Still preaching the gospel to myself...

Sanctify me oh my God! Take this death from within, this poison that curses you and blasphemes your Son. There is a very real want of holiness within me. A longing that comes from within when I am around others. My failures are so transparent to my own eyes, and it’s a wonder that no one comments on them more. Perhaps there is a certain cultural silence that is understood among our church family where grace is applied to shortcomings without confrontation. Perhaps it is my own spirit crying out within me aided by the accuser throwing darts of despair at me time and time again. Perhaps they are legitimate tugging of your Spirit trying to curve me back to a proper place, to sanctify me. Whichever it happens to be, I do not need to think much about myself to see how depraved I am. It is common in my mind to see the need of preaching the gospel to myself, but how much I fail at doing this task. The gospel is so incredible, the restoration of sinners being made right with God without a compromise of your holiness or justice through the atoning death of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. The gospel is not just something that we preach to convert souls. Surely the gospel has the power, or more properly, is the means by which sinners are saved, but if this were the whole picture how pitiful would be our life, what would sanctify us? Sinners must know they are sinners to receive the grace offered by your Son, but to become more like your Son, we must become more aware of how we fail to be like your Son. We learn the depths of our depravity the more we understand your law and your holiness. The deeper our understanding of our depravity and your law, the more we need to hear the gospel and the richer and more beautiful the cross becomes. Well beyond our salvation, our sanctification was purchased upon the cross. The blood that Christ Jesus spilled not only saves us, but assures that the scriptures are fulfilled that say that you who started a good work in us will continue it until the day of completion. I am such a wretched man, full of pride, sloth, lust, rage, covetousness, apathy, slander, and a whole host of other sins, but how great is your love? Oh, how infinitely valuable is the blood of your Son that was spilled on that dark day. On that day you tore the curtain, once and for all appointing Christ as the high priest who alone mediates between God and man. Because of that horrific and beautiful day we are brought close to you, adopted as your children, and we have entrance before your throne. No more priests are needed to mediate but the all-sufficient High Priest named Christ Jesus. Our righteousness is but filthy rags before you, but your Son’s righteousness is imputed to us so that we may be brought close to you. Christ Jesus is the holy of holies, and the tabernacle is the church, where two or three are gathered before your throne. Oh how sweet is this gospel, this good news! We have nothing to give, no future but hell, and because of your love you exercise the greatest act of grace, and the greatest act of justice at the same time, upon the cross. This is wonderful and humbling! This is the gospel. So sweet to the soul is this truth. A divine vindication, not of my own deserving, but because of Christ’s blood. This is the refreshment that comes from the child of God taking heed of and preaching the gospel to himself. There is a want of this in our church. Only thinking upon the cross will manifest religion that glorifies you and you alone because after all, we as Protestants do claim “Soli Deo Gloria”. If we are to be honest about our doctrine, we must start to believe them and have them transform our lives! To make disciples of all nations we must preach the gospel to sinners. To sanctify our hearts and our minds and become transformed to the example of your Son we must preach the gospel to ourselves. To accomplish anything in this world for your glory we must preach the gospel! Take hold of the cross, pick it up, and follow Christ! Sanctify me of my God!

Preach the gospel to yourself

Rom 7.21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Rom 8.1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This is something I need, more than breath in my lungs, I need to realize this personally and intimately. Guilt and condemnation from my past seems to loom over me. I fear God, but not as I ought. I fear him as a judge about to recall all of my sin and sentence me to death. I should fear and revere God as God, for I am but a man. But as a child of God, purchased from hell and death by the precious blood of Gods begotten Son, Jesus Christ, I should be moved as a lover to his beloved. I should bask in grace and bathe in the smile of my Father. When The Apostle says "Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death?" I cry out with him. I am a man who is tainted and marred by sin. I breathe sin and it flows through me. For me to say that theres "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus", I know that so well in my mind. But believing that is the key to freedom. Owning that truth is my crucial need at the moment. I need to believe that "the law of the Spirit of life has set (me) free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death", and upon believing this true freedom will be mine. I am pained when I hear people say that theology makes no difference in your life, and all these doctrines are great in theory, but it doesn't effect your life. They say that the point of Christianity is to live a good life. But who is good? What man apart from a forgiven man can do good? Without owning these doctrines, the Christian life is futile. This futility I have tasted, but at a time I have also tasted pure freedom. Satan is a master of bringing up your past. Sin that was crucified to Christ on Calvary, sin that has been washed by blood and removed as far as the east is from the west. This is what our Beloved accomplished for us. Freedom from sin and death. And while I have mental assent to this, my flesh is weak and I have been consumed with my past, and now I need to desperately to believe genuinely in Christ's atoning death and the freedom that flows from that death. Doctrine matters. Faith impacts your life. As I sit here now, I have confessed this need to friends, and my spirit cries out (as the father of the demon possessed boy) "I believe, help my unbelief!" My God has obeyed the law perfectly on my behalf because I could not because He is a righteous God who demands perfect obedience, and because of that I have been adopted as a child of the King! This is my life, this is my value: the blood of Christ. Who will save me from this body of death? Christ has saved me! I believe Father, please help my unbelief. Liberate me from this improper condemnation, for it has no place in my life as you condemned Christ on my behalf! Doctrine matters, and believing certain doctrines is the means of believing in what is true, namely that I am freed from my sin and saved from hell. Cause me to believe.

Ps. 42.5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Theology that makes a difference.

This is one of many posts to come (or perhaps a large post), but I was thinking today about how Calvinism makes any difference. I recall discussing this with a friend, and his specific question was "what does it matter if there's election or free will? Isn't the outcome the same?" My initial response was true, but not really heavy with purpose. My simple response was "because having correct doctrines and glorifying God for correct things gives Him glory, and He isn't glorified by false doctrine, no matter how 'harmless' they are." I started meditating on things i recollected from various piper books and articles and sermons, and then I realized that there's an amazing benefit to believing in the doctrines of grace! If you believe in election and the effectual call of God then when you evangelize you can have full assurance that no matter how hard their heart is, if God intends to plant a seed of faith to blossom, it will be done and despite the hardness of their heart, and their free will that is indeed hostile to God, if God intends them to be saved, they will be saved! You don't have to beg them, you don't have to sugar coat the gospel and entice them, you preach Christ crucified who died to save a worthless dead people from their sins and was killed on the cross in an act of propitiation to appease the wrath of God for all who believe, and this brutal, offensive, non-seeker friendly gospel becomes the sweetest thing to the most wicked and obstinate person in the world if it is indeed the will of God! For people who cling to the unbridled free will of man in choosing his salvation, you have no assurance that an obstinate person will hear the call of God, you have no assurance that a desperately wicked person will turn from his sinful pleasure at the high cost that is required (deny yourself...pick up your cross...and follow Christ!). For those who believe in ultimate self-determination you have to beg and plead and woo and compromise the blessed gospel possibly to win souls! Calvinists, with their offensive doctrine of election, don't have to because we rely on God's grace, which is stronger than ANY of human will! More as the thoughts continue to digest.

John Piper invited a rapper to perform at Bethlehem Baptist?!?

John Piper had a rapper perform at Bethlehem Baptist and it started quite a firestorm of responses about Christianity and it's compatibility with rap and other forms of hip hop. Curtis "Voice" Allen wrote an article, which is a very good read, in regards to the controversy he was a part of for performing at Piper's Church. The article shows he handled a wide variety of malicious attacks very humbly. If you don't have time to read the entire article, the following quote I found very powerful, and it was a quote that helped him deal with abusive criticism. The article was entitled "The Cross and Criticism," by Alfred Poirer and was found in a 1999 issue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling.

"In light of God's judgment and justification of the sinner in the cross of Christ, we can begin to discover how to deal with any and all criticism. By agreeing with God's criticism of me in Christ's cross, I can face any criticism man may lay against me. In other words, no one can criticize me more than the cross has. And the most devastating criticism turns out to be the finest mercy. If you thus know yourself as having been crucified with Christ, then you can respond to any criticism, even mistaken or hostile criticism, without bitterness, defensiveness, or blame-shifting."

In case you want to see the song he performed before the congregation, you can view it here. Personally, despite my general dislike of most rap, I am thrilled that Curtis is living in his neighborhood and his subculture unashamed of the gospel, and is speaking clear biblical truth through his music. He is a great example of being a light in the darkness. :) I hope you have time to listen to his song and read through the article he wrote.

This is the gospel.

I was thinking about the gospel. I think, from observation and personal experience, that all too often we look at the gospel, and we know it has is the power of salvation to any and all who believe but we almost trivialize it after we're saved as if it's lost its power since we have obtained salvation. This i believe to be a tragic mistake. The gospel should be a great cause of joy to the believers, and it should be one of the ways that our love and holy affections for Christ are birthed and grown. The gospel is a means to bring us to humility and magnify the glory and love of Christ. The gospel can be a source of encouragement when we fall and a strength when we are tempted. Why is it that we overlook it so much? I've read on multiple occasions from multiple people (Jerry Bridges comes to mind first off) who have written that we should preach the gospel to ourselves daily. I decided to write out the gospel. Feel free to change the name when you read, comment, or give concerns about things i omit or include that you see as problematic. Bear with my words, and may God guide them and bless them.


John. You have read that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever, that means you John, that believes will have eternal life and escape the due punishment for their sins. Yes, you are indeed a great sinner, born into an inherited sin nature that has killed your soul, blinded your eyes, deafened your ears, hardened your heart, leaving you dead and hateful towards God, unable to love Him, unable to change, and unable to desire anything pleasing to Him. This sin effects every part of your life, and anything you do that is not for the glory of God is in fact sinful, which means that since you don't desire God and are an enemy of God, everything you do is sinful and further blinding you and hardening your heart. This leaves you as an object of God's wrath, deserving hell, leaving you at enmity towards God, who hates everything tainted by sin. His hatred is not bad, for it is rooted in His righteousness and justice and holiness. He cannot look upon anything tainted by sin with a pleased affection, or even apathy. His holiness burns against such things. You will justly be sentenced to an eternity in hell, having the wrath of a righteous and holy God poured upon you. You will lash out in hatred and agony, but the wrath will never stop, the pain will never cease. This is where you are found before you accept Christ. Every person who is born of the flesh, save Christ Himself who was born of immaculate conception without imputed sin, is born drenched in sin, and can do no good, nothing to please God. Therefor all mankind is born an object of God's wrath. Who then can be saved? With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. God, being so rich in love, grace, and mercy sent His son to come down and in an act of propitiation to lay down His life on behalf of anyone who hears the call of God and responds. How can someone respond if they're blind and deaf? The call goes out to the entire world, and it goes with the power of Holy Spirit that has the power to replace our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, to give us sight and hearing to accept the gospel, to give us a new spirit that is alive and full of holy affections and desires to know and follow God. This is the call of God. He saw you in your despair and your sin, and He felt compassion for you. His only begotten Son was sent down to earth to become a man, live a sinless life and then lay down His life to appease the wrath of God so that a loving God could save a wretched sinner and still be holy and just! Oh so great a love, that when we were worthless and deserved death The Loving One made a way for us to be reconciled as sons and daughters and be washed clean of our sin! He loves us so much that He sacrificed His son on our behalf and if only you will hear and believe you will be saved not because of who you are, but because of who He is. You're a sinner, so great a sinner. He is Love, oh so great a love it is! And so the call goes out: "Turn from your sin, the punishment has been paid for all who hear and who repent and believe"! John, that is the gospel...while you were yet a sinner, Christ lay down His life, his invaluable life, to save a sinner like you for it is by grace you have been saved!

Ashamed of the gospel?

"I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 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." Romans 1.14-16

Are you eager to preach the gospel, or are you ashamed of it? If you understand the gospel and understand that the gospel is necessary to save sinners (for you yourself have only been saved by hearing it with faith), then why do you not preach it? It is either shame of the gospel and God, or lack of love for the world. Either way, if you find yourself in this condition, pray that God will change your heart and give you a passion for the lost. You are (whether you feel it or not) under obligation, a divine command from Christ, to preach the gospel to all men from all nations (Matt 28.19-20).