Preaching Christ 14

February 2, 2017

Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ 10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate,

In this passage of Scripture we can see an important pattern and what it means to preach Christ and Him crucified. It is in preaching the true Christ, His Father, and the manifested glory that sinners see the true God. It is in preaching Christ that sinners see the very glory of God shining forth. We can see that with just a few references to the New Testament and how it puts these things.

John 12:37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.

Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

John 14:8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father ‘ 10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.

John 12 shows us that it was Christ that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. We see from Hebrews 1:3 that Christ is the very shining forth of the glory of God and so we behold the glory of God in Christ. John 14:8 shows us that if we know the true Christ we will know the true Father. The Son is in the Father and the Father abides in the Son. The works that the Son did were actually the works of the Father. The Gospel is set forth in II Corinthians 4:4-6 as the Gospel of the glory of God and yet the Father beheld in the face of Christ. Yes, it is possible to preach a form of Christ and yet not preach the very power of Christ. It certainly appears that to preach the true Christ one has to preach the glory of the Father shining in and through Christ. When this Christ was preached in Isaiah 6, Isaiah saw the very holiness of God and saw the depths of his sin to his utter horror.

What was it that Isaiah saw that filled him with horror about himself and his own sin? He saw Adonai on the throne and he saw he saw something of the majesty and glory of this Lord with the Seraphim standing above Him singing over and over “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” God is so holy that all He does is for His own glory. In his mind’s eye Isaiah saw such glory that he knew that the whole earth had the purpose of being for His glory and in fact that very glory of God shone in the whole earth. There is no place on earth or anywhere else for that matter that was not made for the glory of God and in some way shines forth the glory of God. The whole earth was made through Christ and for Christ, and Christ is the shining forth of His glory, so clearly the whole earth shines forth with the glory of Christ. This is the Christ who must be preached and this is the Christ who must be declared. It is in beholding this Christ that the Seraphim sang to Yahweh. It is only when men preach Christ in this way that the glory of God is seen and men see themselves truly.

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Musings 135

February 1, 2017

John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”

Moreover, I give you hearty praise and commendation on this further account—that you alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not wearied me with these extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and such like—trifles, rather than issues—in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood (though without success); you, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot. (Luther to Erasmus in Bondage of the Will)

The whole gospel of the grace of God, he held, was bound up with it, and stood or fell according to the way one decided it…The doctrine of the bondage of the will in particular was the corner-stone of the gospel and the very foundation of the faith…The denial of free-will was to Luther the foundation of the Biblical doctrine of grace, and a hearty endorsement of that denial was the first step for anyone who would understand the gospel and come to faith in God. The man who has not yet practically and experimentally learned the bondage of his will in sin has not yet comprehended any part of the gospel; for this is ‘the hinge on which all turns,’ the ground on which the gospel rests. (Quotes from Packer and Johnson from the introduction to The Bondage of the Will)

With but a short look at John 6:44, it should be easily seen that the word “can” is a word of ability. “Can” refers to ability while “may” refers to permission. Jesus is direct and to the point and He said that no one (not just a few people and not just from a certain group) CAN come to Him. This is a powerful way of saying that no person has the ability to come to Christ. While Sunday after Sunday people are invited to come to Christ and no one tells them that they cannot do it in their own strength and power, Jesus told them that they did not have the power or ability to come to Him in their own strength.

Lest we be somewhat confused on the matter, the Greek is even stronger than the English. The word for “can” has the idea of ability, capability, and power. No one has any ability or power to come to Christ in and of himself. One can argue and go on as to how far we are to take that, that is, whether this refers to salvation alone or sanctification, but in terms of preaching to the lost it most certainly includes that. Sinners have no ability and no capacity to come to Christ in their own strength. They cannot meet God part of the way and they cannot take the first step because they have no ability at all. To the modern ear this is a terrible thing to say, but we must hasten to point out that Jesus taught this to unconverted religious people. This is precisely what those unconverted Pharisees needed to hear and this is precisely what unconverted religious people in our day need to hear as well. Their religion and their righteousness is nothing but the power of self and that self has no power to come to Christ.

In order for the idea to be complete, we should also look at what the word “draw” means since the Father must draw the unconverted person to Christ. The Greek word for “draw” can also be translated “drag” or “haul”, but it is not a weak word. It is a word that is the perfect contrast with “can” in the earlier part of the text. No one has the ability to come to Christ unless the Father drags the person or hauls the person to Christ. This gives us a rather complete picture (in this context) of the issue. There is no ability in man to come to Christ, but instead the Father has to assert all the power and ability and bring the person to Christ.

If this is the case, and assuredly it is, then this is a vital text for teaching men and women about coming to Christ. This is why Luther and the Reformers were so strong on this issue. The doctrine of the Bondage of the Will or the enslaved will is at the heart of the Gospel of grace alone or of justification by grace alone through faith alone. The Reformers were very clear that it is sovereign grace alone that brings sinners to Christ and not the actions of the sinner that does so. It is God who brings (drags and hauls) sinners to Himself in and through Christ and there is nothing that the sinner can do to help Him out. The evangelism that leaves this out is leaving out a vital part of the truth of how sinners come to Christ in reality and in doing so it is leaving the nature of true grace out of it as well. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is of grace alone and that does not leave any power in man to accomplish the slightest part of bringing himself to Christ. The Gospel as taught by the Reformers is rarely preached in our day.

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Musings 134

January 31, 2017

John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”

Moreover, I give you hearty praise and commendation on this further account—that you alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not wearied me with these extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and such like—trifles, rather than issues—in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood (though without success); you, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot. (Luther to Erasmus in Bondage of the Will)

The whole gospel of the grace of God, he held, was bound up with it, and stood or fell according to the way one decided it…The doctrine of the bondage of the will in particular was the corner-stone of the gospel and the very foundation of the faith…The denial of free-will was to Luther the foundation of the Biblical doctrine of grace, and a hearty endorsement of that denial was the first step for anyone who would understand the gospel and come to faith in God. The man who has not yet practically and experimentally learned the bondage of his will in sin has not yet comprehended any part of the gospel; for this is ‘the hinge on which all turns,’ the ground on which the gospel rests. (Quotes from Packer and Johnson from the introduction to The Bondage of the Will)

I am continually struck by how strong Luther and Calvin were on the depravity of man and the inability of man, but that is in direct contrast to today where it is rarely mentioned. Why is it rarely mentioned much less explained and taught as a vital truth in the Gospel? It is because men are ashamed of those things that will bring them troubles in the churches. It is because men are not clear on the Gospel themselves. It is because men understand doctrine to some degree as set out in a creed, but they have never felt the weight of it upon their own hearts. It is because men love to tickle their intellects with historical teachings but they don’t want the throne of self to be disturbed. The throne of self can be quite undisturbed as long as the teaching is only in the intellect.

If only Luther and Calvin taught this, then it would not be such a bit issue. But since Jesus was quite clear on it, then it should be a huge issue with us as well. Jesus said that no one “can come” to Himself unless the Father draws that person. It should seem clear from that point that no person can just believe, say a prayer, or do some act of faith and be saved as a result of that. No person has the power to bring him or herself to Christ and no person has the power to give him or herself faith. We live in a day where the professing “Reformed” sound just like the Arminians do and seem afraid (if they are aware) to tell people that they cannot give themselves faith, but it is God alone who must give them faith.

Luther, in the quote at the top of the page, was so very clear that this was a vital part or an essential issue. If we are to preach the same Gospel that Luther did, then we must preach that which he considered to be a vital part or an essential issue. The Gospel that Luther preached was not to hide the vital issues behind an intellectual doctrine, but it was to set it out as essential indeed. Until men and women feel their inability they will not see the truth of the sufficiency of Christ alone. Until men know from the depths of their soul that they have no good in them and have no ability for faith, they will not look to grace alone to give them new and believing hearts.

The quotes from Packer and Johnson show this so powerfully. Without quoting them directly, but interspersing words for effect, let me give you some things to think of. The fullness of the Gospel of the grace of God (not this is the truth of justification) stands or falls on how one views and treats the doctrine of the will. The bondage of the will is the very cornerstone of the Gospel and is the foundation of the faith. If one denies this, then one is denies the cornerstone of the Gospel as well as the foundation of faith. The person who has not inwardly and in reality learned by experience the bondage of his or her own will has not comprehended any part of the Gospel of grace alone or the Gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone.

When will the professing “church” wake up and realize that it is closer to the Pharisees than it is to Jesus? When will the professing “church” wake up and realize that it is far closer to the essentials of Rome than it is to the teachings of Luther and Calvin? When will the academics and the intellectuals in the halls of learning realize that they are giving information to brains and the hearts of those who hear them are undisturbed and unchanged? When will the professing “preachers” of our day be awakened to realize that moral lectures, doctrinal lectures, and biblical expositions apart from showing men and seeking to have them feel and know in the inward man their inability before God and then the sovereign grace of God are doing nothing but harden men in their sin? As long as men are not changed from the love of self to the love of God they are dead in their sin and will only know things about the Gospel without knowing Christ as set forth in the Gospel who is the only hope of men by grace alone.

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Preaching Christ 13

January 29, 2017

Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ 10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate,

In this passage we can see with great clarity and certainty that Isaiah saw the Lord in a way that went beyond hearing lectures (even if correct and true) about the Lord. The descriptions that Isaiah gives us have to do with his senses, or should we say things that would intimate that he was in a place where he actually saw and experienced the reality of these things. We then see Isaiah’s experience of what it meant to be in the presence of the Lord and it was not just hearing a lecture about the Lord. He was moved, broken, and deeply humbled by being in the presence of God. We then see that his sin had to be atoned for, forgiven, and taken away. It is only then that men are made willing to go and preach the message of God. Men want to hear pleasing things and so preachers are loathe to preach anything but that, so it is only the broken man who is willing to preach the hard things and become unpopular with the people. It is true that in certain circles the hard things can bring popularity in a way with a few, but Isaiah was without human help. He rested in God alone as his support and his message required that.

Preaching Christ and the glorious Gospel of grace alone is the same way. The true Gospel will bring hostility and opposition from the nicest of people, and mostly from the nicest and most religious of people. When Isaiah went and preached, he preached to a very religious people and they hated him for it. They tried to kill him, and at some point they evidently succeeded. Now it may be argued, and rightly to a degree, that Isaiah was preaching judgment and grace does not. However, the root of the matter is essentially the same. The self-righteousness of the Jewish people of that day governed their hearts and they hated the preaching that they were sinners and that they could not appease God by their religious works. The Gospel of grace alone is much the same. It teaches sinners that all of their self-righteousness is as filthy rags that that there is nothing in them and nothing that they can do to move God to save them. In both cases the people were and are utterly dependent upon the free-grace of God.

This is why the friendly Christ who stands weeping for people to make the right choice is a false Christ. This is why the friendly Christ who longs for people to be wealthy and healthy if only they will make the right choices is a false Christ. According to John 12, it was Christ that Isaiah saw in the text above. Preaching to the true Christ in His glory will result in fear or true reverence. Preaching the true Christ will move people to a great unease about themselves and their own comfortable existence. Preaching the true Christ will move people to see something of true holiness and they will see the magnitude of their sin and they will feel the burden and awfulness of their sin. Preaching the true Christ will help people see that Christ is absolutely the only way having the guilt of their sin removed from them. Preaching the true Christ will show forth true grace and as such show people that salvation is absolutely beyond them and totally in the hands of the living and sovereign God. It is the Lord alone who can prepare a preacher to preach Christ truly and use that preaching to open eyes and hearts of the dead.

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Preaching Christ 12

January 28, 2017

He bore what? The sins of all His people. The curse and wrath of His divine Father due to their crimes, with which He was charged as their Surety. He bore up under all these weights, and by His sufferings, sacrifice and death, He made a full atonement for sin, obtained a complete victory over sin, Satan, death and hell. He satisfied divine justice perfectly, and bore away for ever out of the sight of God, the sins of all His church and people. And God beholds His children clothed in the immaculate righteousness of His beloved Son, and completely cleansed from all their sins through the inestimably precious sacrifice and blood-shedding of Jesus. The God-man bore the curse of the broken law to deliver us from it. He is now in glory making a presentation of Himself continually in the holiest of all, as the finished righteousness and atonement of His people. And “if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” of intercession. (Samuel Eyles Pierce, Letters)

Underlying the truth of what it means to preach Christ is also the vast failure of ministers to preach Christ even if they are orthodox. It is only those who feel the weight of their sins who have any real idea of what it means to have Christ as Savior. It is only when the Spirit has convicted men of their sin, of their lack of righteousness, and of the coming judgment that men will feel the weight of their sin. It is a slight view of sin that leads to a slight view of Christ and the cross of Christ. This is to say that there is a lot of other teaching that is the foundation on which the truth of Christ rests. It is also true that the view of sin and of the cross depends on how people behold God in His glory. This, while vital, is something that seems to be virtually unknown in our day.

It seems that no one thinks that he is not a preacher of Christ, but one can preach much of Christ in a sense and simply not preach the true Christ. Saying the word “Christ” many times in a “sermon” is not what it means to preach Christ. Preaching Christ can only come from a heart that Christ has taught the truth by experience and so the preaching is the conviction of the soul. However, it is hard to find a man who thinks that he does not preach Christ and the Gospel of Christ. After all, that is what the man is paid to do. But we must be very, very careful at this point. The seminaries are pouring out men who preach the text in an orthodox way and in an expositional way, and so they think that they are doing what is needed.

Again, orthodox doctrine does not mean a person is converted and does not mean that a preacher is preaching Christ. Expositional preaching can be done when one fits it into a pattern and Christ is not the center of the sermon. Expositional preaching that is not an exposition of Christ is an utter failure in terms of the true preaching of Christ. It is also not preaching Christ when the true Christ is not preached and the true work of Christ is not brought into focus. It is also not preaching Christ when there is no effort to show men their utter depravity and inability so that the glory of Christ can be seen in His sufficiency.

Preaching Christ requires the preacher to spend time in prayer with God with a broken and humbled heart looking to Him for true words and the sufficiency to preach Christ. Preaching Christ cannot happen as long as the preacher is in the natural realm (so to speak), but can only happen when the preacher is elevated and illuminated with things from above. It is in beholding the glory of God in Christ that the preacher is enabled to behold that glory and is changed into that image from one degree of glory to another. It is then that the preacher is given a heart and a tongue to speak those things in such a way that the natural man cannot do and even converted preachers cannot do either. It is something that God alone can do.

This will sound mystical to some, but it is simply to say that God alone can teach a preacher in the inward man and make the man His mouthpiece rather than a lecturer of things about the Bible. It is God alone who can grip the soul and give the preacher a sense of His presence, His glory, and His power that can make the preacher really preach. There is something about true preaching where the preacher must be a witness to how good the Lord is and how the Lord tastes (taste and see that the Lord is good). There is something about true preaching where the preacher is gripped with an invisible power and sees things that cannot be seen by the natural senses. We have a lot of lecturing and a lot of talk about the Bible, but little preaching. We have many men who are orthodox about the doctrines of Christ, but few who have been taught in the inward man and so speak the Gospel from experience.

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Preaching Christ 11

January 27, 2017

He bore what? The sins of all His people. The curse and wrath of His divine Father due to their crimes, with which He was charged as their Surety. He bore up under all these weights, and by His sufferings, sacrifice and death, He made a full atonement for sin, obtained a complete victory over sin, Satan, death and hell. He satisfied divine justice perfectly, and bore away for ever out of the sight of God, the sins of all His church and people. And God beholds His children clothed in the immaculate righteousness of His beloved Son, and completely cleansed from all their sins through the inestimably precious sacrifice and blood-shedding of Jesus. The God-man bore the curse of the broken law to deliver us from it. He is now in glory making a presentation of Himself continually in the holiest of all, as the finished righteousness and atonement of His people. And “if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” of intercession. (Samuel Eyles Pierce, Letters)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of God and the Gospel of the glory of God. The Gospel is also the Gospel of free-grace. However, what Christ has done should not lead us to forget or ignore what He is doing for sinners even now. The cross of Christ is an inestimably precious truth, but let us not forget that there also has to be a Mediator who presents that sacrifice for us before the Father as well even now. If the Gospel took away our sin in some way and yet we had no perfect and sinless Mediator to present it to the Father, we would still be lost.

Part of preaching the whole Gospel is to show people their utter inability to pay for sin, but also their utter inability to present the sacrifice of Christ in their place. Let us not think that Christ is offering up something other than Himself, but instead He is presenting Himself as our sacrifice in the place of His people. Christ presents Himself as the One that bore the curse of the Law, as opposed to presenting a work He did. This little piece of the letter of Pierce is manifestly glorious as it points out the nature of the true preaching of Christ.

The curse of the law stands against all who are without Christ in truth and reality. The curse of the law still stands against religious people (even very religious people) who do not have Christ. The curse of the law still stands against many who profess Christ in words and yet are still unregenerate and strangers to Christ. The God-man had to bear that curse in reality for that curse to be broken and taken away from sinners. It was Christ who was sent from above to take human flesh and bear the wrath for all those that the Father had given Him. But now that the curse is broken, do we still need Christ each moment or are we on our own now?

We must have Christ each moment or we have no hope. It is Christ who stands in our place and pleads His own merits and His own holiness. It is Christ who is constantly presenting Himself to the Father and we know that the Father is well-pleased with the Son and His sacrifice for sinners. Let us not forget that we must have Christ each moment and for all things. We only exist by the hand of God and we only have the mercy and grace of God because of the sacrifice of Christ and His continual intercession for His people. How can those who have been awakened to their own sins even think for a moment that they can represent themselves before the Father? Perish the thought that we can present Christ to the Father or present ourselves! We need Christ to do this in our place.

Here is where the preacher who has “felt” these truths will seek to press these home to the people. The people need to be utterly stripped of all hope in themselves and all ability in the spiritual realm too. The people need to see themselves as utterly bankrupt apart from Christ and in utter need of Him each moment. The people must be brought to this by preaching of Christ and Him crucified, yes, but also of the risen Christ who stands in the Holy of Holies for His people. It is Christ who is constantly presenting Himself as the perfect sacrifice for His people and of His perfect righteousness in their place. The preaching of Christ includes this and it must be pressed home to the people. If not, they will continue on trusting in themselves in some way.

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Justification by Christ Alone

January 26, 2017

But, you will say; the apostle Paul saith (Romans 5:1,) “That being justified by faith, we have peace with God;” and since the Holy Ghost saith, “we are justified by faith,” we must not dispute against it. I will answer in brief, and desire one thing of you, and that is to consult Beza upon this place; he renders the words out of the original, “Being justified by faith we have, peace with God,” without any stop from the first to the last. Our translators render the words thus, “Being justified by faith,” and then put a comma; but as Beza renders them (who is accounted a most sincere renderer of the original) he makes no stop: and, if that be true, why may not they be as well rendered thus; “Being justified, by faith we have peace with God?” And so ascribe justification to Christ, as a thing done before, let faith have reference to our peace; being justified by Christ, by faith we come to have peace with God, which stands current with the analogy of faith, and truth of the gospel: “For it is God that justifieth,” Romans 8:34.

Justification is truly and properly the work of God himself, and cannot be the work of faith. But, Secondly, suppose the words to run as they are commonly rendered; I answer, then are we to distinguish in faith two things; there is the act of believing, and the object on which we believe; and so the words may be understood thus, “Being justified” by the righteousness of faith, or by the righteousness of Christ which we believe, “we have peace with God;” and so ascribe our justification to the object of our believing, the righteousness of Christ, and not to the act of believing. The truth is, beloved, the act of believing is a work, and as much ours, as our fear, prayer, and love are; and the apostle should contradict himself when he saith, “We are saved by grace, through faith, not of works,” if he mean the act of faith; he might as well have said, we are not justified by works, but we are justified by them.

An ungodly person, after he is justified, believes; but you must understand it, it is not the faith of the man that simply and properly justifies, but it is that Christ in whom he believes; believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly: it is he that justifieth, that is Christ. It is not believing that justifies. Mark well that phrase; him that justifieth. Justification is an act of Christ, it is not an act of faith. But you will say, It is an act of Christ by faith. I answer, Then Christ justifies not alone. Is faith Christ himself? If not, then Christ must have a partner to justify, or else faith doth not justify, but Christ alone doth it. Nay, I say more, Christ justifies a person before he believes; for, he that believes is justified before he believes; for I ask you, whether in justification a man must believe a truth or a falsehood? You will say, he must believe a truth; then say I, it is a truth that he is justified before he believes it; he cannot believe that which is not, and if he be not justified, that he may believe it, he then believes that which is false. But he is first justified before he believes, then he believes that he is justified. But what then serves faith for? I answer, It serves for the manifestation of that justification which Christ puts upon a person by himself alone: that you by believing on him, may have the declaration, and manifestation of your justification. Faith is the evidence of things, it is not the being of things; and it is the evidence of things not seen. A man is justified, and that by Christ alone. “Faith is an evidence;” faith gives evidence to this thing, faith makes it known; by faith we come to apprehend it; by faith we come to rejoice in it, as we apprehend it to be our own. Tobias Crisp {Christ Alone Exalted}

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Preaching Christ 10

January 24, 2017

He bore what? The sins of all His people. The curse and wrath of His divine Father due to their crimes, with which He was charged as their Surety. He bore up under all these weights, and by His sufferings, sacrifice and death, He made a full atonement for sin, obtained a complete victory over sin, Satan, death and hell. He satisfied divine justice perfectly, and bore away for ever out of the sight of God, the sins of all His church and people. And God beholds His children clothed in the immaculate righteousness of His beloved Son, and completely cleansed from all their sins through the inestimably precious sacrifice and blood-shedding of Jesus. The God-man bore the curse of the broken law to deliver us from it. He is now in glory making a presentation of Himself continually in the holiest of all, as the finished righteousness and atonement of His people. And “if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” of intercession. (Samuel Eyles Pierce, Letters)

In the letter just above that Samuel Eyles Pierce wrote to a friend we really see something of what it means to preach Christ. As with preaching Christ, or at least what should be preaching Christ, it sets out Christ as the answer to every aspect of man’s desperate need. It deals with what the hearts of poor sinners long for and does not allow them to think that they can contribute anything at all. When the hearts of poor sinners cry out for relief, it is Christ alone who can deal with their sin and cleanse their conscience. It is the complete and full atonement of Christ that sinners need to hear about and be encouraged to flee to Christ. The evil one will indeed fire his darts of doubt at true believers, but the preacher of Christ should point sinners to Christ who alone has satisfied divine justice, but He also did this perfectly. There is nothing lacking in this sacrifice and there is nothing that a sinful man can to contribute to what Christ has done. However, since God is aiming at His own glory, this is not bar to the forgiveness of even the worst of sinners. How sinners should and must be encouraged to flee to Christ with their doubts, their weakness, their inability, and their sin.

Not only, however, is Christ the perfect sacrifice for sin, He also gives a perfect righteousness. In this we can see an aspect of God-centeredness in this great salvation. It is not just that man can feel better because of what Christ has done in his or her place, but it is how God beholds His children that is vital. Regardless of how men think or feel about themselves, it is how God sees them that is the most important. God beholds His children in Christ which Scripture pictures as being clothed in the white linen or righteousness of Christ. This is what each sinner must know and this is what each believer needs to hear. It is important that believers know that they are in Christ and Christ is in them. It is important for believers to know that they are viewed by God as being in Christ. It is important for believers to know that their lives are hidden in Christ. When God beholds His beloved children, He sees them as in Christ.

Sinners are not comforted and driven to Christ by stating the facts and then giving them more facts, they need Christ Himself. They must be instructed and urged to flee to Christ alone and ask Him to cleanse them and give Himself to them. How men need to hear that for those who are in Christ all of their sins were suffered for by Christ on the bloody cross. How men need to hear that God sees them as having all of their sins washed away and that they are cleansed perfectly by Christ. They can do nothing and should not try to make up for their sins or earn their own righteousness. God sent the Son to be the One that sinners can have a perfect standing before the Father.

This is where preaching Christ should be personal and direct. While this is a glorious message in and of itself, the preacher must take pains to preach to the hearts of sinners and get to their hearts with the application of Christ if He is pleased to do so. Preachers must have some experience of what it means to be seen of God in Christ in order to preach this in an experiential way. Preachers who only know the doctrinal facts will only be able to preach the doctrinal facts. This is why preachers should seek the Lord that they may know Him and know about what the practice of the teaching is. How can a person describe with feeling what it means to stand before God as a vile sinner and yet in Christ be perfect? Ah, only the preacher who knows this by experience can truly preach this. Preachers should seek Christ and know these things in order to preach them. This cannot be taught in any grad school or seminary. Only Christ can teach this in the inner man.

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Preaching Christ 9

January 23, 2017

He bore what? The sins of all His people. The curse and wrath of His divine Father due to their crimes, with which He was charged as their Surety. He bore up under all these weights, and by His sufferings, sacrifice and death, He made a full atonement for sin, obtained a complete victory over sin, Satan, death and hell. He satisfied divine justice perfectly, and bore away for ever out of the sight of God, the sins of all His church and people. And God beholds His children clothed in the immaculate righteousness of His beloved Son, and completely cleansed from all their sins through the inestimably precious sacrifice and blood-shedding of Jesus. The God-man bore the curse of the broken law to deliver us from it. He is now in glory making a presentation of Himself continually in the holiest of all, as the finished righteousness and atonement of His people. And “if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” of intercession. (Samuel Eyles Pierce, Letters)

The weightiness of what Christ has done should not be lost on the one preaching or on the listeners. The cross of Christ is not just something that happened a few years ago and we can admire His sacrifice, but this is the supreme manifestation of the glory of God. The cross was primarily about the glory of God and this should give us a different view of the cross than if we looked at it from man’s point of view. Christ died to purchase sinners for the Father. This changes everything. Christ was sent by the Father to be the bearer of the curse and wrath of the Father in the place of sinners. Again, this changes everything.

What people must hear, at least I will argue, is that if Christ suffered and died out of love for the glory of the Father and to purchase sinners for the Father, then there can be no doubt that He made the fullest atonement possible. He did not leave one sin unaccounted for. Christ was sent to be the surety for the people He was sent to be the surety for. There was not and is not one sin left out of His work. He came out of love for the Father and He was a complete and perfect sacrifice.

Sinners must come to see that this Gospel is quite apart from them in one sense. The cross was a place where there was a divine transaction that is seen and accomplished. When preachers simply mention Christ, they are not really preaching Christ at all. When ministers mention or even talk a little about the cross of Christ, they are not truly preaching the cross of Christ at all. The cross was where the divine transaction is on display. The cross is where the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father meet. The cross is where all the attributes of God are set out and put on display for God to delight in Himself and for sinners to delight in Him.

The Father sent the Son as the only One who could be a perfect atonement for sin and fully bear the wrath of the Father and fully satisfy the wrath and perfect justice of the Father. As one sent from the Father, He could bear up under all of the weight of that wrath and fully satisfy the wrath of the Father. It was at the cross that He obtained a complete victory over sin, Satan, death and hell because He was sent to do those by the Father and as God in human flesh He alone could do that. In this divine justice was fully satisfied and all that God held against His people was carried away and born completely out of His sight, no longer to return.

This is all to say that there are poor and weak sinners in local churches and outside of local churches. There are poor and hungry sinners who long to feed upon just a crumb of His glory, yet they hear nothing of the glory of God unless it is used to get them to do a supposedly good work. These poor sinners who are weak and hungry need to hear that Christ is their surety. They need to hear that Christ has fully satisfied the wrath of the Father and that they are to rest in Christ by grace alone. There is nothing left for them to do (in this sense) and they are to feast upon the glory of God in the face of Christ. Yes, those very weak people need to know that Christ has taken all their sins away and they will never be asked to answer for those sins before God in terms of eternal judgment.

I would guess that there are poor and weak sinners in many places (hopefully) in our land and they need to hear the fullness of Christ and what He has done. The glory of God demands that preachers set forth His glory in Christ at the cross, yet the glory of God in His people also demands it. Oh how preachers need to die to self that they may truly preach Christ instead of speaking words about Christ in order to make them look good or feel good. It is Christ that must be declared if God and His Gospel is going to be preached. Preachers must learn to deal with their own hearts and learn what it means to preach Christ after they have learned what Christ means to their own hearts and most of all for the glory of God.

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Preaching Christ 8

January 22, 2017

He bore what? The sins of all His people. The curse and wrath of His divine Father due to their crimes, with which He was charged as their Surety. He bore up under all these weights, and by His sufferings, sacrifice and death, He made a full atonement for sin, obtained a complete victory over sin, Satan, death and hell. He satisfied divine justice perfectly, and bore away for ever out of the sight of God, the sins of all His church and people. And God beholds His children clothed in the immaculate righteousness of His beloved Son, and completely cleansed from all their sins through the inestimably precious sacrifice and blood-shedding of Jesus. The God-man bore the curse of the broken law to deliver us from it. He is now in glory making a presentation of Himself continually in the holiest of all, as the finished righteousness and atonement of His people. And “if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” of intercession. (Samuel Eyles Pierce, Letters)

The above quote from the Letters of Pierce gets at part of what Paul meant when he determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. This is what sinners need to hear, that is, what sinners who know something of the depths of their sin need to hear. Those that the Spirit has opened their eyes and has shown them their sins and the guiltiness of those sins are not satisfied with what goes by the gospel in our day. These people feel the weight of being under the wrath of God and their conscience knows what being guilty in the presence of God really means. These people know that they are worthy of nothing but everlasting torment in hell and they want a real Savior and a real satisfaction for their sins or they will not sleep.

When Christ is truly preached to a people who know and feel their need for Christ, the desperate need for a Savior is satisfied. These are the people who see Christ as a full and eternal Savior and have no need of their own puny works to add. These are the people whose eyes are opened and they behold the glory of God in Christ in taking away their sins. People need to know that under the Law there is nothing the curse and wrath of God, but Christ took upon Himself that curse and that wrath in the place of His people. There is no more wrath for those who are in Christ, though indeed there is the training of the Father, but Christ took all the wrath and fully satisfied the demands of perfect justice in the place of sinners.

When Christ is preached, this should become personal so that sinners are instructed to look to Christ for their sins. Believers need to look to Christ and they should be encouraged to look to Christ as He is the perfect sacrifice for sins. However, their looking to Christ is not some worthy act of their own, but they are to look to Christ and His perfect work as the basis for their very faith itself. When God gives them faith, they can see that the whole of salvation is Christ and Christ alone. When men really see and feel their sin, they know down in their heart that they can do nothing to take away that sin. They must be taught and encouraged to flee to the only One who is the only Surety for sins. Only Christ can fully make that payment and only Christ can pay the least part as well. Here we behold the glory of the free-grace of God as well. There is nothing that sinners can do to make themselves the least bit worthy of having this Christ.

When Christ is preached, sinners should be exhorted to look to Christ alone as their Surety for all of their sin. Believers are subject to many sins and the attacks and darts of the evil one. They will only find comfort in Christ fully satisfying the wrath of the Father in their place. They will learn by the inward teaching of God that Christ bore all the weight of their sin. Here is where sinners learn freedom from sin and a true living and walking by grace. They do not become holy because they are grateful and so live a little better in their own strength, but they are declared holy by God on the basis of the work of Christ and it is also the work of Christ that they can share His holiness. When Christ is preached people will learn that all holiness is found in Christ and that they have no holiness of their own to work for. What sinners need is Christ Himself in all of His offices. There is no morality apart from Christ and there is no satisfaction for the sin of sinners apart from Christ. This should teach us that unbelieving sinners and believing sinners must hear more and more of Christ! They need to have more and more of Christ!

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