Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” Luke 18: 9-14).
It is an unfair, gross distortion to hold that Rome teaches justification by works, while we Protestants teach justification by faith. The more accurate distinction recognizes on both sides the necessity of the work of Christ. Rome affirms that His righteousness is necessary for our salvation, that without it we are without hope. That righteousness, however, becomes ours through infusion. Protestants affirm also that His righteousness is necessary for salvation, that we have no hope without it. It, however, becomes ours through imputation.
Some here are quick to affirm that our differences now amount to nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. We are arguing over two, thick, theological terms that are not a part of our ordinary language. Surely such a nuance must be insignificant. But it’s not, as Jesus’ parable illustrates. Let’s look at these two men, what they have in common and what separates them.
First, it is an unfair, gross distortion to hold that the Pharisee believes he justifies himself. How quickly we pass over the one good part of his pray, “Lord, I thank you…” The Pharisee knows from whence came the power to make him righteous. He knows that he needed the grace of God, that God had to work in him, that God is due all the glory for his obedience. The publican likewise looks to God and His grace as His only hope. He knows where to turn, even as the Pharisee knows whom to thank.
The difference, however, is here. The Pharisee believes that God’s grace has made him whole, that he is now, albeit by the grace of God, just in himself. God helped him out. God stood him up. But now he is standing on his own two feet. He gives thanks to God that he is better than other men, that he doesn’t commit this sin and that, that he performs this duty and that. God has poured righteousness into him, and there he stands.
The publican, on the other hand, knows what he still is, a sinner. The mercy he cries out for isn’t that he would be made a saint, but that he would be a forgiven sinner. He cannot cooperate. He cannot stand. He can only, and even this is the grace of God, cry out for the mercy of God, which is found in Christ alone.
The bigger difference than the differing approaches of these two men, however, is what it meant for their eternities. Only one of these two men went home justified. Only one of these men was an adopted son of the living God. Only one of these two men will spend eternity walking with God in paradise. The other will spend eternity weeping and gnashing teeth. Teapot tempests have no such eternal consequences.
In our feel-good, dumbed-down, ecumenical age we find distinctions distasteful. In the faithful preaching of our Lord He demonstrates the difference they make. That said, may we Reformed protest against our own propensity to cry out, “I thank you Lord that I am not like other men, Arminians, semi-Pelagians, or even this charismatic. I score high on all theology exams and have a library that is the envy of my friends.” Instead let us, consistent with our theology, beat our breasts and cry out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
from R.C. Sproul Jr. May 10, 2011 Category: Articles
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Good Suffering (Health, Wealth, and Heresy part 2)
I woke up and went into my dad’s room (My parents had moved in with me after hurricane Katrina damaged the city in which they had lived.) He looked worse than normal that day. He was shaking and he said to me, without opening his eyes, “Don’t use the tanks marked ‘MT’ it means they’re empty.” What he was thinking of when he said that I could only speculate but in some strangely comical way it seemed logical. His kidneys were at nearly zero function, he had been speaking erratically, and vomiting profusely for weeks. The hospice nurse said it would be like this and that it was only a matter of time now. But I had faith and if I TRULY believed than the Holy Spirit would heal him. So, I went to work….that will be a true profession of faith! I believe he’ll be ok so much that I will go about my day! Two hours later I got the phone call that he was dead. Gone. He was really gone. I wasn’t there to hold his hand. I wasn’t there to wipe his brow. I wasn’t there to consol my mother when the moment came. I was gone…..in more ways than I can put into words.
Andrew Wommack spoke at a child’s funeral years ago and to paraphrase him he said, “God is not willing for anyone to die and this child is dead because of a lack of faith.” He has written a book entitled, “Self centeredness the root of all grief.” In which grief itself is seen as a selfish act of a lack of faith. You may think both these instances harsh, but let’s not be too hard on Mr. Wommack because this is the natural conclusion of a world-view in which a sovereign God does not rein. If man is in control of reality through his faith than all “bad things” that happen to a believer must be the fault of the believer. After all the unspoken mantra of the health wealther is, “My will be done.” with the guise of “Thy will be done.” Again, the problem with all of this is that everything is centered on man and not God. Everything must be filtered through our finite understanding. So, in the eyes of the health-wealther our only comfort must be in our own ability to control our lives through the strength of our faith. But what true comfort is there in our own ability to wield the power of God when we must filter it through our finite-still-struggling-with-sin minds and wills?
We live in a sad fallen world. But if God really has “the whole world in his hands” as the child’s song goes than is not our suffering also in those hands? Remember what we said last time, that what God wants is for us to be made into the image of His son. How could dying to flesh not be painful and conforming to Christ not include submission to His will when we are born into this world in lust and love for our sin? Maybe this is why sanctification is a process instead of in an instant because we couldn’t take it all at once. Even this, is an act of our Sovereign’s love. You see what I did not say at the intro of this post about my dad is that, though he professed faith, he had major struggles with sin (like us all). But when his body began to fail him and his prospect on what to do with his time (as well as the time itself) narrowed, he really started to stop and spend time with his Father that Art in Heaven. I watched him grow more spiritually in those final months than I saw in my lifetime living with him and in effect my family and I grew. Even the sovereign fact that I chose (my responsibility of course) to go to my insignificant job instead of staying with my family is used as a testimony and helped me in my walk with my Father God. I’m not saying that suffering is the only means we grow in Christ, but I am saying that there is no room for this type of sanctification in a health-wealth doctrine. Its center is man and his wants instead of God and His sovereign living hand on us.
Kevin DeYoung in his book The Good News We Almost Forgot said, “Trust, therefore does not mean hoping for the absence of pain but believing in the purpose of pain.” This is true faith: a total trust in God not what I can get from him. I will end this post with the very first question and answer from the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q - What is your only comfort in Life?
A- That I am not my own, but belong-body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen and glory be to God for that fact, because I assure you if it were not so, we would most defiantly ruin it…
Andrew Wommack spoke at a child’s funeral years ago and to paraphrase him he said, “God is not willing for anyone to die and this child is dead because of a lack of faith.” He has written a book entitled, “Self centeredness the root of all grief.” In which grief itself is seen as a selfish act of a lack of faith. You may think both these instances harsh, but let’s not be too hard on Mr. Wommack because this is the natural conclusion of a world-view in which a sovereign God does not rein. If man is in control of reality through his faith than all “bad things” that happen to a believer must be the fault of the believer. After all the unspoken mantra of the health wealther is, “My will be done.” with the guise of “Thy will be done.” Again, the problem with all of this is that everything is centered on man and not God. Everything must be filtered through our finite understanding. So, in the eyes of the health-wealther our only comfort must be in our own ability to control our lives through the strength of our faith. But what true comfort is there in our own ability to wield the power of God when we must filter it through our finite-still-struggling-with-sin minds and wills?
We live in a sad fallen world. But if God really has “the whole world in his hands” as the child’s song goes than is not our suffering also in those hands? Remember what we said last time, that what God wants is for us to be made into the image of His son. How could dying to flesh not be painful and conforming to Christ not include submission to His will when we are born into this world in lust and love for our sin? Maybe this is why sanctification is a process instead of in an instant because we couldn’t take it all at once. Even this, is an act of our Sovereign’s love. You see what I did not say at the intro of this post about my dad is that, though he professed faith, he had major struggles with sin (like us all). But when his body began to fail him and his prospect on what to do with his time (as well as the time itself) narrowed, he really started to stop and spend time with his Father that Art in Heaven. I watched him grow more spiritually in those final months than I saw in my lifetime living with him and in effect my family and I grew. Even the sovereign fact that I chose (my responsibility of course) to go to my insignificant job instead of staying with my family is used as a testimony and helped me in my walk with my Father God. I’m not saying that suffering is the only means we grow in Christ, but I am saying that there is no room for this type of sanctification in a health-wealth doctrine. Its center is man and his wants instead of God and His sovereign living hand on us.
Kevin DeYoung in his book The Good News We Almost Forgot said, “Trust, therefore does not mean hoping for the absence of pain but believing in the purpose of pain.” This is true faith: a total trust in God not what I can get from him. I will end this post with the very first question and answer from the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q - What is your only comfort in Life?
A- That I am not my own, but belong-body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen and glory be to God for that fact, because I assure you if it were not so, we would most defiantly ruin it…
Saturday, May 7, 2011
A Reversal of The Order Is Fatal
There are two invitations given by the Lord Jesus Christ, which cover the whole subject of a sinner's salvation. One is an invitation to come to him, and the other an invitation to come after him. Examples of the first are: "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28. "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. Examples of the second are: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Matt. 11 : 29. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Matt. 16:24. The first of these is an invitation to come to the Saviour, by trusting penitently in his atoning blood in order to pardon and reconciliation with God's holiness. The second is an invitation to come after the Saviour, by imitating his character and example. And they must be accepted in the order in which the Saviour has placed them. A reversal of the order is fatal. If the sinner attempts to come after the Saviour before he has come to him, to copy the Redeemer's life and conduct without seeking peace with God by trust in the Redeemer's offering for sin, it will be an utter failure. A pacified conscience and a sense of being forgiven, must go before all true obedience. If, again, the sinner separates these two invitations, the consequence is equally fatal. If he attempts to obey the first without obeying the second, to come to Christ without coming after him, he is St. James's antinomian and his faith is dead faith without works. And if he attempts to obey the second invitation without obeying the first, to come after Christ
without coming to him, he is St. Paul's legalist, who has no true sense of sin, rejects Christ's expiation, and expects salvation by moral character and a moral life.
W.G. Shedd
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: a miscellany
pg 221
without coming to him, he is St. Paul's legalist, who has no true sense of sin, rejects Christ's expiation, and expects salvation by moral character and a moral life.
W.G. Shedd
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: a miscellany
pg 221
Friday, May 6, 2011
Question: What is The Gospel?
Do you "KNOW" the Gospel or do you "presume" that you know the Gospel? Many of us are fortunate to hear the Gospel preached each week. But, although we are fortunate, those who are in the crowd of the "fortunate" take it for granted that they know the Gospel. A kind of Gospel by assimilation perhaps. Some often think it is about turning over a new leaf (the stench of moralism) or a list of do's and don'ts that leave them camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai leading to a self righteousness and a looking down their noses at all the "other" rule breakers (the stench of legalism). Instead they should flee to Christ. The LIFE HE LIVED and the LIFE HE FREELY GAVE.
Repenting, turning from serving self to serving Christ. Believing that He and He alone accomplished what YOU could NOT. Not NOW. Not EVER.
Here is a link
What is the Gospel?
Repenting, turning from serving self to serving Christ. Believing that He and He alone accomplished what YOU could NOT. Not NOW. Not EVER.
Here is a link
What is the Gospel?
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Legalistic Preaching Is Defective Preaching
Defective preaching is preaching that has LAW but no gospel: This is preaching that aims to convict men of their sins. It tells them what the law of God says and it tells them how they have FAILED to do what the law says. It tells them they are rebels and that they deserve Hell. But then it says, “so DO BETTER! Stop committing those sins and keep the law! Live a moral and godly life!” And what happens is that people hear it, and many are convicted and they do try to put away some of their bigger sins and start living a better life, and so they try to stop sinning for little while but find that they keep falling back into sin again and again. This method of preaching will never produce any real fruit because there has been no real change in the sinners heart – there is no new life, no grace, and they are still under the dominion of their sins. Spurgeon described the situation this way:
“A sinner without grace attempting to reform himself is like Sisyphus rolling the stone up hill, which always comes down with greater force. A man without grace attempting to save himself, is engaged in as hopeless a task as the daughters of Danaus, when they attempted to fill a vast vessel with bottomless buckets. He has a bow without a string, a sword without a blade, a gun without powder. He needs strength. I grant you, he may produce a hollow reformation; he may earth up the volcano, and sow flowers around its crater; but when it once begins to stir again, it shall move the earth away, and the hot lava shall roll over all the fair flowers which he had planted, and devastate both his works and his righteousness. : he cannot deliver himself from his sins.”
This kind of preaching prevailed during the time of Charles Finney in the 19th century. With his blazing eyes Finney transfixed his hearers and called them out as sinners, sometimes by name even, and told them that they had the power to stop being sinners and live lives pleasing to God. But when they tried to follow his instructions, they failed miserably, and the areas that experienced this kind of preaching became especially hardened to the gospel. By God’s grace, this kind of preaching has grown very rare and we shouldn’t mourn it’s passing.
Andrew Webb
"Building Old School Churches"
“A sinner without grace attempting to reform himself is like Sisyphus rolling the stone up hill, which always comes down with greater force. A man without grace attempting to save himself, is engaged in as hopeless a task as the daughters of Danaus, when they attempted to fill a vast vessel with bottomless buckets. He has a bow without a string, a sword without a blade, a gun without powder. He needs strength. I grant you, he may produce a hollow reformation; he may earth up the volcano, and sow flowers around its crater; but when it once begins to stir again, it shall move the earth away, and the hot lava shall roll over all the fair flowers which he had planted, and devastate both his works and his righteousness. : he cannot deliver himself from his sins.”
This kind of preaching prevailed during the time of Charles Finney in the 19th century. With his blazing eyes Finney transfixed his hearers and called them out as sinners, sometimes by name even, and told them that they had the power to stop being sinners and live lives pleasing to God. But when they tried to follow his instructions, they failed miserably, and the areas that experienced this kind of preaching became especially hardened to the gospel. By God’s grace, this kind of preaching has grown very rare and we shouldn’t mourn it’s passing.
Andrew Webb
"Building Old School Churches"
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Voddie Baucham: Zeal Without Knowledge
Do you have zeal without knowledge? Do you think the outward compliance of your child, or even the most "dedicated" church goer and gospel proclaimer is proof, in and of itself, AS being made right with God?
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Are you a class four legalist?
Prof. Doriani writes:
"Class-one legalists are auto-soterists; they declare what one must do in order to obtain God's favor or salvation. The rich young ruler was a class-one legalist.
Class-two legalists declare what good deeds or spiritual disciplines one must perform to retain God's favor and salvation.
Class-three legalists love the law so much they create new laws, laws not found in Scripture, and require submission to them. The Pharisees, who build fences around the law, were class-three legalists.
Class-four legalists
avoid these gross errors, but they so accentuate obedience to the law of God that other ideas shrivel up. They reason, 'God has redeemed us at the cost of his Son's life. Now he demands our service in return. He has given us his Spirit and a new nature and has stated his will. With these resources, we obey his law in gratitude for our redemption. This is our duty to God.' In an important way this is true, but class-four legalists dwell on the law of God until they forget the love of God. Worshiping, delighting in, communing with, and conforming to God are forgotten.
Class-four legalists can preach sermons in which every sentence is true, while the whole is oppressive. It is oppressive to proclaim Christ as the Lawgiver to whom we owe a vast debt, as if we must somehow repay him- - repay God! -- for his gifts to us.
I count myself a member of the legion of recovering class-four legalists. We slide into a 'Just Do It' mentality occasionally, dispensing commands just because they are right.
...the point he makes about "class-four legalists" is that they have the correct teaching, but that they make the correct teaching oppressive without the love of Christ and
His fulfillment of the Law as foundational to all of their preaching.
His fulfillment of the Law as foundational to all of their preaching.
Psalm 111:1 Praise the LORD! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. 2 The works of the LORD are great, Studied by all who have pleasure in them. 3 His work is honorable and glorious, And His righteousness endures forever. 4 He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; The LORD is gracious and full of compassion. 5 He has given food to those who fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant. 6 He has declared to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations. 7 The works of His hands are verity and justice; All His precepts are sure. 8 They stand fast forever and ever, And are done in truth and uprightness. 9 He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever: Holy and awesome is His name. 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
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