Living in the good of the gospel – every day!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on social justice

It is not the task of the church to deal directly with these problems. The tragedy today is that while the church is talking about these particular problems and dealing directly with politics and economics and social conditions, no Christians are being produced, and the conditions are worsening and the problems mounting. It is as the church produces Christians that she changes the conditions; but always indirectly…

The church cannot change conditions; and she is not meant to change conditions. And the moment she tries to do so she is in various ways shutting the door of evangelistic opportunity…My concern as a preacher of the Gospel is with the souls of men, my business is to produce Christians; and the larger the number of Christians the greater will be the volume of Christian thinking. It is the business of individual Christians to enter Parliament, as Wilberforce did, or to speak in the House of Lords as did the Earl of Shaftesbury, or to seek election to a local Council, and in general to act as good citizens. You are still citizens—act accordingly.

~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones,  Life In The Spirit In Marriage Home And Work

(HT: Rick Ianniello)

Why Bother With Expository Preaching? (David Jackman)

(HT: Colin Adams)

Christ’s obedience delights God more than he hates our sin

Jonathan Edwards:

“Christ by his obedience, by that obedience which he undertook for our sakes, has honoured God abundantly more than the sins of any of us have dishonoured him, how many soever, how great soever… God hates our sins, but not more than he delights in Christ’s obedience which he performed on our account. This is a sweet savour to him, a savour of rest. God is abundantly compensated, he desires no more; Christ’s righteousness is of infinite worthiness and merit.”

The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol.2, (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), 930

Powerful North Korean Student Testimony

An inspiring testimony from a North Korean Student who was orphaned and now wants to live her life for the Lord. From The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism.

There is a difference between needing to divide and loving to divide

‘Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.’ –Titus 3:9

Bryan Chapell wisely comments:

We struggle with these commands to ‘avoid . . . dissensions’ because we know there are things worth disputing, and because it seems divisive to separate from divisive people.

Two perspectives may help.

First, Paul is speaking about ministry priorities. His words require us to examine whether controversy and argument about secondary issues become primary concerns in our ministries. If so, then our priorities require realignment.

Second, there is a difference between needing to divide and loving to divide. A divisive person loves to fight. The differences are usually observable. A person who loves the peace and purity of the church may be forced into division, but it is not his character. He enters arguments regrettably and infrequently. When forced to argue, he remains fair, truthful, and loving in his responses. He grieves to have to disagree with a brother. Those who are divisive by nature lust for the fray, incite its onset, and delight in being able to conquer another person.

–R. Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus: To Guard the Deposit (Crossway, 2000), 364

(HT: Dane Ortlund)

Hallelujah!

Evangelistic Preaching = Christ-Centred Preaching

J. I. Packer:

The Puritans did not regard evangelistic sermons as a special class of sermons, having their own peculiar style and conventions; the Puritan position was, rather, that, since all Scripture bears witness to Christ, and all sermons should aim to expound and apply what is in the Bible, all proper sermons would of necessity declare Christ and so be to some extent evangelistic.

–’The Puritan Vision of Preaching the Gospel,’ in A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Crossway, 2010; repr.), 165-66

(HT: Dane Ortlund)

Every Kind of Good Abounds in Him

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ.  We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.   If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him.  If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.  If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth.  For by his birth he was made like us in all respects, that he might learn to feel our pain.  If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge.  In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.”

John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.19.

(HT: Ray Ortlund)

We Care about All Suffering in This Age—Especially Eternal Suffering

From John Piper’s address to the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization:

One truth is that when the gospel takes root in our souls it impels us out toward the alleviation of all unjust suffering in this age. That’s what love does!

The other truth is that when the gospel takes root in our souls it awakens us to the horrible reality of eternal suffering in hell, under the wrath of a just and omnipotent God. And it impels us to rescue the perishing, and to warn people to flee from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).

I plead with you. Don’t choose between those two truths. Embrace them both. It doesn’t mean we all spend our time in the same way. God forbid. But it means we let the Bible define reality and define love.

Could Lausanne say—could the evangelical church say—we Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering? I hope we can say that. But if we feel resistant to saying “especially eternal suffering,” or if we feel resistant to saying “we care about all suffering in this age,” then either we have a defective view of hell or a defective heart.

I pray that Lausanne would have neither.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Preacher, did they meet God?

“Your task [as a preacher] is not to send people away from church saying, ‘That was a lovely sermon’ or ‘What an eloquent appeal!’  The one question is: Did they, or did they not, meet God today?

There will always be some who have no desire for that, some who rather than be confronted with the living Christ would actually prefer what G. K. Chesterton described as ‘one solid and polished cataract of platitudes flowing forever and ever.’  But when St. Peter finished his first great sermon in Jerusalem, reported in the book of Acts, I do not read that ‘when they heard this, they were intrigued by his eloquence’ . . . or ‘bored and impassive and contemptuous’; what I do read is, ‘When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart.’

The heart of man has a whole armor of escapist devices to hold off the danger when reality comes too near.  But I would remind you that Peter’s theme that day – Jesus crucified and risen – is your basic message still, still as dynamic, as ‘mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,’ as moving and heart-piercing as when men heard it preached in Jerusalem long ago.”

James S. Stewart, Heralds of God (New York, 1946), pages 31-32.  Italics added.

(HT: Dave Bish)

What God Is Up to When Life Is Hard

From Justin Taylor:

In Knowing God (p. 97, my emphases) J. I. Packer writes about how to understand the “unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things” that happen to us. What do they mean?

Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and he is dealing with us accordingly.

Then Packer ponders the possible purposes God might have in mind for you:

Perhaps he means to strengthen us in patience, good humor, compassion, humility, or meekness, by giving us some extra practice in exercising these graces under especially difficult conditions.

Perhaps he has new lessons in self-denial and self-distrust to teach us.

Perhaps he wishes to break us of complacency, or unreality, or undetected forms of pride and conceit.

Perhaps his purpose is simply to draw us closer to himself in conscious communion with him; for it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest. . . .

Or perhaps God is preparing us for forms of service of which at present we have no inkling.

He goes on:

We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what he is doing, and what he is after, in his handling of our affairs.

Always, and in everything, he is wise: we shall see that hereafter, even where we never saw it here. . . .

Meanwhile, we ought not to hesitate to trust his wisdom, even when he leaves us in the dark.

But how should we respond to baffling and trying situations when cannot now see God’s purpose in them?

First, by taking them as from God, and asking ourselves what reactions to them, and in them, the gospel of God requires of us;

second, by seeking God’s face specifically about them.

“If we do these two things,” Packer writes, “we shall never find ourselves wholly in the dark as to God’s purpose in our troubles.”

Carson: People don’t learn what I teach them; they learn what I’m excited about

D.A. Carson:

If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.

If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.

Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow.

(HT: C.J. Mahaney)

Home again!

Four East African countries, four conferences, two team meetings, one denominational forum, five church services, (and a partridge in a pear tree). All in two and a half weeks! In the words of Judges 8:4,  ”exhausted yet pursuing.” Praise God for a fruitful time of ministry. Thanks for praying.

Africa!

Africa today with Watchmen. First Burundi, then Rwanda, then Uganda, and finally Ethiopia. Teaching, teaching, and more teaching! Love it! I can’t think of a greater privilege than making disciples of the Lord Jesus. Back in three weeks.