Preached at Kick-off Event for 40 Days for Life in Washington, DC

Picture - Me outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington, DC.

Last night I had the opportunity to preach the gospel at the kick-off rally at Farragut Square for an event that happens every fall and spring called "40 Days for Life". It's a prayer vigil where people gather together to pray for 40 days outside of abortion providers, namely Planned Parenthood. This is a peaceful effort that seeks to respect the doctors and families affected, and it seeks to obey the law.

Again, I don't have a recording of my sermon, but I do have a manuscript. If you're interested just shoot me an email. One of my aims was to express that even though we have disagreements about what the gospel is and what makes a person a Christian we do share a conviction from the Bible that abortion is wrong. While we don't have unity in the gospel we do have a common interest to see the end of abortion. Then I tried to make the gospel clear, and encourage people to repent and believe and to pray gospel-centered prayers, and to counsel with the gospel.

Poppa Don's Funeral in Bettendorf, IA

By God's grace Lindsey and I were able to pack up the car and N. for a trip back to Iowa for Lindsey's grandpa's funeral. N. did really well, and then we hit Indianapolis. She cried for about the last 3 or so hours of the trip. It was hard not to pull over and just find a hotel, but we pushed on and by God's grace we made it. The trip back was much better, but we stopped and stayed in a strange hotel in Wheeling, OH. Ask me about it sometime if you're curious.

Poppa had alzheimer's and his health had been deteriorating over the last four years or so. It was a sorrowful and a yet joyful privilege to be able to put together the funeral service and to be able to preach the gospel too. We don't have a recording of my sermon, but if you're interested I do have a manuscript of it. If you would like you can read Poppa's obituary at the Quad City Times website here.

The funeral was on August 6, 2010. Nonnie's pastor, Craig Rolinger from Oak Ridge Bible Chapel in Milan, IL, preached an encouraging message from 1 Thessalonians 4 (and a few other passages) at the McGinnis-Chambers Funeral Home in Bettendorf. Then I preached a message from John 9:35-41 about how "Jesus Christ the Perfect Eye-Doctor" (Poppa was an ophthamologist) at the grave-side service at Davenport Memorial Park.

Picture - This is a picture of us with Lindsey's mother's side of the family after the funeral.

Grace Baptist Church of Arlington, VA

I've been delinquent in getting some of these things out here, but I have had a number of opportunities to preach in the last three months. This and the next two posts will be about these opportunities.

The first two opportunities I had to preach were at Grace Baptist Church of Arlington, VA. It was a blessing to be with this church. Here are the sermons I preached:

Turning to God in Trials (Psalm 4) - June 27th, 2010

Protection and Justice Belong to God (Psalm 5) - July 4th, 2010

Picture 1 - This is of the building where they meet.

Picture 2 - This is a picture of me with two of their elders, non-staff pastor Eric Pelletier on the left and staff pastor Mike Law, Jr. on the right.

Reformation Day Concert ~ Capitol Hill Baptist Church Mountain Band

It's been a while since I've blogged, I know. God has been teaching me so much that it has been best to abstain from blogging until I'm less busy with all that He has given me to do right now. That brings me to something God has me doing right now, the CHBC Mountain Band!

Are you going to be in Washington, DC on Sunday October 31, 2010 at 4:00PM? You should come to the concert/sing-along we are having at Capitol Hill Baptist Church! We are going to be meditating on heaven through a number of songs, and we'll have food as well. A number of us play a wide variety of instruments and we wanted to bring a bunch of folks together to play in order to encourage the saints of CHBC. You might ask, "Well, I'm not a member of CHBC." Well friend, you're still invited to come check it out. Then stay afterward to pray with our church and hear God's Word preached!

The group is made up of a number of members from my church (I hope I didn't forget anyone):

Voices from High to Low:
Diane Davis - Voice
Allison Jones - Voice
Alexis Andrews - Voice
John Mackinney - Voice
John Hardin - Voice/Guitar
Bill Cook - Voice
Homere Whyte - Voice

Instrumentalists:
Rebecca Ulrich - Piccolo
Paige Cunningham - Fiddle
Susan Russo - Fiddle
Matt Merker - Harmonica(s)/Piano/Mountain Dulcimer/Mandolin
Jennifer Jackson - Piano
Connie Dever - Hammered Dulcimer/Mandolin
Greg Brown - Banjo
Noah Braymen - Guitar(s)/Banjo
Nile Wartts - Percussion/Washboard/Whistler
Jameson Cunningham - Percussion
Kevin Goggin - Bass Fiddle

Lord willing we'll also have a few surprises as well! Trust me, you don't want to miss this.

We See But Pieces of the Broken Links of the Chains of His Providence

Letter CCLXXXVII – To the Viscountess of Kenmure

(ON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD – CHRIST SHARES IN HIS PEOPLE’S SORROWS.)

MADAM,

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.  I know that ye are near many comforters, and that the promised Comforter is near at hand also.  Yet, because I found your Ladyship comfortable to myself in my sad days, which are not yet over my head, it is my part and more, in many respects (howbeit I can do little, God knoweth, in that kinds), to speak to you in your wilderness lot.

I know, dear and noble Lady, that this loss of your dear child (John, second Viscount Kenmure who died in 1639) came upon you, one piece and part of it after another; and that ye were looking for it, and that now the Almighty hath brought on you that which ye feared; and that your Lord gave you lawful warning.  And I hope that for His sake who brewed and masked this cup in heaven, ye will gladly drink, and salute and welcome the cross.  I am sure, that it is not your Lord’s mind to feed you with judgment and wormwood, and to give you waters of gall to drink (Ezek. xxxiv. 16; Jer. ix. 15).  I know that your cup is sugared with mercy; and that the withering of the bloom, the flower, even the white and red of worldly joys, is for no other end than to buy out at the ground the reversion of your heart and love. 

Madam, subscribe to the Almighty’s will; put your hand to the pen, and let the cross of your Lord Jesus have your submissive and resolute AMEN.  If ye ask and try whose this cross is, I dare say that it is not all your own, the best half of it is Christ’s.  Then your cross is no born-bastard, but lawfully begotten; it sprang not out of the dust (Job v. 6).  If Christ and ye be halvers of this suffering, and He say, “Half mine,” what should ail you?  And I am sure that I am here right pon the style of the word of God:  “The fellowship of Christ’s sufferings” (Phil. iii. 10); “The remnant of the afflictions of Christ” (Col. i. 24); “The reproach of Christ” (Heb. ii. 6).  It were but to shift the comforts of God, to say, “Christ had never such a cross as mine:  He had never a dead child, and so this is not His cross; neither can He, in that meaning, be the owner of this cross.”  But I hope that Christ, when he married you, married you and all the crosses and wo (grieved) hearts that follow you.  And the word maketh no exception.  “In all their afflictions He was afflicted” (Isa. lxiii. 9).  Then Christ bore the first stroke of this cross; it rebounded off Him upon you, and ye get it at the scond hand, and ye and He are halvers in it.  And I shall believe, for my part, that He mindeth to distil heaven out of this loss, and all others the like; for wisdom devised it, and love laid it on, and Christ owneth it as His own, and putteth your shoulder beneath only a piece of it.  Take it with joy, as no bastard cross, but as a visitation of God, well-born; and spend the rest of your appointed time, till your change come, in the work of believing.  And let faith, that never made a lie to you, speak for God’s part of it, “He will not, He doth not, make you a sea or a whale-fish, that He keepeth you in ward” (Job vii. 12).  It may be, that ye think not many of the children of God in such a hard case as yourself; but what would ye think of some, who would exchange afflictions? and give you to the boot?  But I know that yours must be your own alone, and Christ’s together.

I confess it seemed strange to me, that your Lord hsould have done that which seemed to ding out the bottom of your worldly comforts; but we see not the ground of the Almighty’s sovereignty.  “He goeth by on our right hand, and on our left hand, and we see Him not.”  We see but pieces of the broken links of the chains of His providence; and He coggeth the wheels of His own providence, that we see not.  Oh, let the former work His own clay into what frame He pleaseth!  “Shall any teach the Almighty knowledge?”  If He pursue the dry stubble, who dare say, “What doest Thou?”  Do not wonder to see the Judge of the world weave, into one web, your mercies and judgments of the house of Kenmure.  He can make one web of contraries. 

But my weak advice (with reverence and correction), were, for you, dear and worthy Lady, to see how far mortification goeth on, and what scum the Lord’s fire casteth out of you.  I know that ye see your knottiness, since our Lord whiteth, and heweth, and plaineth you.  And the glancing of the furnace (The brightness of glowing heat) is to let you see what scum or refuse ye must want, and what froth is in nature, that must be boiled out and taken off in the fire of your trials.  I do not say that heavier afflictions prophesy heavier guiltiness; a cross is often but a false prophet in this kind.  But I am sure that our Lord would have the tin and the bastard metal in you removed, lest the Lord say, “The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed in the fire, the Founder melteth in vain” (Jer. vi. 29).  And I shall hope that grief will not so far smother your light, as not to practise this so necessary a duty, to concur with Him in this blessed design.

I would gladly plead for the Comforter’s part of it, not against you, Madam (for I am sure ye are not his party [An opposing party to him]), but against your grief, which will have its own violent incursions in your soul:  and I think it be not in your power to help it.  But I must say, there are comforts allowed upon you; and, therefore, want them not.  When ye have gotten a running-over soul with joy now, that joy will never be missed out of the infinite ocean of delight, which is not diminished by drinking at it, or drawing out of it.  It is a Christian art to comfort yourself in the Lord; to say, “I was obliged to render back again this child to the Giver:  and if I have had four years’ loan of him, and Christ eternity’s possession of him, the Lord hath kept condition with me.  If my Lord would not have him and me to tryst (meet by appointment) both in one hour at death’s door-threshold together, it is His wisdom so to do; I am satisfied.  My tryst is suspended, not broken off, nor given up.”  Madam, I would that i could divide sorrow with you, for your ease.  But I am but a beholder:  it is easy to me to speak; the God of comfort speak to you, and allure you with His feasts of love. 

My removal from my flock is so heavy to me, that it maketh my life a burden to me; I had never such a longing for death.  The Lord help and hold up sad clay.  I fear that ye sin in drawing Mr. William Dalgleish from this country, where the labourers are few, and the harvest great. 

Madam, desire my Lord Argyle to see for provision to a pastor for his poor people.  Grace be with you.

Your Ladyship’s at all obedience in Christ,

S. R.

Kirkcudbright, Oct. 1, 1639

Rutherford, Samuel Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2006), 565-68.

Dr. Fan Yafeng - Recipient of the 2009 John Leland Religious Liberty Award

Yesterday I had the blessing to be able to attend the ceremony in which Dr. Richard Land was able to give the 2009 John Leland Religious Liberty Award to Dr. Fan Yafeng on behalf of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention in the U.S. House of Representatives side of the Capitol of the United States of America. Dr. Yafeng was unable to come, so Bob Fu, of the China Aid Association, received it on his behalf - Mr. Fu was the recipient of the 2007 award
(I blogged about that a few years back).

The speakers at this ceremony were United States Representative Trent Franks, Dr. Richard Land, Dr. Barrett Duke, and Mr. Bob Fu.

Dr. Yafeng is one of China’s foremost legal scholars and advocate for constitutional democracy and he has increased his participation in the activist circuit through open involvement in the defense of persecuted Christians. He has worked closely with Gao Zhisheng, Wang Yi, Zhang Xingshui and Li Baiguang on cases such as the defense of Pastor Cai, Lian Changnian and Tong Qimiao, and he is also a Chinese house church leader (click here for a relevant press release where some of this information is from).

(This picture shows the speakers at this ceremony - from top then left to right: Dr. Fan Yafeng (was skyping from China on the screen in the background), Mr. Bob Fu, Representative Trent Franks, Dr. Richard Land, and Dr. Barrett Duke.)

(Dr. Land and Dr. Fan Yafeng.)

In September of 2006 Christianity Today outlined one example of how Dr. Yafeng is trying to help build a “rule-of-law” philosophy in China. He serves as a legal counselor to pastors and he doesn’t expect to stop persecution from the police, but he states that one of his goals is to get the police to, “think in terms of legality.” His efforts are helping the government to turn into more of a democratic system in incremental steps. In his testimony from yesterday he referred to this philosophy of gradual change of the Chinese culture and eventually the polity of the nation:

After the totalitarian rule for decades…the hearts of the Chinese are full of hatred, and the spirit and the soul of countless Chinese families have fallen apart. Only the Gospel of the Lord and the freedom told by the Bible can bring healing and salvation for the soul of the Chinese…The key is to persuade these angry people to look back to their most fundamental rights, transitioning to the system of maintained stability by the rights-safeguarding movement.

This will make, “an ancient civilization to be a new land for the gospel.” This ultimately leads to the building of what Yafeng described as, “the society that may emerge after the collapse.” In 2005 the Boston Globe drew attention this changing tide in China by quoting Premier Wen Jiabao saying that China is, “surely moving toward democracy.” Dr. Fan has been a vital leader in the work to move this democratic philosophy forward particularly in the "Taishi Village Incident Memorandum". Democracy, in Yafeng’s view, creates a “super-dimension” of belief. He seems to be saying that democracy frees up space in their country for a “free belief space” in which, “unity between tangible church property and intangible free space is reached.” Ultimately this philosophy gives the Chinese people religious liberty to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience, not to be confused with a theocracy.


Toward the beginning of Yafeng’s statement he said, “Before I was 15 years old, I sincerely believed in communism.” He continued, “I tried a lot of ideological trends, such as existentialism, Marxism, the Confucian school, the Taoist school, Buddhism, etc., until finally at the end of 1996, when I was…a student of Peking University, brother Wagn Zhiyong, preached the gospel to me. Early in 1997, I made my decision to be converted to Christianity, and in May I was baptized.” He mentioned that this was the most important time in his life, “How amazing the grace that came to me, a sinner…Thank God that He chose me in 1997 so that my soul didn’t go so far as to perish.” In his video testimony, which was slightly different than his written testimony, he even mentioned that his introduction to Reformed theology further strengthened his faith. Praise God for Christ’s work of redemption through the substitutionary atonement that is found in Him alone. It is truly amazing grace that a holy God would pour out His wrath on His own Son in our place if we would only repent and believe!

(In this picture Representative Franks is giving remarks with Dr. Yafeng in the background on Skype and Dr. Land to his right side.)

Yafeng talked about what an honor it is to suffer for Christ as well when he was laid off from his position at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in November of 2009:

I had the honor of suffering for God: oh! how glorious, how joyful! I was willing to carry any cross on my back for my great King and my Savior. I knew deeply that my life was in the hand of God and I knew deeply in Whom I believe. I also believed numerous brothers and sisters would pray for me. So that is a period of time that my heart was full of joy and peace and there was revival in my life.

He describes his work in “rights defense” for the church as a church ministry rather than a legal ministry and that this award has been a wonderful encouragement to him and the Chinese house churches.

Dr. Barrett Duke asked Dr. Yafeng what the the Chinese church most needs from American Christians and Dr. Yafeng said, "Prayer." He also said that the two greatest needs for the Chinese churches are, "spiritual strength and theological training for pastors." That's really what we need here too! Dr. Duke made the gospel very clear, and we were able to pray for Fan and the Chinese churches.

(In this picture Dr. Duke is leading us in prayer for Chinese Christians, and Fu is translating.)

It was a wonderful time to honor God by honoring Dr. Yafeng, and it is my prayer that God will continue to refresh the saints in China to be able to glorify Him as they persevere in their faith and share the gospel with as many as possible. Actually my prayer is the hymn "Speed Thy Servants"!

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Speed Thy Servants by Thomas Kelly

Speed Thy servants, Savior, speed them;
Thou art Lord of winds and waves;
They were bound, but Thou hast freed them;
Now they go to free the slaves:
Be Thou with them, ’tis Thine arm alone that saves.
Be Thou with them, ’tis Thine arm alone that saves.

Friends, and home, and all forsaking,
Lord they go at Thy command,
As their stay Thy promise taking,
While they traverse sea and land:
O be with them; lead them safely by the hand.
O be with them; lead them safely by the hand.

When they reach the land of strangers,
And the prospect dark appears,
Nothing seen but toils and dangers,
Nothing felt but doubts and fears,
Be Thou with them, hear their sighs and count their tears.
Be Thou with them, hear their sighs and count their tears.

When no fruit appears to cheer them,
And they seem to toil in vain,
Then in mercy, Lord, draw near them,
Then their sinking hopes sustain:
Thus supported, let their zeal revive again.
Thus supported, let their zeal revive again.

In the midst of opposition
Let them trust, O Lord, in Thee;
When success attends their mission,
Let Thy servants humbler be:
Never leave them till Thy face in Heav’n they see.
Never leave them till Thy face in Heav’n they see.

There to reap in joy forever,
Fruit that grows from seed here sown;
There to be with Him, who never
Ceases to preserve His own;
And with gladness give the praise to Him alone.
And with gladness give the praise to Him alone.

(This is a picture of Bob Fu and I.)

Not Christmas but Easter

I meant to post this yesterday, but we were enjoying family way too much! This is a short meditation on Christmas and Easter. Happy Christmas everyone!

"The central celebration of Christianity is not Christmas but Easter. It is a great a miraculous thing that the creator of the universe should be born as a baby in Bethlehem. But a true saying worthy of all people to receive is that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim 1:15): the reason for his birth was his death and resurrection.

It is wonderful that God should visit us - and visit us as one of us. But more wonderful still is that he should die for us, for "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). That God the Son became a man is, of course, enormously important. As the old hymn goes:

There was no other good enough

To pay the price of sin;

He only could unlock the gate

Of heaven and let us in.

(Cecil F Alexander, "There is a green hill far away")

God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19), so it is right to celebrate his birth with joy. But in his birth, he entered the battle, whereas in his death and resurrection, he conquered our enemy and won the war.

This victory contains the great news about God's visit to humanity. Jesus did not come just to share our experience of life, or to teach us the way to live; he came to take our sin upon himself and to bear our punishment in his death. He himself said he came to "give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). As the Apostle Peter said, "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous" (1 Pet 3:18a).

But Jesus' 'visit' to humanity did not cease with his death. He rose again as a man, and not just as a man but as the 'Son of Man' - the man whom Daniel prophesied would rule all nations for all time (Dan 7:13-14). "For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive", wrote the Apostle Paul (1 Cor 15:21-22).

Furthermore, the risen Jesus continues as the man who rules the world. He calls all people to himself by his Spirit and announces the gospel through his servants. As people come to him by the power of his Spirit's work of regeneration, they enter the kingdom of God.

At Easter, we take time to remember with overwhelming gratitude to God that we are saved by his Son's death and resurrection. We know that the crucifixion of Christ is the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18-24). There is no message more important to preach and no song more important to sing than that Jesus died for our sins. This message was delivered by the apostles "as of first importance" - that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried , that he was raised on third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3-4).

For those who are not saved, Easter is a strange and fairly unimpressive festival. A man dies in the first century and we are supposed to celebrate? He may have been a great man - he may have been an innocent man - he may have died a barbaric death - but what is so important about a man who died? How is this action central to history, life, eternity or your relationship to God? In contrast, for those of us being saved, the cross is not a matter of shame and foolishness but the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:18).

Christmas will always be more popular than Easter with the non-Christian. It has a message that is easier to understand - a message that tells us of our importance. It is a message of birth and life. But Easter has a message that demonstrates God's wrath upon our sin. It is a message that reminds us of our mortality. It is a message that demands repentance.

And yet Easter is not a gloomy affair. We do not celebrate that Jesus died, but that he died for our sins. We do not only celebrate that he returned to life, but also that he rose to rule the universe as our Lord and king. We do not celebrate God's wrath upon our sin but the victory of God's mercy over wrath - whereby we are justified and pardoned. We do not celebrate life here on earth, but life here on earth and into eternity - the new eternal life of the kingdom of God.

Jensen, Phillip D. By God's Word: 60 Reflections for Living in God's World (Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2007), 208-211.

This is Sin

This was pretty convicting in my devotional time this morning:

"This is sin; a refusal to listen to the voice and to the Word of God. So that if you are living your own life in a very respectable manner, and are not listening to God, you are still a terrible sinner. If you are living that little self-contained, self-satisfied life in which you really only think of God now and again, and remember perhaps morning and evenings that there is a God, and you say your prayers; if that is your attitude to God, if you are not waiting upon Him and listening for His Word, and seeking it everywhere, and living to practise it, then you are as much a sinner as the drunkard or the adulterer; you are not listening to God. That is the essence of sin."

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn Romans Chapter 1 (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985), 139.

Preaching at Crestwood Baptist Church in Des Moines, Iowa

This is really late notice, but if you'd pray for Crestwood Baptist Church in Des Moines, Iowa and myself this morning I'd appreciate it. I'm going to be preaching on Christ the King from Psalm 2 there this morning!

Caution Your Incomes and all Your Losses

Letter LIX. To Earlston, Elder.

(NO SUFFERING FOR CHRIST UNREWARDED – LOSS OF CHILDREN – CHRIST IN PROVIDENCE.)

MUCH HONOURED SIR,

I have heard of the mind and malice of your adversaries against you. It is like they will extend the law they have, in length and breadth, answerable to their heat of mind. But it is a great part of your glory that the cause is not yours, but your Lord’s whom you serve. And I doubt not but Christ will count it His honour to back His weak servant; and it were a shame for Him (with reverence to His holy name) that He should suffer Himself to be in the common of such a poor man as ye are, and that ye should give out for Him and not get in again. Write up your depursments for your Master Christ, and keep the account of what ye give out, whether name, credit, goods, or life, and suspend your reckoning till nigh the eveing; and remember that a poor weak servant of Christ wrote it to you, that ye shall have Christ, a King, caution for your incomes and all your losses. Reckon not from the forenoon. Take the Word of God for your warrant; and for Christ’s act of cautionary, howbeit body, life, and goods go for Christ your Lord, and though ye should lose the head for Him, yet “there shall not one hair of your head perish; in patience, therefore, possess your soul.” (Luke xxi. 18, 19) And because ye are the first man in Galloway called out and questioned for the name of Jesus, His eye hath been upon you, as upon one whom He designed to be among His witnesses. Christ hath said, “Alexander Gordon shall lead the ring in witnessing a good confession,” and therefore He hath put the garland of suffering for Himself first upon your head. Think yourself so much the more obliged to Him, and fear not; for He layeth His right hand on your head. He who was dead and is alive will plead your cause, and will look attentively upon the process from the beginning to the end, and the Spirit of glory shall rest upon you. “Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Zech. xii. 2, 6.) (Rev. ii. 10). This lovely One, Jesus, who also became the Son of man, that He might take strokes for you, write the cross-sweetening and soul-supporting sense of these words in your heart!

These rumbling wheels of Scotland’s ten days’ tribulation are under His look who hath seven eyes. Take a house on your head, and slip yourself by faith in under Christ’s wings till the storm be over. And remember, when they have drunken us down, Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling and of poison. (Zech. xii. 2, 6) They shall be fain to vomit out the saints; for Judah “Shall be a hearth of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left.” Woe to Zion’s enemies! They have the worst of it; for we have write for the victory. Sir, ye were never honourable till now. This is your glory, that Christ hat put you in the roll with Himself and with the rest of the witnesses who are come out of great tribulation, and have washen their garments and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Be not cast down for what the servants of Antichrist cast in your teeth, that ye are a head to and favourer of the Puritans, and leader to that sect. If your conscience say, “Alas! here is much din and little done” (as the proverb is), because ye have not done so much service to Christ that way as ye might and should, take courage from that same temptation. For your Lord Christ looketh upon that very challenge as an hungering desire in you to have done more than ye did; and that filleth up the blank, and He will accept of what ye have done in that kind. If great men be kind to you, I pray you overlook them; if they smile on you, Christ but borroweth their face to smile through them upon His afflicted servant. Know the well-head; and for all that, learn the way to the well itself. Thank God that Christ came to your house in your absence and took with Him some of your children. He presumed that much on your love, that ye would not offend; (Stumble; be offended) and howbeit He should take the rest, He cannot come upon your wrong side. I question not, if they were children of gold, but ye think them well bestowed upon Him.

Expound well these two rods on you, one in your house at home, another on your own person abroad. Love thinketh no evil. If ye were not Christ’s wheat, appointed to be bread in His house, He would not grind you. But keep the middle line, neither despise nor faint (Heb. xii. 5). Ye see your Father is homely with you. Strokes of a father evidence kindness and care; take them so. I hope your Lord hath manifested Himself to you, and suggested these, or more choice thoughts about His dealing with you. We are using our weak moyen and credit for you up at our own court, as we dow. We pray the King to hear us, and the Son of Man to go side for side with you, and hand in hand in the fiery oven, and to quicken and encourage your unbelieving heart when ye droop and despond. Sir, to the honour of Christ be it said, my faith goeth with my pen now. I am presently believing Christ shall bring you out. Truth in Scotland shall keep the crown of the causeway yet. The saints shall see religion go naked at noon-day, free from shame and fear of men. We shall divide Shechem, and ride upon the high places of Jacob. Remember my obliged respects and love to Lady Kenmure and her sweet child.

Yours ever in his sweet Lord Jesus,

S. R.

Antwoth, July 6, 1636.

Rutherford, Samuel Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2006), 133-135. (I edited the text for ease in reading)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone reading this was able to have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration! I'm most thankful that God saved me from His wrath through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. Further, I'm thankful for how God executes his decrees in creation and providence. I'm thankful for many things, but here's a few more: (1) salvation in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2) my family (3) the elders at my church who have gently and lovingly taught my wife and me more about Scripture and God's grace in the gospel (4) the deepening Christian fellowship we have had at our church and with friends both old and new (5) the great privilege it is to be an ambassador for Christ as a Christian.

Ted and Meryl Freeman had a bunch of us over to their place for Thanksgiving. We had great conversation and sang some great hymns: Now Thank We All Our God; For the Beauty of The Earth; We Gather Together; There is a Fountain; and Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It was great! Here's a picture of us all at the dinner table:

Below is a devotion from Charles Spurgeon's Morning by Morning that Lindsey and I read on the morning before Thanksgiving. This is a great reason to give thanks!

November 25

...to proclaim liberty to the captives.

Luke 4:18

No one but Jesus can give deliverance to captives. Real liberty comes from Him alone. It is a liberty rightly granted; for the Son, who is Heir of all things, has a right to make men free. The saints honor the justice of God, which now secures their salvation. It is a liberty that has been dearly purchased. Christ reveals it by His power, but He bought it by His blood. He makes you free, but it is by His own bonds. You go clear because He bore your burden for you: You are set at liberty because He has suffered in your place. Although the purchase price was great, Jesus gives it freely. He asks nothing of us as a preparation for this liberty. He finds us sitting in sackcloth and ashes and invites us to wear the fitting garment of freedom; He saves us just as we are and without any help from us. When Jesus sets us free, the liberty is perpetually enjoyed; no chains can bind again. Let the Master say to me, "Captive, I have delivered you," and it is done forever. Satan may plot to enslave us, but if the Lord is on our side, whom shall we fear? The world, with its temptations, may seek to ensnare us, but He who is for us is mightier than all those who are against us. The movements of our own deceitful hearts may harass and annoy us, but He who has begun the good work in us will bring it to completion in the end. The enemies of God and the antagonists of man may gather their forces together and come with concentrated fury against us, but if God acquits, who is he that condemns? The eagle that flies to its rocky perch and afterwards soars above the clouds is no more free than the soul delivered by Christ. If we are no longer under the law but free from its curse, let our liberty be practically displayed as we serve God with gratitude and delight. "I am your servant; the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds." (Psalm 116:16)

Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon's Morning by Morning Revised and updated by Alistair Begg (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 345.

The Deception of a Church's Desire to be Big & Culturally Relevant

All the talk about multi-site churches and the seeker-sensitive philosophy of ministry seems to be founded on two main arguments "reach more" and "bigger". These are good intentions, but as the familiar phrase goes, "the path to hell is paved with good intentions." Here's a quote from the church growth literature that makes my stomach turn:

"Do you know where your sermon begins? If you have ever been to Disney World, you know the answer to our question. It begins in the parking lot with music, inviting pathways, interestingly named sections of the parking lot, hospitality people roaming around looking for ways to serve with a smile. It isn't long before you know you are a king and queen for the day. Why can't your parking lot say, 'Come on in. We're ready for you'?...The word edutainment is becoming a common word among clued-in educators. Sesame street began the trend in 1969 when it launched a truly revolutionary method of combining education and entertainment. The trend in children's education continues to become more entertaining with programs such as Barney and Blue's Clues."

Easum, Bill; Cornelius, Bil Go Big: Lead Your Church to Explosive Growth (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2006), 98-100.

Barf! I was raised watching Sesame Street, but my folks were a blessing to my sister and me by taking us to the mountains for holidays and not Disney World. So the question is, "Would you rather have a church that's real, teaches substance and truth, and worships God in the manner that He has set up, or would you like a gimmicky plastic veneer on light substance and doctrine?" I don't know about you, but I prefer the mountains to Disney World. So, what's up with this obsession with big? Well, in 1962, years before the current debates, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke relevant biblical truth with clarity to our situation:

“Nothing is so opposed to the biblical teaching as the modern idea that numbers and powerful organization alone count. It is the very opposite of the great biblical doctrine of ‘the remnant’, stated, for instance, so perfectly by Jonathan to his amour-bearer as they alone faced the hosts of the Philistines, in the words: ‘Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few’ (1 Sam. 14:6). Still more strikingly, perhaps, it is taught in the incident of Gideon and the Midianites, where we read of God reducing the army of Israel from thirty-two thousand to three hundred as a preliminary to victory (Judges 7).

“God has done His greatest work throughout the centuries through remnants, often even through individuals. Why is it that we forget Micaiah the son of Imlah, and Jeremiah, and Amos, John the Baptist, the mere twelve disciples; and Martin Luther, standing alone, defying some twelve centuries of tradition and all the power of a mighty church? This is not to advocate smallness or exclusiveness as if they had some inherent merit; but it is to suggest that the modern slavish attitude to bigness and organization cuts right across a central biblical emphasis. Indeed it suggests ignorance of, and lack of faith in, the power of the Holy Spirit."

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn The Basis of Christian Unity (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2003), 75-76.

I think it's excellent that many in the seeker-sensitive, church growth, and multi-site movements want to reach more with the gospel and see their churches experience numerical growth. That said, this desire can actually become a poison. This thinking can poison our trust in Christ's power to build His church through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our lot is faithfulness and obedience, not apparent success achieved through cultural accommodation.

How are the Qualities of Deacons Like the Qualities of Elders?

Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:8, saying, "Deacons likewise (Διακόνους ὡσαύτως)," and then he lists eight (not including verse 11) qualities of a deacon. I plan on only considering what Paul meant by writing “likewise” in 1 Timothy 3:8 in this post:

What Does “Likewise” Mean Here?
First, "likewise" is linking the lists of qualities of an officer of the church, not necessarily the aspiration to pursue the office in a local church from verse 1. This is not to say that the aspiration to serve in the diaconate is not a desire to do a noble task, but the "likewise" isn't carrying the emphasis of the "desire" for the office from verse 1 to the office of deacon, "The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task." All of that being said it's implied that this next list of qualities is what Timothy was to look for in a person to fill another office in the church, namely the office of deacon. So "likewise" (“ωσαντως” or “hosautos”) links the list that follows to the previous set of qualities that were laid out about elders.

Second, "Likewise" is functioning as an adverb describing how the following "states of being" are the substance of or characteristic qualities of deacons. So there is an implied “it is necessary...to be” (δεῖ εἶναι) in this phrase.(1) So the phrase would read, "It is necessary for Deacons, likewise, to be...". "Likewise" is describing how 1 Timothy 3:8-11 & 13 is related to verses 1-7 (as I mentioned above).(2) “Likewise” is not, however, transferring any of the qualities of an elder to the qualities of deacon;(3) rather, it setting up a comparison that the relation of characteristics to the deacon is similar to the relationship of the characteristics to the elder. In other words, there are two offices here and the lists that describe them are like each other insofar as they describe that office. The descriptions aren’t interchangeable. So, in the way that the former qualities describe elders, so these latter qualities that follow describe deacons. The same word also appears in verse 12 and sets off another list (of deacons' wives or deaconesses, which I hope to talk about more when I get there).

“Likewise” can also be translated as “also”, “similarly”, “the same way”, etc. By my count there are 14 qualities of elders in verses 1-7 (not including the desire to be one), so some think “likewise” may be setting a direct contrast between the qualities that are similar. I don't think that's the case though. Paul doesn't seem to be trying to make “one to one” connections and comparisons in these lists. Take a look at the following lists (if you click on the picture it will open on another webpage in a larger image):

A case may be made for a “one to one” correspondence between qualities #1 and #3 but other than that it seems that Paul is not following a direct one to one correspondence for the rest of the qualities in any particular order. The only quality that doesn't seem to be reiterated in any way in the lists of deacon and wives/deaconesses is the ability to teach. Wm. Mounce describes Paul's method here by writing, “He presents an official list in that it was intended to be followed, but it is not exhaustive, concentrating as it does on observable traits. It is, rather, an ad hoc list meant to combat the Ephesian heresy; yet in principle it is relevant today.”(4) I don't think it's helpful to think that quality #2, #4, etc. of each of the lists modify and clarify each other directly, but Paul does use some of the same descriptions more than once.

Are These Just Two Lists Describing the Same Office?
These lists are like each other, and not the same as each other. This leads to the question: “Are these lists just different ways of describing the same office?” This doesn’t seem to be the case.

Some folks want to conflate these lists to make the case that there is only one office that Paul had in mind here. That doesn’t seem to be a plain reading of the text though. If we put too much weight on the “likewise”, and make the diaconate into the same office as an “elder” with a different name we are making Scripture say what it doesn’t say. The similarity between the two words seems to be that “elders” and “deacons” are two distinctly recognized roles in a local church. Further, the similarity or “likewise-ness” seems to be that there are qualities and characteristics that a church is to look for in a person who would fulfill these offices, not that they are the same office. This thinking, in this context, puts more weight on the adverb “likewise” than it was meant to carry. It’s also important to notice that when Paul wrote to the Philippians he wrote, “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons (Phil 1:1).” If these two offices were the same office why would Paul have made the distinction?

If these were two different ways to describe the same official role in the church, why did Paul use some of the same descriptions more than one time? As I mentioned above, the lists don’t have a one-to-one correspondence, but there are some characteristics that are identical. Paul would have been pretty redundant if these were the same office. Further, if verse 11 is talking about deaconesses then we would be including women into the teaching role of a church as well, and the previous chapter clearly outlines that women are not to be teaching or exercising authority over men (1 Tim 2:12). Mounce writes of the distinction between the offices:

“[Elders and deacons] represent two groups, as is also attested in Phil 1:1. In the [Pastoral Epistles], even though the lists of qualifications are similar, they are distinct, suggesting distinct functions. Never are the two titles interchanged in the [New Testament] in the same way as overseer and elder. In the postapostolic development of the offices, they are clearly distinct.”(5)

In a future post I hope to discuss how an elder is a type of deacon, namely of prayer and of the word. The office of a deacon is a deacon or servant of the physical needs of the church. But, again, I hope to think about that at a later time.

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(1) Knight, NIGTC, 168; Mounce, WBC, 197.

(2) Knight, NIGTC, 168; Mounce, WBC, 197.
(3) Marshall, ICC, 489.
(4) Mounce, WBC, 207.
(5) Mounce, WBC, 196.

Isn’t Communism Biblical?

This is a helpful quote from R. B. Kuiper:

The members of the church at Jerusalem had all material things in common. It hardly needs to be said that this communism was something quite different from the communism for which so may clamor today. It was communism among Christians only. It was local in its scope, there being no evidence in the New Testament that it was practiced in any church other than that at Jerusalem. Even in the Jerusalem church it was a temporary arrangement. There was nothing compulsory about it, for when a member of the church sold a possession and pretended to give the whole price to the church, although actually he gave but part, Peter said to him: “Whiles it remained was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?” (Acts 5:4). And the spirit behind this communism was radically different from that which often comes to expression in present-day communism. Someone has aptly said: “The Christians at Jerusalem said, ‘All mine is thine’; communists today say, ‘All thine is mine.’”

Kuiper, R. B. The Glorious Body of Christ (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001), 150-151. Emphasis is mine.

Fruit in the Bible

Here's a little section of what I was teaching on a few weeks back regarding fruit of the Spirit at church. Unfortunately, because of time restraints I had to cut this, so I thought I'd post it here. It's just a short little biblical-theological meditation on fruit in the Bible. The question that we have to ask ourselves is, "What kind of fruit does my life bear?"

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Fruit is an image that we are all familiar with. Fruit on a tree implies multiple things: health, fertility of the ground, growth, sustenance, and reproduction. The kind of fruit that a tree bears says something about the tree and all of the conditions that have combined to contribute to its growth. In the Bible we first see fruit in the creation in Genesis 1:11 when God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” After God created vegetation to bear fruit in season He said it was good (Gn 1:12). The Biblical idea of fruit was then applied to the blessing of both animals (Gn 1:22), and Adam and Eve to multiply (Gn 1:28). The blessing of children is called the “fruit of the womb” at least twelve times in the Bible as well(Gn 30:2; Deut 7:13; 28:4, 11, 18, 53; 30:9; Ps 127:3; 132:11; Isa 13:18; Lam 2:20; Luke 1:42).

Next we see fruit in the garden, when God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gn 2:16-17). We know that they disobeyed God in eating this fruit and it is through this disobedience of the heart that all fell into sin (Gn 3:6). It is in the fall then that bearing fruit from the ground would become difficult and it is through the fall that bearing children would be accompanied with a whole variety of pain. In fact in addition to cursing Satan, God directly cursed the ground saying, “cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life (Gn 3:17).” Despite this curse of the ground there is grace. Again and again in the Old Testament we see that God takes pleasure in His mandate for the creation to be fruitful and multiply by opening wombs and enabling women to have children. We see that God also owned the first fruits of the field, livestock and of children. One of the reasons that the promised land of Canaan was so desirable was because of the evident fruitfulness of it.

Capitalizing on the understanding of fruitfulness in the Old Testament, Psalm 1 applies the image of fruit to the life of a believer. David wrote:

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

This became an image that Jeremiah used to describe virtues of a wicked man and the man who has no other security in life but the Lord (Jer 17:5-8). This idea of fruitfulness manifesting in a person’s character is further developed in the wisdom books and the books of the prophets. Jesus picks up on this imagery as well, saying, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt 3:8),” also “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt 7:15-20),” and “make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit (Matt 12:33),” and there are many more examples of this.

The good news of the gospel is that even though we were trees planted in the soil of of this world bearing the rotten fruit of boasting in what we have and do, we can be grafted into the living vine of Jesus Christ. Believers have been given a new life of peace with God. Through being nourished from the water of life, and being grafted to the living vine of Christ by God's gift to us of repentance and faith we also see that we are given the Holy Spirit. As God sanctifies us progressively over time our lives will bear the fruit of the Spirit if we are believers. But this is a fruit that we have to fight for as well (there's a balance of God's sovereignty and our responsibility here). This is what Paul was getting at when he wrote that we should work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us both to will and work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13). This is what James was getting at when he wrote that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:18-26). Likewise, this is what Peter was getting at when he wrote that we should make our calling and election sure (1 Pet 1:10). Paul's exhortation is still relevant that we "keep in step with the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:14)" and that we, "keep in step [or walk] with the Spirit (Gal 5:25)."