New Versus Obsolete: Thoughts on the Covenants

Introduction

Historically, the doctrine of the covenants has sent many Baptists to their death (drowning, burning, beating) and it has sent many Presbyterians to Hell. It is not something to be taken lightly, and we must admit that there is a vast difference between the belief that there is one Covenant (Covenantalism) and at least two major Covenants (Dispensationalism). This article will seek to define and repudiate the heresy of Covenantalism, drawing all readers to a firm belief in the New Covenant of Grace.

Definition

According to the Covenantal document, the Westminster Confession of Faith (hereafter WCF), the singular Covenant is expressed in two dispensations, "This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the Gospel (WCF Chapter VII, Para V)..." The covenant was administered through sacrifices, circumcision, and the like under the law, but under the gospel, they are administered through the preaching of the Word, and in Baptism and the Lord's Supper (WCF Chapter VII, Para VI).

The result of the law and the gospel, according to this anathema religion, is "full remission of sins, and eternal salvation (WCF Chapter VII Para V)..." They conclude by saying, "There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations (WCF Chapter VII Para VI)."

The simplest definition of Covenantalism is that the covenant is between God and men, under works it was circumcision, and under grace it is baptism.

The Dispensational document, the Bible, utterly refutes this Papist heresy by clearly differentiating between two Covenants, a covenant of works, and a covenant of grace. The primary places to find these are John 10, Hebrews 7-8, 2 Corinthians 3, Jeremiah 31, and Ezekiel 36; discussion of the covenants is not at all limited to these chapters, but is best expressed in them. Portions of each chapter will be quoted in this article, and I encourage you to read each in its context and entirety.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it this way,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
__when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
__and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
__on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
__and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
__after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
__and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
__and they shall be my people. - Hebrews 8:8-10

Note that there are two primary things happening, that two covenants are clearly expressed, and that the First is unable to save, and the Second makes a perfect salvation between God and his people. This is a direct quote of Jeremiah 31:31-34, but I quoted it from Hebrews in order to point out that the author here calls the first Covenant faulty (Hebrews 8:7) and obsolete (Hebrews 8:13), and the new covenant better (Hebrews 8:6).

The Old Covenant was conditional between men and God, but the New Covenant is conditional between the Father and the Son, for Christ says "I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand (John 10:28-29)."

Dispensationalism, defined most simply, is that the Old Covenant was a covenant between God and man, which man always fails, and the New Covenant is a covenant between the Father and the Son, which the Son fulfills perfectly.

The Sign and Seal of the Covenants

Covenantalism and Dispensationalism take another radical departure when the sign and seal of the covenants is discussed. The WCF states, "Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ...to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life (WCF Chapter XXVIII Para I)."

The Bible refutes this by saying "when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13)..." and "the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30)." and "circumcision is not outward and physical...circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit (Romans 2:28-29)." and "And I will give you a new heart, and a new Spirit I will put within you (Ezekiel 36:26)."

The sign and seal of the Old Covenant was circumcision, the seal of the New Covenant is the Holy Spirit and the sign is a new heart. The Covenantal view of an outward and physical sign is modern day Judaising, placing people under bondage and works by requiring adherance to the (misrepresented) law in order to be saved. Furthermore, the unforgiveable sin is Blasphemy of the Spirit, of attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to unclean spirits. Covenantalism seems to commit this sin unashamedly, by claiming that men seal themselves into salvation with a mere ritual.

The Application

Covenantalism is called, "The ministry of death" in 2 Corinthians 3. The Apostle Paul expands stating, "the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me (Romans 7:10)." The Covenant between God and men is perfectly upheld by God, who cannot break a Covenant. If men do good, they will be blessed, but a single sin results in their cursing. This Covenant is therefore weak and useless, for the law made nothing perfect (Hebrews 7:18-19). It is obsolete, and its only use is to show men their need for a better hope (Hebrews 7:19): the guarantor of a better Covenant (Hebrews 7:22).

Jesus Christ has made us sufficient to be ministers of a New Covenant, the ministry of the Spirit, not the ministry of condemnation, but the ministry of righteousness (2 Cor 3:6-9). Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the law (Matthew 5:17, Hebrews 4:15), suffering completely for our sin, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). For the Old Covenant brings curses to cursed humanity, but Christ brings blessing to an unconditional covenant for men, because he fulfilled all of the conditions.

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. - Galatians 3:10-14

Invitation

Dear reader, if you are bewitched into the soul damning doctrine of Covenantalism, then I implore you to come out of her, to flee from the terror of Sinai to the glory of Zion and the city of the living God, to look not to your own works or covenant making, but to the perfect obedience of Christ who saved a people from every nation, tribe, and tongue because of the Covenant he made with his Father, which is partaken of by faith, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and expressed in the power of reborn life.

If you stay, then heed this terrifying warning and be sure that your end is eternal damnation, "How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29)?" There is no salvation in the Obsolete Covenant, in fact it has passed away, so seek the Son while he may be found, place your faith in his faithfulness, not your own, and receive his blessings as he received your curse.

Dispensationalists, stand against this resurging Presbyterian heresy, your forefathers did and tasted death for it, their light momentary affliction preparing for them an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor 4:17). Obadiah Holmes, Baptist minister in 1651, received 30 lashes and nearly died at the hands of Covenantalists, yet his words to his persecutors are left to encourage us, "You have struck me as with roses. Although the Lord hath made it easy to me, yet I pray God it may not be laid to your charge." Do not consider Covenantalists your brothers, or be surprised when they show no fruit of the Spirit, for they have embraced a law that has cursed them and a veil lies over their hearts that only Christ can raise.

Above all, look to the perfection of the New Covenant which has made the Old Covenant obsolete and shown its weakness and uselessness. Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Crown of Boasting

God has blessed me in the ministry of reconciliation for the past six years; I look back at so many evangelists I’ve known in that time who started running strong but quickly fell aside; I hear stories of those who claim to have been zealous gospel preachers in their youth but who have settled down in their old age. This was one of my greatest fears for a long time, because I did not want to be a preacher only because it was an interesting hobby, I did not want to make evangelism my idol as I’ve seen so many do, and I most certainly did not want to shame Jesus Christ by falling aside and loving something else more than him, as he prayed for us so did I pray, “Let not those who trust in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel!” (Psalm 69:6)

I am writing this article to share my scriptural basis for evangelism and why I feel so blessed that Christ has given me a solid understanding of how to sustain evangelism. It begins four years ago, at an evangelistic meeting as many of us were introducing ourselves, I realized that I wasn’t just an evangelist, I was a pastor who evangelized. In other words, I loved people more than preaching. This seemed completely out of place at the time, but this has never changed. Boasting only in Christ, I’ve watched this group one by one fall from being zealous evangelists; there but for the grace of God go I.

As I’ve continued to read my Bible, I’ve found that my statement of being a pastor first, and an evangelist second, is not just biblical, but extremely biblical. I have in front of me a list of seventeen passages which say exactly what this article is going to say, and I’m sure my list is not exhaustive. The call is not hidden in the Bible, in fact it’s seen in one of the most popular evangelistic verses quoted, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...teaching them…” (Matthew 28:19-20) The call is not just to preach the gospel, it’s not just to make converts, but the call is to make disciples, to train them, to see them obedient to Jesus Christ. Paul rephrases the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20 this way, “Christ we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:28-29)

The biblical model is not just to love making converts, for anyone can make a convert (Philippians 1:15-18), but to love those converts and rejoice in their faith. My favorite Bible verse says, “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20) This is not to imply that Paul’s converts here are perfect disciples, far from it, Paul quickly clarifies, “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God? We pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.” (1 Thessalonians 3:8-10) And to one of the worst churches in the Bible, Paul writes of his motives, “by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord…” (1 Corinthians 15:31) The joy and boasting that Paul has in his disciples is founded in the work that Christ has done in them and through them.

And are they Paul’s disciples? Paul takes a definite possession of his converts (Philemon 10, 1 Corinthians 4:14-15, Galatians 4:19, 2 Timothy 1:2, Titus 1:4, 2 Corinthians 11:28), he was the means by which the faith came to them, he taught them, he exhorts them, he corrects them, he worries about them, he prays for them; he forever recognizes that it is Christ working in him that brings this, but that does not diminish his joy one bit, in fact in another place, it increases his joy, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-8)

And by no means is this just the sentiment of the Apostle Paul, just in the 1 Thessalonians verse we see that this joy is shared by Paul, Silas, and Timothy. In another Epistle, John shares the sentiment, “I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 3-4)

Peter takes personal possession of Mark in 1 Peter 5:13, but he makes sure that we realize it's our responsibility and privilege to do the same for those under us, “I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1 Peter 5:1-4)

The winner of souls, the maker of disciples, is lauded throughout scripture. Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.” “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” (Daniel 12:3) Elsewhere this passage is pointed at an individual, Levi the priest, “He walked with me in peace and righteousness, and he turned many from iniquity.” (Malachi 2:6) Beloved, may these be verses which God is pleased to apply to you.

I hope it is not I who have convinced you, but the scriptures themselves, that loving others through discipleship is the goal of evangelism rather than simply making a convert. Making converts is wonderful, but are they worth boasting over? Paul doesn’t boast in numbers, he boasts in Christian fruit, “we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.” (2 Thessalonians 1:4) It is God the Father who calls Ephesians 2:8-10), it is Christ who died (1 Corinthians 1:13), and it is the Spirit who works (Philippians 2:12-13), we do nothing (John 3:27, 6:63), our boasting is confined to the work we see God doing in our disciples, but boast we do, and exhort them to walk all the more in the truth revealed to them, “Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.” (Philippians 4:1)

My beloved, I pray you are working in such a way as to be able to boast in your disciples, that you have means to strive together with your brothers in the faith, that you see growth in them and are looking forward to giving an account of them on Judgment Day. (Hebrews 13:17) Beloved, far be it from me to tell you how to do this, my exhortation is only to do it. I could suggest youth ministry, college ministry, senior ministry, homeless ministry, Bible study, orphan ministry, widow ministry, hospital ministry, chaplaincy, street evangelism where you learn people's names and pray for them, etc etc, but beloved, do not let me stifle you, only find someone who needs Jesus and make them a disciple. And may they find such love in you that they cannot but boast in the work Christ has done through you in their lives, “that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.” (2 Corinthians 1:14)

Do the work of an evangelist, but love the church first and foremost. Do not boast in numbers, but in people. Charles Spurgeon, famous on earth and in Heaven, with much to boast over both on earth and in Heaven, said it this way, “A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

“And because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”(1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

Do Something

It was the walking dictionary himself, Charles Spurgeon, who said so masterfully, “Do something, do something, do something.” He was expressly talking about soul winning, motivating his people to put their talents into use to take the gospel of life to a dying world.

His command to do something was purposefully ambiguous. He didn’t say, do open-air preaching, he didn’t say, do friendship evangelism, he didn’t say, do go pass out gospel tracts, he didn’t say, do help at the homeless shelter, he didn’t say, do work in the orphanage, he didn’t say, do be an overseas missionary, he did say, do something. Spurgeon was, and is, a man who motivated men to work towards the goal of soul winning, and one of his greatest gifts was recognizing that his gifting was not the only gift given, his ministry was not the only ministry, and his method(s) of evangelism were not the only methods of evangelism.

Unfortunately, in Christendom today we have seen this recognition of a myriad of gifts forgotten, and many of the most popular ministers today are forcing their ministries and pet-projects on their followers, even when their followers are not best suited for these tasks. I won’t name names, not for the sake of sparing feelings, but because I don’t want you, dear reader, to think that there are only a handful of ministers making this mistake. If you read today’s most popular books you will be told that you must be a missionary to unreached people groups, you must be fighting the sex-slave-trade, you must be digging wells in third-world nations, you must be adopting half a dozen orphans, you must be giving all of your possessions to the poor, you must be going on short-term missions trips to provide disaster relief…you must look precisely like the one you’re reading, or you’re doing it wrong.

After reading a recent book I was wondering, am I really being as useful as I can be in my current role in the midst of a slipping Bible Belt? Is my time best spent working amongst students who are, in majority, utterly consumed with the world and so inoculated to Jesus Christ through powerless free-will messages that most will die in their sins having never realized that there was enmity between them and God? Should I listen to one or more of these Pharisaical commands to cross land and sea to fight great evils in other lands? The Georgia community has the gospel, am I really being effective toward the fact that, “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14)?

These questions were heavy on my mind this past week, but by the grace of God, the gospel is self-correcting, for Paul prayed for his friend Philemon, “I pray that in the sharing of your faith you become effective for every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ” (Philemon 6). On Sunday we went into our Samaria (Acts 1:8), which is a town about twelve miles away, Marietta, and shared the gospel with probably about fifty people. The age range was 11 (a former attendee of our church) to probably 65, and not a single one of the people I talked to personally showed any understanding of the gospel of grace, though most professed at least some understanding of the Bible.

My young friend and brother, Grant, shared the gospel with three students roughly his age, one of whom had been to church earlier in the day, another who was a Buddhist. These three all professed their own goodness, utterly clueless to the fact that Christ came to seek and save the lost. After Grant did a fantastic job sharing the gospel, the Buddhist was still adamant that she would be reincarnated. I took a moment to show her that every religion says if you’re good, something good will happen to you when you die, but I pointed out that as a self-admitted liar, thief, blasphemer, and murderer at heart, if reincarnation were true she would not be coming back as anything good, nor would anyone, for we have all sinned and the thoughts and intents of our hearts are only evil continually. These students went away thinking; realizing that the King himself stepped out of Heaven to rescue them from their assured condemnation, for it is appointed once for a person to die, and then the judgment. We could go to Tibet to find Buddhists, but we've found them in our own backyard speaking our own language.

A little while later we approached a group of late-teens and began to take them through the good person test to show them their standing before God. A young lady, probably 17 or 18, came up right at the end of the test, and wanted to know what we were talking about. I gave her a condensed version of the good-person test to bring her to the point in the conversation that we were at. Long before I could get to the gospel, these girls attempted to justify themselves as better than me (and most likely they are better than me), asking questions of my past, and then they turned inward willing to give up some sins, but not others. The young lady who walked up late took control of the conversation, saying, “I’m willing to repent of lying and stealing, but what about lesbianism, I’m not going to repent of girls.” I’m not sure that she was sincere, or just looking to shock us, but it’s pretty hard to shock me (I work with students weekly) and I instead gave her the test in Matthew 5:27-28, asking her if she had ever looked with lust on someone she was not married to. Her haughty countenance disappeared. Another girl asked, “So, we’re hopeless?”

One of my favorite verses recently for evangelism is Ephesians 2:12, it exactly says that we are hopeless. I explained to them that we are indeed without hope, nothing we can do can rectify the danger we’ve put ourselves in through rebelling against God, by blaspheming his name by operating as images of God yet showing all of creation that God must be a liar and adulter, because the images of God are liars and adulterers. This thought sunk in and they were more than ready for the gospel at this point. I asked what God had done in love so that they can be forgiven? A young lady who had previously professed to be a drug-user, spouted out, “He gave his Son.” She had probably heard that before, she may have even said it before, but you could tell by the look on her face that she was understanding it for the first time. I gave a synopsis of Christ’s life and death, and resurrection, and two of them looked surprised when they heard that Jesus was God in the flesh. It was truly a joy to tell these contrite young people that while we were without hope or God in the world, he willingly gave himself up to die on a cross in their place to reconcile them to God. What happened next was not just a “thank you for talking to us,” it was a series of serious questions from them asking how to partake in the forgiveness, righteousness, and reconciliation offered by Jesus Christ. They all promised to go home and read their Bibles, one girl said she had tried, but couldn’t even get through Genesis; I encouraged them to read the Gospel of John first to understand who Christ is, why he came, and why it is important for them. Had we instead gone to Haiti, we would have missed the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to this group of pierced, tattooed, drug-using, sexually active high-schoolers.

On Sunday we talked to professing Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, Hedonists, youngsters, seniors, men, women, boys, girls, civilians, marines, drug-users, homosexuals, gluttons, drunkards, and even a girl who very likely was a prostitute. There is no lack of ministry in this world, I encourage you to find a place to serve, to do something.

Beloved, I have a gift for talking to students, I have the ability to easily approach them, strike up a conversation, and present the gospel in terms they understand. I will not stand here and tell you that if you are not ministering to this lost and dying generation that you are wrong, I will not tell you that if you have gone to Haiti or Tibet or anywhere and shared the gospel that you are wrong, or if your ministry is elsewhere, I will not tell you are wrong. The only way I will tell you that you are wrong is if you are doing nothing to preach this true gospel of forgiveness of sins.

Beloved, I will tell you to do something. Find a place where your gifting fits, something you enjoy, something you are good at, and preach the gospel. For the end will indeed come when this gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, but it also will not come until every saint of Christ comes to repentance. These future saints live in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth, both literally and figuratively in how those relate to your location. So be preaching the gospel in your capacity, with your gifts, demonstrating the love of a Saviour who loved you first, not forcing your ministry on others, but finding needs and filling them, proclaiming the excellencies of Christ to a lost and dying world, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of God.

Do Something, Do Something, Do Something. – Charles Spurgeon

Writing, Reading, and Communicating versus Texting, Skimming, and Gisting

I am utterly blessed through God’s providence in my education and upbringing. For example, I played the trumpet from sixth grade through my first year in the Air Force, 9 years total, and while I never really got any good at it, due to tone-deafness and no internal rhythm, the breathing techniques I learned have caused me to be one of the loudest preachers I know, combined with a stamina at full volume that constantly surprises.

Likewise, an instilled love of history has produced in me a hermeneutical principle which is sorely lacking in the church today; I want to know the full history of the events before I care to learn the application. It utterly frustrates me when someone wants to know what a passage means before they know what it says. I’m not against application, but history and context must have prevenience. John Calvin so beautifully said, “People come not to the preaching merely to learn what they do not know, but to be incited to do their duty.”

But the reason I have been contemplating this recently is in a discussion I had with a dear friend about the writing style of Ernest Hemingway. Sitting in my library on my secular bookshelf (as opposed to my overflowing religious bookshelves) are a dozen Hemingway books, my favorites are The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Sun Also Rises. Before becoming a Christian, there is no doubt that my favorite writer was Hemingway, followed closely by Ron Carlson, A Kind of Flying et al, Ray Bradbury, Dinosaur Tales et al, and George Orwell, Animal Farm et al.

To let you know how deep my respect and admiration for Hemingway was, I’ve been to and drank (pre-Christian) at the Rotonde in Paris, walked on the Concha in San Sebastian, and run from the Curva de Telefonica to the Plaza de Toros in Pamplona (albeit there were no bulls). The man was a master writer; I would even go so far as to say the best writer who has ever lived who was not under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

As I would read Hemingway I was captivated, even implored, to love each individual word, it never occurred to me, nor do I think it occurred to Hemingway, that the beauty and deference of language points to a God whom communicates with precision and authority. Hemingway would spend hours ensuring the words he wrote were meaningful, worthwhile, and powerful, and the man literally discarded dozens of works which failed to meet these criteria. Hemingway had a reverence for words; he would spend hours cutting and molding his sentences to say precisely what he wanted them to say, removing every superfluous phrase and word, seeking to make each sentence direct and vigorous. One will never find an unnecessary adjective in a Hemingway book. He wrote, most definitely being self-aggrandizing, “The greatest writers have the gift of brevity, are hard workers, diligent scholars, and competent stylists.”

In recent years many of these reprobate manuscripts have been compiled and published as posthumous titles and “lost” works. Oh how he would cringe if he knew that were occurring, and so I cringe vicariously for him in his absence.

Hemingway’s desire for literary purity influenced my own writing and reading immensely. I am constantly offended by both the written and spoken word when used irreverently and superfluously. In recent years, my desire for literary accuracy has gained a higher purpose and has transferred perfectly to an infinitely better writer, who said, “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,” and “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” Hemingway was concerned with each individual word, the Author of Life is interested in each individual letter, “Truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law...”

T. David Gordon has noted a nearly complete failure in the modern day preacher’s ability to be pithy, to put together a coherent thought, and to communicate a point. His book on this, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, is intriguing as it focuses on how the modern preacher no longer writes sermons, at best he types them and at worst he adlibs them; he doesn’t send letters, he sends e-mails; he doesn’t write treatises, he sends text-messages. Gordon surmises that all of these have destroyed the preacher’s reverence for the word and ability to communicate using it.

Noah Webster compiled his dictionary under the assumption that if God takes language seriously, then men ought to take language seriously. If faith comes through hearing, and hearing the word of Christ, then it ought to be the preacher’s highest calling to ensure that what is being heard is totally worth hearing. Charles Spurgeon said, “We cannot play at preaching. We preach for eternity.”

Gordon gives suggestions on how to improve communication; they are not easy, but they are not impossible. He first recommends writing, with pen and paper, in order to foster forethought and deliberateness, since pen cannot be edited and requires commitment and permanence of thought. One of the best venues for this, he recommends, is writing letters. His next suggestion is that undergraduate students major in literature in order that they learn the basics of structure, plot, and style. To this effect David Platt laments that Bible translation has become a failing art because it is impossible to understand another language if you don’t even understand your own.

I recently read Greyfriar’s Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson (and then I watched the movie) and I was utterly impressed by her command of the English (or more actually: the Scotch) language, the intersecting plotlines, and the recurring themes; she sets out to tell a story, but deep within her plot are the definite agendas of animal rights and human equality. It reminded me somewhat of the writings of the Apostle Peter, who in any given passage is working at least three themes and who has a very specific agenda on his mind of growing his reader, pointing their affections outwards and upwards, and glorifying the Saviour of mankind.

So that leads to a question, ought the Christian reader read books that are patently unchristian? Hemingway, although many of his books bear biblical titles, had no such belief system, Orwell was a fantastic visionary of things to come but not from a godly standpoint, and Unitarian Universalist Ray Bradbury holds to an evolutionary old-earth despite his Christian upbringing. To answer this question scripturally, the Apostle Paul was well acquainted with the poetry of Athens, and the Christian is called to study to show themselves approved; avoiding irreverent babble. It is more than possible, from a discerning standpoint, to read a well-written non-christian publication and glean from it, but the main diet ought to always be scripture.

When read from the Christian standpoint, some of the themes of non-christian writers should instantly jump out as wrong. Take Hemingway for example, the man is one of the perfect examples of Neo-Epicureanism, living a life bent on pleasure and experience through the height of gourmet pleasures, both physical and scholarly. As a young writer I knew how Hemingway’s life ended, that he seriously injured his back in a plane crash and was in constant pain, then, as the results of a lifetime of alcohol abuse and a genetic iron-deficiency disease, he lost a fair amount of his brain function; faced with the loss of both physical and scholarly pleasure, Hemingway shot himself in the head. Yet, even with this knowledge, I felt that his life was one worth emulating and that my life would certainly end better than his. Now with the discernment of the Holy Spirit, it is more than obvious that such lives only prove parables which speak of the foolishness of trusting in worldly delights, like the one Jesus spoke which is recorded in the seventh chapter of the gospel according to Matthew. But even with the fatal flaws of secular writers, for another example the bawdy tales of Ron Carlson (of whose books I have several signed copies), there is much to be learned by someone who is able to communicate a point, skillfully wielding language, and who has honed their skills and writings to say what they mean. Even if what they mean is an affront to the Living God.

Most importantly, in an age where most don’t know the difference between their and they’re, and the numeral 2 can replace to, two, and too, these writers prove that words have meaning, and demand that respect be given to the vernacular and the rhetoric by which it is presented. The Christian need only to apply one step further, that the Giver of dialect and logic be respected.

And finally, this all leads to my application. I preached my first sermon to a large Christian audience this past Sunday. My sermon was prepared to run just under 30-minutes. Since this was the first and possibly only time I would have an opportunity to address this congregation, more time than normal was spent on preparation in order to ensure my passion and heart was delivered to this precious church through the precise exposition of the Word of God. I spent a great deal of time in honing the word choice, structure, and movement of the sermon in order to deliver a message that was eternally significant and memorable. In the zeal of delivery, I realized something that I didn’t anticipate; some of the deliberate pauses were ill-placed and so I skipped them, and in my impassioned delivery I managed to cut about seven minutes off of my sermon. In an effort to lengthen the delivery in the second and third services I tried to find areas in which material could be added or expanded, but realized that due to the attention I had given to pace and movement, any on-the-spot editing would have severe implications on the structure of the message, possibly impeding movement in a fatal way.

Overwhelming, the response was positive. One suggestion was that I hadn’t spoken from my own heart enough but had quoted too much scripture and let others speak for me (Calvin, Ravenhill, Luther, Spurgeon) and should have given my own opinion more. Several told me that it was too much information too quickly. But what I didn’t hear was that it was boring, that anything was unnecessary, or that I missed the intention of the text. The question that I am most concerned with, “Was God glorified and his people incited to do their duty through this message?” was an unqualified, “Yes.” I believe, and I don’t credit myself, that I let the text speak, I didn’t impose myself on it, and I gave my utmost for Christ’s highest glory. The only exception is that I should have anticipated the length issue, but, knowing that the sermon was full of content, I will count this towards experience and will improve in the future.

It is against literary policy to add new information in the conclusion, but allow me this liberty. Ernest Hemingway was a Neo-Epicurean hedonist, John Piper has coined the phrase, Christian Hedonist, which he defines as, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." The Christian, I guarantee you, receives infinitely more pleasure than the Epicurean because they live a life with their affections set on Heaven, working for the King, devoting life and effort to increasing the joy of the church and her Bridegroom. God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints. The happiness of the Christian Hedonist is not dependant on the stature they achieve, but rather in what they achieve through the faculties God has given. But, beloved, what I implore you to, and I hope you are incited, is to hone those faculties, earnestly desiring that God grows them in sanctification; do so through reading, writing, and preaching, for Paul wrote to Philemon, “I pray that through the sharing of your faith, you become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” (Philemon 6)

So beloved, I pray that you will take the language you speak, and the languages that the scriptures are written in, seriously; that you revere the words that you use because they are a reflection on the God who gave them. Read, write, and communicate to the fullest, don’t take shortcuts. Study yourself approved and never be found with any reason to be ashamed. I pray that through the sharing of your faith, your effectiveness in the good things of Christ will blossom to be used for his utmost glory, for he is worthy, and he alone.

Recommended Reading
Famine in the Land, A Passionate Call for Expository Preaching by Steven J. Lawson
Why Johnny Can't Preach, The Media Have Shaped the Messengers by T. David Gordon
The Expository Genius of John Calvin by Steven J. Lawson
The Way of the Master by Ray Comfort
Christian Apologetics by Cornelius Van Til
Desiring God by John Piper

Compared to Other People...

I was recently speaking with someone, whom I respect, concerning the Way of the Master style of evangelism. (Click the “Hells Best Kept Secret” link to the right) It brought up an interesting question on our subjective goodness, which this treatise will address.

As we were speaking, a disagreement arose on showing people their sinful situation so fully and so quickly via the WotM method. In our conversation, there was no doubt that against God’s standards we are vile, desperately wicked, only evil continually, enemies of God who prove so by doing wicked works, but the conversation swung to us considering how bad we are in the subjective sense against other people. The statement was made, “I’m not that bad compared to other people.” I agreed, but that assertion continued to reverberate in my brain and various verses kept coming to mind.

The two verses that I was meditating on are when Paul refers to himself as the foremost of sinners and the least of saints. (1 Timothy 1:15, Ephesians 3:8) Now, the Bible is not short on hyperbole, the practice of making obvious and intentional exaggerations in order to demonstrate a point, and that’s what I thought these two were. A simple example is, “I’d kill for an In-N-Out Burger,” which obviously I would not kill for an In-N-Out burger, but I’d like one so much that I’d go a long way to get one. I have always assumed that Paul’s two statements about his chief-of-sinners and least-of-saints roles were hyperbole, demonstrating his understanding of the human condition of sin and his personal responsibility of it. But now I am not so sure; actually, I think I was flat-out wrong.

Jesus Christ is going to judge the thoughts and intents of our hearts, as well as our actions. Deeds done in the darkness will be brought to the light. He will judge haters of men to be murderers at heart (aka revilers), and those that lust extramaritally as adulterers at heart. His standards are perfect and his judgment impeccable.

As any good law requires, a minimum of two witnesses are required to indict a criminal. We are the first witness against ourselves, there is no law against self-incrimination in Heaven; the second witness is the Holy Spirit, he convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. On the outside we often see people do bad things and it is easy and right to judge them. But on motives, on the inside, it is not so easy and right to judge, because we are not privy to the inner workings of their minds.

The only two people who are privy to our inner thought lives are ourselves and the Holy Spirit. If we judge ourselves rightly, we should realize that our hearts are desperately wicked and deceitful beyond all things, for our spirit searches our thoughts and intents (1 Corinthians 2:11a), and we are found lacking.

Are we genuinely good in comparison to other people? God looked down on mankind and saw that the thoughts and intents of their hearts were only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10-12) He didn’t say, “Everybody except you,” or “the thoughts and intents of the non-God-lovers,” he said it of all of mankind, of which you and I are imputed with a fallen condition and a bonded nature to wickedness.

We can look at Adolf Hitler and say, “I am way better than him.” But do you know his thoughts? You do know your own thoughts. He was directly or indirectly responsible for 60 Million people entering into eternity, thoroughly evil in manifestation, but Paul Washer says so astutely that without God restraining our actions, we would make Hitler look like a choir boy. How many people have you been unjustly angry towards, how many have you put yourself in a judgmental role over, how many times have your eyes indicted your soul, how many times has your mouth declared war on Heaven? You may be better than Hitler in manifestation, but in soul-condition you are on par with him, or perhaps even worse.

Beloved, I don’t know the thoughts and intents of your heart, but I do know mine, and I know that if I were the standard against which righteousness were measured, every last person on the planet would be welcomed into Heaven with open arms. I am the chief of sinners and the least of saints. In comparison to others I fall so very short that my soul can be counted as nothing other than loss. In measurement against the glory of God no hyperbole can be conceived to demonstrate the distance of my fallenness.

So it is settled, I am the chief of sinners; but beloved, don’t be so quick to judge. I am quite certain, my dear reader, that we are tied for this title; it is not a race, it is not a competition, it is a sad testament to the destroying power of sin.

Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who for us took on and defeated death, bearing the full weight, condemnation, and shame of our sin. I am the chief of sinners, but I have been made the least of saints.

Can you say the same? Christ did not come to save the righteous, but to save sinners. He will cast the self-righteous to the ground, they will have no part nor lot in his kingdom. Repent at the feet of the Lamb, cast off of any hint of your perceived goodness, of which we are deprived utterly, then receive the goodness and grace of our Goodness Gracious Sovereign.

Beloved, in humility consider others better than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

Can We Fix It? Yes We Can. But Should We?

I'm taking a class in secular psychology as it relates to the Bible as it relates to Catholic Mysticism.

Trust me, it's way more confusing than it sounds.

One thing that is jumping out at me is that every effort to conciliate psychology and biblical counseling is based on the assumption that we are supposed to be happy, and that when we are not happy, something is broken and it must be fixed.

Prior to me becoming a Christian and God taking our economy away, I made a decent amount of money through stock owned in Barr Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, and Tyco International; the effort to make ourselves feel better through any means available is big business. Antichristian author Thomas Jefferson set the ball rolling two-hundred years ago when he wrote that we have the right to the pursuit of happiness. Certainly we have the ability to pursue happiness, but should we?

Recently I had several events come together, most of them my fault through scheduling errors, overscheduling, lack of rest, lack of forethought, letting down friends on accident, a girl, ect. not necessarily in that order; Beloved, I felt awful. For weeks. The only thought on my mind was, "How do I fix this?" I did indeed fix it, and now I'm back to my old jocular self. And I'm sort of angry at myself for having fixed it, but it has proved to be a valuable learning experience.

Paul writes that we are to rejoice in all circumstances. For some reason I read that and thought, "Be happy in all circumstances." But that's not what he said. While I was seeking to be happy in all circumstances, what I ought to have been doing is rejoicing in my sadness by remembering that this present evil age will not last forever, that Christ has defeated death, reconciled me to God, and given me a peace beyond all understanding. I should have sought not to cut my season of sadness short, but to rejoice in it that as Paul says, "suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

In instantly setting out to fix my suffering (albeit suffering may be too strong of a word to use), I inadvertently deprived myself of growing in endurance, growing in character, and growing in hope. I'm reminded of my dad's words that "just because you are a character doesn't mean you have character," and beloved, we can all use more character, more hope, more endurance, not for our own sake, but for the sake of those we minister to, and ultimately for Christ's sake that he receive the glory by proving that his grace is indeed sufficient and his power is made perfect in weakness.

So, this is easier said than done, but I encourage you to rejoice in all circumstances, know that God will use all things for good to those that love him. Don't let happiness be your end goal, if Christ had sought to avoid pain to the exclusion of all else, beloved, we would be entirely deprived of hope, but because he had the glory of God as his ultimate goal, we have become more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us.

So, when faced with affliction, hardship, and sadness we can pop pills from Pfizer (whom I no longer own stock in), or we can look in the mirror and say, "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and [Don'tcha Know] It, People Like Me!", or we can trust in God who raises the dead, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God, even when we despaired of life itself.

For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. Let us not shrink from bearing the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. For he will use all things for good to those that love him.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. For the sake of Christ, then, be content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

Can we fix those things? Indeed we can, but for your sake and Christ's, please don't be so brash in doing away with suffering. God created this world with the purpose of demonstrating the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and if we go around happy to live in a sin-soaked and destroyed world, we miss the point completely.

Christian Humanism

Before reading any farther, Paris Reidhead has addressed this topic infinitely better than I can, and so I ask and urge you to listen to his incredible sermon on the subject: 10 Shekels and a Shirt by Paris Reidhead

For as incredible as his sermon is, I’ve sometimes wondered if Reidhead’s sermon might have had a wider audience or a bigger impact if he had chosen a better-known text to preach from. Granted, the title would not be so catchy, but when I first heard it, shallow as I may be, I thought, “Why does he have to go into a relatively unknown text to prove his point?” Before I go farther, know that I esteem the Book of Judges as the inerrant, infallible, inspired, timeless Word of God and that it is entirely useful for doctrine, reproof, and training in righteousness. Judges is one of my favorite Old Testament Books, along with Joshua, Isaiah, Nahum, Proverbs, Deuteronomy…and Thirty-Three others.

While reading through Matthew, I found a better known, and even a more direct passage against Humanism, and I’d like to do a brief exposition on this passage. Before beginning, I suppose I ought to define Humanism.

Humanism has three big definitions, that of human-worth, that of the happiness of men on earth being of utmost importance, and that of the happiness of men in eternity as the end goal of Christianity. All of these are fallacy and antibiblical.

The human being, sold under sin, is worthless. (Romans 3:12) The worth of the Christian is not found in the worth of the man, but in the price paid for the redemption of that man. Just as a pancake imprinted with an image of a pagan deity of Roman Catholicism is worthless, it can be esteemed as worth thousands if a pagan purchaser via eBay can be found. Men are worthless except that the God of Creation decides to purchase them at so great a cost on Calvary’s cross. (Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 7:23) Of this, the Swiss Brethren practiced a sort, not esteeming any man as worth more than another, for truly, God is no respecter of persons, but that each man stands before God equal to every other man. (Compare Galatians 3:28)

The worldly definition of Humanism is making men happy while on earth, this assumes that there is no life to come, and therefore treasures are stored up on earth where moth and rust destroy. Richard “Dinky” Dawkins is a practitioner of this religion, and yet he ought to read Solomon’s Ecclesiastes, for there is nothing new under the sun, and Solomon already tried this religion under God’s guidance in order that Solomon would gain a godly wisdom to share with you and me. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

And finally, that which Paris Reidhead stands against so ardently, which is by far the most damning of the doctrines of Humanism, that of Christian Humanism, or making the eternal happiness of men the ultimate goal of evangelism. In the words of Reidhead, “You don’t want to go to that ole filthy nasty burning Hell when there is a beautiful Heaven up there, now come to Jesus so that you can go to Heaven!” The terrible part of this doctrine is that it turns God from a goal to a means. Christ had to die to make me happy. Heresy! Christ’s purpose above all was to magnify the name of God (Psalm 69), redeem the honor of his name (1 John 2:12), and demonstrate his glory for all to see. (Isaiah 43:7) The salvation of sinners was high on his priorities, but it was not his first priority. (John 18:37)

So, open your Bible to Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14, to see just how much God hates Christian Humanism.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.' And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

"But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are
chosen."

Now, besides the abandonment of the Jews in this parable and their indictment for the ignoring and ultimately killing of the prophets and the saints, we see in this parable the invitation of the Wedding Feast to as many as can be found. Here we see an indiscriminate call to those who would come to honor the Son.

Before going any farther, there is a bit of cultural context needed. These men called indiscriminately from the highways and hedges could not be expected to be prepared for a Wedding Feast; I don’t know about you, but when I travel, I don’t carry a tuxedo with me, and neither did these men have the wedding garments with them to be acceptable to be in the presence of the King and his Son. Now, our King is a gracious king, he knows that we are naked in our sins and our best efforts to clothe ourselves are as itchy fig-leaves, and so he has made provision for our being clothed in righteousness, to provide us with a wedding garment, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 13:14), which I don’t think can be said any more beautifully than Isaiah put it,

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. –Isaiah 61:10

Without this robe of righteousness, this wedding garment to honor the Son, then we see what happens. The King looks upon those who have been offered his robe, seeing that the one without must have refused it, and he becomes irate. Maintaining his patience, he asks, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” When the man was speechless, the King had him cast out of the party, which Christ is quick to point out in the context of the kingdom of Heaven is to be cast into Hell everlasting.

What was the man’s offense? He had come into the party, he was invited by some evangelist, and was glad to have found rest, food, wine, and even fellowship, but what was he missing? His motives were wrong, he was there for all of these good things while forsaking the honor of the Son. Humanism. There are many in our churches who are seeking reprieve from Hell, an everlasting respite in Heaven and all of the good things that come along with it, but who could care less if the Son is honored, let alone even attends his own party.

This selfishness and wanton disrespect to the King and the Bridegroom will not go unpunished. Christ said elsewhere, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) The Psalmist said, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.” (Psalm 2:12)

Seated even on either side of the man who had refused the wedding garment were the other guests who were there to honor the Son; notice that they were privy to the wedding feast; the fatted calf, the oxen, and everything else, and they were not removed forcibly from the party.

Beloved, the kingdom of heaven is like this: the glory, honor, and name of the Son must be honored above all else. He is the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Glory, and the King of kings; he was dead, but he is alive; he was, and he is, and he is to come. Unless you approach his throne in humility with his honor as your goal, his Father will cast you into the outer darkness. Unless you are clothed in his righteousness, (Compare 2 Corinthians 5:21) his wrath will consume you and the smoke of your torment will waft before his throne forever and ever.

Repent towards God, and trust in Jesus Christ, make his glory your eternal goal, that when sufferings come, you praise his name, that you hunger and thirst after righteousness, that you tell of all his wondrous works. If you have come to him only to escape the wrath to come, only come to him to enjoy the good things that are to be inherited in him, then you have come into the kingdom under false pretense and you will be found out.

For some real world application, sometime ago I wrote this example against an evangelism class which was teaching Humanistic garbage, ala Billy Graham, as the evangelism method, and how the biblical evangelist has to approach men,

I've found a certain wisdom in the world, that while public speaking you ought picture your audience naked. I have found this to be exceedingly applicable and I now picture my audiences naked, in their sins, on Judgment Day; their shame exposed, the book of their conscience thrust open, and them speechless in their lack of a wedding garment. I've been able to get over my fear of them by placing my fear for them at a higher priority.

Beloved, don’t be speechless in your lack of a Wedding Garment, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Set your affections on the Son, not on yourself, make him your highest priority. Once you have done this, a unique thing happens, that when the Son is honored, you will receive his blessings, you will be seated in the heavenlies with him, your place in the Mansions of Heaven will be prepared, you will be more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. But if his glory is not your utmost reward, then you will not hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.” You will instead hear the command to the angels, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness, in that place there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Lord Jesus, I’m going to obey you, and love you, and serve you, and do what you want me to do as long as I live, even if I go to Hell at the end of the road, simply because you are worthy to be loved, obeyed, and served; and I’m not trying to make a deal with you. – Paris Reidhead

God is SOOOOO not fair!

Consider the hypothetical lives of two men.

The first lived a reprobate life, living only for himself, making it a practice to lie, steal, womanize, drinking often until he passed out, culminating in one final event of killing his girlfriend after a heated argument. Upon his death bed he is approached by a hospital chaplain who tells him of the salvation available in the good graces of Jesus Christ, to which the man repents and believes the Gospel ten minutes before he dies. God forgives him and welcomes him into Heaven.

The second grew up in a Christian home, attending a good church, loving his mother and father, and especially his little sister, with only your standard adolescent crimes strewn through, some white-lies here and there, a candy-bar stolen from the local store, and the occasional irreverent use of the name of God. During Christmas of his twelfth year, while reading the Gospel of Luke, he realizes that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, and he repents and believes the Gospel, and then goes on to live seventy more years, serving God as a pastor, feeding the hungry, loving the unloved, raising a morally-upright family, praying daily, and dying peacefully in his sleep having commended his soul unto the Lord. God welcomes him into Heaven.

Indeed, God is not fair. Who deserved Heaven? Who deserved Hell? Surely, if there are such places, our standard measurement of morality would say that the pastor deserves Heaven and the murderer deserves Hell, because the pastor was a good man and the murderer a bad man. God would be unfair to the pastor by letting the murderer into the same Heaven.

God is not fair. Consider this startling statistic: People are stepping out of this world and falling into Hell at the rate of about two a second. That is over one-hundred a minute, six thousand an hour, one-hundred-fifty thousand a day, and by the time this century is out, over ten billion people will have died and faced Judgment. Of these people stepping out of this world, falling into Hell, God is catching about every hundredth person and resurrecting them to Life-everlasting. The other ninety-nine never had a chance.

God is not fair. You’re right, he’s not, but not because of those 99 who perish, but because of that one who is saved. Men have no right to salvation, we have no freedom from death, we have made ourselves enemies of God in our minds through wicked works, we have transgressed God and recompense is due. In the wise words of Marshall Foster, you don’t break the law, the law breaks you. In the same way that jumping off of a building results in a few free-falling seconds of gravity transgression with no ill-consequences, this immutable law will ultimately break you into a thousand tiny pieces.

God is the just judge who by no means will clear the guilty. God describes men in this way:

The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter. – Psalm 58:3-5

We look at the murderer and think that we’re better than him, and indeed, in an earthly sense we are. But the entrance exam for Heaven is not comparing ourselves to other people, Heaven’s gates are only open to the righteous, and the only way to get in is to be perfect, to have rightly reacted to every event in your life, loving righteousness and hating wickedness, abstaining from evil and lifting up the downtrodden, compared ultimately to Jesus Christ. We have sinned against Heaven, and God will judge the world in righteousness, he has promised to punish the murderer, the rapist, and the con-artist, and in that we rejoice, but we do well not to speak too soon, for he has promised that all liars will have their place in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, and that no thief will inherit the kingdom of God, that no blasphemer will go unpunished, and that no covetous person has a part in the kingdom of Christ. One murder makes you a murderer, one rape a rapist, one lie a liar, and one covetous moment an idolater.

Beloved, we’re in trouble, we stand to be judged by the King of Righteousness, who is angry with sinners every day and is described as a consuming fire. If God were fair, all men would be instantly cast into Hell forever, which is the fair judgment because of the heinous nature of sin and the damage that it has caused, is causing, and will cause. Above all, we have wrongly misrepresented an infinitely big God through our actions done in his image, and therefore our punishment will fit the crime.

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth." – Psalm 58:10-11

But God is not fair. The soul that sins shall die, and after this, the Judgment. But God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked, and he demonstrated his love for us, that while we were in open rebellion to him, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to be the payment for our sins. The Perfect, Sinless, Son of God faced the infinite wrath stored up for us, and in his substitutionary death, we can become his Righteousness, and face God not as his enemy, but as his sons and daughters.

God is not fair, a fair God would crush all sinners where they stand. But he is patient, and he is kind, and his goodness is meant to lead us to repentance in faith in his Son, who defeated death and rose from the grave three days after he was dead and buried. A fair God would see all sinners punished for eternity in Hell, but a loving God would send his only Begotten Son to ransom a people who had utterly sold themselves into hopelessness, so that the Son would face the wrath and the sinners would go free.

In the eyes of God, the intent is as damnable as the offense. Jesus Christ said that whosoever looks upon someone to lust after them has committed adultery with them already in their heart. The physical action is a sin, but the damnable intent begins in the heart. The life of sin or the moment of sin have transgressed the law, the law which will find fruition in the eternal torment of the sinner. Whether you’ve lived the life of a reprobate or a man of God, without the mercy afforded in Jesus Christ through the cross, God would be perfectly fair in condemning you for eternity because of your sins.

God is not fair, he is better than fair; thank him for that, that he has extended his mercy and kindness towards us, giving us peace through the death of his Son and life through his Resurrection. Repent towards God and trust in Jesus Christ, and he will save you, and then while you see 99 perish, you will know that God is our only source of goodness and our gracious Lord, who saved us in spite of our actions, for his glory.

Hate Well

It is a tremendous failing of the last century to focus only on the love of God, for without knowing what he hates it is impossible to truly know him. If I tell you that I love Mexican Food, puppy dogs, motorcycles, and God, then you get a basic understanding of who I am, but the details are largely lost. If you find out I hate socialism, capitalism, infanticide, and blasphemy, you learn a lot more about me.

You learn far more about a person (and God) by what they hate than what they love. To only know what someone loves is to know very little about them. One place this has been exacerbated is in the translation of love in the Bible, four different Greek words translate love (biblical: Agape, Phileo, Storge; extrabiblical: Eros), and another can mean love (Thelema) but is never translated that way, and they are considerably separated from one another. A parent loves their child in a radically different way than I love Mexican food. By associating eros with love in our culture, the love between a husband and wife, Jesus Christ has become the great cosmic girlfriend of the United States. The King James translators recognized that they were translating a lot of words as love and that all of those words didn’t mean the same thing, so much so that they began, in many places, to translate agape love as charity instead of love. Charity is an infinitely better translation for agape than love, and we’ll look at why a little later.

This “God is Love” (God is not love, God is charity) culture has lead to an idolatrous pagan worship of a tender loving jesus christ who shares none more in common with the Faithful and True God than a name. If God loves you just the way you are, then beloved, you have no reason to change. But if God hates you just the way you are, then there is a call to action on the part of the sinner to be reconciled to God.

But does God hate you just the way you are? God hates the lawbreaker (Psalm 5:5), he is angry with the wicked everyday (Psalm 7:11), he hates not only the one who sheds blood (Proverbs 6:16-19), but also the one who loves violence. (Psalm 11:5) Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord (Proverbs 12:22); God hates you just the way you are.

But that’s the Old Testament God, the New Testament God is this lovey-dovey God who has nothing in common with that vengeful God of the Old Testament…Beloved, read your New Testament. Jesus Christ is exalted on his throne forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of his kingdom, he has loved righteousness, and he has hated wickedness. (Hebrews 1:8-9) Lest you kiss the Son, you will perish in the way. (Psalm 2:12, Luke 13:1-5) One of the most glorious pictures of Christ’s perfect wrath is found in Isaiah 63,

Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength?

"It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save."

Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

"I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth." (Compare Revelation 14:14-20)

On the Day of Wrath, as the song says, he will trample out the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored. On that day the murderer and the rapist will be punished, but so will the reviler and the swindler, the liar and the thief, the gossip and the self-righteous, the coward and the unbeliever. Beloved, Jesus hates you just the way you are, and lest you repent, such will be your fate.

But what about that song? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. The Bible tells no such thing, it is a dastardly translation of agape and one that has murdered souls. Agape is a sacrificial lovingkindness offered freely without prior instigation or promise of recompense, in other words, Charity. The song would be much better sung,

Jesus has a long-suffering sacrificial lovingkindness towards me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

And Jesus does have charity towards everyone, but do not presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, for this kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, otherwise the wrath you are storing up to be revealed on the Day of Wrath will be poured out upon you.

If you want to know how much God hates sin and sinners, you need look no farther than Calvary’s cross, at which time the Lord of Glory, though God in every way, humbled himself to obedience to die on a cross, forsaken and crushed by his Just and Holy Father who was pleased beyond all measure to pour out his wrath upon his only begotten Son, who was made the embodiment of our sins and God held nothing back. John Flavel, of Puritan fame, expressed it this way in his presumption of speaking on eternity's eve,

Father: My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls?

Son: O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all thy bills, that I may see what they owe thee; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shalt thou require it. I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father: But, my Son, if thou undertake for them, thou must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare thee.

Son: Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it.

Calvary’s cross is the epitome of God’s hatred against sinners, all of the torments of Hell everlasting were demonstrated during six agonizing hours on the bruised and bloody Messiah. Recount his agony at the separation from his Father in Psalm 69,

Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

and Psalm 22,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

The face of God was turned from his Son, unable to look upon sin, Christ was abandoned by the God from whom all good things flow, so that in this perfect sacrifice, once for all, the Just for the unjust, the Christian will never know this hellish separation. While we were alienated from God and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, Christ has reconciled us in his body of flesh through his death. (Colossians 1:21-22) In this reconciliation, the Christian is adopted into the family of God into the love of the Father, but what kind of love? Storge love, an unconditional love demonstrated from parents to children. The Christian is also privy to Phileo love with the Son, a love demonstrated between siblings. As many as Christ philo's he also rebukes and chastens (Revelation 3:19), refining the Christian away from sin towards purity and holiness. (1 John 3:3, Hebrews 12:14) The Father also thelema's (loves/desires) the Christian's sanctification. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

So, in our emulation of Christ, are we to love sin and sinners and keep hatred from our hearts? Heaven forbid! Emulate the Living Christ in a hatred of sin, hating even, as Jude exhorts, the garment stained by their sin. (Jude 23) True love is this: Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. (Romans 12:9) David said it best,

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain!

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. – Psalm 139:19-22

Leave all action up to God, do not hate in action, instead Paul exhorts thusly,

Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:19-21

Genuine love is a hatred of evil, it is a godly and holy love which hates the sinner for his sins against Heaven, and in this we must emulate Jesus Christ that we be patient and kind towards our enemies in hopes that they believe and are saved, not on their own merits, but on his. Even when the wicked boast and all of their thoughts are towards, “There is no God” (Psalm 10:4), we have a promise from God,

They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. – 2 Peter 3:4-9

When God's lovingkindness towards a person runs out, then Christ will with an overflowing flood make a complete end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into the darkness. (Nahum 1) God hates sinners, so ought we, but similarly we should extend reconciliation, as he does, because but for the grace of God, there go we.

Repent, and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Faithbuster

Can God create a rock so heavy that he himself cannot lift it?
(This post was inspired by a dear friend and brother in the faith)

Have you ever considered this question? It presents a very real problem for faiths that hold to an omnipotent God; if God can create a rock so heavy that he himself cannot lift it, then he isn't powerful enough to lift it. If he can lift anything, then it seems he cannot create a rock so heavy that he can’t lift it.

A conundrum is what we have. Perhaps this question has provided a nice cushion of comfort for you so that you feel as though there is no God or if there is a God, that he isn’t powerful enough to even tell you who he is, let alone judge you. Or maybe you’ve brushed this question under the carpet in order to keep believing in God, claiming that it is a nonsensical question.

There are things that are impossible for God, such as compromising his perfection, but creating a rock so heavy that he himself cannot lift it is not one of them. Dear reader, God wouldn’t be much of a God if a question as silly as this could disprove him, so not only did he provide us with the answer, he anticipated this foolishness.

On a fateful day in the First Century, a man condemned for claiming to be God manifest in the flesh was walking through Jerusalem carrying a Roman cross on his back. While the Roman cross is heavy, a grown man should be able to carry it; however, this man was being driven by the Roman soldiers who had whipped him masterfully so that onlookers could barely tell he was a man. In order to administer this torture with the flagrum, a soldier had to go through intense training, as it was very easy to kill the person being punished and that was not their intent; it was their goal to inflict the maximum amount of pain. Even still, many men died from this punishment, either because their body was breached and their organs fell out of the wounds, or because major arteries were cut and they bled to death.

But this man who claimed to be God had not died and was carrying his cross through Jerusalem, but because of his wounds, he was having a difficult time. The Roman soldiers forced a man named Simon to help carry the cross. The going was slow, and the soldiers were under strict orders to crucify the condemned man before sunset and they were running out of time, so in order to speed up the event, Simon carried the cross by himself the rest of the way.

They arrived at their location just outside of the gates on a hill called Calvary, and the man that claimed to be God was nailed to the cross. A sign displayed on top of the cross declared his crime in three languages, that he had claimed to be the “King of the Jews.” The Roman soldiers realized that there was something different about this man, so did a thief on a cross beside him. What was different about him was that he had never transgressed the Law of God; he was an innocent man paying a criminals' fine. He had previously said that what he did not steal, he had come to repay, and as the Prophet Isaiah stated, he was numbered among the transgressors. He was perfect, but our sin was attributed to him; on Calvary hill three thieves should have been crucified, you and I hung in the middle, because everything that is stolen, no matter the value, is a transgression against a Holy and Just God, no matter if it was a million dollars or a pen, whether it was time from your employer or air from God, no thief will inherit the kingdom of God. Here hung this man bruised and wounded; a thief who had never stolen, a liar who had never lied, an adulterer and murderer who had never so much as looked with lust or hated without cause, and a blasphemer who had never taken God's name in vain. Upon his body were adorned our lies, our larceny, our fornication, our gossip, our blasphemy, pornography, idolatry, covetousness, pedophilia, rape, pride, arrogance, and unbelief. Every deed you've hidden in darkness, every idle word, and every evil thought were nailed to the cross in his heretofore unblemished frame.

Just before sunset, the soldiers would break the legs of those on the cross and the weight of their body would put full strain on their arms, and they would be unable to exhale and would suffocate. The man in the middle died before his legs were smashed, because 700 years before he died, it was written that none of his bones would be broken. With his last breath, he declared to the world that “It is finished.” The sky went dark, the ground split, and in Jerusalem the veil that kept men from the Holy of Holies, the ceremonial dwelling place of God on earth, was torn down the middle and all men were given opportunity to stand in the presence of God.

On that cross that was too heavy for him to carry, the man who claimed to be God died, having called out to his Father in Heaven, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken because our sins made him repulsive to his Father, just as our sins make us repulsive to the Father, unfit for Heaven, and condemned for eternity to Hell. In order to be sure that he was dead, the Roman soldiers thrust a spear into his side, and discovered that his heart had burst. He had not died of suffocation like most people who died on a cross; instead, he had died of a ruptured heart, forsaken by his Father and friends.

Three days later, the man who claimed to be God proved that he was God by defeating death and walking out of his tomb alive forevermore. This man’s name is Jesus Christ; he is the eternal and coequal Second Person of the Holy Trinity. God in every way, he commands everyone everywhere to repent; then while he was made sin for us, we can be made the righteousness of God in him, our fine paid on that cross on Calvary.

So if it was a silly question, whether God could create a rock so heavy that he himself could not lift it, that was keeping you from forsaking your sin and following the Eternal Son of God, now you know the answer. Two-thousand years ago, Jesus Christ created a tree which was carved into a cross that was so heavy that he could not carry it; logic follows that he has created plenty of rocks that are so heavy that he could not lift them. Every thing has been created through him, and yet, though he had the fullness of God dwelling within him, he esteemed it not, and made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Every question in Christianity has so easy of an answer, and if you are trusting in silliness to save you on Judgment Day, know that only the blood that was poured out for the remission of your sins can save you. Trust in Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross, he is mighty to save.

Against Hyper Arminianism

In Heaven, there will be Calvinists, Augustinians, Wesleyans, a few Arminians, and maybe even one or even two Pelagians. I will not say that your view of grace is an essential in getting you into Heaven.

But, my brothers and sisters in Christ, your view of grace is an essential in how you approach getting OTHERS into Heaven. The Arminian beliefs of decisional regeneration and lordship salvation are outright heresy. They have installed works into salvation, provided an avenue for boasting, and will indeed result in multitudes knocking on the door to the Bema Seat and instead of being welcomed in, will be directed to the Great White Throne for judgment.

Salvation is by grace through faith. This faith is granted by God, it comes by hearing. God draws, Christ paid the price, the Holy Spirit justifies and sanctifies. There is no room for the sinner to do anything other than be saved. The Spirit will convict him of his sin, his pride will be killed through the Word, and the Spirit will grant him life. God given repentance will follow.

The most vilified person in history is the High Calvinist, the hatred against him is only slightly less than the hatred against Christ and considerably more than the hatred directed at the Accuser. Oh how the world, the American church, and the free-willers hate this godly man. Why? Because his trust is based too greatly in his God.

But, here I am to defend him who trusts too heavily in God. Saints, the most damning view of grace which forsakes the God given command to seek and save that which is lost is the HyperArminian; the overly tolerant deceiver who thinks that anyone can seek God on their own. He is the dumb dog who sees the danger but remains silent; the blind watchman who cares not for souls and will not remove his blindfold. Beloved, there is none that seeks after God; we like sheep have all turned aside after our own lusts. The HyperArminian sits on his porch boasting in his decision, content that his faith was his own doing and that his neighbor will eventually realize his need for a Saviour and find God if he keeps asking those girls down at the strip-club.

Tolerance is a cancer. There has never been a greater heresy to infect Christianity. Catholicism, Atheism, Evolution have nothing on the numbers of souls that tolerance has murdered. Your neighbor is a heathen, he will not seek God, how will he hear without a preacher?

Before you curse the High Calvinists who defend God, look at the plank in your own eye and remember what the Psalmist said, It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Beloved, if faith comes by hearing, who have you told?

Beautiful are the Fingers that Type the Good News

God asked Job, “Canst thou send forth lightnings, so that they go and say to you, Here We Are?"

It only took three thousand years, but we can momentarily take our hand from our mouth and say, “Yes, God, we can.” Don’t forget to firmly clamp your hand back over your mouth after saying as much.

Jesus Christ said that when he returns, some would be out working in the fields, and others would be home sleeping, but he said that everyone would see the Second Coming. Isaiah makes it clear that the world is round, Jesus knew this, after all, he created it. How then do we expect everyone to witness the return real time? If he manifests himself over Jerusalem, then California will be in the eclipse, if he begins his reign over England, then Australia will wonder what’s going on. How will everyone see this happening real time?

Television and the Internet, that’s how. You are currently reading this on a tool for the prophecy completion of the Second Coming.

I have a ministry to Muslims. If I stood in front of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or on the Moon Rock in Mecca and preached my message, I would be sans head pretty quickly. But using the relative safety of the internet, I have been able to preach at hundreds of Muslims with a very offensive message, and in this respect the internet has been a wonderful tool. Click Here

All things are good if used lawfully. This is true even for the Bible. The Bible can be used maliciously and for bad just as easily as the internet, consider the ministries of Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, and Jim Jones. Each is deadly in its own rite, some only to spiritual death, others to the death of both body and soul, truly these men are murderers of souls.

Paul tells Timothy, “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.”

Paul laid out six of the 10 Commandments explicitly, the other four are in there, although not quite so explicitly. I won’t judge you, but I do ask you to judge yourself. Have you ever told a lie? Does that make you a liar? Do you believe the Bible when it says that all liars will have their place in the Lake of Fire? Have you ever used God’s name in vain? This is called blasphemy, and God will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. Have you ever killed anyone? Did you know that Jesus said that if you just hate someone, you will be judged as a murderer at heart?

The internet is lawful, if used for good. It is good for expanding your knowledge, for keeping in touch with long lost friends, for a lot of good things. But it can also be used very unlawfully. Children are propositioned for and exposed to all sorts of evilness every day, and you’ve heard it said of old, thou shalt not commit adultery, but Jesus said at the Sermon on the Mount, “Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already with her in their heart.” Have you ever done that? If so, you will be judged as an adulterer at heart. I won’t even ask if you’ve taken it farther, to rape or fornication at heart.

I can’t judge you, I don’t have that authority, but you have an appointment once to die, and then THE judgment, by Jesus Christ as your judge. How will you look? God knows the thoughts and intents of your heart, deeds done in darkness will be brought to the light, and you will give an account for every idle word.

We have all gone aside, turned to our own lusts, and all of us have transgressed an infinitely holy God, and thus will face the infinite punishment of Hell. But it is not God’s will that you should perish, but that you should turn from your sin and turn towards him. He has made a way for you to be forgiven; 2000 years before the Internet and invitro fertilization were invented, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, God manifested himself in the flesh to be subjected to this world which we have broken, he was tempted just as we are tempted, but he didn’t succumb, and he gave himself up to be hung on the cross in your stead, charged and scourged on the claim of being God. What he did not steal, he came to repay, and he paid your fine in his own life’s blood. But because he is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, on the third day he defeated death and rose from the grave to live forevermore.

Once you have repented (turned from iniquity to God) and placed your trust in Jesus Christ to save you, you will be forgiven, born into the family of God, where you will inherit eternal life, and though your body will pass away, your spirit will never perish.

Today is the day of salvation, the Bible says faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of Christ. Today you have heard him call, don’t put this off, be reconciled to God, and then thank God that we can send forth lightnings, so that they go and say to you, “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”