Musings 80

June 30, 2015

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them…22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts & receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Men prefer a God who is under their control, whether they confess His sovereignty or not. Men like having a God who is sovereign over the things around them as long as they can pray in a way which controls Him. Men strongly desire a God to control things outside of them, but they strongly rebel and fight against a God who is sovereign in them. Men, despite the theology that they hold to, do not want God to be sovereign over their hearts. They do not want a God who can do with them as He pleases in accordance with His sovereign pleasure. However, that is the biblical God and there is none other. Ro 9:18 is clear on this matter and in reality it takes a lot of effort to misunderstand it: “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”

Men, regardless of creed and profession, love the word or some idea of grace, but unless a person is truly converted a person will not love true grace which is sovereign grace. This brings us to the next and corresponding idea and that is that God hardens hearts as He pleases as well. For grace to be true grace it must also be sovereign. For grace to be grace God has no obligation on His part to show grace, which also means that He is just in hardening the soul He shows grace to. “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious” is a powerful verse and we should humble bow before the living God as we seek grace based on Him rather than ourselves.

Since no one deserves grace and all deserve judicial punishment for sin, no one has a real basis for complaining when God judges them with a hardened heart. In a sense He is turning them over to what they desire, though they are deceived about what they desire and what it will bring. When Romans 1:24 tells us that “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,” we are also told why He does this. He does it “so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” Now those committing the sin have no desire to be dishonored, but instead they are just seeking the fulfillment of their bodily lusts. This shows us that God punishes sinners in giving them what their heart desires, though their heart does not desire what the sin will bring with it.

Romans 1:25 teaches us what is at the heart of every sin: “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” Sinners may not have the theology of what they are doing, yet their hearts desire the sin and in seeking the fulfillment of the desires of their hearts they are suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness. When sinners exchange the truth of who God is and His moral character by suppressing that truth and instead settling for a lie, they worship themselves and serve themselves (the creature) rather than God.

This is precisely what we see in parades and large parties in support of the recent Supreme Court decision. We see people who have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and they now worship themselves and serve themselves rather than God. It is a just punishment for God to harden their hearts in their sin and give them over to more sin as punishment. The sin itself is the wrath of God as sin is the worst thing that a soul can do. It leads to misery in this life and eternal misery in the next life. It is a terrible and awful judgment to be turned over to a reprobate heart, to a hard heart, and to be turned over to sin and then more sin. It is to be turned over in such a way that the person lives in accordance with the wisdom of an absolute fool. That fool is self without the wisdom of Christ.

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Musings 79

June 29, 2015

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them…22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 & in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman & burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts & receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 & just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

In light of recent events, those with hope that God was not going to send a great judgment upon us have revised that hope. It is not that judgment will not come, but it has already arrived, though assuredly things will get worse. Despite the gibberish put out by liberal theologians and those who lean hard to the left in politics, God is a God of wrath. Romans 1:18 is about as clear as one can be. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The text is really indisputable in that God reveals His wrath, but what is not so obvious is how He shows His wrath.

Romans 1:18-32 is a classic text on the fact that God shows wrath, but it seems to be forgotten in our day just how God shows His wrath. While people expect the wrath of God to come in lightening or in famine or in dramatic ways, there are actually far worse judgments that He sends. The judgments that God sends in Romans 1 are spiritual judgments and are simply not thought of as judgments. Men think of being punished in a physical way for their sin, that is, that bad things will happen to them if God judges. What they don’t understand is that the severe judgments of God happen immediately and yet they are not recognized because part of the judgment is being turned over to pride and a hardened heart and so they are blinded to the judgment.

We must look with some care at Romans 1 or we will miss the teaching of the awful judgments and wrath of God. We see in v. 24 that it is a judgment when God gives people over to “the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” Now men don’t understand that being given over to their lusts is a judgment, but instead they think of it as being free to exercise the lusts of their hearts. They don’t understand that when God hardens them and gives them over to their sin, they are in bondage to sin and an even greater bondage to that sin. As they slide deeper into the slavery of sin, their misery will increase though they will not recognize that either. As they slide deeper into the life of being controlled by their lusts, their bodies are dishonored and yet they are blind to that as well.

Another thing that sinners are blind to as they slide deeper and deeper into sin is that they are treasuring wrath up for the day of wrath (Romans 2:4-5). These poor, deceived sinners think that they are free from the wrath of God and yet at the same time they are being given over to their sins and they are treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath. In other words, when God turns a person over to sin that is a severe judgment on that person. It is a present judgment for sin in that it will bring more and more sin and more and more hardening to sin. It will bring more and more eternal judgment as well. When we think of the text of Scripture (Matthew 18:6) that it is better for a person to have a large stone hung around his neck and dropped into the depth of sea than it is for that person to be a stumbling block for a true believer, it should give some idea of the hideous nature of sin. When God turns a person over to sin by means of a hardened heart, though the person may not recognize this as a judgment, yet it is as severe a judgment that can be given in this life. The Supreme Court’s decision this past week is evidence of the wrath of God having been poured out upon us perhaps years ago. The wrath of God was intensified this week as seen in this judgment of turning a people over to sin.

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Great Quotes

June 27, 2015

False Professors of Christ

The second way how these do see many things, but they keep them not, consisteth herein, that what they profess that they know, they keep not in life, practice, and conversation; their life, conversation, and action nothing agreeing with that which they profess, and seem to know and see. As for example; such as are in the mere literal knowledge of Free Justification, do find by reading, and thereupon do profess, that Free Justification is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion, the head Article of salvation, the sole saving grace of Christ, the cause of sanctification, and of all godly living, the advancer of the true Glory of Christ; but yet because by this bare literal knowledge of it, they feel not the truth and power thereof in themselves; therefore whose feet do such labor to fasten upon this strong Rock of Christian Religion; whose house of Religion is built upon the sands of their repentance and holy walking; having this rocky foundation laid in their hearts no more in a manner than the Papists lay it.

Although such seem to hold strongly contrary to Papists; yet they are, in this chief point of salvation, of the Papists minds, coming forth with the Papists objections against it; and although it be the only sacred ordinance that God in his high wisdom hath appointed to be the only cause and means to make men to live truly devout lives; yet such refrain not in their rotten wisdom of reason to belch out this blasphemy, that it opens the gate to all loose and wicked living, and are so far from continually pressing this point, by showing the horribleness of the least sin in the sight of God, and the excellency of this benefit, perfectly healing us from all sin in God’s sight, and so planting it soundly in men’s hearts to effect these happy ends, that almost they never speak of it, but find themselves grieved with them that do; or if their text chance to press them to it, they lightly touch it, and soon pass it over, being as it were glad when that text is past.

Is this to keep to those foresaid most glorious truths of the excellency of Free Justification, which they so gloriously profess in words, and is it not rather before God and men a denying them in deeds; and thus do they in all the rest; for these that are in this literal knowledge, first, either they live ungodly lives; or secondly, but outwardly civil honest lives, caring for nothing more than their profits, honors, and pleasures; or thirdly, at the best, which is worst of all, do but delude the simple blind devoted people, with a legal zeal of holy walking for fear of punishment, or hope of reward, and speeding well for the same; seeming, yea, and being as hot as burning embers against outward vices, and earnestly calling for all active moral duties, which they call holy walking in all God’s Commandments; as if herein did consist the main point of salvation; {do this and live;} and yet abound themselves with all manner of inward hidden corruptions, as envy, calumniating, slavish fear, and glorious outward painting of their old rotten Adam.

All which is notably testified by the Doctrine of our Church, taught by the Martyrs and first Restorers of the Gospel in this land, saying thus, “By outward shows of good works they appear to the world.” How? The most religious and holy men of all others, making the outside of the cup and platter {that is, the outward appearance both of their persons and vocations} so clean, that they seem to the world most perfect men. Wherein so perfect? Both in teaching and living; and yet because the inside is not clean, Christ {who sees their hearts not justified with his own righteousness} knows that they are in the sight of God most unholy, most abominable, and farthest from God of all men; their judgment being preposterous, their doctrine sown leaven of mingling the Law and the Gospel together, and so marring both; and their life the hidden secret hypocrite; that is, not suspecting themselves of hypocrisy, they delude their own selves with supposed sincere hearts, respecting {as they think} only God’s glory; being inwardly full of all manner of filth, as pride, envy, covetousness, ambition, vain-glory, hatred, disdain, unbelief, conceitedness of themselves, contempt of those whom they like not, calumniating them, and such like; and yet so adorning and painting their old Adam that reigns in them, with such a fair outward new coat, not of Christ’s righteousness; {alone sufficient utterly to abolish their corruptions freely from before God;} but of their own righteousness, that they seem not only unto others, but also to their own selves in all respects amiable and excellent men; and such were they, that because they excelled in great learning, and were zealous towards God, {Rom.10:2,} in following righteousness by holy walking in all God’s Commandments, {Rom.9:31,} serving God instantly day and night, {Acts 26:7,} said hereupon unto Christ, in the high conceit of their literal knowledge, “Are we blind also?” {Jn.9:40} Unto whom Christ answering, said, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.” {vs.41} And thus much of the description of the bare literal knowledge, whereby men only sophisticating about the mysteries of Christ, would be Doctors and Teachers of the Word, but by not understanding what they say, nor whereof they affirm, {I Tim.1:7,} they neither in word, nor deed keep to that which they seem to hold, but speak flat contraries. John Eaton {Honeycombe of Free Justification by Christ Alone, 1642}

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Free Grace 2

June 26, 2015

Romans 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

The Gospel of grace alone should drive our minds to the biblical concept of free-grace. One very clear text on free-grace is Romans 3:24-28. In many modern minds the idea of free-grace is simply that there is no cost to the sinner involved, but that is not what the teaching really means. The concept of free-grace is that grace is free of any and all causation from the sinner and that the motivation for grace is found in God alone. There is no cause found in the sinner for what God would show grace and as such grace can only come to the sinner from a cause or motive that is found in God Himself. God shows grace because of Himself rather than because of something found in the sinner. This is not some harsh teaching, though it may ring in the ears that way to some, but this is the greatest hope that a sinner can find. The sinner must not look for any hope in self, but is to look to Christ alone for all grace and He is the only hope for the sinner.

The freedom of God to show grace must be stressed to sinners or they will always look to themselves for some reason that God will show them grace. They will try to improve themselves in order to obtain grace or they will try to come up with a belief or act of faith in order to move God to save them. Grace is either free of causation within the human or it is not. If grace is moved by even one of the smallest causes found in the human, then it is no longer free-grace and as such is not a pure grace at all and is a flat out denial of grace alone. Many denominations use the word “grace” while they stress a meaning that is far from the teaching of free-grace.

Romans 3:24 speaks of justification “as a gift by His grace” (NAS). The KJV and the NIV translate it as “justified freely by His grace.” The word for “gift” can mean freely or without cause. For example, John 15:24 uses the same word (dorea) and is translated as “without reason” (NIV) and “without a cause” (NAS). “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.'” In other words, the people who hated Christ had no reason in Christ to hate Him. In salvation God has no reason in us to save us. All the causes and reasons are in Him. That is why grace is really grace and salvation is all by and of grace. Grace points to the causal factor being within God and not man. Grace points to the work of God and the unworthiness of man, which is to say that there are no causes in man for God to save man.

It is of interest to notice how the way “gift” is used in the contexts of the following passages (Matt. 10:8; Jn. 4:10; 15:25; Acts 2:38; Acts 8:20; Acts 11:17 Rom. 3:24; 2 Co. 11:7; Gal. 2:21; Eph. 3:7; 2 Thess. 3:8). We have to get past the way modern Americans and others use the word “gift” and why we give gifts these days (holidays and birthdays) and see that a gift in the biblical sense really reflects on the giver and not the receiver. The giver looks upon a needy person and without cause within the needy person, but because of reasons within the giver, a gift is given. Thus, the gift can be said to be given freely (free of causation of merit or worthiness in the receiver of the gift). If there is a cause within the receiver, then it is not truly a gift and it is not fully and completely free.

For grace to be grace, it must be given without a work done by or merit in the person receiving grace. Romans 11:6 sets this out for us with great clarity: “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” For grace to be grace and to stay grace there can be no works done or any merit in the person. If there is a work done or merit found in the person, then grace is no longer grace. For the Gospel of grace alone and the Gospel of Christ alone to be in accordance with biblical grace, all the merit and causes have to be found in the Father, purchased by the Son, and applied by the Spirit. The Father does not decide to give grace based on any reason other than the Trinity, the Son does not purchase grace for sinners for any reason other than the Trinity, and the Holy Spirit does not apply grace for any reason other than the Trinity. The Gospel is by grace alone from beginning to end and it is a free-grace and a sovereign grace apart from any merit or worth in the human recipient. This is a non-negotiable to the Gospel of grace alone and it is glorious in how it shines the beauty of God I the face of Christ.

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Musings 78

June 24, 2015

Mat 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

When we die, the worms will scramble for our bodies, our friends and family for our possessions, and the devils for our souls. What will matter then? (Thomas Shepard)

The most real of realities is that each human soul will spend eternity in one of two places. This is not some game and it is not some religious deception in order to dupe people out of their money, it is a simple to understand truth that Jesus taught while on earth and then after His resurrection He taught the same thing through His apostles. Our lives on earth have more meaning than we can imagine because they have meaning for eternity. While eternity is not something we think about much in the modern day, it is at the forefront of the biblical teaching and thought.

Thomas Shepard gets to the heart of the matter. Those who live for the moment may not hear what he is saying, but it is a powerful message. When we die and enter eternity, will we really care for the body that we pampered and fed and spent so much time on during our time on earth? It is nothing but food for worms at that point. What of all the possessions we spent so much time, money, and love on? Will we care about all those things we used our valuable time on? As our friends and family scramble to get the things we spent our time on rather than focusing on eternity, at that moment we will be very focused on eternity. When the devils are scrambling for our souls, what will our wish have been? Will we wish that we had pampered our bodies more, or perhaps obtained more possessions, or will we wish that we had sought Christ and His glory more? In other words, will we wish that we had lived for and thought more on eternity?

It is easily seen from the text above the vital importance of the church. But of course the Church is the body of Christ and as such it has to do with true believers. How we treat believers has a lot to do with our eternal dwellings and our level of torment or joy there. No, this does not teach a Gospel that depends on how we treat believers, but instead how we treat believers shows us our hearts. While it is true that Jesus taught that a cup of cold water given to one of those who believe in Him would not lose its reward, that is far from teaching salvation by works. What it does teach, however, is the importance of how we live now because of its relation to eternity. Church is vital to us because it is a place that is supposed to focus on eternity, though it must be admitted that in the modern day it is focused on the here and now.

While we do not go around thinking about it in our day, how we treat or don’t treat true believers is very important. The text above is not teaching us to go and start prison ministries, but instead it is teaching us how God views His children and how human beings are judged on how they treat them. We will be judged on how we treat Christ, but we are judged on how we treat Christ by how we treat His children. Indeed sinners are saved by the grace of God alone, but let us not grab that truth and flee from the great truths in this text. Jesus also taught us that the sign of being a true disciple was to have love one for another (John 13:35). The issue, then, is not so much of how hard we work, but of whether we have true love for believers or not. John 4:7-8 tells us that only true believers have true love at all, and that is because they have been born of God and know God.

True believers, then, are those who love God and as such they love others who are born of God. A person who truly loves true believers is a believer, though it is also true that sinners love those who love themselves and as such many of those attend false churches. But if a man or woman truly loves God and our hearts go out to them and we want to help them and do for them, this shows that a person has eternity in mind and Christ in his or her heart. Eternal life in Christ consists of a great love and as such when a person enters eternity with Christ that person has love for eternity. Oh the weightiness of eternity, but oh the dullness toward eternity we have in our day.

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Musings 77

June 23, 2015

Mat 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

When we die, the worms will scramble for our bodies, our friends and family for our possessions, and the devils for our souls. What will matter then? (Thomas Shepard)

Eternity should be at the foremost of our thinking during our lives. But who really believes that eternity matters more than the present life now? Has the whole concept of eternity been virtually lost in our day? We are consumed with the present life. We are consumed with things of the world. Why are we not consumed with the things of eternity? Why are we not driven by eternal life and eternal damnation?

Matthew 16:26 tells us this: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Therefore, if there is no profit in having the entire world, then what profit can there be in what you are selling your soul for? If the whole world is a loss rather than a profit as compared to our soul, then people are selling their souls for sex, food, money, and many other things. How cheaply they are valuing their souls and giving them to sin.

Do we really believe the following these days: “all the curses written in the book of God, the curses of God, the curses of Christ, the curses of the Law, the curses of time and eternity, shall be upon unrepentant sinners, not only light on him to terrify him, but abide on him, to sink him into the Lake of Fire, to launch his wretched soul, grip and gnaw his guilty conscience, and prey on his damned body throughout endless ages.” If we really believed that, and more than just the intellectual information, surely our churches would be different.

Do we really believe that our soul and the souls of all others will spend eternity in one of two places? In light of eternity, being nice is not enough. Being orthodox is not enough. Being religious is not enough. Being externally moral is not enough. Most professing believers know those things in the head, but do they have those truths in the depths of their very hearts? Do they believe those things with every fiber of their being? Do those things really and truly grip us enough so that we live in light of them? Do we really think that only Christ and Christ alone is enough for us? Do we live as if Christ is our treasure?

When people are faced with the reality and finality of death, what type of person will they want to be around? It is true that it is nice to be around nice people, but hell is full of nice people. It is much better to be around those who are moral rather than the immoral, but hell will be full of people who are moral as well as the immoral. It is a good thing to be around talented people, but once again hell will be full of talented people. Is it a good thing to be around smart people? Perhaps if a doctor was smart one would want a smart doctor, but then again hell will be full of smart people and most likely have a lot of smart doctors. What kind of preacher or friends would one want to hang around? Do we want people to comfort us and encourage us as we slip into hell? Perhaps it would be better to find awakening preachers who will tell us the truth about our sinful natures and sinful practices before we reach our death beds. Perhaps it would be better to find people to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we reach our death beds. Perhaps it is vital that we turn from the fluff and niceness found in professing churches today and ask for God to give us men after His heart who will tell us the truth without fear of men.

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Musings 76

June 22, 2015

While this may not be politically correct, the real issue is whether it is theologically correct. Much of what is politically correct is theologically incorrect and being theologically correct is infinitely more important than what is politically correct. The issues surrounding the recent shootings in Charleston, South Carolina should be dealt with theologically and not just pass judgment on things in accordance with the news reports.

First, the most serious crime that the young man committed in murdering the nine people was his attack upon the image of God. The seriousness of the crime should not be measured by the color of the people’s skin, but the One that they were made in the image of. The seriousness of the crime is not better or worse because of the skin color of the person, but instead because he shot people who were made in the image of God. Regardless of the skin color of a person, all human beings are made in the image of God and an attack on a human being is in some way an attack upon God Himself. God does not have a body like men and as such He has no skin color.

Second, the seriousness of the crime is also not to be judged because the people were in a building that is termed a church. Indeed it may have been a historical building, but it is a building that is made of wood, metal, and perhaps some concrete. One cannot attack people in a church because in the Bible the Church consists of believers and Christ dwells in believers. A church building is where the church (the people of God) meets. While the media speaks of the murderers being carried out in a church, it was not. It might have been carried out against the church, that is, some being real believers, but it was not carried out in a church. Buildings are not the dwelling place of Christ, but instead He dwells in His people.

Third, we should not assume that all nine of the people murdered were Christians. While this little piece of writing is not judgment upon the salvation of those who were murdered, it is to say that the words of those speaking on the situation are not to be trusted in. People are not saved because they are black or white. They are saved because God elects to show grace to them. People are not saved because they are murdered by a man with terrible intentions, but instead they are saved if God saves them by grace alone. People are not saved because they were church members or because they were faithful at church for years, but instead they are only saved by grace alone. People are not saved because they go to Wednesday night Bible study, but instead they are only saved by the blood of Christ alone. People are not saved because they are murdered by a true racist because salvation is only by the blood of Christ alone and by grace alone.

Fourth, we should be careful about the deductions and statements people are making about God in this situation. God ordained this event to happen from all eternity and He did so for His own glory. God can show wrath when religious people murdered and yet He can show love when they are murdered. People who are religious on the outside may be quite wicked when away from the religious building and they can also be puffed up and proud. People who are very religious can also trust in their self-righteousness for salvation. But God is declaring His righteousness in this situation regardless of the people involved. God can still be a God of love while His wrath is being poured out on one person or many at any point.

Theologically speaking, there has been a lot of ignorance and heresy pouring out from Charleston, South Carolina. Not once have I heard anything that sounded remotely close to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Gospel of grace alone. While this was a sad event in many ways, it has become even sadder to hear the ways it is spoken of. God was attacked by the murderer, but now the true God is being ignored and the shallow, humanistic god is being exalted in His place. No, I don’t think that I am a true racist and I don’t think that what I am saying is even remotely close to racism. I am not writing against or for any race as such, but instead I want to stand up and declare that God is still on the throne. He was and is sovereign over the young man who murdered the nine human beings in Charleston. He was and is sovereign over the nine human beings who were made in His image and then murdered. The focus should be on God and His mind. If not even a sparrow can fall from the sky without His permission, then what does that say about Charleston? The issue should wake us all up is not race, the flag, or gun control. What should wake us up is that God is turning us over to hardened hearts. Even when He is screaming to us in cases of mass murder, our thoughts and words do not turn to Him in order to seek Him. Instead, we look to what we think of as societal ills as being the root evil. That is a great evil in itself.

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Gospel Preaching 35

June 20, 2015

I Corinthians 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

He should also open his mouth vigorously and confidently, to preach the truth that has been entrusted to him. He should not be silent or mumble but should testify without being frightened or bashful. He should speak out candidly without regarding or sparing anyone, let it strike whomever and whatever it will. It is a great hindrance to a preacher if he looks around and worries about what people like or do not like to hear, or what might make him unpopular or bring harm or danger upon him. (Martin Luther)

The Lord Jesus Christ is the very shining forth of the glory of God and He is the express image of His person. For a person to have truly seen Christ was for them to have seen the Father. The Lord Jesus came to reveal the Father and in and through Him there is no real sight of the Father. There is no Gospel other than that of the glory of God that shines in the face of Christ. It is Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life and is the only way to the Father. It is in Christ and Christ alone that we are given all spiritual blessings. It is only in the name of Christ that we can offer a prayer. How, then, can we speak of one being a Gospel preacher if one is not preaching Christ?

While Christ was on earth He was hated because He spoke and lived the truth of God and about God. When men are at enmity with the true God, they will hate hearing about Him. They will love to hear false things about Him, but since they are at enmity with Him they will hate the truth that shines forth in Christ. But instead of bowing to the venom of men toward the true God, the Gospel preacher will preach the truth of God in and by Christ. The true Gospel preacher is called of God and is supposed to preach the truth of God and that truth can only be preached when the true Christ is preached. Preachers must not be worried, at least to the point of it changing the message, of what people say or if it might bring him less honor (or no honor or even dishonor). They must preach the true Christ in such a way that the glory of the true God shines forth.

Part of the great enmity which men have toward the Gospel of Christ alone is that it leaves them helpless and unable to do anything to earn merit with God. One cannot preach grace alone without preaching that men have no merit before God and that they even have ill-merit before Him. Grace will only be given to the humbled and until men are humbled (in a legal way at first) they are not ready or able to even understand true grace. Proud man hates God, hates Christ, hates the Holy Spirit and hates grace because man loves himself and values his own sufficiency out of self-love. The Gospel is a humbling message and requires men to be stripped of all their hope in self and the efforts of self so that they can go through the narrow gate. The only way to go through that narrow gate is to be stripped of all and not trust in self.

When a true Gospel preacher preaches the glories of God in the face of Christ, unregenerate men will hate that. Unregenerate men can be very religious, but they will always be stirred at the hearing of the true Gospel and of the true God. It is in light of the true God that man sees the true man and he does not like a view of the true man and so sets out to destroy and ridicule the idea of the true God. It is in the true preaching of Christ that men see their inability and their total insufficiency to do one good thing and so this drives them to behold the glory of God and His grace in the face of Christ. But preaching of this type is not for unbroken and unhumbled men who would rather please men by building them up in the strength of self rather than seek to destroy self that men would look to Christ alone. Gospel preaching is to preach Christ which is not to preach humanism. Gospel preaching is to preach Christ which is to show men their sinful hearts and their total inability in spiritual things. But this requires broken men who preach only out of the fear and love of God. Gospel preaching is ultra-rare because there seems to be few men who fear God and not men and seek His glory rather than the glory of men.

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Free Grace 1

June 19, 2015

The biblical concept of grace is not found with study alone. As with most doctrines, one has to experience life in the light of doctrine and God has to teach it to the person in the depths of his or her soul. God is the true Teacher in all things and as one must come to Christ burdened with sin in order to learn humility (Matthew 11:25ff), so in order to understand the biblical teaching of grace God must teach the soul various things about Himself and then about the soul for the teaching of grace to take root in the inward man. The teaching of grace, though indeed grace is an attribute of God, is not learned by the communication of information alone. Indeed there is much that can be learned by communicating information about it, but until the soul has been taught grace in the depths of it the soul will not understand the true nature of grace.

While Roman Catholicism and Arminianism (not to mention Pelagianism) use the word “grace” and have concept of grace, they do not use the word in its full biblical meaning. Just because a person calls himself and thinks himself to be Reformed or a Calvinist or whatever is also no guarantee that the person truly understands grace. One can repeat catechisms and creeds which teach true information about grace and yet not be taught of God in the inner man.

John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

The text above is quite clear as to the absolute and utter need of God to teach men in the inner man. We speak of efficacious grace as that which draws man to God, yet we also must understand that efficacious grace is not some power apart from the Father who draws men to Christ by His teaching. The people of God are said to be willing in the day of His power, which can also be understood as another instance of God working in and drawing His people. God does not draw people to Christ in any other way than by grace. God does not teach people for any reason that is not in accordance with grace and grace alone.

This is a point about true grace that must be pointed out. The very nature of grace demands that it always be grace alone. If anything is by grace, it will always be by grace alone. Grace will not have any rivals since God will not have any rivals in what He does. Grace will not have any help from man since by definition grace cannot have help in what it does. Grace works alone and will only work alone in terms of motivation and power. When grace works in man and man then works, it is not that man enables grace or assists grace in any way, but it is grace working in man moved by God’s self-motivation and self-sufficiency to enable man to work. In this way it is truly grace but it is then enabling grace. It is not man assisting or helping grace, but it is grace working in and through man.

The Reformation was a battle over many things, but some think of it as primarily being a battle over free-grace or sovereign grace. That same battle continues today, but the battle is not always fought over the same terms and it is not fought among the same people. During the time of the Reformation the real issue was over God’s sovereignty and grace. Shortly after, there was a counter-Reformation among Roman Catholics. The counter-Reformation, however, was not as intensely theological as the Protestant Reformation as the counter-Reformation was more or less morally focused.

In our own day Protestantism has great need of a doctrinal and a moral Reformation. It seems as if the driving issue and utter necessity of grace alone and the only type of real grace as sovereign grace has been lost. We treat grace as if it is a handmaiden to our own wills, works, and choices. We are ashamed to speak of the only type of grace as sovereign grace. We are afraid to step out of the shadows of Arminianism and Roman Catholicism and speak with clarity and power in asserting that there is no ability in man to obtain or assist grace at all. God is free and God is sovereign in giving grace or it is no longer grace. We have men who seem to be more afraid of being called hyper-Calvinists than they are of being at odds with Arminian teaching. But it must be understood that grace is always bound to God and His will and it is never bound to the choices of man and his will. Grace must always be free of causation in its relation to man and always bound in its relation to God and His glory. Men can speak much of the word “grace” and how it is for man, but until they show how God freely (without causation coming from man) shows grace apart from the worth, works, and merit of man they are not preaching biblical grace.

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Gospel Preaching 34

June 17, 2015

I Corinthians 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

He should also open his mouth vigorously and confidently, to preach the truth that has been entrusted to him. He should not be silent or mumble but should testify without being frightened or bashful. He should speak out candidly without regarding or sparing anyone, let it strike whomever and whatever it will. It is a great hindrance to a preacher if he looks around and worries about what people like or do not like to hear, or what might make him unpopular or bring harm or danger upon him. (Martin Luther)

The Gospel is the good news of what God has done in Christ to glorify Himself in the salvation of sinners. It is a message to helpless sinners, dead sinners, and sinners who are unable to contribute to their own salvation. It is a message to those who have absolutely no ability to help themselves. This is to say that the Gospel is good news to those who are poor in spirit or who have come to the point of seeing themselves as desperate sinners who have absolutely zero hope in self and so can only look to grace alone. In other words, the Gospel can only be apprehended or appreciated by those who are so lost that they know they cannot help themselves. This requires bold preaching and a preaching that is not concerned about hurting the feelings of men and is not concerned about gaining honor among men.

The one who is preaching the Gospel must also preach the doctrines that correspond to the Gospel. For example, it is good news that God raises the dead, but if sinners don’t see themselves as dead they don’t really think of God raising the dead as good news. This means that Gospel preaching must include preaching about men being dead in their sins and trespasses so that the preaching of the Gospel of God can be understood and seen as good news. This means that Gospel preaching must include preaching about how men are not only sinners, but that they are sinners by nature. When men see that they are sinners by nature, they will understand that they need a new heart. So Gospel preaching declares to men that they are dead in sins and that by nature so that the glorious teaching of the new birth will be welcomed and sought. This takes boldness to preach and a desire to please God in the preaching rather than men.

Gospel preaching must never stress anything positive or Divine happening to the sinner apart from that happening by grace alone. The sinner must never look to himself or any other human being for help as the only help can come from above. The sinner must know that he can never do one thing good and as such he can never put God into his obligation. The sinner will only be saved if God is pleased to show grace to the sinner. Once again, in order to preach this and stress this with application to the hearts of sinners requires that the preacher be a man who speaks for God and not for the glory and honor that comes from man. A man cannot preach these things with earnestness and apply them to the hearts of men unless that man preaches for the glory of God in the salvation of sinners.

It is one thing to give a lecture on how the Gospel is by grace alone, but it is quite another thing to preach in such a way that sinners begin to see their own absolute need to be saved by grace alone. It is quite another thing as well to preach in a way where men can see that their only hope is in the grace of God and not almost all grace and a little something from them. A man can have a doctrine, philosophy, or a theory that states grace alone; but the practice of that man can be quite inconsistent with his theory. In our day it is not terribly unpopular in some circles to say that you stand for the doctrines of grace, but actually preaching the doctrines of grace with the doctrines that show how grace alone can save sinners is not as popular.

One can stay popular or at least in positions of power in denominations as long as you allow that there is room for differences, but one cannot remain popular in those denominations if one stands for grace alone and stands as well for there being no room for differences at this point. Gospel preaching cannot be popular unless God sends His Spirit to bring large numbers of people to a brokenness of heart to where they will not put up with anything but grace alone and the doctrines which go along with that. Gospel preaching is a proclamation of the glory of God in saving sinners, but sinners who are dead in sin and are sinners by nature and act. All the power and glory are His. Sinners, however, want some control and until their hearts are broken and crushed they will fight for the smallest amount of power left to them and some control. They will never honor a man who goes after the refuges that they have in their hearts so as to drive them out and leave them nothing but grace alone to hold to.

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