Treasuring Christ in the Midst of Trials: Philippians 3:1-4:1

Over the past few weeks God has brought me to Philippians 3:1-4:1. Reading it as an entire unit, seeing its focus, and knowing what Paul meant to attend to in it has been extremely pleasant to my own soul. I thought in this blog that I would give a quick glance at this church's circumstances, and the matter that Paul sets before them to strengthen them in the midst of them.

In this letter, one thing becomes apparent: anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (alright, so that is in 2 Timothy 3:12) - but this is the standard of the Philippian church. They are not perfect as is evident by Paul's prayer for their sanctification and spiritual progression (1:9-11) and chapter 4. But they are not confronted by the apostle concerning anything close to those problems in Corinth, Colossae, Galatia, etc. They have partnered in the Gospel of Christ, praying, giving, and testifying to the grace of God. They herald Christ as Lord as opposed to Caesar. Because of these things, they have enemies, or opponents (1:28), in the face of whom they are not to tremble but be emboldened. They were a persecuted church precisely because they desired to advance the Gospel at all costs.

In chapter 3, Paul puts a face on their opponents: Judaizers (Jewish Christians who asserted that one had to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses plus believe in Christ to be saved; cf. Acts 15:1, 5), and pleasure-seekers or sensualists (3:17-19). And these two groups remain stumbling blocks to this day - the Judaizers are those divisive legalists in your church who would in any way maintain that Christ is deficient to save; the sensualists are those who belong to the world, or are perhaps those who sit amongst you in corporate worship but beyond the church worlds perceive grace as a license to sin.

Paul means to help them endure suffering - notice, he does not tell them to avoid suffering! He has already mentioned it as a grace of God (1:29) and will soon mention it as a worthy consequence of knowing Jesus Christ (3:7-11). He does not mean for them to aim for temporal comfort, but to give them sustenance that will enable them to endure suffering with joy. And what does he recommend to them? The supremacy of Jesus Christ in all things and above all things! This, he says, rightly considered and taken unto sanctification will help you to live and suffer and die - in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ (1:27). Hence the title that I've given to this chapter: Treasuring Christ in the Midst of Trials.

I've broken it down into 5 divisions concentrated on the supremacy of Christ and the meditations that come from it that have served to make my soul exceedingly glad. I offer them to you in hopes of the same outcome -

1. The Supremacy of Christ's Gospel as a meditation on Christ's absolute sufficiency in salvation (3:2-7).

2. The Supremacy of Knowing Christ as a meditation on the gift of faith and Christ's perfect righteousness imputed on that basis - and of the supremacy of this satisfying knowledge that enables us to endure the loss of all worldly things (3:2-9).

3. The Supremacy of Christ's Person and Work as a meditation on counting all things as loss in this material world that we may become less hindered and more intimate in knowing Him - whom by grace we already know, i.e., the sanctifying power of treasuring Christ (3:2-11).

4. The Supremacy of Pursuing Christ Above All Else as a meditation of the ultimate goal of the Christian life and the freeing power inherent in it that enables us to be emboldened with the Gospel and perseverant in persecution (3:2-16).

5. The Supremacy of Christ's Triumphant Power as a meditation upon the supremacy of Christ's sovereign kingdom and end as the source of triumphant living in the midst of trials (3:2-4:1).

With these divisions, I would leave you with what has been an encouraging set of brackets around this incredible text: Chapter 3:1 in conjunction with 4:1 provide an awesome tandem of commands to introduce and close Paul's words. "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord ," introduces this text and the text explains the command so well - why should we rejoice in the Lord in the midst of suffering? Because Jesus Christ is sovereignly and savingly preeminent in and over all things, strengthening His Church to endure with triumphant joy the experiential pain that comes at the hands of men for the sake of the Gospel. And having expounded the supremacy of Christ and how it prepares us to live and suffer and die well, he concludes with another command of encouragement - "Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." "Rejoice" and "stand firm in the Lord" offer us a solid battle cry in view of the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

I hope these provide you with some edifying thoughts. If so, feel free to comment as always.

Reflections on the Providence of God

In studying the epistle to the Philippians God has amazed me with the incomprehensible grandeur of His providential workings in the salvation of His elect and the begetting of the church. There was a point in time on the "finished" side of the cross and resurrection when men and women who would be involved in the Philippian church were as of yet completely ignorant and unsuspecting of God's gracious intervention. They slept, arose, learned, played, ate, drank, and breathed in the normalities and typical occurrences of life. None of them, however, did any of those things with the conscious awareness of God. None of them were awakened by the urgency of spending time with Jesus.

Saul spent his days in vigorous study and murderous threats against God's Church. In the same day, Lydia, perhaps, frequented the waters nearby seeking to fish out the shellfish for the purple dye found within its throat, and selling her goods to others. Meanwhile, a slave girl with a spirit of divination would sit in front of men and women to tell them their fortunes, bringing in the cash for her owners. At the same time, a jailer played the role of family man, while working the graveyard shift at the prison. And the inmates that he watched endured the same daily grind of survival, incarceration, and hopelessness. And what of the young man from Lystra, Timothy; what youthful endeavors did he day after day after day attend to?

Each of these persons, diverse in ethnicity, age, religion, presuppositions, backgrounds, and monetary class attended to their typical day, deeds, and conversations without the slightest bit of knowledge that God had in eternity past ordained and was now effecting the circumstances whereby within a short time all of them would come face to face with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in the preaching of the Gospel. For God's providence is plain from the biblical account, that:

Accordingly, God met Saul on his way to Damascus to persecute the disciples there, but Christ converted him to defend what he formerly threatened, Acts 9:1-19.

God then called Saul, a Hebrew of Hebrews, to be His instrument to carry His name unto the Gentiles - and kings and the children of Israel, Acts 9:15.

Having called Saul as an instrument to the Gentile nations, God refined and glorified Himself in that calling in Antioch of Pisidia. For after he had preached the Gospel to the Jews there, and the next Sabbath had come, a great many Gentiles attended, to which the Jews became jealous and contradicted what Paul was saying; therefore, Paul responds by telling them their condemning fault and blindness, for the Gentiles were included, and thus, Paul sought it all the more eagerly, Acts 13.

God brought Paul to the habitation of Timothy on his second missionary journey, having apparently already converted the boy, and thus Paul was inclined to have Timothy accompany him, Acts 16:1-5.

God then directed their missionary endeavor. He, in infinite wisdom and purpose, forbid them from their own human endeavors and re-routed them to Macedonia, by which the Gospel was destined to enter Europe; and it must be believed that God's intention was thus to save those who were currently unsuspecting and presumably going about their daily order even still, unaware that the Gospel would soon be among them in effectual power, Acts 16:6-10.

And God's providence is especially seen here, once they arrive in Philippi, for many things happen here to advance the Gospel that can only be attributed to the grace and glory of God's providential workings; thus,

1. Paul seeking a synagogue on the Sabbath found none, but rather a congregation of Gentile women who being proselytes had gathered for prayer just outside the city gates. Hereby, God greeted Lydia in the Gospel, "(opening) her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul," Acts 16:14. Lydia believed and her household as well, being baptized and bearing immediate fruit, Acts 16:15.

2. That in the course of their ministry they attracted a demonic tag along, a slave girl who doubled as a fortune teller. For many days she did this, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation," whereupon Paul, becoming annoyed of the correlation between God's kingdom and that of darkness, commanded the spirit to come out in the name of Jesus, and in a display of glory, the girl was healed, Acts 16:16-24.

3. But God's providence not yet being satisfied in the place made use of the previous occurrence to enrage her owners and eventually the greater crowd, so that Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten with rods, and imprisoned, whereby the Gospel now came face to face with the unsuspecting inmates and a third shift jailer.

a. Here the inmates, having no doubt caught wind of these missionaries and the beating that they had incurred, yet heard them praying and singing hymns to God (Acts 16:25) - they were listening to them! They exhibited by the exceeding grace of God the true joy of authentic believers, who with chains on their feet and wrists and lashes on their back yet rejoice in the midst of suffering because of their love for and joy in Christ Jesus and His Gospel. So it must have been a convincing thing when by a prison shaking, shackle loosening earthquake God opened the prison doors and unfastened everyone's bonds, that He could and would do the same for them spiritually in Christ.

b. And now the jailer thinking himself under the death sentence and aiming to commit himself to an "honorable death", found that he need not, for Paul cried out to him that he had not lost the inmates presence. Thus having certainly witnessed much of their partnership in the Gospel, fell on his knees and asked with much earnestness, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Upon hearing the remedy of Christ, he believed, his household also, was baptized and bore fruit, Acts 16:25-34.

By these evidences, God's providence founded the church at Philippi - for God converted the means of the Gospel (Paul), and by the means, which He sovereignly directed to Philippi, and also by many providential workings and effectual grace, brought a host of people into the covenant of Christ, who until that glorious intervention neither sought Him nor desired Him nor considered Him for themselves.

And how this is the case of our own salvation! That God had set many things in motion that we were unaware of until they presented themselves in order to secure our salvation and, by our conversion, the salvation of others still, right now, unsuspecting!

What heights of grace and glory do these realities of God set before us? I did not awaken one morning and think to myself that today I will "give my life to the Lord." I attended to my typical days, my regular activities, my ordered vanities, the same conversations, all with not even a symblance of a thought or affection Godwards. I was dead in my sins and trespasses. But God, in His marvelous providence set many divers things in motion and at their fullness of time, the Gospel of God and the power of His effectual call found me, not vice versa! For I grew up in what cannot properly be titled a "church", though I did not know it; I attended youth service, but due to sin heard nothing; I slept, ate, and drank; I went to school, watched television, and played basketball with imaginary people guarding me; and I am certain that what God had ordained in eternity past was already being carried out, but of those innumerable things I cannot know, but I do know that He caused a young girls father to transfer from out of state, a girl that I would begin to date in high school, a girl who was a believer in Christ whom I had apparently fooled into thinking that I was as well, so that by her invitation I stepped out of my "church" for the first time and into her Southern Baptist affiliated church, whereupon I heard the Gospel for the first time, God's Spirit beating within my chest and opening up the eyes of my heart to see sin, judgment, its abiding principle, consequence, and the eternality of that consequence; two months later at that same church at a youth service, the Gospel was heralded once more by which God opened my heart to the comfort of Christ as the resolution to the conflict that I had internally been dealing with from the previous encounter - and then at somewhere between the two o'clock and three o'clock hour of the night God, Himself, re-created me in Christ! God did this work! God, in His gracious providence, saved me in and through my Lord Jesus Christ! God wonderfully intervened - and guess what (?) I didn't think that God had violated my right of free will either like so many today, and if He did, then thank God for that in Jesus' name!

Brothers and sisters, praise your God today for His providential work in your life. And know that if these things be so, and they are, that there are many even today whom you will come in contact with who are unsuspecting of God's intervention; that you are not only greeting them with yourself, but with the Gospel of Christ within you; by you God makes his appeal to the unsuspecting sinner. This is how He has decided to make use of His children - and it is glorious calling that we have to "proclaim the excellencies of Him who called (us) out of darkness into His marvelous light," 1 Peter 2:9. Let us beseech God that we might recognize the opportunities in a given day to come under the excellency of His providence and, by His will, be the providential means of Christ to the one who even now least suspects to meet the Lord of glory! In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Gospel Truth: God's Righteousness Revealed and Imputed Through Faith in Jesus

I was reminded over the weekend of the theme verse of Paul's epistle to the Romans, the theme that the apostle develops over the course of the letter, both theologically, soteriologically, and practically - "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Romans 1:16-17)

From this text, Luther would have Paradise opened to him, and the doctrine of justification by faith alone crystallized for the Church.

From this text, contemporary redwoods in the Church, like John Piper, would speak much upon the reality that only God can save sinners from God (His righteousness from His wrath - see v. 18).

It is this text, however, whose truth proposition of the sinners inherent unrighteousness only being remedied by the imputation of God's own righteousness - the righteousness revealed in the Gospel - and that by faith and not by works, that stands in utter contradiction to the notion of the world - that all are generally good, that a spark of the Divine exists within the self, it just needs to be sought out and appropriated, or that by works one merits honor with the Divine Being, that salvation is an earned wage.

But God's truth stands, that His wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (and we are all characterized in this way), and therefore, only His righteousness can deliver the unrighteous and ungodly. The imputation of an alien righteousness by faith alone in Christ alone is the greatest news in the universe, but the world considers it folly, unbelievable (which it is but for grace), and intolerable - it is counter-cultural.

Romans 1:16-17 makes these propositions: first, that we should not be ashamed to share the Gospel because the Gospel is the power of God for salvation without distinction invested by faith; secondly, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation without distinction invested by faith because in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith; thirdly, that what is meant by the second proposition is summed up in Paul's quotation of Habakkuk 2:4, "The righteous shall live by faith"; and lastly, that by the relationship between 1:16 and 1:17, and 1:17 to 1:18, it is understood that it is the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel that transcends shame in evangelism, and is the inherent power of God to sanctify believers, while also being the necessary revelation to be received by sinners through faith in Christ if anyone is to be saved from the wrath of God.

My intention here is not to write on all of these propositions of biblical truth, but rather to focus on the grace of the offering of God's very own righteousness revealed in the Gospel to unrighteous sinners, and how this truth supremely exalts the value of God, while removing every boast from the lips of men who would infringe (by their own abilities) upon the inheritance that belongs to Christ alone, and to whom Christ gives it by gracious adoption and imputation.

The term "righteousness" is linked to the term "justification", hence, the doctrine of "justification by faith", or by faith God imputes His perfect righteousness to sinners completely bankrupt of any righteousness. Paul develops this idea throughout Romans, showing diligently that every single human being in the history of the universe, from beginning to end, are guilty of sin, falling short of God's glory, and are separated from Him, in point of fact, dead and hostile against Him - "none is righteous, no, not one," Romans 3:10, Psalm 14:1-3.

And, if the very righteousness of God is required in order to be delivered from God's wrath, but no one is righteous in the way that God is righteous, what manner of problem is this but the greatest problem in the universe for every individual? But God freely offers the solution - in the Gospel, God's righteousness is revealed through faith - faith in Jesus Christ. Paul writes it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake (God) made (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God."

The wrath of God that we have earned as sinners Christ perfectly satisfied on the cross for all who would believe in Him for salvation, so that when we believe in Him, God gives to us the righteousness of Christ, the very righteousness of God. We are accounted righteous through faith in Jesus. Hereby, we are saved from God's wrath. It is a substitutionary sacrifice that we speak of in the Gospel, through which the righteousness of God is revealed through faith in that sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Biblical Christianity is the only religion that offers such a Way of salvation - which Way is exclusive! None of the sinners works, street smarts, deeds, merit, money, volunteer hours, or church visitations, etc. can save the sinner from God's wrath - human works are frail and powerless at the accountability of God's Law - no, God's Law is good in that it points us to God's Gospel, wherein it is the power of God to sanctify the believer and convert the sinner because within the Gospel is the revelation of the righteousness of God - and it is the exclusive means of salvation from God's wrath.

Christ is the Christian's righteousness before God. It holds true, then, that "salvation belongs to the Lord" - God owns salvation, in its origin and application and end, etc. Let us be humbled by this - we cannot save ourselves; no man can savingly declare himself righteous before the Righteous God. Only God can declare a man righteous in a sufficient and saving way - and in Jesus Christ, God has made possible that very Divine declaration for dead sinners. This holds true for me, for you, for every human being. But the righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel and revealed so it is understood that by faith in Christ, this perfect righteousness is imputed. Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes in Him (Romans 10:4).

It is not enough, however, to know the doctrine of justification by faith, but to truly put this doctrine of the Gospel into practice so that our words, thoughts, and actions are submerged in it. For when we, like a delivered sponge, soak in the overflow of the Gospel, we are humbled. Do we have anything to offer God? Anything that can save? Any self-claim to glory? No! - and we rejoice! - because God has opened our hearts to know this much, which is hidden from much of the world. We, like all men, are sinners, and were it not for Christ's righteousness, we would not differ from the rest of a lost world in the slightest degree. God's grace sets us apart, makes us distinctive from the world. Regeneration is of God's grace, so too, repentance, faith, sanctification, etc., and also, the imputation of perfect righteousness. And, the sinner seated beside you yesterday, now, or tomorrow - they are right now what you were prior to the onset of effectual grace. Christ is the chasm between the two, me and you, you and him or her.

Does this not transcend any ashamedness for the sake of the Gospel? Is not this revealed righteousness of faith the power of God to save without distinction? God's righteousness, God's righteousness, God's righteousness - it is revealed in the Gospel; it delivers from God's wrath; it comes through faith in Jesus Christ; it constitutes the great divide; and it overflows into daily practical humility and evangelism and Christian growth.

Let us be rid of our wretched individualism, and hold fast to the Head, Who is Christ Jesus the Lord. May we ever teach and propagate the Gospel of God's righteousness in Christ, offered and given to sinners through faith in Jesus Christ. It is more than a doctrine, it is the core of the Gospel, the ground upon which, Luther wrote, the Church will stand or fall - and it is the hope of the lost world and the joy of we who by it have been fitted to glorify and enjoy God forever. It is God's righteousness - give Him the glory!

Whatever Happened To "Thus Says The Lord GOD"?

To the prophet Ezekiel, God said, "I send you to them, and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.' And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them," Ezekiel 2:4-5. God spoke of a famine of the Word through His prophet Amos, "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land - not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it," Amos 8:11-12. Now this was perhaps fulfilled most immediately during the 400 years of prophetical silence leading up to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, when God Himself would tabernacle among us and speak the Divine words to the sinner.

A combination of these texts yields to us that God's true preachers preach God's Word, that God has sent them to people by grace to hear His Word, without which grace, the Word of God will not be heard, nor sought, nor found, but rejected by the general audience like a hoard of rebels that don't know what - by grace - they have until it is gone and judgment takes its place. The judgment of God was the cutting off of the prophet from the people, His Word from their hearing, whereby they were given over to and lost to their own finite and perishing suppositions.

Currently - though there appears on the horizon a resurgence in biblical, passionate, reformational preaching - the vast majority of the laity, and, God forbid, many pastorates too, have become biblically inept, having turned a deaf ear to God's word, and a prideful ear to the sound of their own voices. This seems to be the current form of judgment against the modern day version of a rebellious world, and a secularized Church - that preaching has become human, absent of God and the power of His Holy Spirit - many preach their own word; and so many only hear a human word, and have become accustomed to that depravity so that upon hearing the Word of God, it is something altogether foreign to them which they are much inclined to reject due to its "inherent power" which they know nothing of.

A quick examination of many professors of Christianity today offers the evidence of dissipated doctrine, a worrisome retreat from the infallibility of Scripture, and a frightening agreement with the world that nothing can be known absolutely, that experience and culture determines truth, that human movements are the true lens through which to understand Scripture, and if Scripture speaks contrarily, then God is wrong, and the movement right. It is the lost world that influences the doctrine and doctrinal attitude of these Christians (what may only be deemed liberal, thoughtless, and careless theology - and no true theology at all - though it is offered up as "God's Word" with surprising ease of conscience). They preach it under the title of Christ and the world considers the sound of it quite good, appeasing, and tolerable - it's just not truth, it's not God's Gospel, it's not God's Word.

The tempter and the temptable nature of the flesh are quite the tag team in drawing us into error, and overthrowing the truth, being more of a hindrance than a help to Christ. Modern theology is a mere reflection of that moral carelessness of the culture around us on every side. Giving no thought to God's Word, we often with much earnestness receive and take to heart the erroneous words of self-proclaimed men of God. We are hardly 21st century Bereans - though we ought to be! Rather, we appear much like Lot who grew hardened to true righteousness because of his prolonged love affair with the wicked society of Sodom and Gomorrah - his doctrine, his morality reflected the nature of his surroundings.

If a godly man mentions holiness, they are "judging"; the mention of wrath is deemed "intolerant"; sin is "too harsh", and hell "unthinkable, because God is love"; that men and women have specific gender roles in the home, in the Church, etc., the godly man is called "sexist"; if he crys out against homosexuality and abortion, he is dubbed "out of context, out of touch, archaic"; if the man preaches the Gospel and engages in active evangelism, he is "ultra-aggressive, dangerous, an invader of personal space"; if he advocates the Word of God as it is in truth the Word of God and clings with his whole heart to every word believing it to be infallibly true, he is at best "puritanical". And this objection comes from many who claim investment in Christ. What of the type who at the mention of Christ simply says to you, "go to hell!"?

The problem with these type of comments from people in the Church (or not) towards this kind of man is that this kind of man is restating and explaining for those people the truth of God's Word. It is not his word, his invention, his opinion - what is fact cannot be opinion and what is believed is believed because the one believing is convicted and assured that it is factual truth. It is God's Word! If when the man, therefore, believes that a woman should not be the pastor of a Church and he articulates his position based on the gender roles specified by God in Genesis, as well as the pastoral roles expounded by God through Paul in 1 Timothy 3, and the like texts, and is titled "sexist" because of it, then the one who titles him must also be willing to call God a "sexist". It is God's Word - to all of the above responses, the same must be said of God, that He is "judging, intolerable, too harsh, unthinkably cruel, out of context, out of touch, archaic, ultra-aggressive, dangerous, an invader of personal space, and puritanical, etc.", to which most would just tell God, "go to hell!", and we did, all of us, when in Jesus, God spoke His Word and lived His Word before us. We rejected Him, and crucified Him - a blasphemer, smitten by God!

The tempter tempts us into Scriptural lethargy, and this appeases and strokes the flesh quite well. We are at ease with our own spins on Scripture. Let us not forget that the devil knows Scripture quite well - and purposefully misrepresents it but not without cloaking it in a tasty frosting. A move away from biblical orthodoxy is not a step forward, unless by forward it is meant into the doctrine of the devil and of demons (James 3:14-16). The devil is a liar - will you listen to him? He aims at murdering you - and in so far as anyone abides by his principle of interpretation (to bring about selfish ambition, jealousy, bitterness, and ease of temporal life), then you are in fact eternally perishing in heart and mind and soul, swallowing his sweetly fatal poison.

The delusion is manifold, but mainly, that to stray from God's Word and to create your own will be a greater joy than to love and obey and abide by God's Word. The serpent slithers within the guise of secular and pop culture, and the culture weaves your theology upon his scales. As our patriarchal parents did, so we, their progeny do. Culture rather than the Bible determines our thinking about God, the devil rather than the Creator.

What do we make of ourselves by the notion that we ought not speak of sin, or that we should not speak up against the immorality of human nature? Shall we give evidence that the devil's fangs are attached to our hearts? Then by all means let one speak half-truths which are no truths, let one be advised by the blindness of unregenerate culture and unregenerate persons that to speak so passionately about God in Christ for righteousness is an intolerable type of speech, and therefore, ought not to be proclaimed. This will grant you an easy life - maybe - but what of that life to come which is called "everlasting"?

What eternal joy is there in usurping the authority of God's Word? What do you gain by deeming God "a sexist pig"? It is of note that in the galactic battle between the devil and the Lord Jesus Christ during the period of His temptation, that the temptation came in the form of the misinterpretation of Scripture - and that Jesus defeated satan with the right and authoritative knowledge of Scripture!

What must be observed in these things? That the lie consists within the thought that God's Word is out of touch with reality; that false happiness consists in the authority of one's own word and rationale. That we must be careful not to become the Church of the Culture, rather than the Church of Christ. That it is not in our deviation from God's Word that will bring greatest joy, but instead, our greatest joy and fulfillment lies within the obedience to and love of every one of God's revealed words. God has spoken and He speaks still - through His Word! And what God has revealed, He has revealed because it gives the knowledge of Himself to sinners who are starved for the Real, for the God of the universe, and this revelation is so understood in the life and words of the Son, Jesus Christ, and that whatever is revealed, because it is meant to lead us to God, is revealed to be loved and adhered to with the most sensational delicacy, and it is within such "stick-tuitiveness", such true faith in every word, that our greatest joy and happiness and fulfillment will be realized both now and increasingly forevermore, and not the contrary. If God has given specific gender roles, have we given thought to the reality that it is in our obedience to those roles that our greatest joy will be had in Him, and that it is in being contrary to those roles that we will be ruined, moving away from His Word - and yet, women continue to be the spiritual activist's and men the spiritual "passivist's", etc., and we say, "Ah, this is good; this is the way things are!" And satan applauds.

The Scriptures are the written form of God's authoritative Word. As we depart from them, ever so slightly, we depart greatly from Christ, for any measure of departure from the Word, is a total departure from Christ, Who is the Word of God. And this Word gives rules and regulations and requirements, and Christ fulfilled them for us who because of sin and the weakness of the flesh could never (this is the Gospel of grace), and the prescription, the intentionality of this Word is to bring us to God that we may in part know Him and enjoy Him now as the Treasure of our soul and the universe and of eternity - and as this is the intentionality of the Word of God, so it is the intentionality of Jesus Christ, Who is the Word. Any adherence to anything less is in no way profitable for the soul in view of eternity.

More than peanut butter to the roof of the mouth ought we to cling to every word of Scripture, and then, at no time should we forfeit our stance in God's Word, but bring every thought, doctrine, word, deed, opinion, persuasion, everything that is anything, into captivity to the doctrine of Christ, the Word of God. Let us hold up the banner of God Almighty atop the massive peaks of Holy Scripture, and not settle to sit upon the dung hills of liberal theology, unregenerate reasoning, secular culture, or church tradition (which often stands in stark contrast to Christian doctrine).

Be warned! Satan would have you convinced that your greatest joy lay in Scriptural lethargy, misinterpretation, and uninspired human babble, masquerading as "something new and fresh" - and completely opposed to everything true and godly. By this design, the enemy of your soul would take you down to hell.

In truth, our greatest joy is God, known through faith in Jesus Christ (the Word of God), and therefore, to love and obey and be taught by His authoritative rule and justifying Gospel is to embark on and taste now the happiness which is only and truly known through our unwavering and uncompromising feasting upon and propagating of His Word, the Christ. By this, we meet God.

By God's grace, I will hold steadfastly to every word of Scripture, believing it in truth. I will not depart, for I long to know Christ, and if you so long to know Christ, know not your own inventions, but instead hold fast the Word of God. At least in the day of the prophet Amos, the people sought out the Word of God. Let us long for the day when men will roam from sea to sea, and from north to east, running to and fro, from South Carolina to South America to South Korea to South Africa and beyond to find the word of the Lord, and by the mercy and kindness of God, may they find it both heralded, "Thus says the Lord GOD," and heard and loved not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the Word of God.

Rend Thy Hearts and Not Thy Garments

In the prophetical book of Joel, the grain and drink offerings that accompanied the sacrificial offering had been neglected and withheld from the LORD. Those offerings of wine and grain upon the sacrifice served to fragrance that aroma that was pleasing to God, which in the New Testament would be fulfilled in the reality of faith. "Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all," Philippians 2:17.

The importance of the grain and drink offerings is emphasized in Joel 1:8-9, "Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD." And it seems a thing more deep in truth, that due to the sin of the Israelites, God not only commissioned a nation to come up against Israel, but by that nation destroyed the ground from which the grain sprung, and the vine from which the wine was drawn, and so God's people became a reproach and a byword among the nations. It was a Divine judgment against the people that the source of their offerings were taken away, because they were commonly apt to abuse the fruit for worship.

The mercy of God is seen in the midst of His great anger, which I am inclined to believe, Israel would not have so appreciated His mercy without the appropriation of and the continual truth of His wrath. But in the heart of His storm, He makes room for unmerited safety, and the decree is "repent or likewise perish." The harshness of its tone is tempered by the contemplation of the fruit of repentance, that within the command to repent is the safety and enjoyment of God's Sovereign benignity or purest love.

"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster," Joel 2:12-13.

"Rend your hearts and not your garments." It was a common thing in the Old Testament to find penitent saints ripping their garments as a sign of their turning. Confronted by God's law, or Truth, they would, if repentant, tear their garments, mourn, weep, and lay in the ashes (put on sackcloth). The tearing of the garments was the sign of an internal reality. The implication in Joel, is that this sign had become hypocritical, a type of lip service unto God which He abhorred. It is one thing if the thing done is the overflow of the internal condition of the soul; another if the thing done is the overflow of human pride and self-righteousness. As with much of the law, the Jews had externalized it as a matter of ritual rather than a matter of the inward parts wherein God desires truth.

Repentance is oft forgotten in the Church, as if it were something done once and never to be returned to again. The world needs to repent from sin and come to Christ, but the Church, who has come to Christ, must daily recognize their need for Christ and a clinging unto Him, or sanctification, of which a continual putting off (repentance) of the old and a putting on of the new (faith) is essential in the life of the Church. We say, "oh, I repented at a point in time?" But what of your life now? What sin do you oft return to from your former life when you did not know Christ? We say, "well, I have felt really bad about some of the things I've done!" But have you killed the thing at once so that it is crucified upon its untimely arrivals? Or perhaps, "I prayed for repentance!" And that is well and good, but having prayed for it, have you also sought the thing itself in pursuit of true godliness, or have you been irresponsible with thing you "so desired". Do we find ourselves falling into the same idolatries, bringing unclean vessels into the house of our God, saying "Yes, Lord" with our mouths, but "No" in our souls? Like the Israelites, have you gotten into the pattern of doing things externally to convince yourself that you are "ok" internally? And so doing, neglected the soul? If so, you are in a great danger!

Listen to the words of John the Baptist to those Jews who had adopted the externalities of religion to the neglect of the internal need for repentance: "When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire," Matthew 3:7-10.

Now what of this? Genuine repentance is the root of godly fruit. If there is no root, then whatever external fruit that is offered as proof of the root, does not come from the God-given root (2 Timothy 2:25) of repentance, but of the sinful root and delusion of self-righteousness. It is bad fruit and the end of that tree is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. But the primary fruit of authentic repentance is a knowledge of the truth - of personal and eternal guilt, of consequence, and of the right Way, Jesus Christ and all that accords with Him. Moreover, repentance is an inward reality of the soul, wrought by God, and not a claim of heritage (Abraham). The one who engages in initial repentance unto faith will continually engage in the practice of the repentance of the faith, and this daily repentance, when truly wrought, will transform the affections away from the thing repented of, while creating the realization of and passion for the object that one has turned unto, namely, God and His command of obedience, so that when the one comes again, it has been done away with not only because of a crucifying of the thing itself, but also because of the greater enjoyment in and love of its counterpart, which is God.

Oh, Church, "Rend your hearts and not your garments!"

Prayer for Ms. Mizzel: Missionary to Afghanistan

I have not met this woman. I have only heard report of her through another lady within my church and that only once, but such reports are cases of earnest prayer to our Father in heaven and belief in His Word, that God will use such circumstances to display the honor of His name and advance the Gospel of Christ.

Cyd Mizzel is a Christian missionary to Afghanistan who has been kidnapped by Afghani rebels, a woman in her early forties, never married, singularly captured, whether for being a woman or a Christian or both, no one really knows, and no one has heard any report of her situation since her imprisonment. Her church, our church, and many others have continually lifted up our prayers for her in our services over these past few weeks, and my plea here is for a continued pursuit in prayer to our God for her safety, boldness, witness, and the softening of rebel hearts to Christ. That we ought to knock on the door of God's throne room constantly for her and for them is both obvious and eternally pertinent, both privately and corporately. My hope is that God will incline our hearts to a great and timely supplication.

And she is one of many thousands, yet unknown altogether, who are suffering for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ. These have gone out with the command and offer of the Gospel to bring the nations to the obedience of faith, and we need, I need, to uplift them in prayer. Upon their return, I think that many would deem our prayers the most necessary and appreciated means of support and grace. My charge to us all is that we might shrink the disassociation that we have with many of our Christian missionaries. If our earthly sibling took up a great philanthropic cause in a foreign country and found occasion of need while amongst the nations, gasping as it were for life, both for their own and that of the individuals under their charge, would we not be moved to earnest and daily works of supplication for them and of provision to accomplish the task? How much more those whom by faith in Christ we stand united as brothers and sisters in Christ, when they enter the occasion of suffering for Christ which is the blessed grace and promise of Scripture (Phil. 1:28-30), ought we to pray for them and supply their missionary need (Phil. 2:25-30)?

Until further report upon the condition of Ms. Mizzel, and for our encouragement in suffering for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, I have found great substance from God's Word in the imprisonment epistle of the apostle Paul to heap my hope and trust upon. "Gospel imprisonment" God blesses as a seed of greatest type, bringing to tremendous fruition:

"I (Paul) want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear," Phil. 1:12-14.

God blesses Gospel imprisonment; imprisonment for the sake of Jesus Christ, which imprisonment had and does occur because of the proclamation of that name amongst the nations. Imprisonment "happened" to Paul because of his missionary endeavor with the Gospel of Christ. He made the primary thing the primary thing; that is, though I am sure he engaged in missionary activity, he made preaching the Gospel and defending the Gospel his utmost priority, and we ought to imitate our Lord and the apostle on this point. The solid hope that overwhelms the soul is what God does and what God imparts from the affliction of His Christ-enlisted soldiers:

1. Gospel imprisonment "advances the Gospel". When the missionary is taken captive by Christ, they are soon taken captive for Christ, and their "captivity" serves to "free" the Gospel, to advance it. God seems to use captivity both for the development of the captive, for the penetration of those normally hidden from Gospel conversation (the "imperial guards"), and for a witness to "all the rest".
2. Gospel imprisonment is "for Christ". When Christ was taken captive by the hands of men, He was thereby crucified, and God made use of the imprisonment and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ to procure the salvation of those very same men; and so after the pattern of our Lord, Paul, and we who follow them, God uses as vessels of mercy and of Gospel propagation by the very fact of our imprisonment for that cause.
3. The maintenance of Gospel witness in the midst of Gospel inprisonment God uses mightily to bring many under Gospel conviction so that all know that the captivity is "for Christ".
4. Gospel imprisonment advances the Gospel by emboldening the Church; by the faith of one, so the many are made bold; by the passion of the one, so the many are made passionate; by the chains of one, so the many have their tongues made free for Christ and Him crucified. The "brothers" became "confident in the Lord by" Paul's "imprisonment".
5. Gospel imprisonment removes human apprehensiveness for the Gospel. The brothers were more bold to "speak the word without fear". God-begotten boldness in one breeds God-begotten boldness in others. When one loves God more than he fears men and their attacks, others are infused with a like love that overcomes the obstacles to evangelism.
6. The knowledge that God is the Author of such things, that the imprisonment was "for Christ", encourages our faith and trust in a faithful God who works in accordance with the kind intention of His will; and this is why it is written that it is a thing "granted" or "graced" to us "that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake," Phil. 1:29.
7. And so, God authorizes and makes use of Gospel imprisonment to advance the Gospel by way of the captive's witness for Christ, boldness for Christ, love for Christ, and the imputation of such godly attributes to the Church, who so emboldened and powerfully encouraged, move forward with the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our God is an awesome God, and what He does, and how He attends to the means of His ends, are wonderful in our eyes, and they shall remain wonderful still when it is you or I that become those means of grace in the face of suffering. The Christian does not seek out suffering for the sake of suffering, but they seek the face of Christ, and so quite naturally, follows chains of some sort, whether on the wrists, or over the tongue. The challenge is to understand the truth of God's Word through Paul "that my imprisonment is for Christ", that it serves to "advance the Gospel", and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world...I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world," John 16:33, 17:14-16.

Let us pray for Ms. Mizzel with great expectation that God will deliver her by our prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil:1:19), while advancing the Gospel by her imprisonment, and granting each of us a measure of her love for Christ that we may be more passionate and able to endeavor forward, boldly speaking "the word without fear". Amen.

The Essence of Unbelief

Unbelief is not a popular subject, just a necessary one. It must be taught, for it is found frequently amongst the biblical witness. Moreover, it precedes the conversation of belief or faith. Jesus warns Nicodemus of this eternal pitfall which the masses are even now wholly ignorant of. He reproves, explains, and warns the religiously religious man against this folly. He speaks to the essence of unbelief, the consequential hardening of simple unbelief, the reasons and wages of it, and the provision of God that overcomes this eternally condemning sin.

Deriving occasion from Nicodemus' inquiry in John 3:2 and 4, our Lord answers him, not on the basis of his inquiry but on the condition of his soul, which despite his external displays of religion, was yet dead in sin and trespasses, incapable of desiring God. He Divinely teaches of the new birth, the inability of man to effect this birth, the carnality of man, the necessity of the work of the Spirit of God, and the sovereignty and mystery of the Holy Spirit in the operation of this creative act (v. 3, 5-8). Within this discourse, Christ implies spiritual realities that would have been obvious to Nicodemus provided he was alive in Christ, but since he was not yet, his response is marveling unbelief - "How can these things be?" (John 3:9)

This phrase is quite commonplace today when sharing the truth of human inability and true Spirit-empowered regeneration. And yet, these things, and those commands testified of by Christ, "earthly things" (v. 12), that, being Divine in origin, take place on earth while we live and must be so, lest we otherwise perish, are yet simple (earthly) things spoken of by Christ in a simple (earthly) style so that they might be understood. But Nicodemus cannot believe "these things" (v. 8). Today, the lost person may respond with different sounding words, but the meaning remains the same - "How can these things be?" And this is usually followed with a declarative statement of unbelief and an emphatic assertion of what is more suitable to their liking - a salvific perspective that many in hell now would cry out against in warning.

Nicodemus was a preacher, "the (definitive) teacher of Israel", a "ruler of the Jews", educated, experienced, and according to tradition would have had Genesis 1:1-Deuteronomy 34:12 memorized. To this man, God replies, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" (John 3:10) And to what do we attribute this inability to understand spiritual things? "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony." (John 3:11) Faith precedes understanding (Hebrews 11:3). He does not understand, because he does not receive, but rather rejects the testimony of Christ. This is the essence of unbelief: rejection of the Word of Christ, or the Testimony of God, or the Gospel. Nicodemus would stand before the people of Israel and proclaim the Word of God (OT) to them, and yet he knew not what he proclaimed. The "we" of verse 11 is particularly strong. It indicates a reprsentative flavor - Christ and the writers of the Old Testament, which actually means Christ alone, for it is written that the Spirit of Christ was in them (the prophets) (1 Peter 1:11). When the prophets were sent of God, He sent them saying, "Thus says the Lord...". Nicodemus, a preacher, rejected the very testimony of God. And not to belabor the point, but I find it necessary to mention that God does not waste words as we often do. When He speaks, He speaks truly, perfectly, in harmony with His glorious character, and thus, to reject the testimony of Christ, what He has Divinely seen and Divinely knows is to reject the very person of God, in particular, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners. This is made plain in John the Baptists testimony a little bit later in John 3:31-36, particularly v. 33 where he makes the following link between the testimony of Christ and the seal of the believing man, "Whoever receives (believes, contrary to the immediate response of Nicodemus) His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true." Again, the essence of unbelief is the rejection of Christ's testimony, for what one here rejects is what Christ has seen, knows, and made plain to us about our nature, God the Father, the will of the Father, the work of the Spirit, and redemptive truth, etc. To reject these is to reject the very truth that Christ offers to you to save you from sin and falsehoods.

I'll end with a few thoughts: first, John 3:36b-c identifies the consequence of unbelief - "whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." That is, Christ commands faith in His testimony (Him). To disobey is equivalent to rejecting His Word as is certain when comparing 3:36b-c with its parallel in 3:36a, e.g., "whoever believes (36a)...whoever does not obey (3:36b-c)" in the context of Christ's testimony. Secondly, simple unbelief gives rise to a greater hardening towards "heavenly things" - "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (3:12) That is, if you do not believe my testimony about the command of faith, and the earthly illustration between the wind and the Spirit, then how will you understand "heavenly things", i.e., the Godhead together in the throne room with an infinite number of redemptive possibilities laid before them, and out of all of them, they elect one, and only one, perfect redemptive plan and purpose and it will most powerfully and lucidly display and demonstrate the grace, love, mercy, and wrath of God, etc. and it is, for time's sake, John 3:14-16 - a crucified Messiah! Simple unbelief prevents the sinner from nearing redemptive truth. Lastly, what man cannot ascend to get for themselves, God descends in the form of sinful flesh under the law to bring to man, so that by the appointment of God Christ might make known to them these precious truths of redemption (John 3:13).

I have had inumerable conversations recently where in the midst of them my counterpart casts aside the simple things of the Word of Christ. They hear of sin, but they do not believe in sin or that they are, in fact, a sinner. They hear of the cross, but they dismiss it as either folly or a novelty of thought. They turn from truth to postmodern ideologies of relativity, interpretation, slippery absolutes, and an impersonal conversational style. For the truth compresses the sinner, engaging the individual soul, and this is unpleasant to the flesh of a spiritually dead person. Like Pilate, they say "what is truth?", when the Truth stands before them; like Nicodemus, they respond in unbelief, "how can these things be?", when it is God who has told of these things. And more grievous are we today against the witness of the Bible, the Word Who is God. My commendation then is this, do not harden your heart any longer, but rest in Christ. Believe His Word and you will believe in the Word, Jesus Christ. And lest I leave you hopeless, allow me to end here: Once Christ has declared the personal problem of unbelief to the man, Nicodemus, telling him that he cannot believe "heavenly things" and that no one has ever ascended into heaven so as to bring down God's revelation of redemptive truth for himself that he might save himself, the Lord continues, "except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven," John 3:13. "Except! Except! Except!" This is truly beautiful. Man of himself was not in heaven when redemption was planned, nor can he ascend there to get it for himself and bring it down to do it by himself...but, Christ was there, is there, and from there descended to reveal the truth to sinners, the Son of Man - a Messianic title referring to His human likeness and His cross work, taking upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh on the cross, that we might live through faith in Him - does this; God brings redemptive truth to sinners and so it would follow two verses later:

"For God so loved the world (how so?) that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life," John 3:16. Amen, and amen.