Sorrowful Love: When You Can’t Love the Sinner, Weep for Him.

It has been in my experience that when I am most sorrowful for the sinner, I love him the most, and I am moved to plead for him before the throne of the Most High Judge. We are often uncomfortable around the carnal man.  His words offend our sensibilities.  His ideas counter our convictions.  As he converses, obliviously and ignorantly, we begin to see his heart.  As a man speaks, so he is.  Why do our hearts sometimes despise him?  Do we hate him? Why does he anger us? It is here that we see our hearts.  It is easy to see the sins of others; it is more difficult to see our own.  Hatred, jealousy, bitterness, wrath, backbiting, slander, and gossip are carnal works.  They proceed from an unloving, wicked, and impure heart.  If one wishes to break this heart, he must know the love of God in the gospel.  Consider the following passages of Scripture:

Elisha looks at the messenger Hazael and begins to weep.  He experiences great sorrow for the sinner:

And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept.  And Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.” And Hazael said, “What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.” Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazael became king in his place. (2 Kings 8:11-15)

Elisha wept because he knew the great sins that Hazael would committ.  What sorrow the man of God will experience! He weeps because he loves.

Note, next, the way in which Jeremiah weeps for the wicked Israelites who recieved the just recompense for their unbelief:

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1)

Note next the way in which Paul spoke to the Philippians about the enemies of the cross:

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. (Philippians 4:18-9)

He speaks of the enemies of the cross with tears! Do we?!

Note next the way Lot related to the sinners around him in 2 Peter 2:7-8:

and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)

Lot was greatly distressed by the conduct of the wicked; his soul was tormented by what he saw and heard. Do our souls feel a tormenting weight and sorrow for a lost world?

Note next the language of the Pslamist in 119:136, 158:

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.”

“I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands.”

The Psalmist has a great zeal for the Lord’s law.  Tears fill his eyes when it is broken.  Do we share in his heart?

Indeed, there is a real hatred for sin in the Christian’s soul, even as his hatred is tempered by love for the sinner’s soul.  It is not some fuzzy love stripped of all justice and righteousness.  It is a perfect love, the kind of love that comes from God (1 John 4:7-8).  No Christian can say he loves God if he does not love the wretched sinner. For so was the Christian in times past! (Ephesians 2:1-7; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Application:

The key to loving the sinner and hating the sin is to know the heart of God.  Do you know his heart? Perhaps, you just know his mind.  Perhaps, you just know his truth but walk ignorantly of his person.  The man who has not the heart of God will become a Pharisee with his doctrine.  Meditate, therefore, heavily upon the love of God in the gospel.  Love is from God, and thusly, he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).  You were not looking for God, but he was looking for you.  You were not loving God, but he was loving you.  He demonstrates his love for you in the gospel, even when you were still a sinner.  You who have been enlightened by the gospel: Walk with grief-stricken joy, and love the heathen around you.  He knows not what he does.

Whoever . . . has tasted of the love Christ, and has known, by his own experience, the need and the worth of redemption, is enabled, Yea, he is constrained, to love his fellow creatures. He loves them at first sight; and, if the providence of God commits a dispensation of the gospel, and care of souls to him, he will feel the warmest emotions of friendship and tenderness, while he beseeches them by the tender mercies of God, and even while he warns them by his terrors.

As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write. . . . [If he is a believer,] in a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts. . . . [If he is an unconverted person,] he is a more proper object of your compassion than your anger. Alas! “He knows not what he does.” But you know who has made you to differ.

-John Newton

Working with you for sorrowful love,

Vince R.

Regeneration vs. the Idolatry of Decisional Evangelism

It was about the time I heard this sermon that I was only 90% sure how I felt about the “sinner’s prayer.”  After this sermon, I was 100% sure.  I put the “sinner’s prayer” in the ground, buried it, and put up a tombstone that said “anathema.” Our evangelism is weak, unbiblical, and it is eternally destroying some.  What are we preaching? See for yourself, and examine yourself. What are you preaching?

Inoculated to Jesus?

“The hardest thing is not convincing people they’re saved; the hardest thing is convincing people they’re lost.”

-John Piper

Preaching to Heart Part II: Watching Pastor Paul at Colossae

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you…” Colossians 2:1

There is a great struggle spoken of in this passage.  Pastor Paul writes of it to these believers.  It is a great struggle he has for the church at Colossae and for the believers at Laodicea.  He must be struggling inwardly.  Paul was a man of the heart.  His messages emitted naturally from a newborn heart–a heart suffering for the sake of the church, a heart filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.  His is a heart that received from God a certain calling.  He is as he said earlier, “a minister.”  What is the main focus of his ministry?

“And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Colossians 1:21-23

Here we see that Paul ministers to God’s people for their sanctification.  God is working through Christ to present his people “holy,” “blameless,” and “above reproach” before him.  The main end of the minister’s work, therefore, is help God’s people reach these fruits of sanctification–holiness and blamelessness.  If the minister is not aiming for this, what is he doing?  He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul; and likewise, what Bible is leading him?

More particulary, we see that Paul exhorts the people toward these fruits by way of  three qualities–faithfulness, stability, and steadfastness.  If a minister is not exhorting his people to these three qualities, what is he doing? He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul.

But this is made even more particular.  Look at what the people are told to be faithful to, stable in, and steadfast for:

“not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” v. 23

This clearly demonstrates the way for a people to be holy, the way for a people to be blameless.  The way for a people truly to be God’s people is found in their faithfulness to the gospel, their stability in the gospel, and their steadfastness for the gospel.  Paul says at the end of this verse that he was made a minister of that gospel.  If we say we are ministers of the gospel, are we even preaching it?  If we are not preaching the gospel, we are not ministers of it.  Indeed, we cease to be ministers of anything the Bible has any knowledge of.  We have fallen from our ministership.

Paul says a little later that he is suffering for the church because “[he] became a minister [to it]” (1:24-25).  He then clearly acknowledges the nature of that ministry.  It is a “stewardship from God given to him for [the church]” (1:25).  The minister who calls the ministry his own with no heart-felt knowledge of the stewardship of it, ceases to be the minister the Bible speaks of.  He is a selfish man, building a kingdom, not God’s, but rather his own.

Stewardship signifies reception. If God has called you to this ministry of the gospel, why is there no reception?  You spurn the calling of the Lord, like some disobedient Jonah.  Away to Tarshish, yet God will find you!  A giant fish awaits the called runner. But Paul did not run.  It says in Acts 26:14 that upon the call from the Lord, he had “fallen on the ground.”

Stewardship signifies holding.  The minister of the gospel holds something that is not his own.  He has had something “entrusted” to him (See 1 Timothy 1:11).  It is not his own, yet why do some ministers act as though they invented the gospel?

 ”Man never could nor would have invented and devised a gospel which would lay him low, and secure to the Lord God all the honor and praise.” -C.H. Spurgeon

If any man has forgotten the nature of the gospel as here explained by Mr. Spurgeon, what is he preaching?  The end of the preaching of the gospel is the glory and praise of the Lord God, not the praises of men to the minister.

Stewardship also signifies selflessness.  “the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.”  It is not given by God for the ministers own personal parading prideful pulpiteering!  God has given the minister the stewardship for the sake of others.  Pastor Paul understood that he was given the ministry for the church, not himself.

Stewardship also signfies faithfulness. “…to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”  Paul refused to do the ministry half-heartedly.  He declared the whole counsel of God!  He made it fully known! This is the faithfulness of the minister.  He knows his mission, and he does it, fully. What mystery has been made known to us! Yet we preach some other thing as though there is no mystery and all people knew of it.  Don’t ever assume your people already know the mystery; and don’t ever think they know it well enough.

“Never be content with your grasp of the gospel. The gospel is life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than any diamond. Its depths man will never exhaust.” - C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life

The minister of God also has one proclamation for his people.  “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (1:27-28)

What message do we preach?  Is it Christ and him crucified? For Paul would know of nothing else! (See 1 Corinthians 2:1)  What goofy, moralizing, cream-puff exhortations fill the pulpits of men who preach something other than Christ!  They want growth of church, but they forgot the seed–the gospel!  People may have ears for moralistic exhortation, but their hearts will be far from Christ and closer to their own self-righteousness.  “Stop complaining” is no sermon content!  Even the pagans don’t like complainers.  God’s people will stop complaining when they understand the gospel, when they see that the rock guiding them in the desert is Christ (See 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

The minister of God also has one process for his people. “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom.”  The only wisdom Paul knows of he gets from Scripture.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111:10).  Also, Paul knows that his Lord is a truine Lord.  He goes on to say, “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3).  If a minister wants wise and knoweledgable people with good understanding his process should be to warn them and teach them with this wisdom; that is with this Christ.

The minister of God also has one purpose for his people.  “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”  That is the purpose the minister of God has for others–their maturity in Christ.  For indeed, he must present them before God!  Will they be mature in Christ?  But yes, they will with God’s help.

The minister of God also has one power for his people.  “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1:29).  The minister of God knows that two very difficult truths exist together.

1.) I must work, toil, and struggle. (This is our responsibility.)

2.) God gives the strength to endure that toil and struggle. (This is his sovereignty.)

And so, this was the struggle Paul had within him for the church.  He wanted to declare to them the riches of Christ for their joy and God’s glory.  What else is the minister to do?

Working with you to preach to the heart,

Vince R.

The Power of the Cross

A powerful video with one of my favorite modern hymns, The Power of the Cross by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.

One Major Tenant of Biblical Counseling…

Preach Repentance…yup.

Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill: Book Review

"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying."

Leonard Ravenhill is a passionate man, and indeed, he will beat you senseless until you are, too.  This book reintroduces much of the revivalistic fervor that has so departed from the hearts and minds of today’s evangelical church.  I was brought to my knees many times while reading this book.  Any man who says that he wants to lead God’s people needs his world shaken, this book will help him. It will become required reading for any young man who asks me to disciple him.  I find in this book a calling for deep sorrowful repentance for the lack of prayer in my life, and I find also a soul-wrenching rebuke to weep for the lost more than I ever have before.  Then, it demands that my weeping turns into action.

Some people will despise this, throw it down and start calling out names like “fundementalist” or “old school.”  The person who does that demonstrates that his heart is not properly submitted to the Word of God because Ravenhill’s book is directly in line with it.  ”Whether you hear or refuse to hear,” after reading this book, you will know ”that a prophet has been among you.”

“A popular evangelist reaches your emotions.  A true prophet reaches your conscience,” he wrote. Then Ravenhill is a true prophet.

With deep pangs for prayer and evangelism,

Vince R.

My Daily Protection with Milton Vincent

“As long as I am inside the gospel, I experience all the protection I need from the powers of evil that rage against me.  It is for this reason that the Bible tells me to ‘take up‘* and ‘put on‘* the whole armor of God; and the pieces of armor it tells me to put on are all merely synonyms for the gospel.  Translated literally from the Greek, they are: ‘…the salvation…the justification…truth…the gospel of peace…the faith…[and the]…word of God.‘* What are all these expressions but various ways of describing the gospel? Therefore, if I wish to stand victorious in Jesus, I must do as the songwriter suggests and ‘put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer.’*

That God would tell me to ‘take up’ and ‘put on’ this gospel armor alerts me to the fact that I do not automatically come into each day protected by the gospel.  In fact, these commands imply that I am vulnerable to defeat and injury unless I seize upon the gospel and arm myself with it from head to toe.  And what better way is there to do this than to preach the gospel to myself and to make it the obsession of my heart throughout the day?”-Milton Vincent (bold emphasis mine).

*”Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day…” Ephesians 6:13

*”Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:11-12

*”Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:14-17

*”Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Stand in His strength alone;
The arm of flesh will fail you, Ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armor, Each piece put on with prayer;
Where duty calls or danger, Be never wanting there.”

–”Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus,” written by George Duffield, Jr., (1818-1888). 

Working with you to make war on the flesh with the gospel armor,

Vince R.

Quoted from:  Vincent, Milton. The Gospel Primer. Moreno Vally: Focus, 2008.

 

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.

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.