Biblical Counseling Lessons // Real Freedom // The Right Side of History

"How great is [God's] goodness, and how great His beauty!" - Zechariah 9:17


David Powlison describes Jay Adams' foundational work in biblical counseling, and how the movement has grown since.  Excellent principles described well.  This is a free PDF download of the editorial for the Journal of Biblical Counseling - great resource.


I picked up an old First Things issue I had never gotten around to.  R.R. Reno is great on what freedom really is.


"In post-Obergefell America, Evangelicals and other orthodox Christians will be unable to outrun our freakishness.  That is no reason for panic.  Some will suggest that a Christian sexual ethic puts the churches on the 'wrong side of history.'  Well, we've been on the wrong side of history since A.D. 33.  The 'right side of history' was the Eternal City of Rome.  And then the right side of history was the French Revolution.  And then the right side of history was scientific naturalism and state socialism.  And yet, there stands Jesus still, on the wrong side of history but at the right hand of the Father."
Russell Moore, "Evangelicals Won't Cave," First Things, Oct 2015, pg 30.

Smite This Rock

“Good Friday,” Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Am I a stone and not a sheep 
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross, 
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, 
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved 
Who with exceeding grief lamented thee; 
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; 
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the sun and moon 
Which hid their faces in a starless sky, 
A horror of great darkness at broad noon— 
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er, 
But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; 
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more 
And smite a rock.

From Leland Ryken's article at Gospel Coalition

Receiving the Word of God

1 Thessalonians 2:13

"For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe."

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes."

Notice the parallel between these two texts.  Paul tells the Thessalonians He thanks God that they received the Word of God as from God.  Paul explains to the Corinthians that he received from the Lord the explanation of this sacrament.  Receiving bread and wine, eating and drinking is a picture of receiving the Word of God.  Just as Scripture is God’s very words, so this communion is partaking of Christ’s very life.  His body remains in heaven, but by the Spirit, He is really present.  By faith God really brings us into fellowship and union with our Lord Jesus here.  His body was broken for you.  His blood is the blood of the covenant that saves you.  He bled and died at the cross, paying for your sins forever.

So come and welcome to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Take hold of Him.  Rely on Him alone as You receive His grace.

10/21/18

Lament Your Sin

Lamentations 1:5

Israel's "foes have become the head;
her enemies prosper,
because Yahweh has afflicted her 
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe."

Jeremiah laments the fall of Jerusalem here, and says God did it because of Israel’s many sins.  

Imagine the horror this conquest must have been.  

The city besieged.  

Famine, disease, starvation.  

The temple ransacked and leveled.  

Murder and rape on a wide scale.  

The whole nation conquered politically and subjugated to foreign rule.

The point here isn’t to gawk at the sensational, uniquely awful event.  Like a traffic accident you see and think, “Glad that wasn’t me.”  The point is, this IS you: your sins deserve this, too.  God would be perfectly just in the light of our national sins, to have China invade, conquer and rule us for years, like happened to Israel.  What bothers you more, really, when you think about that: having to live under communist rule, or that you have sinned against the holy God you love?  Our sins do not bother us nearly enough.  God has many ways to train us to consider them more deeply, to hate our sin more thoroughly.  One tool He used was national conquest and exile, and that was not out of proportion with the magnitude of their sins.

Let us confess our sins to God.

10/21/18

Conditional Covenants // Obedience in Covenants // Hell

Third Millenium keeps putting out a great series of videos on Biblical covenants.
Here's one on if we should see covenants as conditional.
Only 2 minutes - very informative!


Another one:
Obedience brings blessing, but that doesn't mean our obedience earns our salvation.


Doug Wilson upholds the reality of Hell here.
"Everyone in the world is in the process of becoming someone. Salvation is the process of being increasingly conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ—becoming an actual someone, becoming a real human being. Damnation is the final descent into an inchoate, disintegrated agonistic whine—having insisted through long years that the self be simultaneously left alone and also promoted to the level of importance it deserves. That self finally receives the fruition of that demand, and achieves its ultimate deserved value, which is zero."

The Real Feast

"But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment....

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth....

"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

John 16:5-8, 12-13a ; 17:20-24

At this table we see the cost of fellowship and a foretaste of fellowship.  The cost we know about the cross.  It is familiar but think again, in terms of fellowship.  The pain born at the cross was not mainly physical, but bearing the wrath of God against our sin.  One way we picture that is being forsaken.  Fellowship is broken.  The Father turns His face away from His Son.  We break the bread to show not just a broken body, but a broken relationship between Father and Son for a time, to pay for our sins.

Jesus speaks of going away to be with the Father.  He is looking ahead past the cross to restored fellowship.  We have the Spirit with us while we look ahead, too, to the thing Jesus wants: as He prays for us He says, "I desire that they whom You have given Me, may be with me where I am, and may behold My glory."

That will be the real feast.

Often the bride at the wedding barely notices the food, she is overjoyed to have a lifetime ahead of her of being with her husband.  Let that be Your communion with Your Lord Jesus Christ today.

So come and welcome to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Take hold of Him.  Rely on Him alone as You receive His grace.

10/14/18

We Have Sinned

Zephaniah 3:1-4

    1Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted,

    To the oppressing city!

    2      She has not obeyed His voice,

    She has not received correction;

    She has not trusted in the LORD,

    She has not drawn near to her God.

    3      Her princes in her midst are roaring lions;

    Her judges are evening wolves

    That leave not a bone till morning.

    4      Her prophets are insolent, treacherous people;

    Her priests have polluted the sanctuary,

    They have done violence to the law."

We start with Zephaniah describing the wickedness of Jerusalem.  Three things quickly, here.  First, we have to be told that we are sinning, that we are sinners.  We forget this most of the time and act as if we are normal, that things are basically okay.  In Zephaniah and in all of Scripture, God describes our sin for us, He shows us our fault, or else we wouldn’t see it, or we would try to tell ourselves that it isn’t so bad.  That’s in verse 2, especially.  So first, God graciously tells us of our sinfulness.  

Second, this is corporate, national sin, addressing our princes and judges, prophets and priests.  Fox and CNN, Wall Street and main street, school boards and corporate boards, Hollywood, Congress, and the courts – these are our princes and prophets.  They aren’t trusting God, they are devouring and exploiting people.  We like to think of ourselves as trying to stand up to this corporate sin, but Scripture makes clear that they are doing what we want.  Congress in all its spineless bluster, departing from God’s laws, represents us well.

And that’s the third thing: when we go against God and His ways, we wind up doing the opposite of what we were made to do.  Rulers eat people instead of feed them.  We become beasts instead of men.  Priests pollute instead of cleanse.  We hurt each other instead of help and heal.

Let us confess our sins to God

10/14/18

Obligations in Covenant // Augustine to a Heretic // a Brakel

Third Millenium ministries reminds us of the obligatory aspect of each of God's covenants in the Bible.  So true!


Augustine to the heretic Donatus: last sentence of a long letter exhorting him to return to Christian orthodoxy:
"Restrain your perverse and rebellious spirit, that in the true Chruch of Christ you may find the feast of salvation."
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st Series, vol. 1, pg 547.


If you're a theology reader, you'll want to know the Dutch theologian, Wilhelmus a Brakel.  His 4-volume "Christian's Reasonable Service" is at this link in pdf format for free!!

A Quick Poltical Summary

1. The liberal believes people are basically decent and need a little help from the government to make life work.  Community and government are the primary saviors.
2. The secular conservative believes people are basically decent and don't need help from the government.  Their self-interested choices in a free market will make life work.  Free individual choice, work, and the market are the primary saviors.
3. The Christian liberal believes people are flawed, and need moral guidance from God through the church and the government.  Education is a primary savior.
4. The Christian conservative believes people are sinful and need saving from ourselves.  And often from the church and the government, too.  Jesus is the only real Savior.

Yes, I know this is simplistic.

Ben Shapiro, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Jordan Peterson are in the second category, even though they talk about God sometimes.  As Christians we can glean some common grace wisdom from them, but should be very careful not to shape our Gospel message to their message.  Sometimes they are compatible messages; often they are not.

Justification, Full Stop?

"We are not justified by our love....  We are justified only by faith in [Jesus Christ's] finished work.  But those who are justified by faith are given the glorious calling to live and love like Jesus..."

This was the conclusion of a stellar Tabletalk article on loving your neighbor.
(March 2018, "Christ and the Love of Neighbor," JR Vassar)

I wanted to emphasize one aspect in the quote above.  I sometimes hear those zealous for the doctrines of grace (a special class of them that I call TR's, the Truly Reformed in their own minds) say that we are justified by faith alone [JFA], full stop.  Don't say anything more, don't qualify that or you undermine it.

This is going too far.  See the quote above, again.  "We are justified only by faith in His finished work.  But..."  There IS more to say.  What comes next should never undercut or undo the essential assertion of JFA.  TR's have had plenty of experience with those seeking to do just that while paying lip service to JFA, so I don't fault their concern and motivation.  But if there wasn't more to say, Romans would have ended at chapter 5 or 11, Galatians somewhere in chapter 5, Ephesians at chapter 3.

We must consider our justification by faith alone - we have favor with God, apart from our striving to obey God.
We must also consider our "glorious calling to live and love like Jesus."

We are not justified by a faith that is alone.

Pastors suffer? // Needing Jesus // Your Sole Story Writer

Here's an outstanding panel discussion on handling suffering in the ministry.
Highlights:
13:00 - Ray Ortlund, Jr. on the Spirit helping us in our weakness
28:00 - Thick skin, soft heart...
34:00 - "The Lord is so faithful to straighten things out if we give Him time."
34:30 - Be okay with being misunderstood
40:00 - On 2 Timothy 2:24-26 - People don't get persuaded by contentious arguing.
Edwards: "The longer I live the more I respect gentleness."
Spurgeon: "Use hard arguments and soft words."
  Our public discourse today has soft arguments and hard words!


Augustine: "There is not one soul in the human family to whose salvation the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is not absolutely necessary" (Letters, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1, vol. 1, pg. 525).
Or as my wife might say, "All y'all need Jesus."


Paul Tripp, on God's sovereign writing of your story.  There are no competing script-writers of your life - it is ALL in His hands, so trust Him.

Covenant // Shopping // Glad Worship

What is a covenant in the Bible?
Third Millenium offers an excellent 90 second answer in this video.


2nd Vote tells me that Bath and Body Works, Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot all use their profits to advocate for abortion, homosexuality, and other left-wing causes.  Pretty sure Target is on that list, too.  I'll save discussion of this conscience issue for another time.


On serving the Lord with gladness:
"The thing that [worship] must never be is sullen, or surly or sulky - that's what it never is.  Who needs that kind of worship?... The Lord does not want us coming into His courts as though a long face were some kind of moral disinfectant."
Douglas Wilson, sermon on Psalm 100, Nov 26, 2018,

Giving to the Poor // Psalms as Prayer // Out of wedlock birth rate

How and when should we help the poor and needy? 

Kevin DeYoung gives a helpful answer.

Does your prayer life need renewing?

Don Whitney explains how to "pray the text," something I strongly encourage you to try.


"According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, that year 11 percent of black children and 3 percent of white children were born to unwed mothers.  Today it's respectively 75 percent and 30 percent."
Walter Williams, African-American commentator, in Samaritan Ministries' August 2018 newsletter, pg 10.

Augustine quotes

I've come to the letters of Augustine in the Post-Nicene Fathers series.
Here are some favorite passages so far.


On conscience:
"There is nothing in all the dungeons of this world, nay, not even in hell itself, to surpass the dreadful doom of darkness to which a villain is consigned by remorse of conscience."  (pg 508)


On disagreeing with famous teachers:
"The reasonings of any men whatsoever, even though they be Catholics [orthodox in doctrine], and of high reputation, are not to be treated by us in the same way as the canonical Scriptures are treated.  We are at liberty, without doing any violence to the respect which these men deserve, to condemn and reject anything in their writings, if perchance we shall find that they have entertained opinions differing from that which others or we ourselves have, by the divine help, discovered to be the truth.  I deal thus with the writings of others, and I wish my intelligent readers to deal thus with mine."  He later mentions Ambrose, Jerome, Athansius and Gregory are examples he is talking about. (502)


Forced obedience isn't obedience:
"Who is found innocent in God's sight who is willing to do the sin which is forbidden if you only remove the punishment which is feared?... 
He then is an enemy to righteousness who refrains from sin only through fear of punishment....
Every one hates sin just in proportion as he loves righteousness; which he will be enabled to do not through the law putting him in fear by the letter of its prohibitions, but by the Spirit healing him by grace...
Let not the fear of punishment drive you to a life of righteousness; but let the pleasure found in righteousness and the love you bear to it draw you to practise it...." (496)


From the First Series, vol. 1