Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 65

How Biblically Welcoming Is Your Church?

[image error]Some of you may recall the Church Audit dumpster fire of yore. And you may also remember my crowdsourcing effort to revise those questions.

Now, for your very own blessing, I have a printable format of that revised “audit” that you are most welcome to save, print, distribute, share, and use in your churches, community groups, and presbyteries to the glory of God.

Thanks to all those who passed along helpful feedback and input.

How Biblically Welcoming is Your Church?

Fun in a Can

[image error]A few weeks back I published a post entitled “As Gay as Pre-Ripped Jeans,” and there was a bit of a discussion in the comments that I wanted to follow up on.

One commenter asked what the big deal was. Sure, if someone is *trying* to be rebellious, that would be sinful, but what about someone who just thinks pre-ripped jeans look cool? What if it’s just for fun? If they’re just having innocent fun — what’s wrong with that? And we could apply this to any number of cultural phenomenon: piercings, tattoos, kale salad, witch doctor baby teething necklaces, pink hair, ironic mustaches, or clear aviator gay glasses.

There are two important principles that Christians need to keep in mind. First, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof which means that there is nothing unclean in itself. Even though the pagans around us use this world to worship themselves, some of the offerings they make to their false gods are very fine cuts of steak that God made and Christians may enjoy that goodness with thankful hearts to the Lord. “As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one” (1 Cor. 8:4). But this does not make fornication OK. “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body” (1 Cor. 6:13). So just because sex with a prostitute was offered to a false god, a Christian could not then say, ‘well I don’t believe in that false god so sex with the priestess is just fine’. No, just because you know it’s a false god doesn’t mean you can transfer it directly across to Christian obedience. Turns out sexual intimacy is a gift of God in the context of Christian marriage (1 Cor. 7:2). So the first principle is that everything God created is good in its rightful place and time. But there’s lots of stuff pagans come up with that just needs to get chucked. Who cares if the altar to Baal was really good craftsmanship? Burn it, baby.

And this leads to the second principle already implied in the first is that what idolators do with creation must be scrutinized with enormous skepticism. Some things are fairly straightforward: they eat steak to honor their god. God made the cows; steak is good. Give thanks and enjoy. But even there, God says to be careful about the signals you’re sending, the direction you’re leading in. What are you encouraging? If you’re sitting in Apollo’s Steak Shop, there’s a high degree of likelihood that someone might walk by and get the completely wrong idea. At the same time, Christians need to give one another space on doubtful matters: “Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth” (Rom. 14:3). But this is where lots of folly gets smuggled into the church. Fornication is not a doubtful matter. Sodomy is not a doubtful matter. Abortion is not a doubtful matter.

But Christians are like Charlie Brown and Lucy and the football. And the world keeps promising over and over again not to pull the football away, to allow us to keep our moral convictions intact, if we will just play along with their latest offering of fun in a can. Now, of course there is a spectrum running from the clear prohibition of fornication on the one end and eating a steak that was offered to Poseidon on the other end. But Christians would be idiots not to see the fact that decade after decade we find ourselves with Christian leaders and pastors buckling on the most obvious distinctions. What everybody insists is so very absolutely, crystal clear one year suddenly gets fuzzy, complicated, difficult, and mysterious the next year. And my point is that it starts by not being thoughtful, skeptical, and critical in our thinking way over on the other side of the spectrum. Why do I care about Christians buying the latest fun in a can? Because every time we do this, give it 5-10 years (or less), and that crowd will be discussing in very concerned tones the great difficulty it is to decide whether homosexuality is really a sin or not. The point is not a genetic one — that result is not necessitated by the earlier thoughtlessness, but it is a very clear pattern.

One more thought to add to the mix. Christians should care a whole lot more about trajectories than snap shots. And this point really should serve as an admonition in both directions, to those who are a bit more libertine and to those who are a bit more conservative. The conservative snap shot judgment sees the kid with his shirt tucked in and hair combed and assumes all is well or the kid in ratty jeans and a lip ring as clearly in trouble. On the flip side, the libertine says that you can’t really know or it doesn’t really matter what somebody’s style choices are. And there’s a sense in which the libertine is right, and there’s a sense in which it can be entirely naive. What if that kid in the ratty jeans and lip ring grew up in a conservative pastor’s house wearing dockers and sweater vests? There’s nothing unclean about the jeans in themselves, but what happened? 99 times out of 100: rebellion and bitterness is what happened. And 1 time out of 100 (or less) the kid ended up in an inner city mission with a bunch of street people and decided that dockers and sweater vests were a stumbling block to the gospel. But the question of trajectory has everything to do with dominion. Dominion means rule and authority. Whatever it is that you are wearing, adorning yourself with, are you setting the tone for your friends? Are you taking dominion of the world around you or are you being dominated? Are you practicing rule or are you practicing retreat?

Christians need to be setting the trends. Christians should be the ones grabbing the steering wheel. This is our Father’s world. He made it. Jesus bought it with His blood. We should not be getting our fashion tips from sodomites and pornographers and abortion-promoters. Why do we want to wear their uniforms? Why do we think that they know what looks good? Of course the heart is the most important thing in all of this, but we are Christians and this means that we are always revealing our hearts, adorning our hearts, expressing our hearts, training our hearts. This isn’t an argument for being duddy or frumpy or a nerd. The whole point is that the world has been selling the Church fun in a can for decades, and we really need to stop buying it. We keep saying that this time we’re going to make a difference for the Lord and every decade we find ourselves having retreated even further. Sure, I don’t really care that much what you wear or do with your hair today. But I do care about what you’re practicing for today. Are you practicing to defy the gods? Are you practicing to push over altars? Or are you practicing to capitulate and compromise and sellout like the church has for the last century?

 

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

I was recently involved in creating a new resource for men fighting for purity and freedom. Check out setfreecourse.com for more information.

Abortion as Porn Accomplice

[image error]One of the recurring topics I speak and write on is the plague of pornography in our land, but one of the points that is really important to make is the strong connection between pornography and abortion. Far too many men do not see this connection, but if they did, they would be done with pornography immediately. And I believe that if all the Christian men who hate abortion walked away from every form of pornography, from the triple x websites to the soft porn offered up in many Netflix shows — if Christian men rose up and walked away from it all, it would not only deal a significant (and noticeable) blow to that entire sex industry, it would do the same to the abortion industry. The two industries are far more connected than we realize, and far too many Christian men do not see this and are therefore feeding with their lusts the very thing they hate in our land.

So let’s unpack the connections on several levels:

First, there is a literal/direct connection in the sense that many women who work in the so-called “sex industry” will often not be allowed to bring children into the world. There is growing literature on the connection between the sex trade and pornography, and abortion is the necessary accomplice to this industrial crime. Women are used and abused sexually on and off screen, drugged, abused some more, offered more drugs and alcohol, frequently under pressure by boyfriends and bosses and other perverse incentives — let us call them pimps, for that is what they are — and if pregnancy results, they are often de facto required/forced to get abortions. And even in the more mainstream entertainment industry where soft porn and immodesty is routine and expected, pregnancy is a contract killer. Sure, once you’ve made your millions, you can “choose” to have a baby or two, but the entire entertainment industry functions off the assumption that most of the time women will be “performing” with non-pregnant bodies — so do whatever you have to do to make it. None of this removes the personal agency of the women involved for the choices that they make, nor does it make a conscientious director guilty for the offscreen choices a woman might make, but men who watch pornography and the soft porn offerings on mainstream television are voting for this exploitive world to exist, whatever it takes, millions of abortions included.

Second, there is a lifestyle connection. Sinful people want sex without consequences. Or to put it another way, people want sex without responsibility. They want to have sex thoughtlessly, without thinking about the next day, the next year — it is all about the present moment and all about me. But God has created the world in such a way that sex is ordinarily meant to result in the fruitfulness of children. Pornography is practicing sex without consequences. It’s an entirely superficial situation that offers faux-sexual gratification and the false appearance of no consequences. It’s training you (and her) in selfish sex, self-serving sex, irresponsible sex. And of course there are still consequences, but abortion is one of the ways people try to hide the consequences. Abortion is the bloody and violent way people pretend that sex was not designed by God to create new human lives, families, or legacies. Of course there is still guilt and shame and loneliness on both sides of the screen. But viewing porn is helping to build a violently childless, sexually-stunted, self-centered, guilt-ridden world.

Third, Jesus says that if your eye causes you to sin, you should pluck it out and cast it away or if your hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to go to heaven blind or maimed than to go to Hell with both eyes and hands (Mt. 5:27-30). But this means in a fallen, sinful world there is always dismembering going on. In a land of cowards, the men pleasure themselves and require little babies to be dismembered to pay for their orgasms. But in a land of real men with backbones, they would rather dismember themselves than require the dismemberment of children, directly or indirectly. They would rather pluck out their own eyes than endorse or participate in an industry that crushes babies. They would rather cut off the hand that causes them to sin than have anything to do with infants having their arms and legs torn off.

But this leads to the final point and it’s actually the most important point and that is the heart of this radical repentance, the only source of this radical amputation of sin. The heart of radical repentance — the power to kill sin in your life and walk away free — is the crucifixion of Jesus the Righteous. Sin was condemned in the innocent body of Jesus on the cross; He was impaled so that you may walk free from sin and be reckoned completely innocent. The sin of lust, the sin of bitterness, the sin of despair, the sin of abortion — all of your filth was laid on Him, and He — the completely innocent one, the one who never lusted, never despaired, never lost His temper — He was crushed for our iniquities. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). God was hard on His Beloved Son so that He could be tender with us, His wayward sons. And it is only that tenderness, that grace, that kindness of God to us in our sin that allows us to be hard on our sin in the right way.

Far too many Christians think that it is God’s wrath against sin in general that drives our repentance. But the Bible clearly teaches that it is the kindness of God that drives us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). But how can a holy God be kind to sinful, vile, disgusting men? The only way is if the wrath of God has been exhausted on a perfect victim, only if the justice of God has been fully paid for by One who didn’t deserve it at all. And so it was — in Jesus the Righteous on the cross, fully and completely without any remainder, without any leftovers. All of your grossest, darkest, vilest sin: past, present, and future — all of it, condemned, crushed, paid for by the sinless Jesus on the cross, freely and gladly.

So what will it be: the death of infants or the death of the Innocent? The murder of the unborn or the mortification of your flesh? It was the harshness of God on the cross that allowed God to be gracious and tender with you. And so it is the harshness of God on the cross that allows you to be harsh on your sin in order that you might be tender with others. How can you love your wife, your children, and your neighbor rightly? How can you address their sins in the spirit of gentleness, as God requires (Gal. 6:1)? Only if God has crushed your sins in the death of His innocent Son. But if you’re carrying any of that wrath with you, it will keep sloshing out no matter how hard you try. And what hasn’t been crushed in the cross will come out and crush those around you. Either Christ was crushed for your sin, or your sin will continue crushing you and those around you. But if Christ was crushed for your sin, then kill it and walk way free. And every time the temptation arises, let your defiant cry be: not one more baby will be crushed for me, not one more woman made in the image of God will be abused for me. I would rather pluck out my eye. I would rather die.

Do you hate abortion? Do you want to see it completely abolished? Then hate all its manifestations. Hate the violent, lustful treatment of women that props it all up. Turn it off. Walk away. Abolish your participation in the bloodlust.

Not only is abortion an accomplice of porn, but porn is a great accomplice of abortion.

 

I was recently involved in creating a new resource for men fighting for purity and freedom. Check out setfreecourse.com for more information.

I’m speaking in Minneapolis this weekend. More details here.

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

Photo by Brian Patrick Tagalog on Unsplash

Parenting in the Kingdom

[image error]Eph. 6:1-4

Introduction

Parenting is one of the most difficult, important, and rewarding tasks in this life. Particularly in a community that has been taught about the importance of childrearing, this can add to the pressure, fear, and disappointment when things are not going as we had imagined. But raising children well is a grace of God; it is one of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives to those who ask.

The Text: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:1-4).

Children of the Kingdom

The Bible is clear that the children of believers are not future citizens of the Kingdom of God; they are presentcitizens of the Kingdom. “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mk. 10:14). Even this command to children to obey their parents, alongside all the other commands “in the Lord,” implies that they have a role to play in the Lord(Eph. 6:1). The Psalmist famously sings,“Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger” (Ps. 8:2). Jesus also makes it clear that the faith of little ones is the exemplar for adults: “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Remember, David said, “But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God” (Ps. 22:9-10). Likewise, John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb (Lk. 1:41, 44). This is why Jesus gives such a stern warning: “… whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).

The Culture & Counsel of the Gospel

Literally, the words “training” and “admonition” mean “culture” and “counsel.” This goes all the way back to the instructions Moses gave Israel as they prepared to enter the Promised Land: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Dt. 6:7-9). We are to talk about God’s ways everywhere because His ways effect everything. To love the Lord with all we are is to love His lordship overall we are.

And we love His rule because it led to our deliverance: “When your son asks you in time to come, saying,`What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: `We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand… that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers’” (Dt. 6:20-24). The whole point of the law was to talk about God’s grace and freedom. The point of parenting is to celebrate God’s grace and freedom, and this means tons of confession of sin and forgiveness. We are Christians: this means we know what to do with sin. So the tenor of our homes must be joy.

Teaching Obedience

The central task of parents is teaching obedience to God. We live in an arrogant and sentimental world that thinks it knows better than God’s Word. But young children must be taught from a young age to obey their parents. The same Psalmist who said he learned to trust God from his mother’s womb also said that he was conceived in sin (Ps. 51:2). Young children are not naturally inclined to obey, but they are designed to be taught God’s grace. “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). In the ordinary course of things, when Christian parents faithfully seek to drive foolishness from their children through spanking, God blesses children with wise hearts. “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Prov. 29:15). This is why regular, prompt corporal discipline is loving: “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly” (Prov. 13:24). The rod, lovingly administered, is love, but the rod is not automatically love. Spanking in anger or frustration is not love; nor is it love to administer the rod long after an offense has been committed (worse the younger they are).

Related to all of this is the implied biblical advice: do not try to reason with young children. It doesn’t really matter how you feel inside, and feelings are often manipulative. Children must simply be required to obey right away, all the way, and cheerfully. They also don’t know how they should feel about sin; discipline is teaching them how to feel.And every trip to the “wood shed” (or wherever) should be accompanied by prayer, forgiveness, and full reconciliation/restitution (as age appropriate). Some toddlers will require battles of the will, and parents must commit themselves to winning. Sometimes this will require stretches of hours, days, or a couple of weeks of intense focus (dads, take initiative). Don’t give up; the peaceable fruit of righteousness is worth it (Heb. 12:11).

Conclusion: As a Tender Father

While Scripture is clear that children must be taught to honor and obey father and mother, and therefore, mothers have significant responsibilities in the training up of children (Prov. 1:8), Paul clearly singles out fathers here, instructing them not to provoke their children to wrath but to train their children in the culture and counsel of the Lord. We live in a father-hungry world because we live in a fallen world. None of our fathers were perfect, and some of our fathers failed significantly. Some of us are tempted to be harsh, and some of us are tempted to be indulgent. Some of us work too much, and some of us just don’t know how to relate well to our children.

So how can flawed men hope to be faithful fathers? The answer is that you must have a new father. The only good fathers in this world have a perfect Father in heaven. And His perfection is particularly evidenced in His pity: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:11-14). Do you pity your children? Are you a tender father? This is not sentimentalism; this is Christian love. You cannot be a tender father unless you have the Lord as your Tender Father. But this is only possible by the Spirit of adoption: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15).

 

 

I’ll be speaking in Minneapolis this weekend. More details here.

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

Photo by Julie Johnson on Unsplash

His Hands

[image error]

 

 

 

 

Africa (tune by William Billings)

Words by Isaac Watts

Now shall my inward joys arise,

And burst into a Song;

Almighty Love inspires my Heart,

And Pleasure tunes my Tongue.

God on his thirsty Sion-Hill

Some Mercy-Drops has thrown,

And solemn Oaths have bound his Love

To show’r Salvation down.

Why do we then indulge our Fears,

Suspicions and Complaints?

Is he a God, and shall his Grace

Grow weary of his saints?

Can a kind Woman e’er forget

The Infant of her Womb,

And ‘mongst a thousand tender Thoughts

Her Suckling have no Room?

Yet, saith the Lord, should Nature change,

And Mothers Monsters prove,

Sion still dwells upon the Heart

Of everlasting Love.

Deep on the Palms of both my Hands

I have engrav’d her Name;

My Hands shall raise her ruin’d Walls,

And build her broken Frame.

 

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

The Gratitude of Christ

[image error]What a wonderful thing that we live in a land that still sets aside a day to give thanks to God for His many blessings. I suspect that Thanksgiving Day may be one of the more potent things the Lord has embedded in our culture, a secret weapon, unleashing far more than we realize, even in the midst of so much gone wrong.

In the gospels, one of the striking things is how Jesus embodies the cleansing power of the priesthood and temple. This was one of His great offenses. Who can forgive sin but God? Who can declare clean but those authorized by God? But Jesus goes around declaring lepers clean, being touched by unclean people and instead of Jesus being infected, He infects them with purity (Lk. 6:19). The woman with the flow of blood touches the hem of Jesus’ garment, and power goes out of Him and she is healed and cleansed (Mk. 5:29-30).

But remember that ceremonial cleanliness was connected to food and eating: “And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common” (Acts 10:13-15). And this is in turn related to thanksgiving, since some people command us “to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:3-5).

So, putting this together, we should understand that the power of Jesus was centered in His gratitude. How was it that everything that touched Him became clean? How was it sanctified? It was sanctified by His thanksgiving. When Jesus healed, He received the illness, the disorder, the person infected with uncleanness with thanksgiving, and so it was sanctified by the truth, by the word of God and prayer. And the central act of His thanksgiving was the Cross. In the Cross, Jesus offered Himself as the Great Thanksgiving. But how could this be, since the Cross was a sacrifice for sin? The Cross was the Great Thanksgiving precisely because it was the great and final sacrifice for sin. Jesus went to the cross willingly, gladly, freely. He laid His life down for sin, and He did so in fullness of gratitude. He was thankful to be able to die for sin. He was thankful to be able to save the world from our sin. He was thankful to pay the wages of sin and inherit the entire world and make all things new.

And just in case we doubt that the cross was the Great Thanksgiving, Jesus told us this very thing on the night before He was betrayed when He instituted the Lord’s Supper, in which He gave thanks for His body broken and His blood shed. The power of Jesus to cleanse is His gratitude, and His central act of gratitude was the Cross in which He took upon Himself all the sin, all the uncleanness, all the condemnation of the world.

So we live in an unclean land. Our lips are unclean, our hands are unclean, our eyes are unclean, our hearts are unclean. We are foul and covered in grime. But Jesus came into this unclean world as the spotless Lamb of God in order to take away the uncleanness of the world. And on the Cross the spotless Lamb gladly took all our blemishes, all our uncleanness, all our grime. And not only that, but in His death and resurrection Jesus began to make all things new. He broke into the old system, the old world and infected that old world with His purity, with His gratitude.

As we have seen, gratitude is tied directly to the truth and the word of God and prayer. You can’t really give thanks for lies. You can’t really give thanks for sin. But you can give thanks for mashed potatoes, pecan pie, another year of life, parents, a spouse, children, cousins, and a warm house. You can give thanks for the good gifts of God in the midst of uncleanness, in the midst of confusion, in the midst of hypocrisy, in the midst of a culture currently careening toward destruction. While there is nothing magical or automatic, real gratitude to the living God is really infectious. It is really powerful.

In fact, it is this gratitude that is overcoming the world, overcoming all the greed, all the lust, all the bloodshed — because it is the thankfulness of Jesus. The power of His Thanksgiving is that it infects the uncleanness with purity. It swallows up the uncleanness. It purifies and sanctifies. Above all else, it is His Thanksgiving, the gratitude of Christ that has turned back the tide and will overrun the world.

And so at its heart, Christian gratitude is nothing less than holding up the gratitude of Christ. This is because a Christian heart is a heart that has been filled with the gratitude of Christ. Our gratitude is His gratitude in us. Our gratitude by itself is never pure but always full of mixed motivations, hypocrisies, and selfishness. No one offers up a pure thanksgiving in themselves — no one but Christ. And so it is that we may offer up a true thanksgiving in the Great and Perfect Thanksgiving of Christ. We can offer up the gratitude of Christ, which is perfect and holy and wonderfully potent.

So rise and eat, give thanks and rejoice. Lift your glasses, lift your voices, lift up the gratitude of Christ. His thankfulness infects all the uncleanness.

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:15).

 

 

I’ll be speaking in Minneapolis next week. More details here.

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Fight with Thanksgiving

[image error]This week we are celebrating Thanksgiving in our land, and this really is one of the great vestiges of a once vibrant Christian faith. Our nation has turned away from God in significant ways, and so giving thanks can seem difficult or odd when so much has gone wrong.

But we need to remember that giving thanks is not merely what we do when God has given us victory and success – it’s not merely what we do when we have fought and won – giving thanks is what we do in order to fight, in order to win. We fight with thanksgiving. And that is what we do here at this Thanksgiving meal week after week. We celebrate the salvation of the world in the death and resurrection of our King every week. We give thanks for His certain victory – that we do not yet see accomplished – in order that it might be accomplished in us and our children and in every nation of men. That is what we are doing here, and we want to ask God to make our thanksgiving everywhere else to have the same potency.

Remember, when Jesus first instituted this Thanksgiving meal it was before He was betrayed and crucified. And when He rose from the dead, the gospel was preached and a few thousand were baptized in Jerusalem. And they were sharing this meal from house to house, believing what it proclaimed before it had barely even begun to happen. And ever since Christians have shared this Thanksgiving meal all over the world, announcing what will surely be before they have actually seen it. Even those first Christian American pilgrims were giving thanks in faith, not only truly thankful for what God had given, but believing Him for what He would give.

Thanksgiving is not merely what we do as a result of the blessings God has already given, Thanksgiving is also what we do in faith, in the sure and certain hope of the blessings God will give. So give thanks for the end of abortion in our land. Give thanks for the end of sexual perversion and exploitation. Give thanks for the reformation and revival that God will send on our land. Give thanks for the salvation of your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. Give thanks by faith in Jesus.

And so come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

 

I’ll be speaking in Minneapolis next week. More details here.

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

In Which I Commit Generalization

[image error]Generalizations are acts of authority. And this is why our modern world hates and instinctively cringes when generalizations are made. Our culture hates anything with the slightest aroma of genuine authority.

Watch me:

Women are weaker than men.

Now I’m a misogynist, a racist, a flat-earther, and I probably do crossword puzzles on Sundays for fun like some kind of psycho.

But the Bible requires Christians and Christian pastors in particular to make generalizations. Generalizations, by definition, are generally true. They are not necessarily exhaustively true —  there may be some exceptions, sometimes more than others — but taking everything together, generalizations are more true than not. And generalizations are true enough to teach wisdom. Cretans are lazy gluttons, Pharisees are snakes and hypocrites, and lazy fools come to ruin. The Bible is full of this kind of truth, and Proverbs in particular is full of this kind of wisdom.

Proverbs says that the lips of the harlot drip honey. Is every harlot good looking? Is every prostitute a sweet talker? Proverbs says folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction will drive it far from him. Is the rod of correction the answer to every single instance of folly? Are there any children for whom circumstances and frame require a more nuanced approach? Sure. But all things being equal: faithful parents will regularly, consistently, and lovingly spank their children in order to teach them wisdom. It is a sin not to spank your children.

Wisdom requires analysis and application. Wisdom requires seeing the world accurately and applying God’s word faithfully. And this is why I recently posted on Facebook and Twitter this little gem: “When will Christians realize that a pastor or Christian ministry should not be trusted until or unless it has been accused of being a hate group? Death threats, malicious slander, hate blogs, and at least one visit from the police should be prerequisites for Christian leadership.”

Several friends thought that this was unhelpful or at least potentially confusing, since it seemed to make persecution a qualification for leadership in the church. Some thought they understood what I was getting at but that I might be encouraging an unhelpful belligerence. While we may currently have a courage problem, we don’t want to swerve this thing straight into a jerk problem. And I actually agree with these concerns. I see how what I wrote could be misunderstood and misapplied, and yet I stand by what I wrote because it is a true and faithful generalization.

What about the word “prerequisites” — did that take it a bit too far? No, it did not for several reasons. First, no one I know of takes the other items in the list of qualifications (1 Tim 3, Tit. 1) so woodenly to require all of those virtues and qualities in full maturity. Christians understand that those qualifications are to be evaluated by trajectory. We don’t ordain a man because he preaches exactly like Charles Spurgeon; we ordain a man who has begun to preach faithfully and courageously. We do not generally require a man to have grandchildren in order to demonstrate that his own children are faithful believers. We can usually tell how they are doing far earlier. So likewise, what I wrote about hate groups and slander should be taken the same way. We want to see a faithful and healthy trajectory of collision with unbelief.

Secondly, I stand by my words specifically for our culture. Christians should not trust a pastor or ministry who is not coming into conflict with our world given what our world is currently doing. You cannot be a faithful pastor who manages to avoid conflict in a world as compromised and infected as we are. If you heard about a pastor in 1939 Germany who was not in any trouble at all, what would you think? As Jesus might have said, it will be more tolerable for Nazi Germany in the judgment than modern America.

Third, a great deal of our problem is bound up in our misunderstanding of gospel ministry. Gospel ministry is a trouble making mission. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matt. 10:34-36). This statement from Jesus is, incidentally, a wonderful generalization. Christian pastors should seek to emulate it. And of course it should stand side by side with other statements that seem to contradict it (cf. Lk. 9:56). But read the gospels and read the book of Acts closely. The central events, stories, actions center on conflict and trouble. As the bishop once fretted, ‘Everywhere St Paul went there was a riot; everywhere I go they serve tea!’ Everywhere Jesus went He made people feel uncomfortable, angry, confused, and the apostles carried on that glorious tradition. Everywhere they went there was controversy, riots, arrests, hatred, and yes, central to it all was the preaching of the scandalous death and resurrection of Jesus for sinners. But let there be no mistake: everyone who follows Jesus is looking for a certain kind of trouble. And everyone who would proclaim this Jesus is a trouble maker. This is no equivocation or playing with words. The point of the gospel is to bring a sword, to bring division, to bring controversy and conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, the darkness and the light, the kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God. That only seems like equivocation if you do not take the conflict seriously.

So let me add to my list of prerequisites: Christians should not trust a man or a ministry who is not already practicing godly generalizing. A general is a leader in a war. He is a man we trust to see the whole battlefield well. A general must generalize in order to win the war. There are many other important tasks in any military operation, some which require a glorious specialization. But a private who insists on a general not generalizing is insisting on being leaderless (and almost certain defeat). Practicing godly generalizing is practicing Christian leadership and wisdom. And so we should not trust a man or a ministry with authority who has not demonstrated that sort of wisdom. If a man is practicing that kind of biblical wisdom, he will have enemies that he is laboring to love and bless. How can you love your enemies if you don’t have any? Clearly, if you want to follow the admonition of Jesus, you must go make some enemies. And in our world this really is not difficult for the faithful. But it does require courage.

 

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

Photo by Dean Hinnant on Unsplash

You and All Your Hosts

[image error]When we gather before God each week, we are renewing covenant with God. This is not because the covenant has expired, but because we are finite human beings that need regular reminding and renewal. God does not forget, but we do forget. God does not get tired, but we do.

One element of covenant renewal is the idea of covenant representation. When God made covenant with Abraham, He was also making covenant with all of Abraham’s descendants. And remember that God made this covenant with Abraham before Abraham had any children at all. When God renewed covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai, He was once again not merely renewing His covenant with those Israelites standing there at the foot of the mountain. A generation later, Moses told that new generation that they had been at the foot of the mountain and had seen God’s glory. How was that possible? The answer is covenant representation. When we stand before God, He not only sees us, He sees what we will be, He sees our children and grandchildren and beyond.

Some of you are young parents with young children and you are faithfully laboring to be here on behalf of your little ones who don’t yet understand what we are doing. And let me just encourage you, keep up the good work; we are all cheering you on. God will bless your labors. But let me remind everyone: we are all worshiping here this morning on behalf of many descendants and friends whom we have not yet met, who don’t yet understand what we are doing, who have not yet arrived.

So as you sing and pray and listen and eat and drink and raise your hands, do it all with this in mind. But don’t misunderstand, this didn’t just begin with you. You are standing here this morning because of fathers and mothers and grandparents and countless fathers and mothers in the faith who represented you to God, and at the very head of this glorious line, the One standing for all of us, representing all of us, is Jesus. He is standing for us in heaven right now. His blood is interceding for us and for our children to a thousand generations and for many who are still far off and yet to come. He is our Great High Priest. He is our covenant head, our covenant representative. And so you are most welcome here, you and all your hosts.

 

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

Photo by Julie Johnson on Unsplash

Reigning With Christ Over the Dishes

[image error]It’s one thing to talk about the gospel, it’s another thing to walk in the gospel, to stand in grace, to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and see everything in your life from that vantage point.

For those who are in Christ, these things are true whether we realize it or not, but there is a marked difference between seeing and understanding these realities and not.

Paul begins the book of Ephesians blessing God for all the glory and grace we have been loaded down with in the gospel, but this praise transitions into a prayer that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places…” (Eph. 1:17-20)

Paul knows that it is easy not to see what is actually true. It is easy not to know what is the hope of our calling, the riches of the saints, the greatness of His power working in us – the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the Father’s right hand. Sometimes all you can see are the dirty dishes.

In the midst of the trenches of parenting, family tension, health crises, financial instability, heartbreaking loss, political and cultural insanity, the plodding of daily tasks and routines, what do the eyes of your heart see? The beginning of Paul’s prayer summarizes the whole vision as centered on the knowledge of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. The Spirit of wisdom and revelation gives us knowledge of Him. And if we know Him, if we see Him, then we see the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance in the saints, the greatness of His power working in us who believe.

There is an enormous difference between parenting on your own and parenting in the power of the resurrection. There is an enormous difference between going to work on your own and going to work in the knowledge of Him who was raised from the dead. There is an enormous difference between looking at our deranged culture all by yourself, and looking out at our land from the vantage of Jesus ruling far above every principality and power. It is one thing to know certain facts on a page; it is another thing entirely to see Jesus, to know His grace for you and His certain rule over all things, and to stand in that grace, to sit with Him in the heavenly places, reigning with Him over the dishes, the laundry, the committee meetings, the children, your homework, the evening news, sin, unbelief, and even death itself. In Christ, there are no survivors, there are only conquerors. Ask the Lord to open the eyes of your heart that you might see Him.

 

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash