What does it mean to be in “Union with Christ?”

That very title deserves many books and a whole week of seminars from theologians much more qualified than I, but perhaps I could enlighten you with some thoughts I had on this question recently.  What is “Union with Christ?”

First, I propose that the Bible teaches the Gospel is good news for sinners because it tells them of an alien righteousness.  The doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is central to the message of the gospel.  The doctrine of justification through faith is central to our response to the gospel.    But in addition to faith, repentence must precede and follow it.  While repentence is most defintely a turning away from sin, it must include knowledge of sin.  Then, it must go to contrition for sin.  Then, it must go to confession of sin.  This whole process, which happens only by grace through the movement of the Spirit and by the hearing and seeing of the Word of God, then leaves a sinner totally cast off from all remnants, specks and spots of self-righteousness.  He then searches desperately for an alien righteousness, a righteousness apart from him.

The sinners stands trembling as he recognizes his total guilt and unjustified sinfulness.  He is alone and without help.  But, oh, herein is the good news of the gospel:

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing riches on all who call on him.  For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

That means EVERYONE who does this will be saved.  But one cannot take this verse alone. Why does one call on the Lord?  He must know why, or he will not be saved.  God does not save them who have no need of him.  Or at least, think, feel, act, and live as though they don’t need him.

A man with repentence in his heart can do Romans 10:13 and so be saved.

So then, Jesus says, “repent and believe the Gospel of God.”  Mark 1:15

For, you see, the Gospel of God demands obedience.  Too often the church has thought that God’s Old Testament demand for obedience has somehow dwindled or slackened in the New Testament.  As though, God somehow took “a happy pill” between the Old and New Testaments.  The immutability of God tears down such a heretical idea.  He does not change!

He was, He is and He will always be HOLY!

A holy God demands you to be holy, too.  Thus, when Jesus came, I dare say, he took God’s demand for obedience and made it only more difficult!  No longer is adultery wrong, but even lusting after a woman is adultery!  He made a matter of the heart.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?  I the LORD search the heart and mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.  We just plain need new ones.  God give us new hearts!

But here is the gospel!

The difference the New Testament does bring is exactly the meaning of the words “New Testament.”  It brings a “New Covenant.”  Oh, friends, here is the grace of God so wonderfully exposited.  Notice these awesome words I read yesterday in the reading calender:

“And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the (new) covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  Matthew 26:27-28

My mind immediately went to Jeremiah 31:31-34.  But I remembered, first, that God means for us to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures with the New Testament Scriptures (namely, through the lense of the person of Jesus Christ).  I, therefore, remembered Hebrews 8.

“But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.  For he finds fault with them when he says:

‘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 convenant, 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 thier God and they shall be my people.  And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’

In speaking of a new covenant, he made the first one obsolete.  And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Hebrews 8:6-13 (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

These verses mean that now, in Christ, by the Spirit, for the Father, we can be obedient.  God doesn’t write the law on tablets of stone, he writes it on our hearts!

Notice Ezekiel’s words:

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has bee profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.  I will take you from the nations and gather you into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

That’s the essence of obedience to the gospel: God creates in us what he demands from us. That’s good news!

Only because of the finished work of Christ (his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and intercession) is our obedience righteous.  Before it was stained with sin! Now, It is righteous because we are hidden in Christ.  When the Father sees us, he sees Christ.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

I love Ephesians 1:3-14.  It is so precious to me.  But the other day I noticed how all the truths of it emphasize the phrase “In Christ” either by the proper noun or the pronoun “him.”  Note the awesome truths of those people whose God is the Lord:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, when he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fulness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

And, again, note Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:

“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.  That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.  And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has annointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

Oh my brothers and sisters, are you “in Christ?”  How many times does John, the one whom Jesus loved, exhort us to “abide in Him?”  I leave you with an imperative from God through that apostle’s first letter:

“And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.” 1 John 2:28

Working with you to be In Union with Christ,

Vince R.

The Grammar of the Gospel with Sinclair Ferguson

Indicative basically means “what is true.”  This is indicative: You are united with Christ through faith by the Spirit.  Imperative basically means ”what you should do.”  This is the imperative:  Now, therefore, put off Adam, and put on Christ.

Here is Scripture with color-coded indicative and imperative::

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Colossian 3:1-5

What does it mean to be in “Union with Christ”?  This is what I am learning.  Here is Sinclair Ferguson on the Grammar of the Gospel as somewhat explained above.

Working with you to speak and live the grammar of the gospel,

Vince R.

The Hope of God in the Outer Dark: Thoughts on Cormac McCarthy

“And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.  In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Matthew 25:30

So says our Lord in his Olivet discourse which I finished reading this morning.  As many have put it, much of our understanding of Hell has come from Jesus Christ.  Without him, we would almost have no doctrine concerning it.  Beware those who say there is only anihilation!  There is a real hell, and in it “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” for eternity.  No ceasing of existence, but eternal punishment apart from God’s presence.

This concept of “outer darkness” caught my eye this morning.  I just finished Cormac McCarthy’s second novel Outer Dark this past Sunday.  I have decided to write my undergraduate thesis on some aspect of this man’s novels.  I am charged with reading all ten before January 2009.  I have three down, Blood Meridian: Or Evening Redness in the West, The Orchard Keeper, and now, Outer Dark.

Outer Dark is one of the most disturbing books I have read.  Not the most-that would go to Blood Meridian.

But why, Vince, do you engage in such dark and hopeless texts?  Cormac McCarthy is notorious for his intense violence and heart-wrenching theses.

I approached this project after having seen the Cohen Brothers film version of No Country for Old Men.  After seeing it once, I was hooked.  I didn’t understand this man’s point very well, and I’m sure the directors added their own flair and tastes.  But McCarthy is no author you hear of very much.  He almost hides from the public eye (something I admire).  He gave his stamp of approval on this project which I found interesting.  The film is brilliant.  If you don’t think so, see it again.  It’s very close to the novel I understand.  Thus, my interest came.

After much thought, I knew I wanted to engage in the man’s mind.  I don’t know his mind, nor will I ever.  But with 10 novels filled with violence and the good ol’ South, I’m entranced to see what compels him.

Speaking from the English Major side of my mind:  This man’s prose is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever read.

Speaking from the closet-Theology Major side of my mind: This man’s worldview seems hopeless.

Note this comment from one of his characters in Outer Dark.

Hard people makes hard times.  I’ve seen the meanness of humans till I don’t know why God ain’t put out the sun and gone away (p. 192).

I don’t know with whom McCarthy identifies in his novels, but I suppose that his basic thesis for this novel is simply this: It’s better to blind than to have to view the outer darkness of this world.

There is so much imagery of a good darkness (ignorance) and bad darkness (reality).  I will not give away the plot or the events, but his protagonists basically go through hell to no avail.  It’s quite heart-breaking.  Here’s one passage from a minor character on the long journey, a Reverend:

“I won’t tell it all.  This blind feller hollered out one time and said: Looky here at me, blind and all.  I guess you reckon I ort to love Jesus.

Well, neighbor, I says, I believe ye ort. He give ye eyes to see and then he tuck em away.  And maybe you never was much of a christian to start with and he figgered this’d bring ye round.  They’s been more than one feller brought to the love of Jesus over the paths of affliction.  And what better way than blind? In a world darksome as this’n I believe it’s got a good deal to recommend it.  The grace of God don’t rest easy on a man.  It can blind him easy as not.  It can bend him and make him crooked.  And who did Jesus love, friends? The lame the halt and the blind, that’s who.  Them is the ones scarred with God’s mercy.  Stricken with his love.  Ever legless fool and old blind mess like you is a flower in the garden of God.  Amen.  I told him that.” 226

It is better to be blind, it seems to say,  Jesus loved them the most.  This discourse, I think, holds an element of his thesis.  Lastly, we note a blind man answer to a question near the end of the book:

“I ain’t never prayed.  Why don’t ye pray back your eyes?

I believe it’d be a sin.  Them old eyes can only show ye what’s done there anyways.  If a blind man needed eyes he’d have eyes.” 240-241

Interesting…these are just a few thoughts I had regarding my most recent reading.

Nevertheless, I look at this and wonder-were there no God, this thesis would be true.

Indeed, apart from God, what hope is there?  The Outer Darkness of this world, hell on earth, might just make me want blindess.  As Hemingway put it, “The world will kill you.”

Indeed, in my literary studies, I often see such hopelessness in the literature from the 1950s-today.  Post-modernism has no hope in it.  Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, for instance, is brilliant, but completely hopeless.  I’m mostly interested in this worldview because I know that it controls our culture in America today.

God’s people, however, have hope.  When we face the seemingly hopeless incidents I read about, my one remembrance should be these words:

…hope does not put to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:5

Like that character and many of McCarthy’s characters, I often feel like an old world-wearied man (sitting on the porch in my rocking chair, shotgun across my lap, hound dog to my side) and wondering why God hasn’t just put out the sun and gone away considering how evil we are. 

Thanks be to God.  He’s staying right where He is, and He’s on my side in Christ Jesus.  Whom shall I fear?

Working with you to see hope amidst the outer dark,

Vince R.

McCarthy, Cormac, Outer Dark. Vintage Books. New York. 1968

Pride, Truth and Humble Pursuits

Many elements of biblical truth perplex the human mind.  Many of them exist which do seem to contradict one another.  However, to react by attempting to reconcile those two truths and so change or edit them is to place yourself in the role of God.  Such has been the constant endeavor of the wicked human heart.  “Ye shall be as gods…”  It is a pride found in Satan himself.  My plea, friends, is that you lean not on your own understanding but embrace God’s revealed word as the only source of truth as we may know it.

I think of Christ’s priestly prayer when he prayed, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” John 17:16-19

Our God is not of this world; he is above and over it.  He is not bound to our finite minds.  His sovereign word is truth, and only by grace are we able to grasp it, if at all.  If we don’t understand truth, our reaction as his people must never be to modify it.  It should always be to embrace it, however confusing.  In the midst of our confusion, our enlightened eyes should prayerfully and diligently pursue even more enlightment in the Scriptures.  This is a humble pursuit.  God is not the problem or the conflict.  We are.  We have no other course but a humble pursuit of God’s own will.  We will find no truth in ourselves or in our minds because we are not its source.  Humble pursuits are found under the mighty hand of God, where he reveals himself to those who ask him.

“The various elements of truth stand in perpetual antithesis, sometimes requiring us to believe apparent opposites while we wait for the moment when we shall know as we are known.  Then truth which now appears to be in conflict with itself will arise in shining unity and it will be seen that the conflict has not been in truth but in our sin-damaged minds.” -A.W. Tozer, “The Knowledge of the Holy.”

Pride will not find truth; it will only suppress and twist truth until it fits its need for understanding.  Humility, though confused and bewildered, says simply with the Psalmist in Psalm 86:8-11

“There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.  All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.  For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.” (emphasis mine)

Working with you to humbly pursue truth in its only revealed source,

Vince R.

A Woeful Decision in a Popular Ministry

As many of you know, I’m not a big fan of Rob Bell. I put that nicely.  Here’s another reason why.  http://www.theresurgence.org/jeff_robinson_2004_engaged_by_the_culture.

A Quiet Liberty On the Lord’s Day: Sanctifed and Joyful

I’m quickly approaching the end.  In fact, as I write this I still have two lesson plans to write that are due tomorrow.  I’m speaking of my education class.  Education 3302: Instructional Strategies.  In a furious minimester of 12 days, I am having the Texas Education Agency shoved down my throat as I’m being taught how to survive the suffocation.  Needless to say, I’ve gagged many times.

I’ve always had a disdain for the TEA, but I’ve never had it as much as I have now.  However, this subject is not my point.  Forget the way the No Child Left Behind Act takes teachers by the throat and shoves their noses in the feces of high school failures.  “Bad teacher!”

This has to do with worldview clash.

I’ve learned about worldview this Summer in a savage way.  Thanks to Dr. Mohler, whom I’ve taken the habit of listening to as much as I am able, I have learned, for the past month or so, some of the most tragic examples of the decadence of a post-Genesis 3 world. His Christian engagement with news bits and signs of the times have taken me from minor reactions of bothered tsks to major reactions of downright sorrow.  I’m so burdened with what the future holds for God’s people.  Especially…my own children.  I’m actually frightened to place them in the public school system.

We will suffer: mark it.  I’m not the one whose promised it.  See II Timothy 3 and Matthew 24 and also the whole last book of the Bible.

Morever, as I’ve heard the ways my professor lines out for us to successfully ‘beat the man,’ as she so eloquently puts it with her Southern dialect (I absolutely love it, by the way!), I have experienced a heavy heart and even downright despair.  The State is on its way to controlling everything.  Satan controls the State.

Thanks be to God that the Cross of Christ is my victory.  Thanks be to God that the king’s heart is like a stream in his hands.  Otherwise, all my enemies would swallow me alive.  When I gather myself after class, I tell myself to keep going and just take it one day at a time. (That’s always the key, my suffering brethren.)  Sufficient for the day is its trouble.

One day, I know I will face a classroom of troubled young youths.  The majority of their parents don’t care, the majority of student attitudes will reflect it.  They will hate my subject and resent me for trying to teach it to them.  But that’s not the part that burdens me.

What burdens me?  The secularization of education has drained it of all semblance of its origin.  Where did schools come from?  What is the point of education?  My heart tells me one thing, and you can see this on my facebook if you go there.  It is a quote a friend shared with me, and it has captured me ever since.

“The chief design of your academic pursuits is to prepare you more extensively to glorify God in the salvation of sinners. Let this thought be the constant inmate of your soul. Let it rise up with you in the morning and lie down with you at night. Wherever you go, whatever you do, let it attend and direct you.”

-John Angell James

That’s the point of my existence: to make much of Christ so others can see and marval at Him.  That’s it.  That’s the chief end of education.

Sadly, however, in a fallen world, the lines are so hard to find.  Satan prowls around seeking to devour me.  That’s where my heart has been for the last 3 weeks:  Running from Satan as he tries to steal my joy in God about my future.

Here is a blog published today (not coincidentally) by Dr. Mohler entitled Just What Are Schools to Do? The Aims and Purposes of Education.  I knew I had to share it with you when I saw it.  God seems to be working on me.    http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=1183

But thanks be to God for relieving me this past Sunday.  In twofold mediums, he set me free from the burden.  Before church, I wanted to read the Morning devotional from Charles Spurgeon for July 6.  I took it with me, and I read it aloud for my girlfriend and I as she drove us to the church building.  It was the beginning of my liberty.

“Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell in safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.” -Proverbs 1:33

“Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it shines in the midst of judgments.  Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath.  When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, He punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while He did this, He took care that His own chosen ones should be secure.  If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one ‘Elijah,’ but He had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab’s table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah.  Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God’s people are safe.  Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest.  If God cannot save His people under heaven, He will save them in heaven.  If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety.  Be ye confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars.  Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil.  Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure.  Stay yourself upon His promise; rest in His faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you.  Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom.”

Thank you Father, for using this Saint of old, to minister to my soul.

A quiet repetition of Van Deventer’s I Surrender All was the resolution of my liberty.

“All to Jesus I surrender;
all to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust him,
in his presence daily live. 
I surrender all, I surrender all,
all to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.”

I was free…I am free.

Working with you to stand in defiance to the blackest future where no direful thing waits for God’s people,

Vince R.

Morning and Evening. Charles H. Spurgeon. Hendrickson Publishers. Feb. 2005, p. 376.

When Civilization Crumbles…where are the Men of God?

I don’t really know “what possessed me,” as they say, (my thesis is that it was the Holy Spirit) but a conversation yesterday with a brother in Christ began and continued most strangely and most gloriously.  It took place at that wonderfully Post-Modern invention known as “Starbucks.”  I’ve taken a long break from caffeine, so I had a passion tea lemonade which I was told had very little caffeine so as not to notice anything.  Well, I slept well that night, so I guess the server knew her Starbucks arsenal well. Bravo! Starbucks has been an amazing place for “intelligent Christian conversation,” as Dr. Mohler would put it.  I find a new desire to use Starbucks for the glory of God a lot more for as long as he wishes to uphold it.

As long as you are smiling now, let me begin to turn that smile into a different facial feature.  I hope that this article breaks your heart.  I hope it also brings you joy in God’s own Son and in the redemption he brings.  He will stand up from that right hand, and he will restore his people to himself.  That is indubious.

Anyway…

It found our conversation’s obtuse beginnings in the subject of the presidential election and the immigration policies of Obama versus those of McCain.  Well, we didn’t discuss the acutal policies very much.  In fact, our conversation didn’t even really continue on ‘politics’ as such.  The conversation did continue and eventually found its mark on the issue of biblical gender roles.

We discussed the recent California supreme court decision to allow same-sex marriage in that state and its remarkable purpose to redefine marriage and thus mark its contribution toward American civilization’s end.  We discussed abortion and its horrifying reality as well as God’s own right to take and give life as he deems fit.  We dicussed feminism and its God-defying and unbiblical agenda.  Lastly, we discussed the cowardess of men and the need for men to start acting like men.

And thus, my point…

In that amazingly God-blessed conversation, a certain statement came out of my mouth, and I was scared to have said it.  Why was I scared? Because I know it is true.  I will share that statement with you at the end of this essay, but first let me show what I mean.

As C.S. Lewis once put it, and I paraphrase:  At one time, we approached God with such fear and trembling as though we were in the dock of judgment before a holy God.  Today, we have placed God in the dock and he is to be judged by the supremacy of the human reason.

Today, I think, our civilization places God in the dock, and he is to be judged by the supremacy of human rights.  Although, and I qualify, both of these ideas have always been true.

Throughout the Bible, men demanded that God stay subject to their reason.  And they also demanded that God grant them rights.

There is nothing new under the sun. “There are no new heresies.  Only constant repackagings,” as John Piper once put it.

In light of this culture, that is, this present evil age, Satan’s trumpetering fluidity of mistruths and halftruths have found their way quickly onto the shelves of our Christian book stores, into the classrooms of our Christian seminaries, and into the pulpits of our Christian churches.

“How then shall we live?” as Schaeffer once questioned.

I propose this:  “Meaning precedes existence.”

Someone has already decided for you, o man, what is truth.  It defines who you are, what you are, what is required of you, and why you even exist.

His name is God and his will and word is that truth.

Dr. David Wells of Gordon-Tidwell Theological Seminary was asked a serious question by Dr. Mohler on the June 5, 2008 episode of the Albert Mohler Program. You can follow the link here if you wish to download the entire conversation.  (I would always highly suggest to my readers that they listen to the Albert Mohler Program and its resources.)  http://www.albertmohler.com/radio_show.php?cdate=2008-06-05

Here was his question for Dr. Wells:

“[Concerning] how evangelical Christians should pray and hope to see evangelical Christianity recover the truth, what would you have the local pastor to do?”

His answer was both encouraging and shockingly relevant to my current personal walk. 

“Well, I think these two steps that I mentioned: taking seriously the truth God’s given us in the Scriptures and taking more seriously the world around us, are really the key.  It’s like breathing out and breathing in.  The point about the truth that we have in Scripture is that it corresponds to what’s in reality.  This is not simply about learning a Bible verse, although that is a good thing to do, but that we’ve got to understand that this is real, that we’re talking about what’s in the character of God and what’s in the character of human beings and what life is about.  Christianity is not simply a technique or a therapy.  This is real stuff.  On the otherhand, we’ve got to understand the world around us, and if I could point to what I think is a prevailing weakness in our churches, it is right here.  It takes a lot of time and thought and work to know how exactly, if you are a pastor, to apply the truth of a biblical passage to our world.  You can get that truth, if you are a biblical preacher, fairly quickly by looking at commontries.  But applying it is another matter, and that is I think a besetting weakness in the evangelical world.  If I were to be asked, would I prefer to hear a topical sermon on ’how to get on with your mother-in-law’ or to hear a sermon on a biblical text which wasn’t applied, of course I’d prefer to hear the text preached, but I’d most of all like to know how that text applies.  And that is where I think our preachers are weakest, and many people who are reading their Bibles, day by day, don’t see the connections.  They therefore come to think of Christianity as a sort of private comfort to them, but they don’t understand that we are in a ‘worldview conflict,’ and the day they step out of their houses, onto the train, into their car, into the workplace, they are in conflict with other worldviews whether they know it or not…we are now reaping the harvest from not having been preaching expository sermons.  So people come into the pews uninstructed but at the same time yearning for some sort of internal comfort because this is a brutal world.  And that combination of…infantile understanding of biblical truth [and] the serious pressures of living and competing in this modern world, that combination has proved lethal to biblical Christianity.”

I encourage you to do something I am unable to do right now.  Pick up Dr. David Wells newest book, “The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and the Emergent.”

Friends, I am at a point in my spiritual walk where I am coming face to face with the doctrine which I espouse, and I am being asked to evaluate and prove it.  Just as Dr. Wells put it, when I walk out that door, I am at war with other worldviews.  It is most definitely sad when I have defend it against other “Christians.”  Now here is the statement I shared with my friend, and I was personally shocked to here myself say it:

“I say all of this because I fear that sooner or later your religious liberty is going to be stripped away in the the name of liberty.  You are going to have to take your wife and your son and your daughter and place them here in this part of your home and then go to the front door and stand blocking the way saying ’No untruth will come into this house.’  I know that it is coming.  The day is coming and it is only going to get worse.  So what are you going to do about it now while there is still time?”

I felt my face turn pale when I said it.  Yup, it is only going to get worse isn’t it?

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” 2 Timothy 3:1-9

I am awestruck at how 2 Timothy has been such a mighty tool in helping me understand what it means to grow up.  Nevertheless, as discouraging as Paul’s true statements are in these first nine verses, his next verses are a call to stand on one thing.  Note his comparison between those described in the first verses of this chapter and Timothy himself in these:

“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” 2 Timothy 3:10-12

Note the “however” that automatically opposes Timothy to those other men. By contrast, Timothy has followed the teaching of his wiser mentor who heeded the teaching of God, the conduct of Paul’s committment to Christ, the aim of Paul’s life to preach the gospel, the faith of Paul in Christ, the patience of Paul with his opponents, the love of Paul for the lost, the steadfastness of Paul to Christ’s steadfastness for him, and the persuction and suffering that attends all who desire to be obedient to Christ.  Yet just the same, Christ delivered him ”from them all.”  That’s what he means in verse 12.  If you want to be godly, you will be hated for it.

You know why so many who read that last sentence will simply agree and go on nonchalantly?  Because they read it, but they have never experienced it.  Are you being godly?  This passage says a good sign is that people will persecute you for it.

Yet just the same, Paul goes on and contrasts men of God with men of the world in verse 13.

“…while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

He continues in verse 14-17 by showing what is the definitive and most remarkable difference between men of God and men of the world.  This is the passage that we use and quote so often, but the context escapes us to the point of misunderstanding its power and urgent call.  What makes Timothy different from those in verses 1-9 and verse 13?

It is an unyielding and immovable devotion to standing firmly on God’s own infallible, inerrant, and totally trustworthy and authoritative word.  Just look at it again:

“But as for you continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Childhood had its devotion to Scripture, now how much more should manhood?  I plead with my brethren, don’t play games with God’s own word.  It will bring judgement on you both in this life and that to come.  If you aim to lead God’s people in the pastorate or as a teacher or preacher, your unyielding devotion to God’s word is all the more paramount.  “for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness…”

I fear for the men who aim to lead God’s people yet have no respect for God’s Word…and yes, you have no respect for it when you say it has error.

I fear for your soul, and I fear for the souls of those you lead.  Turn…and believe.

As for the rest of us, stand and fight, you men of God.

“He did not consider that republic flourishing whose walls stand, but whose morals are in ruins. But the seductions of evil-minded devils had more influence with you than the precautions of prudent men.”

-St. Augustine, City of God

Be prudent men and be bold men, for “If God is for us.  Who can be against us?”  Romans 8:31

Working with you to fight as men on the side of the Most High God,

Vince R.

 

   

 

My Sin Cannot Imply it!

My Sin Cannot Imply it!

By Vince Robles

Micah 7:8 “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; When I fall, I shall rise” 

Oh, the sin of God’s own chosen!

Who of Jesus Christ do claim,

They who wander from their savior,

Find their joy is gone away.

 

Fruit the Master does not gather,

Thistles rather from this tree.

Oh my God! Your burning anger!

See your Son and turn from me.

 

Godliness and Christ-like loving,

Traded for deceit of sin.

Oh, this wretched mortal body!

Wicked heart that dwells within!

 

Hatred for the Father’s glory,

Spurning life to treasure death.

Moments thought I walked so closely,

Now the law has stol’n my breath.

 

“Woe to you!” the devil taunts me

“Favored one now gone astray.”

“Jesus once did find you lovely.”

“Now He sees your wicked ways.”

 

Rejoice not over me my en’my.

When I fall, again I’ll rise.

When I sit in darkness lowly,

Holy truth shall be my light!

 

Rebuked I stand with loving ang’r,

Rightly bearing scolding face.

I rebelled and sought to wander,

But my Christ will plead my case.

 

He pleads his blood and brok’n body,

Naming me as His own kin.

Though my sin is black and ugly,

All it’s judgment’s poured on Him.

 

Enemy I soon will see you,

Covered under shame and scorn.

I am washed in blood and made new.

Sin’s dominion is no more!

 

So when my heart has gone astray,

His word provides assurance.

His grace sufficient leads the way,

And calls me to endurance.

 

His grace abounds to even me.

My Sin cannot imply it!

That Christ’s blood’s not set me free to

Enjoy and glorify Him.

 

Working with you to cling to the Cross when the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,

Vince R.

The Consolations of the Cross: Battling Guilt, Loneliness, and Anxiety

I can think of many verses to fight the battle against unbelief, but this one really captured me the other day as I was reading in the Psalms.

“When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” Psalm 94:19

So simple is this verse, so eloquent and so appropriate.

The cares of your past sins will burden you, the cares of your present loneliness will burden you, and the cares of your future will burden you, too.  How can saints face this?  There is but one way: By wielding the sword of promise against their mortal flesh.

The Question…

Look at this verse from Psalm 42.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” Psalm 42:5

The Psalmist asks his soul a very good question.  Ask your soul the same.  Now read…

Yesterday: Battling Guilt

So many are the cares of your past, Christian. When the sins of yesterday speak lies into your ears today, reminding you of the guilt within, Psalm 94:19 says the consolation of the cross cheers your soul!  Your desires took you amiss yesterday, but today the blood-stained cross consoles you!  He cancelled ” the record of debt that stood against [you] with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”  “It is finished!”  Behold, the consolations of his nails!

Colossians 2:14; John 19:30

Today: Battling Loneliness

But what of today? So many are its cares, Christian.  When you sit alone in silence and reverberating emptiness, Psalm 94:19 says the consolation of the cross cheers your soul in loneliness  You are reconciled with God Almighty.  No longer are you at war with your creator, he made “peace by the blood of his cross.”  You who were once ”alienated and hostile in mind” to him are “now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.”  You are the friend of God, lonely Christian!  Behold the consolations of his friendship!

Colossians 1:20; 21, 22

Tomorrow: Battling Anxious Despair

“But tomorrow!” you retort, “What will it bring?”  That is not for you to know.  Don’t boast in your arrogance.  “All such boasting is evil.”  Simply trust the Lord.  This verse says that the consolation of the cross cheers your despairing soul.  God chose to make known to you “the mystery of the hidden ages and generations.”  What is that mystery? “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  You have hope!  What business is it of the saint of God to despair about the future? Christ is in you.  Therefore, “…the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is be revealed to us.”  Behold, the consolations of future glory!

James 4:16, Colossians 1:27; Romans 8:18

Now, the rebuke…

Finish the verse from Psalm 42.

“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation, and my God.” Psalm 42:5-6

The Psalmist exhorts his despairing soul to hope, praise and exalt…God.

Working with you to cheer your soul by rebuking it with vigorous resolve,

Vince R. 

Prayer and the Lord’s Coming: An Exposition of 1 Thessalonians 5

Prayer is so, so, so hard.  Have you thought about it?  “No it isn’t,” you say, “all you have to do is talk to God.”  Well, yeah, that’s not the hard part.  The hard part is talking to God more than just a little bit and more than just once a day and without distraction from the flesh.  “Oh,” you say, “well one must struggle indeed if he only prays a little bit once a day.”  But I hardly mean for my readers to excuse themselves by saying, “Well, at least I pray three or four times a day. He’s not talking about me.”

The issue here is not numbers.  The issue here is not length.  The issue here is not oratory skill and profundity of speech during prayer.  The issue is desperation.  The issue is humility.  The issue is urgency.  The issue is the Lord’s coming.

Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition (there is nothing so much as prayer life that tells the truth about us as Christian people.) Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.
 -D. Martyn-Lloyd Jones

 Well, you know, as much as I esteem and respect this preacher, I must pain myself in seeing if these things are true.  Experientially, I must say, when my prayer life flourishes, so do my works flourish.  What does that mean?  Do I mean that my works are always beautifully fairy-tale, such as an instance when I am preaching and God sends revival in the middle of the message?  Well, no that’s not what I mean by flourish, and I will never use revival and fairy-tale together again in any other context.  Revival is no fairy-tale.

But why does it seem like it?

Revival seems like a fairy-tale because we pray like it is.

So, as I was saying, experientally, I find I am most fruitful for the Lord when I am most prayerful for the Lord.  I must clarify, however.  I by now means mean to say that God’s harvest is dependent on my prayer.  How arrogant and blasphemous to the Almighty to suppose such a thing to be true!  What I do mean here is that I (me personally) experience the most joyful obedience to the will and word of God when I am most prayerful.

“Well, Vince,” you say, “you speak experientally, but you would definitely be one who would say that experience has no validation on truth apart from Scriptural subjugation.”

Yes, I would say that, so allow me to look at Scripture to see if these things Martyn-Lloyd Jones says are true. (Let us be Berean as in Acts 17.)

Well, first, does not the scripture exhort us to ”pray without ceasing” in 1 Thessalonians 5:17?

In verse 23-24, Paul prays for the believers at Thessalonica in this way:

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

I, of course, believe that Paul may have interjected this prayer for no reason at all except that it is true.  He would want God to sanctify his people and present them blameless on the day of Jesus Christ.  But the only thing that makes question the interpretation that says that Paul just wanted to pray for the believers in this way without any logical flow in his text seems to deny the context of verses 23 and 24.  Why does Paul end his previous thoughts (and subsequently the entire letter) with this prayer?

In verses 12-22, Paul lists an entire section of exhortations like: “respect those who labor among us” (v. 12), “esteem them highly in love because of their work.  Be at peace among yourselves” (v. 13) “admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be paitent with them all” (v. 14), “[Don't repay] anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone” (v.15), “Rejoice always” (v.16), “pray without ceasing” (v.17), “give thanks in all circumstances” (v. 18), “Do not quench the Spirit” (v.19), “Do not despise prophecies” (v. 20), “test everything; hold fast to what is good” (v. 21), “Abstain from every form of evil” (v.22).

What’s with these seemingly unrelated admonishings?

Well, I think that the entire chapter from its beginning will help you understand that.

Chapter 5 is about the end times, that is, the second coming of Christ.

Paul begins in verse 1 by speaking rhetorically to the believers.

“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.”

So why doesn’t Paul just stop there and end the letter? Clearly, they do need to have something written to them because he continues for 27 more verses.  I believe that verse 1 is a rhetorical verse.

They SHOULDN’T need to have anything written to them about this topic, but he WILL write about it because they do need him to write about it.  It’s a manner of speaking, very Greek and very rhetorical.  Paul is a master of speech, language and rhetoric.

(Understanding rhetoric and logic will help you immensly in understanding Paul.  In fact, the only book in the New Testament that this won’t help as much is probably Revelation.  It’s probably more Hebrew in its genre of literature.  We westernized Americans just have so much trouble thinking that way.  I know I do.  Revelation puzzles me. )

In verse 1, however, Paul is emphasizing the fact that they should not need him to correct them on this issue, but he will because there are some among them who are not urgent about the Lord’s second coming.  It’s a shaming way of speaking to them.

In verse 2, he continues this way of speaking.

“For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

Can you feel his sarcastic rhetoric? “You yourselves are fully aware…surely you are.  After all, Jesus, himself, used this phrase.  You ARE aware of the words of Christ, are you not?”

We even talk like this when we argue and persuade; we just don’t really ponder how western it truly is.

How wonderfully Gentile Paul speaks!

It’s how you debate.  It’s extremely Greek.  To whom is Paul speaking? Greeks, of course.  (Paul would whip my tail in a debate, for sure.)  To speak historically, note how the renaissance, the enlightment and the reformation almost came hand in hand.  What was the point of that new age of thinking?  Well, really it was nothing new. It was a return to Grecco-Roman ideas and ways of thinking.  There is nothing new under the sun.  Luther and the other reformers understood this, why do you think they were so powerfully attuned in using it against humanists and others who toyed with God’s word?  The Renaissance and the enlightment brought the slippery slope for humanism.  The Reformation brought the strong rock of God’s word.

Luther and the reformers were very aware of this way of speaking, and God used it to shake his church back into shape.  Soli Deo Gloria!)

Nevertheless,

In verse 3, Paul mildly abandons his way of speaking, in so much as he no longer emphasizes his intent of shaming them, and he begins to speak more doctrinally and illustratively.

“While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

Verse 4 finds Paul beginning to speak more truth still yet with an edge of loving sarcasm again.

“But you are not darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.”

I hope you kind of see what I mean when I say he is being persuasive by using what we would call sarcasm.  He is not using it disrespectfully and unlovingly, but he IS rebuking them.  “But you…brothers.”  Do you see the sarcasm sprinkled with love when he tells them things he knows they already know, yet at the same time, he inserts the loving gesture of calling them brothers? 

Verse 5 finds him continuing his illustration of dark and light, night and day.

“For you are children of light, children of the day.  We are not of the night or of the darkness.”

They are nothing like those of darkness who would be caught surprised by the Lord’s coming.

Verse 6 introduces Paul’s first exhortation.

“So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.”

Because the other things he said in verses 2-5 are true about the believers and the Lord’s second coming, this verse proceeds from those truths as something that should be true, as well. “So then…”  Do you see how logic and rhetoric help?

Now, note how verse 7 gives another reason that verse 6 is true.

“For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.”

He continues illustrating how those caught off guard are like those of the night.  Look at it this way:

If,

Night=unprepared for the Lord’s coming

and,

Day=prepared for the Lord’s coming

and,

Night=sleeping and drunkeness

Then,

Sleeping and drunkeness=unprepared for the Lord’s coming.

However, Paul would say, look at verse 8:

“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”

So we should look at this way if we want to understand what he means:

If,

Day=prepared for the Lord’s coming

and,

Day=sober, faithful, loving, hopeful saints

Then,

Sober, faithful, loving, hopeful saints=prepared for the Lord’s coming

Now, Paul wants to give a foundation for verse 8 with verses 9-10:

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

Why, Paul is asking, do you think that you are children of light and day prepared for the Lord’s coming being sober, faithful, loving, and hopeful?  Here’s why, he says:

Because God has not destined his saints for wrath.

But why does he use the word wrath?

Look at Romans 2:5 were it says:

“But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

So, we see from this passage in Romans, that Paul characterizes wrath, at times, with the day in the future called the day of wrath “when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

So in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, since the whole passage is characterized with end times theology, I think that Paul is using wrath here as that day in the future “when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

So, Paul is saying, you are children of light and day, prepared for the Lord’s coming exhibiting faithfulness, lovingness, and hopefulness (all fruit of the Spirit I will add), BECAUSE (if these things are true about you then) you are God’s chosen not destined to face his wrath on that horrible day.

What glory!

Rather, Paul is emphasizing how believers ARE destined.   They are destined “…to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  That, Paul says, is how these believers (and you believer) are destined.  Not for wrath, but for salvation.

Verse 10, then, emphasizes how urgent yet also how gracious the Lord’s coming is. “[Christ] died for us SO THAT [emphasis added] whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

In verse 10, we see urgency because Christ is returning and grace because even if we are found unprepared for it, we will STILL live with God and not face his wrath.

But, does Paul mean to use God’s grace as a tool to emphasize idleness? May it never be!

Paul means for us to have the fruitfulness of work for the Lord.  The fruit of JOY UNSPEAKABLE because we don’t labor in vain when we labor for the Lord. So, therefore, LABOR!

Look at verse 11,

“Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

Now comes the list of exhorations in verses 12-22.  All beginning with this “Therefore.”  There is a reason that “therefore” is there for.

So then, bring it back around, verses 23-24 do not consist of a randomly placed prayer.  All of these exhorations for labor are exhortations for works that are sanctifying.  They are works preparing us for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Pray without ceasing” is a sanctifying work.

And now, my point:

Prayer is hardest but definitely most necessary.  I hardly expect to be fruitful if I am not praying.

You can do more than pray after you’ve prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. -John Bunyan

I think I have made it abundently clear how essential prayer is for fruitful labor and how abundently clear it speaks of your spiritual state.  Are you prepared for the coming of the Lord?  Are you watchful and prayerful working while the master is away?  You have not fruit if prayer does not characterize your life.

But if you need a much more effective article citing more Scriptural text and even some historical examples of prayer, here’s an article by the late Leonard Ravenhill entitled “The Gospel of Prayer.”

http://www.ravenhill.org/prayer.htm

“Be ye watchful, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh.” Mark 13:35

Stay up, and pray without ceasing.  He’s coming back and we’re not destined for his wrath!

Working with you until the master of the house cometh,

Vince R.