THE IMPORTANCE OF PURSUING GODLINESS

During yesterday’s sermon, Chris mentioned the fact that many have a tendency to over think themselves when explaining what God is like and how he works in the world. He spoke in reference to God’s knowledge of the future and human responsibility. Many have concluded that God’s knowledge of the future conflicts with ones freewill. Some have even responded with apathy because they believe the outcomes are solely determined by God. Scripture is clear, however, that God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility are not at odds, but go hand in hand.

Last night, I spoke with our youth about the importance of spiritual growth. After quoting Romans 8:29 that says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son,” I asked our youth, “Since God has predetermined that we will be like Christ, then why do we have to discipline ourselves to grow spiritually?” Donald Whitney provides the answer in his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. He affirms,

“Although God will grant Christlikeness to us when Jesus returns, until then He intends for us to grow toward that Christlikeness. We aren’t merely to wait for holiness; we’re to pursue it. ‘Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy,’ we’re commanded in Hebrews 12:14, for ‘without holiness no one will see the Lord’” (6).

The fact that God is in control and will accomplish his purposes in his people and world should not move us toward apathy, but activity. He has given us the wonderful privilege of taking part in what he is going to do in us and through us. My prayer for our entire church family is that God would create in us a desire to be more like Christ and that we would respond by pursuing godliness. I also hope that each of us would find enjoyment in becoming more like Christ and that God would be glorified in our quest for holiness.

Whitney, Donald. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life: A Study Guide. Colorado Springs: NavPress. 1994. 6.

"Quote" of the Week

“My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing—by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.” -Dallas Willard

"WHAT IF YOU LIKE PREACHING, BUT NOT THE TRUTH?" by John Piper

Below is something for all preachers/teachers to consider.

My preparations for the Desiring God National Conference this month and the Pastors’ Conference in February flowed together while I was reading about Benjamin Franklin’s appreciation for George Whitefield.

My task at the NatCon is to speak on the question, “Is There Christian Eloquence?” My task at the Pastors’ Conference is to speak on the life and ministry of George Whitefield.
What I saw this week is that Whitefield’s gifts of “eloquence” pose the very problem I must deal with at the NatCon. He was so good, you could like his sermon while not believing a thing he says.

For example, in the spring of 1740 Whitefield was in Philadelphia preaching outdoors to thousands. Benjamin Franklin attended most of these messages. Franklin, who did not believe what Whitefield was preaching, commented on these perfected sermons:

His delivery...was so improved by frequent repetition, that every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned, and well placed, that without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse: a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. (emphasis added) (Harry Stout, The Divine Dramatist, 104)

Here was preaching that was so well-delivered you could like it enough to ignore it’s convicting truths. What should I say about this? More: What should I do about it? Paul said,
Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.... My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1Corinthians 1:17; 2:4-5)
Was Whitefield right to perfect his delivery to the point where unbelieving Benjamin Franklin would enjoy it like a piece of music?

Pray for me. This is not an academic issue for a preacher.

P. S. Lest the generation of younger preachers who don’t give a fig for eloquence think they have this one solved, beware. There is an “eloquence” of “hip” and “dress” and “slang” and “savvy” and “casual” and the “appearance of artlessness” that can have the exact same mesmerizing effect in our day that Whitefield’s eloquence had in his: People like it without sharing any of the convictions.

Posted September 8, 2008 on www.desiringgod.org/Blog/

LOOKING FOR JOY IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

In 2006, Will Smith starred in an inspiring true story entitled, The Pursuit of Happiness. The film was about a struggling salesman named Christopher Gardner who pursues a career as a stockbroker. This business venture takes him and his son from rags to riches.

Although everyone will agree that this film properly represents the idea of "The American Dream," one must ask, "Does a lucrative career bring joy that lasts?" People universally pursue happiness and invest their lives in all types of endeavors hoping to fill the void inside them. The problem they find, however, is that the “pursuit of happiness” can be endless leaving them ultimately unsatisfied.

When one pursues created things rather than the creator, they settle for far less than what was intended. John Piper affirms, "None of us has trusted and treasured God the way we should. We have not been satisfied with his greatness and walked in his ways. We have sought our satisfaction in other things, and treated them as more valuable than God."

Those who delight in created things will only find temporary happiness because only the creator provides lasting joy and because those who do not enjoy God in this life are subject to His just condemnation in the life to come. According to Piper, "We have all belittled the glory of God. How? By preferring other things above him. By our ingratitude, distrust and disobedience. So God is just in shutting us out from the enjoyment of his glory forever.”

Only through Christ can lasting joy be found. Because of his death and resurrection, believers are rescued from the misery of sin and death and are also able to experience the joy God intended. According to Piper, "Coming home to God is where all deep and lasting satisfaction is found."

Piper, John. "Quest for Joy: Six Biblical Truths" www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary

"Quote" of the Week

"God made us to magnify his greatness-the way telescopes magnify stars. He created us to put his goodness and truth and beauty and wisdom and justice on display. " -John Piper

SALVATION IS FREE BUT NOT CHEAP

Last night, during youth, we discussed the fact that “Nothing is free.” One should realize that when a gift is received, although it did not cost the recipient, it was given at a price. This is especially true of a Christian’s salvation. Although it can not be earned or bought, it was provided at a price. Jesus suffered both physically and spiritually to provide redemption for God’s estranged people. Notice three ways he suffered to purchase salvation.

Christ suffered during his earthly life. Wayne Grudem affirms, “In a broad sense the penalty Christ bore in paying for our sins was suffering in both his body and soul throughout his life…His whole life in a fallen world involved suffering.” We certainly see this at the beginning of His earthly ministry when He is tempted by Satan for forty days in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). Many believers have been also comforted by the writings of the author of Hebrews who assures believers that Jesus sympathizes with human weakness because of what he endured during his time on earth. He states, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

A second way salvation was purchased was through the physical pain of the cross. According to Grudem, “Death by crucifixion was one of the most horrible forms of execution ever devised by man.” A physician in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1986 explained,

“Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows…However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves…Muscle cramps and paresthesias of the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort. As a result, each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring and lead eventually to asphyxia.”

A third and lesser know way Christ suffered involved the pain of bearing sin. According to Grudem, “More awful than the pain of physical suffering that Jesus endured was the psychological pain of bearing the guilt for our sin.” Our sins were placed upon Christ. Isaiah 53:6 affirms, “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Grudem explains, “In the same way in which Adam’s sins were imputed to us, so God imputed our sins to Christ; that is, he thought of them as belonging to Christ, and since God is the ultimate judge and definer of what really is in the universe, when God thought of our sins as belonging to Christ then in fact they actually did belong to Christ.”

These biblical truths should cause us to be grateful not just because salvation is free, but because of what it cost our Lord. John 3:16 is one of the most well known verses in all of Scripture, but has a word within it that is often overlooked. The word “so” emphasizes that God’s love for the world is “so” great that he bankrupted heaven and sent His son to die so that we might have eternal life. May the cost of salvation move believers hearts toward worship.

Grudem, Wayne. The Atonement. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. 571-574.

"Quote" of the Week

"Some have objected that it was not fair for God...to transfer the guilt of sin from us to an innocent person, Christ. Yet we must remember that Christ voluntarily took on himself the guilt for our sins, so this objection loses much of its force. Moreover, God himself (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is the ultimate standard of what is just and fair in the universe, and he decreed that the atonement would take place in this way, and that it did in fact satisfy the demands of his own righteousness and justice." -Wayne Grudem

IF THERE IS A GOD...WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN?

If you speak to unbelievers frequently for any length of time, it should not take long for you to be faced with the question of the origin of evil. Many have been silenced with questions like, "Where was God, when my mother suffered and died from cancer," or "If God is real, why did all those people die during Hurricane Katrina?" Many atheists argue that the existence of evil challenges the existence of God. According to Ravi Zacharias, "Atheists say that the reality of evil proves that God isn't real."

There are several arguments that one could make for the existence of God. One, for example, is the reality of an objective moral law. According to Zacharias, "If evil exists, then we have to assume that good exists...If good exists, we have to assume that a moral law exists...If a moral law exists, we have to say that there is a moral lawgiver-or we would have no basis for an objective moral law." Other examples that have been used are intelligent design, and the law of cause and effect that reasons that there has to be an uncaused cause (God).

Although these arguments are valid, they do not answer questions pertaining to the existance of evil. Since we as believers know God is good and is not to blame for our peril, we must then ask in return, "If God is not to blame then who is?"

The Bible affirms that human beings are responsible. Zacharias states, "Evil isn't just something outside of us that inflicts suffering on us. Evil is something inside of us that inflicts suffering on others." Many may answer, however, "But God created us." Because like produces like, it would not make since for a perfect God to create something that is flawed. He created all things perfect including man. Even though, Adam, our representative, was created in God's image, he was given complete freedom. As Genesis 3 demonstrates, he chose disobedience. Through one act of disobedience, sin entered into the world ruining God's perfect creation and contaminating the entire human race.

It is God, however, that provides a solution for the evil we cause. It did not take long, after the fall, for God to provide hope to a seemingly hopeless story. He tells the serpent that the Messiah will come and crush his head in Genesis 3:15. Jesus did this by taking on flesh, meeting God's standard for living, and dieing as our substitute so that through him we could be brought back into a right relationship with our creator. According to Zacharias, "The death of Jesus on the cross shows the reality of evil—and God's solution for it."

Zacharias, Ravi. Jesus Among Other Gods. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2000. 89-101.

"Quote" of the Week

"Some people refuse to believe in God because admitting He exists means having to answer to their Creator. The same people reject Jesus because receiving the good news of Christ means accepting a set of instructions to agree with God about sin and to allow Christ to be the Master of their lives." -Ravi Zacharias

"THE BIBLE IS BETTER THAN BEING THERE" by Tyler Kenney

Before we begin our study of Christian Theology, I thought I would share with you an article posted on John Piper's blog concerning how we should think about Scripture.


When it comes to knowing and believing the truth, are we worse off today than the Israelites who heard God speak from heaven or the apostles who physically sat at Jesus’ feet when he taught?

Or could having the Bible be better than actually being there when its events took place?

Here are 3 reasons we’re better off with our Bibles.

1. Scripture interprets the biblical events for us.

First-hand exposure to the historical acts of God isn’t always the best path to understanding. When Jesus foretold his death and resurrection to the disciples—even giving details about how he would be flogged, spit upon, killed, and raised on the third day—Luke states clearly that “they understood none of these things” (18:34). The disciples were unable to grasp what he said, though they heard the very words of Jesus.

We, on the other hand, the readers of Luke’s Gospel, know exactly what Jesus meant. We have the event interpreted for us in Scripture, clearly shown to be the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies and an accurate prediction of the events that would soon take place.

That’s not to say that Scripture is better just because it contains more facts. Even after witnessing Christ’s death and resurrection, and having him stand in their midst and show them his scars, the disciples still doubted. They didn’t understand what was going on even though all the historical facts were right in front of them.

What they needed was help to process and place those facts within the framework of God’s revelation. Thus Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” and showed them from the Old Testament the significance of what they were witnessing (see Luke 24:36-48).

Like the disciples, we need an interpretation of history in order to grasp God’s meaning in it. We need someone with understanding to take the data, select the significant things said or done, and portray them in an understandable way.

This is precisely what Scripture is: a selective (John 21:25) yet entirely sufficient (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3-4) depiction of what God has done.

2. Scripture’s interpretation is inspired.

No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

We need an interpretation of the past, but we don’t want just any interpretation. We want the Holy Spirit’s. We want an explanation by God himself that accurately conveys the true significance of what he has done and then penetrates our stubborn hearts with it.

Because the Holy Spirit inspired it, Scripture has the precision and power to teach people in a way that supersedes what they could ever learn on their own through direct exposure to the events. As Jesus says,
It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.… When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:7, 13)

3. Scripture appeals to our inner being.

One danger of having front row seats to God’s actions in history is that we could confuse our response to the mode of revelation with our response to the meaning of it.

We would certainly marvel to hear the Father speak through a thundercloud or to see Jesus walk on water. But we could easily come away from such events with only a natural thrill, rather than any spiritual apprehension of what they meant.

Scripture guards us from this danger simply by being a book. It wasn’t written to wow our physical senses, but, rather, as an appeal to our spiritual sense.

Wouldn’t God know the best way to reveal himself in order to build an authentic body of believers?

Yes. So he inspired men to write, “that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing [we] may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

What Difference Does Believing This Make?

There are at least two effects of realizing that we are better off with our Bibles than with a time machine to the past.

1. More appreciation for having the Bible.

Rather than using Scripture as a tool for conducting our own analysis of historical events, we can read it as already being its own perfect analysis. The investigation has been done (Luke 1:1-4). We don’t have to “wish we’d been there.” We have what we need in the text.

2. More encouragement to share the Word.

In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is in hell pleading with Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to convince his still-living brothers to repent.

But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead’ (Luke 16:29-31).

We don’t need supernatural signs to have an effective witness. We just need to present the Word of God. It is supernatural in itself and more powerful to convince hard-hearted sinners than anything else.

Posted July 16, 2008 on www.desiringgod.org/Blog/