Sola Gratia

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Charnock on the Holiness of God

2012-02-15T09:21:00.000-05:00

"It is less injury to Him to deny His being, than to deny the purity of it; the one makes Him no God, the other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable God. He that saith God is not holy speaks much worse that he that saith there is no God at all."

Stephen Charnock

Valentine's Day and the Song of Solomon

2012-02-14T14:09:00.000-05:00

At Valentine's Day, I've noticed a number of bloggers have turned their attention to the Song of Solomon. I suppose this is to be expected. Whatever exactly this book of the Bible talks about, it clearly does so using terms of romantic love.

Throughout history, Christians have had many reactions to the Song. One is to completely ignore it out of discomfort with the subject matter. It goes without saying that with any part of Scripture, this is an unacceptable attitude.

For those who do look to the Song, there are various ways it has been interpreted. Some within the Church have allegorized it, contending that it is solely about God and his relationship with the church, and it has nothing to say about romantic love between individuals.Yet another way that some have dealt with it is by turning it into nothing more than a marriage manual, neglecting altogether what it might have to say to us about God, and specifically Jesus Christ. To apply either of these approaches, in my opinion, is to fall terribly short of understanding what God is telling us in this book.

A couple years ago at the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary Conference, Dr. Iain Campbell preached what was not only the best sermon I've ever heard on the Song, but was (especially in its second half) one of my favorite sermons ever on any text. Click on the player below to listen to it.

Returning to Hymns

2012-02-13T10:16:00.000-05:00

Today The Gospel Coalition posted this real good discussion between Mike Cosper, Isaac Wardell and Kevin Twit on why and how many churches are rediscovering the importance of hymns. Take a couple minutes to check it out.

Old Hymns for Our Day from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

A Word for Preachers...Spurgeon on the Remedy for Evils

2012-02-13T08:14:00.013-05:00

"I have only one remedy to prescribe, and that is, that we do preach the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in all its length and breadth of doctrine, precept, spirit, example, and power. To give but one remedy for many diseases of the body, is the part of an empiric; but it is not so in the affairs of the soul, for the gospel is so divinely compounded as to meet all the evils of humanity, however they may differ from one another. We have only to preach the living gospel, and the whole of it, to meet the whole of the evils of the times. The gospel, if it were fully received through the whole earth, would purge away all slavery and all war, and put down all drunkenness and all social evils; in fact, you cannot conceive a moral curse which it would not remove; and even physical evils, since many of them arise incidentally from sin, would be greatly mitigated, and some of them for ever abolished. The spirit of the gospel, causing attention to be given to all that concerns our neighbor's welfare, would promote sanitary and social reforms, and so the leaves of the tree which are for the healing of the nations would work their beneficial purpose. Keep to the gospel, brethren, and you will keep to the one universal, never-failing remedy. You have read of sieges, in which the poor inhabitants have been reduced to skeletons; and fevers and diseases, scarcely known at other times, have abounded: when the city has at last surrendered, if you wished to give the people what would meet all their wants, you would begin by giving them food. Hunger lies at the bottom of the fever, hunger has caused the other diseases, gaunt and grim; and when the constitution is again built up by food, it will throw off most of the other ills. Give the bread of life to the multitude, and the maladies and diseases of fallen humanity will be divinely removed; I am sure it is so."

Charles Spurgeon
An All-Round Ministry

(HT: J.J. Sherwood)

More Friday Fun...Making Sweet Music

2012-02-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

Watch Christian Videos and Read the Online Bible at GodVine.com

Friday Fun...Starting Lineups

2012-02-10T08:04:00.002-05:00

The other night in New Orleans, as the Hornets hosted the Chicago Bulls, Will Ferrell served as the guest public address announcer for the starting lineups. It was, well, unique.

Sara Groves...You Cannot Lose My Love

2012-02-09T21:17:00.002-05:00

I saw this video from Sara Groves tonight when Scotty Smith posted it and found the song so beautiful that I knew I needed to share it too. What a great promise it is that Christians find in Romans 8:38-39,

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Dane Ortlund on Receiving Criticism

2012-02-09T12:58:00.000-05:00

Fellow Covenant Seminary alum Dane Ortlund had a great post on dealing with criticism yesterday at his blog, Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology. In it he shared two wrong ways to receive it ("overtly reject consideration of it" or "reject consideration of the critique inwardly, while receiving it outwardly"), before moving on to the appropriate way to deal with critical words from Christian brothers and sisters:

Receive the critical words, consider them. Fill your heart with a sense of God's undentable delight in you as his son or daughter, filter the criticism through wisdom, ponder what has been said, leave behind what was sincere but wrong as far as you can tell, seek the counsel of others if needed, remember that Christ's blood covers all offenses, and redirect your life accordingly.

The whole post is well worth reading as it is full of gospel-empowered wisdom and humility. Click here to check it out.

Tim Keller on New York City Church Decision

2012-02-08T15:14:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you have heard in recent days that the city of New York has announced that churches, unlike secular organizations, will no longer be allowed to rent space from New York City schools. This is troublesome not just for the immediate impact on the city of New York and its churches, but because of the fact that so often, as goes New York, so too eventually goes the nation.

Tim Keller's words at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church online newsletter, The Redeemer Report, were far better than anything I could say, so I simply share them with you here:

I am grieved that New York City is planning to take the unwise step of removing 68 churches from the spaces that they rent in public schools. It is my conviction that those churches housed in schools are invaluable assets to the neighborhoods that they serve. Churches have long been seen as positive additions to communities. Family stability, resources for those in need, and compassion for the marginalized are all positive influences that neighborhood churches provide. There are many with first-hand experience who will claim that the presence of churches in a neighborhood can lead to a drop in crime.

The great diversity of our city means that we will never all agree completely on anything. And we cherish our city’s reputation for tolerance of differing opinions and beliefs. Therefore, we should all mourn if disagreement with certain beliefs of the church is allowed to unduly influence the formation of just policy and practice.

I disagree with the opinion written by Judge Pierre Leval that: “A worship service is an act of organized religion that consecrates the place in which it is performed, making it a church.” This is an erroneous theological judgment; I know of no Christian church or denomination that believes that merely holding a service in a building somehow “consecrates” it, setting it apart from all common or profane use. To base a legal opinion on such a superstitious view is surely invalid. Conversely, I concur with Judge John Walker’s dissenting opinion that this ban constitutes viewpoint discrimination and raises no legitimate Establishment Clause concerns.

A disproportionate number of churches that are affected by this prohibition are not wealthy, established communities of faith. They are ones who possess the fewest resources and many work with the poor. Redeemer has many ties with those churches and their pastors, and our church community invests time and resources to assist them to be good neighbors in their communities.

Let them be those good neighbors. I am hopeful that the leaders of New York City and the legislators of New York State will see the value of a society that encourages all spheres of culture—the church, government, education, business, etc—to work together for human flourishing.

Dr. Timothy Keller
Senior Pastor
Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Carson on Sanctification

2012-02-08T10:44:00.001-05:00

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated."

D.A. Carson
For the Love of God, volume 2

A Word for Preachers...Chapell on Christ-Centered Preaching

2012-02-06T08:47:00.001-05:00

"A passage retains its Christocentric focus, and a sermon becomes Christ-centered, not because the preacher finds a slick way of wedging a reference to Jesus' person or work into the message but because the sermon identifies this particular text legitimately serves in the great drama of the Son's crusade against the serpent."

Bryan Chapell
Christ-Centered Preaching

National Prayer Breakfast - Eric Metaxas

2012-02-03T16:36:00.000-05:00

I loved the things that Eric Metaxas had to say yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast. The biographer of William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out how both men saw truths that others in their time did not see, and we celebrate them for it. Wilberforce saw Africans as human beings worthy of our love and respect in a time when they were sold as property, and fought for the end of the slave trade. Bonhoeffer similarly saw Jews as worthy of our love and respect in the midst of Nazi Germany, and ended up dying in a concentration camp himself as a result.

It's easy for us to see now where these two men were right and the prevailing culture was horribly wrong. If we lived in their day though, Metaxas points out that we should not be so sure of the clarity of vision that we would have had, for apart from God's intervention we are no better than anyone else.

Jesus opens our eyes to though to his ideas, which are different from our own. And so, while we are called to speak out and act on behalf of the powerless, at the same time Metaxas points out, we need to be careful in our attitude toward those who do not see things as we do.

Those of us who know the unborn to be human beings are commanded by God to love those who do not yet see that. We need to know that apart from God we would be on the other side of that divide, fighting for what we believe is right. We cannot demonize our enemies. Today if you believe abortion is wrong you must treat those on the other side with the love of Jesus.

The whole talk is well worth watching, but especially enjoyed the end of it, starting around 58 minutes.

Friday Fun..."Super" Commercials

2012-02-03T07:45:00.019-05:00

You may have heard that this Sunday there's going to be a pretty big football game. And while many will be watching it to see who wins between the Patriots and the Giants, perhaps just as many will be watching to see the commercials.

Early indications are that automobile commercials will be among the some of the most talked about ones this year. Here are a few extended versions of the spots you'll see Sunday...

Advertising during the game has become such a big deal, that Volkswagen not only made a commercial that was a sort of sequel to last year's Star Wars-themed spot, they also actually produced a teaser for the commercial that's been floating around the internet the last couple weeks.

Hans Bayer on Interpreting Parables

2012-02-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

Below is a video of Covenant Seminary professor Hans Bayer on interpreting the parables in the Gospel of Mark. Dr. Bayer was one of my favorite professors at Covenant, and his book, A Theology of Mark will be released by P&R Publishing this April.

This session was from a Brown Bag Lunch series hosted by The Journey, a church in St. Louis planted by Darrin Patrick.

(HT: Dane Ortlund)

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Piper on Christian Service

2012-02-01T16:39:00.000-05:00

"What is God looking for in the world? Assistants? No. The gospel is not a help-wanted ad. It is a help-available ad. Nor is the call to Christian service a help-wanted ad. God is not looking for people to work for Him but people who let Him work mightily in and through them: 'The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him' (2 Chron. 16:9). God is not a scout looking for the first draft choices to help His team win. He is an unstoppable fullback ready to take the ball and run touchdowns for anyone who trusts him to win the game."

John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

How We Disagree With One Another

2012-02-01T11:07:00.000-05:00

Kevin DeYoung somewhat reluctantly entered the fray of the recent Elephant Room/T.D. Jakes controversy with a blog post today. He has many good reflections and admonitions throughout the post, but I especially appreciated his closing thoughts:

We need a more careful theology of criticism. There are several observations all Christians should be able to agree on, even if they sometimes pull us in opposite directions. (1) Let’s not assume the worst about people. (2) Let’s not shame those who aren’t immediately credulous when someone with a history of bad thinking says something that could be construed as maybe okay. (3) Let’s be very cautious in assigning motive. (4) Let’s not take everything personally or make everything personal. (5) Let’s not get our kicks from criticizing others and mucking around in controversy. (6) Let’s avoid facile condemnations of all criticism, realizing that the statement itself is a criticism and the Bible is full of heroes who had a lot of bones to pick. (7) Let’s accept that in this fallen world only the Lord can fully sort some things out and we don’t have go twelve rounds in every conflict.

So praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—one God in three persons—for loving me despite so many mistakes, for loving the glory of his name above all things, and for loving the church even more than we do. Let’s pray he brings good out of these hard times.

Philadelphia Conference...The Gospel: What? Why? How?

2012-01-30T16:22:00.000-05:00

Each year the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals hosts the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology in multiple locations. This year the conference will be held March 23-25 in Grand Rapids and April 20-22 in Philadelphia, and it promises to be a wonderful time of instruction and fellowship.

The theme of the conference is The Gospel: What? Why? How? and speakers will include Sinclair Ferguson, Richard Phillips, Ligon Duncan and others. You can click here to register for the Grand Rapids event, or can click here to register for Philadelphia.

Below is the schedule for this year's conferences:

Friday

Preconference:
8:00 a.m. Pre-Conference Registration
9:15 a.m. Devotional: A Minister of the Gospel Eph. 3:7-9, Richard Phillips
9:45 a.m. The Necessity of Gospel Preaching – Romans 10:13-17, Harry Reeder
10:45 a.m. Coffee Break
11:00 a.m. The Profile of Gospel Preaching – I Cor. 2: 1-5, Harry Reeder
12:00 p.m. Lunch (at local restaurants)
1:30 p.m. The Man, The Message & The Method of Gospel Preaching – II Tim 2:14-4:8, Harry Reeder
2:30 p.m. Question & Answer: Harry Reeder and Richard Phillips
3:15 p.m. End of Pre-Conference

Conference:
7:00 pm The Gospel of Great Joy - Luke 2:10-12, Sinclair Ferguson

Saturday

8:00 a.m. Late Registration
9:00 a.m. The Gospel Remedy for Bad News – Romans 3:21-26, Harry Reeder
10:00 a.m. The Gospel Power of God – Romans 1:16, Sinclair Ferguson
11:00 a.m. Question and Answer Session
12:00 p.m. Lunch (at local restaurants)
2:00 p.m. The Gospel Preaching of the Cross – 1 Corinthians 1:17, Ligon Duncan
3:15-4:30 p.m. Seminars - Please choose one

The Gospel in the Contemporary Evangelical Churches, Ligon Duncan
A Gospel Reformation: Then and Now, Robert Godfrey (MI)
Getting the Gospel Out, Liam Goligher (PA)
The Full Gospel: Justification and Sanctification, Richard Phillips

4:30 p.m. Dinner (at local restaurants)
6:30 p.m. Sacred Concert
7:00 p.m. The Gospel Message of Christ – Mark 1:14-15, Robert Godfrey (MI); Liam Goligher (PA)

Sunday

AM Worship - The Gospel Ministry of Reconciliation – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Ligon Duncan

A Word for Preachers...Lloyd-Jones on the Need for Preaching

2012-01-30T11:13:00.000-05:00

"Is there any need of preaching? Is there any place for preaching in the modern Church and in the modern world, or has preaching become quite outmoded? The very fact that one has to pose such a question, and to consider it, is, it seems to me, the most illuminating commentary on the state of the Church at the present time. I feel that that is the chief explanation of the present more or less parlous condition and ineffectiveness of the Christian Church in the world today."

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Preachers & Preaching

A Double Dose of Twin Tales

2012-01-27T10:01:00.000-05:00

We have a woman in our church with a granddaughter expecting twins. I heard about her situation a week or two ago as it was passed through our prayer chain. I won't go into all the details, but even though she was not quite six months along, she had to be admitted to the hospital and it looked like she was going to be there until her babies were born.

The "good" news is that the doctors were quite certain that this would not be the full three months until her due date; the twins would almost certainly be significantly premature. Yesterday, we received word that the babies were born, three months early. And though one was two pounds and the other one and a half, both are relatively healthy and actually breathing on their own. As the father of a child who was born six weeks early and spent time in the neonatal ICU, I am amazed that this is even possible.

I also have a friend named Ryan Anderson with whom I went to seminary and used to attend church. His wife, Laura, is likewise pregnant with twins. Just over a week ago, they were diagnosed with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, which (long story, short) caused one baby to be much larger than it should be and the other to be much smaller.

Due to the severity of their case, the doctors recommended the most aggressive treatment option available: laser ablation surgery, which severs the arteries between the babies and allows them to develop independently. Such surgery is risky, potentially causing problems as severe as the immediate death of the babies. Without the surgery though, it was highly unlikely that they would survive until birth.

They had the surgery yesterday and I was joyously encouraged as I read a post at the Andersons' blog from Ryan, chronicling the day's events. He wrote,

As I type, Laura is trying to get some Z's. She's chilling out as some drugs wear off. She went into surgery at about 10am and came out close to 11:30. Dr. Moise came out and talked to me afterwards and gave nothing but a fantastic report. He said (I'm paraphrasing), "Everything went great. She's (Laura) doing well and we've got good heartbeats out of the girls (twins)." In my mind, I'm leaping...giving thanks to God for His steadfast love and mercy. I asked Dr. Moise, "Are you a hugger?" and he replied, "Yes." So, with my body, I wrapped my arms around the head and neck of the man who just promoted life as best as he could. And then I began to weep.

He went on...

In short, Laura is doing great and so are the twins. We've got other hurdles to cross (when we get to them), but for now, we can exhale. God is (and always has been) kind. Our circumstances do not change His character; in fact, I've realized that I'm only able to make sense of my circumstances in light of His character.

Please join me in thanking God for his goodness. As Ryan points out, this goodness is not dependent upon what happened yesterday, rather his unchanging goodness was made apparent in these two situations. And please join me in praying for all four of these babies, that their continued development might further manifest the goodness of God.

Friday Fun...Sleight of Hand

2012-01-27T08:42:00.001-05:00

I enjoy illusionists and have seen a lot of them. This guy is really good.

(HT: Challies)

Receiving the Kingdom Like a Child

2012-01-26T12:38:00.003-05:00

Last night at dinner I was sharing with my family an idea I had for a sermon from Joshua 2 and the story of Rahab and the spies. I know, don't you wish you could have dinner at our house?

Anyway, I was making the point that in order to believe what God has done, we must first hear about it. But simply hearing about it is not enough; many hear the message of God's mighty works and still refuse to believe. This calls into question why some believe and others do not.

I went on to share with my family my thoughts on the matter. It seems to me that if some hearers believe, while there are others who do not, there are really only three explanations. I put the three options in the first person for purposes of illustration:

I am smarter than all those non-believers, and as a result was able to figure out what they had not figured out.
I am better than all those non-believers, and therefore did not have my judgment clouded by sin the way they did.
By his grace and for his own purposes, God chose to work savingly in me in a way that he did not work in non-believers.

As the third option was still rolling off my tongue, my seven year old daughter blurted out, "I'll take the last one!" Yes, indeed, my daughter knows me well: I am neither smarter nor better than most people. But more importantly than knowing the nature of her earthly father, I am thankful that she also knows the nature of her heavenly one!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Keller on Idols

2012-01-25T14:50:00.000-05:00

"We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.

"What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give."

Tim Keller
Counterfeit Gods

A Word for Preachers...Spurgeon on the Road to Christ

2012-01-23T07:49:00.012-05:00

"Don't you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London? ... (A)nd so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, 'Now what is the road to Christ?' and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis - Christ. I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Christ in it."

Charles Spurgeon
Lectures to My Students

Seminary Doesn't Need to Kill Your Faith

2012-01-20T08:57:00.003-05:00

The other day I saw a blog post from Carl Trueman lamenting the fact that seminaries don’t really do a good job of teaching students to preach. And then I saw over at the Desiring God blog, that they just started a new series entitled How to Stay Christian in Seminary, focusing on the fact that in the midst of theological study, seminarians often see their faith lose much of its vitality, becoming almost purely academic in nature.

It seems that our seminaries are failing to do the very things they are supposed to focus on. I have heard stories about this from other pastors. The old joke is that there’s a reason “seminary” and “cemetery” sound so much alike. But I am thankful to be able to tell you that my experience at Covenant Theological Seminary couldn’t have been more different.

I say this not as a matter of pride. I am fully confident that I had very little (if anything) to do with it. Rather, it was primarily due to the grace of God, and in large part a result of the seminary I attended. I have not been a student at any other seminaries, but from the stories I’ve heard, I am left to assume that Covenant is exceptional.

I studied the language of Hebrew from a professor who made the classes seem devotional in nature. I was blessed to take a number of classes from (and do an independent study with) a man who I am quite certain is the most Christ-like individual I’ve ever known. I learned about preaching under the man who literally wrote the book on Christ-Centered Preaching. I could go on an on.

Grace is not just something that is taught academically at Covenant, it is an atmosphere in which you swim. And being constantly surrounded by others who were longing to grow and learn and serve God with their lives was an absolute joy. My only regret was that I didn’t get to spend more time there.

I’m sure there are people who struggle to see their faith grow while at seminary. Some of them may even be at Covenant. But if, on the other hand, their time at seminary is anything like mine was, they will look back on their experience 5-10 years later thanking God for the seeds he sewed in their heart during this period, for the influences there that helped shape the rest of their life, and for the sweet foretaste of heaven that they were blessed to receive.

Valley of Vision: A Christian's Prayer

2012-01-20T08:52:00.003-05:00

Blessed God,
Ten thousand snares are mine without and within,
   defend thou me;
When sloth and indolence seize me,
   give me views of heaven;
When sinners entice me,
   give me disrelish of their ways;
When sensual pleasures tempt me,
   purify and refine me;
When I desire worldly possessions,
   help me to be rich toward thee;
When the vanities of the world ensnare me,
   let me not plunge into new guilt and ruin.
May I remember the dignity of my spiritual release,
   never be too busy to attend to my soul,
   never be so engrossed with time
   that I neglect the things of eternity;
   thus may I not only live, but grow towards thee.
Form my mind to right notions of religion,
   that I may not judge of grace by wrong conceptions,
   nor measure my spiritual advances
   by the efforts of my natural being.
May I seek after an increase of divine love to thee,
   after unreserved resignation to thy will,
   after extensive benevolence to my fellow creatures,
   after patience and fortitude of soul,
   after a heavenly disposition
   after a concern that I may please thee in public and private.
Draw on my soul the lineaments of Christ,
   in every trace and feature of which thou wilt
   take delight, for I am thy workmanship,
   created in Christ Jesus,
   thy letter written with the Holy Spirit’s pen,
   thy tilled soil ready for the sowing, then harvest.

From Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions