A Man's Man

What are the characteristics of a man in leadership? What does a man who is really a man look like? Generally, we look to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 to consider that answer, yet 1 Cor. 16 also offers several qualities of the godly man (in leadership).

We know that Paul is talking about leader issues in verses 13-14 (though undoubtedly he is not referring directly of elders and/or deacons, because they are not mentioned or even implied) because of two things he says: 1) the readers of this epistle were to be in subjection (v. 16) to these men — i.e., they were to follow their leadership; 2) some men in the Corinthian church who were exhibiting such qualities were Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus — these devoted themselves to the ministry in Corinth (v. 15), supplied what was lacking in the Corinthians (v. 17), and were to be acknowledged (implying, "acknowledge their leadership") by the entire body (v. 18). Paul saw these men as fulfilling a role of leadership.

So what were to be the qualities of these leaders (vv. 13-14)?

• they were to be alert — often this word "alert" is used in the context of watching for the second coming; it also is used to refer to watchfulness against sin and temptation (Mt. 26:41; 1 Pt. 5:8).
• they were to stand firm in the faith — generally "stand" is used to refer to guarding and protecting the faith — making sure the gospel is uncompromised.
• they were to act like men — the word "act like men" occurs only here in the New Testament, but according to one source also has the meaning of "conduct oneself in a courageous way," that is, "be brave!"
• they were to be strong — not just “be strong,” but "be strengthened (by the Holy Spirit)" — cf. Lk. 1:80; Eph. 3:16.
• they were to do all things in love — everything (emphatic in the clause) was to be born (which is the sense of the verb "do") out of love.

So what kind of man are we called to be as we attempt to lead others around us? Men who are alert to the temptation of sin (in our own lives!), who are faithful to the faith and defensive of it, who are brave in our actions, being renewed by the Holy Spirit, and demonstrative in love.

Lord, our hearts are sleepy instead of alert, faithless when we should be faithful (or abrasive in our defense of you), cowardly when we should be brave (Eph. 6:18), too often “renewed” according to the power of the flesh rather than the power of the Spirit, and self-loving rather than Christ-exalting in love towards all others and all things. Help us to be real men of God!

Book Review: Uprooting Anger

"Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity"(Eph. 4:26-27; NASB).

This pair of verses is familiar. Very familiar. To parents (who use the verses in exhorting their children). And husbands and wives (who use them to attempt to resolve their differences). And pastors (who instruct with them when people in their church [sometimes the pastors themselves!] remain stuck in conflict with others). And friends (who may attempt to disciple others who struggle with anger).

Yet for their familiarity, the instruction in these verses too often eludes us. We know there is righteous anger and unrighteous anger, and that most of what we demonstrate is unrighteous anger. (I won't say that all our anger is unrighteous, but I know my own heart and what I have seen in it and what I have observed superficially with others is that righteous anger is rare — very rare.)

So do we just give up? Do we just reckon that we are stuck in sin and that one day God will remove the sin when we arrive in glory, but until then we will just have to succumb to it? May it never be!

In his book, Uprooting Anger: Biblical Help for a Common Problem, Robert Jones provides not only sound Biblical instruction, but also offers hope and helpful exhortation to those who remain stuck in their sinful and ungodly wrath and anger.

Sometimes help comes just in an honest appraisal of what something is. So in the first chapter, Jones identifies the nature of anger with this definition: "our anger is our whole-personed active response of negative moral judgment against perceived evil." What was striking to me in his explanation was that the sin of unrighteous anger is often based on the sin of a critical spirit and judgmentalism and the perception of superiority and self-importance by the one who is angry. If I am unrighteously angry, is it because I am supposing moral and spiritual superiority over another and passing judgment on him (the judgment could be of either a believer or an unbeliever)? This is a significant thrust at getting to the root of the sin.

Jones also covers topics like:

• Is your anger really righteous?
• The role of repentance and confession in ridding our hearts of anger
• How anger is expressed in two different manners: public revelations (outbursts, hostile words, etc…) and private concealment (bearing grudges, private rebukes and judgments, and failing to bless others)
• Is anger against God ever appropriate? (the short answer is, "no")
• What about anger against yourself (either for genuine sin or "missed opportunities)?
• How to help others with their anger.

I have often been struck by the connection that Paul seems to make in his discussion of the mortification of sin in Colossians 3 between anger (and related sins of the tongue) and sexual sin. I've never made the full connection between the two, other than to make the interesting observation that the two dominate the discussion of what kinds of sin demand mortification. But what the exact connection between the two was had eluded me to some degree.

Jones makes the observation that those trapped by anger "must realize that uncontrolled venting invites invasions from their spiritual enemies. The angry man or woman is easy prey for the world, the flesh, and the devil." In other words, the sin of anger not only impacts the lives of those surrounding me, but it also bears the "fruit" of further sin in my own life. Anger is not a solitary sin. It sins in pairs and triplicate!

While this may not be the completely definitive book on anger, it is one that is very helpful in beginning the process of identifying underlying, root sins in our anger, and helping us to remove those sins by the grace and strength of God.

A good sermon...

What is the basic assumption of the God-honoring pastor as he begins to preach, and the God-honoring hearers as they actively listen to that same sermon? In other words, what is the intention of the pastor in delivering his sermon? Alistair Begg answers, in his sermon, "The Pulpit: It's Power and Pitfalls:"

From the pulpit of our country, we are supposed to hear not the bright ideas of men, not their rambling thoughts, not their theorizing or their speculation. We assume that the pulpit is not a place for sloganeering or for manipulation; that it's not the place for tall stories and emotionalism. But it is the place for Spirit-filled, Christ-exalting, Bible-based, life-impacting instruction and direction from God, through the words of a spokesman, which impresses upon the listeners the power of [the] text, and not the performance of the preacher. That is the foundational assumption…

Book Review: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor

Everyone wants to be somebody.

By that I don't mean that everyone is necessarily seeking his identity or that he is muddled in some measure of a mid-life crisis. But I do mean that everyone wants to achieve some measure of measurable and recognized success. They want to do something so that they will be recognized by others, acclaimed as high achievers, generously successful, and gracious "winners." We recognize that in a country of 300 million people, only one individual attains to the position of President, so we rarely strive for such a lofty goal. But most individuals would like to hear "well done," at least in their own circle of friends or even just from their families.

This includes all individuals — even pastors.

But what most people get is far less than that (if you're not a pastor, adapt the following description to your scenario; it likely will fit in some way) —

Most pastors will not regularly preach to thousands, let alone tens of thousands. They will not write influential books, they will not supervise large staffs, and they will never see more than modest growth. They will plug away at their care for the aged, at their visitation, at their counseling, at their Bible studies and preaching. Some will work with so little support that they will prepare their own bulletins. They cannot possibly discern whether the constraints of their own sphere of service owe more to the specific challenges of the local situations or to their own shortcomings. Once in a while they will cast a wistful eye on 'successful' ministries. Many of them will attend the conferences sponsored by the revered masters and come away with a slightly discordant combination of, on the one hand, gratitude and encouragement and, on the other, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and guilt.

Most of us — let us be frank — are ordinary pastors.

Dad was one of them…

So begins the new book, Memoirs of on Ordinary Pastor by D. A. Carson (he recently spoke at the Desiring God Conference for Pastors, "The Pastor as Father and Son," illustrating his three messages with passages from this book). The book is a biographical and spiritual tribute to his father Tom, who pastored for many years in a bi-lingual church in Quebec — serving congregations that generally numbered between 20 and 40.

Memoirs is a history of Tom Carson and the time and place in which he served — when Tom was most active in ministry there were approximately 40 evangelical churches in the predominantly Catholic province of Quebec. By the time he retired, that number had grown ten times, and the size of many of those congregations had individually grown many times over as well. But Tom Carson never experienced that kind of growth in his ministry. And many of the journal entries cited by his son, demonstrate the overly critical self-examination and sorrow over the lack of growth and the lack of response to the gospel.

Where the book shines, though, is in D. A. Carson's honest and insightful analysis of what was transpiring in the life of his father and the ministry in Quebec. Why did his father struggle inwardly with discouragement? Or what kind of qualities did he evidence that enabled him to persevere when discouraged? These are the kinds of questions that Carson insightfully addresses and are an encouragement not only to a pastor, but to anyone who struggles from discouragement.

What D. A. constantly reminds the reader of, through recounting the life of his father, is that the value of an individual life is not based on the number or kind of accomplishments, but on the value of the Savior followed and the merit of the blood applied. The eternal value of all men is found only in their relationship with the eternal God-man, Jesus Christ. And the one who is in Him, has all things, though on earth he may have few things.

The concluding paragraphs to the book not only provide a fitting conclusion to the book, but also offer a correcting encouragement to those who may be frustrated by their ordinary status in life (this is a long citation, but it's worth reading):

Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday's grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, 'By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.' His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.

When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance into the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man — he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor — but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.'

Atonement sermons

Stimulated by the book Pierced for Our Transgressions, Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence (pastors at Capitol Hill Baptist Church) began a series at Christmas that will culminate at Easter on the penal substitutionary work of Christ. I've only listened to the first two messages, but it appears that it will be a very helpful and encouraging series on the value of the cross of Christ.

Book Review: Pierced for Our Transgressions

Earlier this week, Keith asked me, "what's the best book you've read on your sabbatical, so far?"

I offered several different titles that I enjoyed, but none stood out as "the best." Now I have a title for him.

Not only is Pierced for Our Transgressions the best book I've read on sabbatical, but it's the best book I've read in a year. Maybe more. It may be on the top ten of most important books I've ever read. It's that good. And it's that important.

When I was in seminary, and then the first few years after seminary, questioning the truth of the penal substitutionary work of Christ just didn't exist (at least not widely and openly). Today the attacks on the cross are widely embraced. So statements like the following (from the worst book — Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross — I've read so far) are considered acceptable:

"It will not do, therefore, to characterize the atonement as God's punishment falling on Christ…or as Christ's appeasement or persuasion of God."

"…ethically, this model [penal substitution] has little to offer.…In the end, a penal satisfaction presentation of the atonement can too easily lead to a situation in which we might conclude that Jesus came to save us from God."

"…[the] penal satisfaction theory…has significant problems and does not cohere well with biblical teaching on salvation."

The misunderstanding of the meaning of penal substitution — that through His death, Christ bore our sin, pain and death, enduring and satisfying the wrath of God in our place — is evidenced throughout the various contributors to Proclaiming the Scandal. And the great value of Pierced for Our Transgressions is that it provides a clear Biblical and theological corrective.

After providing a brief overview of the opposition to penal substitution (and something of its genesis and history), the authors provide a lengthy discussion of many Biblical passages that not only support penal substitution, but explicitly teach it. They consider passages like Exodus 12, Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53, the Gospels, Romans, and Galatians 3. The Biblical weight of evidence is great, and the 70 pages of careful exposition of numerous passages makes that abundantly clear. Then, the authors offer 50 pages in which they demonstrate how penal substitution not only fits within a Biblical framework of theology, but how penal substitution alone provides a Biblical and theological reason for the death of Christ. And they follow that with both the positive implications of penal substitution, and a historical overview of this understanding of Christ's death, demonstrating that this has always been the dominant view concerning Christ's death, and not some relatively new theory, as books like Scandal suggest.

This first half of Piercing is weighty and helpful for creating a Biblical framework for understanding Christ's death. In the last 130 pages or so, the authors then do the difficult work of answering the myriad objections to this view. Its difficulty arises not from the trouble of answering the questions — most of them are adequately precluded and answered in the first 200 pages — but from the task of accumulating and reading all the dissensions to penal substitution. So these authors have graciously provided the church for years to to come a great gift of addressing all the various objections (the consider 26 different, specific denials of substitution) in a systematic, Biblical and clear manner.

This book addresses a complex and important issue to the church. It provides sound Biblical exposition of important passages, articulates involved theological issues, and answers complex objections — and does all these things very clearly and concisely. It may not be a book that I will ever read from cover to cover again, but it is a book that I will often recommend and will often use as a reference as I meditate on the greatness of our Savior's work on the cross.

Reflection on God's work in salvation

The past couple of days I've been doing a fair bit of reading in the recently published book, Pierced for Our Transgressions. It is an important book because of it is a clear and definitive defense of the penal substitutionary work of Christ on the cross.

I'll have more comments when I finish the book (hopefully tomorrow a.m.), but for now was particularly struck by an extended section where the authors discussed the work of the triune God in salvation. There is much here for meditation and reflection:

God the Father gave his Son to save rebellious, God-hating people, knowing that he would be despised and rejected by those he had made, that he would be a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. He spared sinful people from condemnation, death and punishment, but he did not spare his own beloved Son, with whom he was well pleased.

God the Son gave himself, willingly undertaking the task appointed for him by his Father. He veiled his glory in a human body, experienced every temptation we face without succumbing to any, and lived a perfect human life. Yet he took our sin and guilt upon himself and died a cursed death, suffering in his human nature the infinite torment of the wrath and fury of his Father. After three days he was vindicated in his resurrection before being exalted to his heavenly throne. From there he rules his kingdom, awaiting the day of his glorious appearing when every eye shall see him, every knee bow before him, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God the Holy Spirit, having been sent by the Father and the Son, now works in our hearts through the proclamation of the gospel to convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment, to draw us to Christ in repentance and faith, and so to unite us to Christ that we may share in every blessing he has won for us.

God the Holy Trinity thus turned aside his own righteous wrath against sinful humanity; endured and exhausted the curse of the law that stood against us; cleansed us of our sin and clothed us in Christ's righteousness; ransomed us from our slavery to sin, the world and the devil by paying our debt, cancelling the devil's power of accusation against us, and liberating us to live new lives empowered by the Spirit; triumphed over all evil powers by punishing evil in the person of the Son; and reconciled us with himself by removing the barrier of sin and enmity between us; in order that we may stand blameless and forgiven in his glorious presence, credited with the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, as adopted children of God, gazing upon his face for all eternity.

God vindicated his truthfulness by remaining faithful to his promise that sin will be punished; he manifested his justice by punishing sin and acquitting righteousness; he glorified his name by exalting his Son and placing all things under his feet; and he demonstrated his love by dying for sinners and reconciling to himself those who were once his enemies.

How to love your enemy

Do you ever wonder how to love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you (Mt. 5:44)?

John Piper, contemplating that command of Christ, relates it to the familiar pattern for prayer that follows in Mt. 6 —

It would be unwarranted to think that the loving prayer for our enemy should ask for less important things than we are told to pray for ourselves. So I assume this prayer is what we should pray for our enemies.

• This means that we should ask God that our enemy first and foremost come to hallow God’s name, that he value God above all and reverence him and admire him in proportion to God’s worth.
• We should pray that our enemy come under the saving sway of God’s kingly rule and that God would exert his kingly power to make our enemy his own loyal subject.
• We should pray that our enemy would love to do the will of God the way the angels do it in heaven with all their might and without reservation and with purest motives and supreme joy.
• We should pray that God would supply our enemy with all the physical resources of food and clothing and shelter and education and health care and transportation, etc. that he needs to fulfill God’s calling on his life. We should want this for him the way we want it for ourselves.
• We should pray that his sins would be forgiven and that he would be a forgiving person.
• And finally we should pray that God protect him from temptation and from the destructive powers of the devil.

This is what love prays.

It is pathetic to see love stripped of God. Even some Christians are misled into thinking you can love someone without longing for and praying for and aiming at the exaltation of God in the heart of their enemy. What is so sad about this is that it not only betrays the diminished place of God in the heart of the Christian, but also implies that there can be real love where we don’t care if someone perishes eternally, as long as they prospered here on earth. It is true that our love and prayer may not succeed in wakening our enemy to faith in Jesus and to the hallowing of God’s name. Love is the aim of our sacrifice, not its success. We may or may not succeed in the Jesus-exalting, God-hallowing transformation we aim at. But a heart that does not aim at our enemy’s eternal joy in Jesus is not the full-orbed, robust love that Jesus demands. It is a narrow and pathetic substitute, no matter how creative and sacrificial and media-admired the labor is for our enemy’s earthly welfare. Love prays for our enemy with all the aims and longings of the Lord’s Prayer. [my emphasis]

Catching up on some blogs

Here are some blogs of interest from the past few days —

In the past two days, Al Mohler has written two articles that all parents ought to read. Yesterday he wrote, "The Death Culture Strikes Again," addressing the role of the internet in increasing suicide rates among teens, concluding with yet another admonition to parents to be wary of what their children are consuming digitally.

And this morning he wrote, "Are We Teaching Our Children to Lie?" addressing not only the issue that our children lie (they do — "In the end, 98 percent of the teens admitted lying to parents. At the same time, 98 percent of the same teens said that lying is wrong. Add to this the fact that many of these kids admitted lying a great deal. It turns out that children begin to lie very early. As a skill, lying seems tied to intelligence. The smarter kids lie earlier and more skillfully. Really smart kids can lie at 2 or 3."), but that they may be learning to lie from their parents! As people of the truth, this is an issue worth considering some honest self-evaluation.

And Terry Mattingly writes an interesting column on adultery, offering some data that hopefully suggests adultery may not be as pervasive as is commonly reported, but still concluding with this disheartening comment: "When it comes to matters of infidelity, Christian Americans act more like Americans than they do like Christians."

Book Review: Spirit-Empowered Preaching

In the last year or so, I became aware of the ministry of Art Azurdia, and the treasure of sermons available from his ministry as a pastor for some 20 years. Having heard a number of his sermons, I purchased his book, Spirit Empowered Preaching.

After hearing a broad variety of other preachers and kinds of preaching over the past three Sundays, I picked the book up this morning, and devoured it in two sittings. The reason I picked it up was the reason articulated in the Foreword to the book:

Preaching, in our time, has clearly undergone significant change. Often the preacher, even the evangelical preacher, is not more than a dispenser of new data (biblical or otherwise), or a motivator and spiritual counselor for spiritually starved and confused people. What is most obviously missing is 'the burden'. There is no 'woe' to be felt int he preacher's tone or spirit.

This is the malady addressed by Azurdia's book. It is no "how-to" book of preaching. It is an appeal that "the efficacious empowerment of the Spirit of God is indispensable to the ministry of proclamation." In other words, we don't need preachers with more style or gimicks or tighter outlines or more impassioned pleas or detailed application. We need men more full of the Holy Spirit.

• Men full of the Holy Spirit will accomplish "greater works" than Christ (Jn. 14:12)
• Men will accomplish those greater works by means of the the Spirit of God communicating through the Word of God — "the burden of the preacher is to experience the power of the scriptures in his own life before he stands at the sacred desk. 'The Word must become flesh again; the preacher must become the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, his mind inspired and his heart inflamed by the truth he preaches.'"
• The communication of the Holy Spirit is centered on Jesus Christ — the Spirit is given for the express purpose of revealing and glorifying Christ, which in turn is also the framework for all Spirit-empowered preaching. "…the vitality of the Spirit is His effectual work of glorifying Jesus Christ through fallible men who faithfully proclaim the Christocentric scriptures."
• An apostolic ministry (1 Cor. 2:1-5) is "characterized by a determination to (1) proclaim a foolish message; (2) appropriate a foolish method; and, (3) rest upon a foolish means. That is, the message is the "foolishness" of the cross (the gospel is not for unbelievers only), the method is preaching and proclamation because the method must correspond to the message, and nothing else — not drama, not music, not video — fits the message of the Word like preaching, and the means of accomplishing this evangelical ministry is through dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit of God alone.
• To minister in the Spirit's power, "the preacher must devote himself to a consistent pattern of fervent intercession,…prepare himself by the means of the diligent study of the scriptures,…[and he] must recognize, and even revel in, his own human inabilities.

And Azurdia also notes how important the listener and congregant is int his process:

• "the congregation must consciously refrain from any kind of attitude or activity that might contribute to a withholding of the effects of the Holy Spirit."
• "the congregation must earnestly take up its mandate to make intercession for the effects of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the word of God."

This book is a petition for holy men to preach a holy Word. Azurdia is thoroughly biblical in his approach and explanation, and penetrating in his challenges. He not only provides a lens through which to view and evaluate preaching, but offers a seldom-spoken model of how to do preaching to the glory of God. It made me yearn to both get back into the pulpit, and to fill my mind and ears with good preaching.

Solus Christus Audio

The audio from the Solus Christus conference held at Countryside Bible Church last weekend is now online. Here are the links to the various sermons:

• Christ: Our Only Mediator (Al Mohler)
• Christ: Our Only Righteousness (Tom Pennington)
• Christ: Our Only Advocate (Phil Johnson)
• A Tale of Two Covenants (Phil Johnson)
• Christ Alone: The Heart of Our Evangelism (Mike Gendron)
• Our Daily Bread: Applying "In Christ Alone" to Life (Rocky Wyatt)
• Christ: The Only Remedy for Original Sin (Phil Johnson)
• Christ: Our Only Master (John MacArthur)
• Christ: The Only Sovereign of His Church (John MacArthur)

As I have been spending some time on my sabbatical reading and thinking about issues related to the atonement, I particularly appreciated Tom Pennington's message on Friday evening, though all the messages were thought-provoking and helpful.

Book Review: The Truth War

I finished reading John MacArthur’s book, The Truth War this morning — on the same day that the main headline in my newspaper (referring to the question of Roger Clemens’ supposed steroid usage) was, “Testimony hits no closer to the truth.”

The headline is a revelation of the time in which we live. We tear down the walls of truth, supplanting them with relativism and subjectivism and then are indignant when someone is lying. We publicly decry the harshness of objective standards, yet we inherently understand our reliance on truth and the necessity of standards. There is something called truth; the opposite of truth is deceit, and — as the headline in today’s paper implicitly acknowledged — a culture cannot exist on that deceit.

Neither can the church. There is a truth, and we need that truth.

Yet there are many within the church who, echoing the seductive call of the culture, are repeating historical errors and doctrinal deviations and embracing postmodern thought and deviation. MacArthur’s book is a warning about straying down that path and an exhortation to cultivate afresh the practice of biblical discernment.

MacArthur is explicit in his illustrations of the current state of the church, making the argument in the introduction, “why the truth is worth fighting for.” He then demonstrates how the church-at-large arrived in its current place, tracing its movement from modernity to postmodernity (chapter 1), and also showing how postmoderns are really just advocating the old theological heresies of the Judaizers, Gnosticism, Sabellianism, and Arianism (chapters 4-5), and simple licentiousness (chapter 6). The entire book is framed around an exposition of the book of Jude and the admonition to “contend earnestly for the faith.”

This is an important book — the clarity and frankness of the admonition needs to be heard by leaders in the contemporary church, because as MacArthur notes,

…the church today is quite possibly more susceptible to false teachers, doctrinal saboteurs, and spiritual terrorism than any other generation in history. Biblical ignorance within the church may well be deeper and more widespread than at any other time since the Protestant Reformation. If you doubt that, compare the typical sermon of today with a randomly chosen published sermon from any leading evangelical preacher prior to 1850. Also compare today’s Christian literature with almost anything published by evangelical publishing houses a hundred years or more ago. [p. 165.]

The church of Jesus Christ is the instrument God has designed to be the pillar and defense of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). We must contend (Jude 3) and live for that truth. This book is a great help in identifying the subtle errors that are leading us away from the truth, and not just a call to return to the truth, but a map to lead us back to the truth.

Mohler on the new atheism

Last week, Al Mohler presented the W. H. Griffith Thomas lectureship at Dallas Theological Seminary, speaking on the new atheism. If you are wondering what men like Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins are saying and writing (and millions of people have purchased their books, so someone is wondering), then you will find these lectures helpful:

• The New Atheism And The Endgame Of Secularism
• The New Atheism And The Assault On Theism
• The New Atheism And The Defense Of Theism
• The New Atheism And The Future Of Christianity

There are also many links to commentaries and blogs on Al Mohler's website about the new atheism.

Need more time?

Rare is the day when someone doesn't say something to me like, "I just need a little more time…" I say it too.

Near the end of his biography on Whitfield, Arnold Dallimore offers this personal observation that is both an encouragement and exhortation:

When the present author is stirring at 7 in the morning, he frequently reminds himself that Whitfield had been active since 4. Arising at that early time, he spent the first hour in communion with God, reading and praying over a portion of the Scriptures, praising God and also interceding with Him for lost souls in general, and several in particular.

At 5 he preached, and virtually always to a host of men and women. John Newton, the converted slavetrader, stated, 'I have seen Moorfields as full of torches at 5 in the morning as the Haymarket is on a theatre night.' And by 7 Whitfield had often set out on an evangelistic journey or was writing letters or meeting the first number who came seeking spiritual advice.

Book Review: George Whitfield

Arnold Dallimore has written numerous biographies, including ones on Spurgeon, several on the Wesley family, and the definitive two-volume work on George Whitfield, which he latter summarized into a more manageable, one-volume, 200-page book: George Whitfield: God's Annointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century. (This latter book also may be accessed through Google Books.)

While he only lived for 56 years (1714-1770), Whitfield led a remarkable life. Like Spurgeon, he was involved in a variety of activities (an orphanage, several churches, the founding of the Methodist movement, and extensive travel, including seven cross-Atlantic trips to the United States). He spoke to thousands of people at a time in the open air (prior to amplification systems) — in fact, it is estimated that during the course of his lifetime, his voice was personally heard by more people than anyone in the history of mankind. Benjamin Franklin (yes, that Franklin), estimated that on one occasion while preaching in Philadelphia, Whitfield was heard by more than 30,000 people!

Dallimore points to a number of accomplishments in Whitfield's life, including:

• the breadth of his appeal to various listeners (he was embraced by both the poor, like coal miners and slaves, and the sophisticated nobility of both England and America, including the Prince of Wales and Benjamin Franklin).
• his ability to be readily understood and appreciated by both the educated and uneducated and children.
• the steady course of his life — unwavering and uncompromising in his doctrine, and his ability to avoid pitfalls of pride, asceticism, legalism, and mysticism.

As I read the book, however, I found myself encouraged and challenged by a man who regularly faced opposition, both theological (from both believers and unbelievers) and physical (several times he faced murderous attacks). Multiple times in my reading I made notes in the margin like "conflict," "more conflict," and "opposed again." Yet in spite of the criticism and personal attacks he faced, he maintained an attitude of grace toward his adversaries and strove to effect reconciliation, as much as he could.

On multiple occasions, those whom he left in charge of his church in England while he traveled to America abdicated their position and turned against him (to varying degrees) while he was away. Likewise, those who were his closest friends in ministry — the Wesleys — were estranged from him for many years over doctrinal issues. It is a testimony that at the end of his life, Charles Wesley wrote a 536-line elegy to his memory. Included in that work were these lines, that bespeak of friendly admiration and honor of a godly man:

Such for a length of years his glorious race
He ran, nor e'er looked back, or slack'd his pace,
Forgetting still the things already done,
And reaching forth to those not yet begun,
Eager he press'd to his high calling's prize,
By violent faith resolved to scale the skies,
And apprehend his Lord in paradise.

That Charles Wesley in particular was restored to fellowship with Whitfield is attributable to the grace of God working through Whitfield's repeated attempts to produce that reconciliation, and his humility in confession and his willingness to defer to others in non-essential matters.

When first picking up this book, I thought, "surely this will give me all I want about Whitfield — what more could be said in several hundred more pages?" Yet having now finished, I find myself yearning for more information about his relationship with Jonathan Edwards (a scant two pages in this book), the nature of his marriage (Doreen Moore offers far more information — and seemingly a more open and honest evaluation — of his marriage in Good Christians, Good Husbands? : Leaving a Legacy in Marriage and Ministry), and more samplings of the actual content of his sermons.

I suppose that's the mark of a good book, however: enough information written well, without producing excessively-bored yawning, and stimulating a yearning for more pages. Perhaps another year will induce me to attempt Dallimore's full treatment of Whitfield's life.

Book Review: The Cross He Bore

I regularly look for and purchase and read books about Jesus Christ — and particularly Christ and the cross.

The cross is of first importance for the believer. We cannot think about it too much. We often think about it too little.

So when I read an encouragement by Tim Challies to purchase The Cross He Bore, I was intrigued. When he wrote about it again, I got online and ordered a copy.

I finished reading it yesterday. I will look to it and read it again.

The size of the book is unimpressive (exactly 100 pages, divided into 13 chapters that each stand alone in their content).

But the writing is superb. In each chapter, Leahy contemplates a single verse, focusing on some aspect of the preparation for or the crucifixion of Christ itself. The texts are all familiar, but his insights are almost always unique, sobering, and helpful for worship and communion preparation.

An example. In the chapter, "The Butt of Mockery," considering Matthew 26:67-68, he writes this:

Many hands were raised against him, both human and demonic, but Christ knew that there was one hand above all others that smote him. And as he bore our sins that hand did not spare him. 'It was the will of the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief…' (Isa. 53:10).

In the same chapter, he later he adds,

…in many ways all Christians fail to be as sensitive to the presence of evil as they should be. But the sinless one was totally sensitive to the presence of evil. We must not, therefore, limit his redemptive sufferings to the last few days of his life before the crucifixion and to his actual agony on the cross. William Symington rightly affirms, 'In every case He suffered for us, never for Himself'; and he adds, 'Not one throb of pain did He feel, not one pang of sorrow did He experience , not one sigh of anguish did He heave, not one tear of grief did He shed for Himself. If not one of His sufferings was personal, it follows that they were all substitutionary…'. During the whole period of his [earthly] life the Saviour 'was a-slaying'.

And writing about the cup of judgment given to Him by the Father, Leahy says this:

The cup that the Father placed in the Son's hands was brimful of wrath and judgment. Its every drop brought torment. Yet this cup he would drink to the glory of God! This cup he would drink in honour of God's holiness and righteousness. This cup of death he would drink in order that not one of his people might ever taste a single drop of it. 'Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?' (John 18:11). Yes, indeed! He would drink it to its dregs. He would drain that cup. Not one drop would be left.

Similar insights abound throughout the book. Not only does Leahy instruct the mind, but he stimulated my heart into deeper gratitude and affection for Christ — the very thing a book about the cross should do!

What makes a good home?

In his sermon, "The Pastor as Son of an Earthly Father," D. A. Carson says this:

"The worst kind of home to be brought up in is the one with many pretensions and low performance.
The best kind of home to be brought up in is the one with few pretensions and high performance."

The entire sermon is well worth hearing, as are all the messages at the Bethlehem Conference. (Crawford Loritts' sermon — "The Call to Courage" — is now in my "favorite sermons" folder on my .mp3 player.)

Why I (and others) appreciate Piper’s preaching

Mark Dever wrote this about John Piper in the Introduction to Preaching the Cross (which C. J. Mahaney also quoted in his recent interview of Dever):

What a gift John is to the church. While too many of us are saying a lot of things quickly and running on to the next, John stops. And stands. And stays. And stares at God’s Word. Sometimes he stares at something that seems so obvious, but he keeps staring until it begins to expand and fill the horizon of his sight. It becomes rich and detailed and luscious and intricate and full and demanding and hope-giving and life-affirming and sin-denying and sacrifice-requiring and adjective-adding. John prays and thinks until the part of God’s Word which seems simple and obvious becomes fresh and powerful.

What are you giving up for Lent?

As today is Ash Wednesday, this is a common question — “what are you giving up for Lent?”

I’ve heard a variety of answers — from the sublime to the ridiculous (but mostly ridiculous) — cole slaw, eye-liner, premarital sex with a fiancé, running yellow lights among them. Even giving up Lent. Hmmm.

I am no expert of liturgical faith that emphasizes a significant personal sacrifice in order to prepare for Easter — and ostensibly to merit the favor of God.

But as I think about righteousness and the relationship between faith in Christ and works, the connection between what we do and what we have from God, two Biblical passages come to mind:

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. [Col. 2:20-23; NASB]

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit… [Titus 3:5; NASB]

In the former, God says that while there are those who suggest that there is merit to be found in self-denial, in fact, such things are headed for an eternal deterioration and dissolution. They have the appearance of wisdom and commendation from God, but they will not survive, nor are they any help in producing righteousness or the mortification of the flesh (Col. 3:5; Rom. 8:13). Jesus said that the force of the Law was to bring people to the place that they understood that they could not be as perfect as God (Mt. 5:48) — nothing they could do would produce an ability to stand before the One with whom we all have to do (Heb. 4:13).

And the latter verse also affirms that there is no deed — nor any amount of deeds — done even as an act of our very greatest righteousness which will produce eternal righteousness, new birth, or regeneration before God. We cannot change ourselves. We can only be — we must only be — changed by Christ. [Piper makes this point exceedingly well in this week’s sermon, “Through the Washing of Regeneration.”]

Giving up eye-liner — or even pre-marital sex— for 6 weeks — or even for a lifetime, is not enough to assuage the wrath of God against the sin our hearts. For our affront against God is not a single sin that a single external act for a brief amount of time can warrant His decree of “RIGHTEOUS” over our lives. Our sin against Him is massive, not minor, and internal, not external (Mk. 7:20-23) — such that nothing we do will ever atone for our own sin. In fact our very attempts to achieve righteousness apart from the only One who is righteous is further sin against Him and leaves us in even greater debt to Him and in further merit of His wrath.

This is not to say, “Don’t worry about sin in your life,” but it is to say, “Address (attack! kill!) sin in your life by the means God has provided:”

…make sure that you attack the flesh with God’s weapons and not your own. You’ll find lots of teachers in churches who offer remedies that don’t come from God. When we try to offer them to God he says to us, ‘Who has asked this of you?’ (Isaiah 1:12). The Pharisees, for example, were notorious for piling high the works and duties that would win God’s pleasure, yet few of those works came from God. And the church has added its share of fastings, pilgrimages, abstinence, prayers, and rituals that have little or no basis in God’s Word.…

But what does God require of us for our spiritual recovery? Simple: renewed obedience in his means of killing the flesh. His means are those outlined throughout his Word and they’re familiar: constantly reading his Word, hearing it preached, and reflecting on it; fervent prayer; careful watching against temptation; and fixing the mind always on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.…

And when we attach the flesh in our own strength, the worst thing that can happen is anything that might smell of success — because our pride will jump to make a merit badge out of it. We’ll begin to justify ourselves before God, and that will lead us away from sincere faith, away from the gospel, away from Christ. But faith clings to Chris tin everything and won’t move an inch without his help. Faith won’t read a chapter, sing a hymn, say a prayer, or offer a gift, without calling on the strength of Christ by the Spirit. This is what it means to live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20). And when we live this way, God always revives us. [Lundgaard, Through the Looking Glass]

What are you giving up for Lent? Maybe the better question to ask is, What are you taking up and who are you following?

Answer? I am taking up my cross to follow Christ and ask for His righteousness to be both given to me and formed in me.

The sacrifice of Christ

I was introduced to the poetry of George Herbert 25 years ago in a college literature class. In fact, I had to purchase a textbook comprised almost entirely of his poetry. I didn’t have an appreciation for his writing at the time — even after reading a significant amount from that book.

Now I do.

In Through the Looking Glass, Kris Lundgaard quotes one of Herbert’s poems at length. It’s worth reading.

Book Review: Through the Looking Glass

I stumbled onto Kris Lundgaard’s first book, The Enemy Within, at a second-hand book store. I was unfamiliar with the book, but knew the reputation of the publisher, and seeing the commendation from J. I. Packer on the back, I ventured the few dollars for the book on the hope they would be worthwhile. They were. I have referred to the book numerous times, and been encouraged and challenged by it.

Subsequently, Lundgaard wrote another book, entitled Through the Looking Glass. The premise was similar to the first book — he took the ideas and theology of the Puritan writer John Owen (this time he borrows from The Glory of Christ) and wrote a book on the same themes with contemporary language and illustrations.

The premise of this book is similar to my purpose in recently preaching John 1-12 — to exalt the person of Christ and to make Him more known: “This book is about Christ. It’s for reflecting on Christ through the looking glass of the Scriptures, relishing everything about him we can know, all his loveliness and wonder.”

Mission accomplished.

His premise is that there is nothing greater than desiring Christ, and that most of us love and yearn for Him too weakly. To counteract that tendency and to stimulate our best God-ward hunger, Lundgaard paints great pictures of Christ. Though sometimes handling Old Testament passages with too much freedom and a careless and inconsistent hermeneutic (my only significant complaint with the book), yet he does ask penetrating questions and offers hopeful help.

Perhaps his concluding chapter offers the best example:

…when we answer the question, “How do I recover from spiritual decay?” we find ourselves right back where we started this book. You see, there can’t be any real revival apart from the glory of Christ.

Every ounce of grace we receive comes from Jesus Christ.…without him we can’t lift a finger.…

Are you stirred by a conviction that your spiritual life is languishing? Do you yearn for a renewal of spiritual strength that will flourish in faith, love, and holiness? Then drive a stake into this solid ground: you won’t have a bit of it apart from Jesus. You can claim every promise in the Book and screw up your courage to carry out the toughest spiritual disciplines — but you won’t find a breath of relief unless Christ breathes on you. And if we can only be renewed though Christ, isn’t he glorious?

Every ounce of grace we receive comes by faith. By faith we come to Christ, are planted in Christ, and live in Christ to bear fruit for him. By our faith he lives in us and acts in us, so that we live by faith in the Son of God. You won’t find a jot or tittle in the Scriptures to suggest that you’ll receive anything from Christ other than by faith. Faith points away from us and our strength to Christ and his glory.

This faith is in the person of Christ, his grace, all his work to bring us to God, and his glory in everything.…

Spiritual recovery begins and continues when we gaze on the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). [pp. 199-200; his emphasis.]

Overloaded?

I first saw the link to this web article on another blog, somewhere, sometime in the last week. Don't know who, don't know when. I just remember seeing it, and then seeing it referenced again by Desiring God today.

I don't have 157 books to read like Phil Ryken, but I do have over 100 on my "to read" list. And a half dozen journals. And too many blogs and web articles each day.

Just yesterday when I was late in calling my Dad for a regular visit I said, "As usual, it took me longer to do what I wanted to do." Actually, that should have been, "it took me longer to do less than I wanted to do." I know that sounds familiar. It is the world in which we live.

So, of all the things clamoring for your attention, take 5-8 minutes to read and think about Ryken's article "Overloaded." Here is a quote that I thought important:

"The more we watch the lives of men, the more we see that one of the reasons why men are not occupied with great thoughts and interests is the way in which their lives are overfilled with little things." [Phillips Brooks]

Three conferences this week

This week I will be attending three conferences (kind of).

The first is in Minneapolis, hosted by Bethlehem Baptist Church (pastored by John Piper). The theme of this pastor's conference is "The Pastor as Father and Son." And while I won't actually be in physical attendance, Desiring God generally makes the audio from each session available within hours of the actual session. So I plan on listening to as many of those messages as quickly as I'm able. One of the highlights of the Bethlehem Pastor's conferences are John Piper's biographical sermons; this year he will pay tribute to his father.

The second conference is not actually a conference, but a lecture series delivered by Al Mohler at Dallas Theological Seminary this week (Tues - Fri). While I won't be in attendance for the chapel messages, DTS likewise makes their chapel messages available online, so I'm excited to hear Mohler addresss some of the contemporary issues of the day.

The third conference I will actually be in attendance. The Solus Christus conference is being held at Countryside Bible Church and features Al Mohler, John MacArthur, Phil Johnson (Grace to You), and Tom Pennington (pastor of Countryside). This is the second of their planned five Sola conferences (Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide ['09], Sola Gratia ['10], Soli Deo Gloria ['11]), and promises to be an excellent declaration of the supremacy of Christ.

Books on the cross

C. J. Mahaney, who himself has written a book or two about the cross (The Cross-Centered Life and Living the Cross Centered Life) today posted his list of favored books on the cross.

I concur with his choice of Stott's book, and am looking forward to beginning to read this weekend Pierced for Our Transgressions — if the reviews I've read are indicative, it will probably be on my list as well.

To Mahaney's list, I'd also add the following books:

• Leon Morris, The Atonement (also published in slightly different forms under the title, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross).
• J. Dwight Pentecost, Things Which Become Sound Doctrine — it's brief, but provides a good synthesis of cross-themes, like grace, regeneration, imputation, substitution, redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation, among others.

As I pursue thinking about the significance of the cross on my sabbatical, all those books are on the shelf behind me, along with Jerry Bridges' The Great Exchange, J. C. Ryle's, Regeneration, Frederick Leahy's The Cross He Bore, and John Piper's The Future of Justification.

Pray that as my mind is filled with the cross of Christ, that my life will be more cross and Christ-centered.

Book Review: Is That You Lord?

Fleeces, open and closed doors, impressions, "peace" (or a lack of it) — all these are common means for believers attempting to discover the sovereign will of God for their lives.

To that idea, pastor Gary Gilley counters in his book Is That You Lord? that there is a better, more God-exalting, Scripture-trusting, and freedom-giving way.

Following the lead of Gary Friesen (Decision Making and the Will of God [be sure to purchase the first edition of this book]), Gilley explains that there are three kinds of God's will — His sovereign (inter-Trinitarian, unknowable to man, Dt. 29:29) will, His moral (revealed in His commands and instruction in Scripture) will, and His individual will. As Gilley demonstrates, most people are attempting to find the latter, but their quest is actually an attempt to discover His sovereign will — "The real question people are asking when it comes to the individual will is, 'How can I know God's sovereign will for my life?' They want to know if God has given them a means whereby they can storm the gates of heaven and unlock the secret counsels of God."

That quest, Gilley argues, has lead to a mystical quest for God in which believers are tempted to place as much or more trust in extra-Biblical revelation from God than in the revealed Word of God.

…revelation from God, no matter what format or venue, is still revelation from God. It is not possible for God to give revelation that is not authoritative and demanding of obedience. All revelation from God carries the authority of Scripture.…Today many are claiming to hear from God, but what they are hearing, they say, does not have the status and significance of Scripture. This is logically impossible. Either God has spoken or he has not. If he has spoken, that message is as authoritative as Scripture. [pp. 60-61]

Rather than trusting impressions, Gilley argues briefly but convincingly, that the Bible's own counsel about making decisions is:

• always begin with Scripture — "When you begin with Scripture, in the realm of decision making, you will be able to make your decisions on the basis of solid biblical precepts, commands and principles. The Bible will not tell you what house you are to buy, but it will frame that decision with financial, ministerial and family guidelines."
• pray for wisdom — "we are not told [Js. 1:5-8] that the Lord will specifically make the decision for us through some form of prompting, only that he will provide wisdom for making a wise decision."
• [seek] wise counsel — "The counsel of wise, godly and scripturally knowledgeable people is an important source for making wise decisions, but we must keep in mind that such counsel is not infallible. It is a piece but it does not solve the puzzle."
• circumstances and opportunity — "[These] offer us options — options that should be carefully examined. But again these options are not obligatory mandates from God."
• desire — "God often works through our desires. What is it that we want to do? is a good question to ponder. [E.g., 1 Tim. 3:1]"
• freedom — "Surrounded by these principles, and others found within the New Testament, we are given freedom to make choices that we believe will glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31).…the good news is that God, within biblical parameters, has given us freedom and ability to make wise choices that honour him." [pp. 56-59.]
  

It is that last statement that makes many believers uncomfortable, yet Gilley does a good job surveying the Biblical landscape and demonstrating the normative pattern for God's interaction in people's lives to accomplish His sovereign purpose. God does not speak in "still, small voices" — when He speaks, it is articulate, clear, loud, unmistakable and carries a divine imperative that must always and unhesitatingly be obeyed.

The goal, as expressed in the New Testament, is not to find the will of God but to do the will of God. Since God wants you to do his will, be assured that he has not hidden it and then sent us on some kind of cosmic treasure hunt to find it. He is not daring us to discover the clues which will lead to his plan for our lives. Rather, his will is clearly imprinted on the pages of Scripture. It was to this end that Paul told Timothy to 'be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth' (2 Tim. 2:15). Many are simply unwilling to do the 'diligent' work necessary to accurately handle the word of truth and are looking for shortcuts. The Lord does not call for shortcuts; instead 'diligence' is prescribed. [p. 80.]

Are you still puzzled about the will of God for your life — which job? which house? which person to choose as a marriage partner? which church or ministry? where to vacation? who to disciple? This book will begin to give you an ability to make decisive, confident, God-exalting choices. If you want more detailed answers, read Friesen's book. If you want the concise answer, pick up this book.