Nick posted a great video of Tim Keller speaking about how the Bible is mainly about Jesus Christ and His finished work.  Here is a copy of the basic transcript of that helpful video.  Christ is all!

Tim Keller said:

“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:27)

Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us (1 Corinthians 15).

Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out for our acquittal, not our condemnation (Hebrews 12:24).

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void “not knowing wither he went!” to create a new people of God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. While God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love, from me,” now we can say to God, “Now we know that you love me, because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love, from me.”

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant (Hebrews 3).

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends (Job 42).

Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb – innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us.

He is the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the Lamb, the Light, the Bread.

The Bible is not about you — it is about him.

(Tim Keller, Ockenga Preaching Series 2006)

This cut scene from the movie We Were Soldiers is sobering. The husband of the woman singing the solo (though she doesn’t know it yet) is killed in that Sunday battle, and he will never return home. This same dreadful loss happens to many of the young women sitting in that little church. In the face of pain like that, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and rightousness. When all around my soul gives way, Christ then is all my hope and stay:

A friend of mine posted these words from Helen Roseveare recently.  May God work these kind of desires in our hearts . . .

Helen Roseveare, a missionary doctor to the Congo for twenty years, writes:

To be a living sacrifice will involve all of my time.  God wants me to live every minute for Him in accordance with His will and purpose . . . No time can be considered as my own, or as ‘off-duty’ or ‘free.’ . . . To be a living sacrifice will involve all of my possessions . . . All should be available to God for the furtherance of His Kingdom. My money is His . . . He has the right to direct the spending of each penny . . . I must consider that I own nothing. All is God’s, and what I have, I have on trust from Him, to be used as He wishes.

To be a living sacrifice will involve all of myself. My will and my emotions, my health and vitality, my thinking and activities all are to be available to God, to be employed as He chooses, to reveal Himself to others. Should He see that someone would be helped to know Him through my being ill, I accept ill health and weakness. I have no right to demand what we call good health.

All rights are His — to direct my living so that He can most clearly reveal Himself through me. God has the right, then, to choose my job, and where I work, to choose my companions, and my friends . . .

To be a living sacrifice will involve all my love . . . I relinquish the right to choose whom I will love and how, giving the Lord the right to choose for me . . . Whether I have a life partner or not is wholly His to decide, and I accept gladly His best will for my life. I must bring all the areas of my affections to the Lord for His control, for here, above all else, I need to sacrifice my right to choose for myself . . .

I need to be so utterly God’s that He can use me or hide me, as He chooses, as an arrow in His hand or in His quiver. I will ask no questions: I relinquish all rights to Him who desires my supreme good. He knows best.

Jehovah strengthened Israel’s arms and taught her to walk [7.15]; although the Giver of all nature-blessings, of corn, wine, oil, silver, gold, wool, flax, Jehovah is distinguished from the Baals, in that He has something more and finer to given than these:  loving-kindness, mercy and faithfulness [2.19]; in reality He gives, in and through all these things, Himself after a sacramental fashion [2.23]; He is personally present in all His favours, and in them surrenders Himself to His people for never-failing enjoyment.

I never knew the song by Bach many people play at weddings is about Christ! He is the joy of man’s desiring. Every joy in all of man’s desiring points to the greatest Joy and the Giver of both all joys and all joy-producing gifts:  Christ!

Here are the words:

Jesus, joy of man’s desiring,
Holy Wisdom, Love most bright;
Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light.

Word of God, our flesh that fashioned,
With the fire of life impassioned,
Striving still to truth unknown,
Soaring, dying round Thy throne.

Through the way where hope is guiding,
Hark, what peaceful music rings;
Where the flock, in Thee confiding,
Drink of joy from deathless springs.

Theirs is beauty’s fairest pleasure;
Theirs is wisdom’s holiest treasure.
Thou dost ever lead Thine own
In the love of joys unknown.

If you are in Christ Jesus, by grace through faith, you will be married forever. And Jesus will be married too. He will not remain single forever.

Jonathan Edwards wrote:

The end [goal] of the creation of God was to provide a spouse for His Son Jesus Christ that might enjoy Him and on whom He might pour forth His love. And the end of all things in providence are to make way for the exceeding expressions of Christ’s love to His spouse and for her exceeding close and intimate union with, and high and glorious enjoyment of Him and to bring this to pass. And therefore the last thing and the issue of all things is the marriage of the Lamb. And the wedding day is the last day, the day of judgment, or rather that will be the beginning of it. The wedding feast is eternal; and the love and joys, the songs, entertainments and glories of the wedding never will be ended. It will be an everlasting wedding day.

Jonathan Edwards, “Miscellany #702″ in “The Miscellanies”: Entries Nos. 501-832 in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 18, ed. Ava Chamberlain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 298.

Hosea 2:14-20 – Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.   And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.  And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.   And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me “My Husband,” and no longer will you call me “My Baal.”  For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.  And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.  And I will betroth you to me forever.  I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.   I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

Isaiah 54:5-8 – For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.  For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.  For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you.  In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

2 Corinthians 11:2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Ephesians 5:31-32 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Revelation 19:7 – Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready . . .

What a glorious day that will be! And you, member of the Bride of Christ, will be joined to the most wonderful, most loving, most beautiful, most satisfying, most glorious Spouse in more than all of 10 trillion universes! Come Lord Jesus! Come!

In his book, The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis wrote:

“We have a tendency to think, but not to act.  The more we feel without acting, the less we will ever be able to act, and, in the long run, the less we will be able to feel.”

I have often thought and felt a lot of things while listening to sermons or while reading Bible-saturated books or while looking at horiffic pictures of starving children on the internet or while watching footage of disasters like the recent earthquake in Haiti.  During these times I have felt conviction of sin, joy in Christ, sorrow for the hurting, and compassion for the needy.

But how persistently do I act Biblically and faithfully in response to what I have felt while hearing, reading, and seeing?  How persistently do you?

May our great and merciful Heavenly Father have mercy upon us for the sake of Christ.  May He supernaturally cause us to act as we should for His great name sake so that Jesus Christ will truly be shown to be all in all in our lives.  Oh LORD, what would you have us to do?  Please grant us the grace to do it, no matter what.

In a blog post entitled “My Biggest Sin,” McKay Caston writes:

You couldn’t help it, could you? This is gonna be juicy, right? Could be. Okay, let’s get to it. What is my biggest sin? Of course, most of us probably think of the Top 10 list in Exodus. “Thou Shall Not…” But we’ve all broken every one of those. No surprise there. So what is my biggest sin? Here goes: Not believing that I have been fully forgiven, totally accepted, and am dearly loved by the Father. Sorry to disappoint you, but when I DON’T believe this, I get religious and become a Pharisee of sorts, who were the biggest sinners in Jesus’ day (because of their prideful, “I can do it if you just show me the rule” hearts). To look upon the work of Jesus on the cross as my judicial substitute and to NOT believe that I am fully forgiven, totally accepted, and am dearly loved is to cheapen the gospel. To think that I can add anything of my own merit is to severely diminish God’s glorious grace. It is an insult to the blood of Jesus. “So Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

Jonathan Edwards seemed to suggest the same.  In his 25th resolution for his life he wrote:

25.  Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.

HT: The Wonder Of The Gospel

John Owen wrote:

I confess I would rather, much rather, spend all my time and days in making up and healing the breaches and schisms that are amongst Christians than one hour in justifying our divisions even therein wherein, on the one side, they are capable of a fair defense. But who is sufficient for such an attempt? The closing of differences amongst Christians is like opening the book in the Revelation, – there is none able or worthy to do it, in heaven or in earth, but the Lamb: when he will put forth the greatness of his power for it, it shall be accomplished, and not before. In the meantime, a reconciliation among all Protestants is our duty, and practicable, and had perhaps ere this been in some forwardness of accomplishment had men rightly understood wherein such a reconciliation, according to the mind of God, doth consist. When men have labored as much in the principle of forbearance as they have done to subdue other men to their opinions, religion will have another appearance in the world.

John Owen, The Works Of John Owen (Carlisle:  Banner Of Truth, 1976), 95.

Martin Bucer wrote these passionate words about the great satisfaction that is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ alone:

” . . . Christ our Lord alone is the One who is, gives, and performs for us everything which we can desire for our true advantage, happiness, and honour.”

” . . . all gain, all enjoyment, all honour apart from Christ is poison and death, but . . . in Christ all loss is true and eternal gain, joy, and honour . . . .”

” . . . through the holy gospel of Christ people are well instructed and reminded to seek everything in Christ our Lord alone and be satisfied with all things in Him.”

” . . . we have all our joy, comfort, and confidence in Him, Christ our Lord.”

“If we really love Christ, He is everything to us . . . .”

Martin Bucer, Concerning The True Care Of Souls, Translated by Peter Beale (Carlisle: Banner Of Truth, 2009) 166-167; 169; 171; 179; 192.

Jesus said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27

In this passage, Jesus demands absolute, undivided love, commitment, and devotion without rival. The love we are to have for Jesus should make all other loves in our lives seem like hatred. Only if we have this kind of love for Christ will we be able to love the lesser goods in our lives (like our families) as they should be loved. Only by trusting, loving, and adoring Jesus most of all can we even begin to love our neighbors as ourselves or to love our wives as Christ loves the church.

Beware of idolizing the good gifts from God in your life.

Dr. Timothy Keller writes:

“We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life . . . What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living . . . It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving ‘face’ and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry.”

(Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, The Empty Promises Of Money, Sex, And Power, And The Only Hope That Matters (New York: Dutton, 2009), xvii-xviii.)

What, in your life, do you need to look straight in the eyes and say: “I hate you . . . compared to Jesus?” It could be your family, your blog, or even your Christian ministry.

May Christ be your all in all!

Exodus 20:17-20: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”

2 Chronicles 7:14: . . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Nehemiah 1:5-11: And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your dispersed be under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Daniel 9:3-19: Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly. “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

Psalm 38: A PSALM OF DAVID, FOR THE MEMORIAL OFFERING. O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes- it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long. But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth. I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes. But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!” For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin. But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good. Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

Psalm 51:1-5: TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN NATHAN THE PROPHET WENT TO HIM, AFTER HE HAD GONE IN TO BATHSHEBA. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Geerhardus Vos wrote:

“Faith in its last analysis was to the patriarchs the apprehension, the possession, the enjoyment of God Himself . . . Legalism lacks the supreme sense of worship. It obeys but it does not adore.”

Apparently, Vos was a Christian Hedonist!

Geerhardus Vos, Redemptive History And Biblical Interpretation, The Shorter Writings Of Geerhardus Vos (Phillipsburg: P&R, 1980), 229, 231.

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. Psalm 23:1

This amazing truth is ultimately fulfilled in the Good Shepherd – the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in Him is this supernatural satisfaction fully realized, and for this realization to happen, Jesus had to lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:11).

Jesus had to lack everything for His sheep.

Contra rest in green pastures, He had no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20)

Contra still waters, He was baptized with the wrath of God (Luke 12:50)

Contra a restored soul, His soul was poured out unto death (Isaiah 53:12)

Contra being led in right paths, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and offered Himself as a propitiation so that God might be proved righteous (Acts 8:32, Romans 3:25-26)

Contra fearing no evil in the dark death valley, He was made evil Who knew no evil and sorrowed unto death as He contemplated the darkness of death that would utterly consume Him (2 Corinthians 5:21, Mark 14:34-36)

Contra having God with him as His comfort, God forsook Him, pouring out His just wrath upon Him (Matthew 27:46)

Contra having a rod and a staff to comfort Him, the rod of the Father was pleased to crush Him (Isaiah 53:10)

Contra having a table spread before Him, He hungered in the wilderness and thirsted unto death (Luke 4:1-2, John 19:28)

Contra having His head anointed with oil, He wore a blood-soaked crown of thorns (Matthew 27:29)

Contra having a cup that overflows, He drank the cup of the wrath of God to the dregs (Isaiah 51:17, Matthew 26:39)

Contra goodness and mercy pursuing Him all His days, wrath and torment pursued Him unto death (Isaiah 53)

Contra dwelling in the house of the LORD, He was banished from the dwelling of the LORD as the unclean and cursed one (Galatians 3:13)

And He did all of this on behalf of stubborn, sinful, hell deserving sheep who rebelled against Him. This is the best news in the world! All who know this Good Shepherd by grace through faith will lack no good thing, for He will provide for them, protect them, comfort them, and satisfy them fully – He will be all and all to them now and forever and ever:

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:15-17

Jonathan Edwards said:

“The following reasons may be given why children ought to love Jesus Christ above things in the world: He is more lovely in Himself. He is one that is greater and higher than all the kings of the earth, has more honor and majesty than they, and yet He is innately good and full of mercy and love.

There is no love so great and so wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ. He is one that delights in mercy. He is ready to pity those that are in suffering and sorrowful circumstances as one that delights in the happiness of His creatures.

The love and grace that Christ has manifested does as much exceed all that which is in this world as the sun is brighter than a candle. Parents are often full of kindness towards their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Christ’s.

And He is an infinitely holy One. He is God’s holy child, so holy and pure that the heavens are not pure in His sight, so that He is fairer than the sons of men, as the Psalmist says (Psalms 45:2). He is ‘the chiefest among ten thousand,’ and ‘altogether lovely’ (Canticles 5:16).

Because of His glorious excellency, He is compared to the sun, that is the brightest of all things that we behold with our bodily eyes (Canticles 5:10).  ‘Tis He that is called ‘the Sun of righteousness’ (Malachi 4:2). So He is called the ‘morning star,’ the brightest of all the whole multitude of stars (Revelation 22:16).

He is so lovely and excellent, that the angels in heaven do greatly love Him. Their hearts overflow with love to Him, and they are continually, day and night without ceasing, praising Him and giving Him glory. Yea, He is so lovely a person, that God the Father infinitely delights in Him.

He is His beloved Son, the brightness of His glory, whose beauty God continually sees with infinite delight, without ever being weary of beholding it. ‘I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him’ (Proverbs 8:30). And if the angels and God Himself love Him so much above all, surely children ought to love Him above all things in this world.

Everything that is lovely in God is in Him, and everything that is or can be lovely in any man is in Him: for He is man as well as God, and He is the holiest, meekest, most humble, and in every way the most excellent man that ever was. He is the delight of heaven.

There is nothing in heaven, that glorious world, that is brighter and more amiable and lovely than Christ. And this darling of heaven, by becoming man, became as a plant or flower springing out of the earth. And He is the most lovely flower that ever was seen in this world.

There is more good to be enjoyed in Him than in everything or all things in this world. He is not only an amiable, but an all-sufficient good. There is enough in Him to answer all our wants and satisfy all our desires.

Jonathan Edwards, “Children Ought to Love the Lord Jesus Christ Above All,” Sermons and Discourses: 1739-1742, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 22, Ed. Harry S. Stout (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 171-172.

HT:Tolle Lege

J. Gresham Machen wrote:

“The Sermon on the Mount, like all the rest of the New Testament, really leads a man straight to the foot of the cross.”

From:  J. Gresham Machen, Christianity And Liberalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1923), 38.

John Calvin commenting on Ephesians 3:14-19:

“. . . when the Scripture sets Jesus Christ before us, it is not without cause that we are told to rest wholly upon him, and keep to him when we have come to him, because he has all fulness of good things in himself. Therefore we do not need to be wandering here and there, or taking such great trouble in seeking the things that are needful for us. In short, we must no longer go astray, but must adhere wholly to him, as to our perfect and sovereign happiness.”

John Calvin, Sermons On The Epistle To The Ephesians (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 1975), 300.

Oh Father, please help me claim no rights to myself . . . no right to my understanding; my will; my affections; my body or its members; my tongue; my hands; my feet; my ears; my eyes; or my sexual members and desires. They are all Yours and belong to You. You bought me with Your dear Son’s blood. You own all of me Oh God! Use me as You please for Your glory.

Help me give myself clear away to You today and not retain anything of my own. I give myself wholly to You. I give You every power, and I claim no right to myself in any respect. Help me take You as my whole portion and delight, looking upon nothing else as any part of my happiness. May Your law be the constant rule of my obedience.

Help me fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil to the end of my life. Cause me to adhere to the faith of the Gospel, however hazardous and difficult the profession and practice of it may be.

Please grant me Your Holy Spirit as my Teacher, Sanctifier, and only Comforter. Cause me to cherish all admonitions to enlighten, purify, confirm, comfort, and assist me.

Help me not to act in any respect as my own. Keep me from using any of my powers to do anything that is not for Your glory. Please make Your glory the whole and entire business of my life.

Please keep me from murmuring in the least at any affliction; from being unkind in any way; from ever seeking revenge; from doing anything purely to please myself; from failing to do anything because it is a great self-denial; from trusting in myself; from accepting praise for any good which Christ does in or by me; and from being proud in any way.

Please hear my prayer and answer for Jesus’ sake! Amen!

Satan’s “Take and Eat:”

Genesis 3:4-5: But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Jesus’ “Take and Eat:”

Matthew 26:26: Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

Commenting on Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Ligon Dunan said:

Do you know what Derek Kidner ways about that verse?  He says, “So simple an act, so hard its undoing.  God will taste poverty and death before ‘Take and eat’ become verbs of salvation.”  And do you see what Satan is doing here in the wilderness to Jesus?  ”Jesus, take!  Eat!  You need that bread!  Your Father’s not provided it for You.  He’s not good.  He’s not worth living for and dying for, because He’s not loving and He’s not generous and He’s not good.”

Do you understand, my friends, that every time we face the temptation to sin that is the temptation that we’re playing out over again?  Every time you look to take something that’s not yours, you’re saying that God hasn’t provided me what I need so I’m going to take it for myself.  Every time you’re tempted to take someone who is not yours, you’re saying God hasn’t provided me with the someone that I need, and so I’m going to take what I need.  You are playing out again the lie of the evil one who says that God is not good and that He doesn’t give what we need.

And here’s Jesus, and Jesus’ response to Satan is this:  ”I don’t live by bread alone.  I live by every word that proceeds from My Father’s mouth.”  And so Jesus resists the temptation of Satan – “Take and eat that bread, Jesus!  Take and eat that bread, Adam and Eve, because God’s not going to provide for you.  He’s not good.”  And Jesus says, “No.  I live by the words of My Father’s mouth.  I will not take and eat.”

But then Jesus turns to His people and He says, “Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you.  God has provided for you, My people, everything that you need, and it’s Me.  So here; take and eat freely, because your Father has in the goodness of His heart given you the most precious thing in this world.  Can you doubt His goodness and love?  He has given you Me.”  Jesus turns those words of temptation into words of salvation by His perfect obedience, by His resistance to temptation and by His dying the death on the cross in our place.

Oh, my friends!  When the temptation comes to you to take what Satan says that you need when it is what God says that you must not take, remember your Savior and live in the second Adam, not in the first.  And so be found raised to newness of life in the second Adam, instead of condemned to death in the first.

(http://www.fpcjackson.org/resources/sermons/Luke/08a_Luke_4_1-13_Tempted_Tried_But_Never_Failing.htm)

The Holy Spirit writes:  ”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” 1 Corinthians 15:56

In his new book focusing on this verse, Chris Vlachos writes:

“Now if the Eden account was indeed the source of the Apostle’s catalytic notion of the law, and he considered the law-problematic to be primeval, it would seem to follow that the fundamental problem which the law posed for Paul would not have been its ‘legalistic misuse;’ Eve was enticed to trangress the law, not fulfill it.  Nor would it have been its abuse as a Jewish ‘identity marker;’ the law problematic predated the Patriarchs.  Neither would the problematic be attributed to the ‘compromise of Judaism’s gracious framework;’ a law problematic existed long before the collapse.  Nor would Paul’s polemic against the law have been solely due to ‘human inability;’ the law’s catalytic operation was set in motion prior to the Fall and before humanity’s consequent plunge into depravity . . . Paul’s notion of the catalytic operation of the law did not debut in his corpus on a polemical stage but quietly emerged as a theological contruct amidst an edenic environment . . . Even in Paradise law did not promote life . . . .”  (emphasis his)

(From Chris A. Vlachos, The Law and the Knowledge of Good and Evil, The Edenic Background of the Catalytic Operation of the Law in Paul (Eugene:  Pickwick, 2009), 227-228, 231.)

I’m not sure I agree with all of this, but this I know!  Thankfully, Jesus obeyed the law and bore its horrible curse in our place! And because of His finished work, the law is now our delight!  (Psalm 119)

J. I. Packer writes:

“Holiness is a matter of being Jesus’s disciple, of listening to His word and obeying His commands, of loving and adoring Him as one’s Redeemer, of seeking to please Him and honor Him as one’s Master, and so making ready for the day when we shall see Him and be with Him forever . . .

This Jesus-centeredness is the basic form of Christian holiness, and it is to this that the Spirit leads us all in His sanctifying work. The holiest Christians are not those most concerned about holiness as such, but those whose minds and hearts and goals and purposes and love and hope are most fully focused on our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(From: J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 134.)

HT: Tollelege

Edwards wrote:

“We are as much saved by the death of Christ, as his yielding himself to die was an act of obedience, as we are, as it was a propitiation for our sins: for as it was not the only act of obedience that merited, he having performed meritorious acts of obedience through the whole course of his life; so neither was it the only suffering that was propitiatory; all his suffering through the whole course of his life being propitiatory, as well as every act of obedience meritorious . . . .”

Commenting on Edwards’ understanding of the infinite merit of Christ, Craig Biehl concludes:

“An accurate understanding of the Triune God depends upon an accurate understanding of the pre-temporal and earthly ministry of Christ in satisfying the positive and negative demands of God’s unchanging rule of righteousness, as revealed in Scripture.”

(From: Craig Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ, The Glory of Christ’s Obedience in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards (Jackson: Reformed Academic Press, 2009), 222-223, 250.)

Spurgeon said:

“I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, ‘What! all this, and Christ too?’”

(In Kerry James Allen, Exploring the Mind & Heart of the Prince of Preachers (Oswego: Fox River Press, 2005), 90.)

1.  The LORD makes people great in the eyes of the world as He chooses:

Genesis 12:1-2: Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.   And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

Genesis 39:2-3, 21, 23: The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.  His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands . . . But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison . . . The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed.

Exodus 7:1: And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh . . . .”

Joshua 3:7: The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. ”

Joshua 4:14: On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.

1 Samuel 2:6-8: The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.  The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.  He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.  For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and on them he has set the world.

2 Samuel 7:8-9: Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel.  And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.”

Daniel 1:9: And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs . . . .

Psalm 75:6-7: For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

Philippians 2:5-11: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

2.  The LORD doesn’t need you:

Psalm 135:6: Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Isaiah 59:1: Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear

Acts 17:24-25: The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Matthew 3:9: God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

3.  The LORD grants all mercies, ministries, and positions in His Church as He sees fit:

Romans 9:15: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

1 Corinthians 4:7: For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

Romans 12:3: For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

2 Corinthians 4:1: Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

1 Corinthians 12:12, 18, 24, 28: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ . . . But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose . . . But God has so composed the body . . . And God has appointed in the church . . . .

4.  The LORD delights in and lifts up the humble:

Psalm 147:6: The LORD lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.

Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:  ”I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

1 Peter 5:5: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Matthew 18:4: Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 23:11-12: The greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Mark 9:35: If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

5.  Therefore . . .

a.  Consider all other preachers (and people!) better than yourself:

Philippians 2:3: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

b.  Seek the LORD to build your ministry or it is vanity:

Psalm 127:1: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

c.  And forget about yourself and exult in the glory, beauty, and satisfaction of Christ alone!

Philippians 3:7-11: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

CHRIST IS ALL!

Thomas Watson wrote:

What need does he have to complain of losses who has Christ?  He is His Father’s brightness (Hebrews 1:3), His fullness (Colossians 2:9), and His delight (Proverbs 8:30).  Is there enough in Christ to delight the heart of God?  And is there not enough in Him to ravish us with holy delight?  He is wisdom to teach us, righteousness to acquit us, sanctification to adorn us. He is that royal and princely gift.  He is the bread of angels (according to Bernard), the joy and triumph of saints.  He is “all in all” (Colossians 3:11). Why then are you discontented?

(Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment (Grand Rapids:  Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2001), 34.)

Elisabeth Elliot comments on  Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth:

Rosalind Bell-Smith, born in London in 1864, was twelve years old when she heard a sermon on John 3:16 at a revival meeting.  The love of God was presented with such fervor and intensity that she yielded herself absolutely to Christ and stood up, along with others, to confess Him publicly as her Lord and Master.

Her father having been an artist, she grew up with a great love for art and went to art school in Toronto.  But there was a strong pull in two opposite directions:  Should she give her life to painting or should she serve her Master to whom she belonged?  In her mind the two were mutually exclusive.  When she was twenty she began to pray that if married life was what God wanted for her, He would give her a husband “wholly given up to Him and His service.  I wanted no other.”

One day in June 1885, she joined a group of art students bound for a picnic at Niagara Falls.  On the same boat as they crossed the lake was another party, headed for a Bible conference.  She envied the latter group – her heart was more with them than with her own crowd.  On the return trip that evening both groups were on the boat again, plus others who had been at the Bible conference.  The Bible teacher recognized Rosalind as the organist in the church where he had spoken the previous Sunday and invited her to join a mission group the following Saturday. (more…)

“The end of the creation of God was to provide a spouse for His Son Jesus Christ that might enjoy Him and on whom He might pour forth His love. And the end of all things in providence are to make way for the exceeding expressions of Christ’s love to His spouse and for her exceeding close and intimate union with, and high and glorious enjoyment of, Him and to bring this to pass.

And therefore the last thing and the issue of all things is the marriage of the Lamb. And the wedding day is the last day, the day of judgment, or rather that will be the beginning of it. The wedding feast is eternal; and the love and joys, the songs, entertainments and glories of the wedding never will be ended. It will be an everlasting wedding day.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “Miscellany #702″ in The “Miscellanies”: Entries Nos. 501-832 in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 18, Ed. Ava Chamberlain (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 298.

From:  http://tollelege.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/an-everlasting-wedding-day-by-jonathan-edwards/

“David declares that he desires nothing, either in heaven or in earth, except God alone, and that without God, all other objects which usually draw the hearts of men towards them were unattractive to him. And, undoubtedly, God then obtains from us the glory to which He is entitled, when, instead of being carried first to one object, and then to another, we hold exclusively by Him, being satisfied with Him alone. If we give the smallest portion of our affections to the creatures we in so far defraud God of the honour which belongs to Him. And yet nothing has been more common in all ages than this sacrilege, and it prevails too much at the present day. How small is the number of those who keep their affections fixed on God alone!”

John Calvin on Psalm 73:25

“There were two exegetes who prayed as they entered the library to work on understanding a biblical text. One was a biblical scholar and the other a common lay preacher. The biblical scholar, on route to deep seclusion in the collection of recent monographs, prayed like this:

‘Lord, I thank you that I am not like other exegetes– the youth ministers, authors of popular devotional literature, mass production book publishers or even this lay preacher. I study the Scriptures for hours every day– in their original… and several other languages, not to mention my work in ancient history and historiography, literary theory, social-scientific research, the most important commentaries, the most recent monographs and dissertations, and the most scholarly periodicals!’

But the lay preacher, trying to remember how to use the complicated cataloging system to find an understandable commentary on a passage of Scripture, prayed thus,

‘God, please help me, a mere preacher, find something to help me understand Your word.’

I tell you, this person– who desperately needed it– received help from the Lord.”

–Craig G. Bartholomew and Robby Holt, “Prayer in/and the Drama of Redemption,” in Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 350.

From: http://tollelege.wordpress.com/

I encourage you to read about the persecuted church more often.   No matter how bad a day you may have had in America, your day was probably pretty good compared to them.  Or are they the ones blessed with the most glorious days, being counted worthy to suffer for His sake?  May we pray for them more . . .

“Lateef,” was born and raised in a Coptic Christian family. He became a quiet Christian. In Egypt, where proselytizing is illegal, Lateef rarely shared his faith. Then in 1994, he says he heard God’s voice compelling him to tell others about Christ. That is when he zealously began sharing the gospel with Muslims in his Upper Egyptian villiage. Soon after, Lateef was arrested and jailed. When released, he returned to evangelizing. He was put back in jail. This has gone on for the last 14 years, with Lateef’s most recent arrest and release occured in the summer of 2008. Often when Lateef is arrested he undergoes extreme torture. During one arrest in 1996, an Egyptian state security officer punched him in the mouth and broke two of his teeth. “He shouted, ‘Don’t talk about Christ, don’t preach, don’t evangelize,” recalled Lateef. “He said, ‘This dog will no longer talk about Jesus!” Once, he was locked in a toilet stall where guards urinated on him. Repeated electric shocks injured his feet and his lower abdomen was sliced so severly with a knife, his intestines spilled out. Guards allowed jailed Muslim soldiers to extinguish their lit cigarettes on Lateef’s arm and shoulder. But Lateef could not remain silent. Even imprisoned he shared Christ. On one occasion, while he was in jail, incarcerated Muslims asked Lateef to lead prayers from the Quran. They assumed he was part of a conservative Islamic group, The Muslim Brotherhood. Lateef agreed, but he was praying using Bible verses. He was able to do this for four months. Many Muslims do not know what is in the Quran; they only know what Muslim teachers have told them. One inmate even told him how Lateef’s prayers were the first time he had heard prayers that were real. When Lateef was caught evangelizing in prison he was tortured. Once he was tied to a ladder with ropes and the ladder was turned upside down. Lateef said, “Three security officers beat me all over my body with wooden sticks and said I was a kaffir (unbeliever) and deserved the beatings.” “I prayed for my persecutors because they did not know Jesus. I asked God to reveal the truth to them.” Lateef says God has allowed his repeated imprisonment and torture in order to be glorified. “I’m like garbage. The glory is for the Lord only.”

(From Voice of the Martyrs Magazine, March 2009)

www.persecution.com

“God’s people are never so exalted as when they are brought low, never so enriched as when they are emptied, never so advanced as when they are set back by adversity, never so near the crown as when under the cross.”

(Theodore Cuyler, God’s Light On Dark Clouds)

There’s no one like Him! Run to Him and be saved, safe, and satisfied!

Psalm 9:10: “And those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.”

Proverbs 18:10: “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”

Jesus Christ the Righteous, Saviour, Emmanuel, Teacher, Rabboni, Master, Governor, Law Giver, Forerunner, Redeemer, Messiah, Shiloh, Deliverer, Mediator, Intercessor, Messiah and Prince, a Prince and a Saviour, Mighty to Save

Surety of a Better Testament, the Just One, the Holy One, the Holy and the Just, the Holy and Righteous One, the Holy One of God, the Faithful and True Witness, a Witness to the People, a Leader and Commander of the People, the Consolation of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Jesus, the Young Child, Thy Holy Child, the Nazarene, Jesus of Nazareth, Lord, Lord Jesus, the Lord from Heaven, the Lord of Glory, the Lord Our Righteousness, the Lord of the Holy Prophets, Lord and Saviour, My Lord and My God, the Holy One of God
(more…)

“Turn all your passions into the right channel, and make them all holy, using them for God upon the greatest things. This is the true cure: the bare restraint of them is but a palliate cure; like the easing of pain by a dose of opium. Cure the fear of man, by the fear of God, and the Love of the creature, by the Love of God, and the cares for the body, by caring for the soul, and earthly fleshly desires and delights, by spiritual desires and delights, and worldly sorrow, by profitable godly sorrow.”

(Richard Baxter, Christian Directory, p. 327)

William Carey was one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived, and one of the greatest linguists the world has ever seen…Christian or non-Christian. William Carey translated parts of the Bible into no fewer than thirty-four different Indian languages. He began his life as a cobbler, fixing shoes. When he arrived in India as a missionary, he was immediately regarded with dislike and contempt because of the very stringent caste system that the people had been locked into for centuries. So, he was given absolutely no respect.

One time, at a dinner party that Carey was attending, a snob had the idea of humiliating Carey because of Carey’s low estate. So that all could hear, he said: “I hear, Mr. Carey, that you once worked as a shoemaker?” “Oh no, your lordship,” said William Carey, “not a shoemaker, only a shoe repairman.”

From John MacArthur’s sermon, Perfect Love: The Qualities of True Love (Part 2)

Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

“It smells of the prison. It was written when the author was confined in Bedford jail. And ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross: the Spirit of Christ and of Glory then rests upon them.”

May Jesus keep us near the cross!

“If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You will be whispering it into your child’s ear. You will be telling it to your husband. You will be earnestly imparting it to your friend. Without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent: your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of His sweet love.

Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about Him. Of course I do not mean by that, that those who use the pen are silent: they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well: but that man who says, ‘I believe in Jesus,’ but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about Him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an impostor.

You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. If thou knowest Christ, thou art as one that has found honey. Thou wilt call others to taste of it. Thou art like the lepers who found the food which the Syrians had cast away: thou wilt go to Samaria and tell the hungry crowd that thou hast found Jesus, and art anxious that they should find Him too. Be wise in your generation, and speak of Him in fitting ways and at fitting times, and so in every place proclaim the fact that Jesus is most precious to your soul.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, “A Sermon and a Reminiscence,” Sword and the Trowel (March 1873), as cited on http://www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/srmn1873.htm.

http://tollelege.wordpress.com/

“The chief article and foundation of the gospel is that before you take Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own. This means that when you see or hear of Christ doing or suffering something, you do not doubt that Christ himself, with his deeds and suffering, belongs to you. On this you may depend as surely as if you had done it yourself; indeed as if you were Christ himself. See, this is what it means to have a proper grasp of the gospel, that is, of the overwhelming goodness of God, which neither prophet nor apostle, nor angel was ever able fully to express, and which no heart could adequately fathom or marvel at. This is the great fire of the love of God for us, whereby the heart and conscience become happy, secure, and content. The is what preaching the Christian faith means.”

The poorest of the poor need many things . . . food, clothing, protection. Most of all they need the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

May we live lives worthy of the Gospel to help people in dire situations . . . in our neighborhoods and all over the world.

Pray for these children

Pray for these women

Come Lord Jesus and end all this! Come even now!

IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST JESUS BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH . . .

You are justified (made right with God) and have peace with God – Romans – 5:1

You died with Christ and died to the power of sin’s rule over your life – Romans 6:1-6

Your God is unlike any other, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on you, and will subdue your iniquities. He will cast all your sins into the depths of the sea – Micah 7:18-19

Your sins have been removed from you as far as the east is from the west – Psalm 103:12

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow – Isaiah 1:18
(more…)

In the following love note, Jonathan Edwards wrote about Sarah, his future wife, when she was only 13 years old. Notice what he finds beautiful about her and what she finds beautiful:

“They say there is a young lady in [New Haven] who is loved of that Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight; and that she hardly cares for any thing, except to meditate on him that she expects after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that he loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with him, and to be ravished with his love and delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or affection. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade her to do any thing wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this Great Being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind; especially after this Great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible always with her.”

(From: Edwards, Jonathan, “His Memoirs.” The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Banner of Truth, Vol. 1, xxxix xl, 1723.) (more…)

The apex – the high point – the summit of both Christ’s active obedience (law-keeping) and passive obedience (suffering for sinners) happened on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus Christ never suffered more than when He was crushed by the eternal wrath of the Father and forsaken by Him in whose presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. And at the same time, Jesus was actively giving His most perfect climactic obedience to the law: He never loved His Father with all His heart, mind, soul, and strength more than when He was on that cross (“. . . but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” John 14:31) , and He never loved His neighbor as Himself more than when He suffered for sinners on that cross (“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ”). The cross is everything!

And all those who have repented of their sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ – they are united with Christ in this very death He obediently suffered on the cross:

Romans 6:4-5 : We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death [into the apex of His passive and active obedience] , in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his [the apex of His passive and active obedience] , we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his [He did the law and therefore He lives in resurrection life, so that we might live in Him!] .

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ.

So by grace through faith in Jesus, I have participated in the culmination of Christ’s active and passive obedience because I have been crucified with Him where this culmination of His active and passive obedience took place. The cross is everything!

Galatians 6:14 :  But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . .

Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
[And] my [ransomed] soul shall find
Rest beyond the river. (Fanny Crosby)

One day Joseph, who was walking along one of these hot, dirty African roads, met someone who shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. Then and there he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. The power of the Spirit began transforming his life; he was filled with such excitement and joy that the first thing he wanted to do was return to his own village and share that same Good News with the members of his local tribe. Joseph began going from door-to-door, telling everyone he met about the Cross of Jesus and the salvation it offered, expecting to see their faces light up the way his had. To his amazement the villagers not only didn’t care, they became violent. The men of the village seized him and held him to the ground while the women beat him with strands of barbed wire. He was dragged from the village and left to die alone in the bush.

Joseph somehow managed to crawl to a waterhole, and there, after days of passing in and out of consciousness, found the strength to get up. He wondered about the hostile reception he had received from people he had known all his life. He decided he must have left something out or told the story of Jesus incorrectly. After rehearsing the message he had first heard, he decided to go back and share his faith once more.

Joseph limped into the circle of huts and began to proclaim Jesus. “He died for you, so that you might find forgiveness and come to know the living God,” he pleaded. Again he was grabbed by the men of the village and held while the women beat him reopening wounds that had just begun to heal. Once more they dragged him unconscious from the village and left him to die.

To have survived the first beating was truly remarkable. To live through the second was a miracle. Again, days later, Joseph awoke in the wilderness, bruised, scarred—and determined to go back. He returned to the small village and this time, they attacked him before he had a chance to open his mouth. As they flogged him for the third and probably the last time, he again spoke to them of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Before he passed out, the last thing he saw was that the women who were beating him began to weep.

This time he awoke in his own bed. The ones who had so severely beaten him were now trying to save his life and nurse him back to health. The entire village had come to Christ.

(From: Michael Card, “Wounded in the House of Friends,” Virtue (March/April 1991): 28-29, 69.)

In light of this story, can anyone explain to me what it means to not cast your pearls before swine?

D.A. Carson on the wrath of God:

“To speak faithfully of the wrath of God, very often what we most urgently need are tears. A few years ago on a radio talk show with a large audience in Chicago, the host asked several guests to discuss whether anyone could be saved apart from Jesus. Three pooh-poohed the idea in graphic terms. The fourth was a Jewish-Christian believer on the faculty of Moody Bible Institute. His ethnic background was known by everyone there, so when it was his turn to speak, the host baited him by asking him if he thought his fellow Jews could be saved apart from Christ. This Christian brother began to weep, and then to sob quietly, uncontrollably. After a minute or two, the host said that he had never heard a more compelling reason to become a Christian. So we teach the wrath of God, for faithfulness to Scripture demands it; and we follow Jesus and learn to weep over the city.”

(From: D. A. Carson, “The Wrath of God,” in Engaging the Doctrine of God, ed. Bruce McCormack, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 63.)

May God increase our tears, love, and action for the lost and hurting!

HT: Joseph Randall

Here.

Joseph Randall sent this video to a few of us to consider the Calvinistic undertones of this early Christian Contemporary Music. I think the video pretty much speaks for itself! I wonder if these guys are still touring. If you have any questions about the band you should email Joseph. I think he is a big fan.

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.
So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” Revelation 5:1-12

For those who do not like to talk about Jesus “meriting” anything for His people, I suggest a new word – He “worthied” our salvation! What a glorious truth! No one was found worthy to open the seals, but Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb Who was slain – He was indeed worthy! Why was He worthy? Because He prevailed! He prevailed in obedience even unto death on the cross and for this reason He is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

And if you are in Him by grace through faith, then everything that counts for Him, counts for you! In Him, you too are worthy. Be amazed dear Christian. Be amazed!

Oh Father please . . .

Help me to give Your people the sense of Your Word, and to help them understand the reading! Nehemiah 8:8

Help me come to the pulpit, not with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to Your people the testimony of God. Help me determine not to know anything among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified! Help my speech and my preaching not to be with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that Your people’s faith may not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God! 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Help me preach the Gospel and present the Gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the Gospel! 1 Corinthians 9:18

Help me not to preach myself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and myself a bondservant for Jesus’ sake! 2 Corinthians 4:5

Help me not to preach Christ from envy, strife, or selfish ambition! Help me to preach Him from good will and out of love! Philippians 1:15-17

Help me preach Christ, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that I may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus! Colossians 1:28

Help me preach the Word! Help me be ready in season and out of season! Help me convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching! 2 Timothy 4:2

Help me preach the Gospel so that It does not come to Your people in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance! 1 Thessalonians 1:5

Help me praise Your works and declare Your mighty acts from the pulpit! Help me speak of the might of Your awesome acts and declare Your greatness! Help me speak of the glory of Your kingdom and of Your power! Psalm 145:5,6,11

Grant that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel! Ephesians 6:19

Help me to believe what I preach! Grip me with it and humble me with it, and help me exult in it until I am lost in wonder, love, and praise! – Dr. Martyn-Lloyd Jones

Help me give Your people a sense of You and Your presence when I preach. Help me to give them a glimpse of Your glory and majesty, the love of Christ my Saviour, and the magnificence of the Gospel! – Dr. Martyn-Lloyd Jones

Cut all the ribbons that tie me to the frowns and smiles of men and drive a steel beam down my backbone and free me to serve You for Your glory alone! – Albert N. Martin

Please use me for Your glorious employ! Make me mighty in the Scriptures; make my life to be dominated by a sense of Your greatness, Your majesty, and Your holiness. Make my mind and heart aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. Help me learn what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; help me be willing to be a fool for Christ’s sake. Help me be willing to bear reproach and falsehood for Your sake. Help me labor and suffer for Your sake. Please make my supreme desire not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win Your approbation when I appear before Your awesome judgment seat. Help me preach with a broken heart and with tear-filled eyes! Please grant Your ministry through me an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and allow me to witness “signs and wonders following” in the transformation of multitudes of human lives! (Edited Version From: Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975, p. 16).

. . . for Jesus’ sake – Amen!

Oh Father please . . .

Help me take heed to myself and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made me an overseer, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood! Acts 20:28

Help me to be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, gentle, and able to teach! Keep me from being given to wine, from being violent, from being greedy for money, from being quarrelsome, and from being covetous! Help me rule my own house well, having my children in submission with all reverence! Keep me from being puffed up with pride and falling into the same condemnation as the devil! Help me have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest I fall into reproach and the snare of the devil! 1 Timothy 3:2-7

Help me be a steward of God, not self-willed and not quick-tempered! Help me be hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, and self-controlled! Help me hold fast the faithful word as I have been taught, that I may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict! Titus 1:7-9

Help me shepherd the flock of God, and serve as an overseer, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly! Help me not lord my authority over those entrusted to me, but help me be an example to the flock! Help me so labor that when the Chief Shepherd appears, I will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away! 1 Peter 5:2-4

Help me watch out for the souls you have entrusted to me, as one who must give an account! Help me do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for those entrusted to me! Hebrews 13:17

Help me not have dominion over the faith of Your people, but help me be a worker for their joy! 2 Corinthians 1:24

Help me not cease to pray for Your people! May Your Church be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; may we walk worthy of You, fully pleasing You, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You! May we be strengthened with all might, according to Your glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy! May we give thanks to You Who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light! Colossians 1:9-12

Help my love and Your Church’s love to abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that we may approve the things that are excellent, that we may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God! Philippians 1:9-11

Grant me and all Your Church, according to the riches of Your glory, to be strengthened with might through Your Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that we may be filled with all the fullness of You oh God! Ephesians 3:16-19

. . . For Jesus’ sake – Amen!