The beginning of another chapter in our lives, another year, another week, or even another day brings us much excitement because at this point, we can actually feel that we have the chance to start afresh. This privilege of starting afresh fills us with immense joy because it makes us realize that we have an abundant supply of renewed hope… that we have endless opportunities to begin again. Thus, we find the courage to accept our past defeats, to look ahead… and move on.
Once again, we pray and acknowledge God's presence and feel thankful because we are given the opportunity to do better and outshine our past achievements. We make up our minds to improve ourselves, to correct our faults, and to live more meaningful, God-centered lives. We feel so energized. We give our best yet again and our hearts overflow with optimism and gratitude. Then, we say to ourselves, "Yes! Another chance… another chance! I'm going to accomplish something better this time. I can do this! With God's help, I can make this work!!"
The white, empty pages make every notebook so useful... and the thousands of hours that are yet to come make the beginning of every year significantly full of promise. Indeed, we can always begin again. We have endless opportunities to start afresh! Let us feel enthusiastically motivated to begin on a clean sheet of paper and leave a lasting mark… to pour out our most vibrant colors on an empty canvass and create a masterpiece!
"Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14)
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
What's Wrong with "User Friendly"? by John MacArthur
Recently, the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary was published. The reprint included 10,000 new words– words that will bring us all up to date. Words like "phat" (excellent), "dead presidents" (paper currency), and "McJob" (low paying, dead-end job) are among the entries that will finally help us communicate with our teenagers.
How did those words make it into the updated dictionary? There is one criterion: usage. A word qualifies for the new edition based on how widespread its usage has become. While I can't imagine how phat, McJob, and dead presidents will find a place in America's pulpits (e.g., The love of dead presidents is the root of all kinds of evil?), there is one phrase borrowed from the computer industry that has spread into mainstream usage in the church– it's impact has been monumental.
"User-friendly" was first used to describe software and hardware that is easy for the novice to operate. Applied to the church, it describes churches that offer a decidedly benign and non-challenging ministry model. In practice, it has become an excuse for importing worldly amusements into the church in an attempt to attract non-Christian "seekers" or the "unchurched" by appealing to their fleshly interests. The obvious fallout of this preoccupation with the unbelievers is a corresponding neglect of true believers and their spiritual needs.
If you want to know how user-friendly a church has become, the emphasis, or de-emphasis, on biblical preaching is the yardstick. A church that buys into the new paradigm sidelines provocative and convicting sermons for music, skits, or videos– less confrontational mediums for conveying the message. Even when there is a sermon, it is frequently psychological and motivational rather than biblical. Above all, entertainment value and user-friendliness are paramount.
I once read through a stack of newspaper and magazine articles that highlight a common thread in the user-friendly phenomenon. These observations from newspaper clippings describe the preaching in user-friendly churches:
• "There is no fire and brimstone here... Just practical, witty messages." • "Services at [the church featured in the article] have an informal feeling. You won't hear people threatened with hell or referred to as sinners. The goal is to make them feel welcome, not drive them away." • "As with all clergymen [this pastor's] answer is God– but he slips Him in at the end, and even then doesn't get heavy. No ranting, no raving. No fire, no brimstone. He doesn't even use the H-word. Call it Light Gospel. It has the same salvation as the Old Time Religion, but with a third less guilt." • "The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation, and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes." • "[The pastor] is preaching a very upbeat message... It's a salvationist message, but the idea is not so much being saved from the fires of hell. Rather, it's being saved from meaninglessness and aimlessness in this life. It's more of a soft-sell."
So the new rules may be summed like this: Be clever, informal, positive, brief, friendly, and never, never use the H-word.
The pastors and leaders in the church-growth movement certainly wouldn't portray their own ministries in that way. In fact, they would probably laud their success in drawing people into the church without compromising the message. But they fail to understand that by decentralizing the Scripture and avoiding hard truths, they are compromising. "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26, emphasis added). If the design is to make the seeker comfortable, isn't that rather incompatible with the Bible's own emphasis on sin, judgment, hell, and several other important topics?
The gospel message is a confrontational message. When you remove the confrontation–or soften, downplay, or bring it in through the back door– you have compromised the message. The modern pulpit is weak, not for a lack of witty messages, but because men fear to speak the hard truths of God's Word powerfully and with conviction.
The church is certainly not suffering from an overabundance of forthright preachers; rather, it seems glutted with men pleasers (cf. Gal. 1:10). But, as it was in the early church, when men are faithful to preach God's Word with boldness, God will give the increase. "And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching... then fear came upon every soul... and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:42, 43, 47).
When a sinner wanders into the church and sits through skits, mimes, interpretive dances, and the like, and yet never hears a clear, convicting message about his dangerous and tenuous spiritual situation– that he is a depraved sinner headed for an eternal fire because he is a daily offense to a holy God– how can that be called successful? You could achieve the same level of success by sending a cancer patient to receive treatment from a group of children playing doctor. A sinner must understand the imminent danger he is in if he is ever to look to the Savior.
C. H. Spurgeon, facing a similar mindset in his day, once said:
'I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men, and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands, and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did not lay himself out to please the public and collect the crowd. If he did not save them he felt that it was of no avail to interest them. Unless the truth had pierced their hearts, affected their lives, and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"...
Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, "Depart, ye cursed," shall be his portion?'" ["Soul Saving Our One Business," The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 25 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1879), 674-76.]
That is precisely my concern about today’s pragmatic church-growth trend. The strategy focuses on attracting and keeping the unchurched. For what? To entertain them? To get them to attend church meetings regularly? Merely "churching" the unchurched accomplishes nothing of eternal value. That is where their strategy seems to end.
What's worse is when seeker-focused churches baptize the masses with their watered-down gospel, assuring them that positive decisions, feelings, or affirmations about Christ equal genuine conversion. There are now multitudes who are not authentic Christians identifying with the church. The church is literally invaded with the world's values, the world's interests, and the world's citizens. It isn't an invasion prompted by overt hostility; people are simply responding to a survey that came in the mail. Ironically, Satan isn't sowing the tares; church leaders are.
As you set your strategy for church ministry, you dare not overlook the primary means of church growth: the straightforward, Christ-centered proclamation of the unadulterated Word of God. If you trade the Word for amusements or gimmicks, you will not only find that you have no effective means to reach people with the truth of Christ, but you will find yourself working against the Lord Himself.
How did those words make it into the updated dictionary? There is one criterion: usage. A word qualifies for the new edition based on how widespread its usage has become. While I can't imagine how phat, McJob, and dead presidents will find a place in America's pulpits (e.g., The love of dead presidents is the root of all kinds of evil?), there is one phrase borrowed from the computer industry that has spread into mainstream usage in the church– it's impact has been monumental.
"User-friendly" was first used to describe software and hardware that is easy for the novice to operate. Applied to the church, it describes churches that offer a decidedly benign and non-challenging ministry model. In practice, it has become an excuse for importing worldly amusements into the church in an attempt to attract non-Christian "seekers" or the "unchurched" by appealing to their fleshly interests. The obvious fallout of this preoccupation with the unbelievers is a corresponding neglect of true believers and their spiritual needs.
If you want to know how user-friendly a church has become, the emphasis, or de-emphasis, on biblical preaching is the yardstick. A church that buys into the new paradigm sidelines provocative and convicting sermons for music, skits, or videos– less confrontational mediums for conveying the message. Even when there is a sermon, it is frequently psychological and motivational rather than biblical. Above all, entertainment value and user-friendliness are paramount.
I once read through a stack of newspaper and magazine articles that highlight a common thread in the user-friendly phenomenon. These observations from newspaper clippings describe the preaching in user-friendly churches:
• "There is no fire and brimstone here... Just practical, witty messages." • "Services at [the church featured in the article] have an informal feeling. You won't hear people threatened with hell or referred to as sinners. The goal is to make them feel welcome, not drive them away." • "As with all clergymen [this pastor's] answer is God– but he slips Him in at the end, and even then doesn't get heavy. No ranting, no raving. No fire, no brimstone. He doesn't even use the H-word. Call it Light Gospel. It has the same salvation as the Old Time Religion, but with a third less guilt." • "The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation, and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes." • "[The pastor] is preaching a very upbeat message... It's a salvationist message, but the idea is not so much being saved from the fires of hell. Rather, it's being saved from meaninglessness and aimlessness in this life. It's more of a soft-sell."
So the new rules may be summed like this: Be clever, informal, positive, brief, friendly, and never, never use the H-word.
The pastors and leaders in the church-growth movement certainly wouldn't portray their own ministries in that way. In fact, they would probably laud their success in drawing people into the church without compromising the message. But they fail to understand that by decentralizing the Scripture and avoiding hard truths, they are compromising. "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26, emphasis added). If the design is to make the seeker comfortable, isn't that rather incompatible with the Bible's own emphasis on sin, judgment, hell, and several other important topics?
The gospel message is a confrontational message. When you remove the confrontation–or soften, downplay, or bring it in through the back door– you have compromised the message. The modern pulpit is weak, not for a lack of witty messages, but because men fear to speak the hard truths of God's Word powerfully and with conviction.
The church is certainly not suffering from an overabundance of forthright preachers; rather, it seems glutted with men pleasers (cf. Gal. 1:10). But, as it was in the early church, when men are faithful to preach God's Word with boldness, God will give the increase. "And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching... then fear came upon every soul... and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:42, 43, 47).
When a sinner wanders into the church and sits through skits, mimes, interpretive dances, and the like, and yet never hears a clear, convicting message about his dangerous and tenuous spiritual situation– that he is a depraved sinner headed for an eternal fire because he is a daily offense to a holy God– how can that be called successful? You could achieve the same level of success by sending a cancer patient to receive treatment from a group of children playing doctor. A sinner must understand the imminent danger he is in if he is ever to look to the Savior.
C. H. Spurgeon, facing a similar mindset in his day, once said:
'I fear there are some who preach with the view of amusing men, and as long as people can be gathered in crowds, and their ears can be tickled, and they can retire pleased with what they have heard, the orator is content, and folds his hands, and goes back self-satisfied. But Paul did not lay himself out to please the public and collect the crowd. If he did not save them he felt that it was of no avail to interest them. Unless the truth had pierced their hearts, affected their lives, and made new men of them, Paul would have gone home crying, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"...
Now observe, brethren, if I, or you, or any of us, or all of us, shall have spent our lives merely in amusing men, or educating men, or moralizing men, when we shall come to give our account at the last great day we shall be in a very sorry condition, and we shall have but a very sorry record to render; for of what avail will it be to a man to be educated when he comes to be damned? Of what service will it be to him to have been amused when the trumpet sounds, and heaven and earth are shaking, and the pit opens wide her jaws of fire and swallows up the soul unsaved? Of what avail even to have moralized a man if still he is on the left hand of the judge, and if still, "Depart, ye cursed," shall be his portion?'" ["Soul Saving Our One Business," The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 25 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1879), 674-76.]
That is precisely my concern about today’s pragmatic church-growth trend. The strategy focuses on attracting and keeping the unchurched. For what? To entertain them? To get them to attend church meetings regularly? Merely "churching" the unchurched accomplishes nothing of eternal value. That is where their strategy seems to end.
What's worse is when seeker-focused churches baptize the masses with their watered-down gospel, assuring them that positive decisions, feelings, or affirmations about Christ equal genuine conversion. There are now multitudes who are not authentic Christians identifying with the church. The church is literally invaded with the world's values, the world's interests, and the world's citizens. It isn't an invasion prompted by overt hostility; people are simply responding to a survey that came in the mail. Ironically, Satan isn't sowing the tares; church leaders are.
As you set your strategy for church ministry, you dare not overlook the primary means of church growth: the straightforward, Christ-centered proclamation of the unadulterated Word of God. If you trade the Word for amusements or gimmicks, you will not only find that you have no effective means to reach people with the truth of Christ, but you will find yourself working against the Lord Himself.
Lord's Day Devotion
"Since . . . the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Heb. 2:14-15).
To be free to live with God and share in all His blessings, someone had to shatter Satan's death grip on us. Sin is what gives Satan his powerful hold on us, but the power itself is death.
Satan knew that God required death for us because of sin. He knew that all died in Adam--that death became a certain fact of life. And he knew that men, if they remained as they were, would die and go out of God's presence into hell forever. So he wants to hang onto men until they die because once they are dead, the opportunity for salvation is gone forever.
To wrest the power of death from Satan's hand, God sent Christ into the world. If you have a greater weapon than your enemy, then his weapon is useless. You can't fight a machine gun with a bow and arrow. Satan's weapon is death, but eternal life is God's weapon, and with it Jesus destroyed death.
How was He able to do it? He rose again, proving He had conquered death. That's why He said, "Because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19). His resurrection provides the believer with eternal life.
Nothing terrifies people more than the fear of death. But when we receive Christ, death in reality holds no more fear for us since it simply releases us into the presence of our Lord. We can say with Paul, "To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). Rejoice that you have placed your hand into the hand of the conqueror of death, who will lead you through death and out the other side.
Suggestion for Prayer:
Ask God to give you a greater realization that He has conquered death to help you live life more fully to His glory.
For Further Study:
Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. How are we to live our lives based on what we know about death?
Questions 27-28 from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. For your Family Devotion today.
Q27: Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?
A27: Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition,[1] made under the law,[2] undergoing the miseries of this life,[3] the wrath of God,[4] and the cursed death of the cross;[5] in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.[6]
1. Luke 2:72. Gal. 4:43. Isa. 53:34. Matt. 27:465. Phil. 2:86. Matt. 12:40
Q28: Wherein consisteth Christ's exaltation?
A28: Christ's exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day,[1] in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father,[2] and in coming to judge the world at the last day.[3]
1. I Cor. 15:42. Mark 16:193. Acts 17:31
The Heidelberg Catechism, This Lord's Day week 52
Q127: What is the sixth petition?
A127: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; that is, since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment,[1] and besides, our deadly enemies, the devil,[2] the world,[3] and our own flesh, [4] assail us without ceasing, be pleased to preserve and strengthen us by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may make firm stand against them and not be overcome in this spiritual warfare,[5] until finally complete victory is ours.[6]
1. John 15:5; Psa. 103:14-162. I Peter 5:8-9; Eph. 6:12-133. John 15:194. Rom. 7:23; Gal. 5:175. Matt. 26:41; Mark 13:336. I Thess. 3:13; 5:23-24; II Cor. 12:7
Q128: How do you close this prayer?
A128: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever; that is, all this we ask of Thee, because as our King, having power over all things, Thou art willing and able to give us all good;[1] and that thereby not we, but Thy holy name may be glorified forever.[2]
1. Rom. 10:11-12; II Peter 2:92. John 14:13; Psa. 115:1
Q129: What is the meaning of the word Amen?
A129: Amen means: so shall it truly and surely be. For my prayer is much more certainly heard of God than I feel in my heart that I desire these things of Him.[1]
1. II Cor. 1:20; II Tim. 2:13; Psa. 145:18-19
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.[1]
1. Eph 3:20-21
A127: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; that is, since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment,[1] and besides, our deadly enemies, the devil,[2] the world,[3] and our own flesh, [4] assail us without ceasing, be pleased to preserve and strengthen us by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may make firm stand against them and not be overcome in this spiritual warfare,[5] until finally complete victory is ours.[6]
1. John 15:5; Psa. 103:14-162. I Peter 5:8-9; Eph. 6:12-133. John 15:194. Rom. 7:23; Gal. 5:175. Matt. 26:41; Mark 13:336. I Thess. 3:13; 5:23-24; II Cor. 12:7
Q128: How do you close this prayer?
A128: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever; that is, all this we ask of Thee, because as our King, having power over all things, Thou art willing and able to give us all good;[1] and that thereby not we, but Thy holy name may be glorified forever.[2]
1. Rom. 10:11-12; II Peter 2:92. John 14:13; Psa. 115:1
Q129: What is the meaning of the word Amen?
A129: Amen means: so shall it truly and surely be. For my prayer is much more certainly heard of God than I feel in my heart that I desire these things of Him.[1]
1. II Cor. 1:20; II Tim. 2:13; Psa. 145:18-19
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.[1]
1. Eph 3:20-21
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Today's Gospel is Far From The NT Message
Quoting Walter Chantry . . .
Can it be true that Christians are misleading the souls of men in regard to salvation? Is it really all that bad? Look at the evangelistic missions with all their gimmicks (I even heard a pastor say to a bunch of young people that if they could bring a certain number of kids out to Church, that he would swallow a goldfish in front of them . . . wacky but true). Examine all that you teach in the light of Jesus' thorough going Gospel and you will have to agree - the Church is far from the New Testament message.
Oh, and don't forget to look at your own preaching and teaching. All are not in error, but a great number are. All have not perverted the Gospel to the same degree, but many are terribly far from the truth. All those who, make "decisions" are not deceived, but a great number are. Above all, few CARE to recover the Gospel message. Most assume that evangelical tradition embodies all of it. Great numbers never carefully weigh their habits in the light of Scriptures. Many are never asked to count the cost of becoming one of Jesus disciples. ... Surely our first issue of duty to our Lord is to make sure that we have the right Gospel message. The same one not altered or improved - but in its original full strength formula.
Like a foul tasting cough medicine that is not pleasant to the taste of a sick child, the original Gospel of Jesus Christ is not pleasant to the ears of most sinners today. But it is the power of God to those that will believe unto salvation - it gets the job done.
Most of all we need to contend for the gospel. It is not just a few facts that Jesus and the Apostles preached it was life itself. True evangelism preaches the whole counsel of God with explanation and application to sinners.
Remember our Lord's dealing with the rich young ruler the next time you witness to someone. Don't sell this truth for unity at any cost. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a pearl worthy to be purchased at the cost of all else. Rise above deadening evangelical tradition and "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3).
From:
Today's Gospel
Can it be true that Christians are misleading the souls of men in regard to salvation? Is it really all that bad? Look at the evangelistic missions with all their gimmicks (I even heard a pastor say to a bunch of young people that if they could bring a certain number of kids out to Church, that he would swallow a goldfish in front of them . . . wacky but true). Examine all that you teach in the light of Jesus' thorough going Gospel and you will have to agree - the Church is far from the New Testament message.
Oh, and don't forget to look at your own preaching and teaching. All are not in error, but a great number are. All have not perverted the Gospel to the same degree, but many are terribly far from the truth. All those who, make "decisions" are not deceived, but a great number are. Above all, few CARE to recover the Gospel message. Most assume that evangelical tradition embodies all of it. Great numbers never carefully weigh their habits in the light of Scriptures. Many are never asked to count the cost of becoming one of Jesus disciples. ... Surely our first issue of duty to our Lord is to make sure that we have the right Gospel message. The same one not altered or improved - but in its original full strength formula.
Like a foul tasting cough medicine that is not pleasant to the taste of a sick child, the original Gospel of Jesus Christ is not pleasant to the ears of most sinners today. But it is the power of God to those that will believe unto salvation - it gets the job done.
Most of all we need to contend for the gospel. It is not just a few facts that Jesus and the Apostles preached it was life itself. True evangelism preaches the whole counsel of God with explanation and application to sinners.
Remember our Lord's dealing with the rich young ruler the next time you witness to someone. Don't sell this truth for unity at any cost. The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a pearl worthy to be purchased at the cost of all else. Rise above deadening evangelical tradition and "Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3).
From:
Today's Gospel
Two Perspectives on the Bible and Contemporary Issues By Dr Al Mohler
This week, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS has featured two different perspectives on the Bible and its relevance to contemporary issues. On Tuesday, Ray Suarez interviewed Dr. Peter Gomes, Minister of the Harvard Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University, about his new book, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus.
On Wednesday he presented an interview with me about my new book, Cultureshift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth [due to be released January 15].
The audio versions of the segments are available online, as are full transcripts of the interviews. Dr. Gomes' book is worthy of a full review, which will appear here in coming days. I appreciate the fact that Ray Suarez and The News Hour dealt with both of us far above the level of soundbites.
In his interview, Dr. Gomes presents this argument:
But I would think that, if Jesus came today, the people he would be most interested in dealing with would be homosexuals, racial minorities, people who would be thought to be less than the most upright and righteous people in the contemporary community. If the New Testament is any model, that's where he would hang out.
I agree with that statement, in the sense that Jesus did indeed associate with sinners in his earthly ministry, very often scandalizing the self-righteous. Jesus came to save sinners, and He was opposed by those who trusted in their own righteousness.
Where Dr. Gomes and I profoundly differ is about what Jesus would say to these on the margins of society. I believe that Jesus would offer grace and redemption to those associated with any sin -- but He would also call for repentance and a turning away from sin. When it comes to an issue like homosexuality, this is where Dr. Gomes and I are in profound disagreement.
It all does come down to what we believe about the Bible. Thanks again to PBS, Ray Suarez, and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer for treating this issue with respect.
On Wednesday he presented an interview with me about my new book, Cultureshift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth [due to be released January 15].
The audio versions of the segments are available online, as are full transcripts of the interviews. Dr. Gomes' book is worthy of a full review, which will appear here in coming days. I appreciate the fact that Ray Suarez and The News Hour dealt with both of us far above the level of soundbites.
In his interview, Dr. Gomes presents this argument:
But I would think that, if Jesus came today, the people he would be most interested in dealing with would be homosexuals, racial minorities, people who would be thought to be less than the most upright and righteous people in the contemporary community. If the New Testament is any model, that's where he would hang out.
I agree with that statement, in the sense that Jesus did indeed associate with sinners in his earthly ministry, very often scandalizing the self-righteous. Jesus came to save sinners, and He was opposed by those who trusted in their own righteousness.
Where Dr. Gomes and I profoundly differ is about what Jesus would say to these on the margins of society. I believe that Jesus would offer grace and redemption to those associated with any sin -- but He would also call for repentance and a turning away from sin. When it comes to an issue like homosexuality, this is where Dr. Gomes and I are in profound disagreement.
It all does come down to what we believe about the Bible. Thanks again to PBS, Ray Suarez, and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer for treating this issue with respect.
First there was Evan Almighty. And Now First Sunday. What will we allow next. By Rev. Charles J. Paul
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/firstsunday/site/index.htm If you have seen the previews for this movie. And you are a True believer in the Lord Jesus Christ then I believe you also are outraged.
You see just by some of the mocking scenes of the church and our Lord Jesus that are in this movie raises a question. that I will address in a later more in depth post.
The question is what would happen if they made this same movie. But in stead of directing it at the church and Jesus Christ for there humor. They used the false religion of Islam and mocked the false god Muhammad? http://movies.aol.com/movie/first-sunday/22137/video/trailer-no-1/2022389
The answer is simple. They would never do that because they know the nation of Islam would not stand for that.
So now I ask my True Brothers and sisters who serve the ONE TRUE GOD. Why do we allow this mockery and blasphemy to take place? If you say its only comedy. Well was it funny when they nailed our Lord to the Cross. Maybe that will be there next theme for part two of first Sunday.
Instead of putting up with this lets share the truth of Holy Scripture with all involved with the making of this film. And all who seem to think there is nothing wrong with it. So then by the Grace of God He may have mercy on them. And so draw them unto His Son for the Salvation of there souls.
Please take the time to listen to my sermon this Sunday. Entitled, Famine in the Land. I will be expositing Amos 8. This will show clear Scriptural proof of not only the day we live in. but also why movie’s like this are tolerated.
You see just by some of the mocking scenes of the church and our Lord Jesus that are in this movie raises a question. that I will address in a later more in depth post.
The question is what would happen if they made this same movie. But in stead of directing it at the church and Jesus Christ for there humor. They used the false religion of Islam and mocked the false god Muhammad? http://movies.aol.com/movie/first-sunday/22137/video/trailer-no-1/2022389
The answer is simple. They would never do that because they know the nation of Islam would not stand for that.
So now I ask my True Brothers and sisters who serve the ONE TRUE GOD. Why do we allow this mockery and blasphemy to take place? If you say its only comedy. Well was it funny when they nailed our Lord to the Cross. Maybe that will be there next theme for part two of first Sunday.
Instead of putting up with this lets share the truth of Holy Scripture with all involved with the making of this film. And all who seem to think there is nothing wrong with it. So then by the Grace of God He may have mercy on them. And so draw them unto His Son for the Salvation of there souls.
Please take the time to listen to my sermon this Sunday. Entitled, Famine in the Land. I will be expositing Amos 8. This will show clear Scriptural proof of not only the day we live in. but also why movie’s like this are tolerated.
Friday, December 28, 2007
We'll Have to Pray to Make It By Rick Phillips
I was delighted by our church's recent decision to increase our budget by something like 23% for coming fiscal year. Now, there is some context for this. The 2007 budget involved a scaling back, as the church began the year without a senior pastor. In the last six months, our attendance has been blessed with increase. Moreover, by calling me to the pulpit, the actual commitments for 2007 ended up being higher than the budget reflects. But still, our new budget involves a whopping increase. The increase mainly occurs in three areas: 1) the calling of a new assistant minister; 2) deferred maintaince on our building; and 3) an increase to our missions program.I comment on this for two main reasons. The first is that I have come to the belief that most of our church budgets are too low. Most especially, we are not giving to missions in the way that we should. In the midst of our great affluence, and at a time when the Holy Spirit is moving with such power in so many developing nations where money is scarce, we should be extending ourselves significantly above our current level of commitment. But this is true in other areas: we are not as aggressive as we should be in our local outreach and in other important areas of ministry and mission. We have developed a retreat mentality in which we are all-too-happy to have our own nice church situation, without a zeal for the world lost in darkness.
The second reason why I think our budgets tend to be too low is that we church leaders are simply being risk averse. We don't want to risk annoying the congregation by calling for them all to tithe. We don't want the risk of a financial crunch that will sap our energy and discourage the church. Even worse is that the thought that we may simply have very little vision for the mission of the church. (In which case, I would recommend some trips to Africa or some similar place where the gospel is advancing so powerfully.) When we aim for so little, we send a signal to the pews that it really isn't important that everyone tithe, that everyone spread the gospel and invite non-Christian friends to church, and that everyone pray.I was not much involved in determining our new budget: it was handled by our deacons and ruling elders for the most part. I just made one request: I wanted our budget to be set at a level where we will have to pray in order to make it. Isn't that a good rule? Let's not set our budgets at a level we can comfortably attain without needing to pray for God's provision. (And if we are doing that, then on whom are we relying for our provision?) Let's do what our Lord did when He fed the five thousand: let's lift our eyes to heaven, pray for God's blessing, and then step out boldly in faith to feed a hungry world.Will we make our budget in 2008? I really don't know. But I sure am praying that God will provide so that His gospel might advance.
The second reason why I think our budgets tend to be too low is that we church leaders are simply being risk averse. We don't want to risk annoying the congregation by calling for them all to tithe. We don't want the risk of a financial crunch that will sap our energy and discourage the church. Even worse is that the thought that we may simply have very little vision for the mission of the church. (In which case, I would recommend some trips to Africa or some similar place where the gospel is advancing so powerfully.) When we aim for so little, we send a signal to the pews that it really isn't important that everyone tithe, that everyone spread the gospel and invite non-Christian friends to church, and that everyone pray.I was not much involved in determining our new budget: it was handled by our deacons and ruling elders for the most part. I just made one request: I wanted our budget to be set at a level where we will have to pray in order to make it. Isn't that a good rule? Let's not set our budgets at a level we can comfortably attain without needing to pray for God's provision. (And if we are doing that, then on whom are we relying for our provision?) Let's do what our Lord did when He fed the five thousand: let's lift our eyes to heaven, pray for God's blessing, and then step out boldly in faith to feed a hungry world.Will we make our budget in 2008? I really don't know. But I sure am praying that God will provide so that His gospel might advance.
On Discussing Doctrine in Public...... By Dr Al Mohler
We must first express a bit of sympathetic understanding for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. As the spiritual head of the Church of England -- a state church, after all -- and as head of the Anglican Communion, he is in the awkward position of having every word he utters made a matter of potential media attention.
That said, this particular Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have a more difficult time than most making himself clear. At one point, even the British press warned him that his statements were so confusing that reporters had difficulty knowing what the Archbishop was trying to say. Just a few weeks ago he responded to atheist Richard Dawkins by stating: "There are specific areas of mismatch between what Richard Dawkins may write about and what religious people think they are doing."
That said, this particular Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have a more difficult time than most making himself clear. At one point, even the British press warned him that his statements were so confusing that reporters had difficulty knowing what the Archbishop was trying to say. Just a few weeks ago he responded to atheist Richard Dawkins by stating: "There are specific areas of mismatch between what Richard Dawkins may write about and what religious people think they are doing."
That is about as convoluted a response as one might imagine possible.
So, just before Christmas, the Archbishop granted an interview to Simon Mayo of the BBC [text at The Telegraph (London)] in which he discussed the particulars of the Christmas story in the Gospels and the traditions of Christmas handed down over the centuries. The interview caused a media sensation of sorts, with some headlines suggesting that the Archbishop had described the accounts in Matthew and Luke as mere myth and legend. Thankfully, a full transcript of the interview was posted by The Telegraph (perhaps motivated by journalistic self-defense) and readers can judge for themselves.
Dr. Williams, formerly a very well-known academic theologian, did suggest that much of what many people (including many Christians) associate with the nativity accounts in the New Testament is simply not to be found in the biblical text. The Archbishop suggested that he would well "pass on the oxes and asses" because they are not found in the biblical accounts. He was absolutely correct to point out that nativity scenes with shepherds gathered on one side and three wise men on the other side are historically inaccurate, if honestly so. In his words:
Well Matthew's gospel doesn't tell us that there were three of them, doesn't tell us they were kings, doesn't tell us where they came from, it says they're astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire. That's all we're really told so, yes, 'the three kings with the one from Africa' - that's legend; it works quite well as legend.
As he might have pointed out, Matthew does indicate that the magi were more than one in number and that they brought three different gifts. Matthew does not indicate the number of magi.
There can be no doubt that many Christians are confused about that the New Testament actually teaches about the events associated with the birth of Christ. Many believers are certain that the Bible includes a cast of characters including a cold-hearted inn keeper and a little drummer boy. Neither appears in the accounts; both commonly appear in church Christmas pageants.
In making these clarifications the Archbishop was doing what any careful Christian leader should do -- explain the faith and the Scriptures. Even so, he did so rather awkwardly. Indeed, when he got to the virgin conception of Christ it was more than awkward. The Archbishop was, by intention or not, an agent of subverting the truthfulness of this biblical teaching.
Here is the specific section of the interview:
Simon Mayo: You were a prominent part of a Spectator survey in the current issue which headlined' Do you believe in the virgin birth?' there are some people in this survey who would say they were Christian who don't have a problem if you don't believe in the Virgin birth;' how important it is it to believe in that bit?
Archbishop Williams: I don't want to set it as a kind of hurdle that people have to get over before they, you know, be signed up;, but I think quite a few people that as time goes on, they get a sense, a deeper sense of what the virgin birth is about. I would say that of myself. About thirty years ago I might have said I wasn't too fussed about it - now I see it much more as dovetailing with the rest of what I believe about the story and yes.
Simon Mayo: Christopher Hitchens and many others make the point that isn't the translation for young woman rather than virgin? Does it have to be seen as virgin; might it be a mistranslation?
Archbishop Williams: It is… well, what's happening there one of the gospels quotes a prophecy that a virgin will conceive a child. Now the original Hebrew doesn't have the word virgin, it's just a young woman, but that's the prophecy that's quoted from the Old Testament in support of the story which is, in any case, about a birth without a human father, so it's not that it rests on mistranslation; St Matthew's gone to his Greek version of the bible and said "Oh, 'virgin'; sounds like the story I know," and put it in.
The Archbishop doesn't want the virgin birth to be "a kind of hurdle" that persons must believe in order to "sign up" for the faith. Instead, he suggests that he himself was once not "too fussed about it." Now, he does see it more as "dovetailing" with the rest of the biblical account. He defends Matthew's use of Isaiah 7:14, but suggests a very strange model of biblical inspiration in the process.
So, just before Christmas, the Archbishop granted an interview to Simon Mayo of the BBC [text at The Telegraph (London)] in which he discussed the particulars of the Christmas story in the Gospels and the traditions of Christmas handed down over the centuries. The interview caused a media sensation of sorts, with some headlines suggesting that the Archbishop had described the accounts in Matthew and Luke as mere myth and legend. Thankfully, a full transcript of the interview was posted by The Telegraph (perhaps motivated by journalistic self-defense) and readers can judge for themselves.
Dr. Williams, formerly a very well-known academic theologian, did suggest that much of what many people (including many Christians) associate with the nativity accounts in the New Testament is simply not to be found in the biblical text. The Archbishop suggested that he would well "pass on the oxes and asses" because they are not found in the biblical accounts. He was absolutely correct to point out that nativity scenes with shepherds gathered on one side and three wise men on the other side are historically inaccurate, if honestly so. In his words:
Well Matthew's gospel doesn't tell us that there were three of them, doesn't tell us they were kings, doesn't tell us where they came from, it says they're astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire. That's all we're really told so, yes, 'the three kings with the one from Africa' - that's legend; it works quite well as legend.
As he might have pointed out, Matthew does indicate that the magi were more than one in number and that they brought three different gifts. Matthew does not indicate the number of magi.
There can be no doubt that many Christians are confused about that the New Testament actually teaches about the events associated with the birth of Christ. Many believers are certain that the Bible includes a cast of characters including a cold-hearted inn keeper and a little drummer boy. Neither appears in the accounts; both commonly appear in church Christmas pageants.
In making these clarifications the Archbishop was doing what any careful Christian leader should do -- explain the faith and the Scriptures. Even so, he did so rather awkwardly. Indeed, when he got to the virgin conception of Christ it was more than awkward. The Archbishop was, by intention or not, an agent of subverting the truthfulness of this biblical teaching.
Here is the specific section of the interview:
Simon Mayo: You were a prominent part of a Spectator survey in the current issue which headlined' Do you believe in the virgin birth?' there are some people in this survey who would say they were Christian who don't have a problem if you don't believe in the Virgin birth;' how important it is it to believe in that bit?
Archbishop Williams: I don't want to set it as a kind of hurdle that people have to get over before they, you know, be signed up;, but I think quite a few people that as time goes on, they get a sense, a deeper sense of what the virgin birth is about. I would say that of myself. About thirty years ago I might have said I wasn't too fussed about it - now I see it much more as dovetailing with the rest of what I believe about the story and yes.
Simon Mayo: Christopher Hitchens and many others make the point that isn't the translation for young woman rather than virgin? Does it have to be seen as virgin; might it be a mistranslation?
Archbishop Williams: It is… well, what's happening there one of the gospels quotes a prophecy that a virgin will conceive a child. Now the original Hebrew doesn't have the word virgin, it's just a young woman, but that's the prophecy that's quoted from the Old Testament in support of the story which is, in any case, about a birth without a human father, so it's not that it rests on mistranslation; St Matthew's gone to his Greek version of the bible and said "Oh, 'virgin'; sounds like the story I know," and put it in.
The Archbishop doesn't want the virgin birth to be "a kind of hurdle" that persons must believe in order to "sign up" for the faith. Instead, he suggests that he himself was once not "too fussed about it." Now, he does see it more as "dovetailing" with the rest of the biblical account. He defends Matthew's use of Isaiah 7:14, but suggests a very strange model of biblical inspiration in the process.
We should be thankful that the Archbishop of Canterbury did not deny that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary. Indeed, the Archbishop seems to have grown in appreciation for the theological significance of this biblical truth.
At the same time, his choice of language and means of expression lacks a certain confidence and candor that such a discussion requires. I point to this example in order to remind us all -- all who speak of these transforming truths in public -- of the necessity of speaking with honest and straightforward confidence about what the Bible teaches. It is not "fussy" to insist that belief in the virgin conception of Christ is a central part of the New Testament account of Christ's incarnation and birth. Why not just state clearly that the Bible teaches this truth, and therefore that Christians are to believe it with confidence as both true and important?
At the same time, his choice of language and means of expression lacks a certain confidence and candor that such a discussion requires. I point to this example in order to remind us all -- all who speak of these transforming truths in public -- of the necessity of speaking with honest and straightforward confidence about what the Bible teaches. It is not "fussy" to insist that belief in the virgin conception of Christ is a central part of the New Testament account of Christ's incarnation and birth. Why not just state clearly that the Bible teaches this truth, and therefore that Christians are to believe it with confidence as both true and important?
Is that too much to ask? May God grant us all courage and wisdom to speak the truth clearly as a matter of Christian truth-telling, witness, and leadership.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Church Activities and "Getting Busy For Jesus" By Martyn Lloyd Jones
''Perhaps the greatest danger confronting the Church and Christian people today, is that instead of realizing that the supreme need of the moment is this knowledge of the love of Christ, we spend our time and energy in organizing activities. We have made of activity an end in itself. We say we must be 'getting busy'. And in a carnal manner we are attempting to do God's work. But how little happens! It is not surprising. We are forgetting the true motive and the energizing power. We should not work as Christians simply because it is good and right for Christians to work. The motive is all-important. We must work because of the love of Christ. We must not work because we decide to do so or because we are told that now we are converted we must 'get busy''.
When Believers Organize on Activities & Activism
We are living in days when the practical aspect of Christianity is being emphasized almost exclusively by some Christians. It is the day of activism and of activists. The world has never been so busy in trying to deal with its various problems; and the same is largely true of the Church. The practical, activist type of Christian is suspicious of a teaching which he thinks will make people sit down in isolation and wait for experiences. 'They never do anything else', he says, 'they are not practical Christians; they are not involved in all the usual activities'. Such an argument is based on sheer ignorance, not only of the Scriptures, but also of Church history. For the fact is that the men who have been busy in the service of their Lord and Master, in the long history of the Church, have always been those who have known Him best and who have rejoiced most of all in His love.
Written in the middle of the last century,this excerpt from Martyn Lloyd Jones'Exposition of Ephesians - Chapter 3is a timeless 'must-read' for today's church
Let us start with the supreme example. What was it that made the Lord Jesus Christ Himself do all that He did? He tells us repeatedly that it was that He might glorify His Father. It was for that reason that He came from heaven to earth, endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and went steadfastly to Jerusalem and to the Cross. He claims in His high-priestly prayer as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel: 'I have glorified thee on the earth' (v. 4). His one motive was to show His love to His Father and the Father's love to Him. But the same is seen subsequently in the lives of His people.
Examine the case of the apostles and especially Peter, who had been so nervous and so cowardly, so afraid of being put to death, that he even denied his Lord. But after his baptism with the Holy Ghost and after he had really come to know the love of Christ, when the authorities commanded him to stop preaching, he answered them saying, 'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard' (Acts 4:20). Having come to know this love of Christ, Peter had to tell all others about it. The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that 'The love of Christ constraineth us' (2 Cor 5:14). He could not refrain, Christ's love was pressing him and urging him on. There was never a busier or more active man that this great Apostle. This was not only because he was an active man by nature, but because the love of Christ was energizing him and giving him a compassion for sinners. Whatever might be happening, whether bonds and imprisonment or freedom, he must go and fulfill this ministry and tell the whole world about the love of God in Christ Jesus.
But this experience is not confined to the Apostles. I have referred previously to Count Zinzendorf, and his statement about 'his one passion'. We read concerning him that one day, while looking at a picture of the crucified Christ, he said, 'Thou hast done that for me; what can I do for Thee ?' That is the explanation of his subsequent career. In many ways he was the founder of foreign mission work, sending missionaries to Greenland fifty years before the founding of the London Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, and others. It was his knowledge, his 'comprehending' of the love of Christ that drove him on, and many others with him. Nothing stands out more prominently in the life of George Whitefield than his consciousness of the love of Christ. He knew it to an exceptional degree and you will find that it was always after he had had some exceptional experience of Christ that he was given unusual enlargement and liberty in his preaching, and that men and women were broken down and melted before his holy eloquence and his portrayal of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Charles Wesley knew it equally well, and so writes:
Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heartWith boundless charity divine!So shall I all my strength exert,And love them with a zeal like Thine.
This has been true of God's greatest servants in all ages, in all centuries, in all places.
Perhaps the greatest danger confronting the Church and Christian people today, is that instead of realizing that the supreme need of the moment is this knowledge of the love of Christ, we spend our time and energy in organizing activities. We have made of activity an end in itself. We say we must be 'getting busy'. And in a carnal manner we are attempting to do God's work. But how little happens! It is not surprising. We are forgetting the true motive and the energizing power. We should not work as Christians simply because it is good and right for Christians to work. The motive is all-important. We must work because of the love of Christ. We must not work because we decide to do so or because we are told that now we are converted we must 'get busy'.
Our motive must not be to fill the churches again. That is a travesty of the New Testament picture and manner, as is the whole idea of training people to be witnesses and to do personal evangelism. Everything today has to be organized, and the impression is given that no Christian can witness without undergoing a course of training.The answer to this modern idea is to discover what has happened in past centuries, and especially the first. There were no training classes and examinations and diplomas in those times. The secret of the early Christians, the early Protestants, Puritans and Methodists was that they were taught about the love of Christ, and they became filled with a knowledge of it. Once a man has the love of Christ in his heart you need not train him to witness; he will do it.
He will know the power, the constraint, the motive; everything is already there. It is a plain lie to suggest that people who regard this knowledge of the love of Christ as the supreme thing are useless, unhealthy mystics. The servants of God who have most adorned the life and the history of the Christian Church have always been men who have realized that this is the most important thing of all, and they have spent hours in prayer seeking His face and enjoying His love. The man who knows the love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy type of man can do in a century. God forbid that we should ever make of activity an end in itself. Let us realize that the motive must come first, and that the motive must ever be the love of Christ.I end with the question which I asked at the beginning: To which of the circles do you belong? Are you pressing your way right into the center? You may have seen people in a crowd, when the Queen or some other notable person is passing, trying to push themselves forward in order to have a front-line view. The same thing occurs at various games. There are those who always want to be in the front to have the best view. Are we pressing into the innermost circle? Are we seeking the Lord's face? Are we coveting the knowledge of His love? The Apostle prayed for every single member of the Church at Ephesus that he or she 'might be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge'. How tragic it is that any of us should be living as paupers, out on the cold street, while the banqueting chamber is open and the feast prepared.
Let us search for the knowledge of the Lord in the Scriptures and read about it in the lives of the saints throughout the centuries. As we do so, we shall never be content until we are in the innermost circle and looking into His blessed face.
Written in the middle of the last century,this excerpt from Martyn Lloyd Jones'Exposition of Ephesians - Chapter 3is a timeless 'must-read' for today's church
Let us start with the supreme example. What was it that made the Lord Jesus Christ Himself do all that He did? He tells us repeatedly that it was that He might glorify His Father. It was for that reason that He came from heaven to earth, endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and went steadfastly to Jerusalem and to the Cross. He claims in His high-priestly prayer as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel: 'I have glorified thee on the earth' (v. 4). His one motive was to show His love to His Father and the Father's love to Him. But the same is seen subsequently in the lives of His people.
Examine the case of the apostles and especially Peter, who had been so nervous and so cowardly, so afraid of being put to death, that he even denied his Lord. But after his baptism with the Holy Ghost and after he had really come to know the love of Christ, when the authorities commanded him to stop preaching, he answered them saying, 'We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard' (Acts 4:20). Having come to know this love of Christ, Peter had to tell all others about it. The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that 'The love of Christ constraineth us' (2 Cor 5:14). He could not refrain, Christ's love was pressing him and urging him on. There was never a busier or more active man that this great Apostle. This was not only because he was an active man by nature, but because the love of Christ was energizing him and giving him a compassion for sinners. Whatever might be happening, whether bonds and imprisonment or freedom, he must go and fulfill this ministry and tell the whole world about the love of God in Christ Jesus.
But this experience is not confined to the Apostles. I have referred previously to Count Zinzendorf, and his statement about 'his one passion'. We read concerning him that one day, while looking at a picture of the crucified Christ, he said, 'Thou hast done that for me; what can I do for Thee ?' That is the explanation of his subsequent career. In many ways he was the founder of foreign mission work, sending missionaries to Greenland fifty years before the founding of the London Missionary Society, the Church Missionary Society, and others. It was his knowledge, his 'comprehending' of the love of Christ that drove him on, and many others with him. Nothing stands out more prominently in the life of George Whitefield than his consciousness of the love of Christ. He knew it to an exceptional degree and you will find that it was always after he had had some exceptional experience of Christ that he was given unusual enlargement and liberty in his preaching, and that men and women were broken down and melted before his holy eloquence and his portrayal of the love of God in Christ Jesus. Charles Wesley knew it equally well, and so writes:
Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heartWith boundless charity divine!So shall I all my strength exert,And love them with a zeal like Thine.
This has been true of God's greatest servants in all ages, in all centuries, in all places.
Perhaps the greatest danger confronting the Church and Christian people today, is that instead of realizing that the supreme need of the moment is this knowledge of the love of Christ, we spend our time and energy in organizing activities. We have made of activity an end in itself. We say we must be 'getting busy'. And in a carnal manner we are attempting to do God's work. But how little happens! It is not surprising. We are forgetting the true motive and the energizing power. We should not work as Christians simply because it is good and right for Christians to work. The motive is all-important. We must work because of the love of Christ. We must not work because we decide to do so or because we are told that now we are converted we must 'get busy'.
Our motive must not be to fill the churches again. That is a travesty of the New Testament picture and manner, as is the whole idea of training people to be witnesses and to do personal evangelism. Everything today has to be organized, and the impression is given that no Christian can witness without undergoing a course of training.The answer to this modern idea is to discover what has happened in past centuries, and especially the first. There were no training classes and examinations and diplomas in those times. The secret of the early Christians, the early Protestants, Puritans and Methodists was that they were taught about the love of Christ, and they became filled with a knowledge of it. Once a man has the love of Christ in his heart you need not train him to witness; he will do it.
He will know the power, the constraint, the motive; everything is already there. It is a plain lie to suggest that people who regard this knowledge of the love of Christ as the supreme thing are useless, unhealthy mystics. The servants of God who have most adorned the life and the history of the Christian Church have always been men who have realized that this is the most important thing of all, and they have spent hours in prayer seeking His face and enjoying His love. The man who knows the love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy type of man can do in a century. God forbid that we should ever make of activity an end in itself. Let us realize that the motive must come first, and that the motive must ever be the love of Christ.I end with the question which I asked at the beginning: To which of the circles do you belong? Are you pressing your way right into the center? You may have seen people in a crowd, when the Queen or some other notable person is passing, trying to push themselves forward in order to have a front-line view. The same thing occurs at various games. There are those who always want to be in the front to have the best view. Are we pressing into the innermost circle? Are we seeking the Lord's face? Are we coveting the knowledge of His love? The Apostle prayed for every single member of the Church at Ephesus that he or she 'might be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge'. How tragic it is that any of us should be living as paupers, out on the cold street, while the banqueting chamber is open and the feast prepared.
Let us search for the knowledge of the Lord in the Scriptures and read about it in the lives of the saints throughout the centuries. As we do so, we shall never be content until we are in the innermost circle and looking into His blessed face.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Seeing Jesus
"We . . . see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone" (Heb. 2:9).
At this time of year, it is difficult for us to see Jesus other than as a little baby. We of course know why He came, but we usually focus on His death on the cross at another time of year. But we must never forget that He came to die.
Those soft baby hands fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb were made to have two great nails hammered through them. Those little chubby feet were to walk up a hill and be nailed to a cross. That sacred head was made to wear a crown of thorns. His tender body wrapped in swaddling clothes would be pierced by a spear to reveal a broken heart. The death of Christ was no accident; He was born to die.
Jesus died to remove the curse so we could regain our dominion. But to do that, He had to come as a man. Even though in doing so He temporarily became lower than the angels, He accomplished something no angel could: our restoration.
The first and foremost reason for the incarnation is that Christ might taste death on behalf of every man and woman. He came to die in our place--to be our substitute. God had two options: Either let us die and pay for our own sins, or allow a substitute to take our punishment and die in our place. He mercifully chose the latter.
It is vital that we affirm the fact of Christ's substitutionary death because modern liberal theology claims Jesus died merely as an example, like a martyr dying for some cause. But He died as a substitute for you and me. As a result He freed us to live for and with God. Rejoice that the creator of angels, the Lord of hosts, would become lower than His creation for our sakes.
Suggestion for Prayer:
Thank the Lord for His willingness to humble Himself to become a man to save you.
For Further Study:
Read Psalm 22 and note which verses prophesy Jesus' suffering on the cross.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
MERRY CHRISTMAS ...2007 From TRUTH MATTERS
Rev. Charles J. Paul and Executive Minister Joseph J. Morrison. Wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. And thank you all for your ongoing support of this ministry where the TRUTH of God's Word MATTERS.
From Martin Luther:
In our Christian Creed we confess that Christ was conceived and made man or was incarnate (if I may so speak), that He became a real human being by assuming a body. We confess that He assumed genuine flesh and blood from the Virgin Mary, that He did not pass through her as the sun shines through a glass but brought her virgin flesh and blood with Him. If this had taken place only with the cooperation of Mary, the Babe would not have been pure. But though Mary has been conceived in sin, the Holy Spirit takes her flesh and blood and purifies them; and thence He creates the body of the Son of God. This is why it is said that "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost." Thus He assumed a genuine body from His mother Mary, but this body was cleansed from sin by the Holy Spirit. If this were not the case, we would not be saved.
In our Christian Creed we confess that Christ was conceived and made man or was incarnate (if I may so speak), that He became a real human being by assuming a body. We confess that He assumed genuine flesh and blood from the Virgin Mary, that He did not pass through her as the sun shines through a glass but brought her virgin flesh and blood with Him. If this had taken place only with the cooperation of Mary, the Babe would not have been pure. But though Mary has been conceived in sin, the Holy Spirit takes her flesh and blood and purifies them; and thence He creates the body of the Son of God. This is why it is said that "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost." Thus He assumed a genuine body from His mother Mary, but this body was cleansed from sin by the Holy Spirit. If this were not the case, we would not be saved.
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John 1:1 tell's us. In the beginning was the Word and Word was with God and the Word was God.
The Word of God and God are one in the same. We also see in John 1:14 that.... the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
You see this very Word. The very Word of God that you and I read and study. This very Word became FLESH and DWELT among us. What a powerful thought. And it is this Word that will never pass away. It is also this Word that became Flesh that also was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. It is also this Word that became flesh and was laid in a tomb. But on the thrid day this Word made Flesh ROSE from the grave. and it is now that very Word made flesh that dwelt among us. that is seated at the right hand of GOD the Father.
It is with that Powerful thought in mind. That I along with my Executive Minister Joseph J. Morrison. Want to wish you and your family a very Blessed MERRY CHRISTMAS.
The Word of God and God are one in the same. We also see in John 1:14 that.... the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
You see this very Word. The very Word of God that you and I read and study. This very Word became FLESH and DWELT among us. What a powerful thought. And it is this Word that will never pass away. It is also this Word that became Flesh that also was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. It is also this Word that became flesh and was laid in a tomb. But on the thrid day this Word made Flesh ROSE from the grave. and it is now that very Word made flesh that dwelt among us. that is seated at the right hand of GOD the Father.
It is with that Powerful thought in mind. That I along with my Executive Minister Joseph J. Morrison. Want to wish you and your family a very Blessed MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas Blasphemy
This is what it is...........BLASPHEMY. Every true Christian should be up in arms and make there stand for Truth. By sending there comments to this company.........It is sad to see just how far down we have allowed the world to slip. Christmas is about Christ and it is about time we say to the world hands off. We will not allow you to use our Lord to get your sinful kicks.
Rev. C.J. Paul
Tis the season to play Dressup Jesus.
Can a Christian Deny the Virgin Birth? Dr Al Mohler
Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? This question would perplex the vast majority of Christians throughout the centuries, but modern denials of biblical truth make the question tragically significant. Of all biblical doctrines, the doctrine of Christ's virginal conception has often been the specific target of modern denial and attack.
Attacks upon the virgin birth emerged in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, with some theologians attempting to harmonize the anti-supernaturalism of the modern mind with the church's teaching about Christ. The great quest of liberal theology has been to invent a Jesus who is stripped of all supernatural power, deity, and authority.
The fountainhead of this quest includes figures such as Albert Schweitzer and Rudolf Bultmann. Often considered the most influential New Testament scholar of the twentieth century, Bultmann argued that the New Testament presents a mythological worldview that modern men and women simply cannot accept as real. The virgin birth is simply a part of this mythological structure and Bultmann urged his program of "demythologization" in order to construct a faith liberated from miracles and all vestiges of the supernatural. Jesus was reduced to an enlightened teacher and existentialist model.
In America, the public denial of the virgin birth can be traced to the emergence of Protestant liberalism in the early 20th century. In his famous sermon, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?," Harry Emerson Fosdick--an unabashed liberal--aimed his attention at "the vexed and mooted question of the virgin birth." Fosdick, preaching from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City, allowed that Christians may hold "quite different points of view about a matter like the virgin birth." He accepted the fact that many Christians believed the virgin birth to be historically true and theologically significant. Fosdick likened this belief to trust in "a special biological miracle." Nevertheless, Fosdick insisted that others, equally Christian, could disagree with those who believe the virgin birth to be historically true: "But, side by side with them in the evangelical churches is a group of equally loyal and reverent people who would say that the virgin birth is not to be accepted as an historic fact. To believe in the virgin birth as an explanation of great personality is one of the familiar ways in which the ancient world was accustomed to account for unusual superiority."
Fosdick explained that those who deny the virgin birth hold to a specific pattern of reasoning. As he explained, "those first disciples adored Jesus--as we do; when they thought about his coming they were sure that he came specially from God--as we are; this adoration and conviction they associated with God's special influence and intention in his birth--as we do; but they phrased it in terms of a biological miracle that our modern minds cannot use."
Thus, Fosdick divided the church into two camps. Those he labeled as "fundamentalists" believe the virgin birth to be historical fact. The other camp, comprised of "enlightened" Christians who no longer obligate themselves to believe the Bible to be true, discard this "biological" miracle but still consider themselves to be Christians.
More contemporary attacks on the virgin birth of Christ have emerged from figures such as retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong and German New Testament scholar Gerd Luedemann. Luedemann acknowledges that "most Christians in all the churches in the world confess as they recite the Apostles' Creed that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Now...modern Christians completely discount the historicity of the virgin birth and understand it in a figurative sense." Obviously, the "modern Christians" Luedemann identifies are those who allow the modern secular worldview to establish the frame for reality into which the claims of the Bible must be fitted. Those doctrines that do not fit easily within the secular frame must be automatically discarded. As might be expected, Luedemann's denial of biblical truth is not limited to the virgin birth. He denies virtually everything the Bible reveals about Jesus Christ. In summarizing his argument, Luedemann states: "The tomb was full and the manger empty." That is to say, Luedemann believes that Jesus was not born of a virgin and that He was not raised from the dead.
Another angle of attack on the virgin birth has come from the group of radical scholars who organize themselves into what is called the "Jesus Seminar." These liberal scholars apply a radical form of interpretation and deny that the New Testament is in any way reliable as a source of knowledge about Jesus. Roman Catholic scholar John Dominic Crossan, a member of the Jesus Seminar, discounts the biblical narratives about the virgin birth as invented theology. He acknowledges that Matthew explicitly traces the virgin birth to Isaiah 7:14. Crossan explains that the author of Matthew simply made this up: "Clearly, somebody went seeking in the Old Testament for a text that could be interpreted as prophesying a virginal conception, even if such was never its original meaning. Somebody had already decided on the transcendental importance of the adult Jesus and sought to retroject that significance on to the conception and birth itself."
Crossan denies that Matthew and Luke can be taken with any historical seriousness, and he understands the biblical doctrine of the virgin birth to be an insurmountable obstacle to modern people as they encounter the New Testament. As with Luedemann, Crossan's denial of the virgin birth is only a hint of what is to come. In Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, Crossan presents an account of Jesus that would offend no secularist or atheist. Obviously, Crossan's vision also bears no resemblance to the New Testament.
For others, the rejection of the birth is tied to a specific ideology. In The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives, Jane Schaberg accuses the church of inventing the doctrine of the virgin birth in order to subordinate women. As she summarizes: "The charge of contemporary feminists, then, is not that the image of the Virgin Mary is unimportant or irrelevant, but that it contributes to and is integral to the oppression of women." Schaberg states that the conception of Jesus was most likely the result of extra-marital sex or rape. She chooses to emphasize the latter possibility and turns this into a feminist fantasy in which Mary is the heroine who overcomes. Schaberg offers a tragic, but instructive model of what happens when ideology trumps trust in the biblical text. Her most basic agenda is not even concerned with the question of the virgin birth of Christ, but with turning this biblical account into service for the feminist agenda.
Bishop Joseph Sprague of the United Methodist Church offers further evidence of modern heresy. In an address he presented on June 25, 2002 at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, this bishop denied the faith wholesale. Sprague, who serves as Presiding Bishop of the United Methodist Church in northern Illinois, has been called "the most vocally prominent active liberal bishop in Protestantism today." Sprague is proud of this designation and takes it as a compliment: "I really make no apology for that. I don't consider myself a liberal. I consider myself a radical." Sprague lives up to his self-designation.
In his Illiff address, Bishop Sprague claimed that the "myth" of the virgin birth "was not intended as historical fact, but was employed by Matthew and Luke in different ways to appoint poetically the truth about Jesus as experienced in the emerging church." Sprague defined a theological myth as "not false presentation but a valid and quite persuasive literary device employed to point to ultimate truth that can only be insinuated symbolically and never depicted exhaustively." Jesus, Sprague insists, was born to human parents and did not possess "trans-human, supernatural powers."
Thus, Sprague dismisses the miracles, the exclusivity of Christ, and the bodily resurrection as well as the virgin birth. His Christology is explicitly heretical: "Jesus was not born the Christ, rather by the confluence of grace with faith, he became the Christ, God's beloved in whom God was well pleased."
Bishop Sprague was charged with heresy but has twice been cleared of the charge--a clear sign that the mainline Protestant denominations are unwilling to identify as heretics even those who openly teach heresy. The presence of theologians and pastors who deny the virgin birth in the theological seminaries and pulpits of the land is evidence of the sweeping tide of unbelief that marks so many institutions and churches in our time.
Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? The answer to that question must be a decisive No. Those who deny the virgin birth reject the authority of Scripture, deny the supernatural birth of the Savior, undermine the very foundations of the Gospel, and have no way of explaining the deity of Christ.
Anyone who claims that the virgin birth can be discarded even as the deity of Christ is affirmed is either intellectually dishonest or theological incompetent.
Several years ago, Cecil Sherman--then a Southern Baptist, but later the first coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship--stated: "A teacher who might also be led by the Scripture not to believe in the Virgin Birth should not be fired." Consider the logic of that statement. A Christian can be led by the Bible to deny what the Bible teaches? This kind of logic is what has allowed those who deny the virgin birth to sit comfortably in liberal theological seminaries and to preach their reductionistic Christ from major pulpits.
Christians must face the fact that a denial of the virgin birth is a denial of Jesus as the Christ. The Savior who died for our sins was none other than the baby who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin. The virgin birth does not stand alone as a biblical doctrine, it is an irreducible part of the biblical revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ. With it, the Gospel stands or falls.
"Everyone admits that the Bible represents Jesus as having been conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. The only question is whether in making that representation the Bible is true or false." So declared J. Gresham Machen in his great work, The Virgin Birth of Christ. As Machen went on to argue, "if the Bible is regarded as being wrong in what it says about the birth of Christ, then obviously the authority of the Bible in any high sense, is gone."
The authority of the Bible is almost completely gone where liberal theology holds its sway. The authority of the Bible is replaced with the secular worldview of the modern age and the postmodern denial of truth itself. The true church stands without apology upon the authority of the Bible and declares that Jesus was indeed "born of a virgin." Though the denial of this doctrine is now tragically common, the historical truth of Christ's birth remains inviolate. No true Christian can deny the virgin birth.
Attacks upon the virgin birth emerged in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, with some theologians attempting to harmonize the anti-supernaturalism of the modern mind with the church's teaching about Christ. The great quest of liberal theology has been to invent a Jesus who is stripped of all supernatural power, deity, and authority.
The fountainhead of this quest includes figures such as Albert Schweitzer and Rudolf Bultmann. Often considered the most influential New Testament scholar of the twentieth century, Bultmann argued that the New Testament presents a mythological worldview that modern men and women simply cannot accept as real. The virgin birth is simply a part of this mythological structure and Bultmann urged his program of "demythologization" in order to construct a faith liberated from miracles and all vestiges of the supernatural. Jesus was reduced to an enlightened teacher and existentialist model.
In America, the public denial of the virgin birth can be traced to the emergence of Protestant liberalism in the early 20th century. In his famous sermon, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?," Harry Emerson Fosdick--an unabashed liberal--aimed his attention at "the vexed and mooted question of the virgin birth." Fosdick, preaching from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City, allowed that Christians may hold "quite different points of view about a matter like the virgin birth." He accepted the fact that many Christians believed the virgin birth to be historically true and theologically significant. Fosdick likened this belief to trust in "a special biological miracle." Nevertheless, Fosdick insisted that others, equally Christian, could disagree with those who believe the virgin birth to be historically true: "But, side by side with them in the evangelical churches is a group of equally loyal and reverent people who would say that the virgin birth is not to be accepted as an historic fact. To believe in the virgin birth as an explanation of great personality is one of the familiar ways in which the ancient world was accustomed to account for unusual superiority."
Fosdick explained that those who deny the virgin birth hold to a specific pattern of reasoning. As he explained, "those first disciples adored Jesus--as we do; when they thought about his coming they were sure that he came specially from God--as we are; this adoration and conviction they associated with God's special influence and intention in his birth--as we do; but they phrased it in terms of a biological miracle that our modern minds cannot use."
Thus, Fosdick divided the church into two camps. Those he labeled as "fundamentalists" believe the virgin birth to be historical fact. The other camp, comprised of "enlightened" Christians who no longer obligate themselves to believe the Bible to be true, discard this "biological" miracle but still consider themselves to be Christians.
More contemporary attacks on the virgin birth of Christ have emerged from figures such as retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong and German New Testament scholar Gerd Luedemann. Luedemann acknowledges that "most Christians in all the churches in the world confess as they recite the Apostles' Creed that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Now...modern Christians completely discount the historicity of the virgin birth and understand it in a figurative sense." Obviously, the "modern Christians" Luedemann identifies are those who allow the modern secular worldview to establish the frame for reality into which the claims of the Bible must be fitted. Those doctrines that do not fit easily within the secular frame must be automatically discarded. As might be expected, Luedemann's denial of biblical truth is not limited to the virgin birth. He denies virtually everything the Bible reveals about Jesus Christ. In summarizing his argument, Luedemann states: "The tomb was full and the manger empty." That is to say, Luedemann believes that Jesus was not born of a virgin and that He was not raised from the dead.
Another angle of attack on the virgin birth has come from the group of radical scholars who organize themselves into what is called the "Jesus Seminar." These liberal scholars apply a radical form of interpretation and deny that the New Testament is in any way reliable as a source of knowledge about Jesus. Roman Catholic scholar John Dominic Crossan, a member of the Jesus Seminar, discounts the biblical narratives about the virgin birth as invented theology. He acknowledges that Matthew explicitly traces the virgin birth to Isaiah 7:14. Crossan explains that the author of Matthew simply made this up: "Clearly, somebody went seeking in the Old Testament for a text that could be interpreted as prophesying a virginal conception, even if such was never its original meaning. Somebody had already decided on the transcendental importance of the adult Jesus and sought to retroject that significance on to the conception and birth itself."
Crossan denies that Matthew and Luke can be taken with any historical seriousness, and he understands the biblical doctrine of the virgin birth to be an insurmountable obstacle to modern people as they encounter the New Testament. As with Luedemann, Crossan's denial of the virgin birth is only a hint of what is to come. In Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, Crossan presents an account of Jesus that would offend no secularist or atheist. Obviously, Crossan's vision also bears no resemblance to the New Testament.
For others, the rejection of the birth is tied to a specific ideology. In The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives, Jane Schaberg accuses the church of inventing the doctrine of the virgin birth in order to subordinate women. As she summarizes: "The charge of contemporary feminists, then, is not that the image of the Virgin Mary is unimportant or irrelevant, but that it contributes to and is integral to the oppression of women." Schaberg states that the conception of Jesus was most likely the result of extra-marital sex or rape. She chooses to emphasize the latter possibility and turns this into a feminist fantasy in which Mary is the heroine who overcomes. Schaberg offers a tragic, but instructive model of what happens when ideology trumps trust in the biblical text. Her most basic agenda is not even concerned with the question of the virgin birth of Christ, but with turning this biblical account into service for the feminist agenda.
Bishop Joseph Sprague of the United Methodist Church offers further evidence of modern heresy. In an address he presented on June 25, 2002 at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, this bishop denied the faith wholesale. Sprague, who serves as Presiding Bishop of the United Methodist Church in northern Illinois, has been called "the most vocally prominent active liberal bishop in Protestantism today." Sprague is proud of this designation and takes it as a compliment: "I really make no apology for that. I don't consider myself a liberal. I consider myself a radical." Sprague lives up to his self-designation.
In his Illiff address, Bishop Sprague claimed that the "myth" of the virgin birth "was not intended as historical fact, but was employed by Matthew and Luke in different ways to appoint poetically the truth about Jesus as experienced in the emerging church." Sprague defined a theological myth as "not false presentation but a valid and quite persuasive literary device employed to point to ultimate truth that can only be insinuated symbolically and never depicted exhaustively." Jesus, Sprague insists, was born to human parents and did not possess "trans-human, supernatural powers."
Thus, Sprague dismisses the miracles, the exclusivity of Christ, and the bodily resurrection as well as the virgin birth. His Christology is explicitly heretical: "Jesus was not born the Christ, rather by the confluence of grace with faith, he became the Christ, God's beloved in whom God was well pleased."
Bishop Sprague was charged with heresy but has twice been cleared of the charge--a clear sign that the mainline Protestant denominations are unwilling to identify as heretics even those who openly teach heresy. The presence of theologians and pastors who deny the virgin birth in the theological seminaries and pulpits of the land is evidence of the sweeping tide of unbelief that marks so many institutions and churches in our time.
Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? The answer to that question must be a decisive No. Those who deny the virgin birth reject the authority of Scripture, deny the supernatural birth of the Savior, undermine the very foundations of the Gospel, and have no way of explaining the deity of Christ.
Anyone who claims that the virgin birth can be discarded even as the deity of Christ is affirmed is either intellectually dishonest or theological incompetent.
Several years ago, Cecil Sherman--then a Southern Baptist, but later the first coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship--stated: "A teacher who might also be led by the Scripture not to believe in the Virgin Birth should not be fired." Consider the logic of that statement. A Christian can be led by the Bible to deny what the Bible teaches? This kind of logic is what has allowed those who deny the virgin birth to sit comfortably in liberal theological seminaries and to preach their reductionistic Christ from major pulpits.
Christians must face the fact that a denial of the virgin birth is a denial of Jesus as the Christ. The Savior who died for our sins was none other than the baby who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin. The virgin birth does not stand alone as a biblical doctrine, it is an irreducible part of the biblical revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ. With it, the Gospel stands or falls.
"Everyone admits that the Bible represents Jesus as having been conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. The only question is whether in making that representation the Bible is true or false." So declared J. Gresham Machen in his great work, The Virgin Birth of Christ. As Machen went on to argue, "if the Bible is regarded as being wrong in what it says about the birth of Christ, then obviously the authority of the Bible in any high sense, is gone."
The authority of the Bible is almost completely gone where liberal theology holds its sway. The authority of the Bible is replaced with the secular worldview of the modern age and the postmodern denial of truth itself. The true church stands without apology upon the authority of the Bible and declares that Jesus was indeed "born of a virgin." Though the denial of this doctrine is now tragically common, the historical truth of Christ's birth remains inviolate. No true Christian can deny the virgin birth.
'Twas The Night Jesus Came
'Twas the night Jesus came and all through the houseNot a person was praying, not one in the house.The Bibles were left on the shelf without care,For no one thought that Jesus would come there.The children were dressing to crawl into bed,Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head. And mom in her rocker with baby in her lap Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.When out of the east there rose such a clatter,I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.Away to the window I flew like a flash Tore open the shutters and lifted the sash! When what to my wondering eyes should appearBut angels proclaiming that Jesus was here! The light of His face made me cover my head--It was Jesus returning, just as He said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself. In the Book of Life which He held in His hand Was written the name of every saved man. He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;When He said, "It's not here" my head hung in shame.The people whose names had been written with loveHe gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a soundWhile all the rest were left standing around. I fell to my knees, but it was too late; I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight; Oh, if only I'd known that this was the night.In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;The coming of Jesus is now drawing near. There's only one life and when comes the last callWe'll find that the Bible was true after all.
--AUDRY PATRICIA WOOLVERTON
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself. In the Book of Life which He held in His hand Was written the name of every saved man. He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;When He said, "It's not here" my head hung in shame.The people whose names had been written with loveHe gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a soundWhile all the rest were left standing around. I fell to my knees, but it was too late; I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight; Oh, if only I'd known that this was the night.In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;The coming of Jesus is now drawing near. There's only one life and when comes the last callWe'll find that the Bible was true after all.
--AUDRY PATRICIA WOOLVERTON
The “Justification” of Christmas By Charles R. Biggs
Christmas
Since it is the Advent season and the time we remember the significance and importance of Jesus' birth, I will send out what I like to refer to as the 'JUSTIFICATION of Christmas'. Using the letters from the word 'Christmas', we can reflect and be reminded of Christ's birth, but also his accomplished work that he merited on our behalf. We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The first letter of the word 'Christmas' is C...
C: CHOSEN IN CHRIST- Ephesians 1:11-14:
Ephesians 1:11-14: "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-- to the praise of his glory."
What great news for those who love Christ: "Chosen according to God's plan, because of the purpose of his will, for the praise of his glory!" God is so gracious and good to his people! What we could never have done in choosing the Lord Jesus as Savior because of the weakness, disinterestedness, and pathetic sinfulness of our hearts, God did - -for us! God loved us long before we loved him and chose us in Christ, so that we might be given the righteousness that Jesus earned in his perfect obedience to the Father.
Christ came to earn our salvation, to obey where Adam failed as our representative. Because we are chosen in Christ, we are privileged to be called the children of the Living God and receive all of the benefits of Christ's blessed work as our inheritance. When we believe, we receive Christ's righteousness to cover our unrighteousness, so that his righteousness is truly "alien", yet God views it as our own for Christ's sake! Remember to rejoice this season in Christ's birth, but remember also to rejoice this season in his atoning death for sinners, his resurrection on our behalf, and his ascension to the right hand of the Father where he ever lives to make intercession for his justified people!
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The second letter of the word 'Christmas' is H...
H- HE IS OUR HOLINESS- I Corinthians 1:30:
"It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption."
All the benefits of Christ's perfect life: living in perfect conformity to God's Law, loving God with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength are given to the believer. All the benefits of Christ's perfect death: dying on behalf of sinners as a ransom, taking the wrath of God as punishment. God credits this "active" and "passive" obedience of Christ to his people!
1 Corinthians 1:2,10 says that we are "sanctified in Christ Jesus". That is, we are holy in Christ because we have been united to him and receive his holiness which is part of the revealed wisdom of God in sending Jesus to save his people. There should always be a distinction between our justification, or being declared righteous based on Christ's perfect merits, and our sanctification, or being conformed and made holy like him. However, we should never separate these two.
Both justification and sanctification are benefits of being united to Jesus Christ by faith. This means that all who are united to Jesus by faith partake of all his benefits, including righteousness and holiness. While justification is an act of God that is once and for all, sanctification is a process or work that begins when we are justified. Rejoice today that when you see your many sins and how far you fall short of the glory of God, you know that if you have believed in the Lord Jesus, that God is at work in you to conform you to Christ's image and make you holy as he his holy. When we confess our sins and are obedient to his gracious commands by the power of the Spirit, he forgives us and strengthens us to grow in more holiness!
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The next letter of the word 'Christmas' is R...
R-RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST IMPUTED- Romans 4:5-8-
"However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him'."
Justification is forensic (that is, it is "courtroom language"). We are declared, counted or reckoned to be righteous when God imputes the righteousness of Christ (an "alien righteousness") to our account. In other words, the Judge of all the earth declares us "not guilty" when we believe because Christ was pronounced "guilty" for us on the cross. We are not first made righteous, then declared righteous; we are declared righteous by grace through faith in Christ, then made righteous! When we believe, God imputes Christ's righteousness to us 'as if' it were our own. However, it is HIS righteousness, that is why Paul says in Romans 1:17 that there is a righteousness that has been revealed from God, a righteousness not of our own, but a righteousness revealed from God and freely given to those who do not work, but to those who believe.
In light of the goodness and graciousness of God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, we should daily repent of our own self-righteousness (our works), and constantly be trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that has been given to us! Remember the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18 who go up to the temple to pray and seek God's forgiveness? The story begins with these words: "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable..." The Pharisee in the story basically thanked God he was not unrighteous, thinking that he was a righteous, God-fearing man. While the tax collector could not even look up to God but said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Jesus said the tax collector went home justified. The tax collector was justified because he asked God for mercy and trusted the Living God who justifies the wicked and credits righteousness apart from works! Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The next letter of the word 'Christmas' is I...
I-INCARNATION- Hebrews 2:14-18:
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
Great news for those who are united by faith to the Son of God and thus become sons of God! God became man, "enfleshed" himself, took upon our flesh so as to destroy the devil who holds the power of death. The Son of God became a son of Adam to represent those whom he loved and to be obedient to God in the face of the greatest temptation presented to him by the devil. Jesus knew when tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Mt. 4), that his provision, power, and promotion were going to be given to him by God his Father upon perfect obedience to his will, going to the cross to die for sinners, taking God's wrath upon himself, and being justified and raised from the dead, so that those who believe will never die but inherit eternal life! However, the devil offered him provision, power and promotion if he would believe his words and be prevented from going to the cross to offer himself as a substitute for sinners.
He was made like his brothers in every way to represent us before the Living God as a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins and to be a perfect mediator representing those he loved before the Father, ever living to make intercession for them. When we are tempted, we know that Jesus can help us because he knows our weakness, our trials, the deceit and subtlety of the devil, and by his Spirit can help us to overcome in the power of His Name. The next time you are tempted to submit yourself to the devil's teaching and to resist God's commands (rather than to submit yourself to God and to resist the devil as James teaches), remember Jesus who was made like you, who has overcome, defeating death, hell, and the devil on your part, so that you might overcome! He understands because he was made like you and he can indeed help those who are being tempted!
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The next letter of the word 'Christmas' is S...
S: Sola Fide- "Faith Alone"
Ephesians 2:8-10- "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Another important truth about justification is that it is "by faith alone" (sola fide). Faith is the instrumental cause of justification, in that faith is the means by which the merits of Christ are appropriated or given to us. We are not justified because of our faith because then it would be "by works" (although some would argue it is a very small work). Paul clearly says in Ephesians 2:8-10 that we are saved by the grace of God through the instrument of faith, which is a gift from God, not "because of" our faith, but simply because of the grace and mercy of God while were were dead in trespasses and sins as he says early in chapter 2. This means that faith is the empty open hands by which we grab hold of the grace of God in Christ that is held out to us in God's Word. As we sing in the great hymn: "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling." That is why Paul says that we cannot boast!
Faith alone also means that faith is a faith in Christ's saving work without anything else added to it. Our salvation is never to be understood as "faith plus something" ("it is not from ourselves"). It is simply by grace through faith - -alone. According to Ephesians 2:9, though we are saved by faith alone, we are not saved by a faith that is alone. That means, that God has created us in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared for us to do, but that these works follow our justification in that we bear good fruit and show forth our being united to Jesus Christ by producing fruits of the Spirit. Philippians 2:13 reminds us that our works that follow our justification are works because the Father is committed to working in us that which is good and pleasing according to his will. God is committed to making his people look like the LORD Jesus. Rejoice today that the faith God has given us is not a dead faith, but a working faith! A faith that desires to serve the Lord Jesus, and out of gratitude for what he has done, live according to his gracious word!
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The next letter of the word 'Christmas' is T...
T- "THEOLOGICAL ARTICLE UPON WHICH THE CHURCH OR INDIVIDUAL STANDS OR FALLS"- MARTIN LUTHER
Galatians 1:6-12: "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed....For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
During the Reformation of the 16th century, the doctrine of justification was called the "theological article upon which the church or individual stands or falls". The revelation of justification by faith alone is the one and only gospel. As Paul says in Galatians 1:6-12, there are indeed counterfeits and other "gospels" but they are in reality no gospels at all, because they do not in reality bring good news! In Galatians 3:6ff, Paul teaches us about the one and only gospel according to Jesus. He says: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned (credited) to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham....Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, 'The righteous man shall live by faith'."
The reason why justification is the theological article upon which the church or individual stands or falls is because it is the gospel as revealed in Scripture. As Paul says in Galatians 1, even if he had gone back to the Galatian church and preached another gospel, or an angel from heaven preached another gospel, they should be accursed (he repeats this twice to emphasize the great importance of holding to the true gospel). The reason why they should be accursed is because Paul received the gospel of justification by faith alone from Jesus Christ himself. His good news was revealed to him from the Living God, it was not something he dreamed up in his own theological mind. And because it is the revealed gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the only gospel, the only good news of Jesus Christ!
The good news is that we are justified, or declared righteous by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. The extremely good news is that what we could not do in living a perfect life of upholding God's Law in thought, word, and deed - -Jesus did- -all for those who believe in him! This is a salvation that is revealed apart from our works, because the focus is on Christ's work for those whom he loves! If a church, or an individual denies the truth of the one and only gospel of the Lord Jesus revealed in Scripture, that church or that person will not stand on the Day of Judgment, but will be condemned to eternal wrath and punishment for their sins from the hands of the Living God. However, for those who turn from their sins in daily repentance, believing by faith that Jesus took their wrath and punishment for them on the cross, they will receive his righteousness so that they might humbly, yet confidently stand in Christ's righteousness alone! If Jesus were to return this moment to judge the world would you stand or fall?
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The next letter of the word 'Christmas' is M...
M- MESSIAH-THE LAMB OF GOD-
John 1:29: "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"
The Substitutionary atonement of Christ- Romans 3:23-26: "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."
Jesus was 'Messiah' or the Anointed One of God that Israel had expected for many years, but when he came, he came quite unexpectedly. He came as the long expected King that Isaiah 40 spoke of in "Preparing the way of the LORD." But he also came as Isaiah 52-53 prophesied: as the Suffering Servant of the LORD. The Israelites expected the 'Messiah', or 'Anointed One', or 'Christ' to overthrow the Roman government and to set up his throne over all the rulers and nations. Jesus was to rule over all the nations as the Son of Man (Daniel 7:14)- - but not yet! He was first to suffer as Messiah, the Lamb of God on behalf of his people.
The great King, or Anointed One was to take the sufferings for sin and the wrath of God upon himself as the pure and unblemished Lamb of God for the sins of those who would believe in his work on their behalf. When John the Baptist prophesied about the Messiah, the Lamb of God to come, he said that he was one to bring salvation, but also judgment (Mt. 3: "His winnowing fork is in his hand...and he will burn up the chaff"). Later, John himself would be confused over whether Jesus was the one they were to expect (Mt. 11). The problem was that John did not understand that when Messiah came, he would suffer, then a time period of patience would pass as Jesus ruled at God's right hand until all of his people were saved, then he would return in judgment. Jesus the Christ ("Messiah", or "Anointed One") was to complete the work of God out of love for his sheep, but then there was to be a undetermined period before his final judgment upon the world.
The reason Jesus laid down his life as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, was so that God could be just and the justifier of those who believe in Christ Jesus as Romans 3:23-26 teaches. God is loving as well as just and cannot allow sin against his holy character to go unpunished. Therefore, God the Father offered his own Son as a sacrifice without blemish, a sacrifice of atonement to himself so that he would be just in punishing sin, but also the justifier who believed in his only begotten Son. God cannot overlook sin, so he placed all the sin of his people upon Jesus's precious, unblemished back, and poured out his terrible wrath upon his Son, so that those who believed in him, would be justified by faith alone! The great news at Christmastime is that God himself saved us from God! He remains just and and still justifies those who believe in Jesus the Messiah!
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The next letter of the word 'Christmas' is A...
A- ACCOMPLISHMENT OF CHRIST IN ETERNITY AND THE APPLICATION OF HIS WORK BY THE SPIRIT-
Ephesians 1:4: "...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love..." Titus 3:4-7: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
Christ's accomplishment of his work on behalf of those he loved was a reality even before he put in human flesh and stepped into time and history to accomplish this work. From the foundation of the world, we were chosen in Christ based on the work he would perfectly perform on behalf of those who believe (cf. Matthew 25:34). However, the work of Christ was accomplished in time and history in his substitutionary life, death, resurrection, and ascension for those who believe (Hebrews 9:26-28). On the cross, Jesus said: "It is finished" indicating the finality of his substitutionary death for sinners and atonement for sin. The Father vindicated, or justified Jesus in his resurrection, and Jesus accomplished his work on earth when he sat down at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places (1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 10:12; Col. 3:1). His work "continues" today in the sense that he prays for and ever intercedes for those he loves at God's right hand, as well as keeps believers safe in his grip, but his once and for all work for sinners has been accomplished on earth (Heb. 7:25; cf. Heb. 9:28). Now all men living and dead await His Judgment.
When he sat down at God's right hand in his ascension he sent the promised Holy Spirit to be with his people and apply the salvation which he secured for his own people (Acts 1:8ff). The Spirit's primary ministry is to make known Christ's salvation to his people and to glorify Christ in his perfect work by applying this work to believers by grace, through faith in real time and history when the Spirit unites them to Jesus Christ to partake in all of the benefits of his salvation accomplished from the foundation of the world (John 14:15-21; 25-31; 15:1-17). When we believe and the Spirit unites us to Jesus Christ, we receive all the benefits of his work on our behalf: justification, adoption, sanctification, and eventually our glorification with him! (Romans 8:28-31).
Once we are united to Christ by faith, the application of his work continues by him making us holy and without blemish as Ephesians 1:4 teaches. According to Titus 3:7, we also become heirs of God having the hope of eternal life! (cf. Romans 8:15-17). Once we are justified by his grace, we are sanctified by his grace of working in us that which is good and pleasing according to his will (Phil. 2:13), while we work out our salvation with fear and trembling by his grace, and because he is working in us (Phil. 2:12).
The Spirit uses the Word of God, primarily through the preaching of the Word and the sacraments of the Lord's Supper to help us to be spiritually strengthened and nourished, so that we might be ever more conformed to Christ's glorious image, and that we might persevere in faith to the end! As John says: "What great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God and that is what we are (present tense)....and when he appears (future tense) we shall be like him!" (1 John 3:1-2 paraphrased).
Give thanks to God this Christmas season that because of God's great love for you, you are now receiving the benefits and gifts Christ secured for you! And our contentment in these benefits and gifts cause us to realize that there is absolutely nothing here on this earth that could be given to us at Christmas that could bring us greater joy as we serve God wholeheartedly out of gratitude for what he has given to us!
We rejoice that the "LORD has come" at Christmas, but we should also rejoice and be reminded of what the "LORD has done" for those who love him! The last letter of the word 'Christmas' is S...
S- SIMUL IUSTUS ET PECCATOR- "JUSTIFIED, AND AT THE SAME TIME SINFUL"
Eternal life is Christ dwelling in His righteousness in the soul of the justified person. So eternal life can be easily understood as union with Jesus Christ. And the word for that union with him is faith. The sinner comes to him, rests in him, trusts in him, is one with him, abides with him; and this is life because it never ends. The united soul abides in the Vine eternally. Weakness, sin, proneness to sin never brings separation, but only the Father's pruning, which cements the union even and ever tighter (John 15:1-8).
Our great hope in our union with Christ is that we know that we are truly forgiven of all our sins. Christ died for all of our sins, not merely a few of them, but all of them. As justified sinners, we will still struggle with sin and temptation, in fact a Christian ought to be described as a "struggling sinner", or better "one who struggles with sin". In John's first epistle, he writes that if we say we have no sin we lie and we call God a liar (1 John 1:8-10). In fact, John says if we claim to be without sin "his word has no place in our lives" (primarily because the Word became flesh "to save his people from their sins"). However, those covered with Christ's righteousness given to them, those who have Christ as their Advocate with the Father, can go to Christ confessing their sins and he is faithful and just and will forgive as well as purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8,9). We have this great benefit because we are united to Christ and because he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2).
To be justified and at the same time sinful ("simul iustus et peccator") is to be one who is united with Jesus Christ while truly struggling against our sinful nature, or "old man" as Paul describes our former way of sinful life in this world. We are truly at war with our sinful nature as justified sinners! The difficulty with the war is that we know our sinful inclinations are not good, yet we still are very much attracted to our sins. We hate our sins, while we love them; we love certain sins, while we at the same time hate them! It is like in the 'Fellowship of the Rings' when Bilbo desires to get rid of the great ring he has obtained from Gollum. He knows it is evil and too powerful for him to control, yet he tells Gandalf the Wizard "it is precious" to him. While we struggle to kill our "old man", our sinful nature and the sins that so easily beset us, we at the same time think they are "precious" to us. Notice how Paul describes this life-long battle with sin in Romans 7.
Paul describes the conflict in this way: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do...As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me...For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - -this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:15-20). In our conflict with our sin, this is exactly how we feel as well! We want to do good, we desire to obey God's law because it is our delight, but at the same time our sins are still "precious" to us. Where can we go? What can we do? We must run to the Lord Jesus Christ daily confessing our sins and transgressions, knowing confidently that he will forgive us and purify us. This is exactly what Paul does: "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God --through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:24,25).
There is a daily struggle and battle going on in the heart's of justified sinners! We are at the same time justified and yet still tainted with sin. Our hope is that he will cleanse us, he will purify us and one day will present those who are united to Jesus Christ as a Bride without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. In other words, we shall be perfect as he is perfect when we are glorified on that Great Day when Christ shall return for his bride! This is our hope today! God, who began a good work our uniting us to His Son, shall complete it on the Day of His return! Glory be to God! May God grant us more grace and strength to overcome our sins, to despise and hate the sins that so easily beset us, causing us to see Jesus as more "precious" in our sight, and our sins as truly heinous in His sight!
Remember that God has granted us means of grace to help us in our battle: the Word of God and the Lord's Supper! May His Spirit help us today to hate the sins that are so "precious" to us and may we be more conformed to his image this Christmas season! Amen.
The Observation of the Birth of Christ, the Duty of all Christians; or the True Way of Keeping Christmas
Matthew 1:21 — "And she shall bring forth a Son, and then shalt call his Name Jesus: For he shall save his People from their Sins."
The celebration of the birth of Christ hath been esteemed a duty by most who profess Christianity. When we consider the condescension and love of the Lord Jesus Christ, in submitting to be born of a virgin, a poor sinful creature; and especially as he knew how he was to be treated in this world; that he was to be despised, scoffed at, and at last to die a painful, shameful, and ignominious death; that he should be treated as though he was the off-scouring of all mankind; used, not like the son of man, and, therefore, not at all like the Son of God; the consideration of these things should make us to admire the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was so willing to offer himself as a ransom for the sins of the people, that when the fullness of time was come, Christ came, made of a woman, made under the law: he came according to the eternal counsel of the Father; he came, not in glory or in splendor, not like him who brought all salvation with him: no, he was born in a stable, and laid in a manger; oxen were his companions. O amazing condescension of the Lord Jesus Christ, to stoop to such low and poor things for our sake. What love is this, what great and wonderful love was here, that the Son of God should come into our world in so mean a condition, to deliver us from the sin and misery in which we were involved by our fall in our first parents! And as all that proceeded from the springs must be muddy, because the fountain was so, the Lord Jesus Christ came to take our natures upon him, to die a shameful, a painful, and an accursed death for our sakes; he died for our sins, and to bring us to God: he cleansed us by his blood from the guilt of sin, he satisfied for our imperfections; and now, my brethren, we have access unto him with boldness; he is a mediator between us and his offended Father.
Therefore, if we do but consider into what state, and at how great a distance from God we are fallen; how vile our natures were; what a depravity, and how incapable to restore that image of God to our souls, which we lost in our first parents: when I consider these things, my brethren, and that the Lord Jesus Christ came to restore us to that favor with God which we had lost, and that Christ not only came down with an intent to do it, but actually accomplished all that was in his heart towards us; that he raised and brought us into favor with God, that we might find kindness and mercy in his sight; surely this calls for some return of thanks on our part to our dear Redeemer, for this love and kindness to our souls. How just would it have been of him, to have left us in that deplorable state wherein we, by our guilt, had involved ourselves? For God could not, nor can receive any additional good by our salvation; but it was love, mere love; it was free love that brought the Lord Jesus Christ into our world about 1700 years ago. What, shall we not remember the birth of our Jesus? Shall we yearly celebrate the birth of our temporal king, and shall that of the King of kings be quite forgotten? Shall that only, which ought to be had chiefly in remembrance, be quite forgotten? God forbid! No, my dear brethren, let us celebrate and keep this festival of our church, with joy in our hearts: let the birth of a Redeemer, which redeemed us from sin, from wrath, from death, from hell, be always remembered; may this Savior's love never be forgotten! But may we sing forth all his love and glory as long as life shall last here, and through an endless eternity in the world above! May we chant forth the wonders of redeeming love, and the riches of free grace, amidst angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, without intermission, for ever and ever! And as, my brethren, the time for keeping this festival is approaching, let us consider our duty in the true observation thereof, of the right way for the glory of God, and the good of immortal souls, to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; an event which ought to be had in eternal remembrance.
It is my design to lay down rules for the true keeping of that time of Christmas, which is now approaching.
I. I shall show you when you may be said, not to observe this festival aright.
II. I shall show you, when your observation and celebrating of this festival is done according to the glory of God, and to the true manner of keeping of it.
III. Shall conclude with an exhortation to all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to have a regard to your behavior at all times, but more especially, my dear brethren, on this solemn occasion.
I. My brethren, I am to show when your celebration of this festival is not of the right kind.
And FIRST, you do not celebrate this aright, when you spend most of your time in cards, dice, or gaming of any sort.
This is a season, for which there is no more allowance for wasting of your precious time in those unlawful entertainments, than any other. Persons are apt to flatter themselves that they are free and at liberty to spend whole evenings now at cards, at dice, or any diversion whatsoever, to pass away, as they call it, a tedious evening. They can do any thing now to pass away that, which is hastening as fast as thought: time is always upon the wing; it is no sooner present but it is past, and no sooner come but it is gone. And have we so much to do, and so little time to do it in, and yet complain of time lying heavy upon our hands? Have we not the devil and the beast to get our of our souls? Are not our natures to be changed, our corruptions to be subdued, our wills to be brought over to God, or hard hearts to be softened, all old things to be done away, and all things to become new in our souls? Is there not all this to be done? And yet we have too much time upon our hands! It is well, that instead of having too much time, it be not found that we have got too little, when we come to die: then we shall wish, my brethren, that we had made more account of our time, that we had improved it for the glory of God, and the welfare of our immortal souls.
Good God! How amazing is the consideration, that many can go to church in the morning, and take the Sacrament, and come home and spend the afternoon and evening in cards. Is this, my brethren, discerning the Lord's body? Is this taking the sacrament according to its institution? Is not this a pollution thereof, and making the blood of the covenant an unholy thing.
Therefore, those of you who have made this your practice in times past, let me beseech you, in the bowels of mercy, not to do so any more; for, indeed, it is earthly, it is sensual, it is devilish. Consider what is said of those who eat and drink at the Lord's table unworthily, that they eat and drink their own damnation: And can they, my brethren, be said to eat and drink any otherwise, who no sooner go from the table of the Lord, but run to the diversions of the devil? Indeed this is exceeding sinful, and displeasing unto the Lord; then forbear those diversions which are so evil in themselves: O be not found in those exercises, and in that pleasure, which you would not be found in when you come to die. Thus, my brethren, you se it is not a right celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus, to spend it in cards, dice, or any other diversions, which proceed so directly from the devil, and are destructive to all true goodness.
SECONDLY, They cannot be said truly to celebrate this time, who spend their time in eating and drinking to excess.
This is a season when persons are apt to indulge themselves in all manner of luxury: iniquity now abounds apace; nothing is scarcely to be seen but things of the greatest extravagance imaginable; not only for the necessities of the body, but to pamper it in lust, to feed its vices, to make it go on in sin, to be a means for gratifying our carnal appetite; and this is a means to make us forget the Lord of glory. This makes us only fit to do such drudgery, as the devil shall set us about; this is only preparing to run wheresoever the devil sends: this, instead of denying ourselves, is indulging ourselves, this is not, nor cannot be called, a celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we are making ourselves worst than the beasts that perish.
I am not speaking against eating and drinking of the good things of life, but against the eating and drinking of them to excess, because, thus they unqualify us for the service of God; and to our fellow-creatures they make us unsociable, and may occasion us to be guilty of saying and acting those things, which we should be ashamed to think of, if we had only ate or drank with moderation.
Therefore, my dear brethren, let me beseech you to set a watch over yourselves; be careful that you do not run into that company which may tempt you to evil, for would a man run himself into danger on purpose? Would a man enter himself into that company, where, before he goes, he knows he shall be exposed to great temptations; and therefore, if you have any reason to think that the company you are going into will be a temptation, I beseech you, by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, that you would not run into it.
How can you say, "Lead us not into temptation," when you are resolved to lead yourselves into it, by running into the occasions of sins. You are commanded to keep from the appearance of evil; and do you do that, by running into the place and company where it is like to be committed? No, this is so far from avoiding, and shunning it, that it is a plain proof to the contrary; therefore, if you are for observing this time, this festival of our church, let it not be done by running to excess; for you plainly see, that those who are guilty thereof, cannot be said properly to celebrate it.
THIRDLY, Nor can they, my brethren, be said to keep, or rightly observe the commemoration of the birth of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who neglect their worldly callings to follow pleasures and diversions.
Alas! many, instead of keeping this time as it ought to be, run into sin with greediness; instead of devoting their time to the Lord, it is only devoted to the devil and their own lusts. How many who thus mispend their time, at this season, lay by the work of their callings for a considerable time, with no other view, but to follow earthly, sensual, and devilish pleasures. If they should go to hear a sermon, or to a society, my brethren, the mouths of all the Pharisees at once are open against them, that they are not only a going to be ruined themselves, but are going to ruin their families too; they think it needless to make so much ado; this is being righteous over-much; but you may be as wicked as you please, and they will not cry out; however, when you are wicked over-much, by serving the devil and your own pleasures for a week or a month together, then, my brethren, with them you are only taking a little recreation, spending your time in innocent diversions; no one cries out against you, there is no outcry that you are going to be ruined. Again, if you give never so small a matter among the poor people of God for their relief, then you are robbing your families, then you are going to turn madmen! And in a few days will be to methodistically mad, that you are not fit for a polite gentleman's conversation; but if you spend one hundred times the money in playhouses, &c. on your lusts and pleasures, then you are liked and esteemed as a good friend and companion; but, my dear brethren, these good companions in the world's account, are never so in the Lord Jesus Christ's. You cannot serve God and mammon; you must either lost your lusts, your pleasures, and your delights, or you cannot expect to find favor with God; for indeed, and indeed, the ways that too many follow at this time, are sinful, yea, they are exceeding sinful. You see they cannot be said to celebrate this holy time, who thus mispend their precious time to the neglect of their families; such are destroying themselves with a witness.
Thus, my dear brethren, I have shown you who they are who do not observe this holy festival.
II. I come now, in the second place, to show you, who they are who do rightly observe, and truly celebrate the birth of our Redeemer.
And I shall show you who they are in two particulars, directly opposite to the others; and then, my brethren, take your choice: you must choose the one or the other, there is no medium, you must either serve the Lord or Baal; and, therefore, my dear brethren, let me beg of you to consider,
FIRST, That those spend their time aright, and truly observe this festival, who spend their hours in reading, praying, and religious conversation.
What can we do to employ our time to a more noble purpose, than reading of what our dear Redeemer has done and suffered; to read, that the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, came from his throne and took upon him the form of the meanest of his servants; and what great things he underwent. This, this is an history worth reading, this is worth employing our time about: and surely, when we read of the sufferings of our Savior, it should excite us to prayer, that we might have an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ; that the blood which he spilt upon mount Calvary, and his death and crucifixion, might make an atonement for our sins, that we might be made holy; that we might be enabled to put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, even the Lord Jesus Christ; that we may throw away the heavy yoke of sin, and put on the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, my brethren, these things call for prayer, and for earnest prayer too; and O do be earnest with God, that you may have an interest in this Redeemer, and that you may put on his righteousness, so that you may not come before him in your filthy rags, nor be found not having on the wedding garment. O do not, I beseech you, trust unto yourselves for justification; you cannot, indeed, you cannot be justified by the works of the law. I entreat that your time may be thus spent; and if you are in company, let your time be spent in that conversation which profiteth: let it not be about your dressing, your plays, your profits, or your worldly concerns, but let it be the wonders of redeeming love: O tell, tell to each other, what great things the Lord has done for your souls; declare unto one another, how you were delivered from the hands of your common enemy, Satan, and how the Lord has brought your feet from the clay, and has set them upon the rock of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ; there, my brethren, is no slipping; other conversation, by often repeating, you become fully acquainted with, but of Christ there is always something new to raise your thoughts; you can never want matter when the love of the Lord Jesus Chris is the subject: then let Jesus be the subject, my brethren, of all your conversation.
Let your time be spent on him: O this, this is an employ, which if you belong to Jesus, will last you to all eternity. Let others enjoy their cards, their dice, and gaming hours; do you, my brethren, let your time be spent in reading, praying, and religious conversations. Which will stand the trial best at the last day? Which do you think will bring most comfort, most peace, in a dying hour? O live and spend your time now, as you will wish to have done, when you come to die.
SECONDLY, Let the good things of life, you enjoy, be used with moderation.
I am not, as the scoffers of this day tell you, against eating and drinking the good things of life; no, my brethren, I am only against their being used to an excess; therefore, let me beseech you to avoid those great indiscretions, those sinful actions, which will give the enemies of God room to blaspheme. Let me beseech you, to have a regard, a particular regard to your behavior, at this time; for indeed the eyes of all are upon you, and they would rejoice much to find any reason to complain of you. They can say things against us without a cause; and how would they rejoice if there was wherewith they might blame us? Then they would triumph and rejoice indeed; and all your little slips, my dear brethren, are, and would be charged upon me. O at this time, when the eyes of so many are upon you, be upon your guard; and if you use the good things of this life with moderation, you do then celebrate this festival in the manner which the institution calls for.
And instead of running into excess, let that money, which you might expend to pamper your own bodies, be given to feed the poor; now, my brethren, is the season, in which they commonly require relief; and sure you cannot act more agreeable, either to the season, to the time, or for the glory of God, than in relieving his poor distressed servants. Therefore, if any of you have poor friends, or acquaintance, who are in distress, I beseech you to assist them; and not only those of your acquaintance, but the poor in general. O my dear brethren, that will turn to a better account another day, than all you have expended to please the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. Consider, Christ was always willing to relieve the distressed; it is his command also; and can you better commemorate the birth of your king, your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, than in obeying one of his commands?
Do not, my dear brethren, be forgetful of the poor of the world; consider, if providence has smiled upon you, and blessed you with abundance of the things of this life, God calls for some returns of gratitude from you; be ye mindful of the poor, and when you are so, then you may be said to have a true regard for that time which is now approaching; if you would truly observe this festival, let it be done with moderation, and a regard to the poor of this world.
THIRDLY, Let me beg of you not to alienate too much of your time from the worldly business of this life, but have a proper regard thereunto, and then you may be said rightly to observe this festival.
God allows none to be idle: in all ages business was commended; and therefore do not think that any season will excuse us in our callings; we are not, my brethren, to labor for the things of this life inordinately, but we are to labor for them will all moderation: we are not to neglect our callings; no, we are to regard those places and stations of life, which God in his providence has thought convenient for us; and therefore, when you neglect your business of the hurt of your families, whatever pretense you thereby make for so doing, you are guilty of sin;; you are not acting according to the doctrine of the gospel, but are breaking the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ, both according to his word, and to his own practice.
At this festival, persons are apt to take a little more liberty than usual; and if that time from our vocations is not prejudicial to ourselves or families, and is spent in the service of God, and the good of immortal souls, then I do not thing it sinful; but there is too much reason to fear, that the time spent upon our own lusts, and then it is exceeding sinful, it is against our own souls, and it is against the good of our families, and instead of commemorating the birth of our dear Redeemer, we are dishonoring him in the greatest degree possibly we can.
Therefore, inquire strictly into your end and design in spending your time; see, my brethren, whether it proceeds from a true love to your Redeemer, or whether there is not some worldly pleasure or advantage at the bottom: if there is, our end is not right; but if it proceed entirely from love to him that died, and gave himself for us, our actions will be a proof thereof; then our time will be spent, not in the polite pleasures of life, but according to the doctrine and commands of the blessed Jesus; then our conversation will be in heaven; and O that this might be found to be the end of each of you, who now hear me; then we should truly observe this festival, and have a true regard to the occasion thereof, that of Christ's coming to redeem the souls of those which were lost.
Let me now conclude, my dear brethren, with a few words of exhortation, beseeching you to think of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did Jesus come into the world to save us from death, and shall we spend no part of our time in conversing about our dear Jesus; shall we pay no regard to the birth of him, who came to redeem us from the worst of slavery, from that of sin, and the devil; and shall this Jesus not only be born on our account, but likewise die in our stead, and yet shall we be unmindful of him? Shall we spend our time in those things which are offensive to him? Shall we not rather do all we can to promote his glory, and act according to his command? O my dear brethren, be found in the ways of God; let us not disturb our dear Redeemer by any irregular proceedings; and let me beseech you to strive to love, fear, honor and obey him, more than ever you have done yet; let not the devil engross your time, and that dear Savior who came into the world on your accounts, have so little. O be not so ungrateful to him who has been so kind to you! What could the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you more than he has? Then do not abuse his mercy, but let your time be spent in thinking and talking of the love of Jesus, who was incarnate for us, who was born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem us from the wrath to come.
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