CRandE Video Book: The Everlasting Righteousness

Friends,
I'm currently working through the chapters of Horatius Bonar's little book on justification called The Everlasting Righteousness. These readings are being posted on Vimeo. You can watch them by clicking on the video montage below. I've hosted the text for this book for years on my website. Several years ago, I started audio recordings of the chapters, but the quality was not publicly presentable so I dropped those recordings. The time has come for a fresh attempt.

Enjoy!

Words of Wisdom

"The gospel calls us to an active pursuit of holiness."

--Mitchell Chase. The Gospel is for Christians

Good News! Good News!

Yesterday was 'Reformation Sunday'. I had the opportunity to serve my home church while our pastor was under the weather and unable to preach. The sermon starts in Jeremiah and ranges over quite a bit of Scripture. It is 24 minutes long. May God bless the preaching of His Word.

I know some of you have followed the blog for several years. I would love to hear from you, whether here in the blog comments, on Vimeo, Facebook, or Twitter.


Jeremiah 23:5-6 Good News! Good News! from First Evangelical Free Church on Vimeo.

A Plea To My Brothers In Danger

My dear brother,
I know. I know. You've thought it through. Your situation is unique and the only relief you have in your loneliness comes from the plans you are making. Plans... with someone else. Someone... who is not your wife. Maybe she has a name at this point, maybe still a faceless, anonymous fantasy. After all, you reason, intimacy at home is non-existent. The woman you share a roof with has become, perhaps not the enemy, but like a piece of furniture you pass by without care, or a stranger on television who could care less about you...  about "us".

BROTHER! STOP!

PASTOR! HOLD YOUR GROUND!

Sin is strangling you, choking out your sight until you tunnel vision in on what will ultimately burn down your entire life. Pause before your blind burning desire strikes the match and immolates your entire life and every treasured, hard-fought relationship you have: your wife, your children,  your loved ones, your friends, your church, your Lord and Savior.

Brother, can you not see that your heart is becoming hard as diamonds? Humble yourself before God, and repent before the insanity of sin drags you under the surface. Seek His face, which shines brighter than the sun, to dispel the darkness you've lost yourself in.

You retort, "Oh, but when her hand touched mine, such depth of feeling shook me, our connection was immediate and without words! The fog of my loneliness lifted and I feel hopeful that someone, anyone, would care again for me." Brother, it was simply a touch. The old nature, agitated by that spark, has clambered out of the grave and filled your mind with visions, visions of unreality, visions of fantasy, visions which the light of day will prove to be worthless, less than worthless, truly tragic in their destructive power; deadly and bringing death with them, riding on the night, where darkness conceals the danger and lying to yourself seems like hope.

The surge of excitement you feel in anticipation is actually your soul imploding upon itself before unleashing explosive fury in every direction. Nothing will remain, including your 'happiness'. Your flock which you have shepherded faithfully will be scattered, beaten down, some devoured in the aftermath of your sin. Your precious wife, who has loved and supported you for so many years will be left scarred of soul, burned to the bone, trying to reassamble her life with the children, no comfort or guidance from your 'loved-for-so-long' hand. Instead, the shadow of betrayal lurking in every corner.

Again, you push back. "When I look into her eyes, the tenderness and desire I see takes my breath away." A man drowning in the depths of the ocean has his breath taken away as well. It is a soul-drowning, conscience-killing undertow of rebellion that drags more and more the longer you toy with it.

BROTHER!  STOP!

 Before you scatter spiritual napalm everywhere and on everyone around you, before you strike the match of 'burning desire', before your life landscape becomes ground zero of your 'scorched earth' lusts, stop. Stop the fantasizing, planning, lusting, and hardening of your affections.

Do not take that step. Pull your foot back from the brink. Seek the Lord in humility and repentance, that you may not be lost in the furious tempest.

For the glory of our God, the good of your soul, the joy of you and your wife and family, and all the rest; seek the Lord and wise counsel to help you regain your footing and strengthen your commitment of love for your wife.

Brother, I plead with you. It is my prayer that God will help you embrace again the hope-filled reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ and turn from the minefield of death-dealing sin.

For specific suggestions on how to deal with these temptations, this article by Jason Helopoulos will prove very helpful.

The Burning Man

"The Spirit moves when he will and how he will, and we cannot command his coming, but about one thing that will happen when the Spirit moves in, power in the church of Jesus Christ, I think we can be perfectly sure. When that happens, the miserable, feeble talk about the avoidance of controversy on the part of Christian men and preachers of Jesus Christ will all he swept away as with a mighty flood. A man on fire with a message never speaks in a way like that; never speaks with the indifferent manner of the world but proclaims his gospel in the presence of the world of enemies, briefly and nobly in the presence of everything that is lifted up against the gospel of Jesus Christ."


--J. Gresham Machen's The Gospel And The Modern World: And Other Short Writings

Christ and Suffering Temptation

"His sinlessness did not immunize Him against the effects of sin, either during His life or on the cross. In fact, He tasted our temptations with a sensitivity none of us has known precisely because He resisted them. Whatever your experience of temptation or suffering, Christ's was deeper because His humanity was sinless."

  -Sinclair Ferguson. In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life 

The Problem of Forgiveness

"God deserves worship, and we deserve his wrath. Our greatest need is to be right with God, and the insurmountable obstacle is our sin. 'Where God's wrath is no longer a problem, Christ's cross is no longer a solution.' So we must be clear on what the problem is for sinners. The one from whom we need pardon is the one whom we have offended. We have spat on God's infinitely precious name with our wickedness. We have insulted his majesty and belittled his worth. We desperately need forgiveness for our sins, cleansing for our disobedience. Granting forgiveness, though, is no cheap act by God."

     -- The Gospel is for Christians, Mitchell Chase

The Evangelical Mind, Heart, and Mouth

Winds of change are blowing across America. Yesterday we might have been able to convince one another in the evangelical subculture that biblical convictions informed, influenced, and intersected with much of American cultural conviction. Today, the picture is changing rapidly. Evangelical convictions concerning societal norms are being crushed, pushed from the public square by the steamroller of "progress", specifically under the guise of accused bigotry from the highest levels of national public life down to state and local dialogues.

Yes, I do fear that our 'niceness' has possibly broken our spines and snuffed out our willingness to live as lights in a dark world. I am no alarmist shouting for the evangelical bunker-builders to set up shop in my back yard. I do think we need to take courage from our Lord, from the Scriptures, and from one another as we consider how best to maintain our fidelity to biblical conviction in and through our active obedience to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

To spur our awareness and stimulate our response, please take the time to read Dr. Owen Strachan's open letter to evangelicals. He writes, "Do you realize that if you define marriage as the exclusive union of a man and a woman, you are already, even if you speak in the gentlest, softest, most nuanced, most hyper-qualified terms, considered a bigot by a vocal and highly influential contingent today?"

Read what Dr. Strachan has written here.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News Indeed

Good news! Good news!

Dave Sherrill

---

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. "In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, 'The Lord our righteousness.' (Jeremiah 23:5-6, NASB)

"Anyone who is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general, or his own heart in particular, must acknowledge that self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart: " (George Whitefield, The Lord our Righteousness, p.9)

How can a sinner stand before a righteous and holy God and receive the verdict "Justified. Righteous in the eyes of God." God is a righteous God. He is also the just judge. He does not judge with partiality nor can he overlook any sin. His knowledge about us is perfect and complete. He has known us and everything about us from eternity past. Nothing is hidden from Him. He executes perfect justice from perfect knowledge.  


So how can a sinner stand before God, guilty in himself, and receive God's pronouncement of justification? As the creator of heaven and earth and everything that exists, including us, God has decreed that there is only one way of peace with Him. That way is perfect righteousness. Not merely to be without sin, in a sort of neutral state before God. No, not merely without sin, we must possess a perfect righteousness, obeying God perfectly and doing all His will, perfectly.  


God's law is his own holy standard. It flows from him and reveals His holy and perfect nature. It is the standard God has established that, by it, true justice will be rendered. It is the keeping of that law perfectly that justifies someone in the sight of our perfect God.  

'You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God. 'So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:4-5, NASB)

"Perform My judgments and keep My statutes, by which a man may live if he does them." There is an explicit blessing here. Keep My law and you will live. But the law is a double-edged knife. It cuts both directions. It holds not only a blessing but also a curse. "Obey this law and live. Break this law and die."


So how can you stand justified before God? Simply knowing that the law exists is not enough. (for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. Romans 2:13, NASB )   No one reading this meets these qualifications which God requires. No one (except Jesus Christ) has perfectly obeyed God in avoiding sin and in performing righteousness perfectly. All of us have broken God's law. We have sinned against our creator and have violated his holiness by our rebellion against His law. We are at war with God, albeit impotently, but at war nonetheless. In our very natures we have inherited a fatal curse from our fleshly father Adam. We hate God's good commandments and we love sin. We run from the light and leap headlong into darkness.  

This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:19-20, NASB)

So how can you, a sinner, stand justified before God?  

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" And he answered and said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." (Luke 10:25-28, NASB)

"Do this and you will live." Keep God's law perfectly, never sin, and always obey Him in everything with all of yourself. Your heart, soul, strength, and mind must be perfectly expended in obedient love to God and to your neighbor. No losing heart in time of trial. No weakness in work. No wandering thoughts leading to sin. Every fiber of your being expended in love for God and this perfectly. "Do this and you will live." This is the perfect and holy law of the perfect and holy God. But is this good news? Did the lawyer who answered the Lord rejoice in this? Did he go away feeling self-righteous, thinking that he certainly had a good standing before God? After all, he was trying his very best to obey these two great commandments.  


Note the next verse. (But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "and who is my neighbor?" John 10:29, NASB) Self-righteousness raises it's ugly head here. "Wishing to justify himself." But note, God's law is not based on "our best efforts" or "our good intentions" to keep it. You really, truly have to keep it! Perfectly! "Do this, and you will live." Not "Try to do this." Not "Give it your best shot." No, one single failure, one disobedient act, one sinful thought, one omission of any kind, one failure is fatal. Yet this expert in the law was "wishing to justify himself."  


In case you remain unconvinced let's look at another man "wishing to justify himself" in his own self-righteousness.  

And as He [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. "You know the commandments, 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." And looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him, and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But at these words his face fell, and he went away grieved, for he was one who owned much property. (Mark 10:17-22, NASB)

The Lord of the universe rehearsed with this man the requirements of the Law. What is his answer? "I have kept all these things from my youth up." Wrong! He missed it. He didn't get it. His eyes were blind, his heart was cold. He did not hear the Lord that day, but wishing to justify himself, he condemned himself by his own words.  


Now I wonder, do you hear the Lord right now? "Do not murder (or be angry with your brother without cause). Do not commit adultery (or look lustfully on another). Do not steal (or envy another). Do not bear false witness (or lie)." Can you even meet the first requirement of the law mentioned here, let alone law upon law upon law?  


Don't think that Jesus was giving the man an opportunity to justify himself before God through obeying these laws. The Lord here was not implying that the man had actually followed these nor could he follow them. Jesus was using the law to demonstrate to the rich man his utter sinfulness; his total, complete poverty of any righteousness, and thus His need of a savior. He had broken every one of these commandments (as we all have - either in thought or in deed). But did the man hear? Did he really hear what the Lord said? No, even though he had physical ears and heard Jesus' words, God had not yet given him "eyes to see and ears to hear". No, he thought he had kept these commandments of God. He remained in darkness. Instead of answering "I have broken each of these countless times. How can I find righteousness before God? God, be merciful to me the sinner!" Instead of that kind of answer, he broadcasts his spiritual blindness. "Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth up."  


I expect that some of the people reading this are like these men. You wish to justify yourself in the sight of God. Your answer to the Lord would run along the same lines and that answer would miss the mark of God's righteousness to your damnation. Instead of justifying yourself, you condemn yourself by your own words.  


If the Lord were to question you now, "Why should I let you into heaven?" Will you venture your answer by starting your sentence with "I...". Or perhaps you would even be bold enough to say, "Lord, I...". You are seeking to justify yourself. You are standing on your own righteousness. To do so, even in part, even in small part, is to be self-righteous and self- condemning. The road to hell starts in your own heart with that one little word "I". I hope and pray that this tiny word leading to an eternity of separation from God would not be found on any of your lips. Oh that the Lord would open your eyes and ears today that you would hear His words and see your condition as it is.  

Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20, NASB)

Are the requirements of God's perfect law good news? To know that perfection is the required standard? Is that the gospel, the "good news"? No it is terrible news. It is the worst news possible for our pride for there is no way that we ourselves can attain to it. No, it is not good news but it leads us to the good news. It is our schoolmaster teaching us, revealing our complete and total lack of hope in saving ourselves. But if perfect righteousness is the requirement, where will we find it? How can you, a sinner, stand justified before a holy and just God?  


"What good does it do to me to tell me that the type of religion presented in the Bible is a very fine type of religion and that the thing for me to do is just to start practicing that type of religion now? ... I will tell you, my friend. It does me not one tiniest little bit of good. ... What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question that I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?" (Machen cited in Horton, Trust and Obey, p.40)  

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. "In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, 'The Lord our righteousness.' (Jeremiah 23:5-6, NASB)

The Lord our Righteousness!  

Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:1-3, NASB)

God's righteousness! Not ours, God's!  

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; (Romans 3:21-24, NASB)

The righteousness of God! How? Through faith in Jesus Christ. Why? It is a gift by God's grace! Good news! Good news! The demand of God's law for perfect righteousness has been met in Jesus Christ, the Lord our Righteousness!  

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4, NASB)

What the Law could not do, God did! What we cannot do for ourselves, God has done for us. "The Lord our Righteousness." The Lord himself has undertaken to provide the qualifications necessary to meet His own just judgment.  

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:4, NASB)

 

"Justification means more than mere pardon for sin; it means that the justified person is regarded as having kept all God's laws perfectly." (James Buchanan, Not Guilty, p.25)

The Lord our righteousness. Who is this Lord and what does it mean to say he is our righteousness? The Lord is clearly Jesus Christ. How does His righteousness become ours? By God's grace through faith.

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, (Romans 4:5, NASB)

We must be careful here in what we understand about this "faith".

"Yet, as we have seen, this obedience of faith is not the righteousness by means of which we are accepted by God. Obedient faith is the means by which we receive Christ's righteousness. Faith is the instrument by which righteousness is procured. Eating is necessary for the nourishment of our bodies, but it is the food we eat that actually nourishes us. Likewise, faith is necessary to receive righteousness but it is the righteousness of Christ which actually justifies us. Faith is the only means for the receiving of justification. Justification is not by faith plus the knowledge that one is among the elect of God. Justification is not by faith plus a certain amount of conviction of sin. True, none will believe unless they are the elect of God and are convicted of their sin and need of a Savior. But it is primarily our faith in God's promise of salvation in Christ for sinners which brings justification, not anything else we may know or feel. The reason why faith alone is the instrument by which we receive justification is that it is by believing -- and in no other way -- that we can rely on Christ's saving work. It is not sorrow for sin that unites us with Christ. It is not the spiritual graces of love and hope which make us partakers of Christ's righteousness. It is by the use of faith that sinners rely on Christ for salvation." (James Buchanan, Not Guilty, p.88)

Or said another way,

"Our faith, however, is not the reason for our justification. Believers are said to be justified by faith, not because of faith. No man has perfect faith. If faith were the reason for justification, them some believers might be justified by a more perfect faith; others by a less perfect faith. Or else, some are more justified than others! All this is absurd. And it makes faith into a way of earning justification. No! The righteousness of God is said to be "revealed ... to faith" (Rom 1:17). Faith therefore cannot be what makes us righteous." (Abraham Booth, By God's Grace Alone, p.39)

What makes us righteous is Christ's righteousness imputed to us, received by faith.  

All of life is designed by God for the purpose of glorifying God, including our salvation. "God is the only hero of these stories." (Michael Horton, Trust and Obey, p.20)

 

"My soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." (Isaiah 61:10, NASB)

 

"Perhaps the greatest evidence of our sinful nature is not found in the horrible acts of immorality, violence, or selfish ambition, but in the fact that even when God offers us in the wedding garment of perfect righteousness we persist in our self-vindication! Whatever the fig leaves, whether made of self-esteem therapy or of energetic moralism, we refuse to see our filthy rags as insufficient to appear in the presence of a holy God. As one grand old Puritan said, "We attempt to cover filth with filth." (Michael Horton, Trust and Obey, p.24)

God imputes [or counts toward us] righteousness apart from works. (Romans 4:6) God's reckoning of righteousness to us is not a matter of him searching out our hearts and finding righteousness within us. That is not imputation. If he were to investigate our "righteousnesses" He would not find 'righteousness'. He would find only filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) Note that it is not merely our acts of disobedience, but "our righteous acts" that are so described.  

Imputation is a reckoning or a putting to the account of. The idea is one of an accounting of righteousness from one who is truly righteous to one who is bankrupt of all righteousness. So if God is imputing righteousness to us, it is not our own but another's. But whose? Christ's! God does not whip up righteousness out of thin air. It is Christ's real righteousness that is imputed to us by faith.  


Some dare to call this a "legal fiction". They accuse us of making God a liar by calling one "righteous" who is not righteous in themselves. But this is no "legal fiction". This is our life! (For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16, NASB) It is the true, real, existing righteousness of Christ and not a lie! This is the gospel, the good news!  


For what does God's word say? (But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, Romans 4:5, NASB) Him who justifies the ungodly! Are you ungodly today? Then this is your good news, that God in Christ has done for you what you cannot do yourself. He can make you stand justified before Him today, and that by the perfect righteousness of Christ which is counted to you by faith.  


How can you, a sinner, stand justified before a righteous and holy God? By God's grace, Christ's righteousness is accounted to you through faith. Your sin is reckoned to Christ and was punished in Him on the cross. You then stand before God clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ and God's pronouncement over you is "Justified". Christ's righteousness is reckoned to you, and you stand in Christ, justified before God.  


The cross of Christ simultaneously presents both the justice and mercy of God. Justice in that the sins of those who Christ died for were punished in Christ on the cross. Mercy in that those same ones who Christ died for may now be reckoned as fully righteous, fully obedient, perfect in respect to God's holy law, because Christ's perfect righteousness is imputed to them, reckoned to their account by faith. May today be the day when you hear and believe this glorious gospel, the good news of God's salvation in Christ.  

'Behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 'In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. 'In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord is our righteousness.' (Jeremiah 33:14-16, NASB)

Persecution Brings... Joy?

Reading through Acts, the motion is always forward. The story presses on with little pause. Immediately following the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7, persecution breaks out broadly against the church. Men and women are being dragged out of their houses and off to prison by the blindly zealous Pharisee named Saul. This scatters everyone except the apostles. Philip, one of the deacons appointed alongside Stephen earlier in Acts, goes to the city of Samaria.

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.  (Acts 8:5-8, ESV)

The gospel of Christ comes to the Samaritans in word and power, gaining a hearing with the people. God has a purpose in Philip's presence and preaching. Philip bears witness from Scripture and history -  Messiah has come!  It is said that 'the crowds with one accord paid attention' to what Philip was saying. You can almost see in your mind's eye the entire city, to a man, turning to face Philip and giving heed to his words. What a blessing God is pouring out on Samaria. Grace, mercy, and demonstrations of His mighty power to save. Philip calls them to faith in the risen Christ; calls them to repentance from dead works that they may serve the living and true God; calls them as Lazarus from the hopeless tomb of sin to the eternal-life-giving cross of Christ.

As the message of peace with God through Messiah sinks in, and the physical blessings of healing and deliverance are accomplished, the people respond in faith. A river of joy streams from the fountain of faith. Joy in their salvation. Joy in their deliverance. Joy in Messiah, the resurrected Son of God. Great joy in God!


Seeking to stamp out the church, Saul in his persecution of the church in Jerusalem, by God's providence, has become the sower of seeds of joy throughout the region. His every intent is evil towards Christians. His every desire is to destroy the works of Jesus Christ. And his every act furthers the glory of God in Christ.


What a fantastically challenging and encouraging word. Here in America many evangelicals are supremely comfortable, untroubled as we seek out 'the good things in life', and entirely ignorant of the great purposes God has in seasons of trouble and persecution. We pursue every opportunity to minimize risk, to cover all the bases, to always have a backup plan for our backup plan. And most of all, to keep our mouths shut. (I say this to my own personal shame.)

No matter... trouble will come. Persecution will arise. With it, opportunity. Can God be trusted to lead you through trouble, through perfect storms, through persecution? Can He be trusted when trouble begins, continues, and lands squarely on your life and those around you? Can He be trusted when stress bends you, twists you, turns you inside out? Can He be trusted when illness and disease ravage body, mind, and spirit? Can He be trusted when you are pulled out by the roots and forced by providential circumstance to resettle in another area, another job, another church, another family? Is He trustworthy when there is no immediate or obvious deliverance?

Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. He can be trusted. He is trustworthy. You and I, dear brothers and sisters, are called to live by faith in the Triune God. He will lead us through trouble, not from trouble. He goes before us, follows behind us, and upholds us in every way needed.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4, ESV)

Against Heresies: When the Gospel gets personal

Martin Downes; pastor, author, and blogger of Against Heresies; preaches on Acts 24:24-27. When the Gospel gets personal. Pastor Downes breathes personality and life into the historic account of Paul and Festus and brings it home to us today.

One caveat. You may want to simply listen but not watch the video. The video shuttles between camera angles in a rapid-fire and distracting manner.

"That's what you've done, isn't it?"

I had not seen this interview but was given a heads-up by my friend Aaron Rice. I can't say that I feel sorry for Bell as Bashir calls him on making the gospel more palatable to the modern mind, since Bell ends up emptying the gospel of all meaningful content and truth. Bravo, Mr. Bashir, for asking very good and pointed questions.

Lowly Approach Heaven's Gates In Your Steps Today

Pastor Charles Spurgeon gives us food for thought. No. More than food. He is crying clearly, "FIRE! FIRE! GET OUT TO SAFETY!" as he rightly should, being faithful to the inspired text. His words, though spoken long ago, ring in my ears with an urgency that is very unlike the soothing mews mumbled by some so-called preachers today. There is a cutting edge to the message of the Gospel. Jesus came to save us from his very own judgment, and when that day comes he will give no quarter, no mercy, no kindness. He will not blink at sin nor wink at unbelief. Righteousness shall rule in judgment. Be ready, reader. Be ready at the foot of the cross.

There comes a fire! Get out! Get out to safety in Jesus!

God Our Savior

"God has become our Saviour. Our trust is not in His mercy but in Himself. Not in divine attributes, but in the living God. "God is for us;" the Father is for us; the Son is for us; the Holy Ghost is for us. It is God who justifies; it is Christ that died; and the Holy Ghost has come down to be a witness to us of the work of Christ, and of the place that work has given us as sons in the Father's house."

--Sir Robert Anderson, The Gospel and its Ministry

The Invitation of the King

I had the blessed opportunity to preach at my home church a couple of weeks ago. I invite you to take 20 minutes to hear the most gracious invitation you will ever be offered. Click here to listen to the sermon.

The Cambridge Declaration

THE CAMBRIDGE DECLARATION
of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
April 20, 1996

Evangelical churches today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ. As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the historic Christian faith.

In the course of history words change. In our day this has happened to the word "evangelical." In the past it served as a bond of unity between Christians from a wide diversity of church traditions. Historic evangelicalism was confessional. It embraced the essential truths of Christianity as those were defined by the great ecumenical councils of the church. In addition, evangelicals also shared a common heritage in the "solas" of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.

Today the light of the Reformation has been significantly dimmed. The consequence is that the word "evangelical" has become so inclusive as to have lost its meaning. We face the peril of losing the unity it has taken centuries to achieve. Because of this crisis and because of our love of Christ, his gospel and his church, we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism. These truths we affirm not because of their role in our traditions, but because we believe that they are central to the Bible.

Sola Scriptura: The Erosion Of Authority
Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church's life, but the evangelical church today has separated Scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is guided, far too often, by the culture. Therapeutic technique, marketing strategies, and the beat of the entertainment world often have far more to say about what the church wants, how it functions and what it offers, than does the Word of God. Pastors have neglected their rightful oversight of worship, including the doctrinal content of the music. As biblical authority has been abandoned in practice, as its truths have faded from Christian consciousness, and as its doctrines have lost their saliency, the church has been increasingly emptied of its integrity, moral authority and direction.

Rather than adapting Christian faith to satisfy the felt needs of consumers, we must proclaim the law as the only measure of true righteousness and the gospel as the only announcement of saving truth. Biblical truth is indispensable to the church's understanding, nurture and discipline.

Scripture must take us beyond our perceived needs to our real needs and liberate us from seeing ourselves through the seductive images, cliche's, promises. and priorities of mass culture. It is only in the light of God's truth that we understand ourselves aright and see God's provision for our need. The Bible, therefore, must be taught and preached in the church. Sermons must be expositions of the Bible and its teachings, not expressions of the preachers opinions or the ideas of the age. We must settle for nothing less than what God has given.

The work of the Holy Spirit in personal experience cannot be disengaged from Scripture. The Spirit does not speak in ways that are independent of Scripture. Apart from Scripture we would never have known of God's grace in Christ. The biblical Word, rather than spiritual experience, is the test of truth.

Thesis One: Sola Scriptura
We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured. We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.

Solus Christus: The Erosion Of Christ-Centered Faith
As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and his cross have moved from the center of our vision.

Thesis Two: Solus Christus
We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.

We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.

Sola Gratia: The Erosion Of The Gospel
Unwarranted confidence in human ability is a product of fallen human nature. This false confidence now fills the evangelical world; from the self-esteem gospel, to the health and wealth gospel, from those who have transformed the gospel into a product to be sold and sinners into consumers who want to buy, to others who treat Christian faith as being true simply because it works. This silences the doctrine of justification regardless of the official commitments of our churches.

God's grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace.

Thesis Three: Sola Gratia
We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.

Sola Fide: The Erosion Of The Chief Article
Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. This is the article by which the church stands or falls. Today this article is often ignored, distorted or sometimes even denied by leaders, scholars and pastors who claim to be evangelical. Although fallen human nature has always recoiled from recognizing its need for Christ's imputed righteousness, modernity greatly fuels the fires of this discontent with the biblical Gospel. We have allowed this discontent to dictate the nature of our ministry and what it is we are preaching.

Many in the church growth movement believe that sociological understanding of those in the pew is as important to the success of the gospel as is the biblical truth which is proclaimed. As a result, theological convictions are frequently divorced from the work of the ministry. The marketing orientation in many churches takes this even further, erasing the distinction between the biblical Word and the world, robbing Christ's cross of its offense, and reducing Christian faith to the principles and methods which bring success to secular corporations.

While the theology of the cross may be believed, these movements are actually emptying it of its meaning. There is no gospel except that of Christ's substitution in our place whereby God imputed to him our sin and imputed to us his righteousness. Because he bore our judgment, we now walk in his grace as those who are forever pardoned, accepted and adopted as God's children. There is no basis for our acceptance before God except in Christ's saving work, not in our patriotism, churchly devotion or moral decency. The gospel declares what God has done for us in Christ. It is not about what we can do to reach him.

Thesis Four: Sola Fide
We reaffirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.

We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

Soli Deo Gloria: The Erosion Of God-Centered Worship
Wherever in the church biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God's and we are doing his work in our way. The loss of God's centrality in the life of today's church is common and lamentable. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.

God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, cravings, the appetite for consumption, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God's kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success.

Thesis Five: Soli Deo Gloria
We reaffirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone. We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self- fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.

Call To Repentance And Reformation
The faithfulness of the evangelical church in the past contrasts sharply with its unfaithfulness in the present. Earlier in this century, evangelical churches sustained a remarkable missionary endeavor, and built many religious institutions to serve the cause of biblical truth and Christ's kingdom. That was a time when Christian behavior and expectations were markedly different from those in the culture. Today they often are not. The evangelical world today is losing its biblical fidelity, moral compass and missionary zeal.

We repent of our worldliness. We have been influenced by the "gospels" of our secular culture, which are no gospels. We have weakened the church by our own lack of serious repentance, our blindness to the sins in ourselves which we see so clearly in others, and our inexcusable failure adequately to tell others about God's saving work in Jesus Christ.

We also earnestly call back erring professing evangelicals who have deviated from God's Word in the matters discussed in this Declaration. This includes those who declare that there is hope of eternal life apart from explicit faith in Jesus Christ, who claim that those who reject Christ in this life will be annihilated rather than endure the just judgment of God through eternal suffering, or who claim that evangelicals and Roman Catholics are one in Jesus Christ even where the biblical doctrine of justification is not believed.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals asks all Christians to give consideration to implementing this Declaration in the church's worship, ministry, policies, life and evangelism. For Christ's sake. Amen.


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ACE Council Members:
Dr. John Armstrong
Rev. Alistair Begg
Dr. James M. Boice
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey
Dr. John D. Hannah
Dr. Michael S. Horton
Mrs. Rosemary Jensen
Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Dr. Robert M. Norris
Dr. R. C. Sproul
Dr. G. Edward Veith
Dr. David Wells
Dr. Luder Whitlock
Dr. J. A. O. Preus, III

The Cross of Christ

Al Mohler explains the importance and centrality of the work of Christ on the cross contrasted with the "ideas" of open theists, lesbian feminists, and other assorted speculators. This is a speech given in 2006 at a Ligonier conference. Mohler is a rare intellect and this is one of his best.

Click here to listen to the MP3.

Warnock interviews Grudem

Here is an interesting video, where Adrian Warnock interviews Wayne Grudem. While it is relatively brief and they do not explore any single question in depth, there is a lesson to be had. We are able here to peek through a small window into a mature theological world-view. Grudem does not display foolish middle-of-the-road muddle-ism as he considers and answers Adrian's questions. Instead, he externalizes his internal dialog so we might see the path he walks from the question to living out the answer.

Young brothers and sisters, take note. Life is richly textured. Your walk in this life need not be reduced to a pallete of black and white. There is room for nuance and vibrance in your daily walk.

Jesus, the Savior of Hopeless People

A man named Jairus came to Jesus, begging him to help his dying daughter. Before they could get to his home, she passed away. In a hopeless situation, Jesus reassures Jairus, "Do not fear, only believe."

Resting in Jesus

Justification by Faith Alone Illustrated

Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: 7 "BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8 "BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT." (NASB)

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One of the great truths of the Gospel that was recaptured and rightly emphasized through the Reformation was the Biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. Justification by faith alone was so foundational to the work of reformation that it became embodied in one of the slogans of the Reformation--Sola Fide (Faith Alone). It is not the only "sola" of the Reformation and there is a need to see it in combination with the other solas to understand the full picture. But such an examination is outside the scope of this little note. We are going to focus our attention on sola fide and will leave the broader examination for another time.

During the Reformation, "Faith Alone" was set in contrast to the Roman Catholic concept of works of merit done in a state of grace for which it was fitting (in the Catholic view) for God to judge them as worthy of reward. But the Reformers uncomprisingly held to the Biblical witness that our salvation is based SOLELY on the person and work of Jesus Christ, and not on anything done in us or by us. The Reformers held that God's judicial verdict of "righteous" in favor of us could be based solely on our sin being counted to Christ and correspondingly Christ's perfect righteousness being counted towards us. How can our sin be laid upon Jesus and His righteousness made ours? By placing our faith in Jesus as Savior, trusting Him to save us. This faith in Jesus has, at times, been described as "resting in Jesus".

"Faith Alone", like all Biblical doctrines, can be misunderstood. One way it is misunderstood is when people hear "faith alone" and think it means the following:

God does not justify us because of our good works. He justifies us because of our faith. Our faith stands in the place of good works. Our faith is what deserves our justification before God. In other words, faith becomes the one good work which we must do so that we deserve to be saved.

In such a view, faith itself is seen as being our righteousness, not as the means of connecting us with the righteousness of Christ. In this view, faith replaces the work of Christ and becomes the basis upon which God gives salvation to us. Repeatedly throughout the years, as I have discussed "faith alone" with people, I have been conscious of the danger of misunderstanding "faith alone" in such a way. As I was thinking about "faith alone" and how to overcome this misunderstanding, the imagery of resting in Jesus came to mind. Let me describe what unfolded in my mind's eye.

As I thought on the phrase "resting in Jesus", an illustration came to mind which might help us see why faith itself is not why God will justify us. Now, this is an illustration, and no illustration is perfect. Think of your bedtime. At the end of a long, wearying day you look forward to a night of restful sleep. When bedtime arrives, you sit on the edge of the bed, turn off the light, pick your feet up off the floor, and rest on your bed. When you pick your feet up and lay down, your full weight is carried by the bed beneath you. You are "resting in bed". It is the bed which is holding you up. It is bearing the burden of all your weight. You cannot lay on it harder or softer. Your entire weight is all you have and no amount of "laying down harder" will put any additional load on the bed. We don't speak of laying down hard or soft. It's not a matter of degree. Laying down is not done in parts. It's all of you. When we speak of "resting in Jesus", it is this kind of resting that is being described. This kind of "full weight laid upon another to bear the load" is what I have in mind for "resting in Jesus".

Well, if you misunderstand "faith alone" to mean that you are saved by your work of faith instead of by Jesus' righteousness, how would that change the illustration? You would probably want to do the best job you could of laying in bed. So once you pick your feet up off the floor, you may think this way, "I must lay down as good as I possibly can. I am doing such a good job of laying here. I'm certain that this bed is going to recognize the quality of my laying here and reward me for it. Others can see that I am doing my best at laying here. I will continue to do my best at laying here." Perhaps you will think you should lay down harder, bearing down on the bed with all of your might (which really accomplishes nothing and certainly does not contribute to your rest). Or maybe you become convinced that you should lay lighter, but how would that be done? Perhaps you should stand and merely lean on the bed? Once again, you will not find true rest in such a posture. Are you really contributing anything to the bed's ability to hold you up as you lay there? Of course not! It is the bed that is upholding you and not anything to do with your laying will make you to be held up any better or more than you already are.

You see, "faith alone" is "resting in Jesus". This resting is a placing of all your weight on Jesus for HIM to bear you up. This resting, like physical resting, is not something which can be done more fully through exertion. It is a trust in HIM to uphold your full weight. It is a resting in HIM from the weariness of sin. Who does the work? Jesus does the work in holding you up, just as the bed alone holds you up and you contribute nothing to it without ruining your rest. And when people look to your resting in Him, what will they see? Not the fact that you are resting so well that God should forgive you, but that Jesus is holding you up entirely and perfectly. When you look to your own resting, what will you see? Not your resting, but the Beloved One who holds you up.

Do you see that faith alone does not point to your resting or to your faith but to the one upholding you. He is the one bearing you up fully and completely. This is "faith alone". This is for His praise and glory. Amen.