A Changing Landscape

In John Piper's sermon this last Lord's Day, he spoke of how the moral landscape is different now from when he first became a pastor. Speaking of where we were in this land 33 years ago versus where we are now, he says:

It would have been unthinkable to suggest that anyone would seriously propose defining marriage as between two men or two women; and it would have been even more unthinkable that in a mere thirty years America would have lost its soul so profoundly that most Americans would approve of a definition of marriage that no society in the history of the world has ever embraced. And it would have been unthinkable that instead of rejecting the unreality of so-called same-sex marriage, the culture would begin to criminalize the naming of same-sex intercourse as sin — which it is.

And along with this tragic loss of our moral compass has come the increasing loss of freedoms and the increasing compulsion from government to conform to unbiblical views. Freedom of speech is disappearing as the secular consensus grows that our shame is our glory (Phil. 3:19), and that to use biblical language to describe sin is hateful and already in some places prosecuted as illegal. Freedom of worship is disappearing as metropolitan commissions and councils take the prerogative to prohibit worship spaces and activities. And along with the loss of freedoms to act in biblical ways, comes the governmental compulsion to act in unbiblical ways — to fund the killing of unborn children, to endorse the legitimacy of sinful behavior, and soon to participate in it (for example, if you are a military chaplain), and the compulsory normalizing of sin in public institutions that will probably force most biblical Christians out of the public schools.

How then shall we live? We must think soberly about our times and face the facts. We must not act like things are not all that bad, heads in the sand. And we must think about the way forward. Piper faces the facts and answers the how-then-shall-we-live question in this sermon.

The Broken Sinai Covenant and Pleading the Promise

More on Sinai:

This [covenant at Sinai and its priestly purpose] is an ideal picture. One serious problem remains. It is not Pharaoh this time but Israel itself. Separating the planning and description of the sanctuary (Exod. 25-31) from its construction in the middle of the camp (Exod. 35-40) is Israel’s sin (Exod. 32-34). . . . Within forty days, Israel breaks its covenant with God, violating the first and second commands. Impatient with waiting for Moses on the mountain, Israel creates an image of a golden calf to represent its God, and engages in false worship. The sin forces God to threaten to destroy Israel in agreement with the covenant and to start again with Moses. But Moses pleads (certainly not on the basis of the recently broken Sinai covenant) on the basis of the descendants promised in the covenant with Abraham as grounds for saving Israel (Exod. 32:13). It is only this reason that decisively moves God to have mercy on Israel.

—Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 104. Italics his. 

Man Well Drest

Prayer the Church's banquet, Angels' age,
             God's breath in man returning to his birth,
             The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almighty, sinners' tower,
             Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
             The six-days-world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
             Exalted Manna, gladness of the best,
             Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
             Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
             The land of spices; something understood.

—George  Herbert (1594-1633)

Slowing Down at Sinai

Dempster on the significance of Sinai:

After the exodus narrative the Israelites move to Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai stands in the way of Canaan, the land of their inheritance, but it is certainly no diversion, nor is it incidental. The centrality of this mountain is shown by a number of narrative signals. First and most obvious is the virtual suspension of narrative pace. Israel stays at Sinai for eleven months in real time (Exod. 19:1—Num. 10:11) and fifty-seven chapters in narrative time. This is important given the fact that sixty-eight chapters precede Sinai and fifty-nine chapters follow it. Sinai is central to the Torah.

—Stephen G. Dempster, Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 100.

The Task of Taking the Gospel to the Globe

Here is some perspective on the task of the gospel going global into all the nooks and crannies of unreached or unengaged people groups.

Let's be praying the Lord will send out some (more) from our midst to unreached and unengaged people groups!

Outstanding Sermon Series on Ecclesiastes

If you were looking for a good sermon series on Ecclesiastes, look no further. Pastor Doug O'Donnell, senior pastor of my local church, wrapped up today a 17-part sermon series that will find its way in due course into the Reformed Expository Commentary series published by P&R.

Pastor O'Donnell demonstrates care and sensitivity with this difficult to interpret book, and provides many good contemporary applications from the wise words of "Pastor Solomon." As a man of literature, one of O'Donnell's great strengths is his sensitivity to the literary dimensions and devices of the sacred text. So his handling of Ecclesiastes models rather well how to preach the genre of wisdom literature for those who want to hear how it might be done.

Have a listen!

Boy Meets Girl

Would you like to dance?

Lovely.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely . . ." (Phil. 4:8).

We Have Become the Offscouring of All Things. Or Have We?

Piper on professionalism and the pastorate:

We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (professionally?) so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested (professionally?) in our bodies (2 Cor. 4:9-11). 

I think God has exhibited us preachers as last of all in the world. We are fools for Christ's sake, but professionals are wise. We are weak, but professionals are strong. Professionals are held in honor, we are in disrepute. We do not try to secure a professional lifestyle, but we are ready to hunger and thirst and be ill-clad and homeless. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things (1 Cor. 4:9-13). Or have we? 

Brothers, we are not professionals! We are outcasts. We are aliens and exiles in the world (1 Pet. 2:11). Our citizenship is in heaven, and we wait with eager expectation for the Lord (Phil. 3:20). You cannot professionalize the love for His appearing without killing it. And it is being killed.  

The aims of our ministry are eternal and spiritual. They are not shared by any of the professions. It is precisely by the failure to see this that we are dying. 

—John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for a Radical Ministry (Nashville: B&H, 2013), 2.

Piper on Professionalization in the Pastorate

What does professionalization in the pastorate look like?

Professionalization carries the connotation of an education, a set of skills, and a set of guild-defined standards which are possible without faith in Jesus. Professionalism is not supernatural. The heart of ministry is. 

—John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for a Radical Ministry (Nashville: B&H, 2013), x.

God's Father-Love in the School of Prayer

A good lesson in the school of prayer:

The knowledge of God's Father-love is the first and simplest, but also the last and highest lesson in the school of prayer. Prayer begins in a personal relationship with the living God as well as a personal, conscious fellowship of love with Him. In the knowledge of God's Fatherliness revealed by the Holy Spirit, the power of prayer will root and grow. The life of prayer has its joy in the infinite tenderness, care, and patience of an infinite Father who is read to hear and help.

—Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer (Springdale: Whitaker House, 1981), 31.

Gossip and Flattery Defined

Kent Hughes:

Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face.

Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back.

HT: Justin Taylor

I recall hearing Pastor Hughes give these definitions when I sat under his preaching. And they were so convicting that I've never forgotten them.  

O Heavenly Father, I Know I Will Remain with You Forever

Luther:

O heavenly Father, God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ and God of all comfort, I thank you for revealing to me your dear Son, Jesus Christ, whom I believe. Him I have known and preached. Him I have loved and praised. Him heretics and all godless people do blaspheme and persecute. I pray, Lord Jesus, let my soul please you. O heavenly Father, although I must be separated from this body, I know I will remain with you forever. No one can pluck me from your hands. Amen.

—Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 102.

A God-Besotted Ministry

Murray on Edwards' God-intoxicated ministry:

For Edwards, the reality of communion with God belongs to the very nature of redemptive Christianity. All Christians, therefore, are to be people of prayer. "Seeing we have such a prayer-hearing God as we have," he tells his hearers, "let us all be much employed in the duty of prayer, let us live prayerful lives, continuing instant in prayer." For ministers this is a yet greater privilege and obligation. To serve God aright the priorities of Christ's ministry must also be their own. 

— Iain H. Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 144.

Debating as a Christian Duty

Here Doug Wilson ably, biblically, and persuasively argues that debating is a Christian duty. Well, if the man Jesus is to be the believer's model, of course he's right. And of course it can be done in the wrong spirit, too. Wilson also addresses that nicely.

I fear the main reason Christians and Christian leaders (who are called to it) shrink from this duty is cowardice, plain and simple. Cowardice is the biblical word for refusing ever "to get into it." But Jesus "got into it" all the time. Shouldn't we follow him? Or should we be the "Jesus, meek and mild flower child" of 21st century evangelicalism, rather than the real Jesus of the Bible? I mean, just read the gospels. As Wilson rightly points out.

This cowardice, this fear of man and fear of the loss of status and possessions can be cloaked under all sorts of good reasons to "just stay out of it, and be a gospel witness." But it's not really a gospel witness if doesn't imitate Jesus. And it's cowardice nonetheless, and we know where cowards go (Rev. 21:8).

Killing Sin Does Not Consist in the Improvement of One's Natural Temperament

In the fifth chapter of Owen's work On the Mortification of Sin, he discusses what does not pass for truly killing sin. He refers to five things that are not true mortification. I reproduce the third one here because of how often we go wrong here today:

The mortification of sin does not consist in the improvement of a quiet, sedate nature. Some men have an advantage by their natural constitution so far as they are not exposed to such violence of unruly passions and tumultuous affections as many others are. Let now these men cultivate and improve their natural frame and temper by discipline, consideration, and prudence, and they may seem to themselves and others very mortified men, when, perhaps, their hearts are a standing sink of all abominations. Some man is never so much troubled all his life, perhaps, with anger and passion, nor doth trouble others, as another is almost every day; and yet the latter hath done more to the mortification of the sin than the former. Let not such persons try their mortification by such things as their natural temper gives no life or vigour to. Let them bring themselves to self-denial, unbelief, envy, or some such spiritual sin, and they will have a better view of themselves.

 — John Owen, On the Mortification of Sin (vol. 6 in The Works of John Owen; ed. William H. Gould; Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2000), 25.