brothers, the church is weak today because the Holy Spirit is not upon her members as we could desire him to be. You and I are tottering along like feeble babes, whereas, had we more of the Spirit, we might walk without fainting, run without weariness, and even mount up with wings as eagles. Oh, for more of the anointing of the Holy Ghost whom Christ is prepared to give immeasurably unto us if we will but receive him! "

C. H. Spurgeon, Receiving the Holy Ghost, No. 1790, Vol 30, Year 1884, p. 386, (Acts 19:2)

In answer to the question about laying on of hands. It is clear from the biblical accounts that some people did receive the Spirit when others prayed for them with hands laid on. Many also received the Spirit in other ways, with the Spirit often being described as “falling” on people. I do believe that laying on of hands is often very helpful and instrumental in a person receiving the Spirit, but we must not put God into a box on this issue. I have received touches from the Holy Spirit through hands being laid on me, but have also experienced his touch when alone in my room or walking in the woods. We should neither despise laying on of hands, nor make it into a law that all must receive the Spirit that way.

When it comes to tongues, my position is complex. Nowhere in the Bible does it state that it is impossible to receive the Spirit without speaking in tongues. Therefore we should not go further than Scripture on this point. I have already outlined that I believe that tongues is not the core element to this experience. The baptism of the Spirit is more about receiving a strong sense of the love of God and assurance of our salvation (see Ephesians 1, Romans 5, Romans 8). It should result in a welling up of praise to God. Tongues is part of the overflow of that experience, but may not be experienced by everyone. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that almost every time the Spirit is received in Acts, tongues and prophecy are the result. Therefore I think we are not wrong to expect tongues and prophecy, and to ask for them, and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, to eagerly desire spiritual gifts. Paul himself says in that chapter that he wants all of his readers to speak in tongues, and especially to prophecy. Thus, I think we should not settle for an experience of the Spirit that makes his gifts optional and is relaxed about whether or not we receive them. Let’s press the Spirit to give all he has for us!

Today I can finally reveal that No. 1 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on April 2, 2006, and was my interview with Mark Driscoll, the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington.

Thanks to my friends at Crossway, a free copy of Mark Driscoll's new book, Vintage Jesus, will be winging its way to Vince, who e-mailed the correct answer, Hugh, who blogged it, Terry B, who guessed wrong, and Craig who deserves a prize for persistence.

Back in April 2006, I had only recently heard of Mark Driscoll. When we conducted this interview, he was already prompting quite a significant response online, and as the months progressed, he would become probably the most talked-about preacher on the Internet. Other recent and popular posts on my blog about Mark Driscoll include:

• Mark Driscoll, Terry Virgo, and Shepherding God's People
  
  
• Driscoll on the Defeat of Shame and the Scotland MP3s
  
  
• Mark Driscoll Preaches On the Atonement in Edinburgh, Scotland
  
  
• Mark Driscoll at Menmakers in Scotland
  
  
• Mark Driscoll Apologizes for Not Being Humble
  
  
• Mark Driscoll Firm, But Kind, About Joel Osteen on Prosperity Teaching
  
  
• Mark Driscoll in Christianity Today

I have also listed ways of obtaining Mark Driscoll's sermons online at "Audio Sermons: Mark Driscoll—The Charismatic With a Seat Belt."

It is an absolute pleasure to welcome to my blog, Mark Driscoll. Mark is known for having a prominent role in the early days of the Emergent movement, and for his rapidly growing Mars Hill Church. More recently, via his new venture, Resurgence, he has made an explosive entry into the Christian blog-world, which some have likened to none other than The Pyromaniac himself. More posts about Mark Driscoll are linked at the end of this article. You can also visit my interview with Wendy Alsup, a deacon at Mark Driscoll's church.

Adrian
So, Mark, tell us a bit about yourself and your ministry . . .

Mark
I was born in 1970 to a hard-working blue-collar construction worker dad. I was raised Irish Catholic, but did not know Jesus until God saved me while reading Romans in college at the age of 19. Shortly thereafter, God spoke to me, telling me to plant a church, train men, preach the Bible, and marry my girlfriend, who was a Christian I dearly loved. I married Grace at the age of 21, graduated with a degree in Speech at 22, moved back to my hometown of Seattle, and launched Mars Hill Church at the age of 25. Today I am the father of five children and remain one of the elders at Mars Hill Church.

Adrian
In my first post about you I said, "Mars Hill is one of those unique churches that is probably too emerging for some evangelicals to cope with, much too traditional for the emerging folks, too charismatic for the reformed folks, and too reformed for the average charismatic. It's a wonder anyone likes the church! Actually, the more I read of Mark the more he sounds like he is making his home in the same kind of center ground that my own church tries to occupy." Do you recognize that description of yourself—do you sometimes feel like something of a theological misfit?

Mark
I am a theological misfit and have learned to be okay with that. We are missional, which offends fundamentalists. We hold to the fundamentals, which offends the liberals. We are theologically charismatic, but not shake and bake holy rollers, which puts us in the middle of a big debate to be shot by both sides. We are reformed, but not old school, and don't baptize babies, don't hold to the regulative principle, and won't die on the hill of Limited Atonement, but hold a more unlimited/limited position, which upsets both sides of the debate. In the end, I hold to a high view of inerrant Scripture and am trying to be biblical, even when it makes a mess of my systematics.

Adrian
What other groups or individuals can you look at and say, "Yeah, they seem to have got it—I can follow them"? Who would you say have been your main influences?

Mark
I learn a lot from John Piper, D. A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, and Tim Keller. The dead guys I like tend to be Puritans and early church fathers. I also am a huge Spurgeon fan, and read every biography I can get on him. I love biographies and learn from the lives of Calvin, Luther, Aquinas, Augustine, Patrick, etc. . . .

Read more . . . Interview With Mark Driscoll

No. 11 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on April 23, 2007, and examined what is possibly the most controversial article Bishop Tom Wright has ever written. In it, I questioned his ability to criticize some who dismiss Penal Substitutionary Atonement while approving of Steve Chalke, stating his own support for a form of PSA, and decrying angrily the value of the book, Pierced For Our Transgressions. I posed a number of questions to Wright in private e-mails, and sadly, he declined my offer to allow him to clarify his position further on my blog.

There is clearly a theological storm brewing. Bishop Wright has entered the fray, and appears reluctant to stand firmly on one side or the other of the debate. He doesn't mention the disagreement between UCCF and Spring Harvest, but he doesn't have to since the issues are clearly the same. I am sure he did not read my post from last Friday on this subject, and the comments that have been flying around here about it — but his statements definitely are as apt to the discussion as if he had!

Wright begins an important article by explaining that he is disappointed with Jeffrey John, who he feels denies the biblical doctrine of the wrath of God. Wright is clear that:

“The biblical doctrine of God’s wrath is rooted in the doctrine of God as the good, wise and loving creator, who hates — yes, hates, and hates implacably — anything that spoils, defaces, distorts or damages his beautiful creation, and in particular anything that does that to his image-bearing creatures. If God does not hate racial prejudice, he is neither good nor loving. If God is not wrathful at child abuse, he is neither good nor loving. If God is not utterly determined to root out from his creation, in an act of proper wrath and judgment, the arrogance that allows people to exploit, bomb, bully, and enslave one another, he is neither loving, nor good, nor wise.”

So far so good, but Wright seems to want to put the blame for the Dean of St. Alban’s rejection of penal substitution firmly at the door of evangelicals who, he feels, have been teaching a caricature of the true biblical teaching. Speaking of what has occurred he says:

“This is what happens when people present over-simple stories with an angry God and a loving Jesus, with a God who demands blood and doesn’t much mind whose it is as long as it’s innocent.“ You’d have thought people would notice that this flies in the face of John’s and Paul’s deep-rooted theology of the love of the triune God: not ‘God was so angry with the world that he gave us his son’ but ‘God so loved the world that he gave us his son’. That’s why, when I sing that interesting recent song ‘In Christ alone my hope is found’, and we come to the line, ‘And on the cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied’, I believe it’s more deeply true to sing ‘the love of God was satisfied’. I commend that alteration to those who sing that song, which is in other respects one of the very few really solid recent additions to our repertoire. So we must readily acknowledge that, of course, there are caricatures of the biblical doctrine all around, within easy reach — just as there are of other doctrines, of course, such as that of God’s grace.”

So if both Jeffrey John and evangelicals have got it wrong, in his opinion, what does Wright feel is the correct understanding?

“. . . this, I think, is as clear as it gets in Paul — in Romans 8:3, where Paul says explicitly that God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ? Paul does not say that God condemned Jesus; rather, that he condemned sin; but the place where sin was condemned was precisely in the flesh of Jesus, and of Jesus precisely as the Son sent from the Father. And this, we remind ourselves, is the heart of the reason why there is now ‘no condemnation’ for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1) . . .”

[Wright then introduces Romans 3 and states] “To put it somewhat crudely, the logic of the whole passage makes it look as though something has happened in the death of Jesus through which the wrath of God has been turned away. It is on this passage that Charles E. B. Cranfield, one of the greatest English commentators of the last generation, wrote a memorable sentence which shows already that the caricature Dr. John has offered was exactly that:

“We take it that what Paul’s statement that God purposed Christ as a propitiatory victim means is that God, because in His mercy He willed to forgive sinful men and, being truly merciful, willed to forgive them righteously, that is, without in any way condoning their sin, purposed to direct against His own very Self in the person of His Son the full weight of that righteous wrath which they deserved. (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 2 volumes, Edinburgh: T & T Clark; vol. 1, 1975, p. 217.)”

“. . . It isn’t that God happens to have a petulant thing about petty rules. He is the wise and loving creator who cannot abide his creation being despoiled. On the cross he drew the full force, not only of that despoiling, but of his own proper, judicial, punitive rejection of it, on to himself. That is what the New Testament says. That is what Jesus himself, I have argued elsewhere, believed what was going on.”

Wright seems to want to expound a somewhat subtle and nuanced view, the likes of which some people believe Packer and Stott themselves hold — where we are allowed to say that God punished sin in Jesus, but not that Jesus Himself was punished for sin. To me, at least, that kind of statement seems to be trying to have your cake and eat it. This is certainly what Wright seems to do when he then turns to discuss Pierced for Our Transgressions.

He begins in such a way that we are warned that his overall opinion is not positive: “I was all the more frustrated when I came upon a new book . . .” He then acknowledges:

“I can fully understand the frustration, within that tradition, at the way in which some recent writers from within the evangelical world have cast doubt, or worse, on penal substitution as a whole. There do seem to me to be some evangelicals who have done what Jeffrey John has done — rejected the doctrine because of the caricatures.”

Read more . . . N. T. Wright Attacks Both Sides of the Debate

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.”

May was not as controversial a month as I reported yesterday that April had been. I continued with the following posts on the atonement and the resurrection throughout May and also into June. In fact, there were a few posts on the atonement which spilled into July, and I have listed them here also. If that's not enough for you on this vital subject, remember to look at my April review which lists a lot more!

• John Stott on the Atonement—The Conclusion
• Terry Virgo On the Results of the Cross
• C. J. Mahaney on the Cross
• Tom Schreiner on the Atonement
• Spurgeon on the Atonement
• Wayne Grudem on the Atonement
• A Limited Atonement? Did Jesus Die For All?
• J. I. Packer on the Atonement
• The Atonement—A Quiz
• Penal Substitutionary Atonement—Precious Gospel or Divine Child Abuse?
• Brian McLaren Supports Steve Chalke About the Cross
• The Atonement and the Resurrection—It's All About Jesus
• The Atonement—Jesus' Death Is Not Repeated at Communion
• The Atonement—Don't Forget the Blood of Christ
• Are You Still A Sinner?
• Is the Cross a Legal Fiction? No, Because the Resurrection Changes Us
• The Atonement—Is Penal Substitution the Only Thing That Happened at the Cross?
• Christianity Magazine Reviews Pierced For Our Transgressions
• The Atonement—Is Jesus the Good Cop?
• The Atonement—What Does Imputation Mean?
• Jonathan Edwards on the Resurrection
• The Atonement—What Did Jesus Die From?
• The Atonement—2 Corinthians 5
• Atonement—Jesus Thought He Was Fulfilling Isaiah 53
• The Atonement—Isaiah 53
• Resurrection Sunday—The Commission of the Risen Christ
• Sam Storms Reviews Pierced For Our Transgressions
• Atonement—Who is Preaching Another Gospel?
• The Atonement—What Happened to Jesus on the Cross?
• Resurrection Empowered Life—The Deposit Guaranteeing Our Inheritance
• Penal Substitutionary Atonement Summarized in Romans 15
• The Atonement in Romans 12-14
• Resurrection Empowered Life—Dying to Live
• John Piper Friday—Christ's Obedient Life and Death Entwined
• The Atonement in Romans 9-11
• The Atonement in Romans 8
• Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Separating Over the Atonement
• Resurrection Empowered Life—Raised With Christ
• John Piper Friday—Romans and the Reason for the Atonement
• The Atonement—Romans 6-7 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement
• The Atonement—Romans 4-5 on Penal Substitutionary Atonement
• The Atonement—Romans 1-3 and Penal Substitutionary Atonement
• Atonement—The Angry God of the Bible
• N. T. Wright on Paul and the Resurrection Empowered Life

May and June were also the months I began to introduce my readers to the leader of the family of churches of which I am a part. I did a multi-part inteview with Terry Virgo, shared two of his sermons, and introduced his blog in these posts:

• Terry Virgo Preaches on Ephesians 4
• Terry Virgo Preaches on Jesus' First Miracle
• Terry Virgo Starts a Blog
• Terry Virgo On Healings, Driscoll, and Theology
• Amazing Grace on a Wedding Day

I highlighted a post on a subject that would later in the year lead to the first full-scale blog debate between some of my heroes of the faith. It was slightly cheeky, and I suppose the possibility of a challenge by others was implicit in Mark Dever and Ancient Baptistries. I was also very provoked by a post I quoted from Gandalf's blog, Why Do We All Like Jesus?

I very much enjoyed talking with Liam Goligher, in a wide-ranging multi-part interview, as well as The Authors of Pierced for Our Transgressions.

I also put out a plea which remains out there for anyone with old messages from Downs Bible Week, C. J. Mahaney, and Others to contact me. In particular, I am interested in messages by my old mentor, Henry Tyler.

Also in May I was fascinated to come across a sound bite that has lived with me since—"We need to show the people we understand what it's like to be unbelievers."

I thought I might make a few suggestions about things that your Christian friend might want for Christmas. It is no surprise that I suggest books first of all. I love receiving new books. When the doorbell rings, I thunder downstairs, hoping that tell-tale flat-box will be in the postman's hand, announcing another book has arrived!

If you are looking for inspiration about what book to buy, I would obviously love you to go and scroll down through the rather long page which contains a number of my book review posts. But there are so many other great books out there.

I thought I would share a list with you of some of the books which I don't think I have reviewed yet. These books are on my shelves at home. Some of them I devoured eagerly from cover to cover, but just never got around to reviewing. Others were ones I started to read and found the bits I read to be helpful. Still others I have only skimmed through, but they look interesting to me!

I thought I would intrigue you by simply sharing the ISBN number and title only. If any of them tempt you, simply copy the ISBN number and search within your favorite online bookstore to find out more about these books.

1. 9781844741663
   Central Themes in Biblical Theology: Mapping Unity in Diversity
   
   
2. 9781844741281
   Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement
   
   
3. 9780670915538
   England: The Autobiography. 2,000 Years of English History By Those Who Saw It Happen
   
   
4. 9781581344080
   Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis
   
   
5. 9781581348095
   Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
   
   
6. 9780737500684
   Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit?
   
   
7. 9780830833856
   Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work
   
   
8. 9781852403683
   Rebuilding the Walls: A Challenge to the Church from Ezra and Nehemiah
   
   
9. 9781581349344
   Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World
   
   
10. 9780801065330
    Escaping the Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ
    
    
11. 9781852404666
    Does God Approve of War?
    
    
12. 9781581349276
    The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness
    
    
13. 9780801027987
    Christ-centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon
    
    
14. 9781844741915
    Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community
    
    
15. 9781903725757
    Our Eyes Fixed on Jesus
    
    
16. 9781581348309
    Parent Fuel: For the Fire Inside Our Kids
    
    
17. 9780310270164
    Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)
    
    
18. 9780310256595
    The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out
    
    
19. 9781852404376
    The Christian, Israel and the Hope of World Revival: Israel in Romans 9-11
    
    
20. 9780842371513
    Through Gates of Splendor: 40th Anniversary Edition
    
    
21. 9781581347739
    The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God's Grace
    
    
22. 9781576737262
    Finishing Strong: Going the Distance for Your Family
    
    
23. 9781844741458
    Gospel-centred Hermeneutics: Biblical-theological Foundations and Principles
    
    
24. 9781852404505
    Anger: How Do You Handle It? (Truth & Freedom)
    
    
25. 9781590523650
    Stop Dating the Church (Lifechange Books)
    
    
26. 9780976758266
    When Sinners Say "I Do": Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage
    
    
27. 9780830824106
    The Message of Evil and Suffering: Light Into Darkness (Bible Speaks Today Bible Themes)
    
    
28. 9781850787297
    Twenty-four: Integrating Faith and Real Life
    
    
29. 9781852403782
    The Parables of Jesus: A Guide to Understanding and Applying the Stories of Jesus
    
    
30. 9780830826216
    Shepherds After My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions and Leadership in the Bible (New Studies in Biblical Theology)
    
    
31. 9780785262565
    Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible, and What He Wants to Do with You
    
    
32. 9780875527154
    The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller
    
    
33. 9781857923100
    Charles Simeon (HistoryMakers)
    
    
34. 9781860243400
    Work: Prison or Place of Destiny?
    
    
35. 9781601780003
    Meet the Puritans: With A Guide to Modern Reprints
    
    
36. 9780825415876
    What Jesus Demands from the World
    
    
37. 9780007150649
    Statecraft
    
    
38. 9780830829316
    A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1-2 Timothy and 1-3 John: 1 (Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians Set)
    
    
39. 9780830825820
    The Expansion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Wilberforce, More, Chalmers and Finney (History of Evangelicalism)

The following passage from the Doctor is a bit reminiscent of an old post of mine entitled, "I Want It All!"

". . . the trouble has generally been . . . that people have emphasised either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other . . . This is something that has been happening in the church from almost the very beginning . . .

When the whole emphasis is placed upon one or the other, you either have a tendency to fanaticism and excess or a tendency toward a barren intellectualism and a mechanical and a dead kind of orthodoxy . . .

As you read the stories of Luther and Calvin and other reformation fathers you will find that they began to fight this war on two fronts. They were fighting a dead, mechanical intellectualism on one hand, and they had to fight these other people who were running to excess and riot on the other.

Then in the seventeenth century you find the same kind of thing in connection with the Puritan movement . . . There were three main sections . . . in the middle you had people like the great John Owen and Thomas Goodwin in London, who constantly emphasised what they regarded as the only true scriptural position . . . which emphasises Spirit and doctrine, experience and definition. You must not say it is either/or; it is both. These, too, had to wage a warfare constantly on the two fronts. They had to fight the dead, barren intellectualism of many in Anglicanism and in the ranks of Puritanism, and the wild excesses of the early Quakers and various others . . .

As Evangelicals we find ourselves fighting on two fronts. We are obviously critical of a pure intellectualism and of a dead mechanical church which lacks any life . . . the gospel of Jesus Christ is a life-giving gospel. That is one side; but on the other side we see certain tendencies and we see certain excesses and we say "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits to see whether they are of God." And thus we seem to be opposing everything, and so we receive criticism from all sides . . .

For myself, as long as I am charged by certain people with being nothing but a Pentecostalist ,and on the other hand charged by others with being an intellectual, a man who is always preaching doctrine, as long as the two criticisms come, I am very happy. But if one or the other of the two criticisms should ever cease, then, I say, is the time to be careful and to begin to examine the very foundations.

The position of Scripture . . . is one which is facing two extremes. The Spirit is essential, and experience is vital. However, truth and definition and doctrine and dogma are equally vital and essential. And our whole position is one which proclaims that experience which is not based solidly upon truth and doctrine is dangerous."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in Christ: Studies in 1 John, pp. 400-403.

UPDATE
My new pal, Chris, has published the following two quotes on this subject:

“Because some wings of the church have appealed to experience over against revelation, or have talked glibly about ill-defined ‘spirituality’ that is fundamentally divorced from the gospel, some of us have overreacted and begin to view all mention of experience as suspicious at best, perverse at worst. This overreaction must cease. The Scriptures themselves demand that we allow more place for experience than that. . .”

D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities From Paul and His Prayers, Grand Rapids (Baker, 1992), p. 191.

Relative to Romans 5:5, Moo writes:

“The confidence we have for the day of judgment is not based only on our intellectual recognition of the fact of God’s love, or even only on the demonstration of God’s love on the cross . . . but on the inner, subjective certainty that God does love us . . . and it is this internal, subjective, yes, even emotional, sensation within the believer that God does indeed love us - - love expressed and made vital in real, concrete actions on our behalf - - that gives to us the assurance that ‘hope will no disappoint us.’”

Douglas Moo, Commentary on Romans, pp. 312-313.

I have now come to the end of my series responding to John Piper's new book, The Future of Justification. Here is a list of the previous posts:

1. John Piper, N. T. Wright, and Gracious Discernment
   
   
2. John Piper Challenges N. T. Wright on Justification
   
   
3. Piper Explains the Classic View of Justification Versus N. T. Wright's View
   
   
4. Piper and Wright: Does Justification by Faith Save Us?
   
   
5. John Piper: Is N. T. Wright Preaching Another Gospel?
   
   
6. Legalism Versus Grace in First Century Judaism
   
   
7. Hard and Soft Legalism
   
   
8. Legalism, Racism, and the First Century Jew
   
   
9. 2 Corinthians 5 and Romans 5—Two Critical Passages on Justification
   
   
10. The Christian and the Law
    
    
11. Piper Gets Passionate with the ETS on Justification
    
    
12. Tom Wright's Response to John Piper
    
    
13. Does Piper Neglect the Resurrection?

I would like to conclude by sharing a great summary quote from Dr. Piper which is a fitting climax to what, at least to me, has been an interesting journey through an important book. I hope many of you will go out and buy this book, but remember, buy Pierced for Our Transgressions first! This book will stretch you, but to be stretched is sometimes a good idea!

So, what is the crux of the doctrine of justification, according to Piper?

“Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. On the cross Christ endured for us all the punishment required of us because of our sin. And in order that God, as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us in his perfect obedience to God all that God required of us.

This punishment and this obedience are completed and past. They can never change. Our union with Christ and the enjoyment of these benefits is secure forever. Through faith alone, God establishes our union with Christ. This union will never fail, because in Christ, God is for us as an omnipotent Father who sustains our faith, and works all things together for our everlasting good. The one and only instrument through which God preserves our union with Christ is faith in Christ—the purely receiving act of the soul.” (p. 184)

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

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

-----

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!

As we continue looking at John Piper's book we have now reached page 200 and following. I want to highlight Piper's attitude to the law. What, according to Piper, is the purpose of the law?

“The reason the law is not against the promise is precisely that it was designed not to give life but to hold under sin and lead to Christ who gives life. Paul says that if the law had given life, then it would have been against the promise. It would have short-circuited the purpose of the promise to make Christ the basis of life and righteousness. . . .

[Piper then addresses Galatians 5:6, arguing that this verse] tells what kind of faith avails justification. Therefore, love as an expression of faith is not the instrument of justification—it does not unite us to Christ who is our perfection. Only faith does. But this faith is the