An Interview with Paul Washer — MP3

“… the Gospel today is treated as something like Christianity 101: You learn it in five or ten minutes and then you go on to ‘deeper things.’ But my whole argument is this: That there’s never been, and never will be a greater revelation of God than the revelation of God in Christ on the cross of Calvary, that we’ll spend an eternity in heaven and we’ll still not begin to comprehend the glory of this ‘Everest’ of the Christian faith.” Paul Washer

“One of the things that we have to realize is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is an absolutely unbelievable message. Apart from the Spirit of God… no one is going to accept the Gospel — the true Gospel. What we have to realize is that the Gospel we preach is a supernatural message and people believe it supernaturally because of the regenerating work of the Spirit of God.” Paul Washer

“You can mouth all these things, but have they become realities in your life?” Paul Washer

From the Interview

• “The Gospels Power and Message” by Paul Washer, from the “Recovering the Gospel” series
• “A Pastor’s Sketches” by Ichabod Spencer
• “Reformed Pastor” by Richard Baxter
• “A Little Exercise for Young Theologians” by Helmut Thielicke

Silent Blessings Deaf Ministries: Raising and Reaching the Deaf – Audio | Transcript

This testimony by Marshall Lawrence to the state of deaf outreach was a convicting reminder that there are tremendous ministry opportunities in our own backyard. The statistics that Marshall gives about the number of Christian fathers who do not bother themselves to learn their children’s native language are not just staggering, they’re inexcusable. I wept over this, for those children who are growing up without fathers and for those fathers who are losing their children. I wept, too, for the child that had to discover that Jesus knows sign language. Every child needs to be taught the greatness of our God. She should know that the God who created her can understand her, knows her language, knows her thoughts and her heart, that He loves her and died to be with her.

… most deaf people today will be born, will grow up, will live, and will die without ever once having seen the gospel presented to them clearly in their own language…Marshall Lawrence

We should should not pity the deaf that they cannot hear as we do; most of them do not have a problem with it. We ought to feel compassion for the deaf because a majority of them do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior, and are missing the unsurpassed joy of living life in obedience to Him and for His glory. My prayer is that no matter where God finds me, or where He finds you, that you will have His compassionate heart for the lost, that you and I will be His hands, and if the hearer is deaf, that those hands would be ready to sign the Word of God to those who cannot hear them in our language. Jesus knows sign language, but do His disciples?

Additional Resources

• Silent Blessings Deaf Ministries
• Raising and Reaching the Deaf for Christ

Gospel for Asia: To Live is Christ! – Audio | Video

This is an exceedingly convicting sermon by K.P. Yohannan entitled, “To Live Is Christ.” It brings me back to my adage:

If 99% of Christians knew what God expected of them, they wouldn’t even bother trying.

I’ve said this before, and while I suspect that it is true, I nonetheless wish it were not. As K.P. mentions in this sermon:

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.Matthew 18:12-14 (ESV)

I think that this is particularly interesting when you consider what so-called “marginal Christians.” You cannot go astray if you are not first a part of His fold.

I hope God will use this sermon to stir your heart for the lost as it did mine. We cannot not simply talk, we must do.

Additional Resources

• Gospel for Asia
• K.P. Yohannan – “To Live Is Christ” DVD Video

In the process of talking about how pastors ought to be men that inspire others toward godliness and communion with God through their own example, Francis Chan is himself an example….

May our own dear ones be among the better generation who shall continue in the Lord’s ways, obedient to the end. And their seed shall be established before thee. God does not neglect the children of his servants. It is the rule that Abraham’s Isaac should be the Lord’s, that Isaac’s Jacob should be beloved of the Most High, and that Jacob’s Joseph should find favour in the sight of God. Grace is not hereditary, yet God loves to be served by the same family time out of mind, even as many great landowners feel a pleasure in having the same families as tenants upon their estates from generation to generation. Here is Zion’s hope, her sons will build her up, her offspring will restore her former glories. We may, therefore, not only for our own sakes, but also out of love to the church of God, daily pray that our sons and daughters may be saved, and kept by divine grace even unto the end—established before the Lord.

Excerpted from The Treasury of David (Psalm 102.28).

Repost of DesiringGod: Fathers, Pray for Future Generations

The transfiguration was an important validation event in the ministry of Christ — not only serving to strengthen him, but also, quite importantly, to confirm and strengthen the disciples that Jesus’s way of the cross was stamped with the approval and desire of God. Why do you think the transfiguration occurred immediately after the confession at Ceasarea Philippi… and what principle may be found in the transfiguration which has practical relevance today?

I assert that the transfiguration occurred immediately after Peter’s confession of Jesus as Christ at Ceasarea Philippi because the mark of faith had been shown there. In Mark chapter 9, verse 1, Jesus says “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” after which, 6 days later, he is transfigured. The transfiguration then, clearly, is the appearance of the kingdom of God “with power.” I think that the transfiguration, then, followed Peter’s confession as visible confirmation of the admission by faith. This is why, I believe, that this section is sandwiched between chapter 8, where Jesus says “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation,” and the latter half of chapter 9, where the disciples fail to cast a demon out of a boy and Jesus says “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” What’s being contrasted here — and I believe throughout all of Mark — is the issue of faith. The confirmation of the power and glory of God’s kingdom is given only after the admission of faith.

In chapter 8, Jesus warns against the “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod,” which is doubt,¹ doubt that spreads like leaven through flour.² After the transfiguration, when the father of the demon-possessed boy says “If you can” to Jesus, Jesus replies “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Both of these passages underscore the faith-versus-doubt paradigm, and emphasize that God does not — indeed will not — “give a sign” to those who don’t believe; quite to the contrary, he gives a sign to those who already believe.

This is, likewise, the message for today. We live in a society that, debatably more than ever, wants evidence to form a conclusion. We want to employ the “scientific method,” gather evidence through trial and error, and, more than anything, our culture wants tangible proof — qualifiable, quantifiable, verifiable “signs.” Christ says we will get none.³ The transfiguration, then, has relevance today in that it speaks to when we can anticipate a confirmation of our faith (a “sign”), when we can expect to “see the kingdom with power.” This will only ever happen after we believe. Faith is evidence of things unseen. Signs are not.

Footnotes

1 The Pharisees questioned Jesus’s “new” traditions and that he and his disciples did not observe the rituals of the day (Mark 7). Herod said that Jesus was John the Baptist, raised from the dead (Mark 6).

² Jesus also uses the metaphor of leaven and flour in Matthew to describe the kingdom of Heaven.

³ None, but his death, burial, and resurrection.

Enter Zöe Keating, a “cellist technologist,” you might say. I just stumbled upon Ms. Keating recently via the music site 8tracks, so rather than attempt to qualify her in my own words, I will simply let her and her music speak for itself….

Zöe Keating Interview Short Film

Zöe Keating Plays”Escape Artist”

Here you can really see her work some “magic” with the sampler, layering sounds, and building up the composition as it progresses in real-time.

Zöe Keating Interview with Wired Magazine

Zoe is another musician using the Bandcamp distribution site. I highly advocate the distribution model that sites like Bandcamp use: Allowing the customer to choose his download preference, including lossless audio compression formats, such as FLAC. Listen to the first 6 tracks of Ms. Keating’s album, “Into the Trees,” and download the track “Optimist” for free.

Additional Resources

• Zöe Keating: Avant Cello
• Bandcamp
• 8tracks

I intend to get the entire album (As an aside: I’m elated to see that Sovereign Grace Music is using bandcamp, which offers high-quality audio downloads, such as FLAC, not simply MP3s).

The fourth verse, emboldened below, was particularly moving for me. Our pastor spoke yesterday on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, noting that Jesus wept over Lazarus, he felt the pain of loss, even with the understanding that God was going to use it for His glory. It is so immensely comforting to me to know that we have a savior who knows our suffering, knows our temptations and our trials, and who mediates on our behalf, even now….

Listen to the Audio (or Download MP3):

Hail the Day

Hail the day that Christ arose
Through the skies to worlds unknown
Glorious there He ever reigns
Object of all heaven’s praise

See Him lift His hands above
See the scars of His great love
He has conquered death and sin
Saving all who hope in Him

Chorus
Hallelujah, hallelujah
The King of Love is on His throne
Hallelujah, hallelujah
His grace will lead us safely home

Though He dwells beyond the stars
His redeemed are on His heart
Even now He intercedes
Jesus cares for all our needs

Lyrics adapted from Charles Wesley’s “Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise”
New lyrics and music by Steve & Vikki Cook
© 2011 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music (ASCAP)

Q: Does the culture in which you live find any significance of value in the death of Christ? That is, how important is Christ’s death for the people around you?

Beliefs about Christ and his death fall into several categories:

1. Those who believe that Christ was not a real, historical person who
   lived and breathed in real history.
2. Those who affirm that Christ was indeed a real, historical person who lived and breathed in real history.
   Of these who affirm Jesus Christ’s existence, they can be further subdivided into two categories:
1. Those who believe Christ was just a man.
2. Those who believe Christ is the Son of God.

The latter of these final two categories could rightly be called “Christian” though perhaps we might subdivide it further.¹ Even though there are many professing Christians, a vast majority of them, however do not live as though Jesus is the Son of God. Most of the general public in our culture, then, would fall into either the first category (1) or the second (2a) — whether in word or in deed. All this to say:

To most people, the death of Christ is just his death. Nothing more.

It holds no special meaning, gives no import, nor bears any weight. The deduction is that if Jesus was “just some religious figure,” then his life, and therefore his death, are “drops in the bucket” — merely one more human being to catalog in the annals of history, nothing more, nothing less.

Q: In what ways do you think we can promote the significance of the death of Christ in our own lives and that of those around us? That is, if the death of Christ is the climactic moment in human history, how can we live under that light and share that momentous event with others?

The most significant way that we can “promote” the significance of the death of Christ is by being obedient to him.

If Christ’s death is to mean anything at all, it must be that his blood washes us clean, not just from sin but to holiness. There is a decidedly skewed impression in our culture — both by the unsaved and within the church — that Christ saved us from sin solely because he loved us. “For God so loved the world…” as John 3:16 says. We like to quote that, and sometimes even let ourselves get as far as verse 17, but rarely do we make it down to verse 20:

[21] But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
John 3:20 (NAS)

In other words, our lives change, completely, when we come to God. We no longer walk in darkness. The “words of our mouths” and the “meditations of our heart” become “wrought of God.” Our lives should be examples of the abundant life that Christ died to give us.² We are commanded to confess Christ before men,³ but we are also commanded to “be transformed” by our entire way of thinking being changed.⁴

Christs death is meaningless if it does not create real change in our lives.

And if it doesn’t we have genuine cause to doubt whether we really are confessing Christ as Lord of our lives. We are to live as slaves of Christ. A lord has complete control over his slaves; slaves, likewise, have no will of their own — they live in complete submission to the will of their lord. If our lives are not diametrically different from those in our culture, we have very good reason to question if we are saved.⁵ For the unsaved there are two responses to a Christ-centered, cross-centered, gospel-breathing life: Hate or Conversion.

Hate

[13] Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. [14] We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
1 John 3:13 (NAS)

Conversion

[14] “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden ; [15] nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. [16] “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-15 (NAS)

Our lives should be continuously burning lamps. Everything we do, everything we say, every choice we make, every thought we think should be held captive to the death of Christ, that we may not cheapen it, sure, but that we might cause him to be glorified by the sacrifice of our lives.⁶

We are either salt, or gravel.

Footnotes

1. ¹That is to say that, insofar as one “confesses with his mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead, he will be saved,” we might say that there are two additional groups: those that confess and those that don’t. For the sake of simplification of the argument alone, we will leave this out.
2. ²John 10:10 (NAS) “10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy ; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
3. ³Matthew 10:32-33 (NAS) “32 Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
4. ⁴Romans 12:1-2 (NAS) “1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
5. ⁵1 John 2:4-6 (NAS) “4 The one who says, I have come to know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
6. ⁶Romans 12:1 (NAS) “1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

When speaking to non-believers, and even amongst those in the church, Evangelicals very often talk about or define their faith in terms of their beliefs. The dialog may go something like this:

Non-Believer: So you’re a Christian?
Christian: Yes!
Non-Believer: I think Christianity’s a total load of nonsense.
Christian: Well, I believe….

And off they go. You, too, may in fact do this yourself. I am going to attempt here to convince you that this is not simply ill-advised, but destructive — both to the un-believer and his perception of Christianity, and to you as well. Here is why.

From a purely human perspective, the term “belief” connotes a personal understanding of a either a given truth or possibility. The either/or in that statement is crucial. Let’s take a look a some of the things we typically “believe” as examples:

1. “Will John arrive at 10?” “I believe so.”
2. “I believe that is wrong.”
3. “I believe that Mary can finish her project on time
4. “Abortion goes against my beliefs.”
5. “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.”
6. “I believe in you.”
7. “I believe in Santa Clause.”

The context for each of these statements are gargantuan strides away from one another; some are vis-a-vis encouragement, others morality, others understanding, others faith, the list goes on. Let’s look again at the implications of those statements with respect to the word belief by replacing “belief” with other words, more precisely suited to what is meant by the speaker:

1. “Will John arrive at 10?” “I hope so.”
2. “I ? that is wrong.”
3. “I have confidence that Mary can finish her project on time
4. “Abortion goes against ?.”
5. “I ? God the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.”
6. “I have confidence in you.”
7. “I enjoy the myth of Santa Clause.”

You’ll notice that three statements have a question mark in lieu of a replacement word. That is because those statements, in marked contrast to the others, affect some statement about Biblical, absolute truth. The replacement words you choose depends on a person’s understanding of that truth. Is it emotional? Is it purely intellectual? Or is it a spiritual understanding that comes from God himself? Here is one perspective:

1. “I think that is wrong.”
2. “Abortion goes against my morals.”
3. “I have faith in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.”

These seem to be fairly innocuous statements, but they belie an uncertainty.¹ And herein lies the consequence:

Using the word “belief” with respect to God’s truth implicitly allows for other options in place of that truth.

You may actually make statements using the term “belief” and mean something entirely different. Indeed, the true Christian, the authentic disciple of Christ would have no doubt in his mind about these statements because his God is profound clear in affirming each one of the truths that underly these of statements.

1. “I know that is wrong.”
2. “Abortion is evil.”
3. “I affirm God the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.”

Each of these statements is “airtight” by contrast to the originals. Knowing a truth, acknowledging an evil in explicit terms, and affirming a reality are all correspondingly unwavering in their stance and imply a truth with exists apart from anyone’s understanding or misunderstanding of it. This distinction relates directly to the conversation between believer and un-believer we started with. To put it succinctly:

Stop saying believe when you what you mean is know.

Let’s look at exceedingly lucid scripture on this topic, Hebrews 11:

[1] Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [2] For by it the people of old received their commendation. [3] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:1-3 (ESV)

John Piper, in his sermon on Hebrews 11:1-3, made the following observations:

There is more here than meets the eye at first. The word for “assurance” in the first definition (“the assurance of things hoped for”) and the word for “conviction” in the second definition (“the conviction of things not seen”), are unusual words and very difficult to translate into English. You may remember the old King James Version: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” These words “substance” and “evidence” are, in fact, very serious and important translations. What is the reality behind these two words and these two definitions of faith?
John Piper, What Faith Knows and Hopes For

For our purposes here, the distinction between “substance” and “assurance” as well as between “conviction” and “evidence” are the same as the distinction between “belief” and “knowledge.” If you are a Christian, you do not simply believe that Christ died for you, but know that He did. You may object, then, that the Bible makes numerous statements about “belief” — especially in Christ — and actually commands us to. In most of these cases, the Greek word that is translated “believe” is pisteuo, which is in most cases translated more accurately as “affirmed,” and in other cases, “know” or “knowledge.” Why? Again, affirmation and knowledge are simply acknowledgements of an existing reality. Belief, on the other hand, has the nefarious duality of both representing an affirmation and, arguably more recently, alternatives.

If you say “I believe Christ died for my sins,” what you mean is “I know Christ died for my sins,” or your faith is false. Faith in God represents an understanding of the realities of His truth that is so unequivocal that it may be considered the “proof” of things unseen. And while I understand that this may be very hard for some, it is a distinction with very practical implications, both for our evangelism and, by extension, for our theology.

Stop saying “believe” and I think you will see what a profound difference it makes in how you think about your faith — and how others do too.

Footnotes

¹ It should be noted that the term “faith” is an admittedly loaded one — far moreso than even “belief” — and may likewise be more or less tenuous in its implications, depending on how it is defined. Faith is a word that should never be used outside of Christian circles without explicit definition, in context — especially outside of Christian circles.

Additional Resources

• John Piper: What Faith Knows and Hopes For, Hebrews 11:1-3