Today, my daughter publicly confessed Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. Everyone kept saying, “Oh, you must be so proud!” I think the operative work is that I am thankful for the electing grace of our Lord Jesus who brought her to Himself.
To here this morning’s sermon and to see how her dad’s emotions took hold (praise God), click here.
Today, my daughter publicly confessed Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. Everyone kept saying, “Oh, you must be so proud!” I think the operative work is that I am thankful for the electing grace of our Lord Jesus who brought her to Himself.
To here this morning’s sermon and to see how her dad’s emotions took hold (praise God), click here.
Greg Boyd is pastor of the Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Amongst evangelicals, he has been in the news along with fellow theologian Clark Pinnock in their advocacy of a theological movement known as Open Theism, which denies the comprehensive foreknowledge of God. Now, he is in the news because he feels that evangelical churches should disavow themselves completely from not only endorsing political candidates, but also from anything that has to do with conservative politics in general, such as anti-abortion stances, anti-gay rights stances, etc.
To read the article, click here. What are your thoughts on this?
Feature by Ed Vitagliano
July 28, 2006
(AgapePress) – Homosexual activists in the U.S. are fighting ferociously for the legal right to marry, and are equalled in their tenacity only by their pro-family opponents. But when and where they are given the legal right, do homosexuals really want to get married?
Statistics appear to answer in the negative. That is the conclusion reached in a report issued by the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (iMAPP) and written by the group’s president, Maggie Gallagher, and policy director, Joshua K. Baker. The iMAPP policy paper, “Demand for Same-Sex Marriage: Evidence from the United States, Canada, and Europe [PDF],” indicates that immediately following the legalization of same-sex marriage, “the number of same-sex marriages, after an initial burst, appears to [decrease] with each year the legal option is available.”
(Click here to read the rest of the article.)
You scored as Reformed Evangelical. You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God’s Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die.
What’s your theological worldview? |
I would like to invite you all to our Boone’s Creek Annual Fall Conference on Saturday, September 23rd from 9:00 – 3:30. The theme is “Taking Acts 1:8 Seriously: Inspiring You To Reach Your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Ends of the Earth.” Jim Smith, Randy Foster, J.D. Payne, and David Sills will be the speakers. It promises to be a blessed time in the Lord!
I would like to invite you all to our Boone’s Creek Annual Fall Conference on Saturday, September 23rd from 9:00 – 3:30. The theme is “Taking Acts 1:8 Seriously: Inspiring You To Reach Your Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Ends of the Earth.” Jim Smith, Randy Foster, J.D. Payne, and David Sills will be the speakers. It promises to be a blessed time in the Lord!
Ethics Daily is out with a story that SBC President Frank Page was once a proponent of women as pastors. The story points to Dr. Page’s 1980 doctoral dissertation written at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In that dissertation (which I have read), Dr. Page argued for the abolition of all distinctions in the role of men and women in the church. The dissertation is clear in making this argument — and it bears all the marks of a doctoral dissertation submitted on this subject back in 1980. I will explain that comment momentarily.
Now, Dr. Page affirms The Baptist Faith and Message [revised 2000] which clearly states that the office of pastor is limited to men as authorized by Scripture. He has affirmed this statement on his SBC President’s Web page [go here].
Has Dr. Page been caught in the act of changing his mind? Apparently so. For some, this fact is something of a scandal. After all, this is a significant and controversial issue — and one which was a major factor in the SBC controversy and the conservative resurgence. The fact that Dr. Page “switched sides” on this issue is enough to draw fire from any number of directions — but mostly from those who firmly support women as pastors [at least in theory]. I phrased that statement intentionally to remind all readers that the support for women as pastors, even among those who present themselves as avid proponents of women as pastors, has yet to translate into any significant number of women serving as pastors — even among those churches. Has any large and historic church identified as “moderate” in the SBC struggle called a woman as senior pastor?
To read the rest of the article, click here.
“The Five Solas” for the 21st Century
Tomorrow, the Western world celebrates Halloween. On October 31st in communities all across America will have little children dressed up in costumes. With the custom of dressing up in costumes that reflect the darkness and even the demonic (witches, warlocks, ghosts, goblins, bats and spiders), God in His sovereignty permitted a rather significant event to happen on October 31, 1517. On that day Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg Church — which also served as the community bulletin board.
This day commemorates the day and even the event that began what history deems as the Reformation. The Reformation, as the root word outlines, means that a reform came to the church. It was a reform that recovered the pure simplicity of the Gospel. You see during the Middle Ages (around 500 to 1500 A.D.), the Gospel had gotten bogged down in the Catholic church because of politics and corruption and a hierarchy with the church that distanced itself from the people whom they were to serve. Illiteracy was rampant. No one owned a copy of the Scriptures except for the clergy — and even then it was a Latin translation by St. Jerome known as the Vulgate.
Why does what happened in 1517 matter in 2005? Because the lessons learned in that tiny town in Wittenburg are lessons the church must absorb now or the church will lose her influence! From this, five blessed lynchpins for our faith re-emerged gloriously and with fire!
1. Scripture alone.
For the Reformers, the doctrine of ‘sola Scriptura’ needed to be recovered as well. The Catholic Church in the Middle Ages resembled the modern-day Pharisees in that the traditions that had accumulated had grown to have equal standing with the Word of God. And nothing has changed even now. In Mark 7:8-13, we see how the Pharisees operated:
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
The Pharisees started out as ones who were simply interpreting Scripture — soon they elevated their traditions to be equal with Scripture. After a while, they nullified Scripture by exalting their traditions above it.
In Roman Catholic dogma, if you used the phrase “Word of God,” they would not view it as many Protestants do. For them, the Word of God is the sum of an equation: Sacred Scripture plus Holy Tradition equals The Word of God. From the Roman Catholic’s own Catechism, we read how they view what they called Sacred Scripture (the Bible) and Holy Tradition (their interpretations since Biblical times).
81 “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit and [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching.”
82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”
The Reformers rightly said, “Wait a minute — you have traditions that are not mentioned anywhere in Scripture. The doctrine of purgatory, the veneration of Mary, the honoring of icons or images, and even the doctrine outlining a need for a Pope — these are not called for in Scripture. Where did this come from? If it didn’t come from Scripture, it had to come from some other uninspired source. This cannot be!” The interpretations of Scripture as the Catholic Church saw them were given the same authority, even when they seemed to add or contradict what was written in Holy Scripture.
Paul warns the Galatian church not to listen to another Gospel — in fact, Paul puts this warning in the starkest of contexts in Galatians 1:11-12:
… For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
But we go to the Scriptures. What does it say? Deuteronomy 4:2 tells us: “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” Deuteronomy 12:32 again says: “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”
In Psalm 19:7-11, David writes, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Perfect. What does perfect mean? It means that it is to full maturity — complete. If it lacked anything or if something from it needed to be taken away, it would surely not be perfect.
From the New Testament, we see from Jesus’ own words when he prayed for His disciples and all who would believe to “sanctify them in thy truth — thy Word is truth.” This is the perfect Word of God as given to us by God Himself — the Word we are neither to add from nor from which we are to take away. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we see that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The Word here is “Scripture.” Some will say, “But Paul only had the Old Testament — the New Testament folks didn’t see their own letters as Scripture.” But we read from 2 Peter where Peter describes Paul’s teachings and says, “There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). So Peter understood that God had inspired Paul and that his writings were not just on par with Scripture, but were Scripture.
John Calvin, one of the great Reformers along with Martin Luther, noted:
This, then, is the difference. Our opponents (speaking of the Roman Catholic Church) locate the authority of the Church outside God’s Word, that is, outside of Scripture and Scripture alone. But we insist that it be attached to the Word and to not allow it to be separated from it. … For this reason the Church should not be wise of itself, should not devise anything of itself but should set the limit of its own wisdom where Christ has made an end of speaking. In this way the Church will distrust all the devisings of its own reason. But in those things where it rests upon God’s Word the Church will not waiver with any distrust or doubting but will repose in great assurance and firm constancy.”
So we too in the 21st century must be careful!
2. Grace alone through faith alone (Galatians 1:8-9; Ephesians 2:8-9).
So the recovery of the blessed doctrine of Scripture and Scripture alone being our rule of faith. And what did Scripture teach? Scripture teaches that salvation by ‘grace alone.’ In Galatians 1:6, Paul in sheer exasperation tells the Galatian church,
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9).
Notice Paul says that they are deserting the God who called you ‘in the grace of Christ’ and are turning to a ‘different gospel.’ Paul is saying, “The grace of Christ is the Gospel.” The Gospel is the Good News. The reason we see that the Gospel is such good news is only truly possible when we see that our soul is in such bad shape! In Galatians 3:10, the Apostle Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 27:26 in saying, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’”
You say, “I know I’m not perfect, but I’m not as bad as so many others are. I may not be a Christian, but I am a good person!” You say, “The Book of the Law is not my authority. I don’t see it like that.” Well, in a situation like that, your opinion is not only misses the mark, but misses the point. What matters is what God says! And whether we see it as our authority or not, it will be the standard by which we will be deemed fit for heaven or not.
During the time of the Reformation, the church taught that salvation could be bought by indulgences. The Pope at that time (Leo X) wanted to build St. Peter’s Basilica and used this horrid doctrine of indulgences on the people so they could buy salvation for their family members who were in purgatory. “When a coin clings in the chest, a soul flies up to heavenly rest,” indulgence-advocate John Tetzel would say. Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg church questioning this practice.
Without grace, we have the law looming over us and we live in fear of its dictates. But we also must not add to grace. The Reformation was a fight over the Scripture’s teachings of grace alone. Not grace partly, then us coming along partly so that we may decide for it and ultimately earn it. Grace stands alone — otherwise, it’s not grace.
In Galatians 2:15-16, we read:
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
In these two short verses, we come away with a very serious understanding of how one is made right with God. It is not by works of the law. As the Reformers noted, it is not by attending Mass, going to confession, the abundance of saying prescribed prayers, or membership in a Church. It is solely by faith in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 states it another way: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
God through Christ initiated grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. Grace through faith, according to Paul, is diametrically opposed to what he calls ‘works of the law.’ Doing works of the law shows you are trying to compensate for your sinful acts by doing good works to tip the scales in your favor. But Paul says, “Your salvation is a gift! His grace is a gift! Your faith, even, is a gift! Your salvation is not the result of works — otherwise who would get the glory? You would, not God!”
Romans 1:16-17 says,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.
We live in a faithless world. As we spoke of the Sadducees last week, we saw that they were ‘secular humanists’ — operating only on things they could grasp with their senses. Living by faith is for the weak, the foolish, the lowly. But St. Augustine spoke it rightly when he said, “Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.” In other words, if you truly want to understand, then believe first. Then trust in Christ first.
And so it is with saving faith. We think we have to have it all figured out before we come to Christ! We think we have to get things in order before we are ready to give ourselves to Him! That’s not walking by faith in the least!
A husband and wife didn’t really love each other. The man was very demanding, so much so that he prepared a list of rules and regulations for his wife to follow. He insisted that she read them over every day and obey them to the letter. Among other things, his “do’s and don’ts” indicated such details as what time she had to get up in the morning, when his breakfast should be served, and how the housework should be done. After several long years, the husband died. As time passed, the woman fell in love with another man, one who dearly loved her. Soon they were married. This husband did everything he could to make his new wife happy, continually showering her with tokens of his appreciation. One day as he was cleaning house, she found tucked away in a drawer the list of commands her first husband had drawn up for her. As she looked it over, it dawned on her that even though her present husband hadn’t given her any kind of list, she was doing everything her first husband’s list required anyway. She realized she was so devoted to this man that her deepest desire was to please him out of love, not obligation.
3. Christ alone (John 14:1-6, 1 Timothy 2:5; Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
In the 1953 movie “Martin Luther,” there is a scene in which Luther is bothered by all the veneration of relics. Relics were collected then and were to be venerated, thus reducing the Christian’s time in purgatory. But Luther had been studying Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and came across the verse we just discussed — Romans 1:16-17, and was especially captured by the phrase “The righteous shall live by faith.” As he brought this to the attention of his superior, he asked him, “Do we see anywhere of relics? Of beads? By faith the just shall live.” His superior replied, “Brother Martin, if you take away these objects, what will you put in their place?” Luther simply stated, “Christ! Man only needs Jesus Christ.”
We do not need objects to help us in our worship. The second commandment states clearly in Exodus 20:4-6:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The issue is worship, bowing down, venerating, and paying homage to the image that represents. We even need to be careful in our pictures of Christ and how we picture Him even in heaven. Our flesh is weak and will begin to craft and picture Christ in our own image! That leads to idolatry.
Some say it is OK to pray to the saints, or to Mother Mary, as a mediator to help in answer to prayer. But does not the Apostle Paul state in 1 Timothy 2:5 that “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The only sufficient intercessor (or if you prefer – ‘go-between’) between this fallen world and the holy world of heaven is the One who is Lord of both, His name is Jesus Christ. Nowhere in Scripture to we see Christians who are in heaven interceding with those still alive on earth. Only Christ has accomplished that.
He accomplished this through His creating power as well as His saving power. This is all summed up in 1 Cor. 1:30: “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
When John MacArthur visited India, we took time to visit Mother Teresa and the orphanage she established. As a gesture of friendship, she gave Pastor John a copy of her book and wrote on the inside, “May you enter the heart of Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary.” In Catholic dogma, Mary is see as a co-redemptrix — one who helps redeem and fit people for heaven. But does not Ephesians 1:7 say, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace”? In Him we are redeemed and purchased out of the tyranny of sin, not Him and anyone else, even His earthly mother! This is not supported by Scripture in the least!
Romans 5:10 tells us: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” We are reconciled by God’s Son and saved by His life, not our own life nor anyone else’s.
One more — 2 Cor. 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God made who to be sin? Christ. Who knew no sin? Christ (the only one who never knew sin according to the Scriptures). How are we made the righteousness of God? “In him.” You get the idea, I hope.
Conclusion
Charles Biggs in a recent article about Reformation Day noted that we need to have little bracelets that should not only say, WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) but WHJADIHLDRAAFM? (What has Jesus Already Done in His Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension for Me?”
Let me tell you this, my friends. The three sweetest words ever spoken were not “I love you.” They were spoken by our Savior when He proclaimed, “It … is … finished!” Nothing more needs to be done to secure our salvation. Christ has accomplished it in full.
Won’t you trust in the wooing and drawing of the Holy Spirit as He brings you to Christ?
(By Pastor Matthew R. Perry, Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, Lexington, KY, Sunday, October 30, 2005)
The Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom must not depend on the whims of IRS bureaucrats. Religious institutions cannot freely preach their beliefs if they must fear that the government will accuse them of “politics.” We cannot allow churches to be silenced any more than we can allow political dissent in general to be silenced. Free societies always have strong, independent institutions that are not afraid to challenge and criticize the government.
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst072406.htm (click link to read entire article)
John Knox: Preacher of the Scottish Reformation (Quodlibet Journal: Volume 6 Number 1, January – March 2004)
Athanasius and His Influence at the Council of Nicaea (Quodlibet Journal: Volume 5, Number 2-3, July 2003)
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. [10] But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. [11] If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
___________________________________________
This past Wednesday, thirty came for our weekly Bible study through the Psalms and our prayer meeting. Toward the end of our time together, I asked everyone to go through a little exercise. I asked them, “When you think of Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, I want each of you to tell me what word comes to your mind.” It was very telling. The majority of the words caring, loving, compassion, rich history, etc. But two words truly stuck out in my mind: family and home.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives us some helpful definitions of ‘home.’ Consider the following:
My desire and your desire as well is that we would be a place for the people of God to come and to find a home, if that is God’s will for them. We desire for those who do not know Christ to hear the truth and to see the love that comes from the Holy Spirit’s love moving through us.
Yet, as we read this passage of Scripture from Romans 8:9-11, the question that immediately arises is this — and it is a question that is the most important question to ever be asked: is the Spirit at home in you? Is your heart His address? Is He in harmony with the surroundings of your thoughts, words, actions? Is he on familiar ground? 1 Cor. 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, [20] for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. “
How can we know?
(Click here to listen to this sermon via RealAudio. Right click and click on “Save Target As” to save it to your files. This was preached on 23 July 2006 at the Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, Lexington, KY. This is Part III of the series on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness.)
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. [10] But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. [11] If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
___________________________________________
This past Wednesday, thirty came for our weekly Bible study through the Psalms and our prayer meeting. Toward the end of our time together, I asked everyone to go through a little exercise. I asked them, “When you think of Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, I want each of you to tell me what word comes to your mind.” It was very telling. The majority of the words caring, loving, compassion, rich history, etc. But two words truly stuck out in my mind: family and home.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives us some helpful definitions of ‘home.’ Consider the following:
My desire and your desire as well is that we would be a place for the people of God to come and to find a home, if that is God’s will for them. We desire for those who do not know Christ to hear the truth and to see the love that comes from the Holy Spirit’s love moving through us.
Yet, as we read this passage of Scripture from Romans 8:9-11, the question that immediately arises is this — and it is a question that is the most important question to ever be asked: is the Spirit at home in you? Is your heart His address? Is He in harmony with the surroundings of your thoughts, words, actions? Is he on familiar ground? 1 Cor. 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, [20] for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. “
How can we know?
(Click here to listen to this sermon via RealAudio. Right click and click on “Save Target As” to save it to your files. This was preached on 23 July 2006 at the Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, Lexington, KY. This is Part III of the series on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness.)
When I arrived as pastor of Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, we began going through the Psalms on Wednesday night. With a few stops and starts, we are now at Psalm 101 which we covered last night. The title of the study was “A Model for Civic Leaders to Follow.” Psalm 101 reads as follows:
1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will make music.
2 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
3 I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.
6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the city of the LORD.
David desires to establish his kingdom on the precepts of God’s law as well as having a desire to think and walk with integrity (v. 2). He praises (sings!) to God about the love and justice (v. 1) He has established in the counsels of heaven and now sings of how those qualities must be present in his own administration as well.
He desires to surround himself with people (his cabinet?) who walk in integrity as well (v. 3-4). Those who do not will not serve and minister to him (v. 6). The four sins presented in this Psalm that do not belong in His administration are the following:
David even goes so far as to say that those who have these qualities as citizens of Israel will be brought to justice in the same way.
I understand that Israel is unique due to its theocratic nature and that we have to be careful when comparing it with any other nation. Yet I believe some principles need to carry over when we consider our mayors, governors, presidents, kings, and prime ministers — we need to see what they do with the mandates of Scripture.
Here are some questions I put before our people, and I would love to hear your thoughts on these matters as well. I’ll address my thoughts in a few days.
Questions to Ponder
1. Do you believe David is being too strict with those in his administration and his citizens? Should David have put a religious test to those desiring to administer with him in his government?
2. Before we look at other’s spiritual walk, do we look at our own? If we trust in the love and justice of God, do we realize that God’s love and justice must work through us as well as others?
3. What do we look for in our civic leaders? Do we look for their stances on education? The economy? The war on terror? Or do we look to see where they stand on the Scriptures’ mandates? Here, politics and faith seem to mix — do you agree with that?
4. How much do we believe that our private life and our public life are connected? Where do you stand? Is it anyone else’s business? Do you care about your leaders’ private life — just as long as he/she is doing a good job in public?
When I arrived as pastor of Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, we began going through the Psalms on Wednesday night. With a few stops and starts, we are now at Psalm 101 which we covered last night. The title of the study was “A Model for Civic Leaders to Follow.” Psalm 101 reads as follows:
1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will make music.
2 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
3 I will not set before my eyes
anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
it shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure.
6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
shall minister to me.
7 No one who practices deceit
shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
shall continue before my eyes.
8 Morning by morning I will destroy
all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
from the city of the LORD.
David desires to establish his kingdom on the precepts of God’s law as well as having a desire to think and walk with integrity (v. 2). He praises (sings!) to God about the love and justice (v. 1) He has established in the counsels of heaven and now sings of how those qualities must be present in his own administration as well.
He desires to surround himself with people (his cabinet?) who walk in integrity as well (v. 3-4). Those who do not will not serve and minister to him (v. 6). The four sins presented in this Psalm that do not belong in His administration are the following:
David even goes so far as to say that those who have these qualities as citizens of Israel will be brought to justice in the same way.
I understand that Israel is unique due to its theocratic nature and that we have to be careful when comparing it with any other nation. Yet I believe some principles need to carry over when we consider our mayors, governors, presidents, kings, and prime ministers — we need to see what they do with the mandates of Scripture.
Here are some questions I put before our people, and I would love to hear your thoughts on these matters as well. I’ll address my thoughts in a few days.
Questions to Ponder
1. Do you believe David is being too strict with those in his administration and his citizens? Should David have put a religious test to those desiring to administer with him in his government?
2. Before we look at other’s spiritual walk, do we look at our own? If we trust in the love and justice of God, do we realize that God’s love and justice must work through us as well as others?
3. What do we look for in our civic leaders? Do we look for their stances on education? The economy? The war on terror? Or do we look to see where they stand on the Scriptures’ mandates? Here, politics and faith seem to mix — do you agree with that?
4. How much do we believe that our private life and our public life are connected? Where do you stand? Is it anyone else’s business? Do you care about your leaders’ private life — just as long as he/she is doing a good job in public?
Today’s blog entry at the ESV site has my review and other ESV blog entries posted on their site along with other entries from fellow bloggers. They noted that I was on an “ESV Blogging Kick.” Is that a slam? Well, I say to the ESV blog servants a hearty, “You had me at hello.”
Also, it seems there’s a bit of ESV Mania out there. How neat! I have had the most response in dealing with the ESV than in any other topic in my 15 months of blogging.
Today’s blog entry at the ESV site has my review and other ESV blog entries posted on their site along with other entries from fellow bloggers. They noted that I was on an “ESV Blogging Kick.” Is that a slam? Well, I say to the ESV blog servants a hearty, “You had me at hello.”
Also, it seems there’s a bit of ESV Mania out there. How neat! I have had the most response in dealing with the ESV than in any other topic in my 15 months of blogging.
Why am I blogging about this? Simply put, I used to be one who would vacillate back and forth on versions. I’d go through a spell where I wanted accuracy, so I went to the New American Standard. Then I’d go through a spell where I wanted readability, so I’d go to the New International Version or the New Living Translation.
Then I became a pastor.
And for the first six month I was here, I preached out of four versions: the NKJV, the ESV, the NASB, and the NIV (once). On top of that, our church has King James Version Bibles in our pews. I had to choose — for my sake and for the sake of those in my congregation trying to follow me. It was too much of a distraction from hearing the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The more I read and studied and compared the ESV to the Greek, I found that this translation accomplished something rare among translations: it was readable and accurate to the text. It kept the original meaning and flavor of the Greek and Hebrew texts and translated them into beautiful English with a very poetic cadence that aided me in readability.
The video I alluded to in an earlier blog (7.16.06) does a nice job of showing other translation philosophies. One of which is the ‘dynamic equivalence.’ This is where they basically take a biblical phrase and then modernize it into the idiom of the 21st century rather than keeping the original translation from that era.
Yet, the dynamic equivalence philosophy of translating seems more to me an interpretation than a translation. The way I preach about Christ, I need to know what the original authors said and meant, rather than having translators 2000 years removed from the time to make educated hypotheses of how it would have been said now.
Philip Graham Ryken, the pastor of the historic Tenth Presybeterian Church at Philadelphia, explains why he encouraged this church with such a wonderful history to move to the English Standard Version. You can read a transcript of his talk on the ESV Bible Blog or listen to the talk as an MP3 file.
John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the founder of Desiring God Ministries also make the case for why he switched from the New American Standard (considered the most literal translation around) to the English Standard Version. Here are some articles:
Good English with Minimal Interpretation: Why Bethlehem Uses the ESV
All Scripture Is Breathed Out And Profitable
What Translation Does John Piper Recommend?
The ESV website has a number of endorsements as well (click here).
In closing, I urge all of you to find a Bible and read it voraciously. But make sure that your standard for the Scriptures is one that seeks to stay true to authorial intent rather than look solely to readability.
Crossway has produced a wonderful video dealing with the translation philosophy and the great benefits of using the English Standard Version as a translation.
Here is an introductory note from the ESV Website:
The ESV Bible is a new, essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and readability.
“The English Standard Version (ESV) is a “word-for-word,” essentially literal translation because every word of the Bible is inspired by God.
“Based on this principle, more than sixty of the world’s leading Bible scholars pored over every word and phrase to achieve the unique accuracy, excellence, and beauty of the ESV Bible.
“The result is a new Bible translation (published in October 2001) that has a timeless quality and enduring relevance—a translation to trust for today and for generations to come.
“With its distinctive combination of accuracy, excellence, and beauty, the ESV is ideally suited to become one Bible to meet our needs for all of life:
Part II: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness
The date: January, 1776.
The place: Just outside of a prime piece of real estate outside of Boston called Dorchester Heights in the colony of Massachusetts.
The event: British and American forces ready to engage one another in battle to claim this piece of real estate, which happens to be a good sized hill that would give them an important strategic advantage. Both understand their role — secure that hill. But there is more to this than simply going and securing the hill — they also have to gather intelligence to surmise the position of the enemy.
David McCullough in his bestselling work 1776, noted that the British command did very little intelligence work and thus knew very little about the position of the Americans (and had no clue as to how close they were). In fact, McCullough writes that General Washington’s name never came up in conversation — as if he were of so little threat to them that they spent little time talking amongst themselves as how to strategize against his army.
But General Washington went about this in an entirely different manner. Virtually all of his spare time was spent gathering intelligence as to the enemy’s position and speculating what the British commander’s next move would be.
So how did the battle over the hill at Dorchester turn out? General Washington determined to begin moving into position on March 5, 1776, under the cloak of night — and on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre where British forces opened fire on unarmed civilians.
During an extended exchange of cannon fire, the Continental Army moved quickly but silently in the cold over frozen ground up the hill, putting as many as 20 cannons in place — and astounding amount of work in such a short time. When the British woke up that morning on March 5th, they were utterly astounded. One British officer commented, “They did more work overnight than our army could have done in three months!” The result was that the British were not prepared and could not fight because of the position of the Continental army. They had to retreat and also bring in ships to evacuate Boston itself (more than 11,000 people).
What is the lesson? Our minds are occupied but what is important to us. The true gauge — -the true barometer to our spiritual life is not our feelings in and of themselves, not our religious activities in and of themselves, but the gauge is our thought life and what goes on in our minds!
(Click here to listen to the entire sermon via RealAudio.)
(This sermon was preached on 16 July 2006 by Matthew Perry, Pastor, Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, Lexington, KY — http://www.boonescreekchurch.com.)
I received an e-mail from Roddie Taylor, pastor of the Mt. Beulah Evangelical Baptist Church at Point Fortin, Trinidad, at around 6:05 tonight that his father, Giles McNiely, passed away at the age of 80. Mr. McNiely had just come through prostate surgery in good order, so this was very unexpected. He was on our prayer guide for both physical healing and for salvation — we pray that salvation did take place through Christ.
For those of you who may not know, our church has partnered with him on a number of projects so this touches us quite deeply. Roddie’s e-mail is mtbula@hotmail.com . I know he would truly appreciate any condolences you may offer.
I purchased an ESV Journaling Bible this past week. I confess, I am an ESV apologist. I preach out of the ESV exclusively — and I am thankful that many of our congregation now have a copy of the ESV. I hope within the next year we will replace our King James Version pew Bibles with the ESV Pew Bibles, but we shall see.
I noticed the ESV had recently release a Journaling Bible. At the ESV website, they describe the Journaling Bible as “a unique format with wide margins and ruled lines designed for writing prayers, observations, sermon notes, and personal reflections. It also includes a one-year Bible reading plan.
What encouraged me to purchase this is the 2″ of ruled writing space.
Although I do not feel having this area ruled is necessary, it is such a big help to have the space. I preached from this edition this past Wednesday and was able to write down the basic thoughts of my sermon in expanded form. What a huge help this is!
If you have trouble with small print, don’t buy this! I’d wait and see if they will put it in a version with a larger font. 7.5-point type is exceedingly tiny. Since I’m 34, Lord willing I will have good, strong eyesight for quite a while.
Another item I like about this is that the words of Christ are in black. Having Christ’s words in red gives the notion that all the words in black are important, but the words of Christ are more important that the rest. Yet, the Spirit inspired it all (2 Timothy 3:16) and it is all equally the Word of God. We must pay special attention to all of it!
I see myself writing in this edition frequently in my studies, then buying another when I have filled up this one. My desire is for my children and grandchildren to pull out this edition and see what their dad/granddad considered with each passage he read.
Jim Shaddix as pastor or Riverside Baptist Church in Denver outlines the ten commandments for church music. Click here to read.
Pastors Feel Confident in Ministry, But Struggle to Interact With Others (Barna): click here to read.
“Stop Test Driving Your Girlfriend” by Michael Lawrence: takes a look at how single people often date and how self-oriented it is. Is there a theology in place for dating? Click here to read.
And on a ridiculously personal note:
The Louisville Cardinals Football team has signed Bobby Petrino to a 10-year-contract!! If interested, click here.
John Piper has served since 1980 as the Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church at Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.) and the University of Munich (D.theol.) and previously taught on the faculty of Bethel Theological Seminary at Minneapolis for six years before accepting the call to Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Piper is the author of 20 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah, 1986; 2nd edition, 1996, 3rd edition, 2003), Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions (Baker, 1993; 2nd edition, 2003), and Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003). His online and radio ministries known as Desiring God demonstrate a commitment and a passion for expository preaching.
Summary
This book is comprised of two parts. Part I, entitled “The Supremacy of God in Preaching,” was originally delivered as part of The Harold John Ockenga Lectures on Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1988 (2). He asserts that the goal of preaching is the glory of God in the glad submission of His creation (27). He also states that that the “grand design of the preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men” (23-24). The ground of preaching, according to Piper, is the cross of Christ that serves as “a past event of substation and a present experience of execution” (35). The preacher then preaches through the gift and the power via the vehicle of His inspired Word (39). As Piper deals with the gravity of preaching, he notes that “intensity of feeling, the weight of argument, a deep and pervading solemnity of mind, a savor of power of godliness, fervency of spirit, zeal for God” are the marks of the gravity of preaching (50). “Gladness and gravity should be woven together” in the preacher’s life and ministry (52).
Part II, entitled “Sweet Sovereignty: The Supremacy of God in the Preaching of Jonathan Edwards,” was delivered as part of The Billy Graham Center Lectures on Preaching, Wheaton College, 1984 (2). Piper shows how the crux of the life of Edwards was to keep God central through a submission to the sovereignty of God, a doctrine that Edwards calls “exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet” (76). The center of the preaching of Edwards was God supremacy, by which the stirring up the “holy affections” served as the “spring of behavior” that must be transformed so behavior will follow suite (83). These affections must arise in a “reasonable persuasion or conviction” (85) and not simply based on Scripture but “saturated” with it (86). With this saturation comes the employment of analogies and images that help bring to bear the abstract truths of Scripture onto the heart (88). Edwards did not shirk from his responsibility of using the biblical example of threats and warnings. Piper notes that Edward’s knowledge of hell was great, but his knowledge and zeal for heaven was greater (90). He states, “Those who have the largest hearts for heaven shudder most deeply at the horrors of hell. . . . Edwards could not remain silent where Jesus was so vocal” (91). With this warning, Edward pleaded for a response from his hearers to hear and heed the Word of God: “We are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some, and we do the rest. However, God does all, and we do all. God produces all, and we act all” (94). Passionate preaching is, as Piper notes, “like surgery. Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it locates, lances, and removes the infection of sin” (95). Piper shows that “the preacher must labor to put his preaching under the divine influence of prayer” (98) so that the preacher’s heart must be broken for the sin in his people (100).
Critical Evaluation
Seldom does a reader of any Christian work encounter a volume that is as God-centered and Scripture-saturated as Piper’s work on preaching. Piper approaches this work with a strong commitment to the authority of the Scriptures, to expositional preaching, and to bringing forth the greatness and the glory of God (10).
The vision of a great God is the linchpin in the life of the church, both in pastoral care and missionary outreach. Our people need to hear God-entranced preaching. They need someone, at least once a week, to lift up his voice and magnify the supremacy of God. They need to behold the whole panorama of his excellencies … what people need most is our personal holiness … the living out of a God-entranced worldview (11).
This quote encapsulates the passion of Piper’s life, calling, and ministry and its message is conveyed in this book from cover to cover.
Immediately we see his passion in Chapter One, entitled “The Goal of Preaching: The Glory of God.” He relates how instrumental his contraction of mononucleosis was in God sovereignly bringing him from a pre-med student to a preacher of the Word. While in the infirmary, he heard Dr. Harold John Ockenga preach, and God used that to confirm the call to preach on his life. He goes on to say, “… and you can mark it down that if you are a preacher God will hide from you much of the fruit he causes in your ministry.” (19). Even so, Piper encourages the preacher as he continues in pursuit of his calling. This testimonial of what God’s call did in crafting his heart toward the preaching of His Word will inspire all who read this work for it rigorously takes the pressure of the preacher being all-in-all. His quote of the colonial minister Cotton Mather captures the heart of Piper with three simple words: “Our God reigns!” (23). Later in this work, Piper notes, “the goal of preaching is utterly dependent on the mercy of God for its fulfillment. Therefore, the preacher must labor to put his preaching under divine influence by prayer” (98). What a message for preachers, both the arrogant and brokenhearted alike!
Another wonderful aspect of this book is how Piper encourages preachers to find a godly model for ministry. Once accomplished, he is then to study that model diligently — which was advice given to him by his seminary professor (65). For Piper, that model is Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). As Piper takes us through Edwards’ life and ministry, one sees why Piper is so blessed by this man’s example. “What Jonathan Edwards preached and how he preached were extensions of his vision of God” (75) — a theme that permeates this entire second part. This insight is needed for many preachers believe far and away that content drives the preaching while putting the how of delivery far in the background.[1] Yet, not just for this particular work by Piper but for all of his works, we see the influence of Edwards in this statement: “The duty of man is to delight in God’s glory. . . . Our duty toward God is that all our affections respond properly to his reality and so reflect his glory” (77-78).
Another amazing benchmark of this work is how Piper yearns for preachers to have a Spirit-empowered, Spirit-indwelt life that is given over to the glory of God based on the Word of God. The preacher’s life is to be steeped in humility, Piper states, and “glad submission” to the worth and glory of the sovereign God. This recalls the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 2:3: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (ESV). In humility, he exhorts preachers clearly to “get people to open their Bibles and put their fingers on the text” so they know where preachers get their ideas (41)! He insightfully reminds preachers that, “We are simply pulling rank on people when we tell them, and don’t show them from the text” (42). In relying on the Spirit’s power, we must saturate our preaching with the Word He inspired (42).
Piper relays how he uses the acronym APTAT to remind himself at the hour he is to preach that he does not preach in his own power. He says he must admit his utter helplessness, he must pray for help, he must trust in God for specific hope in that hour, he must act confidently that God will fulfill his Word, and then finally thank God for his sustaining power (45-46). Such a reminder of humility in our church’s pulpits and our pastor’s study desks would serve the evangelical churches well. His prayerfulness echoes the Apostle Paul’s desire for the Spirit to fill his preaching when he tells the Ephesian church to pray for him “that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19, ESV). The heart of the Apostle Paul beats in the life and ministry of John Piper and in the message of this volume by his continual prayer for God to move him from his utter helplessness for the task of preaching to the complete dependence on Christ in every area that Piper does for the Kingdom work.
One slight weakness in this work is the lack of explanation in how to apply these principles he puts forth. Although a case could be made that no set formula exists for capturing the glory of God and gladly submitting to Him in all things. Also, to Piper’s credit, he does take us step-by-step through some of paths on which God led him, but he could have certainly helped the reader by extracting some principles from Scripture and even from his own experiences as to how one goes about this.
Conclusion
After reading through the entirety of this magnificent volume, I believe that every pastor should read and absorb its contents not just for the good of the pastor’s ministry but also for the good of the pastor’s soul. Piper sounds a clarion call for all pastors to shed the desire to preach simply for mass appeal or to preach simply as if it were another job at another place of employment. Piper bolsters the preacher’s aim in having the Bible as the standard from which to preach coupled with the passion of God’s glory and sovereignty. May this book encourage you as pastors and preachers of the Word as it has me!
[Piper, John. The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990.119 pp. $6.95.]
John Piper has served since 1980 as the Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church at Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.) and the University of Munich (D.theol.) and previously taught on the faculty of Bethel Theological Seminary at Minneapolis for six years before accepting the call to Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Piper is the author of 20 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah, 1986; 2nd edition, 1996, 3rd edition, 2003), Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions (Baker, 1993; 2nd edition, 2003), and Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003). His online and radio ministries known as Desiring God demonstrate a commitment and a passion for expository preaching.
Summary
This book is comprised of two parts. Part I, entitled “The Supremacy of God in Preaching,” was originally delivered as part of The Harold John Ockenga Lectures on Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1988 (2). He asserts that the goal of preaching is the glory of God in the glad submission of His creation (27). He also states that that the “grand design of the preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men” (23-24). The ground of preaching, according to Piper, is the cross of Christ that serves as “a past event of substation and a present experience of execution” (35). The preacher then preaches through the gift and the power via the vehicle of His inspired Word (39). As Piper deals with the gravity of preaching, he notes that “intensity of feeling, the weight of argument, a deep and pervading solemnity of mind, a savor of power of godliness, fervency of spirit, zeal for God” are the marks of the gravity of preaching (50). “Gladness and gravity should be woven together” in the preacher’s life and ministry (52).
Part II, entitled “Sweet Sovereignty: The Supremacy of God in the Preaching of Jonathan Edwards,” was delivered as part of The Billy Graham Center Lectures on Preaching, Wheaton College, 1984 (2). Piper shows how the crux of the life of Edwards was to keep God central through a submission to the sovereignty of God, a doctrine that Edwards calls “exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet” (76). The center of the preaching of Edwards was God supremacy, by which the stirring up the “holy affections” served as the “spring of behavior” that must be transformed so behavior will follow suite (83). These affections must arise in a “reasonable persuasion or conviction” (85) and not simply based on Scripture but “saturated” with it (86). With this saturation comes the employment of analogies and images that help bring to bear the abstract truths of Scripture onto the heart (88). Edwards did not shirk from his responsibility of using the biblical example of threats and warnings. Piper notes that Edward’s knowledge of hell was great, but his knowledge and zeal for heaven was greater (90). He states, “Those who have the largest hearts for heaven shudder most deeply at the horrors of hell. . . . Edwards could not remain silent where Jesus was so vocal” (91). With this warning, Edward pleaded for a response from his hearers to hear and heed the Word of God: “We are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some, and we do the rest. However, God does all, and we do all. God produces all, and we act all” (94). Passionate preaching is, as Piper notes, “like surgery. Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it locates, lances, and removes the infection of sin” (95). Piper shows that “the preacher must labor to put his preaching under the divine influence of prayer” (98) so that the preacher’s heart must be broken for the sin in his people (100).
Critical Evaluation
Seldom does a reader of any Christian work encounter a volume that is as God-centered and Scripture-saturated as Piper’s work on preaching. Piper approaches this work with a strong commitment to the authority of the Scriptures, to expositional preaching, and to bringing forth the greatness and the glory of God (10).
The vision of a great God is the linchpin in the life of the church, both in pastoral care and missionary outreach. Our people need to hear God-entranced preaching. They need someone, at least once a week, to lift up his voice and magnify the supremacy of God. They need to behold the whole panorama of his excellencies … what people need most is our personal holiness … the living out of a God-entranced worldview (11).
This quote encapsulates the passion of Piper’s life, calling, and ministry and its message is conveyed in this book from cover to cover.
Immediately we see his passion in Chapter One, entitled “The Goal of Preaching: The Glory of God.” He relates how instrumental his contraction of mononucleosis was in God sovereignly bringing him from a pre-med student to a preacher of the Word. While in the infirmary, he heard Dr. Harold John Ockenga preach, and God used that to confirm the call to preach on his life. He goes on to say, “… and you can mark it down that if you are a preacher God will hide from you much of the fruit he causes in your ministry.” (19). Even so, Piper encourages the preacher as he continues in pursuit of his calling. This testimonial of what God’s call did in crafting his heart toward the preaching of His Word will inspire all who read this work for it rigorously takes the pressure of the preacher being all-in-all. His quote of the colonial minister Cotton Mather captures the heart of Piper with three simple words: “Our God reigns!” (23). Later in this work, Piper notes, “the goal of preaching is utterly dependent on the mercy of God for its fulfillment. Therefore, the preacher must labor to put his preaching under divine influence by prayer” (98). What a message for preachers, both the arrogant and brokenhearted alike!
Another wonderful aspect of this book is how Piper encourages preachers to find a godly model for ministry. Once accomplished, he is then to study that model diligently — which was advice given to him by his seminary professor (65). For Piper, that model is Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). As Piper takes us through Edwards’ life and ministry, one sees why Piper is so blessed by this man’s example. “What Jonathan Edwards preached and how he preached were extensions of his vision of God” (75) — a theme that permeates this entire second part. This insight is needed for many preachers believe far and away that content drives the preaching while putting the how of delivery far in the background.[1] Yet, not just for this particular work by Piper but for all of his works, we see the influence of Edwards in this statement: “The duty of man is to delight in God’s glory. . . . Our duty toward God is that all our affections respond properly to his reality and so reflect his glory” (77-78).
Another amazing benchmark of this work is how Piper yearns for preachers to have a Spirit-empowered, Spirit-indwelt life that is given over to the glory of God based on the Word of God. The preacher’s life is to be steeped in humility, Piper states, and “glad submission” to the worth and glory of the sovereign God. This recalls the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 2:3: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (ESV). In humility, he exhorts preachers clearly to “get people to open their Bibles and put their fingers on the text” so they know where preachers get their ideas (41)! He insightfully reminds preachers that, “We are simply pulling rank on people when we tell them, and don’t show them from the text” (42). In relying on the Spirit’s power, we must saturate our preaching with the Word He inspired (42).
Piper relays how he uses the acronym APTAT to remind himself at the hour he is to preach that he does not preach in his own power. He says he must admit his utter helplessness, he must pray for help, he must trust in God for specific hope in that hour, he must act confidently that God will fulfill his Word, and then finally thank God for his sustaining power (45-46). Such a reminder of humility in our church’s pulpits and our pastor’s study desks would serve the evangelical churches well. His prayerfulness echoes the Apostle Paul’s desire for the Spirit to fill his preaching when he tells the Ephesian church to pray for him “that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19, ESV). The heart of the Apostle Paul beats in the life and ministry of John Piper and in the message of this volume by his continual prayer for God to move him from his utter helplessness for the task of preaching to the complete dependence on Christ in every area that Piper does for the Kingdom work.
One slight weakness in this work is the lack of explanation in how to apply these principles he puts forth. Although a case could be made that no set formula exists for capturing the glory of God and gladly submitting to Him in all things. Also, to Piper’s credit, he does take us step-by-step through some of paths on which God led him, but he could have certainly helped the reader by extracting some principles from Scripture and even from his own experiences as to how one goes about this.
Conclusion
After reading through the entirety of this magnificent volume, I believe that every pastor should read and absorb its contents not just for the good of the pastor’s ministry but also for the good of the pastor’s soul. Piper sounds a clarion call for all pastors to shed the desire to preach simply for mass appeal or to preach simply as if it were another job at another place of employment. Piper bolsters the preacher’s aim in having the Bible as the standard from which to preach coupled with the passion of God’s glory and sovereignty. May this book encourage you as pastors and preachers of the Word as it has me!
[Piper, John. The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990.119 pp. $6.95.]
Last night at our Members (Business) Meeting, our church voted to prayerfully support our missions trips both to Covington, LA, and to Trinidad & Tobago. Our NO LiMiT Team (New Orleans, Louisiana, Missions Team) will go to Hope Church to help with construction and clean-up in the New Orleans area. We are truly excited about this because we are hoping to go down over the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Again, in Trinidad we will be doing construction work on the Mt. Beulah Evangelical Baptist Church in Point Fortin. A team of 4-6 of us will go, and we will hopefully have around $4000 for supplies so we can finish up the work there (God has already provided almost a $1000).
If there is any way you can help with these missions endeavors, feel free to comment, e-mail, or mail us at:
Boone’s Creek Baptist Church
ATTN: NO LiMiT II/ Trinidad ‘07
185 N. Cleveland Rd.
Lexington, KY 40509
Dr. Al Mohler of Southern Seminary has written a very compelling article dealing with what he calls “the deficit of doctrinal instruction” in many of our churches. He writes:
The church is faced in the postmodern age by several distinct apologetic challenges. Internally, the church must defend the faith against ignorance, against compromise, against doctrinal apathy, and against denial. The church now suffers from a breathtaking deficit of doctrinal instruction and biblical truth. In some churches, the great truths of the Christian faith are unknown, and in others, these truths are left dormant and untaught. Beyond this, the very real dangers of doctrinal corrosion and heresy threaten. (To read the rest of the article, click here.)
It seems that our churches by and large have handed off the theological instruction to our seminaries — not something I believe Paul nor Christ intended. Our churches are to be theological and missiological training grounds for all congregants, and especially ministers-in-training. Our churches must not only be afraid of commitment to serve but also of committing to think through their belief systems. Are we on target in our biblical thinking?
When I and three of my friends (who also happen to co-moderate a blog called Reformation Underground) went to the Together For the Gospel conference this past April in Louisville, we walked away with almost $250 worth of great books. “Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God” by C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries was one of those books — and what an absolute treasure that book is.
Unlike secular books dealing with this topic, this is not a book about technique, but a book that deals with the whole of the husband-wive covenant relationship. Crafted around the wonderful book of Song of Songs (Solomon), Mahaney repeatedly states that the purpose of our marriage is to be a picture of Christ and the church. What a timely message this is, especially when the divorce rate amongst evangelicals rivals (and some studies say surpasses) the divorce rate in the secular realm.
Mahaney submits to us husbands that before we can touch our wives’ bodies, we have to touch their minds. A way to do that is simply to become a student of our wives. Men usually have passion for their respective sports teams (and I am included in that group) and we study and know the ins and outs of those sports teams — why? — because that’s our passion. Do we show that same type of enthusiastic passion toward our wives on a day-to-day basis? If we do not, we certainly will miss on untold blessings that can be ours in Christ Jesus and that covenant relationship.
This is a small book with a manageable length (approx. 125 pages). It also includes a word to wives by Carolyn Mahaney at the end. All you married compadres who are reading this, click on the picture to order your copy right now. That investment will hopefully start a wonderful lifetime investment in the woman that God has given to you. Don’t miss out!
When I and three of my friends (who also happen to co-moderate a blog called Reformation Underground) went to the Together For the Gospel conference this past April in Louisville, we walked away with almost $250 worth of great books. “Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God” by C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries was one of those books — and what an absolute treasure that book is.
Unlike secular books dealing with this topic, this is not a book about technique, but a book that deals with the whole of the husband-wive covenant relationship. Crafted around the wonderful book of Song of Songs (Solomon), Mahaney repeatedly states that the purpose of our marriage is to be a picture of Christ and the church. What a timely message this is, especially when the divorce rate amongst evangelicals rivals (and some studies say surpasses) the divorce rate in the secular realm.
Mahaney submits to us husbands that before we can touch our wives’ bodies, we have to touch their minds. A way to do that is simply to become a student of our wives. Men usually have passion for their respective sports teams (and I am included in that group) and we study and know the ins and outs of those sports teams — why? — because that’s our passion. Do we show that same type of enthusiastic passion toward our wives on a day-to-day basis? If we do not, we certainly will miss on untold blessings that can be ours in Christ Jesus and that covenant relationship.
This is a small book with a manageable length (approx. 125 pages). It also includes a word to wives by Carolyn Mahaney at the end. All you married compadres who are reading this, click on the picture to order your copy right now. That investment will hopefully start a wonderful lifetime investment in the woman that God has given to you. Don’t miss out!
I was asked yesterday to keep the Bluegrass Baptist School in prayer. This is a wonderful ministry here in Lexington and I personally am excited about this ministry because my oldest daughter will begin Kindergarten there. Mrs. Bowles is the kindergarten teacher there who has been teaching there for 31 years. She is absolutely tremendous.
God has kept this ministry rolling since 1969. So continue to pray for this incredible institution.
Christians today are called to serve the cause of Christ at one of the crucial turning points in human history. This is a very strange time to proclaim and defend the Christian faith. Evangelism is difficult in an age when most persons think their most basic problems are rooted in a lack of self-esteem, and when personal choice is the all-determining reality of the marketplace. In the same way, the task of apologetics is complicated by the postmodern condition. How does one defend the faith to persons unwilling to make any judgment concerning truth?
To read Dr. Albert Mohler’s entire commentary click here.
This past week, Kenneth Lay, the founder of the Enron Corporation and the leader of one of the biggest business fraud scandals in history, died of a coronary artery disease at the age of 64. He was convicted in May of 10 counts of conspiracy and fraud and was set for sentencing on October 23 of this year for his suspected role in this scandal. He was due to face from 25 to 40 years in prison. It is all the more surprising when we see his humble upbringing that all this could have taken place.
Some may believe it was not fair that Ken Lay died before he could begin his sentence. But I submit to you that Ken Lay was in jail already.
To listen to the rest of this sermon via RealAudio, click here.
Patriot No. 06-27 Digest | 07 July 2006
“Judge not, lest ye be judged.” It’s notable that this text from the Bible has replaced John 3:16 as Americans’ favorite scriptural quotation—but what does it actually mean? Is this ageless admonition really a call to unmitigated tolerance over discernment between right and wrong? Is it really a biblical nod of the head to the virtues of postmodern morality and multicultural society?
Of course not. As Christ’s imperative against judgment appears in the Gospel accounts, a different picture emerges. With the Pharisees clearly in view, in the Sermon on the Mount account of Matthew 7, and again in Luke 6, “judge not” appears in the context of the proverbial man who perceives the speck that is in his brother’s eye, but not the log that is in his own. The context, then, suggests a warning against hypocrisy, not moral discernment. Indeed, the full imperative of the passage encourages righteous judgment: “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
Then, in John 7:24, taking aim at the Pharisees once again, Jesus makes another extraordinary statement: “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” So, does Jesus really call his followers to “judge not”? Not really. In the vocabulary of theologians, this practice of isolating and thereby misinterpreting a phrase or passage from its context is called isogesis.
Other common examples of isogesis—which we’ll leave to your own exegesis—include the imperative “care for orphans and widows” (James 1) to sanction a social, and thereby governmental, responsibility; “Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man” (I Corinthians 11) as an affirmation of male chauvinism; and “Love keeps no record of wrongs” (I Corinthians 13) as a get-out-of-jail-free card for habitual sin.
But what, you ask, does this Bible lesson have to do with the Constitution? In truth, the same fallacies that affect biblical interpretation also affect our interpretation of the Constitution.
The belief in a Constitution subject to the evolving interpretation of the judiciary has as its origin the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison, where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled, “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” All well and good if the courts would continue to interpret the law exegetically, but as history would soon show, constitutional isogesis was lurking just around the corner.
In fact, by the early 20th century the isogetical interpretation of the Constitution had been given a name, courtesy of Howard McBain’s 1927 book, The Living Constitution. In the decades that followed, this notion of a “living” Constitution, one subject to all manner of judicial interpretation, took hold in the federal courts. Judicial activists, who legislate from the bench by issuing rulings based on their personal interpretation of the Constitution, or at the behest of like-minded special-interest constituencies, were nominated for the federal bench and confirmed in droves.
This degradation of law was codified by the Warren Court, under the influence of Justice William Brennan, Jr., in Trop v. Dulles (1958). In that ruling, the High Court noted that the Constitution should comport with “evolving standards…that mark the progress of a maturing society.” In other words, it had now become a fully pliable document—one that Jefferson had warned us would be a “mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
By 1987, living constitutionalism had become such the norm that Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall delivered a lecture, “The Constitution: A Living Document,” in which he argued that the Constitution must be interpreted to the age in which it existed, given prevailing political, moral and cultural norms.
More recently, “living” jurist Anthony Kennedy and court jesters Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens cited “national consensus” as a factor in last year’s Roper v. Simmons ruling. In doing so, they disregarded the Constitution’s prescription for federalism and republican government in the name of unmitigated democracy—and took us one step closer toward what every serious thinker since Plato has described as governance in its most degenerative form.
Just as the problem of biblical and constitutional isogesis is essentially the same, so too is the solution. For centuries, a fundamental guiding principle has directed proper scriptural exegesis: Scripture interprets Scripture. That is to say, the primary lens for understanding a text is the text elsewhere in the Bible—thus, we interpret the Bible through what the Bible says.
With the Constitution, the concept is easily applied. The Separation Clause certainly calls Marbury into question, and the Tenth Amendment contradicts the Roper decision, not to mention Roe v. Wade and the illusory constitutional “right to privacy.” Further, the constitutional basis for Kelo is simply absent, as are our First Amendment rights under McCain-Feingold. And let’s not forget the myriad laws that infringe upon our rights guaranteed by the Second.
Just as the Bible’s New Testament may be said to interpret its Old Testament, so too is the Constitution accompanied by a binding interpretation, the Federalist Papers. Authored by Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the Federalist Papers, as the definitive explication of our Constitution’s original intent, clearly define original intent in regard to constitutional interpretation. In Federalist No. 78 Hamilton writes, “[The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment…liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments.” In Federalist No. 81 Hamilton notes, “[T]here is not a syllable in the [Constitution] which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution…”
Today, more than two centuries later, Justice Antonin Scalia warns of such judicial activism: “As long as judges tinker with the Constitution to ‘do what the people want,’ instead of what the document actually commands, politicians who pick and confirm new federal judges will naturally want only those who agree with them politically.”
By contrast, the heart of the Constitution, and hence the heart of constitutional constructionism, is this: The federal government should be sovereign and strong in its constitutionally delimited competencies; in matters where the Constitution is silent, however, the states and the people, not the national government, are sovereign. This understanding transforms the debate between strong governance (the liberal position) and weak governance (the libertarian position) to one of constitutional governance (the conservative, constructionist position). In this way, the text itself—not its judicial caretakers—interprets the text. This is exegetical governance. Indeed, this is constitutional governance.
I hope you will notice that at the SBC.net website that our newly-elected President Frank Page has set up a page that will allow him to express his thoughts to readers in cyberspace. As a relatively unknown candidate, this will be very helpful for us as Southern Baptists to get to know the face of our SBC for the next two years.
I hope you will notice that at the SBC.net website that our newly-elected President Frank Page has set up a page that will allow him to express his thoughts to readers in cyberspace. As a relatively unknown candidate, this will be very helpful for us as Southern Baptists to get to know the face of our SBC for the next two years.
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
July 06, 2006
(CNSNews.com) – The New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, ruled Thursday that the state “constitution does not compel the recognition of marriages between members of the same sex.”
In its 4-2 decision, the court said that “whether such marriages should be recognized is a question to be addressed by the legislature.”
“We do not predict what people will think generations from now, but we believe the present generation should have a chance to decide the issue through its elected representatives,” Judge Robert Smith wrote.
(Click here to read the rest of this article.)
Just a note: I find this ruling surprisingly refreshing. The constitution does not allow for another definition of marriages, and this judge was correct in saying that this was for the legislators. The judges’ roles as outlined by our Constitution is to interpret the law, not to make law. The legislators as elected by the people of our country have been entrusted to help make the laws in accord with our Founding Fathers’ wishes. This judge understands his role. May we pray for other judges to do the same.
Here are some quotes that I believe obliterate the notion that our Founding Fathers intended a grand separation of church and state.
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It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Patrick Henry.
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[Please notice the change in the 1960s and the quotes found therein.]
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The first separation of religious principles from public education. This is the case that removed school prayer. There were no precedents cited. The court did not quote previous legal cases or historical incidents. A new direction in the legal system – no longer constitutional.
Engel v. Vitale, June 25, 1962.
The 22 word prayer was declared to be unconstitutional and led to the removal of all prayer from public schools in the case Engel v. Vitale. This little prayer acknowledges God only one time. The Declaration of Independence itself acknowledges God 4 times.
Within 12 months of Engel v. Vitale, in two more cases called Abington v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the court had completely removed Bible reading, religious classes/instruction. This was a radical reversal of law – and all without precedental justification or Constitutional basis. The Court’s justification for removing Bible reading from public schools. The Court at this time declared that only 3% of the nation professed no belief in religion, no belief in God. Although this prayer was consistent with 97% of the beliefs of the people of the United States, the Court decided for the 3% against the majority.
Unknown.
Abington v. Schempp, June 17, 1963.
Reed v. Van Hoven, 1965.
DeCalv v. Espain, 1967.
Stone v. Gramm, 1980.
[Quotes provided by Sermon Illustrations.]
I would like to heartily recommend a little book called “Can God Bless America?” by John MacArthur. This will be likely the shortest book review in the history of man. I recommend this book because it asks a question that few other books ask: “What must we do for God to bless America?” For too often, we believe that just because we are the United States of America that God has to bless them by default. Not so! This is a short book and a good read.
I would like to heartily recommend a little book called “Can God Bless America?” by John MacArthur. This will be likely the shortest book review in the history of man. I recommend this book because it asks a question that few other books ask: “What must we do for God to bless America?” For too often, we believe that just because we are the United States of America that God has to bless them by default. Not so! This is a short book and a good read.
Here is the sermon via RealAudio I preached at Boone’s Creek Baptist Church on Sunday, July 2, 2006. To download it to your computer, right click and then click “Save Target As” and you’re good to go.
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