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Post by Admin on Dec 26, 2023 12:05:27 GMT -5
Spurgeon on Christmas Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL Spurgeon on Christmas I like Spurgeon on the subject of Christmas because he does not fit easily into either of the simple pre-cut molds that tend to dominate those with strong opinions on whether Christians should even acknowledge, much less celebrate Christmas. In one corner you have those who give a resounding “NO” to this question. After all, the Bible does not even hint at celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ annually. Furthermore, Christmas is an adaptation of a pagan festival and “what hath light to do with darkness?” In the other corner are those who seem to think that anything less than an all-out celebration of Christmas–even by those who are not Christians–is an assault on our faith and one more indication of how godless our culture has become.
Spurgeon’s views are considerably more nuanced than either of these. He is clear that Christmas is not a biblical holiday and so minces no words in criticizing the attempt to equate it with vital Christianity. He sometimes ridicules and chides the observance of Christmas as a “popish festival.” This point of view is what is most often quoted when Spurgeon and Christmas come up. For example:
On Sunday morning, December 24, 1871, entitled, “Joy Born at Bethlehem,” Spurgeon began his sermon with these words:
“We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English; and secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior’s birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. … It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. … Probably the fact is that the “holy” days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. Nevertheless since, the current of men’s thoughts is led this way just now, and I see no evil in the current itself, I shall launch the bark of our discourse upon that stream, and make use of the fact, which I shall neither justify nor condemn, by endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction. Since it is lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men’s superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.”
He had little patience with his Protestant brethren who made much of the day out of religious devotion. Yet, Spurgeon was far from a Scrooge. Nor did he think it some violation of Scripture to utilize the inevitable emphasis of the season to preach the incarnate Christ. So it is easy to find sermons on the birth of Christ that he preached around Christmas time.
In December of 1855 he preached on “The Incarnation and Birth of Christ” from Micah 5:2. His opening words were these:
THIS is the season of the year when, whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Savior Jesus Christ was born on that day and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those who are Catholics have a right to hallow it, but I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred. However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt laboring people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus. We do not wish to be classed with those
“Who with more care keep holiday The wrong, than others the right way.”
In the same vein Spurgeon preached a message entitled, “Mary’s Song,” based on Luke 1:46-47 (#606, MTP). In it he says,
Observe, this morning, the sacred joy of Mary that you may imitate it. This is a season when all men expect us to be joyous. We compliment each other with the desire that we may have a “Merry Christmas.” Some Christians who are a little squeamish, do not like the word “merry.” It is a right good old Saxon word, having the joy of childhood and the mirth of manhood in it, it brings before one’s mind the old song of the waits, and the midnight peal of bells, the holly and the blazing log. I love it for its place in that most tender of all parables, where it is written, that, when the long-lost prodigal returned to his father safe and sound, “They began to be merry.” This is the season when we are expected to be happy; and my heart’s desire is, that in the highest and best sense, you who are believers may be “merry.” Mary’s heart was merry within her; but here was the mark of her joy, it was all holy merriment, it was every drop of it sacred mirth. It was not such merriment as worldlings will revel in to-day and to-morrow, but such merriment as the angels have around the throne, where they sing, “Glory to God in the highest,” while we sing “On earth peace, goodwill towards men.” Such merry hearts have a continual feast. I want you, ye children of the bride-chamber, to possess to-day and to-morrow, yea, all your days, the high and consecrated bliss of Mary, that you may not only read her words, but use them for yourselves, ever experiencing their meaning: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.”
Finally, someone sent me this quote several years ago. It certainly sounds like Spurgeon, but I have not been able to document it. If you know where it comes from, please let me know. Whether he said it or not, it expresses the sentiments of my own heart very well.
“Now a happy Christmas to you all; and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God with you. I shall say nothing to day against festivities on this great birthday of Christ. We will to-morrow think of Christ’s birthday; we shall be obliged to do it, I am sure, however sturdily we may hold to our rough Puritanism. And so, ‘let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavend bread of sincerity and truth.’ Do not feast as if you wished to keep the festival of Bacchus; do not live to-morrow as if you adored some heathen divinity. Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast. Go to the house of feasting to-morrow, celebrate your Saviour’s birth; do not be ashamed to be glad; you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, ‘Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.’
“Religion never was designed to make your pleasures less.”
Recollect that your Master ate butter and honey. Go your way, rejoice tomorrow, but in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem; let him have a place in your hearts, give him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived him, but think most of all of the Man born, the Child given. I finish by again saying, —
“A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL”
That is my wish, as well.
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Post by Admin on Dec 31, 2023 21:30:26 GMT -5
Revelation-Driven Life Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL Revelation-Driven Life God wins. If I had to summarize the message of Revelation in just two words, those would be my choice. They not only convey the point of the book but also hint at its main storyline. Despite what some overly speculative interpreters would have us believe, the main character in the last book of the Bible is not the Dragon, Beast, or False Prophet; rather, it is God. Revelation is primarily about Christ, not the Antichrist. And the main point of the book is to demonstrate in graphic imagery the victory of God in Christ.
Through the incarnate ministry of His Son, God has conquered the Devil and his demons; the world and its deceptions; and sin and its destruction. Through faith in Him, we are also victorious over all these enemies. Because He wins, we also win. His victory secures ours. This truth provides fuel for an ever-increasing joy on the part of every believer.
But there is no victory without a contest, and Revelation makes it very clear that the battle between those who belong to Christ and those who oppose Him is real, intense, and deadly. The Devil never simply forfeits. Just as our Lord did not secure our salvation without severe trials and suffering, so His disciples should not be surprised when their devotion to Him invites brutal conflict.
At the very beginning of the book, God promises a blessing to everyone who “reads aloud the words of this prophecy” and to those “who hear, and who keep what is written in it” (1:3). That blessing includes at least two elements: a stubborn hope that breeds bold courage and an abiding joy that prompts unreserved worship.
Too often, circumstances tempt us to despair by eclipsing those unseen realities that can be accessed only by faith. John surely faced this as he contemplated his exile on Patmos. But when “the revelation of Jesus Christ” came to him, visions of the risen, exalted, and enthroned Lord brought an eternal perspective to his present challenges. What he saw transformed his prison into a sanctuary. His circumstances did not change, but his perspective did.
The Lord Jesus will reign and even now is ruling and overruling world events to orchestrate His eternal enthronement as the one, sovereign King over all. God revealed to John that history is moving toward a climatic conclusion that will be ushered in by the final conquest of our warrior God. This is signaled by the blast of the seventh trumpet that is followed by “loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever’” (11:15). Neither Rome nor her emperors will have the last say; nor will the United States, China, or any future political empire that this world might spawn. The Lord Jesus will reign and even now is ruling and overruling world events to orchestrate His eternal enthronement as the one, sovereign King over all.
The most effective soldier is the one who fights with a clear objective and an unshakeable confidence that victory is assured. Revelation gives us both for the spiritual warfare we must endure. The mission of the church was mapped out by Jesus’ first coming. As the sacrificial Lamb, He was slain on the cross, and by His blood He “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” and “made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (5:9–10).
Through His sufferings, our Savior secured the complete redemption of a vast multitude of people that “no man could number” (7:9). Our responsibility is to get the good news of His saving work to these people so that they can be reconciled to God through faith. Sometimes, discharging this duty can be costly.
If Jesus shed His blood for individuals from every people group in the world, how can we who have been rescued by Him remain indifferent in the face of more than six thousand ethnolinguistic groups that have yet to be reached with the gospel? News of our great Savior and His redeeming exploits must be spread to the ends of the earth. Yes, the mission is dangerous. There will be casualties — martyrs who will be killed “for the word of God, and for the testimony” they bear (6:9–11). But the suffering of Christ’s followers will not be in vain because His kingdom will prevail. Victory is assured.
The suffering of Christ’s followers will not be in vain because His kingdom will prevail. The end of Revelation reminds us that the church relates to her King not only as an army engaged in spiritual warfare, but also as a bride preparing for her wedding day. The Lord has chosen us for Himself. At the conclusion of the age, when all of His enemies are defeated, the church of Jesus Christ will be fully cleansed, no longer having the spots, wrinkles, and blemishes that currently mar her beauty (Eph. 5:25–27). On that occasion, all who are in Christ will be presented to the One who died for them and will appear before Him as a bride clothed “with fine linen, bright and pure” at the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:7–9).
Then our warfare will fully resolve into worship. There will be no complaints, no regrets, and no disappointments. Rather, there will be joyful, unending worship of the God who loved us and gave Himself for us.
That eternal prospect transforms all who embrace it.
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Post by Admin on Feb 7, 2024 19:07:33 GMT -5
What About Repentance? Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL What About Repentance? After four hundred years of prophetic silence, John the Baptist appeared on the scene of redemptive history as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. He came in fulfillment of prophecy and with the spirit of Elijah to be a voice “crying in the wilderness” calling people to “prepare the way of the Lord” (Matt. 3:3; 11:14; 17:11–12).
John preached a very simple and clear message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:2). That message was no more popular in his day than it is in ours, yet our need of it is as urgent now as it was then.
Repentance has fallen on hard times in many sectors of Christianity in the West. Between Rome’s mischaracterization of it as penance and some Dispensationalists’ denial of its place in Gospel preaching, it is possible to attend church regularly and never hear a biblical message on repentance.
That certainly was not the case for those who gathered to hear John preach in the wilderness. Neither was that the experience of those who heard Jesus (Matt. 4:17; Luke 5:32). From the very dawn of the New Testament age, repentance has been an integral part of the Gospel message.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes what the Bible means by repentance: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience” (Q. 87).
When John preached repentance he was calling his hearers to turn away from sin and to turn toward God in Jesus Christ. With the coming of Christ into the world, He could proclaim with confidence that God’s kingdom is present. In fact, the presence of that kingdom on earth is the reason that John gives for calling people to repent.
The kingdom cannot be entered apart from repentance. For while it is correct to speak of salvation through faith alone we must never forget that the faith that saves is, as John Murray put it, “a penitent faith.”
Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus declared that his death and resurrection were necessary so that “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47). The apostles took this to heart and incorporated a call to repent into their preaching. This was the heart of Peter’s admonition at Pentecost (Acts 2:38) as well as when he spoke at Solomon’s porch (Acts 3:19).
The evidence that true salvation had come to the Gentiles was that God had granted them “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). Paul explained his commission as an apostle to the Gentiles in these very terms. He told Agrippa that, in response to the heavenly vision given to him on the Damascus Road, he began to preach that people should “repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance” (Acts 26:20). At Athens, we find him doing exactly that to the intellectual elites of his day, declaring that God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Any evangelism that does not include a clear call to repent is not biblical evangelism. Jesus Christ is a great Savior for great sinners, but His salvation is granted only to those who renounce their sins and “turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 26:18).
Any evangelism that does not include a clear call to repent is not biblical evangelism.
It is cruel to misrepresent the terms of salvation to people. Yet that is exactly what happens when sinners are encouraged to “accept” Christ without due consideration of the necessity of repentance. That kind of false evangelism results in false conversion, and those who are thus victimized are deceived into thinking that they can have Christ while continuing to live at peace with their sin.
John would have no part in such spiritual abuse. He loved his Savior too much to edit the message of His salvation. And he loved people too much to trifle with their souls when eternity was at stake. So he not only preached repentance, he insisted on it. When religious leaders came to him to be baptized, John spoke very plainly to them, exposing their hypocrisy. “You brood of vipers,” he said, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:7–8). True repentance always bears fruit. (Paul gives us a helpful summary of what such fruit looks like in 2 Corinthians 7:11 — making right the wrong.)
That is what repentance is — turning from sin to God with a commitment to pursue a life of obedience to His will. What convinces a sinner to repent? Not only a sense of the sinfulness of his sin, but also the recognition that, because of Christ, God is full of mercy to repentant sinners.
The Gospel not only calls us to repent, it sets us free to live in repentance.
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Post by Admin on Feb 10, 2024 8:26:48 GMT -5
TOM ASCOL Every Church is a Christocracy If the last few years have forced evangelicals to reconsider anything it is the nature of authority in the world and in the church. On Monday, March 16, 2020, President Trump announced that a corona virus was spreading throughout the world in such a way that we were facing a pandemic of epic proportions. He and federal health officials proposed a “15 days to slow the spread—or flatten the curve” of the virus in hopes of minimizing the impact of the looming disaster.
As we know, those 15 days quickly expanded into months, and then years of governmental officials restricting the activities of citizens, businesses, and institutions—including churches. Very soon, governors began issuing executive orders telling churches that they could not meet, or that they could only meet according to governmental guidelines—which often included restrictions on singing or having no more than 10 people present (as in the case of Virginia).
Virginia Governor, Ralph Northam held a press conference December 10, 2020 and said,
“Christmas is two weeks away. The holidays are typically times of joy and community. We gather together, we celebrate our faith, and we celebrate with family.”
“But this year we need to think about what is truly the most important thing. Is it the worship or the building? For me, God is wherever you are. You don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers,” Northam said. “Worship with a mask on is still worship. Worship outside or worship online is still worship.”
He called on faith leaders to “lead the way and set an example.”
Similarly, Governor Gavin Newsom in California issued an executive order forbidding churches from meeting. Later he said that churches could meet but under very severe restrictions. His restrictions continued until Grace Church and Pastor John MacArthur successfully won a judgment against him in the Supreme Court.
These, and similar actions by civil authorities, forced churches and church leaders to reconsider what Scripture teaches about how the church relates to the state. Specifically, who has the right to tell churches what they can and cannot do, when they can gather, and how they can gather?
Jesus Christ is Lord of the Church. He and He alone is Head of the Church as well as the Head of every local true church. Though that was a painful process for many churches, and some negotiated those challenges better than others, I think it is safe to say that for many it helped clarify what has always been true but can no longer be taken for granted, and that is that Jesus Christ is Lord of the Church. He and He alone is Head of the Church as well as the Head of every local true church.
I am confident that no church would deny that as an article of faith, but learning afresh to consider what it means practically—and what it may cost to honor His lordship in the face of opposition or persecution—has been a blessing to many churches.
Jesus Christ is Head of the church. When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, the “Son of the living God,” Jesus responded by saying, “On this rock I will build MY church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Paul introduces the idea of Jesus being the “head of the church” in six passages in his letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians. In Ephesians 4:16 he says that as we mature in sound doctrine and learning to speak the truth in love, we are able to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” In Ephesians 5:23 Paul writes, “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
In Colossians 2:19 Christ is called “the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”
Christ is Head of the church in the sense that He is the One “who stands over it” in the sense of being the basis of its existence, the source of its life, and the authoritative Ruler over it.[1]
What this means is that every church—regardless of its polity—is ultimately a Christocracy. Jesus is Lord of the church. He is the Head of every true church. This truth, rightly understood, rightly guides church leaders in both addressing a church’s internal affairs and determining its mission.
Internal Affairs When questions, challenges, or controversies confront a congregation the primary goal in responding to them should be to determine the mind of Christ. What does the Lord Jesus have to say on this? What is the way of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:17) to resolve this? Christ’s mind and ways are revealed to us in Scripture. There the job of church leaders and church members is to discern what the Bible says a church should do in any situation.
Granted, some situations are clearer than others, but no decision of any significance should be taken without first grappling with biblical teaching and principles. We do this because Christ is Head of the church.
Christ is Head of the church in the sense that He is the One “who stands over it” in the sense of being the basis of its existence, the source of its life, and the authoritative Ruler over it. One clear example of how this works out practically is in the area of corrective church discipline. Matthew 18:15-20 unambiguously outlines normal steps for dealing with sin in the church. Since Christ is Lord of the church, true churches understand that they do not have the option to ignore these instructions. That is likewise true of the more urgent and immediate command to “purge the evil person from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:13; read the whole chapter) when a public, scandalous sin is being committed by a church member.
If a church sees itself as a Christocracy, it will obey the Lord Jesus in this area, even when it is painful and unpopular to do so.
Mission How the church goes about making disciples is also governed by the Headship of Christ. Our starting point is with the exalted position of our crucified, risen Savior. Jesus Himself prefaces His great commission with this reminder: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Only after asserting His universal lordship does He issue the command to His followers, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 18:18-20).
Churches own the mission to evangelize the nations. We preach Christ both personally and publicly, formally and informally; in pulpits as well as coffee shops; on the job site as well as the playground. There is no place nor any person who is outside the scope of our concern. Why? Because as Head of the church our Lord has “all authority.” His authority extends everywhere.
As Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:22, God“put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.” Jesus is not only Head over the church but also, over “all things.” All principalities, powers, governments, institutions, and individuals are subservient to our sovereign, risen Lord. God made certain of that by raising Jesus from the dead and giving Him, in the capacity of our risen Mediator, to the church.
So our evangelism, while full of compassionate pleading with people to be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus, is never to be carried out as if our Lord is dependent on human power for disciples to be added to His family. He is Lord of lords and King of kings and we, His ambassadors, go out in His Name, calling all people to come to Jesus Christ and be saved (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).
Our evangelism is never to be carried out as if our Lord is dependent on human power for disciples to be added to His family. The early church had this understand of Jesus as King and the church as a Christocracy as they carried out their mission. We know this by the response of their opponents to their efforts. In Thessalonica, the response to the preaching of Paul and Silas was so profound that hostile Jews dragged some of the new converts before city officials. There they charged them not with becoming Christians, but with proclaiming the kingship of Jesus. “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,…and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus” (Acts 17:6-7).
Could it be that one reason so many churches seem to be making so little difference in the world today is because we have lost sight of the kingship of Christ? He is Lord. He is Head of the church. God has raised Him from the dead and made Him head over all things for the church. We carry out our marching orders to make disciples because all authority belongs to Him and we are His ambassadors.
Pastors and elders must teach their congregations to recognize every true church is a Christocracy. We do what we do in obedience to our Lord. We conduct our affairs and carry out His mission in the Name of our King Jesus. Perhaps, as the Lord grants us grace and courage to live this way, we will, like the early church before us, have reason to be charged with turning our world upside down.
[1] Heinrich Schlier, “Κεφαλή, Ἀνακεφαλαιόομαι,” ed. Gerhard Kittel, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, and Gerhard Friedrich, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964–), 679.
CHRISTOCRACY, CHURCH, CULTURE, POLITICS
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2024 20:03:48 GMT -5
TOM ASCOL What Does Genesis 1:1 Have to Do with John 3:16?
In a word, everything. Soteriology is based on ontology. Salvation occurs in creation. Redemption takes place in reality. This should be self-evident but in our post-modern world more and more reality is being judged as simply social constructs or determined by the almighty self.
Let me explain. Ours is day when the very idea that absolute truth exists is judged outmoded, offensive, and hateful. This, of course, means that moral relativism dominates the thinking of many people. You can have your truth and I can have my truth and the two need not even approximate each other much less agree. What’s right for you may not be right for me. Ultimately each person (the self) is the determiner of is true and false, right and wrong, and good and bad.
It’s all relative, except, of course, the fact that it is all relative. That, my friend, is absolute. If you doubt me just try to live as if it is not and see how quickly you are charged with hate speech (or thoughts), bigotry, or violence. Such heresy must be canceled. The guardians of the left will not tolerate any questioning of their orthodoxy a person’s identity is precisely what [insert preferred pronoun] says it is. Biological sex has nothing to do with gender. Today when anxious friends ask brand new parents if their baby is a boy or girl, the only politically correct answer is, “We won’t know until they tell us.”
Ours is day when the very idea that absolute truth exists is judged outmoded, offensive, and hateful. What is going on in the LGBTQIA+ revolution through which we are living is fundamentally a rejection of “Nature and Nature’s God.” This is the Apostle Paul’s point in Romans 1:26-27 where he describes the end result of those who “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (25). “For this reason,” Paul writes, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (26-27, emphasis added).
Paul is talking about female (v. 26) and male (v. 27) homosexuality. Both are not “natural.” The word he uses is φυσικόςis (physikos)” everything which by its origin or by observation of its constitution seems to be a given. To call it ‘given’…is already to go beyond the sphere of naive description and implies a judgment on its actual constitution or true nature.”[1] In other words, male-male and female-female sexual relations are unnatural—against nature; against what is “a given.”
To put a fine but biblically and theologically fine point on it, such relations are a denial Genesis 1:1 and the rest of the creation account in chapters 1 and 2. It is a denial of creation and, therefore, of the Creator.
Here is where the connection to John 3:16 comes in. The God who “so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” is the same One who created the world in the beginning. To be reconciled to that God a person must lay down the arms of rebellion against him. That is, a person cannot continue worshiping the creation rather than the Creator and experience the saving grace of Jesus Christ, who is the Creator’s Son.
To make sure I am being clear—there is no such thing as a “gay Christian” or an “LGBTQIA+ Christian” or any other reality-denying-hyphenated Christian. You cannot deny the Creator and his creation and have his salvation at the same time. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus took place in the real world. He is a real Savior for real sinners. The salvation he gives is a real salvation. It is impossible, therefore, to experience this salvation while denying reality and the real God who both created it and accomplished salvation in it.
You cannot have the God of salvation while continuing in rebellion against the God of creation. He is the same God. What this means is that Tim Keller’s would-be aphorism, though readily parroted by J.D. Greear and Ed Litton (and who knows how many after them) is as spiritually dangerous as it is disingenuous. Said Keller, “I know homosexuality doesn’t send you to hell because heterosexuality doesn’t send you to heaven.” While progressives and homosexuals readily applaud Keller’s cleverness, the Apostle Paul begs to differ. He wrote, “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:5–6). Homosexuals do are not excluded from the “sexually immoral.”
You cannot have the God of salvation while continuing in rebellion against the God of creation. He is the same God. You cannot have the real Jesus while you insist on living in unreality. An inevitable component of true repentance is the renouncing of every relation that is “contrary to nature.”
Soteriology is built on ontology. You cannot have the grace that saves while rebelling against the nature that is. We should never mislead anyone by suggesting they may savingly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ while living in the unreality of LGBTQIA+ identity or the contra-reality of homosexuality.
The good news is that those who are enslaved to such false ways of living are not beyond hope. The gospel really is the power of God to salvation for all who believe. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Corinthian church was a living testimony of this. In his list of the kinds of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God, Paul includes “the sexually immoral,” “adulterers,” and “men who practice homosexuality.” But then he reminds the church that “such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
By all means, let us proclaim the amazing grace that is announced in John 3:16. But let us never do so to the exclusion to the undeniable reality that is revealed in Genesis 1:1.
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Post by Admin on Feb 28, 2024 17:24:10 GMT -5
TOM ASCOL Some Will Apostatize The Bible never sugarcoats the painful realities of living in a fallen world. Sin is portrayed in all of its dark hues, and the best of men are acknowledged to be at best, mere men. Similarly, the church is portrayed as in a constant state of conflict until the Lord Jesus returns.
The church in the world is the church militant—always engaged in warfare, under attack and advancing doggedly onward through enemy territory. As is true with any army, the church is not immune to the loss of some of her members. In fact, the skill and tenacity of our enemies are intent on destroying as many as they can.
Paul warns Timothy of such loss in the opening verses of 1 Timothy 4. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (v. 1). Those “later times” are here. They have been present since Christ’s first coming and will continue until his return.
Paul intends to encourage Timothy by informing him of the inevitability that some will apostatize. Timothy is pastoring the church in Ephesus—a church that Paul himself planted. Yet, among the members of that church, among those who professed to be followers of Jesus, some would depart from the faith.
From Judas onward the church has been confronted with the painful reality of apostasy. When those who have once been bright, shining lights among the people of God later turn away from the paths of discipleship and abandon the teachings of God’s Word, it is brings great sorrow to fellow church members. Perhaps none feel such sorrows as deeply as those pastors whose responsibility it is to shepherd the flock.
How are we to understand those who fall away? Are our Armininian friends right in their teaching that genuine Christians can lose their salvation? No. Salvation conveys eternal life and Jesus promised that His people are secure because “no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:29). Paul assures us that the One who began a good work in us “will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
John gives us insight into what is going on in the lives of those who profess to follow Jesus but then turn away from him, depart from his Word and reject his people. “They went out from us,” the apostle writes, “but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).
The antidote to apostasy is a rigorous devotion to the truth of God’s Word.
When someone departs from the faith never to be recovered it is not that he has lost the salvation that was once possessed. Rather, such a person demonstrates by his departure that, no matter how loudly he professed to belong to the Lord’s redeemed, he did not genuinely possess the salvation that comes through faith in Christ. Though such people might be among us, they are not “of us.”
Paul explains how this happens. How a person lives is determined by what he believes. Those who fall away do so because they become devoted to the “teachings of demons.” This does not mean that they get caught up in the occult. Rather, they come to believe notions that originate in hell and are consequently led away from the faith.
This is what causes people to make up rules that God’s Word does not teach (“Do not get married” or “Do not eat”) and to become convinced that by following them they are spiritually safe. In reality, they have fallen prey to “deceitful spirits” who use liars with seared consciences to spread their spiritual poison (1 Timothy 4:2).
Apostates are people who have been deceived. They have been duped into believing lies rather than the truth and, as a result, are not standing firm but are falling away.
The antidote to apostasy, then, is a rigorous devotion to the truth of God’s Word. It is in the Word that the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ is revealed. Becoming increasingly grounded in the gospel is what gives stability to a believer. As Psalm 1 says, the blessed and stable man is the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates in it day and night (vv. 2-3).
Pastors must be radically committed to teaching the Word of God in all of its fullness and simplicity. This is why Paul repeatedly emphasizes the importance of sound doctrine in his letters to Timothy and Titus on pastoral ministry (1 Timothy 1:3, 10, 4:6, 16, 6:3; 2 Timothy 3:16, 4:3; Titus 1:9, 2:1). This is also why no Christian should settle for anything less.
There is a battle going on in the minds of all those who know the Lord. It is a battle between truth and falsehood—between the teaching of God’s Word and the teachings of demons. What you believe will inevitability determine how you live.
Make sure that the ideas and convictions to which you become devoted are derived from Scripture alone. There is no other way to stand firm in the faith.
This article was originally written for TableTalk Magazine in July 2009.
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Post by Admin on Mar 6, 2024 19:31:34 GMT -5
TOM ASCOL Unity in Christ One of the greatest tragedies in 21st century Christianity is the degree to which identity politics has infiltrated our churches. Hardly a day goes by that I do not communicate with believers who lament the sorrows that have come on their churches due to the godless ideologies of critical theory or intersectionality gaining a foothold in their congregations. Where once there was mutual love and unity among brothers and sisters of various backgrounds, ethnicities, educational backgrounds, or income levels, now there is suspicion, frustration, and disunity within their ranks.
Such tribalism and rivalry cannot coexist with humble, sincere devotion to Jesus Christ as Lord. To have Christ is to embrace the ways of Christ which includes living with the people of Christ in a local church in the unity of the Spirit. Christians are able to do that because “in Christ” we are made into “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). Seeing yourself as a hyphenated-Christian before you see yourself as a blood-bought sinner inevitably tears the fabric of this precious unity.
As the Apostle Paul puts it in Ephesians 4:4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Any idea or teaching that leads to the balkanization of a church denies this fundamental truth and comes from the pit of hell. No Christian should fall prey to such error and no pastor should allow it entry into the church he serves.
I appreciate what Alistair Begg has written on this in a devotional thought on “The Key to Unity.” His wisdom and encouragement are welcome counsel to every follower of Christ who is trying to navigate the swirling currents of contemporary Christian thought.
The Key to Unity
“In him you also are begin built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22
When someone comes to Christ by faith, the transformation of their identity is comprehensive. In the language Paul employs in Ephesians 2, the dead sinner is now alive in Christ; the child of wrath becomes a child of God. But the new identity is not merely individual. We are not each of us alone in Christ; we are in Him with all of God’s people. This is why Paul, in Ephesians 2, moves from our individual experience of grace to the corporate work that God’s grace accomplishes. Paul tells us, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (v.19). The “one new man” (v. 15) that Christ is making is gloriously crowded with fellow heirs of grace. This is not to say that our individual human identity becomes irrelevant. Our background and our makeup—our sex, ethnicity, and personal history—are not obliterated in Christ. We are who we are, made in God’s image, fashioned according to His purposes. But what unifies us in Christ—our union with Christ—transcends everything else.
We must beware the temptation to forget the reason for our unity. No one is immune from turning elements of their identity into barriers—barriers of status, of color, of class, of personality type, or personal preferences. As Christians, we must be prepared to acknowledge how easy it is to get this wrong. We must be prepared, if we find ourselves guilty of such wrong, to repent from and grieve over that which displeases God.
The key to Christian unity is the gospel. Paul recognized that only God can soften hard hearts, only God can open blind eyes, and ony God can bring disparate people together and form something truly, gloriously united. God is making “one new man” and He is making that new man in His church. In Christ, God is building a “holy temple” (Ephesians 2:21) that is “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Partiality based on race, class, or status has no place in the place where God dwells by His Spirit. One day you will experience the fullness of your union with Christ and His people for eternity; but that can, and should, begin now. You have the privilege of fostering that unity today in the way you use your time and in the way you think of, pray for, and speak to your brothers and sisters in your church.
We are building day by day,
As the moments glide away,
Our temple, which the world may not see;
Every victory won by grace
Will be sure to find its place
In our building for eternity.
—Fanny J. Crosby, “We are Building”
(Truth for Life, 365 Daily Devotions, February 12)
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Post by Admin on Mar 30, 2024 16:59:58 GMT -5
How You Can Serve Your Guests Tomorrow on Resurrection Sunday (and every Sunday after that) Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL How you can serve our guests tomorrow on Resurrection Sunday (and every Sunday after that)
Tomorrow, like many churches, we expect more than the usual number of guests to join us for worship. Some of these will have been specifically invited by our members and some will attend for other reasons. Nearly all first-time guests to our worship services feel a little self-conscious. They don’t know all that we know, including simple things like, where they should sit, where the bathrooms are, if their children are welcome in the service and what to expect. You can go a long way to making our guests feel welcome by looking for those you don’t know and taking the initiative to introduce yourself to them and talking to them for a few minutes.
Here are 10 practical suggestions that can help us all show the love of Christ to guests who visit our worship gatherings.
Pray on Saturday night and Sunday before church for our worship time. Ask the Lord to help those who lead us and to speak through His Word.
Pray for yourself—that God will strengthen your faith in Christ and your repentance for sin.
Then pray that the Lord will bring guests to join us and ask Him to grant them faith and repentance by speaking to them through His Word.
If you are able (and I know many are not) park in the least desirable spots, even across the street if you can. This will allow those who are less familiar with us to easily find the best parking places near the building.
Greet people in the parking lot—those you know and those you don’t know.
Let those who have taken the initiative to visit us know that we are glad they are with us. Offer to show them inside and introduce them to others.
Sit in the least desirable seats, if you can. That usually means near the front, on the sides and in the middle of the sections.
Try to leave seats that are easily accessible for those who might arrive late.
If you see someone who looks like they may not be sure where to go or what to do, go and introduce yourself to them. Ask them to sit with you (if they agree, feel free to take one of the better seats J).
Silently pray before and during the service for the Lord to manifest His presence among us.
Worship! Listen when a leader is speaking or reading the Word. Pray along silently when we are being led in prayer. Sing wholeheartedly as to the Lord when we sing.
Let those among us who do not know the Lord witness the sincere devotion of those of us who do.
Plan not to leave at any point during the service (and help your children plan to stay without needing to walk out).
Some people must get up and leave during worship due to sickness, pregnancy, caring for children or an emergency. But I suspect most of this kind of movement during our services is really not necessary. Take time to go to the bathroom and get water before the service (and if you have children, help them to do the same) so that you can focus without distraction and not unnecessarily be a distraction during the service.
After the service look for guests and greet them. Encourage them to go to our welcome center. Offer to show them the way. Tell them you are glad they came. Consider offering them your contact information with an invitation to contact you if they have any needs or questions (especially if they are new in the area). Invite them back.
Pray. During the invocation (first prayer of the service), pray specifically for the guests among us. If, in speaking with a guest, it is appropriate, ask them how you can pray for them. Write down what they say, and commit to do so. Consider praying briefly (very briefly) for them right there, by asking something like, “Would it be ok if we step aside and I pray briefly for you right now?” If they agree, be specific and brief.
Remember what it was like the first time you attended a worship service at Grace.
Did anyone particularly show you kindness and warm hospitality? Imitate them tomorrow.
Could someone have done something that would have made you feel more welcome or less awkward? Then do that for someone tomorrow.
CHRISTIAN LIFE, CHURCH, CHURCH FAMILY, CHURCH MEMBERSHIP, CORPORATE WORSHIP, EASTER, GOODFRIDAY, PASTORAL MINISTRY, RESURRECTION SUNDAY, SERVING, WORSHIP Tom Ascol
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Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2024 8:14:43 GMT -5
Kill Your Sin Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL Kill Your Sin On May 1, 2003, Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven year old backpacker, did something unthinkable in order to save his life. After being pinned for five days by an eight-hundred pound boulder in a remote Utah canyon, he took his dull pocketknife and cut off his right arm to free himself.
He had tried chipping away at the rock at first, but it would not budge. Finally, he realized that he had only two choices. Either he must cut off his arm, or he would die. On the fifth day, hungry and dehydrated, he sawed through his flesh just below the elbow in order to free himself.
He walked out of that canyon without his right arm, but with his life. This is the exact picture that Jesus gives us when telling us how to deal with sin that remains in our lives. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matt. 5:29–30).
Jesus is not speaking literally. If you steal with your right hand, then simply amputating it will not cure you of thievery. You could continue stealing with your left hand. And if you remove your right eye because it has been an instrument of lusting, you still have your left eye that can be used for the same purpose.
We must be willing to give up even good things in our effort to put sin to death.
Our Lord’s words are intended to shock us into recognition of the seriousness with which we must deal with the sin that remains in our lives as believers. We must treat it ruthlessly. We must be willing to give up even good things (analogous to eyes and arms) in our effort to put sin to death.
“Be killing sin or it will be killing you,” wrote that prince of puritan theologians, John Owen, in his classic work on the mortification of sin. He understood Jesus’ point that these are the only two options that a believer has when it comes to dealing with his remaining sin.
Either fight decisively against the sin in your life or consign yourself to spiritual death. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13). There is no alternative.
Does this mean that salvation is not by grace or that a Christian can lose his salvation? No. What it means is that the grace that brings salvation trains us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:12). The grace that provides justification for us works sanctification in us.
The words of Jesus are a sober warning of the deadly consequences of regarding sin lightly. He calls everyone who has been saved by grace to combat ruthlessly the sin that remains in our lives. We must become willing to act as drastically to preserve our spiritual lives as Aron Ralston was to save his physical life.
What would make a person do something as severe as cutting off his own arm? He must be deeply convinced of the deadly danger of his present condition. “If I continue as I am, I will die.” In other words, he must believe that if he stays on his current course — if he does not change — he will be destroyed. He must feel desperate about his condition.
This is exactly what Jesus is trying to shock us into understanding. If sin is allowed to live unopposed in your life, then it will take you to hell. To believe that is to experience the kind of spiritual desperation that Paul expressed in Romans 7:13–24.
But along with desperation a Christian must also be convinced of the real prospect of life. Death awaits me if I do not kill my sin. But life is guaranteed along the path of mortification of sin. We are saved not because we fight against sin. We fight against sin because we have been saved.
Because Jesus Christ died for every one of our sins we can be sure that God will forgive us all our sins. We can also be confident that he will one day finally deliver us from the last vestige of sin. Every Christian will one day be completely and eternally free from sin.
It is that hope, grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that keeps believers in the fight against sin that remains in their lives. Paul erupts in thanksgiving over this hope (Rom. 7:25).
Because of all that Jesus has accomplished for us, we who trust Him are free to face our sin honestly and fight against sin tenaciously.
The Gospel sets us free to deal ruthlessly with remaining sin. Because of all that Jesus has accomplished for us, we who trust Him are free to face our sin honestly and fight against it tenaciously. We can live this way knowing that His grace empowers us to take even extreme measures to pursue the holiness that He requires of us.
No one in heaven will regret fighting ruthlessly against sin while on earth. Rather, we will all praise God for His grace that enabled us to persevere in this fight to the end.
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Post by Admin on Apr 18, 2024 20:31:01 GMT -5
Five Benefits of Regular Family Worship Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL Five Benefits of Regular Family Worship Over the years I have asked groups of Christian adults how many of them grew up in homes where there was regular family worship. Early on it was rare to find people (typically of my generation or older) who answered affirmatively. In recent years the number of positive responses has increased dramatically—almost exclusively with younger generations of believers. This is a hopeful and encouraging indication of biblical reformation taking place.
Regular family worship is valuable and brings many blessings to parents and children alike. Here are five benefits that I have observed.
Regularly having planned times of reading the Bible, singing and praying together as a family helps establish a healthy spirituality in the home. When Scripture is regularly being read and discussed, when psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are regularly sung and when prayer is regularly offered to the Lord, it is not weird or even unusual to have spiritual conversations at any time. Often events, conversations and activities that inevitably occur in the course of family life naturally relate to a portion of Scripture recently read or discussed. Application of biblical teaching is more readily made when the Bible itself is frequently read together. Questions about spiritual matters don’t seem out of place when spiritual truth is regularly discussed in a family. Family worship is a great way for parents to evangelize and disciple their children. God places this responsibility squarely on the shoulders of parents when Scripture instructs us to bring children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Yes, this means that parents should see to it that their children are consistently integrated into the life of a biblically healthy church and regularly under the preaching and teaching of God’s Word in that church. But it also means that parents are to be directly engaged in teaching their children the truth about God from Scripture. As Moses instructed the Israelites, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Parents are responsible for spiritually training their children and regular family worship tremendously aids in that effort. Children can learn to worship corporately with other believers by consistently worshiping the Lord in their homes. This does not mean that family worship will have the same formality of church worship but it does mean parents can show children the importance of being attentive and reverent when God’s Word is being read, when praise is being offered to Him in song and when He is being addressed in prayer. Reverence and attentiveness are learned traits and wise parents know that their children will not naturally acquire them. It is much easier to teach children how and why to be reverent in the Lord’s Day gatherings of the church if those same lessons are being reinforced in the familiar surroundings of the home throughout the week. As a pastor I am always encouraged when I see parents taking this responsibility seriously because I know that their children are being taught to worship the living God. Regular family worship provides parents natural opportunities to encourage their children to talk about their inner spiritual lives. “What does this Scripture mean for us today?” “How should we respond to what God says?” “Do you really believe this?” Such questions can be thoughtfully and disarmingly asked at such times. Parents can model how to respond to God’s Word by offering their own honest answers. As children see their parents depending on God’s grace, humbly confessing sin and hopefully trusting in Christ, they will be encouraged to express their own inner thoughts, fears, hopes and desires. They will also learn how to ask for prayer and to pray for others. Regular family worship provides an opportunity to testify to the truth and power of the gospel to guests in your home. When showing hospitality neighbors, friends or family, the regular rhythms of family worship should not be abandoned. If it is an established pattern in your home, then it will be natural to engage in it even with guests present. This should be handled wisely and humbly so as not to come across in a self-righteous or condemning way. A simple question can often suffice to avoid this. “We normally take a few minutes at this time to read the Bible, sing and pray as a family. Would you mind if we do that together?” When families regularly worship God in the home and regularly practice hospitality, this opportunity will regularly present itself. These are five benefits of family worship that I have seen and experienced over the years. What others would you add to the list?
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Post by Admin on Apr 18, 2024 22:20:40 GMT -5
Tom Ascol
Developing a Reformation Mindset Tom Ascol
The Apostle Paul spent more time in Ephesus than in any other on his missionary itinerary. It became his Asian headquarters on his third church planting tour. For three years he labored among the Ephesians, teaching them the gospel both privately and publicly (Acts 20:20, 31). Why did Paul stay so long in this one location? Did he find in Ephesus a haven, a type of resort or respite from the normal rigors of ministry? Was his tenure there extended because the work was easier and less stressful than in other cities?
Paul answers these questions in the letter which he wrote to Corinth from Ephesus. He wanted to return to the Corinthian church and was making plans to do so as quickly as possible. “But,” he writes, “I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9). It was not easy living which kept Paul in Ephesus. Rather, it was his commitment to see the gospel established in that city that prolonged his stay there.
Paul’s assessment of his situation reveals an attitude which every contemporary pastor who is committed to the doctrines of grace needs to cultivate. This attitude might be designated a “reformation mindset” and it is especially important for the man who is facing a work of biblical reform in his church.
Reformation is never easy. Without a reformation mindset like Paul’s, it is virtually impossible for a pastor committed to this kind of ministry to stay the course; the opposition is too strong, the heartaches are too deep and, often, the progress is too slow. In short, the spiritual, doctrinal and moral problems which plague many churches today are so serious that one is tempted to judge them not worth a serious effort toward reformation. Yet, as Paul recognized, that which makes the work difficult is precisely what makes it necessary.
The two reasons that Paul cites for extending his stay in Ephesus reflect his reformation mentality. First, he was afforded a great opportunity there. Second, he was being opposed by many adversaries. By evaluating his reasoning we may uncover some essential ingredients in developing an outlook that is bent on the work of reformation.
Recognize the Opportunities Paul was a preacher, an evangelist. His life’s ambition was that he “might by all means save some…for the gospel’s sake” (1 Cor. 9:22-23). In Ephesus he found an open door for the fulfillment of his calling.There were people there who were listening to him preach the gospel-both publicly and privately (Acts20:20). He had gained a hearing.
Paul found that the opportunities in Ephesus were “great.” This does not mean that his task was easy. Paul could not simply hang out a sign, throw open the doors and watch a church develop and grow. The opportunities were opportunities to work-to engage in diligent ministerial labor. Looking back on his time in Ephesus Paul could testify, “for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31). How many pastors today can say the same thing? How many would even consider this as a legitimate pastoral responsibility?
The door of opportunity which Paul judged to be great consisted of the privilege to spend and be spent for the sake of the gospel. It was the opportunity to weep for the souls of men and women; to preach and teach the gospel; to declare to the Ephesians “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
What made Ephesus such a wonderful opportunity to Paul was not the ease of the work, not the climate, the education level of the people, nor the salary package. No, what made it so attractive to Paul was the fact that God had providentially placed him there in the midst of so many needy people. And, as a minister of Christ, he was convinced that he had the answer to their needs in the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
The people to whom Paul had an opportunity to minister in Ephesus can be divided into at least three categories, each of which is still with us today.
The Partially Taught Upon arriving in Ephesus Paul encountered twelve disciples who had been baptized “into John’s baptism” (Acts 19:1-3). Whether these individuals were actually converted or not is subject to debate. On the one hand, Luke’s designation of them (“disciples,” v. 1) seems to indicate that they were already believers. One the other hand, their ignorance of the Holy Spirit and Paul’s instruction to them suggest that they were in need of conversion (vv. 3-4). Whatever their case (and theologically it could be either), they had received only partial teaching about Christ and His salvation. They needed to be further instructed. Like Apollos, they needed to have “the way of God more accurately explained” to them (Acts 18:26). Once Paul did this, they embraced the truth and adjusted their lives accordingly.
Rather than becoming overwhelmed or discouraged by the difficulties which these disciples presented, Paul seized it as an opportunity to teach them more thoroughly the gospel of Christ. He corrected their erroneous thinking and added to their incomplete understanding.
This type of ministry is still needed today. In every church there are sincere, earnest followers of the Lord who have been only partially or inaccurately taught. Their understanding is not as good as their experience. They need to be established in the faith. When they come to a knowledge of the truth their outlook changes; they recognize more of the amazing grace of God in bringing them to salvation.
The Religiously Lost Others that Paul encountered in Ephesus could best be described as unconverted religionists. These were the Jews, to whom (as was his custom), he took the gospel first (Acts 19:8). Like the religiously lost of every generation these individuals thought themselves safe because of their commitment to certain ceremonial duties.
They are like the older brother in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son. They are convinced that their service and works (or positions and affiliations) merit acceptance with the Father (cf. Luke 15:29). Further,they are threatened and feel indicted by anyone who insists that salvation is wholly of God’s grace.
Paul did not overlook unconverted religious people. He saw them as a great mission field. After all, he had once been just like them. Having been saved by grace himself, he was convinced that God’s grace could reach them, also. Therefore he preached the gospel to them and set before them the one way of salvation.
There is evidence that some Jews were converted and became part of the church in Ephesus. But there is also the indication that “some were hardened and did not believe.” Further, they even “spoke evil of the Way before the multitude” (Acts 19:9). The true reformer will inevitably meet with recalcitrance and criticism on the part of some. Paul did not allow this to knock him off course, and neither should we. I fsome refuse to believe and become critical of the direction and content of the preaching, there are others who will receive it and who will be transformed by it. For the sake of the latter we must not be overwhelmed by the former. Like Paul, we must be willing “to endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).
The Openly Lost Along with the impartially taught and the religiously unconverted, Paul had great opportunity to minister to many who made no profession of being right with God. The apostle had a deep love for those who were obviously unconverted. The presence of many Gentiles was no small part of the reason that he extended his stay in Ephesus.
Proper reformation mentality is never devoid of genuine compassion for spiritually lost people. It is not enough to straighten out ignorant believers and confront religious hypocrites. The pastor bent on reformation must also see the fields white unto harvest. He must cultivate a love for sinners that is reflective of our Lord’s own heart.
In the heat of the battle over God’s truth, while correcting mistaken notions about the gospel and exposing the fallacy of false belief, the temptation to lose sight of the harvest fields is great. The pastor and church who are committed to thorough, biblical reformation will never be satisfied with seeing a sanctifying work among believers that is not accompanied by a regenerating work among unbelievers.
The humbling yet hopeful truth about evangelism is that one sows and another waters but only God can give the increase. The work of regeneration is beyond human ability. It is the sovereign activity of God. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit”(John 3:8). Evangelism-taking the gospel to the unconverted-is our responsibility. It is the gospel that the Spirit uses to regenerate unbelievers. Therefore, in complete dependence on the Sovereign Spirit we must promiscuously spread the gospel throughout our communities and around the world.
Paul preferred to preach the gospel to those who had never heard it (Rom. 15:20-21). He did not allow himself to be distracted from the great privilege and responsibility to make disciples of all nations. Evangelism must never be set against the work of reformation. The disciples in the book of Acts never did. They confronted and corrected problems in the church without setting aside their ongoing evangelistic efforts. Genuine reformation will always include a healthy emphasis on evangelism.
Rightly Assess the Opposition A second key dimension in Paul’s reformation mindset was the proper assessment of his opponents. It may sound strange to some that a minister of the gospel would have opponents. We are, after all, called to live blameless lives and to strive for a conscience that is “without offense toward God and men” (Acts 24:16; cf. 2 Cor. 6:3; Philip. 1:10). Yet, even the minister who attains this to a large degree (and no one perfectly attains it) will inevitably meet with opposition.
Though we are not to give offense, the gospel is irreparably offensive. It is still a stumbling block and a scandal to various kinds of unbelievers. Make no mistake, where the biblical gospel is preached, there will be opposition. To think otherwise reveals not only an unrealistic naivete but also lack of familiarity with the book of Acts.
Paul faced strong opposition to his ministry. He had “many adversaries.” Now, it is certain that he took no delight in being opposed. There is a type of minister that seems to measure his effectiveness by the number of people who are mad at him. Paul was not like that. But neither was he like those who interpret every opposition as a failure or as a reason to pack up and leave town.
Notice what Paul says. He determined to stay in Ephesus not in spite of the presence of many adversaries, but because of them! He judged opposition to his ministry as reason to stay. We mobile moderns do not typically think this way. Pastors are often tempted to interpret opposition as divine indication that their ministry in that church is over. The man who readily yields to this temptation has not yet developed a reformation mindset and will inevitably find the work of reforming a local church an impossibility.
When we consider Paul’s adversaries in Ephesus there are two types that are easily identified.
Pagan Opponents In Ephesus the gospel challenged the prevailing false religions and related economic interests. As people were converted they, of course, abandoned their former false worship and ceased purchasing the handcrafted idols which were sold by the city silversmiths. Because the message was having an impact, anger was directed toward the messenger.
Demetrius became an outspoken opponent of Paul, rallying his fellow silversmiths against the apostle. His accusation reveals his animosity: “This Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the world worship” (Acts 19:26-27).
The hostility against Paul became so great that a riot broke out in the city. Yet, the apostle was not compelled to end his ministry in Ephesus because of this. Rather, he saw it as reason to stay. Why? Was Paul simply hardheaded? Was he belligerent? Did he take some kind of perverse pleasure in seeing people angered against him?
No. The only way to make sense of Paul’s response is to understand his reformation mentality. We gain further insight into his thinking by considering his address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus. Speaking of the chains and tribulations that awaited him in Jerusalem, he said, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
What matters is the cause of God and His truth in the world. If opportunity to preach the gospel continues, then contempt and hostility from the unbelieving world, even of the most hostile sort, is insufficient reason to leave.
Religious Opponents If opposition from pagans is difficult to handle, opposition from religious people is even more grievous. Paul’s greatest adversaries came from the Jewish leadership. These, very often, regarded themselves as paragons of virtue. They were the guardians of tradition and, consequently, resisted the “new” teaching of the early Christians (which in truth was a right understanding and fulfillment of the “old” teaching in theOld Testament).
Whereas the world is open and direct in its attack against the gospel and its messengers, religious opponents are always more subtle. Demetrius publicly instigated a riot against Paul. The Jews attacked him with carefully conceived plots (Acts 20:19). We have no way of knowing with certainty what those plots entailed, but the very idea suggests behind-the-scenes strategy and sinister aspirations.
Perhaps Paul had his religious opponents in mind when he warned the Ephesian elders of “savage wolves” who would come into the church and men from within their own ranks who would rise up and speak “perverse things” (Acts 20:29-30). His letters to Timothy, who was pastoring the church in Ephesus, indicate similar concern about opposition from religionists (cf. 1 Tim. 1:3-7; 4:1-5, 12; 2 Tim. 2:14-18, 23-26; 3;1-13; 4:15, etc.).
The sad fact is that from Paul’s day to our own, subtle, harmful opposition has always been mounted against the gospel by those who fancy themselves religious. And their hatred of the message manifests itself in contempt for the messenger. It is a painful and trying experience to endure. At times it can be completely deflating. But, it is no reason to stop laboring for thorough, biblical reformation in a church.
Conclusion In this day when churches are in such spiritual disarray and doctrinal disrepair, the call of every pastor and every serious believer is to pray for and work toward reformation. To do this requires the development of a fresh outlook, a new perspective on the challenges and opportunities before us.
Paul gives us an excellent model to emulate. He looked upon his work with a reformation mentality. This same attitude is found in the great martyrs and reformers throughout church history. It is epitomized in Martin Luther and given expression in his great Reformation hymn.
And tho’ this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us…
Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.
If we hope to see a recovery of the gospel in our day, we must embrace the attitude of this hymn. We must commit ourselves with apostolic tenacity to the task before us. Most importantly, we must commit ourselves afresh to remember Jesus Christ, “who endured such hostility against Himself, lest we become weary and discouraged in our souls” (Heb. 12:3).
It must be a sign that reformed preachers are rendering acceptable service when they are resented and resisted by the carnal in their congregation. This is not meant as a defense of ministerial indiscretion but as an encouragement to ministerial faithfulness. A young preacher is apt to blame it all on himself when the principal men and women of a congregation are aroused against him. It may indeed be that he is partly to blame. But the greatest sin might rather be in those who rise up against him because his application of God’s word is all too true. Religious sinners, when cut close to the bone, can react with incredible fury and they can spit like fire at the hand which wields the sword in the pulpit.
–Maurice Roberts, “Acceptable Service” Banner of Truth, July 1989, p. 3. Last Edit: Mar 13, 2024 at 9:36pm
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2024 21:52:34 GMT -5
2023 SBC Resolution On The Office Of Bishop/Elder/Pastor Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL 2023 SBC Resolution On The Office Of Bishop/Elder/Pastor I have submitted the following resolution to the 2023 Resolutions Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention for adoption at the annual meeting scheduled for June 13-14 in New Orleans, Louisiana. My hope is that the committee will recommend it to the convention and give the messengers an opportunity to vote on it. From their beginning in 1845, Southern Baptists have been clear about the nature, qualifications, and function of the office of Bishop/Elder/Pastor. All three designations are used for the same office. It is only in recent years that Southern Baptists have begun to speak on this issue equivocally. Though some contemporary Southern Baptists may be unclear on what a pastor is, our heritage is free from such uncertainty. May this resolution provide the messengers gathered in New Orleans the opportunity to reaffirm that heritage and speak with clarity on this unambiguous New Testament teaching.
2023 SBC Resolution on the Office of Bishop/Elder/Pastor Tom Ascol
Whereas, The Baptist Faith and Message that was adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925 was identified in its preamble as the “New Hampshire Confession of Faith, revised at certain points, and with some additional articles growing out of present needs”; and
Whereas, The revision of the Baptist Faith and Message in 1963 was led by a committee who declared that it “sought to build upon the structure of the 1925 Statement” while “in no case [seeking to] delete from or to add to the basic contents of the 1925 Statement”; and
Whereas, The committee that revised the Baptist Faith and Message that was adopted in 2000 stated in its preamble that it “respects and celebrates the heritage of the Baptist Faith and Message, and affirms the decision of the Convention in 1925 to adopt the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, ‘revised at certain points and with some additional articles growing out of certain needs . . . .’ and further affirmed their “respect the important contributions of the 1925 and 1963 editions of the Baptist Faith and Message”; and
Whereas, Article XIII of the New Hampshire Confession states that in a gospel church the “only scriptural officers are Bishops, or Pastors, and Deacons”; and
Whereas, Article VI of the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message states that a church’s “Scriptural officers are bishops, or elders, and deacons”; and
Whereas, The same article (VI) in the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message substitutes the word “pastors” for the words “bishops, or elders” in the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message, so that it says that a church’s “Scriptural officers are pastors and deacons”; and
Whereas, The same article (VI) in the revision of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message retains the exact language found in the 1963 version when it states that a church’s “scriptural officers are pastors and deacons”; and
Whereas, The New Testament uses all three titles that the Baptist Faith and Message has used to describe the one office of bishop (ἐπίσκοπος, episkopos; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:7), elder (πρεσβύτερος, presbuteros; Acts 14:23, 20:17; 1 Tim. 5:17, 19), and pastor (ποιμήν, poimēn; Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:1-5), thus demonstrating that from its first expression in 1925 through its revisions in 1963 and 2000, the Baptist Faith and Message has affirmed that, along with deacon, the only other office in a New Testament church is that of bishop/elder/pastor; therefore, be it
Resolved, That the messengers from Southern Baptist churches convening in the annual meeting in New Orleans on June 13-14, 2023 affirm that the only officers of a local church that the New Testament recognizes is that of deacon and of bishop/elder/pastor; and be it further
Resolved, That Southern Baptist churches be encouraged to remember our biblical heritage and teach that these are the only two officers appointed by Christ to serve along with all the members of a New Testament church and to insist on all the biblical qualifications that the New Testament requires of all those who would hold either office of bishop/elder/pastor or deacon.
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2024 22:14:02 GMT -5
False Narratives And Those Who Perpetrate Them Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL False Narratives And Those Who Perpetrate Them False narratives are an affront to God and damaging both to those who promote them and those who are slandered by them. God never lies and is the God of truth (Titus 1:2). The person who traffics in lies—concocts stories and accusations that are not true—breaks the ninth commandment and sins first and foremost against God. In a day when sin is not taken nearly seriously enough, those who regard the Bible should pause and soberly consider what God says about lying.
Jesus said of the devil, “When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
“You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Psalm 5:6).
“No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes” (Psalm 101:7).
“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” (Proverbs 6:16-19).
“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22).
There are more, but those verses are sufficient to show that the person who perpetuates lies is acting like the devil and making themselves liable to God’s judgment. Anyone who fears God should tremble at the thought of spreading false narratives before His very face.
Such malicious activity is also a violation of love because bearing false witness against your neighbor can be deadly for the one about whom you lie. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). This has been sadly illustrated countless times throughout history.
This is what happened to our Lord. After Jesus healed a man’s hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees and Herodians began to plot a way “to destroy him” (Mark 3:6). They had a goal in mind, an agenda. All they needed was a plan to execute it. That plan included having Him falsely arrested and unjustly condemned by the testimony of false witnesses. Mark succinctly describes the success of their plot:
Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” Yet even about this their testimony did not agree (Mark 14:55-59).
Their lies didn’t have to agree. They merely had to further the narrative that this Man deserved to die.
A false narrative is a conclusion in search of an argument. It is an agenda in need of patrons, a goal that, in the mind of the narrator, is worthy of being supported by lies because, you know, the end is so noble that it fully justifies the means.
Anyone who fears God should tremble at the thought of spreading false narratives before His very face.
Because false narratives are inherently unscrupulous and ungodly, no Christian should ever traffic in them. Yet, too many who bear the Name of Christ do exactly that today. In fact, in our tribal age the zeal to justify “my side” can easily numb otherwise well-meaning believers to the biblical standards of truth-telling.
I was reminded of this last week when I received a text asking me if claims made in a series of tweets by Stephen Feinstein, a pastor in California, were true. I’ve met Stephen and believe him to be a sincere, faithful pastor. The story that Stephen told (which involved me at several significant points) to rebuke people for promoting false narratives was simply not true. When I pointed this out to him in the same forum where he had made his assertions, he apologized and deleted his false comments (which is proper and greatly appreciated).
A far more serious and insidious false narrative has been perpetrated against John MacArthur in recent weeks. Sadly, that is not uncommon because there are numerous people who always seem ready to spread unfounded accusations about him. Rachael Denhollander is simply one of the latest and most outspoken of his critics to employ this strategy against Pastor MacArthur.
Mrs. Denhollander is well-known in the evangelical world for her faithful witness for Christ as she testified against rapist, Dr. Larry Nassar when he was convicted of sexually abusing numerous girls on the US women’s gymnastics team. Since then, she has been an outspoken advocate for sex abuse victims. At times, sadly, her zeal as an advocate has led her to perpetuate falsehoods in pursuit of what she believes is justice.
Most recently, she and her followers have boldly accused MacArthur of being closely associated with Bill Gothard and working to resolve claims of abuse by Gothard to avoid litigation. The conclusion that these false charges were meant to support is that MacArthur and Gothard are birds of a feather and all the unbiblical teachings of the latter on authority and submission should be attributed to the former. When those in positions to know sought to refute or even question the accusations they were assured that there are plenty of receipts, including “photographic evidence.”
Such “evidence,” Denhollander claims, demonstrates that “they were closely aligned during that era.” Furthermore, she boldly claims, “I also have first-hand information directly from individuals involved in both ministries at the time.” All of this sounds convincing, and it is to people who have no interest in truth. Because all those claims are, in fact, false.
If there were ever any doubt about this, Ron Henzel has completely erased it with his thorough, measured, and devastating critique of the false narrative that has been concocted, believed, and promoted by those who should know better. You should go read it here. If you have believed and spread the false narrative Denhollander et al have spread and you are a Christian, you should repent. Jesus died for just such sins, and He freely forgives us all our sins, so there is no reason to pretend or try to cover up when we sin. Christians are repenters as well as believers.
Scripture is filled with warnings against bearing false witness—against lying. It is also not silent about believing lies or believing any accusation without careful warrant. “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15). Paul reiterates this in the New Testament, instructing Christians to be especially careful about entertaining accusations against elders without warrant. “Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses” (1 Timothy 5:19). If these and other passages about being careful were taken seriously by Christians, the false narratives would die quickly after leaving the lips (or keyboard) of the talebearer (For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases, Proverbs 26:20).
False narratives should be renounced by every follower of Jesus Christ. After all, He is the truth. Those who belong to Him should walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). We should, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them”
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2024 22:21:33 GMT -5
John Dagg on Evil Surmising Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL
As I have written elsewhere, we are living through a famine of sound moral reasoning in the evangelical world today. The multiple failures at this point reveal an unbiblical separation between theology and ethics. The idea that one can live rightly while believing wrongly is foolish, and while right belief does not guarantee right living at every point, theology does provide the basis for judging the rightness or wrongness of actions. That is, when a person acts contrary to what he believes his theology provides a corrective if it is allowed to function in that way on the practical level. But when one’s theology is faulty then ethical failure tends to be an outworking of that wrong belief. Rather than provide a needed corrective to bad living, bad theology confirms it.
For example, if one holds to an antinomian view of grace in salvation, then living immorally is fortified by cavalier platitudes like “once saved, always saved” and “since where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, let’s continue in sin so that grace may abound.” Yet, if grace is rightly understood as working a change in the believer so that he pursues a life of holiness, then immoral attitudes and actions can be corrected by the sound theology of that understanding.
In many ways our evangelical forebears understood this relationship far better than we do today. As such, they can help provide some help to us sharpen our moral reasoning. One such helpful teacher from our Baptist heritage is John Dagg. He was the first Baptist theologian in the southern United States to write a systematic theology. Along with that he produced A Treatise on Church Order which he considered to be the Second Part of his Manual of Theology.
A lesser known volume that Dagg wrote is his Elements of Moral Science. The book is a rich resource in thinking and acting Christianly. Though some of the specifics may be dated, the principles Dagg teaches are timeless. One such principle is the wickedness of evil surmising. He addresses this issue in chapter 8, section 8 of his book, which is found on pages 195-197 of the 1860 edition. While we do not hear much about this topic in our day, Dagg demonstrates that sincere Christians should work hard to avoid falling into this pattern of immoral judgment.
Evil Surmising Reputation is the opinion of the community; and since I am one of the community, my opinion concerning my neighbor, is a part of his reputation. If I think less of him than I ought, I so far do wrong to his reputation. Hence we do wrong to others, when we judge them too unfavorably; and the wrong is not confined to them, but rebounds on ourselves. The habit of judging unfavorably, hardens the heart against the social affections and sympathies, on which our happy intercourse with others greatly depends. It is directly opposed to the charity which “thinketh no evil;”1 and tends inevitably to cut us off from the sympathies and affections of others, and the approbation of heaven. “Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”2
Love to our neighbor will incline us to admit his sincerity, and attribute to him no other motives than those from which he professes to act. We resent the wrong, if others ascribe to us motives which we disclaim; and we ought, therefore, to avoid such judgment of others. Some men earn a reputation for insincerity, to which they are justly entitled, and there is no necessity that we should be blind to their true character; but there is no merit in being the first to suspect the evil designs of others. Some persons pride themselves on their deep insight into human character; and when some unlovely feature, before unsuspected, has been disclosed, they are ready to exclaim, I told you so; but they do not inform us how many times they have suspected evil which never existed. They are perhaps deceived as often as the less suspicious; but if they are not, it is better to be deceived sometimes, than to cultivate in ourselves the habit of thinking evil; to keep the mind in perpetual disquiet, with the apprehension of suffering wrong from all who approach us; and to banish all confidence from the intercourse of human society. To deal with honest men as if they were rogues, is a maxim which savors of the wisdom from beneath, rather than of that which cometh from above. The peace and happiness of human society depend much on the cultivation of love and mutual confidence; and it is better that men should be surprised and shocked by occasional abuse of confidence, than that they should be perpetually prepared for it by sleepless suspicion.
Much of the strife which disturbs society, originates in evil surmising. An injurious suspicion once entertained, cannot be concealed without great difficulty. If not expressed in words, it produces a cautiousness in action, by which the other party is led to suspect and resent its existence. Mutual suspicion being engendered, a fire is kindled within, which refuses to be smothered. If you would avoid strife and rage, check the very beginnings of evil surmising.
Since the most virtuous have imperfections, it is unjust, because of one failure, to judge the whole character corrupt. Peter denied his Master; but he notwithstanding loved and honored him, and suffered martyrdom in his cause. We ought not to judge a man destitute of any particular virtue, because he fails to exercise it in some one instance; and if it should be proved that he is totally destitute of a particular virtue, we ought not thence to conclude, that he is destitute of all virtue. Even the truly pious may have a sin that does easily beset them;1 and those who have not renounced all for Christ, may, like the young ruler whom Jesus loved,2 possess traits of character worthy to be loved and admired.
We should be careful not to suffer our estimate of others to be determined by their regard for us. “Sinners love those that love them;”3 but righteous judgment is not founded on considerations so selfish. If a man. has treated me unkindly, it does not follow that he is a bad man. Unkindness to me is not worse than unkindness to any other person; and if we strike from our list of friends all who have ever treated any one amiss, we shall have few names remaining. If we detect with keen perception, and decry with bold vociferation, the faults of our enemies or opponents, while we are blind to the faults of our friends, and those of our party; we do not judge according to righteousness. We should school ourselves to estimate every man, not by his bearing toward us, but by his true character.[1]
1 1 Cor. 13:5.
2 Matt. 7:1, 2.
1 Heb. 12:1.
2 Mark 10:21.
3 Luke 6:32.
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Post by Admin on Apr 25, 2024 22:23:48 GMT -5
Law and Gospel in Moral Reasoning Tom Ascol TOM ASCOL Law and Gospel in Moral Reasoning One of great failures of modern evangelical Christians that has been undeniably made manifest over the last few years is the lack of moral reasoning that plagues so many of our number—even those regarded as leaders. I have commented on this and written about it in relation to racial tensions and abortion and politics. At the bottom of this deficiency, I have argued, is a failure to recognize and think deeply about the teaching of God’s Word on law and gospel. Many of our leaders have rightly encouraged us to keep “the gospel above all” but have done so in ways that suggest there is no place for the law.
One of the great needs of our day is to recover what was better understood by many of our forebears about the relationship between law and gospel. Specifically, we need to face up to the fact that the God who gave us His gospel has also given us His law and He cares as much about His law being obeyed as He does His gospel being believed. Such understanding is no threat to the gospel. On the contrary, it exalts the gospel and protects it from antinomianism on the one hand and legalism on the other. In fact, the gospel cannot be properly appreciated apart from a recognition and appreciation of the law. The very subsoil of Mount Calvary is Mount Sinai.
God loves His law by which He rules us as much as He loves His gospel by which He saves us.
This is what I mean: Without the law, there is no sin and without the knowledge of the law there can be no recognition of sin (Romans 4:15, 5:13, 7:7-8; 1 John 3:4). Without sin, there is no need for grace—specifically, the grace of God in the gospel. The gospel—the person and work of Jesus—is for sinners (Luke 5:32). What Jesus did to accomplish our salvation—living a righteous life and dying a sacrificial, atoning death—was necessary because of our violation of God’s law. When a sinner turns from sin and trusts Christ for salvation, he is credited both with the righteousness that Christ earned by His life and the payment that He made by His death.
Such a saved sinner now loves Jesus and wants to please the God who freely saved Him at such a great cost. What does that look like? As Jesus put it, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). In other words, true discipleship under the lordship of Jesus looks like a life of faith in Christ that is committed to keeping His commandments. Anything less is not biblical Christianity. It is false faith. Jesus makes this plain when He asks, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46; cf. Matthew 7:21-23; 1 John 2:3-6).
God loves His law by which He rules us as much as He loves His gospel by which He saves us.
If a Christian fails to grasp this and order his life accordingly, he will not be able to see his way out of the moral morass that afflicts so many sectors of evangelicalism in our day. What J. Gresham Machen wrote about the law a century ago is as true today as it was then.
A new and more powerful proclamation of [the] law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour; men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they had only learned the lesson of the law….So it always is; a low view of law always brings legalism in religion; a high view of law makes a man a seeker after grace. Pray God that the high view may again prevail (What is Faith, 141-42).
The only hope of being delivered from the tyranny of ever-changing, man-made standards of righteousness is to be clearly committed to and advocates of God’s one, unchanging standard as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Without this, Christian moral reasoning is lost and virtue and righteousness will be dictated by the most effective mob. But, understanding and embracing such biblical wisdom grants freedom and strength to withstand the mobs and refuse to kowtow to their demands of obeisance to their false gods and compliance to their false standards. Christians who are committed to trust God’s gospel and obey His commandments will, with joy in their hearts, pursue the path of true righteousness regardless of cost or consequence.
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