God is on His Throne

Amidst the chaotic turmoil of our current environment, you can rest assured that the Lord is still on His throne.

A brief word of encouragement from Psalm 46:1-3:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Steve Lawson in the Holman Commentary provides the following insights:

Having understood the all-sustaining power of God, the psalmist wrote, “We will not fear.” This is a bold statement of confidence in God inspired by the greatness of the Almighty. Regardless of what the psalmist and the people of God face, they have no reason to fear. God is in control.

 The psalmist continued, “Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”

 This is a picture of confusion, represented as a momentous earthquake that caused an upheaval of the tall, lofty mountains. The mountains, representing stability and continuity, seem to collapse into the sea; “and the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” This imagery conveys earthshaking circumstances. As the mountains crash into the sea, the sea responds by flooding outside of its assigned barriers. In spite of all this turmoil that pictures devastating circumstances seemingly out of control, we will not fear. God is in control.

Remember what Spurgeon said,

“The sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.”

50 Cent Word

Here’s a 50-cent word to add to your vocabulary: merismus.

A frequently used figure of speech in the Bible, merismus is a literary device that uses polar opposites to communicate entailing everything in between.

For instance, in order to communicate that His kingship is universal, Christ says, “All authority was given to me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). Christ is not limiting His power to those two specific places, but, rather, He is clarifying that there is no location outside the sphere of His dominion.

When Christ identifies Himself as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. (Rev. 22:13), He is not saying that He is merely the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The phrase expresses infinity, the boundless life of God, which, as John MacArthur notes, “Embraces everything, includes everything, and transcends everything.”

What relevance does this have to your everyday life? The Holy Spirit in Scripture uses this literary device to communicate that this Jesus, the object of our worship, possesses a kingdom without border and an infinite existence.

“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11)

 

 

Bankrupt in a moment and for eternity

I was struck by this recent headline, amidst the financial fallout from COVID-19,

US loses 500,000 millionaires as coronavirus pandemic erodes fortunes of ultra-wealthy

The number of millionaires in the U.S. has plummeted from a record-high as the dual financial and health crises from the coronavirus pandemic slowly destroy the fortunes of the richest Americans.

The headline immediately came to mind, as I was reading Steve Lawson’s new book, New Life in Christ. Describing how Nicodemus must have felt when, despite his accumulated religious portfolio, Jesus declares him spiritually bankrupt and in need of a second spiritual birth, Lawson writes,

“This is how investors feel when they have poured their hard-earned money into a company that unexpectedly goes bankrupt. After years of putting capital into the enterprise, they have no profits to show for it, only losses…

Nicodemus found himself at a similar crossroads after this self-righteous ruler was told by Jesus that he must be born again. In other words, he must completely start over with God. All his years of strict religious living profited him nothing toward entrance into the kingdom of God. All his good works and respectable morality resulted in no standing of acceptance with God. He would have to renounce everything he thought would commend him to God. Nicodemus must accept this assessment by Jesus, that he had misspent his entire life in pursuing that which would gain him nothing. His religious efforts, spiritual activities, moral pursuits—everything he attempted left him spiritually penniless. He would have to concede that he was wrong all along and swallow his pride. And that is a bitter pill to swallow.”

This pandemic has suddenly stripped securities of all types from our lives – emotional, physical and financial.  Yet, our providential, merciful and just God can redeem this situation, by impressing upon human beings their spiritual bankruptcy, and His eternal security, found only through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

Let’s pray towards that end…

COVID-19 as a theologian

Stop the spread! The mandate to isolate and mitigate are found everywhere today, as we seek to stomp out COVID-19.  There are calls to glean from other countries as to how to combat the rapidly advancing pandemic. And rightly so, as there is much to learn from this crisis on a variety of levels.

Strangely enough, as we seek to put to death this Corona killer, I believe COVID-19 can remind Christians of the need to put to death the components of our earthly nature (Col. 3:5).

Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the following statement recently:

“We feel that the mitigation that we are doing is having an effect. It’s very difficult to quantitate it because you have two dynamics things going on at the same time. You have the virus going up and the mitigation trying to push it down.”

I’ve always thought of Dr. Fauci as an incredible leader and scientist from my time, years ago, at the National Institutes of Health; however, when he spoke those words, for a moment, he took on the role of theologian, as he inadvertently described the battle within a believer, which Paul articulates below in Romans 6.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

In the same manner that there is an unquestionable progressive spread occurring through COVID-19 physically in society, Scripture makes clear that sin operates individually in the same way within a believer. Notice the progression warned against in Psalm 1 from walking to standing to sitting:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

So, while we wait anxiously for a vaccine and treatment for COVID-19, which wars against our bodies, we heed Peter’s spiritual warning,

“I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.” (1 Pet. 2:11)

And we take comfort that the medication for mortification of sin is readily available in obedience to the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is an inescapable reality that, even as believers saved by grace and legally imputed with Christ’s righteousness (Rom. 5:19), we will never be free of sin in our lives on this side of heaven.

However, a great resource in this battle is a sermon by John MacArthur: Winning the Battle Against Sin.

Spiritual Doomsday Prepping

Doomsday preppers.  If you are like me, you remember the reality shows documenting how they stockpiled supplies, to ensure they wouldn’t be caught off guard, and unprepared in the event of a worldwide disaster like Y2K.

Little by little, day-by-day, they work to become increasingly prepared, so that they aren’t scrambling in the midst of a crisis. But, rather, could draw upon their stores, acquired over time.

In many ways faithfully shepherding a church, as a pastor and elder board, is like spiritual doomsday prepping.  Systematic, deep, expository preaching on the part of a church is like stockpiling doctrinal reserves, which church members can draw upon in the midst of a calamity such as COVID-19.

Sadly, I believe many attendees of prosperity gospel and weak, seeker-sensitive, topical-sermon churches now find themselves running to an unstocked storm cellar, in dire need of spiritual nourishment for themselves, and to be able to provide an answer for the hope that they have, to their unsaved family and friends (1 Peter 3:15).

Preaching the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), teaching sound doctrine and refuting error (Titus 1:9), and laboring continually to teach and admonish towards full maturity in Christ (Col. 1:28-29) will ensure that our church members are not left with heads spinning and spiritual shelves empty, when they encounter a crisis such as this.

So, as we continue to witness scenes of empty grocery shelves and panicked customers, let it remind us of the need to pray for, amongst other things, the evangelical church around the globe, desperately in need of leadership equipped and impassioned to prepare their congregations for routine, daily challenges, as well as historical crises.

And please continue to pray EA’s ongoing efforts to produce such church leaders, as well as our current crisis ministry to equip and encourage Christ’s Church.  

Pick 4

The Bible states clearly that,

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

And Paul declares his innocence because he “did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)

So, while we should be exceedingly grateful for our possession of the whole cannon of Scripture, this is a powerful and enlightening statement below from H.A. Ironside, regarding if we had to choose only 4 of the 21 epistles in the New Testament, the choice should be clear!

“In Romans we have set forth the great fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone. In Galatians that doctrine is defended after having been called in question by legal teachers. These two epistles, Romans and Galatians, form therefore the very foundation of Christian teaching. Then in the two letters to the Corinthians we have instruction as to the Church.

– In the first epistle we have the ordering, the calling, and the discipline of the Church.

– In the second we have the ministry of the Church.

If we should lose all the rest of the New Testament—which God forbid we should—and have only these four letters preserved, they would be sufficient to show us the way of salvation and how to conduct ourselves as Christian people coming together in church relationship.”

(Excerpt from Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians)

Sexual Revolution

Last week, as I worshipped in Santo Domingo at Iglesia Bautista Internacional, I was reminded that the assault on morality, marriage and family is not limited to the borders of the United States.  Church leadership at LaIBI described recent efforts, initiated by the government, at indoctrination of children through the educational system in regards to sexuality, which stand in opposition to the Word of God.

While certainly disappointing, these developments should not be confusing for believers, particularly for Americans, as we consider both Scripture and recent developments.

First, when we look at Romans 1 we can clearly see the progression of immorality from fornication (heterosexual promiscuity) to sexual perversion (homosexuality/gender confusion):

ROMANS CHAPTER 1-5 OUTLINE:

Chapters 1–3:20 – The Problem of Righteousness

– The Guilt of the Gentiles (Romans 1:18-32)
– The Guilt of the Jews (Romans 2-3:8)
– The Guilt of all men (Romans 3:9-20)

Chapters 3:21–5:21 – The Provision of Righteousness

If we look closely at Romans 1:18-32 we see:

Reasons for Condemnation (v18-23)

– For suppressing God’s truth (v18)
– For ignoring God’s revelation (v19-20)
– For perverting God’s glory (v21-23)

Results of Condemnation (v24-32) – “God gave them over…”

– Abandoned to fornication (v24-25)
– Abandoned to sexual perversion (v26-27)
– Abandoned to depraved lifestyle (v28-32)

Additionally, Denny Burke in the article below, explains the Domino Effect that has taken place, specifically within the United States in recent years, beginning with the Sexual Revolution and culminating in our current moral free fall.

“As I’ve said in this space many times, the gay marriage campaign succeeded so thoroughly and so rapidly in large part because it built on what heterosexuals had already come to believe was true about sex and marriage. Gay marriage was inevitable, because straights had already queered sex and marriage via the Sexual Revolution. Yet gay marriage was a Rubicon for our society because it took those radical shifts past the breaking point, and locked them in to law and culture. All that followed was predictable, and it was in fact predicted, not because anybody had a crystal ball, but because it made logical sense.”

So what should our response be, as followers of Christ?

I think the following article from Ligonier Ministries by Al Mohler can be of great assistance.

In less than a generation, homosexuality has gone from being almost universally condemned to being almost fully normalized in the larger society.

We are facing a true moral inversion — a system of moral understandings turned upside down. Where homosexuality was even recently condemned by the society, now it is considered a sin to believe that homosexuality is wrong in any way. A new sexual morality has replaced the old, and those who hold to the old morality are considered morally deficient. The new moral authorities have one central demand for the church: get with the new program.

This puts the true church, committed to the authority of God’s Word, in a very difficult cultural position. Put simply, we cannot join the larger culture in normalizing homosexuality and restructuring society to match this new morality. Recognizing same-sex unions and legalizing same-sex marriage is central to this project.

Liberal churches and denominations are joining the project, some more quickly and eagerly than others. The cultural pressure is formidable, and only churches that are truly committed to Scripture will withstand the pressure to accommodate themselves and their message to the new morality.

What, then, is the true church to do?

First, we must stand without compromise on the authority of the Bible and the principles of sexual conduct and morality that God has revealed so clearly in His Word. The Bible’s sexual morality is grounded in the creation of humanity in God’s image; we are created as male and female and given the gift of sex within the marriage covenant — and only within the marriage covenant between one man and one woman for as long they both shall live.

The easiest way to summarize the Bible’s teaching on sexuality is to begin with God’s blessing of sex only within the marriage covenant between a man and a woman. Then, just remember that sex outside of that covenant relationship, whatever its form or expression, is explicitly forbidden. Christians know that these prohibitions are for our good and that rejecting them is tantamount to a moral rebellion against God Himself. We also know that the Bible forbids all same-sex sexual acts and behaviors. Thus, we know that homosexuality is a sin, that blessing it in any way is also sin, and that normalizing sin cannot lead to human happiness.

Second, we must realize what is at stake. Marriage is first and foremost a public institution. It has always been so. Throughout history, societies have granted special recognition and privileges to marriage because it is the central organizing institution of human culture. Marriage regulates relationships, sexuality, human reproduction, lineage, kinship, and family structure. But marriage has also performed another crucial function — it has regulated morality.

This is why the challenge of samesex unions is so urgent and important. Redefining marriage is never simply about marriage. It leads to the redefinition of reproduction and parenthood, produces a legal revolution with vast consequences, replaces an old social order with something completely new, and forces the adoption of a new morality. This last point is especially important. Marriage teaches morality by its very centrality to the culture. With a new concept of marriage comes a new morality, enforced by incredible social pressure and, eventually, legal threats.

Third, we must act quickly to teach Christians the truth about marriage and God’s plan for sexuality in all its fullness and beauty. We must develop pastoral approaches that are faithful to Scripture and arm this generation of believers to withstand the cultural pressure and respond in ways that are truly Christian.

Fourth, and most important, this challenge must drive us to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians must be the first to understand this challenge in light of the gospel. After all, we know spiritual rebellion when we see it, for we ourselves were rebels before God’s grace conquered us. We know what moral confusion means because without the light of God’s Word, we are just as confused.

There is no rescue from the self-deception of sin except for the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ. While doing everything else required of us in this challenge, the faithful church must center its energies on the one thing that we know we must do above all else — preach, teach, and live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After Darkness, Light

Today the vast majority of our culture will be focused on costumes and candy. However, for Protestants, October 31, Reformation day, commemorates what some believe to have been “the greatest move of the Spirit of God since the days of the Apostles.”

When Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door on October 31, 1517, it triggered a debate that would eventually culminate in what we now refer to as the Protestant Reformation.

What is Reformation Day?

Stephen Nichols explains how that single event forever impacted history,

“It is the day the light of the gospel broke forth out of darkness.

It was the day that began the Protestant Reformation.

It was a day that led to Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and may other Reformers helping the church find its way back to God’s Word as the only authority for faith and life and leading the church back to the glorious doctrines of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

 It kindled the fires of missionary endeavors.

 It led to hymn writing and congregational singing.

 It led to the centrality of the sermon and preaching for the people of God.

 It is the celebration of a theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural transformation.”

 Why October 31?

In Luther’s day November 1 held a special place in the church calendar as All Saints’ Day. On November 1, 1517, an expansive exhibit of newly acquired relics would be on display in Luther’s hometown of Wittenberg. Pilgrims would travel from far and wide to bow before the artifacts, and be awarded with reduced time to atone for their sins in purgatory. Luther, much like Lot in the Old Testament, was a righteous man in anguish over sinful acts of lawless men, (2 Peter 2:7) so he penned his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517.

What were the enduring ramifications?

Initially opposing the pope’s attempt to sell salvation, Luther’s study of Scripture eventually led him to clash with the church of Rome on other issues, including the supremacy of Scripture over church tradition, and the means by which men are justified in the sight of God.

Robert Rothwell describes the immense impact of Luther’s discovery of salvation by grace alone through faith alone,

“Martin Luther’s rediscovery of this truth led to a whole host of other church and societal reforms and much of what we take for granted in the West would have likely been impossible had he never graced the scene. Luther’s translation of the Bible into German put the Word of God in the hands of the people, and today Scripture is available in the vernacular language of many countries, enabling lay people to study it with profit. He reformed the Latin mass by putting the liturgy in the common tongue so that non-scholars could hear and understand the preached word of God and worship the Lord with clarity. Luther lifted the unbiblical ban on marriage for the clergy and by his own teaching and example radically transformed the institution itself. He recaptured the biblical view of the priesthood of all believers, showing all people that their work had purpose and dignity because in it they can serve their Creator.”

 All of the above is why Reformation Day, October 31, must hold a special place in the heart of every protestant, and why the motto of the Protestant Reformation became “After Darkness, Light.”

The Reformation stands as a powerful testimony of “the power of the Word of God to penetrate into places of spiritual and cultural darkness and transform the people of God.”

References:

https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-is-reformation-day/
https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-reformation-day-all-about/

The Power of the Pen and Providence

Approximately 25 years after Christ’s ascension, at the close of his third missionary journey, Paul wrote a letter to the church in Rome from the Greek city of Corinth. As he is preparing to travel to the Jerusalem church with an offering for the poor believers, he pauses long enough to write a letter to a church he has never visited. He writes to introduce himself, but being the teacher he is, Paul can’t help but also teach his new friends about the righteousness that comes from God—the great truths of the gospel of grace.*

This letter, the Book of Romans, written by the greatest Christian to ever live, to a group of people he would never meet, in God’s providence has left an immeasurable impact on humanity.

It was said of Martin Luther upon reading Romans,

“And so, the lights came on for Luther. And he began to understand that what Paul was speaking of here was a righteousness that God in His grace was making available to those who would receive it passively, not those who would achieve it actively, but that would receive it by faith, and by which a person could be reconciled to a holy and righteous God.”

In May of 1738, a failed minister and missionary reluctantly went to a small Bible study where someone read aloud from Martin Luther’s Commentary on Romans. “While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine.” John Wesley was saved that night in London.*

John Calvin said of Romans, “When anyone understands this Epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”

And the great theologian, G. Campbell Morgan, said Romans was “the most pessimistic page of literature upon which your eyes ever rested” and at the same time, “the most optimistic poem to which your ears ever listened.”

It is amazing to see how the Sovereign of the universe graciously condescends to use fallen humanity and unremarkable circumstances to communicate His perfect plan of salvation.

* Source: Bare Bones Bible Handbook

** Source: Enduring Word Commentary

The 2 Most Wonderful Words of the Bible

The Bible, written over a period of roughly 2,000 years by 40 different authors from three continents, contains 31,173 verses. Amongst the 773,692 words that comprise Scripture, there are two that the influential 20th century theologian Martin Lloyd Jones says reign supreme.

These words can be found in Paul’s epistle to the Romans in chapter 3. In verses 9-20 Paul clarifies that no one is righteous:

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

And then we come to those wonderful two words: “But now…” found in verse 21,

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Martin Lloyd Jones presents his belief regarding the power of 6 simple letters,

“There are no more wonderful words in the whole of the Scripture than just these two words ‘But now’. What vital words these are! These are the words with which the Apostle always introduces the Gospel…He first of all paints his black and his somber and his hopeless picture. Then, having done that he says, ‘But now’.

 Having considered every statement that he makes about man under sin and in sin and having seen ourselves as we are by nature and as descendants of Adam, can there be two words which are more blessed and more wonderful for us than just these two word, ‘But now’? To me they provide a very subtle and thorough-going test of our whole position as Christians. Would you like to know for certain at this moment whether you are a Christian or not? I suggest that this is one of the best tests.

 These words come to us in a two-fold manner. They come as the introduction of the Gospel, but at the same time they come as words that test us. This, to me, is so important that I cannot leave it. Let us examine our experiences.

 When the devil attacks you and suggests to you that you are not a Christian, and that you have never been a Christian because of what is still in your heart, or because of what you are still doing, or because of something you once did – when he comes and thus accuses you, what do you say to him? Do you agree with him? Or do you say to him: ‘Yes, that was true, but now…’ Do you hold up these words against him? Or when, perhaps, you feel condemned as you read the Scripture, as you read the Law in the Old Testament, as you read the Sermon on the Mount, and as you feel that you are undone, do you remain lying on the ground in hopelessness, or do you lift up your head and say, ‘But now’?

 This is the essence of the Christian position; this is how faith answers the accusations of the Law, the accusations of conscience, and everything else that would condemn and depress us. These are indeed very wonderful words, and it is most important that we should lay hold of them and realize their tremendous importance and their significance.”