Sunday Sermon, 7.17.11
(The following was proclaimed at Bigelow Church on July 17, 2011. These sermon notes are postedprimarily to help those who wish to look up the Scriptural cross-references made in the message. The sermon may be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bigelow-church-live-sermon).
John MacArthur on Rob Bell
John MacArthur is blogging a series on the Rob Bell book, “Love Wins” and here is an example of the sound teaching you will find by MacArthur taking on Bell in his own words: http://www.gty.org/Blog/B110421. In MacArthur’s own words
Just how serious is Rob Bell’s heresy? It is not merely that he rejects what Jesus taught about hell; Bell rejects the God of Scripture. He deplores the idea of divine vengeance against sin (Romans 12:9). He cannot stand the plain meaning of texts like Hebrews 12:29: “Our God is a consuming fire.” He has no place in his thinking for the biblical description of Christ’s fiery return with armies of angels: “dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Bell’s whole message is a flat contradiction of Jesus’ words in Luke 12:5: “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
Refreshment and Reminder
It is hard to understand Christians who think they can live a Christian life without ever reading their Bibles. it is impossible. Our memories do not retain and maintain what we need to know. We are built in such a way that we need refreshment and reminder – again and again.
Pastor Ray Stedman in 1001 Great Stories & Quotes, ed. by R. Kent Hughes, 25.
I speak as one who is not nearly where I want to be when it comes to my knowledge of the Word and not as one condemning anyone else. – Steve
Boldness
Hugh Latimer, the great English Reformer, once preached before Henry VII and offended Henry with his boldness. Latimer was commanded to preach the following weekend and make an apology. On the following Sunday after reading the text Latimer addressed himself as he began to preach:
Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the king’s most excellent majesty, who can take thy life if thou offendest; therefore, take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease; but then consider well, Hugh, dost thou not know from when thou comest; upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present, and who beholdeth all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore, take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully.
He then gave Henry the same sermon he had preached the week before – only with more energy.
R. Kent Hughes, 1001 Great Stories & Quotes, 35-36.
When You Burn the Ships
When Cortez landed at Vera Cruz in 1519 to begin his conquest of Mexico with a small force of 700 men, he purposely set fire to his fleet of eleven ships. His men on the shore watched their only means of retreat sink to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.With no means of retreat, there was only one direction to move, forward into the Mexican interior to meet whatever might come their way.
In paying the price for being Christ’s disciple, you too must purposefully destroy all avenues of retreat. Resolve that whatever the price for being His follower, you will pay it.
Walter Henricksen, as cited in R. Kent Hughes, 1001 Great Stories and Quotes, 64.
Sunday Sermon, 4.17.11
(The following was proclaimed at Bigelow Church on April 17, 2011. These sermon notes are postedprimarily to help those who wish to look up the Scriptural cross-references made in the message. The sermon may be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bigelow-church-live-sermon).
Knowing God
First, knowledge of God is important, for only through the knowledge of God can an individual enter into what the Bible terms eternal life (which is both the promise of life after death and living today as fully authentic a human life as possible; John 17:3).
Second, knowledge of God is important because . . . it also involves knowledge of ourselves, a knowledge which is humbling.
Third, the knowledge of God also gives us knowledge of this world: its good and its evil, its past and its future, its purpose and its impending judgment at the hand of God.
A fourth reason the knowledge of God is important is that it is the only way to personal holiness.
Finally, the knowledge of God is important in that it is only through a knowledge of God that the church and those who compose it can become strong (Dan. 11:32).
James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith, 23-25.
Thinking on “Natural” Disasters
I receive The Banner of Truth magazine and the following appears in its May 2011 edition that I think captures quite a bit of Biblical truth in a brief amount of space concerning this difficult issue:
“In recent times our part of the world has witnessed a series of disasters—unprecedented flooding in Queensland and Victoria, Australia; an earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand; and an earthquake, tsunami,and nuclear radiation in Japan. So far, there have been no reports of pastors reaching for Isaiah 24 or 42, but we must surely ask how Christians are meant to respond to such disasters, and also, if possible, to understand them in the light of God’s sovereignty and will.
“First of all, we are to be people who empathise with human suffering. We are to ‘weep with those who weep’ (Rom. 12:15). If we cannot do that, we had best close our mouths and say nothing. We are not to rejoice when our enemy falls (Prov. 24:17) but seek to do good to all (Gal. 6:10). Whatever else we understand, or think we understand, we have the obligation to relieve suffering as much as we are able.
All things come from God
“The second thing is to realise that all things come from God who does all things well. The Christian response is not that this is simply the result of the forces of nature or that the devil has done this. Those things are true, so far as they go, but God is not just sovereign over good things but over all things. ‘Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?’ (Amos 3:6b). ‘Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?’ (Lam. 3:38). God declares his sovereign power and purpose in all that takes place: ‘I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things’ (Isa. 45:7). We may say that his judgments are unsearchable and his ways inscrutable (Rom. 11:33), but we cannot say that they do notbelong to him. God is at work, even in floods, earthquakes, tsunamis,and nuclear accidents.
“The final point to make is that all disasters are to teach us the lesson of the seven bowls of God’s wrath in Revelation 16. We are fallen and fragile people, and the various afflictions recorded there are meant to awaken people so that they repent and give glory to God. Jesus specifically forbids us to draw the conclusion that those who perish in disasters—whether man-made or ‘natural’—are worse sinners than ourselves (Luke 13:1-5). However, the Lord does say that such disasters serve as a solemn call to repent or we too will perish (Luke 13:3, 5).By nature, we tend to believe that this world is what we can be sure of, whereas the next one is uncertain. By grace, we learn that it is theother way around. It is the kingdom of God that cannot be shaken (Heb.12:28). And in the words of Augustine of Hippo: ‘He will be the goal of all our longings; and we shall see him forever; we shall love him without satiety; we shall praise him without wearying. This will be the duty, the delight, the activity of all, shared by all who share the life of eternity . . . For what is our end but to reach that kingdom which has no end?'”
Peter Barnes, Disasters, Weak Human Beings and A Sovereign God, “The Banner of Truth,” May 2011.
The Plague of His Own Heart
I love the life, ministry and preaching of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981). Now I am especially grateful as well for an anthology of some of his best thinking in quotations which have been culled by Tony Sargent in Gems From Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I’ve quoted from this work before and do so again here with this thought from “the Doctor”:
The truly godly man is never a showman. He knows enough about the plague of his own heart never to be guilty of that.
Grace Coming and Grace Going
The single best treatment on the subject of sanctification (the growing life of Christ within the believer) I’ve read is John Piper’s Future Grace–I commend it to you for help for your journey with Christ. In it, he meditates upon what may be the significance of the invariable pattern found in every one of Paul’s letter whereby he begins by wishing “Grace [be] to you” and he ends by wishing “Grace be with you.” Here are his thoughts:
There is another remarkable thing about these blessings of future grace. Without exception the blessings at the beginning of Paul’s letters say “Grace [be] to you,” while the blessings at the end of the letters say, “Grace [be] with you.” This is so consistent through thirteen letters that it must mean something.
The meaning I would suggest is this: at the beginning of his letters Paul has in mind that the letter itself is a channel of God’s grace to the readers. Grace is about to flow “from God” through Paul’s writing to the Christians. So he says, “Grace to you.” That is, grace is now active and is about to flow from God through my inspired writing to you as you read: “grace [be] to you.”
But as the end of the letter approaches, Paul realizes that the reading is almost finished and the question rises, “What becomes of the grace that has been flowing to the readers through the reading of the inspired letter?” He answers with a blessing at the end of every letter: “Grace [be] with you.” With you as you put the letter away and leave the church. With you as you go home to deal with a sick child and an unaffectionate spouse. With you as you go to work and face the temptations of anger and dishonesty and lust. With you as you muster courage to speak up for Christ over lunch.
What then do we learn from Paul’s unbroken pattern of beginning and ending his letters in this way (“Grace be to you.” “Grace be with you.”)? We learn that grace is an unmistakable priority in the Christian life. We learn that it is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, but that it can come through people. We learn that grace is ready to flow to us every time we take up the inspired Scriptures to read them. And we learn that grace will abide with us when we lay the Bible down and go about our daily living.
In other words, we learn that grace is not merely a past reality but a future one. Every time I reach for the Bible, God’s grace is a reality that will flow to me. Every time I put the Bible down and go about my business, God’s grace will go with me. This is what I mean by future grace.
The Bible Explains It
‘Do you believe things like that [the Fall of man into sin and resultant evil] today?’ My dear friend, today’s world is what drives me to believe in it. I do not see a world going upwards, but a world going downwards. I do not understand life apart from the doctrine of the fall, the doctrine of evil, the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of the devil. It is all here in this book. The Bible explains it. It is not accident and chance. God made the world in that perfect manner and it is as it is because of the devil and evil and his influence upon this world of ours.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I Am Not Ashamed, 66.
Provided For and Never Lost
If eternal life cannot make it through a temporal week of my life, who needs it? Jesus Himself said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall *never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Bishop J. C. Ryle would put it this way 1,800 years later:
True Christians shall never perish. Kings of the earth and mighty men shall depart and be no more seen; thrones and dominions and principalities, rich men and honorable men shall be swept into the tomb—but the humblest Christian cottager shall never see death everlasting, and when the heavens shall pass away as a scroll, and earth shall be burned up, that man shall be found to have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
That man may be poor in this world and lightly esteemed—but I see in him one who shall be a glorious saint, when those who perchance had more of this life’s good things shall be in torment; I am confident that nothing shall ever separate him from the love of Christ. He may have his doubts—but I know he is provided for, he shall never be lost.
— J.C. Ryle, “The Privileges of the True Christian”
*Never is a double negative in the Greek language, which, though not the way we speak or write in English, is the strongest way in which Jesus could speak of the impossibility of one of his sheep losing the eternal life his has gifted them with in the Greek language.
We Prefer to Be Our Own gods
I take it as a given that all of us would prefer to be our own gods than to worship God. The Eden story is reenacted daily, not only generally in the homes and workplaces of our parishoners but quite particularly in the sanctuaries and offices, studies and meeting rooms in which we do our work. The only difference in the dynamics of the serpent’s seduction in the explicitly religious workplace is that when pastors are seduced, our facility with the language provides us with a thesaurus of self-deceiving euphemisms.
Eugene Peterson, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Kindle ed., p. 7, location 129.
The Challenge to Keep Biblical Standards
Truth and lies
Rom. 1:25: They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator… (NIV).
It is easy to rationalize sinful thoughts and behaviors when they serve our selfish purposes. Considering the standards of our culture, small compromises may seem insignificant in comparison. As Christian parents, we will be challenged over and over again not to “exchange the truth for a lie.” This may mean saying “no” to our kids regarding certain movies, games, and clothing that our society finds acceptable.
Godly standards may be tough for your child to accept, especially when they long to be “cool” and accepted by their peers. Take time to listen to your children’s thoughts about the pressure to conform that they feel. Ask questions about what’s going on in their world and please don’t dismiss their feelings when they express them. Instead of delivering a lecture, acknowledge their disappointment when you have to say “no” to something that conflicts with God’s standards. It will be easier for your kids to accept your authority when they feel genuinely heard.
Uphold the standards of godly behavior with kindness and love.
Taken from Parenting by Design at Crosswalk.com, April 7, 2011.
We Were Made to Stand In Awe and Admire
John Piper draws this out of a sermon once given by America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards:
“What I am trying to express here is that the glory of Christ, as he appeared among us, consisted not in one attribute or another, and not in one act or another, but in what Jonathan Edwards called ‘an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.’ In a sermon titled ‘The Excellency of Christ’ Edwards took as his text Revelation 5:5-6 where Christ is compared both to a lion and a lamb. His point was that the unique glory of Christ was that such diverse excellencies (lion and lamb) unite in him. These excellencies are so diverse that they ‘would have seemed to us utterly incompatible in the same subject.’ In other words,
we admire him for his glory, but even more because his glory is mingled with humility;
we admire him for his transcendence, but even more because his transcendence is accompanied by condescension;
we admire him for his uncompromising justice, but even more because it is tempered with mercy;
we admire him for his majesty, but even more because it is a majesty in meekness;
we admire him because of his equality with God, but even more because as God’s equal he nevertheless has a deep reverence for God;
we admire him because of how worthy he was of all good, but even more because this was accompanied by an amazing patience to suffer evil;
we admire him because of his sovereign dominion over the world, but even more because this dominion was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission;
we love the way he stumped the proud scribes with his wisdom, and we love it even more because he could be simple enough to like children and spend time with them;
and we admire him because he could still the storm, but even more because he refused to use that power to strike the Samaritans with lightning (Luke 9:54-55) and he refused to use it to get himself down from the cross.
The list could go on and on. But this is enough to illustrate that beauty and excellency in Christ is not a simple thing. It is complex. It is a coming together in one person of the perfect balance and proportion of extremely diverse qualities. And that’s what makes Jesus Christ uniquely glorious, excellent, and admirable. The human heart was made to stand in awe of such ultimate excellence. We were made to admire Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
A Good Name
“A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold” (Proverbs 22:1).
| In his book I Almost Missed the Sunset, Bill Gaither writes: |
Gloria and I had been married a couple of years. We were teaching school in Alexandria, Indiana, where I had grown up and we wanted a piece of land where we could build a house. I noticed the parcel south of town where cattle grazed, and I learned it belonged to a ninety-two-year-old retired banker named Mr. Yule. He owned a lot of land in the area, and he gave the same speech to everyone who inquired: “I promised the farmers they could use it for their cattle.”
Gloria and I visited him at the bank. Although he was retired, he spent a couple of hours each morning in his office. He looked at us over the top of his bifocals.
I introduced myself and told him we were interested in piece of his land. “Not selling,” he said pleasantly. “Promised it to a farmer for grazing.”
“I know, but we teach school here and thought maybe you’d be interested in selling it to someone planning to settle in the area.”
He pursed his lips and stared at me. “What’d you say your name was?”
“Gaither. Bill Gaither.”
“Hmmm. Any relation to Grover Gaither?”
“Yes, sir. He was my granddad.”
Mr. Yule put down his paper and removed his glasses. “Interesting. Grover Gaither was the best worker I ever had on my farm. Full day’s work for a day’s pay. So honest. What’d you say you wanted?”
I told him again.
“Let me do some thinking on it, then come back and see me.”
I came back within the week, and Mr. Yule told me he had had the property appraised. I held my breath. “How does $3,800 sound? Would that be okay?”
If that was per acre, I would have to come up with nearly $60,000! “$3,800?” I repeated.
“Yup. Fifteen acres for $3,800.”
I knew it had to be worth at least three times that. I readily accepted.
Nearly three decades later, my son and I strolled that beautiful, lush property that had once been pasture land. “Benjy,” I said, “you’ve had this wonderful place to grow up through nothing that you’ve done, but because of the good name of a great-granddad you never met.”
This Trying Providence
“I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75).
Devotional The mark of a vigorous love to God is when the soul justifies God in all his wise and gracious dealings with it—when it does not rebel, does not murmur, does not complain, but rather meekly and silently acquiesces in God’s providences, be they ever so trying. Divine love in the heart, deepening and expanding towards that God from whence it springs, will, in the hour of trial, exclaim, “My God has smitten me, but he is still my God, faithful and loving. My Father has chastened me sorely, but he is still my Father, tender and kind. This trying providence originated in love. It speaks with the voice of love. It bears with it the message of love. And it is sent to draw my heart closer and yet closer to the God of love, from whom it came.” Dear reader, are you one of the Lord’s afflicted ones? Happy are you if this is the holy and blessed result of his dealings with you. Happy are you if you hear the voice of love in the rod, winning your lonely and sorrowful heart to the God from whom it came.
Taken from Daily Walking with God at the website of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
He Will Undo Our Undoing
We who have lived our lives here in frustration and weakness will one day become like the Lord Jesus himself. This is a miracle of God’s loving grace: He made us in his image in the beginning, and we through sin disfigured that image until it was all but unrecognizable. But God, who is rich in mercy, will through Christ undo our undoing and recreate in us the image of his Son.
Kris Lundgaard, Through the Looking Glass, 4.
Sunday Sermon, 4.3.11
(The following was proclaimed at Bigelow Church on April 3, 2011. These sermon notes are postedprimarily to help those who wish to look up the Scriptural cross-references made in the message. The sermon may be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bigelow-church-live-sermon).
On-Time Discipline
Before you over-react to the verse, consider the wisdom of the authors’ application to the home:
Prompt Discipline
Ecclesiastes 8:11: When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.
This verse is good advice for parents when they are disciplining their kids. Let’s face it—giving consequences to kids is not fun! Because discipline requires time and effort, we may put off this unpleasant task. But if we wait too long, we sometimes forget to follow through.
The Bible understands human nature. The truth is, it is easy to continue to sin when we don’t suffer the consequences right away. This is true for our kids as well. While it is often necessary to delay giving a consequence in order to come up with one that is reasonable and appropriate, don’t sweep disobedience or rebellion under the rug.
Acknowledge disobedient behavior right away and make a commitment to be consistent in following through.
Taken from Parenting by Design, 4.1.11
A Clay Jar Speaks 