Spring Has Sprung

Spring has sprung. And the hearts of young women now turn to what the hearts of young men have been thinking of all year.

- Dr. Sigler a la Dr. Peterman

photo: pinwheel photography

Jesus' Death is Effectual

Doug Wilson:

“Jesus did not throw the gospel out into the world, hoping that someone would respond to it . . .  on the glorious day when the wheat is gathered into the barns, there will be no one in heaven maintaining that Christ died to bring in the chaff and weeds as well, and wondering out loud why it did not happen” (Back to Basics, p. 47).

photo: jayneandd

The Blood of Christ Cries Louder

When our sins cry out to God for punishment and vengeance, something else also happens – the blood of Christ cries louder, overbears and silences the very crying of our sins, and God for Christ’s sake forgives.

- James S. Stewart; as quoted in Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), chapter 6.

Show's Over

Depression + Gospel = Joy in Jesus

I love the real, gut level honesty in this song. The third verse and last chorus are particularly stirring.

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Verse 3:
I can’t perform no more
Can’t do these chores no more
I’m feeling like I’m sick, it’s silly so I quit
That’s it, I just can’t try to please the Lord no more
‘Cause really I’m sick of trying to make Him like me more
‘Cause every day I got a fight in store
I’m guilty so when I play I never like to score
No good in me and I’m sick of my plight I’m poor
They told me homie the Christian life is better
But they said to be holy and perform for His pleasure
But now I’m feelin’ torn cause the Lord is my treasure
But I fall and feel scorned when I can’t get it together
But then something clicked, it’s crazy I ignored this
But even when I slip, this ain’t based on my performance
Christ was equipped, ran the race with endurance
When His flesh was hit, His righteousness was my assurance

Last Chorus:
I know them chains had me trapped for a while
That’s in my past, I’m relaxed in Him now
Christ my Savior He cracked through the clouds
Did it perfect, listen to the claps from the crowd

(RSS readers will have to click through to listen to the embedded song)

"There are no great preachers. There's only a great Christ…"

Yet, in the final analysis there are no great preachers. There’s only a  great Christ who does startling things when we place ourselves and our preaching in His hands.

- Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), end of chapter 10.

David Brainerd on the Effects of Preaching the Doctrines of Grace

David Brainerd noted that preaching doctrine – not morality – wrought an inward change in the hearts of his hearers, causing them to lead morally upright lives. The doctrine that fueled this change was the total moral bankruptcy of man and the complete freeness of God’s effectual grace. “Secondly, It is worthy of remark that numbers of these people are brought to a strict compliance with the rules of morality and sobriety, and to a conscientious performance of the external duties of Christianity, by the internal power and influence of diving truths (the peculiar doctrines of grace) upon their minds; without their having these moral duties frequently repeated and inculcated upon them, and the contrary vices particularly exposed and spoken against…

Those doctrines which had the most direct tendency to humble the fallen creature; to show him the misery of his natural state; to bring him down to the foot of sovereign mercy; to exalt the great Redeemer, discover His transcendent excellency and infinite preciousness, and so to recommend Him to the sinner’s acceptance, were the subject matter of what was delivered in public and private, and from time to time repeated and inculcated upon them…

There was indeed no room for any kind of discourses [on the precepts of morality and external duties]… My great work therefore was to lead them into a further view of their utter helplessness and the total depravity and corruption of their hearts; that there was no manner of goodness in them, no good dispositions nor desires, no love to God nor delight in His commands; but on the contrary, hatred, enmity, and all manner of wickedness reigning in them. At the same time it was necessary to open to them the glorious and complete remedy provided in Christ for helpless perishing sinners, and offered freely to those who have no goodness of their own, no works of righteousness which they have done to recommend them to God…

These were the doctrines, and this the method of preaching, which were blessed of God for the awakening, and, I trust, for the saving conversion of numbers of souls; and which were made the means of producing a remarkable reformation among the hearers in general… The happy effects of these peculiar doctrines of grace… plainly discover, even to demonstration, that instead of their opening a door to licentiousness, as many vainly imagine and slanderously insinuate, they have a direct contrary tendency; so that a close application, a sense and feeling of them, will have the most powerful influence toward the renovation and effectual reformation both of heart and life…

Cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also… The only effectual way to have the outside clean is to begin with what is within; and if the fountain be purified, the streams will naturally be pure. Most certain it is, if we can awaken in sinners a lively sense of their inward pollution and depravity, their need of a change of heart, and so engage them to seek after inward cleaning; their external defilement will naturally be cleansed.” (Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, vol. 2, pg. 164-166, 169, 170; emphasis his).

photo: annia316

David Brainerd on Preaching Christ and Him Crucified

David Brainerd concludes his journal (chronicling roughly 11 months during which God was producing a “great work” among the Indians Brainerd was evangelizing) with 4 closing observations, 2 of which I found to be particularly encouraging. We’ll look at the first today and the other later on in the week.

Like Paul, Brainerd saw first hand the power of preaching Christ and Him crucified. “First, I cannot but notice that I have in the general, ever since my first coming among these Indians in New Jersey, been favored with that assistance which to me is uncommon in preaching Christ crucified, and making Him the centre and mark to which all my discourses among them were directed… thus God was pleased to help me not to know any thing among them, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Thus I was enabled to show them their misery and undone state without Him, and to represent His complete fitness to redeem and save them. This was the preaching God made use of for the awakening of sinners, and the propagation of this ‘work of grace among the Indians.’” (Diary and Journal of David Brainerd, Vol. 2, pg. 159-160, 163; emphasis his)

photo: Donald Macleod

5 Stratiges for Fighting Sexual Sin

Doug Wilson, in the second chapter of his book Fidelity, lays out five practical helps for fighting sexual sin:

1. Learn the gospel. Learning the deep truths of the gospel of grace trains us to renounce sin and to pursue righteousness (Titus 2:11-12).
2. Learn about sanctification. Seek to understand the war currently being waged between our flesh and God’s Spirit in us. In learning this we come to understand that “Christ has redeemed our bodies and that he therefore owns them.” Thus, “when a man [or woman] commits sexual sin, he [or she] is vandalizing the property of another (1 Corinthians 6:12-20; Fidelity, pg. 34).”
3. Learn self-discipline and embrace suffering. A person who can control themselves in other areas will more easily be able to control their sexual desires. Suffering for Christ serves as a means of killing sin (1 Peter 4:1-3).
4. Learn from bad examples. “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day… Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10: 8, 11).
5. Run. Just as Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39), Paul instructs Timothy (and by extension, us) to flee from sexual immorality (2 Timothy 2:22).

Your Best Life Now… or Later?

Earlier today I read a section from John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress that caused me to pay closer attention to the way a Christians desire to enjoy God in heaven effects the way he views material gain. Let me frame the scene for you.

While Christian is on his way to Mount Zion (having left the City of Destruction), he stops by to visit the Interpreter. The Interpreter shows Christian multiple scenes depicting some aspect of the Christian life. In one scene Christian is shown two young boys, Passion and Patience, seated in a little room. Passion demands to have all of his “best things” now, while Patience, heeding their Governors desires, is content to wait to receive his “best things” at a later time. A bag of treasure is brought to Passion, who rejoiced in it until he had “lavished [it] all away, and had nothing left him but rags.”

The Interpreted then goes on to expound the meaning of the two boys:

“These two lads are figures: Passion, of the men of this world; and Patience, of the men of that which is to come; for, as here thou seest, Passion will have all now… [in] this world; so are the men of this world, they must have all their good things now, they cannot stay till… the next world, for their portion of good. That proverb, ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,’ is of more authority with them than are all the Divine testimonies of the good of the world to come. But as thou sawest that he had quickly lavished all away, and had presently left him nothing but rags; so will it be with all such men at the end of this world.

“Then said Christian, Now I see that Patience has the best wisdom, and that upon many accounts. First, Because he stays for the best things. Second, And also because he will have the glory of his, when the other has nothing but rags.

To this the Interpreter responds, “Nay, you mad add another, to wit, the glory of the next world will never wear out; but these are suddenly gone… ‘For the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal.’”

After reading this, I couldn’t help but wonder why so many Christians – myself included – are not characterized by a present contentment that is rooted in knowing that our “best things” will be had in the world to come. In other words, why do we seek to store up treasure for ourselves both here on earth, and in heaven? When, according to Jesus (Matt. 6:19-20), these two actions are mutually exclusive.

photo: hire sandy

John Owen on Limited Atonement

The puritan John Owen presents a fantastic argument against the idea that Jesus died for all of the sins of all people (“Unlimited Atonement”), while demonstrating the reasonableness of the position that contends that Jesus died for all of the sins of God’s elect (“Limited Atonement”).

CRTA:

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:

1. All the sins of all men.
2. All the sins of some men, or
3. Some of the sins of all men.

In which case it may be said:

1. That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so, none are saved.
2. That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.
3. But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, “Because of unbelief.”

I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!”