Gospel Preaching 33

June 16, 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)

Gospel preaching requires and earnestness, most certainly, but it also requires that one speak without controlling concern of what other people will think if the message hits them hard. Due to our hearts which are not perfect, the preacher will have that concern or worry at times if not most of the time, but that concern is not to control him. It is the love of Christ that is to constrain him. It is the love of Christ and the true good of souls which is to drive the preaching of a Gospel preacher. The preacher is supposed to be a man that God has set apart and is to preach the truth as one that has been set apart for God and His glory rather than always being concerned about how sinful men will view what he says.

Paul teaches us in 2 Timothy 4:2 to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” What appears to be in vogue today is that men preach the word and are then reproved and rebuked for preaching the word, so men become nervous and so preach what is acceptable to men so that they will be praised rather than rebuked. Gospel preaching, however, cannot be controlled by men. The one preaching must never cater to himself or to anyone else, but instead the preaching is to be the truth of God and as such preached as truth with love for God first and foremost.

It is possible for men to preach and to lower the voice or slur through the hard things, but this must not be done and cannot be done in Gospel preaching. The Gospel is all about the glory of God and His Messiah and there is nothing to be quiet about and nothing we should not be bold in declaring. The Gospel is all about the wonder and majesty of what God has done in glorifying His name in saving sinners and there is no room for men to be frightened or bashful about those things. Instead, they are to proclaim those things to men and those things are to be trumpeted forth as the most wonderful things in the universe rather than tripped over out of the fear of men.

It is nothing but self-love and pride that moves men to keep their eyes on what men like and don’t like rather than keeping their eyes on God and what honors Him and His truth. Every man that stands in the pulpit is either preaching to please himself or God. If he is preaching to please himself, then he can be moved to preach to please others, though indeed that is nothing but preaching for the purposes of self rather than for the truth and glory of God. The man who is a true Gospel preacher will preach out of the love and fear of God as his primary motive knowing that what is truly out of the love and fear of God will also be what is truly best for men. When men try to preach what men want to hear, whether it is orthodoxy or a watering down of the truth, they are not preaching what men need to hear and as such are not preaching what is good for men.

Gospel preachers are sinful men too, but Gospel preachers are not controlled by what will make them popular or unpopular. It appears that the vast majority of modern preachers are controlled by what they think will make them popular and avoid being unpopular. It is better for the name of Gospel preachers to be smeared and spoken evil of than for them to back off of preaching the truth of God and His Gospel. When men choose the truth and being unpopular because of love for God and His truth, they are in the line of the prophets of old. Gospel preaching must be done regardless of whether it will make men popular or unpopular, though indeed some with a martyr’s complex (so to speak) may desire to be unpopular for the sake of their own self-righteousness. Gospel preachers appear to have a rod of iron up their spine, but that is just appearances. The real thing about them is that they love the glory of God, His shining forth in Christ, the power of His Spirit, and the triune Gospel. They are firm on that.

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Gospel Preaching 32

June 15, 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.

Gospel preaching has earnestness to it that dry doctrinal and/or moral lectures cannot have. Gospel preaching has seriousness about it that all the humor and anecdotes cannot have. Gospel preaching has a sense of eternity around it that light and frothy teaching cannot have. Gospel preaching is serious about the things of eternity and wants to press eternal things home to the conscience and to the depths of the soul. Paul was with the people “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” He was not there with the newest and most relevant joke or story. He was not there to give story after story and then bring it to a close with a shallow mention of Christ. Paul was serious and weighty in his message rather than being hollow and light.

The reality of eternity does not come into our consciences but rarely, yet it is the most important and vital thing in our future. We would consider it important if a person was to prepare for time away that lasted for five years. We would understand that person extensively planning and preparing for the time away. We would understand that the person needed to prepare for such a long absence and that s/he may not have time for frivolity. Yet each and every person on this planet will be in an eternal dwelling before long. Each and every person will face eternal judgment before very long. Shouldn’t it be the case that we should face that reality with more earnestness than we do?

Imagine a person that knew s/he would be in hell in one week (or less) and did nothing but spend time joking with friends, going to movies, and drinking a lot. While we may find that a bit strange of a person who will be in hell in a week or less, we seem to think that it is quite acceptable in those who have no guarantee that they will not be in hell the next minute. We want to be nice and smiling and entertaining to those around us, but perhaps we should have other things in mind both for ourselves and for others.

Gospel preaching should and must take eternity seriously and as such should take preaching and life seriously. When a person who has recently received news that s/he has a terminal illness attends a church service, that person does not want to hear and does not need to hear some abstract philosophy or some moralizing. That person does not want to hear a person in the pulpit telling jokes surrounded with many stories. That person should hear a Gospel preacher who is earnest in light of eternity and wants the listeners to be engaged with the living God around the Gospel of the glory of Christ.

When a person is faced with death, what type of preacher will that person need? While the person may be more comfortable around a positive person and one who is nice and speaking nice things, hell is full of people who were more comfortable around positive people and those who were nice. What kind of preacher should a person want to listen to when a person is on the way to hell? What kind of preacher should a person want to listen to when a person is headed before the judgment seat of Christ? What kind of preacher should a person want to listen to when that person is going into the arms of Christ? It should be self-evident that each person should want to listen to a man who is earnest about eternity and is earnest about the Gospel of the glory of God.

While humanistic thinking tells us that people who are dying want to be comforted by people who are positive and encouraging and have sweet morsels (of words) to help people, in fact all of those things can be nothing but assisting people to feel good as they go off into hell. Gospel preaching will not happen when preachers are preaching the doctrines of the Gospel, even if they are accurate teachings. Gospel preaching will only happen when men are gripped with the weight of eternity concerning themselves, others, and the glory of God. The weight of eternity must be upon our souls if we are going to be Gospel preachers. The weight of eternity must be upon our souls if we are going to speak to men and women about the true nature of eternity. The weight of the eternal God and His judgment must be upon us if we are going to preach the eternal Gospel of the eternal God in any measure as it should be preached. We cannot work this weight up and it cannot be just another correct theory, but instead it must be taught to us and put upon our hearts by Christ Himself.

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Musings 75

June 13, 2015

Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

Colossians 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

We go to church in our day thinking it is a building rather than the building being a gathering place of the church. The ramifications of that single error in thought are enormous. When we think of Christ coming to His church, once again it seems to mean that Christ comes to the building as well rather than Christ coming in power and grace to His people. When we think of Christ turning from His people we think of Him as turning from the building, but in reality Christ turns from His people (in terms of presence, favor, and power) and leaves them to their own devices regardless of where they are.

It is of enormous importance how one views the church and what one thinks the church is. The view one has of what the church is has a great influence on how we view the Gospel, church membership, preaching; conversion, and evangelism. For example, a person should not be considered a Christian because that person attends a local church, but one should only be considered a Christian when one has biblical evidence that one is united to Christ and as such is part of the body of Christ. Membership in a local church is focused on a person taking vows and joining the congregation by covenant or by baptism. However, biblical church membership is focused on the person being a member of Christ and as such how one loves and treats the body of Christ. In this the body loves Christ and then itself as it grows in love.

The Gospel is confused by how we view the church when we think of a person coming to church and then making a commitment to a church by vows and baptism. This is partly seen by the vast number of times people answer the question as to if they are a Christian by their reply that they belong to a church. The modern view of the Gospel is whether a person makes a vow or not and belongs to a church or not, but the Bible thinks of a Christian as one who is born again (regenerated) and is joined to Christ. As a result of being born from above and knowing God (requires unity with Christ), a person loves God and others. Jesus taught us that His disciples would be known by their love for each other. That is true because true love can only come to those who are born of God and know God.

Gospel preaching (true preaching) focuses on the true Gospel and the things that relate to becoming people who are regenerated and united to Christ. Preaching with a wrong view of the church will focus on people making decisions and becoming faithful members, which is translated to being busy around the building or doing things for the organization. When the church members are faithful to Christ they are faithful to the people of the church and they are faithful to Christ in their daily lives. Preaching with a view to Christ and love for Christ and His people is a vastly different view than preaching which looks for people to be faithful to an organization.

A biblical view of the church leads to a different view of conversion as well. A person is converted when a person is not following self but is truly following Christ. A person is not necessarily converted when a person is faithful to come to the church building and becomes more moral. A person is not necessarily converted when a person tithes, teaches Sunday School, and helps build a new building. Building the church is a far different thing than building a building. True conversion is when a person has truly repented of self-love and pride and now Christ is his or her love and his or her boasting is in Christ.

Closely connected to that is the way evangelism is practiced. True evangelism is practiced when out of love for Christ His glory is proclaimed, but also looks to people and wants them to be united to Christ and for them to seek grace to be saved. Modern evangelism looks for the person to make a decision and then to be joined to an organization that is called the church. People can be conservative and Reformed and many other things and yet be pulled in a wrong direction because of their view of the church. The Church and the local church must be taught that the vital unity of what it truly is must be spiritual life from Christ or it will without fail go in the wrong direction.

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Musings 74

June 12, 2015

Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

Colossians 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

The professing Church has not been unified for centuries if not millennia. Before the close of the New Testament we have Paul and others writing to help people get along with each other and to correct false doctrine and other issues. The true Church, while much ink has been used to write tomes on the nature of the Church, is essentially the body of Christ. That is perhaps the most fundamental truth about the Church and perhaps the most important to remember. The most important thing about the Church and a church is not whether it has elders or not or whether the leaders are Bishops or not, the most important thing about Church and churches is Christ.

It is vitally important to some to hold that the Presbyterian form of government is what was instituted by God in the New Testament. For others, it is the Congregational view. For others, it is a strong form of elder rule. Is the form of government really as important as the Savior and Head of the body? Could it be that the form of government in a church is not what is important for people who are truly following Christ? It would seem that if Christ is the Head of the Church, then the preaching and teaching of the churches would be to preach the Gospel of Christ and to nourish and cherish the members of His body. When those who love Christ begin to see that Christ taught that how His people treat others is precisely how they treat Him, some things that were once thought important will dwindle away.

Jesus asked Peter if he (Peter) loved Him. Yes, there is also something else going on there with the various Greek words for love. Nevertheless, when Peter answered in the affirmative he was told to shepherd and tend His sheep. This is rather profound if we could get it. If the ministers of the day love Christ, they should shepherd and feed the sheep of Christ. They are not to use and abuse or lord it over them, but instead the office of pastor should compel a man to feed the sheep of Christ. The Lord Jesus did not order Peter to set up the office of Pope or to set out rules of Church government, but instead He told him to shepherd and feed the sheep. Again, He did not tell Peter to get the people to give more money for bigger buildings, but instead He told Peter to shepherd and feed the sheep. He also did not tell Peter to feed the whole world, but instead he was to feed the sheep.

The Lord Jesus was concerned about His sheep, but He did not set up a specific government while on earth. Instead, He made it clear that His people were to love the truth, love each other, and they were to make disciples. It is also true that Paul did not spend much time in writing about how to set up the government of the churches, but he did speak about teaching sound doctrine and preaching the word. Neither Jesus nor Paul wasted a moment of their time as recorded in Scripture speaking of church politics within the churches. When so much appears to be done in our day as mediated through the politics of denominations and even of local churches, when that is done we can know that we have already lost. The focus has been moved from loving Christ and His people which Christ commanded to keeping rules which Christ did not command.

During the summer months many denominations have their national meetings. There is a lot of discussion about rules and regulations and many plans are made for various things. But it would behoove people to consider what Christ would want done when churches come together. Would Christ want fanfare and politicking going on? Would Christ want so much money spent on extravagant meeting places and motel rooms? Wouldn’t it be much more like Christ to want His people fed with Himself through Gospel preaching and for men to lift up and exalt the glory of God in Christ? Wouldn’t it be more like Christ to want His people to seek humility and lowliness before Him that He would open their hearts and give them grace as He pleases? What would happen if these meetings were indeed judged by how the people of God were shepherded and fed? It may be that they would be utter failures. But, some will say, we made great plans. Indeed, great plans. But where is Christ in all of that?

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Real Repentance 27

June 11, 2015

Matthew 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

Pride is seeing the defects of others, and overlooking our own. Humility is seeing, feeling, and lamenting sin in ourselves; not only past, but present sin; not only actual sin, but the root of it in an evil nature, and all sin without disguise or extenuation, in all its guilt and malignity. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

The heart that wants real repentance and actually seeks real repentance from God is a heart that wants to know its sin, even though it may be hard to hear coming from other people. But if we want to know our sin and desire true humility, hearing it from others will also reveal a lot of pride in our hearts. We will see how our hearts rise within us when “certain” others bring up sins to us. We will begin to notice that our hearts rise in different ways depending on the person who brings our sin up. It may be that we are not guilty of the specific sin that a person brings up, but our hearts will reveal some aspect of our pride to us.

Our pride is like the eye of an eagle which is always looking for defects in others, yet that eye is quite dull when it looks at self. By looking at others with that piercing eye of the eagle we see so much in them that we can feel good about ourselves which enables us to feel superior to others. We know our own motives and so we can excuse our own defects, but we don’t know the hearts of others so we just assume the worst about them. But do we really know our own motives? Could it be that our own motives are full of self and pride and since they are in our own best interests we just assume that they are good? Just assuming that “my” motives are good is just one way pride enables us to overlook our own sin.

As imperfect people who are perfectly saved by Christ and yet in a way that does not make us perfect in daily (or hourly) practice, we must grow in our knowledge of our sin and yet of grace. We must grow in humility as we die to self and pride. It is true that this sounds like hard work and indeed it is hard. It is so hard, however, that it is impossible for men to kill their own pride and work up their own humility. We will only have as much humility as we have of the life of Christ (the One who was and is perfect in humility) in us. Humility, then, has to do with a view of self that influences our view of God, others, and the world. As pride is the exaltation of self, so humility is the emptying of self. As pride in its self-love blinds us to ourselves, so humility enables us to see ourselves in a true light that grows brighter as we grow in humility. As pride gives us sharp eyes in our judgments and assumptions about the motives of others, so humility gives us a different kind of eyes to view others with and not assume the worst about them but instead to assume the best about them.

The heart that is dying to pride and growing in humility is a heart that will begin to live in the light of the presence of God. This is a heart that will grow in the true knowledge of God and as it does that it sees itself in a true light. It is as the heart is being torn from its blinders of self to self because of pride and now sees self in the light of His glory that the heart is humbled and sees self in the true light. It is in that light that humility will begin to see sin in self, feel sin in itself, and will start to lament sin in itself. False humility can point out things about itself, but true humility will see what it formerly passed over and mourn over what was formerly seen as small things about itself. True humility will not just see sins that are carried out, but it will see right to its core which is a sinful nature. It is true that the regenerate soul is given a new heart, but oh it cannot escape the habits of the old nature until it arrives in glory.

As the soul grows in humility it will grow in seeing through the disguises of its own sin and see itself as getting worse and worse. This is why we must understand that the soul that has truly been granted repentance unto life is a soul that will be an almost constant “repenter” for life, which is to say that the soul that has really repented is the soul that has been humbled and will grow in its need to repent. Real repentance unto life is by grace alone and the soul is turned from self to Christ. Real repentance of those with Christ is when Christ becomes that person’s life and that person now has the humility of Christ as his or her life and now sees sin in a different light. The person who has His humility will see sin in self and as it grows in the disgust of self it is one that really repents over and over again.

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Gospel Preaching 31

June 10, 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.

A Christian, whether he is preacher or hearer, must be sure that he is speaking and hearing, not his own word, but God’s Word; otherwise it would be better if he had never been born, and preacher and hearer together must go to the devil. (Martin Luther)

If I shall come to glory, what a God shall I enjoy forever and ever! Into what blessed arms and bosom shall I cast my soul! And if I shall go to hell at least, can I bear up under the weight of God’s vengeance? Well, yet there is hope, God’s heart, the door of grace, and the gate of heaven, yet stands open. How would the damned in hell give thousands of worlds (if they had them) for my may be?

Can a person be given to Gospel preaching unless he is like a dying man preaching to dying men? Can a person preach the Gospel as he should apart from being rescued as a stick from the fire? Gospel preaching must have urgency to it rather than always be so calm and deliberate as if people had nothing to fear. Gospel preaching must realize and press upon men the glories of being in the arms of Christ and yet the awful state of falling into the wrathful hands of the living God.

Can the things of eternity be pressed upon sleepy souls with the greatest of calmness and a virtual detachment? This is not to say that bulging veins in the neck and virtual temper tantrums in the pulpit are what is wanted, but surely there is some warmth in the soul and some edge to the preacher who will warn people of the wrath to come. If indeed the damned in hell would give thousands of worlds if they could to have a time to seek the Lord or for just the slightest hope that they might escape the eternal torment and wrath that they are under, then Gospel preachers should set those things out with more than a dry giving of facts and with more than a monotone.

True Gospel preaching realizes that each sinner that is alive is on the precipice of eternity and God can yank the soul out of the body at any moment He chooses. Every sinner (as Edwards writes) is like the person walking around on a rotting canvas which has holes in it and is in danger of dropping in at every moment. The only thing that holds each sinner out of hell each moment is the hand of God and all unconverted sinners are in rebellion against Him and they hate Him. With every sin each sinner is casting sticks on his own fire which he will have to the utmost in eternity. The Scripture refers that to treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath.

The Scriptures are quit clear as to the weight of eternity and how this should instruct Gospel preaching. Every person in the entire world is presently building treasure in heaven or is treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath. With each sin the unbelieving sinner (whether a professing believer or not) is adding more wrath to his or her fire in the world to come. Shouldn’t Gospel preaching take that into account and shouldn’t Gospel preachers warn people about these things with some concern and some sympathy and perhaps some urgency? Do we really believe these things in our day?

If we truly believe these things in our day, then where is the urgency of our Gospel preaching? In the modern day preaching is focused on this world primarily and the eternity is not thought of that much, but the weight of eternity is rarely brought to bear upon the souls of sinners. Is it believed anymore that it is better for a person to be cast into the ocean with a large rock around his neck than it is to be a stumbling block? Do we teach sinners that they should not fear what men can do to them but they are to fear Him who can not only kill the body but cast the soul into hell? Do we press the dire state of sinners any longer?

Gospel preaching is not cold and without feeling while it simply states things that are true, but instead Gospel preaching stressed how utterly vital the cross of Christ is to sinners. Gospel preaching stresses how utterly necessary it is to have Christ as the only perfect righteousness and Christ as the only hope. Gospel preaching stresses the glories of heaven and the awful reality of eternal torments in hell. Gospel preaching drives men from any and all hope in self with feeling and urges them to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ.

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Christ Preparing our Hearts 23

June 9, 2015

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

If I shall come to glory, what a God shall I enjoy forever and ever! Into what blessed arms and bosom shall I cast my soul! And if I shall go to hell at least, can I bear up under the weight of God’s vengeance? Well, yet there is hope, God’s heart, the door of grace, and the gate of heaven, yet stands open. How would the damned in hell give thousands of worlds (if they had them) for my may be?

Christ prepares the hearts of sinners by crushing any hope they have in self. As long as a sinner has any hope in his or her own merits, ability to obtain merit, or worth to God, that sinner will not and cannot look to Christ alone. The only hope that a sinner must have is that God can show grace to anyone He pleases and that it is Christ who is the only sacrifice for sin and the only perfect righteousness for sinners. The glory of the Gospel is that Christ alone has provided all that is needed to save sinners and that the Spirit alone can apply what Christ has purchased to sinners. The sinner that looks to self for even the smallest amount of faith is a rebel against the perfect self-sufficiency of God and the perfect work of Christ to save sinners.

This alone must be the hope of sinners. They must have all hope in self crushed and that includes all hope that the sinner can make a choice or exercise his or her will to believe. Everything must come by Christ and Christ alone. We don’t look to Christ with faith in order to be saved, but instead we look to Christ for faith and all things that we must have in order to be saved. We look to Christ to prepare our hearts as we cannot do that either. Men and women can be self-righteous in thinking that they are righteous and they are like the Pharisees who trusted in self. Men and women can look to themselves in thinking that they are smarter than others and so they don’t trust in themselves, but in doing that they are trusting in something they have done. Men and women can think that they can prepare their hearts and in thinking that they are looking to self for something. The real state of the matter is that Christ alone can prepare the hearts of sinners for Him to take His throne in those hearts.

The real point of the previous two paragraphs is to point sinners to Christ alone as their only hope. No sinner has any hope in himself or in anything he can do. No sinner can prepare his heart in any way and no sinner has any hope but in Christ and Christ alone. There is no merit in any righteousness that a sinner can do, but not only that there is no merit in anything a fallen human can do. The only good that a human being can do is worked in him or her by Christ. There is no room for boasting in self, but instead there is only room for boasting in Christ and His cross. There is no room for boasting in my righteousness in the slightest, but we are to boast and make much of the righteousness of Christ. If a person truly values his or her eternal soul, that person must be ready to be stripped by Christ of all hope in anything s/he is or can do. The Christ who prepares souls prepares them to have no hope but in Him alone.

Sinner, what is your deepest trust? You may think of yourself as a Christian and you may be a leader in a church or you may be very active in a church. But in the deepest part of your heart, do you trust in your status at church or your activity in the church at all? Do you think or believe that you are converted because of things you do? You may not admit this with your mouth, but in the depths of your heart what do you really trust in? Do you despise others (comes from pride) because they are not as good as you or as active as you? Do you think of yourself as better than others because you know more about the Bible or you know more theology?

There are sinners in hell who were more active than you. There are sinners in hell who were leaders in the church. There are sinners in hell who thought they were converted because they were preachers or active leaders. There are sinners in hell who despised others. There are sinners in hell who knew more about the Bible than you do and probably know for more now than you do. At the very least the devil knows more about the Bible than you do. The devil is far beyond you in knowing about theology and there are many of his children in hell who know far more theology than you do or ever will. Those are the damned who would give thousands of worlds to be able to have the slightest bit of hope of being saved. If they would give so much to have the slightest bit of hope, what will you hope in? Sure enough Christ must break you from all hope in self and give you hope in Him. Seek Him.

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Christ Preparing our Hearts 22

June 9, 2015

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in. If I shall come to glory, what a God shall I enjoy forever and ever! Into what blessed arms and bosom shall I cast my soul! And if I shall go to hell at least, can I bear up under the weight of God’s vengeance? Well, yet there is hope, God’s heart, the door of grace, and the gate of heaven, yet stands open. How would the damned in hell give thousands of worlds (if they had them) for my may be?

The heart cannot have a true view of heaven unless Christ prepares it and then gives it a foretaste of it. The heart cannot understand what the weight of God’s vengeance really is. But again, there are only two places that a soul can spend eternity in and it will spend eternity in only one of those two places. It will spend eternity in either eternal and exquisite joy and bliss in the arms of Christ or it will spend eternity in eternal torment and indescribable anguish of soul and body. This cannot be drilled home too deeply. This should and perhaps must become the driving motives of the soul and the deepest realization of it. Eternity, eternity, and eternity again; the words (word) that we cannot possibly begin to fathom and yet must be our deepest concern if we truly value our souls. How we waste so much time in such meaningless things (at best) and we do so in the face of eternity. The natural man cannot really have a glimpse or a taste of what it means to enjoy God, but he must take the words of God and the children of God for it. He must know, however, in some way that fleeing the vengeance of God is necessary, but pursuing the greatest good of the presence of God is even better. For the unconverted sinner there is always hope. It is the pleasure of God the Father to save sinners. It is the pleasure of God the Son to save sinners. It is the pleasure of the Holy Spirit to save sinners. The door of grace stands wide open and men should seek the Lord and with violence (to the lusts of self) pursue the grace of God pleading and asking Him. The gates of heaven are not closed and as such there is still hope. Oh sinners, look at how Christ prepares His people. Look at all His promises and the wonders of His grace. What stands in your way of seeking this Christ to prepare your heart to make you a new creation in Christ? What holds you back from a whole-hearted seeking of this grace? What ties to the world and sin can restrain you and entice you to enjoy this world which will go up in flames some day? It is the Lord Jesus who must teach us these things and prepare our hearts if we are going to flee from the reality of hell and seek Him in whose presence is the very wonder and glory of heaven. Even now every sinner has the opportunity to flee sin and to seek grace from God. Even now every sinner has something of a conscience that pokes and prods him or her about his or her sin. Even now every sinner has to suppress the truth to go on in ways of sin. Even now every sinner should flee from sin and pursue the Lord pleading for Him to show them grace. What is it that keeps sinners from seeking the Lord? It is their own selfish and proud hearts, but we must note that God turns people over to self and pride as judgment upon them. A selfish and proud heart is not something a person can just turn from in his or her own power, but instead a person’s heart must be softened by the hand of the God who hardened it. Sinners must seek the Lord to relent from His judgment upon them and grant them a soft heart. What God has hardened, no man can soften himself so each person must seek the Lord to soften his or her heart and that will only happen in the preparation of the heart that is the work of Christ. It bears repeating over and over again, so one more time. Self and pride are judgments of God in hardening hearts. No human being or a collection of human beings can overpower the work of God and obtain a soft heart. They must seek the Lord for it. The damned in hell would give a thousand worlds to be able to seek the Lord once again. As Jonathan Edwards put it, the damned in hell would give the whole world and all else they could get to have sinned one less time. This is not to say that unregenerate people don’t sin in seeking the Lord, but in seeking the Lord they are no giving themselves to seeking sin without restraint. As Edwards said once again, if a soul in hell could rejoice, those who had sought the Lord would rejoice for how much less their sufferings were. Each sinner should come to a realization that the pleasures of sin are only fleeting and lead to eternal and misery beyond what can be expressed by words. Sinners should seek the Lord because He alone can give grace and save them, but also so that their torment in hell will be less. If a thousand worlds are as nothing to sinners in hell, let those who are not yet there learn the seriousness of sin and learn to flee from the wrath to come. Seek the Lord for grace for He is a gracious God.

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Gospel Preaching 30

June 7, 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.

A Christian, whether he is preacher or hearer, must be sure that he is speaking and hearing, not his own word, but God’s Word; otherwise it would be better if he had never been born, and preacher and hearer together must go to the devil. (Martin Luther)

There are many ways not to preach Christ and Him crucified. While many want to follow the command to preach the Word in some way, they should remember that to preach the Word one must preach the Christ of the Word. The Scriptures cannot contradict themselves and so we should understand that we cannot preach the Word in a way that contradicts Paul’s determination to preach Christ and Him crucified.

It appears that many are satisfied to call that preaching which is really just reading Scripture and adding a few words of comment on that. Of course they may offer a bit of application at the end, which may or may not be about Christ, but that is not the same thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified. John 2:23-25 teaches us that while many believed in the name of Jesus after they observed His miracles, they were not truly converted people. If these people were not converted by watching Jesus do miracles and preach while doing them, what makes us think that we can think we are preaching if we are just reading Scripture and making a few comments on the text? Let us not forget that Paul preached Christ and Him crucified to believers and unbelievers alike. There is no such thing as evangelistic preaching apart from preaching and expounding the Person of Christ and the works of Christ. There is no such thing as preaching to strengthen believers apart from preaching and expounding the Person of Christ and the works of Christ. Reading a small or a vast portion of Scripture while making comments on it cannot be viewed as preaching Christ and Him crucified.

Another way that men are deceived about their preaching is when they preach in a way that they think of as expositional preaching. Expositional preaching can be, if one examines it carefully, just another way of reading the text and making more comments upon it. People can either read through a text fairly quickly or spend a lot of time on a text examining it, but either way they miss the real point of the text if they do not preach Christ and Him crucified. In one sense an expositional way of preaching can be nothing more than an academic exercise about the text rather than a way of preaching Christ. For example, one can preach the Law as the Law and in its own context and yet not preach Christ. Yet the purpose of giving the Law (according to Scripture) is to show men their sin and to be a tutor to bring them to Christ. Using that as an example, it should be clear how expositional preaching can be a way of preaching a text and yet utterly fail at preaching Christ and Him crucified at all. While expositional preaching is all the rage in many circles, it should be understood and even self-evident that an exposition of a text is nothing more than an exercise apart from preaching Christ.

It is also true that both reading a text with comments and expositional “preaching” can be a way for men’s “faith” to rest on the wisdom of men rather than on the power of God. It is easy to simply read a text and it can be easy to practice exposition if one has the proper method and the proper tools. But with both of those methods, one can also trust in the method without seeking Christ Himself in the heart and in the text. When a preacher does not preach Christ from a passage or a text, it means that the preacher has not seen Christ in the passage or text. It also means that the preacher has not met Christ in that text or passage of Scripture and so the preacher is preaching from the wisdom of men rather than setting forth Christ. While there may be powerful speaking from the pulpit without a felt and known Christ in the heart of the preacher, there is no such thing as powerful preaching and Gospel preaching apart from a felt and known Christ in the heart of the preacher.

The real problem (to put it bluntly) with Christless preaching is Christless preachers. A preacher who has sought Christ and found Christ in his study will preach Christ from the pulpit. The preacher who has sought and found Christ in the study cannot but preach Christ in the pulpit. The preacher who has sought an academic knowledge or nothing but information about Christ may indeed give a lecture on Christ from the pulpit, but only the man who has sought and found Christ Himself can preach Christ in accordance with Gospel preaching. Preachers are not to be experts giving lectures to the people, they are to be men full of Christ who speak forth the glory and wonders of the Person of Christ and His Gospel of grace alone. Men must taste that God is good before they can really describe it. Men must taste the glory of Christ before they are fit to preach Him and His glory.

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Musings 73

June 5, 2015

The nature of sin has been changed from days of old to become nothing more than a mistake or perhaps a moral failure at some point. Sin is really not so bad, they say, as they listen to the reasons and the psychologizing of the fallen heart. We flee from any hint that we might be bad or that we might be sinners, but in doing so we are fleeing from the truth about ourselves and of the Gospel. The Gospel is not for those who make mistakes and have a few failings, the Gospel is for those who are wicked by nature and that nature flows out in the life. In other words, the Gospel is for really bad sinners. We minimize sin in order to feel good of better about ourselves and what we end up doing is to increase our sins against God and our misery.

Sin is namely; a separation from God, a turning to the vanity of the creature, a staining of the soul, the death of the spirit, a snare of Satan, a loss of time, a deprivation of the grace of God, of virtue, and of everlasting blessedness. Sin is also a darkening of the understanding and the conscience, a corrupting of the will, a troubler of the heart and of the senses, it is a worshiping of idols, a denying of the faith, an exaltation of the enemy, a sweet poison, the beginning of damnation, the mother of many other sins, a short joy, a long torture, an eternal reproach, doubtless loved of the world, but abhorred of God and all good men; in one word, the burden of sin is unspeakable, its damage inconceivable, irremediable is the ignominy, unbearable the punishment.

If we really took the truths of the statement above to heart, we would flee sin regardless of what other people thought of me. We would flee sin with horror and disgust rather than just go on with life. However, we cannot drive these truths in our hearts or teach these things to our own hearts. We must seek the Lord to teach us these things or we will never truly learn them. We must have the living God awaken and instruct our souls or we will never truly understand the nature of sin and as such understand ourselves and our own hearts. If we don’t understand ourselves and our own hearts, we will never understand the nature of grace and of Christ and the Gospel of Christ. The Lord Jesus saves sinners and not just those who make mistakes here and there.

The point of coming to understand ourselves as sinners by nature and to come to grips with ourselves and vile wretches is not just some level of understanding to come to, but instead it is what must come to see is true of ourselves. With some they may have great feelings of conviction and sorrow over this, but others will not feel as much but simply lost all hope in their own righteousness. The good news about coming to grips with how awful we are in reality is that this takes a work of the Spirit to do this since sin is a darkening of our understanding and the only way to have light on this is for the Light Himself to enlighten us.

In a sense, if we follow the thoughts of the anonymous author above about sin, it (sin) is a turning from God to Satan and is a waste of our time on earth (at best). The only thing that sin can do is to bring a very short pleasure which turns into an eternal torment if not repented of. Sin can also bring the short pleasure of the honor and esteem of those who are children of the devil. Sin is not just an act or a mistake; it reflects the state of the heart and of the nature and loves of the soul. The soul seeks that which it loves, so the sinner sins in that s/he loves sin rather than God. The Great Commandment is to love God with all of our being and the soul loves self and sins for self out of love. Sin, then, shows that the soul loves self and things rather than God, though indeed the soul may sin and think that it loves God because of its darkness and because of its wrong ideas of God.

What is impossible for men to understand in the depths of their souls is that they are like Satan in loving self and doing all for self. Men will love God (in one sense, and a deceived sense) as long as they think that He loves them and winks at their sin, but in reality men hate God as long as they live out of love for self. The great idol of men (I-dol) is self and love for self. Men do all out of love for self and even their religion is out of love for self rather than God, though men may deceive themselves otherwise. This is, once again, the religion of Satan. He does not care if men are religious and sing songs of praise to Christ as long as they do it out of love for self and don’t know the true Christ. The spiritual reality is that men worship the devil in acting like the devil in doing all their religious acts from self-love. All false religion and sin is self-love and pride which is really the nature of Satan. Until those things are repented of, which is to say until God brings the sinner out of that wicked nature, nothing a person does in the religious realm is anything but the height of wickedness.

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