“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.  Let your garments always be white.  Let no oil be lacking on your head.  Enjoy life with the wife whom you love.”  Ecclesiastes 9:7-9a

I refuse to be completely serious.  I refuse to be so rigorous that I become a pain to the people closest to me.  That cannot be the will of God.  If I am not under law but under grace, as the Bible says, then I can relax and enjoy life without a single thought that somehow that will jeopardize my standing with God.  It is God himself who gave me this life and who explicitly authorizes me to receive it from his hand as a good gift — not an ultimate gift but a good gift — and who settles the question of my acceptability to himself through Christ my Substitute who was perfect for me.  Especially with Jani, God’s greatest earthly gift to me, I want so to trust God that I set a tone of enjoyment in our life together.  Like today.  Like right now.  I think I’ll call her and just tell her I love her.  I think God would smile on that.  So would she.  So would I.

God be praised.

It’s a wonderful life is a post from: Ray Ortlund

John Murray, “Faith,” in Collected Writings of John Murray (Edinburgh, 1977), II:237, italics his.

Faith is forced consent is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  And he began to teach them many things.”  Mark 6:34

Jesus, in his care as shepherd, felt deeply for the human needs he saw around him.  Their only spiritual guides were Pharisees.  Their only food was man-made tradition.  What did he do about it?  “He began to teach them.”  And not just a handy tip or two but “many things” that made a difference for both time and eternity.

What a privilege to be called into that role, to feel the injuries and questions and sadness of others, and, like Jesus, to care for them by teaching them many things that will really help.

Brother pastor, God bless you this week as you spend appropriate time alone with your books, preparing to love people this coming Sunday by teaching them many gospel things.

Caring enough to teach is a post from: Ray Ortlund

In order for a pure and lasting work of spiritual renewal to take place within the church, multitudes within it must be led to build their lives on this foundation.  This means that they must be conducted into the light of a full conscious awareness of God’s holiness, the depth of their sin and the sufficiency of the atoning work of Christ for their acceptance with God, not just at the outset of their Christian lives but in every succeeding day.”

Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, 1979), pages 101-102, italics his.

“In order for a pure and lasting work of spiritual renewal to take place within the church . . .” is a post from: Ray Ortlund

Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian (Minneapolis, 2008), page 55, italics added.

HT:  Dane Ortlund

The primary goal of every Christian for 2010 is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7).

Does prayer really come with a guarantee?  Here is one prayer God will surely answer.  It’s implied in the context.

In verse 3 Jesus says, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”  The key words are “but do not notice.”  The problem is not intentional.  We just don’t notice.  And in verse 5, Jesus calls it hypocrisy: “You hypocrite . . . .”

Hypocrisy is more than conscious self-excusing.  It is also just not seeing who we are, because we don’t want to see, we don’t even want to think about it.

Here is a prayer with no guarantee of an answer: “Father, help my brother see his hypocrisy.”  Here is a prayer with a guaranteed answer: “Father, I am a hypocrite, more than I know.  Please help me see myself.  And help me to change.”

With that prayer come humility, reality with God, growth in grace, happiness of conscience, freedom of heart, mercy toward my brother, and much more – all “good things” gladly given by our Father in heaven (Matthew 7:11).

“Ask, and it will be given to you.”

God will answer the prayer of a hypocrite is a post from: Ray Ortlund

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.  Proverbs 4:18

In this new year of grace, A.D. 2010, everything — everything — will work together for our good.  Romans 8:28 is not trite.  Good, as defined by the gospel, is the deepest narrative, the most inexorable outcome, of our lives.  This assurance does not absolve us of responsibility.  But sovereign grace meets original sin, and wins.

It’s going to be okay.  God be praised.

Sovereign grace meets original sin is a post from: Ray Ortlund

2010 might be your year of release.  It might be mine.  One year from today, we might be with the Lord.  Better by far.

How to get ready and stay ready?

One, let’s die fully reconciled.  Are we clear with every brother?  “Strive for peace with everyone” (Hebrews 12:14).

Two, let’s die fully consecrated.  Are we set apart to God?  “Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).

Three, let’s die fully forgiven.  Are we enjoying the grace of God?  “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God” (Hebrews 12:15).

Four, let’s die in sweetness.  Is any resentment spoiling our hearts?  “See to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Hebrews 12:15).

Five, let’s die in purity.  Is the blessing of God more savory to us than the pleasures of the body?  “See to it that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal” (Hebrews 12:16).

The battle rages.  Let’s be ready to die at any time.  Our moment will come.

If, in 2010, we die is a post from: Ray Ortlund

The doctrine of grace can by no means stand with the doctrine of the law.  The one must simply be refused and abolished, and the other confirmed or established.”

Martin Luther, commentary on Galatians 1:7.

A good question is a post from: Ray Ortlund

No fraudulent performance.  No immature self-focus.  Nothing but gospel truth sincerely cherished, gospel truth intensely felt, gospel truth pouring out of her through consecrated talent.  This is holy.  Makes me want to stand up and shout.

How to sing in the Spirit is a post from: Ray Ortlund

I also love to hunt.  But maybe the word also shouldn’t be there.  So I’ll just say, I love the Lordship of Christ over the whole of life, I love to hunt.  The former wraps around the latter.  Really, there is no also anywhere in a Christian’s life.  The Lordship of Christ is an all-encompassing, all-sanctifying whole.

Some of my friends object to hunting.  Christ is the Lord of their conscience, he is the Lord of my conscience, so we disagree charitably and give each other space.

As the 2009 deer season winds down, I thank the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why?  Hunting is so opposite to everything else I do — tramping through the woods in camo with my 30-06, being quiet in a deer stand for hours on end while reading, praying, worshiping, planning, sermonizing, snoozing, with the occasional moment of off-the-charts excitement when a buck like this one shows up, and so forth — for me, it’s rejuvenating.

I receive it, with all else, from the hand of my Friend, Jesus Christ the Lord of all, and I give my heart to him eagerly and sincerely.

The Lordship of Christ over the whole of life is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’”  Matthew 9:13

The deepest heart of God, his desire, his delight, is mercy and not sacrifice, not judgment, not the “pound of flesh.”

Mercy and sacrifice can be related in three ways.  One, mercy-not-sacrifice.  Two, mercy-and-sacrifice.  Three, sacrifice-not-mercy.  We tend to think of God in that second category, so we never quite know what to expect of him.  And the mercy-and-sacrifice outlook can slip too easily into sacrifice-not-mercy.  But the gospel takes us all the way into mercy-not-sacrifice, mercy that is pure, unmixed, predictable.  It is so counterintuitive, we have to go and learn what it means, how it works, what it looks like, how it changes us.

May God give us more and more churches with a message of mercy-not-sacrifice from the preacher and a culture of mercy-not-sacrifice among the people.  It is the deepest heart of God.  It is what everyone needs.

Mercy not sacrifice is a post from: Ray Ortlund

The true measure of grandeur is a post from: Ray Ortlund

The Acts 29 conference, Honesty: Death to Performance, is coming to Nashville on February 10th.  You can register here now.

Registration now open is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“Real importance is one thing, apparent importance another.  The events which move the world are not always those which men think most noteworthy.  The men who most deeply influence their fellows are not those of whom everybody is talking.  The currents of thought and feeling which will shape the future are not those which are welcomed by the organs and interpreters of current opinion.  When Christ appeared, the palace of the Caesar seemed to be more likely to govern the destinies of mankind than the manger of Bethlehem.  No, brethren, depend on it, the apparent is not always, or even generally, the real.”

H. P. Liddon, Christmastide at St. Paul’s (London, 1889), pages 101-102.

The apparent, the real is a post from: Ray Ortlund

Tomorrow many of us will be preaching.  What is our goal?  Not bashing people over the head with the law.  That may make us feel better about ourselves, as if our opinions were needed, but it is not the ministry of Christ.  What do we find in him?  Encouragement.  It’s so obvious to Paul, it’s the first thing he mentions when he inventories our wealth in Christ here in Philippians 2.

Do we find encouragement in one another?  Sometimes.  But that supply is limited.  We come together at church not to amass the encouragement we bring in but to receive the encouragement he is pouring out.  If we come to church only to draw strength from one another, that’s all we’ll get.  And we will end up empty and angry at one another.  Putting community first destroys community.  Our encouragement is in Christ, and he is inexhaustible.

Those of us who are preachers — tomorrow, through the gospel, let’s lavish on our fellow-sinners the endless encouragement that is right now exploding out of the glorious risen Christ.  If attendance at your church is down because people are out of town for Christmas travels, that doesn’t diminish your ministry at all.  The Lord Jesus Christ is rich with encouragement, he is a big spender, and he is the measure of your ministry.

The ministry of encouragement is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“The cross of Christ crucifies the world to a believer, as it shows him how little he deserves at the hand of God.  Believers in the cross of Christ see him standing in their place and bearing the wrath of an offended God, which was their due.  When this is not only professed with the mouth but received into the heart, it gives a deep conviction of the evil of sin and lays the sinner prostrate in humility and self-abasement.”

John Witherspoon, Practical Discourses on the Leading Truths of the Gospel (Edinburgh, 1768), pages 228-229.

Galatians 6:14 is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“In humility count others more significant than yourselves. . . . He made himself nothing.”  Philippians 2:3, 7

How does community work?  By love?  Well, okay.  But that isn’t Paul’s point in these verses, which are all about how community works.  And we can do horrible things in the name of love.  We can walk into a social situation with love as our purpose only to destroy that situation by our clueless good intentions.

The key word is humility in verse 3.  The measure of humility is the word nothing in verse 7.

“He made himself nothing.”  That is threatening to us, but it has this advantage.  It works.  When we make ourselves nothing, willing to wash each other’s feet even while being scrutinized for our performance — see Peter above — we are becoming what proud human touchiness cannot resist.  Heart-level connections form when people can see, “He isn’t out for himself.”  And community starts to work.

Let’s not trust our love.  It can be self-exalting.  Let’s become nothing, as the Son of God did.  He knows what works.

How community works is a post from: Ray Ortlund

“To the question ‘What is Romans all about?’ a variety of answers might be given. . . . An interesting point emerges if we approach the epistle statistically. . . . It comes as no surprise that the word Paul uses most frequently is some form or other of the definite article (1105x).  Nor that this is followed in order by ["and"] (274x), ["in"] (172x) and ["he"] (156x).  These are all common words and are bound to occur frequently.  But not everybody would expect that Paul’s next most frequent word in this epistle is “God,” which is found no less than 153x.  We may gauge something of the significance of this by noting that even some very common words do not occur as often.  Thus ["but, however"] is found but 147x, the verb ["to be"] in its various forms 113x, and the preposition ["into"] 119x. . . . It is clear that in Romans Paul speaks of God so often that no other subject comes even remotely near it.”

Leon Morris, “The Theme of Romans,” in W. Ward Gasque and Ralph P. Martin, editors, Apostolic History and the Gospel, pages 249-250.

The theme of Romans is a post from: Ray Ortlund

Preaching on Isaiah 7:14, C. H. Spurgeon closed with this flourish:

“God with us.” It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, “God with us,” back he falls, confounded and confused. “God with us” is the laborer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor, if that one word were taken away? “God with us” is the sufferer’s comfort, the balm of his woe, the alleviation of his misery, the sleep which God gives to his beloved, their rest after exertion and toil. “God with us” is eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified, the song of the redeemed, the chorus of angels, the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky.

God with us is a post from: Ray Ortlund