Faith Church Blog

This is a GREAT quote from the great Princeton theologian, B.B. Warfield…

We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all.

This is not true of us only “when we believe.”

It is just as true after we have believed.

It will continue to be true as long as we live.

Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be.

It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place, or that can take a place along with Him.

We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace.

Though blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, we are still in ourselves just “miserable sinners”: “miserable sinners” saved by grace to be sure, but “miserable sinners” still, deserving in ourselves nothing but everlasting wrath. That is the attitude which the Reformers took, and that is the attitude which the Protestant world has learned from the Reformers to take, toward the relation of believers to Christ.

There is emphasized in this attitude the believer’s continued sinfulness in fact and in act; and his continued sense of his sinfulness. And this carries with it recognition of the necessity of unbroken penitence throughout life. The Christian is conceived fundamentally in other words as a penitent sinner.

But that is not all that is to be said: it is not even the main thing that must be said.

It is therefore gravely inadequate to describe the spirit of “miserable sinner Christianity” as “the spirit of continuous but not unhopeful penitence.” It is not merely that it is too negative a description, and that we must at least say, “the spirit of continuous though hopeful penitence.” It is wholly uncomprehending description, and misplaces the emphasis altogether.

The spirit of this Christianity is a spirit of penitent indeed, but overmastering exultation.

The attitude of the “miserable sinner” is not only not one of despair; it is not even one of depression; and not even one of hesitation or doubt; hope is too weak a word to apply to it.

It is an attitude of exultant joy.

Only this joy has its ground not in ourselves but in our Savior.

We are sinners and we know ourselves to be sinners, lost and helpless in ourselves.

But we are saved sinners; and it is our salvation which gives the tone to our life, a tone of joy which swells in exact proportion to the sense we have of our ill-desert; for it is he to whom much is forgiven who loves much, and who, loving, rejoices much.

HT: JT

From Ray Ortlund -

“Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”  Ephesians 5:33

God made Adam first and put him in the Garden with a job to do, a mission to fulfill.  In the heart of every fallen man is the self-doubt that wonders, “Am I man enough to climb this mountain God has called me to?  Can I fulfill my destiny?”  A wise wife will understand that question at the center of her husband’s heart.  And she will spend her life answering it, communicating to him in various ways, “Honey, I believe in your call.  I know you can do this, by God’s power.  Go for it.”  In this way, she will breathe life into her man.

God made Eve from Adam, for Adam, to help him follow the call.  In the heart of every fallen woman is the self-doubt that wonders, “Do I please you?  Am I what you wanted?”  A wise husband will understand that question at the center of his wife’s heart.  And he will spend his life answering it, communicating to her in various ways, “Darling, you are the one I need.  I cherish you.  Let me hold you close.”  In this way, he will breathe life into his wife.

Recently, at the birth of our fourth, we gave our three older kids a present each as a way to express our care and love for them.  One of them received a gift of several toy horses.  She promptly lost the baby horse (her favorite) in the house later the same day.  For the next two days, she proceeded to mope and stomp and cry and refuse to be happy until the horse was found.  It quickly became ridiculous.  After several go-arounds, we sat down to have a talk and had a break-through.

I told her, in short, that she was being ridiculous.  While helping her look for the horse, I had told her several times that we understood, that it was hard to get a toy and then to lose it.  But now things had gone on so long, I wished we never would have given her the horse, if we knew it was going to cause such problems.  She had been happy before she even had the horse, but ever since she had it and lost it, she had been miserable and making everyone else miserable.  I told her that maybe there was a reason God hadn’t let her find the horse.  (You have to be careful trying to interpret God’s will like this.  Sometimes we will pray that God will help us find something that has been lost.  But I didn’t think it was appropriate to pray that way when she was acting so angry and taking it out on everyone else.  It is wrong to spend prayer on our desires when they are full of sin and prayer really needs to be spent on repentance.)  Maybe God wouldn’t let her find the horse until she repented.  She has informed us several times recently that she has been praying for God to change her heart and give her a new heart.  Maybe this was something God was doing to help her know what that meant.

So I told her that the horse had become an idol.  She was refusing to be happy until she had the horse back.  She had been happy before she even knew the horse existed, but now she couldn’t be happy without it.  Having the horse was more important to her than anything else, and she was willing to make everyone else miserable until she had it.  (As I talked with her about it, she was still glaring at me.)  We have talked about what it means to be a child of God - that when we’re trusting God, we have a peace with him in our hearts that is bigger than our circumstances, that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”.  I asked her if she had any of those things right now.  She said, “No.”  What do you have?  “Angry.”  What does that tell you?  “The horse is more important and real to me than God.”

I then asked, “Does the horse talk?”  She looked at me funny and said, “No…”  “Does the horse run by itself?  Does it play?  Does it hug you?  Love you?  Is it good for taking you on long journeys?  Does it listen when you tell it all your problems?”  Again, “No…”  The Bible talks about idolatry and says, a man finds a tree in the forest and cuts it down.  Half of it he burns in a fire to stay warm.  The other half he crafts into an idol and bows down and worships it.  (See Isaiah 44:9-20.)  Psalm 115:4-8 says, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.  They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.  Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”

I asked her, “What do you think of that?”  She said, giggling, “That’s stupid.”  I said, “Does your horse talk?”  Laughing again (obvious change of attitude), “No.”  “Does your horse play with you?”  “No”.  “Can the horse really make you happy?”  “No.”  When you find the horse, is it really going to make that much difference in your life?”  “No.”  “Well then, what is it?”  Smiling sheepishly, “An idol.”  “What do you need to do?”  “Trust God and repent.”  “You know what Jesus did?  You were his lost treasure.  And he went to the ends of the earth and to his own death to find you and win you back.  And he rejoices for eternity when you repent and are found by him.”

We ended the conversation with a very different attitude.

She found the horse the next morning.

Suggestions here…

This is the video I mentioned Sunday night - be sure to watch the explanation at the end…

Read it here…

We’ve all met some guys who are romantic geniuses - infinite creativity and energy in pursuing their wives and making them feel like a million bucks.  I’m not one of those.  I have to work at being romantic and usually need a good kick in the pants to do it.  So I found these reflections from Song of Solomon a good convicting reminder from Scripture that being romantic is godly…

Question 1: Do you gush over your wife? I mean, do you really pile on the compliments? No need to ration here. The more you speak them the freer they come. So why so stingy in telling your bride she’s more stunning than elegance wrapped in sweetness covered in perfection?

Yes, the bit about “hair like a flock of goats” doesn’t translate well, so skip that line. Don’t worry about sounding poetic or trying to compare her features to local topography. Just tell say something like: “Behold, you are beautiful, my love, you are beautiful” (4:1). Or try this: “Who is this who looks like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners.” Oh yeah, that’ll work.

Tell your bride she is the most gorgeous, most precious, most amazing woman you’ve ever laid eyes on. Tell her that she still turns your head and makes your heart race. Lay it on thick brothers. You should mean it, of course, but if you don’t, just keep telling her until you do. Nothing kills romance like expressions of calculated affection.

Question 2: Do you pursue your wife? Words are wonderful, but pursuit may be even more powerful. Now listen, guys, don’t get all weird and stalker-like. Remember, you should pursue her as she likes to be pursued, not as you do. So surprise her. Woo her. Take her away (without the kids for heaven’s sake).

Even after years of marriage keep using words like “Come” and “Let’s.” Be a man. Be a leader. Try to impress her. You managed to do it once, but chances are much of your impressiveness has worn off under the rough edges of career, laziness, and time. Men shouldn’t get married so they can stop pursuing women. We get married so we can perfect the pursuit with same woman over a lifetime. Don’t give up the chase gentlemen.

Believe me, brothers, I write as one who needs to learn.

From Kevin DeYoung

In all unbelief there are these two things–a good opinion of one’s self and a bad opinion of God. Man’s good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God’s favor by his own religious performances; and his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case wholly into His hands. The object of the Holy Spirit’s work (in convincing of sin) is to alter the sinner’s opinion of himself, and so to reduce his estimate of his own character that he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by an excellency of his own. The Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace.

But the inquirer denies that he has a good opinion of himself and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may SAY this, but really to KNOW it is something more than SAYING. Besides, he may be willing to take the name of sinner to himself, in common with his fellow-men, and yet not at all own himself such a sinner as God says he is–such a sinner as needs the cross, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of God. It takes a great deal to destroy a man’s good opinion of himself; how difficult it is to make a man think of himself as God does! What but the almightiness of the Divine Spirit can accomplish this?

Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and the rejection of the truth. Accept, then, the character of God as given in the gospel; the Holy Spirit will not give you peace irrespective of your views of God’s character. It is in connection with THE TRUTH concerning the true God, “the God of all grace,” that the Spirit gives peace. That which He shows us of ourselves is only evil; that which He shows us of God is only good!

–Horatius Bonar, “God’s Way of Peace”

In light of the devasting situation in Haiti, Desiring God and several other groups have listed recommended centers to give to the relief effort -

1. Compassion International
2. Feed My Starving Children
3. Food for the Hungry
4. World Vision
5. World Relief
6. Samaritan’s Purse
7. Love a Child
8. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
9. Compassion Weavers
10. Mennonite Central Committee
11. Water Missions International
12. Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center. They’re operating one of the only clinics near the epicenter that’s open right now.

9Marks mentions three more -

1. Baptist Haiti Mission  One of their people have sent an “on the ground report” on conditions.
2. Match for Haiti Campaign
3. Baptist Global Response

Several churches in our Association (ARBCA) have ties to churches in the Dominican Republic, on the other side of the island.  Those churches have many ties within Haiti.  Grace Baptist Church in Papillion, NE, is going to be coordinating efforts for ARBCA churches to contribute through the D.R. churches…

This post is a follow-up to yesterday’s post on Complacency.  If the number one thing we can’t be complacent about is the reality of the Gospel piercing our hearts, what we’re saying we need is vitality in our daily spiritual life.

This is where the first several chapters of Acts (which we have been looking at on Sunday mornings the last month) become so important.  We see a community with vitality.

What gave them that vitality?  The presence of the Holy Spirit making the truth powerful.  I said a few weeks ago from Acts 2:3 that he re-energizes you – convincing you at the same time of two truths: that God loves and is present with each one of you specially, and that he is holy.  Holiness and Love, Transcendence and Immanence, Conviction and Comfort at the same moment.  When those are burning in your heart, he can ask anything of you and you would do anything for him.

But the Holy Spirit uses means to prepare you for his filling.  The apostles were devoting themselves to prayer and were together for prayer when the Spirit rushed upon them (Acts 1:14, 2:1).  After a case of frightening trial where they were hauled before the authorities, they were again in prayer when the Spirit filled them again with boldness (4:23-31).

In Eph.5:18, the Apostle Paul makes it a command – “Do not get drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit.”  He made it his prayer, praying that God “may give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened” (Eph.1:17).

Do you see what this means?  You have got to have the Spirit!  In the words of Eph.5:15-18, you’ve got to “make the best use of the time.  Don’t be foolish.  Understand what the Lord’s will is…Be filled with the Spirit!”.  And you’ve got to pursue it.  How?  “Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart…giving thanks…submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ…living it out in your daily life and relationships” (5:19ff).  In other words, using the means of grace in fellowship with your fellow believers.  Not “going through the motions of grace”, but using the means of grace from the heart.

There was a point in my life where I experienced that powerfully.  When I was in Kenya a few years ago as part of a team of mediators trying to resolve a conflict among some Christian leaders there, it was one of the most spiritually intense two weeks of my life.  It wasn’t fun; it was an excruciating situation any way you looked at it – but the fellowship, friendship and collaboration with the team I was working with was spiritually exhilarating and something I will never forget.  And the one thing that defined the difference was the prayer time.  We knew humanly speaking it was an impossible situation.  We knew we were in over our heads without God.  But we knew that this was a situation God cared about.  And it made you pray – really pray.  You were in meetings all day, every one electrified, and every spare second you could, you found yourself praying for help.  Every morning and every evening you prayed with these fellow workers.  You poured out your heart for them that God would help them, would fill them with wisdom and grace.  They poured their hearts out for you.  You loved one another in those prayers.  You loved and were broken hearted for the people you were praying for together.  And every time you prayed, God answered.  Things happened.  Verses came to mind at the right moment.  Solutions appeared that weren’t there before.  Hearts were changed sometimes dramatically.   The truths of the Gospel showed themselves to be without a doubt the true power of God.  It was awesome.  It was war-time prayer.  It’s true that the mediation didn’t end like we hoped.  But it was worth it; it was kingdom work.  God was doing something and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it yet.

But what I remember was the vitality.  You were alive and the Spirit was alive in you.  You felt your need for God and knew that he was present with you.  I imagine the early church having that kind of intense, battlefield dependence and clarity.  They were living for a purpose, a mission.  They were in earnest with one another for the Spirit.

And that’s the kind of vitality we need.  Do you want it?

During our recent elder’s retreat, one of the questions we asked ourselves was: what are the burdens we have for our church?  What’s our sense of the dangers and opportunities we face?

We have had an extended period of peace and blessing as a congregation over the last few years.  (Certain people have had their share of struggles, but, as a congregation, we have been blessed.)  The danger in such a situation is, of course, spiritual complacency – leading to spiritual deadness and sin.

In the letters to the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3, the repeated warning is a warning against complacency.  The churches were losing their first love, tolerating sin, being content with appearances, being lukewarm.  They were exhorted to remember, be faithful, repent, hold fast, wake up, endure patiently, seek fellowship with Jesus.

In one remarkable passage, Jesus said to the church in Sardis, “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.  Remember, then, what you have received and heard.  Keep it, and repent.” (3:2-3).

The church in Sardis was “only mostly dead”.  It’s possible to be a Christian and yet be barely alive.  The church was failing in works to be what God intended them to be.  What I find surprisingly interesting is Jesus’ solution.  Certainly this church needed to wake up and do something if their works were incomplete.  But Jesus says they needed to wake up and remember something - “remember what you have received and heard.  Keep what you have received and then you will repent.”

The Christian life is always about thinking first, then doing.  It is about living out of the Gospel.  Why so many exhortations to “remember”, to “hold fast”, to “keep my word”?  It is because the power to obey comes from the source.

The number one thing we cannot be complacent about is our hold on the Gospel and its reality in our hearts.  You’ve heard of people who are ‘cutters’?  Sorry to borrow from such a sad term – but we need to be spiritual ‘cutters’.  As we saw in our sermon yesterday from Acts 2:37, we need to be “cut to the heart”.  We need the Word of God which is “sharper than any two-edged sword” piercing our hearts.  We need to be convicted and comforted and changed daily by the Gospel.

“The secret of the gospel is that we actually do more when we hear less about all we need to do for God and hear more about all that God has already done for us.” –Kevin DeYoung

I read this concise quote from Kevin DeYoung a while back and have thought since that it is a great thought for parents to ponder.  Here are my thoughts…

You can’t just discipline your children or just give them practical wisdom or just call them to obedience.  You have to winsomely speak the Gospel to them.

The temptation for parents is to just call for obedience and pound our children with God’s expectations and because we mention God think that we’re being spiritual parents – like this: “Honey, what were you thinking?  That’s completely unacceptable.  When you ‘disobey’ (…or insert whatever issue…) like that, don’t you know you’re also disobeying God.  That’s sin.  You can’t be that way.  The Bible says…”

Now none of that is wrong to say.  In fact, a lot of times, that’s the entirely appropriate thing to say.  When it comes to our daily interactions with our kids, I don’t think you can “give the Gospel” on every issue.  In fact, I don’t think it would really be wise or helpful to “give the Gospel” on every issue – there’s a danger of just saying the same formulation over and over and it losing its power to your kids.  Sometimes you just have to demand obedience of your kids.  But proportionally most parents probably need to “give the Gospel” much more than they do – because even if you can’t realistically “give the Gospel” every time, it should be such a background and undercurrent in your family that it automatically be in the background of your kid’s minds even when you’re not explicit about it.

What is “giving the Gospel”?  It’s not just – “Don’t you know you’re disobeying God; how could you!? …Oh, but if you trust Jesus, he will forgive you.”  The Gospel is not just a stop-gap.  “Giving the Gospel” is trying to get underneath the cause of their disobedience to the source of their fear or shame or selfishness or frustration.  And then connecting that heart sin to the mercy of God.  “Honey, I can understand why you’re impatient with your sister; she can be annoying, but so can you.  And isn’t it important to remember how patient our God is with us?  He is so patient, so loving.  Even when we don’t think of him, he sent Jesus.  And Jesus was patient.  He didn’t fight back.  He died because you are impatient.  If he has been so patient with you, he wants you to be amazed by that – so amazed by his patience that it makes you patient.”

As parents, you need to know how every situation connects to the Gospel – how the love of Jesus is bigger than every situation and changes your perspective in every situation.  That needs to be real to you so that you can speak it to your children.  Sometimes when you speak it to our children, it will become real again to you.  But that needs to be the undercurrent of your thought life.  And when it is, it will become the undercurrent of your family life.

Sometimes, you just have to require obedience of your kids – and give the Law.  But the secret of the Gospel is that ultimately your kids will do more when they hear less of all they need to do for God and hear more about who God is and what he has already done.

A great way to meditate and let the ministry of the Word continue its work on you during the week is to pray through the sermon from Sunday.  But how do you do that?  What does that look like?  Take the 3 points from yesterday’s sermon on Acts 1:1-14 and pray them this way:

1) The Christian life is all about Jesus from beginning to end - “In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach…To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs…”

• Meditate in your prayer on how your life should be based on all that Jesus “began to do and teach“, is based on his Cross and Resurrection - how the Cross should be the most important thing in your life, should be your hope, should be the event that most shapes your every day.  Pray for how it should shape you today.
• Meditate in your prayer on how your life now should be about all that Jesus “continues to do” through you - read Philippians 2:12-13, Rom.15:18, Col.1:29.  Pray that Jesus would manifest himself through you, would fill your life.

2) The Christian life is about Truth on Fire - “after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit…appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God”; read also Luke 24:44-49.

• Jesus delays sending the Spirit, instead giving the disciples an extended time of Bible training.  Then he sends the Spirit to ignite the fuel of Truth they got from the Bible.
• Pray that God would open your mind “to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).  The Spirit will be able to light a fire in your life in proportion to your knowledge of the Bible - it is the Truth of the Bible he uses to inspire, guide and direct your life.  So meditate on the Bible in your prayer (as we are doing right now).
• Then pray for the Spirit to fill your life and make the Truth come alive.

3) The Christian life is about truth becoming personal and real - “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven”.

• Pray for grace to see that Jesus has not been “taken from” us, but has been given to us - he has not “gone”; he has “gone to work” and is “with us” as never before.
• Pray for grace to see and believe that Christ has ascended, is on his throne; all his enemies are being placed under his feet.
• Pray that the reigning King of the Universe would be personal to you - the fact that you know the reigning King of the Universe personally would be personal and powerful to you.

In prayer with you,

Matt

Here’s the quote I used on Sunday…