Jason K. Allen's Blog, page 11

Lord’s Day Meditation: “Underneath Are the Everlasting Arms” by C.H. Spurgeon

Morning & Evening November 11, Morning

“Underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)

God–the eternal God–is himself our support at all times,
and especially when we are sinking in deep trouble. There are seasons when the
Christian sinks very low in humiliation. Under a deep sense of his great
sinfulness, he is humbled before God till he scarcely knows how to pray,
because he appears, in his own sight, so worthless. Well, child of God,
remember that when thou art at thy worst and lowest, yet “underneath”
thee “are everlasting arms.” Sin may drag thee ever so low, but
Christ’s great atonement is still under all. You may have descended into the
deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as “the uttermost;” and to
the uttermost he saves. Again, the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in
sore trial from without. Every earthly prop is cut away. What then? Still
underneath him are “the everlasting arms.” He cannot fall so deep in
distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of an ever-faithful God
will still encircle him. The Christian may be sinking under trouble from within
through fierce conflict, but even then he cannot be brought so low as to be
beyond the reach of the “everlasting arms”–they are underneath him;
and, while thus sustained, all Satan’s efforts to harm him avail nothing.

This assurance of support is a comfort to any weary but
earnest worker in the service of God. It implies a promise of strength for each
day, grace for each need, and power for each duty. And, further, when death
comes, the promise shall still hold good. When we stand in the midst of Jordan,
we shall be able to say with David, “I will fear no evil, for thou art
with me.” We shall descend into the grave, but we shall go no lower, for
the eternal arms prevent our further fall. All through life, and at its close,
we shall be upheld by the “everlasting arms”–arms that neither flag
nor lose their strength, for “the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is
weary.”

The post Lord’s Day Meditation: “Underneath Are the Everlasting Arms” by C.H. Spurgeon appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Truths We Contend For: The Sufficiency of Scripture

Spring Convocation 2020

Transcript:

Amen. Thank you so much, Dr. Swain. I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the book of 2nd Timothy. We will be looking at chapter three verses 15 through 17 second Timothy chapter three verses 15 through 17. We shall get there eventually, but it shall take a while to get there. But you can be turning there nonetheless. This morning we are thinking together about the sufficiency of Scripture. I began during December commencement a series entitled “Truths Worth Contending For” and in that setting we considered biblical inerrancy together. The inerrancy of Scripture. This morning we consider the sufficiency of Scripture and it’s good that we do so this day. Convocation like commencement is a major day for any institution, for any seminary. It is An occasion for us to come together and to recommit ourselves to first things, to our convictions, to our callings and to one another in this confessional community.

And in this context we are considering this series:
“Truths Worth Contending For.” We shall see topics as we have seen,
inerrancy and sufficiency and in coming occasions. Topics like the exclusivity
of the gospel and the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ and many other
similar topics. And these are truths I believe that are worth contending for.
I’m not arguing that these are the ten most consequential truths or even 10 of
the most consequential truths, but that they are important and particularly
timely given our ministry moment. The idea of contending for the faith or
contending for truth we find in that little New Testament epistle, Jude, where
Jude writes admonishing us to contend earnestly for the faith once and for all
delivered to the saints. I remind us this morning that to contend is a word of
activity, a word of struggle, at times a word of conflict.

It conveys ongoing action to contend continually. When we
transliterate that underlying Greek word into the English word, it comes to us
as as “agonize” or “agonizing.” And it’s a sign of what it
means to be a faithful Christian minister. Throughout the years and over the
decades we will find ourselves in different contexts, contending for the faith.
It is a good work. It is a noble work. It is an essential work. It is the work
people like us in places like this are to be about doing. That is who we are.
That is what we are to be about. We are to contend from the Scripture and on
days like today, we contend for the Scripture. Now as I’ve been reflecting on
our time together this week in the commencement sermon, I preach in the sermon
that bringing to you today, my mind just went back to a little book that made a
big splash in the 1980s in Southern Baptist life, a little book by a man named
Clayton Sullivan entitled “Called to Preach Condemned to Survive.” To
think about biblical inerrancy and to think about these topics like the
sufficiency of Scripture one has to go back. One typically goes back in a
Southern Baptist context to the 1980s and 1990s and the great struggle this
convention of churches had over the Bible. The Battle for the Bible as it was
known. Clayton Sullivan’s book showed up in the Southern Baptist Convention in
1985 when it was originally released, and the book was unwittingly a boon to
the conservative cause because it clarified and evidenced just what the
denominational controversy was all about yet reflected on by one of the
liberals own. The book is something of a personal memoir by Clayton Sullivan.
He reflects on his departing orthodox Christianity and how it happened. As a
young man in 1950s Mississippi he feels called to preach and he sets out doing
just that. He did so something as a young firebrand preaching the gospel and
pounding away from the Scriptures arguing for the fundamentals of the faith.
Feeling the need to be trained he moved to Louisville, Kentucky to attend
Southern Seminary, and of course then Southern Seminary was marked by
theological liberalism. Faithfully, Sullivan writes of his final conversation
he had with his father before he went to seminary. He says this, “I remember
the last words my father said to me. That morning we were standing by the
driveway waving goodbye as I was pulling away from the house into the morning
light. He said, ‘Son, whatever happens, don’t let them change you.'” This
parting word of admonition would prove ominous for Sullivan in short order he
would be changed and certainly not for the better. Tellingly Sullivan recounted
the crumbling of his faith in this memoir. And he writes this: “As a
seminarian still in my mid-twenties I found myself baffled. I was more certain
of what I did not believe than I was of what I did believe. Southern Seminary
had destroyed my biblical fundamentalism, but had not given me anything viable
to take its place.

That’s the weakness of the historical critical
method,” he reflected. “Its power to destroy, exceeds its power to
construct.” You see, to deny biblical inerrancy takes something out of
students that nothing else can replace. To deny biblical inerrancy takes
something out of men and women of the faith that nothing else can replace. But
I thought today was about sufficiency and December was about inerrancy? It is.
I believe, and I would argue this morning, that if to deny inerrancy takes
something out of students to deny sufficiency fails to put something in them. If
to deny inerrancy takes something out of Christians and out of ministers to
overlook sufficiency fails to put something in them. Denying inerrancy removes
one’s confidence in the Bible. Underemphasizing sufficiency fails to put
something in you, a fuller, more robust, more perennial confidence in the
Bible.

And if I were Satan and wanted to do harm to people like
you and places like this, here’s how I would go about it. I would observe that
inerrancy is so deeply entrenched in Southern Baptist life and so commonly held
and is so universally agreed upon that to tackle inerrancy head on might be a
losing propositions But to undermine scripture subtly by distracting from the
sufficiency of Scripture, by undermining the sufficiency of Scripture might
have the same effect; yet be far more likely to pull off. To give up inerrancy
is perhaps a bridge too far. To deny Scripture a bridge too far, but to
selectively ignore it, selectively neglect it, selectively undermine its
sufficiency? That could do similar havoc, indeed does do similar damage in the
body of Christ. A subtle undermining of sufficiency questions the relevance of
Scripture, the completeness of Scripture, the adequacy of Scripture, the power
of Scripture.

So this morning our task is to consider sufficiency and
what it is and why it matters and how we may apply it. So what do we mean by
the sufficiency of Scripture? Well, if you read the Baptist Faith and Message
2000 you will hear sufficiency in the article under Scripture, but it’s frankly
more overheard than heard because the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 is written
most especially to tidy up and to tighten up our definition of inerrancy.
Nonetheless, sufficiency is reflected there in that article, but perhaps more
specifically we can look to the Second London Baptist Confession, which
helpfully states this under sufficiency: “The whole counsel of God
concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and
life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy
Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new
revelation, or the traditions of men.”

Let me read that again. Reflect on it with me. “The
whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his glory, man’s
salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily
contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added,
whether by new revelation or the traditions of men.” Perhaps most
helpfully we can look to the apostle Paul’s description of sufficiency, which I
believe is what verse 17 of 2nd Timothy chapter three is. After documenting the
malaise that is the church and chapter three in the malaise that is the world
and chapter three and what fallenness looks like, what moral decadence looks
like, Paul moves to the power of Scripture and he reminds Timothy in verse 14
of the things that he had learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom he
had learned them. That is the Scriptures that he learned from his mother and
his grandmother, then of course from the apostle himself. Then in verse 15 of
chapter three he reminds him that from childhood he knew the sacred writings,
the Old Testament we can place there. Timothy knew these things and they were
able to give him the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in
Christ Jesus. The Scripture is sufficient to save. Then verse 16 Paul writes,
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,” now verse 17, “So
that in light of the Scriptures with the Scriptures, the man of God,” here
referencing the minister, “May be adequate, equipped for every good
work.” So we can describe sufficiency this way that the Word of God, the
inspired, inerrant Word of God is given to us and with it the man of God, the
woman of God is adequate, equipped for every good work.

The Scriptures convey all truths necessary for Christian
living and Christian ministry. Now to be clear, sufficiency does not mean
Scripture teaches everything we can or need to know about every topic of life.
Of course not. You can search the Scriptures until Jesus comes back and not
find much on modern medicine, instructions on how to fix your car’s
transmission. You can look day and night and never find instructions on how to
sync your iPod, or prepare a gluten free meal, or anything else like these
things. So the point is not that it is inappropriate or unwise to look beyond
Scripture. The point is that the Scriptures bring to us the essential
realities, the essential truths for Christian life and Christian ministry.
Sufficiency does not negate general revelation, but it right-sizes it. Nor does
sufficiency deny supra-biblical knowledge, but it does put it in its place.

Moreover, this morning I want us to be reminded not only
of this in an abstract sense, but to behold the beauty of the Sufficiency of
scripture. Sufficiency is a doctrine ministers can rest in. It’s simplifying,
it is emboldening, and it is beautiful. Sufficiency is built upon inerrancy. Notice
what we see taking place in chapter three; and I won’t rehash the commencement
sermon, but again, we should meditate for a moment on chapter three and verse
16 in particular this great declaration on the truthfulness of Scripture on the
power of Scripture. Verse 16, “All Scripture is inspired by God. All
Scripture comes to us by way of God. Scripture comes to us literally from God’s
breath. It’s given to us by God and we believe in the verbal, plenary
inspiration of Scripture; that that the words themselves in Scripture are
inspired. Not merely the authors or not merely the thoughts behind the author
but the words themselves are inspired; and not merely some of the words but all
the words.

Verse 16, “All Scripture.” Of course here this
is an immediate reference on the text that was, but we look at this with a
sense of anticipation as the New Testament canon and the biblical canon is
coming together in complete form. So it is given to us by God and we have seen
and we argued in December of the inerrancy of Scripture that it is true. It is
inspired by God. God is true. God does not speak error. God does not speak
falsehood. God is a God of truth. God’s Word is true and it is given to us and
preserved for us in truthfulness.

It is inerrant. It does not err Moreover, it is
infallible. It is incapable of erring. This we believe. Then notice verse 16
the profitability we see here. It’s profitable for teaching us Christian belief
doctrine, the truth of Scripture, how to live the Christian life, what
Christians are to believe. And for reproof to correct our errant thinking, to
correct our errant belief. And then for correction and training in
righteousness, how we are to live the Christian life, how we are to glorify God
in our bodies, how we are to honor Christ in our lives, and correcting us when
we do not.

Then rolls up in verse 17 with this promise, “In
order that, so that we may be adequately equipped for every good work.”
You see, brothers and sisters, an errant Bible is an insufficient one. A Bible
that is not without error is a Bible that is not sufficient for Christian
ministry. Inerrancy gives us a sufficient Bible because inerrancy created a
sufficient Bible for us. And sufficiency built upon inerrancy. Sufficiency
rooted in the Reformation, the doctrine of sola scriptura comes to us with this
sense of the sufficiency of Scripture in tandem with it. Sola Scriptura,
meaning that Scripture alone is our final authority for our lives and for the
church. Not our only authority, but our final authority. Since God’s Word is
inspired and true, it comes to us as our sufficient authority. Our authority
over tradition or popes or councils or in our day over personal experience or
preference or pragmatic expediencies. Scripture is the norma normans, the
determining norm, the standard, the benchmark, the plumb line for us, and since
it is true and it is our only final authority, it comes to us as sufficient as
well. But if you reflect on this passage and these words by Paul, in light of
where Timothy is it, seems simpleminded. It almost seems oddly, no pun
intended, insufficient. Think about what is the malaise that Timothy is
experiencing. Think about Paul’s circumstance: in prison, awaiting execution.
He has lived a long and faithful life and a fruitful ministry and he knows the
end is near. Timothy is weak, vacillating in the faith. He is unsettled
personally. Defections are taking place around him. People are apostatizing,
truth is being slurred, false accusations abound. And what does Paul tell
Timothy to do in light of this? What is Paul’s counsel to a son in the faith
who is so pivotal to second generation Christianity? He points him to the
Scriptures? To the truthfulness of Scriptures? To the sufficiency of scripture?
Paul, is that all you got to give us? Is that all you have to give Timothy?
That the Scriptures are God’s Word? That they are sufficient and that you are
therefore to bring them to bear on God’s people–chapter four verse one and
following?

Paul, you’re the apostle. You wrote thirteen New Testament
letters. You’re a man of much ministry, accomplishment, much ministry
experience. Surely you got more to give Timothy than that.

There is nothing more to give because he does not need to
give anything more. He points Timothy to the gospel, to the truthfulness of
Scripture and to the sufficiency of Scripture. For us and in ministry moment
and for every generation of Christian ministers, is not good and fitting in
right to again and again reassert and re-prioritize the sufficiency of
Scripture? Our churches may need much, but what they need most of all is the
preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Our children may need much, but what they
need most of all is the teaching of God’s Word. Our communities may need much,
but what they need most of all is the preaching of God’s Word. The sufficiency
of Scripture. Now, is this just like an isolated passage here or is this a
theme, a topic that shows up in different places in Scripture? The latter is
definitely the case.

Time will not permit us to go to all these passages, but
if you read places like Deuteronomy 8:1-20 as God’s faithfulness to his
children is being reiterated and review there he comes back again and again and
says, “But you don’t live by bread alone, but by the Word of God.” We
look to places like Psalm 19 which I read, but here again a few of the verses
from Psalm 19, “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The
testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord
are right rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening
the eyes. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold. Yes than much fine gold, sweeter also than
honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. By them, your servant is warned and
in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Equip me of
hidden faults. Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not
rule over me, then I will be blameless.” In Romans 15:4 Paul tells us, “Everything
that was written in the past was written to teach us,” referring to
Scripture, “So that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the
encouragement they provide, we have hope.” 1 Peter chapter one we read
that we have been “purified, we are being purified by obedience to the
truth, which teaches us a sincere love for each other to love one another
deeply from the heart for after all, we have been born again not of perishable
seed, which is imperishable, but through the living and enduring Word of
God.” The sufficiency of Scripture. Now having reflected on sufficiency
from a biblical standpoint, let’s reflect together on some common substitutes.
Substitute number one for sufficiency: tradition. Most especially in church
history of course we have seen these excesses in the Roman Catholic Church, but
our own evangelical traditions certainly pop up. How many poor pastors have
been about to engineer some helpful change in the church to be told, “But
that’s how we’ve always done it”? Sufficiency leaves room for tradition,
but it prioritizes it. It puts it in its place. After all, there are worst
justifications then “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” but it
could just mean you have been persistently in error, right? So tradition often
crowds out sufficiency. Secondly, personal preference often crowds out
sufficiency. I have heard a time or two in local church ministry, something
like this said, “Pastor, I know that’s what the Bible says, but..”
And in that moment, I always want someone to sneak up behind me and quietly put
a bullet in my head because it pains me so greatly to hear someone say, “I
know that’s what the Bible says, but…” But personal preferences do run amuck.
Personal preferences so very often shove and push and pull the church in directions.
Personal preference. Substitute number three, more commonly: mysticism or
personal spiritual experiences. “God told me to do this. God said this to
me, God spoke this to me.” We would do better to use phrases like, “I
believe God is leading me.” The more we are in Scripture, yes, the more
our intuition, our subjective inclinations, and our spiritual senses are shaped
by Scripture and thus more likely to be in accordance with Scripture. But if
you hear someone say something like, “Well God told me we should do
this,” and it doesn’t line up with Scripture, shoot off warning flares in
the sky. That is not good. Fourth: modern therapy often crowds out the
sufficiency of Scripture. We live in the therapeutic age. For matters of soul
care we look to Scripture. Here we must be careful, and we must be humble for
there are medical issues obviously that arise and when those, do medical care
and prescriptive care are certainly appropriate. For spiritual issues, issues
of soul care, we look to the ministry of the Word and the Spirit and our
ministers and our church family. And we certainly admit that those two
categories are not always tidy ones are they? And at times it’s not always
clear what exactly is going on in the mind, the heart of a person and the
complexities of sin and fallenness and all the different ways that shows up. So
we speak carefully, we walk humbly, but we don’t apologize for believing that
we can’t medicate our way to spiritual health, much less spiritual maturity.
Fifth common substitute: modern science. Science doesn’t validate Scripture.
Scripture validates science. Again, the Bible primarily is not a science book,
so we’re not looking here to reflect on the theory of relativity or quantum
physics or the fourth law of hydrodynamics or anything else. But the Bible is
true and when it speaks to issues, it speaks with truthfulness and
sufficiently. So we are not as Christians frantically waiting for a telescopic
observation to confirm Scripture for us.

We are not desperately waiting for the archeologist spade
to turn over one more artifact corroborating Scripture. We believe Scripture is
true and sufficient and we come to it giving it muscularity to push, to pull,
to inform, to instruct us. Finally, vain philosophies are substitutes. They
show up in our lives and in our churches. Culture presses in on us. Ideas shape
us in profound, yet often imperceptible ways. Whether we realize it or not, we
are operating downstream from culture, downstream from media, downstream from
ideologies. And thus we challenge every ideology, every vain thought we seek to
bring captive to the Word of God. Now wait a minute. At this point, I can hear
the strawmen arising, taking up arms, marching in my direction. I can hear the
red herrings mobilizing, presenting the rare, “but what about”
instances. I also hear, faithful Christian brothers and Christian sisters of
goodwill, Bible-believing and gospel-loving individuals who like me are trying
to work through often complex and urgent issues at what seems to be the speed
of light in a way that’s biblically faithful. And in moments like this, you may
be asking, “But why?” or “How?” or “What about?”
I say this not to suggest spiritual superiority or necessarily even a higher
view of scripture, but if I err I want to air err trusting too much in God’s
word, not too little. I want my defense of the faith and the sufficiency of
Scripture to err in being too active, not too passive, too vigorous, not too
impotent.

As for me, I’m willing to stand before the Lord having in
this life, taking his Word too literally, too seriously, too authoritatively,
too sufficiently. I aim not to stand from the opposite vantage point. So
seeking to pull this together and by way of ministry application, reflect with
me quickly here; exactly ten ways Scripture is sufficient. Number one, to know
God and his Son, Jesus Christ. That’s our story. Our conversion. We were born
again through the preaching of the gospel, the teaching of God’s Word, the Word
of truth, the Word of life. Both in our own personal experience but also as we
seek to win disciples, to make disciples, to win converts for Christ we bring
the Scriptures to bear. Secondly, to call and to confirm us in ministry. We
look for the scriptural standards and we look to the local church to assess how
we measure up to those standards.

Our call and confirmation of ministry are not something
that we derive in and of ourselves. Number three, to grow us in Christ, our
sanctification, maturity to make us complete. The Scriptures are sufficient for
that. Number four, for ministry service and ministry faithfulness. This is our
tool. This is our weapon. This is our instrument that we use. And the quicker
that we resolve and we settle that God has given us his Word, the quicker we
can rest in that and ministry won’t just be about a never ending quest to come
up with the next great idea to give us a little more momentum in our church or
ministry.

Scripture is sufficient to help us engage cultural
pressures, vain philosophies, issues that come at us. We judge those things by
the Scriptures. Six, the Scriptures are sufficient for ministry initiatives and
strategies. How we do what we do, we look to Scripture to inform that. Seventh,
as I already intimated, the Scriptures are sufficient to inform our counseling
and our soul care, our spiritual formation. Number eight, to direct our
worship. We look to Scripture and what it tells us that we are to do in public
worship, to pray and to sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs and to read
God’s Word and to preach God’s Word. Ninth, we look to Scripture as our
sufficient guide for ethical and moral norms. We don’t look to culture to tell
us what is biblically appropriate or morally appropriate, sexually or in any
other category. We look to God’s Word. And tenth, Scripture is sufficient for
us to know and follow God’s will.

And I say to you this morning knowing that some of you,
perhaps many of you agonize daily over what you ought to be doing with your
life. And if we were to read the Bible more carefully, we would see the big
issues of life the Bible tells us quite plainly what we are to be doing in our
lives, how we are to live, how we are to seek his will, how we are to be
growing in Christ, how we are to be winning others to Jesus, the big issues of
life that we should be wrestling with the Bible speaks plainly to. As I have
been reflecting on this sermon and these verses in this passage. I recently was
reflecting anew on the story of Charles Templeton and Billy Graham. And some of
you know that story, but it’s a compelling and instructive story. Charles
Templeton was born in 1915. He professed faith in Jesus in 1936 and became an
evangelist the same year.in Well, 1945 he met Billy Graham and the two became
friends, close friends, and they often roomed and ministered together in
ministry contexts. And many people who knew the two looked at Charles Templeton
and thought his ceiling was higher. Seemed to have more charisma, seemed to be
brighter, more persuasive preacher, and many thought that Charles Templeton is
the one who would emerge as the great evangelist of the 20th century above and
beyond Billy Graham.

Well, by 1948 Templeton’s life and worldview were
beginning to track a different course than Billy Graham’s. He began to have
doubts about the Christian faith and he planned to enter Princeton Theological
Seminary to work through some of these issues. Needless to say, that did not go
so well. Less than a decade later, 1957, he would publicly declare that he had
become an agnostic. In 1996 he released his own memoir entitled, “Farewell
to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith.” He recounts a
little story with Billy Graham that is instructive. He says, “All of our
differences, Templeton writing here, “All of our differences came to a
head in a discussion, which better than anything I know explains Billy Graham
and his phenomenal success as an evangelist. in the course of our conversation.
I said, ‘But Billy it is simply not possible any longer to believe, for
instance, the biblical account of creation. The world was not created over a
period of days or a few thousand years ago. It has evolved over millions and
millions of years. It’s not a matter of speculation. It’s a fact of science.’
‘I don’t accept that,’ Billy said, ‘And there are reputable scholars who don’t
accept it either.’ ‘Who are the scholars?’ I asked. ‘Men in conservative
Christian colleges?’ ‘Most of them, yes,’ Billy said, ‘But that is not the
point. I believe the Genesis account of creation because it’s in the Bible.
I’ve discovered something in my ministry. When I take the Bible literally, when
I proclaim it as the Word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on the
platform and say, ‘God says,’ or ‘the Bible says,’ the Holy Spirit uses me.
There are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing questions like
these for centuries. I don’t have the time or the intellect to examine all
sides of these theological disputes, so I’ve decided once and for all to stop
questioning and to accept the Bible as God’s Word.’ ‘But Billy,’ Templeton
protested. ‘You cannot do that. You don’t dare stop thinking about the most
important question in life. Do it and you begin to die. It’s intellectual
suicide.’ ‘I don’t know about anyone else,’ Billy Graham said, ‘But as for me,
I decided that’s the path for me. I believe the Bible is the Word of
God.'” For each one of us, there comes a point in time where we must
believe the Bible is the Word of God. The Word of God. I trust for all of us in
the room today, we have come to that point, but as we answer, “yes,”
there’s a second deliberation we must have and that is this: Is the Bible
sufficient? I believe it is and I trust you do as well. Let us pray. Our
Father, we come to you this morning and we pray this morning that you would
give us a renewed sense of confidence, of trust in your Word, help us, Father,
not only to believe in its inerrancy, but also its sufficiency and not only to
believe in its sufficiency, but to be willing by faith to rest in that. Permit
that to simplify our lives, to liberate our ministries. Father, we pray for
ourselves at the beginning of a new semester that we would be men and women of
faith, men and women of your Word, who day to day, week to week, we practition
practitioners of the sufficiency of Scripture. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The post Truths We Contend For: The Sufficiency of Scripture appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Lord’s Day Meditation: “It Is Enough for the Disciple That He Be as His Master” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “It Is Enough for the Disciple That He Be as His Master” by C.H. Spurgeon (Morning & Evening, November 10, Evening)

“It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master.” (Matthew 10:25)

No one will dispute this statement, for it would be unseemly
for the servant to be exalted above his Master. When our Lord was on earth,
what was the treatment he received? Were his claims acknowledged, his
instructions followed, his perfections worshipped, by those whom he came to
bless? No; “He was despised and rejected of men.” Outside the camp
was his place: cross-bearing was his occupation. Did the world yield him solace
and rest? “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the
Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” This inhospitable country
afforded him no shelter: it cast him out and crucified him. Such–if you are a
follower of Jesus, and maintain a consistent, Christ-like walk and
conversation–you must expect to be the lot of that part of your spiritual life
which, in its outward development, comes under the observation of men. They
will treat it as they treated the Saviour–they will despise it. Dream not that
worldlings will admire you, or that the more holy and the more Christ-like you
are, the more peaceably people will act towards you. They prized not the polished
gem, how should they value the jewel in the rough? “If they have called
the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his
household?” If we were more like Christ, we should be more hated by his
enemies. It were a sad dishonour to a child of God to be the world’s favourite.
It is a very ill omen to hear a wicked world clap its hands and shout
“Well done” to the Christian man. He may begin to look to his
character, and wonder whether he has not been doing wrong, when the unrighteous
give him their approbation. Let us be true to our Master, and have no
friendship with a blind and base world which scorns and rejects him. Far be it
from us to seek a crown of honour where our Lord found a coronet of thorns.

The post Lord’s Day Meditation: “It Is Enough for the Disciple That He Be as His Master” by C.H. Spurgeon appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Denominational Discourse & the Future of the SBC

Klemens
von Metternich was one of Europe’s greatest statesmen during the 19th
Century. Both as foreign minister, and then for nearly three-decades as chancellor
of the Austrian Empire, his statecraft shaped Europe and prevented numerous
wars. Most consequentially, Metternich presided over the Congress of Vienna in
1814-15, which determined the post-Napoleonic configuration of Europe. His era
came to be known as the “Age of Metternich.”

Metternich
observed that nation-states are motivated to act in their own best interest.
That principle outlasted the man himself and, during the Cold War, it informed
the United States’ posture toward the Soviet Union. The doctrine of Mutually
Assured Destruction surmised that neither superpower would force a direct
confrontation, knowing there would be no winner. In other words, it was in both
countries’ best interest to avoid war in light of the destruction it would
surely bring.

This
foreign-policy calculation was upended by the Age of Terrorism. With terrorism,
there often is no state sponsor, thus, no identifiable nation-state against
which to retaliate. The loss is imbalanced. A nation, like the United States,
has everything to lose while an extremist, in a cave plotting an attack, has next-to-nothing
to lose.

With
the arrival of the internet and, in particular blogging and social media, a
similar scenario has developed in the online world. There’s an imbalance of
loss when public accusations are made. The one who leads a public ministry has
everything to lose, while an anonymous blogger has nothing to lose.

This
new reality is causing chaos in the Southern Baptist Convention. False
accusations are circulated online daily. Ironically, some of these instigators
aren’t even Southern Baptist. Nonetheless, they malign SBC ministries and sully
the reputations of those who lead them. And, for Southern Baptists, our
cooperative work is being threatened.

To Respond or Not to Respond? The Minister’s Catch-22

Complicating
matters is whether or not one should to respond to a false accusation. It is simply
a catch-22. The larger the ministry platform one has, the greater the dilemma. Whichever
way you choose to respond, you lose. There is no upside.

If
you choose to respond, you give oxygen to the story. You’ll draw more attention
to the false claim and protract its news cycle. You’ll extend both the range
and the duration of its reach. You’ll generate more clicks for the website,
which is often exactly what the accuser is after anyway.

Additionally,
responding (and all that response might entail) takes time, and that’s time
most Christian leaders don’t have to waste. Even worse, to respond can be
dirty. As Adrian Rogers warned, “You can’t wrestle with a skunk and come out
smelling like a rose.”

Yet,
if you don’t respond, onlookers may conclude the article is accurate. People
may interpret your silence as a tacit admission of guilt. What is more, the lie
may continue to be repeated. And, as Adolf Hitler famously reflected, “If you
tell a big enough lie, and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

When it Happens
to You

In
recent days, I experienced such an attack. It’s not the first, and it won’t be
the last. Inexplicably, an anonymous website published an anonymous article
that cited anonymous sources. From start to finish, the article was a complete
lie. It wasn’t a misunderstanding or even a slight misrepresentation. It was a
complete fabrication. It was entirely apocryphal, a total lie. Its intent was
to slander me, to impugn me, and to do me harm. 

Thankfully, the accusations were relatively benign. The blogger wasn’t accusing me of scandalous behavior or immoral activity. Thus, the substance of the accusations didn’t alarm me much. Rather, the fact that the accusations were so patently untrue did. Thus, I chose not to ignore this one. I chose to engage the article head-on.

I
demanded this person produce evidence or retract the article and publicly
repent. After 24 hours of pressure, the article was retracted and something of
an apology was issued. It was a small, qualified victory in a larger struggle
the SBC seems to be losing.

Accountability Yes,
Accusations No

Yet, we must be careful not to unwittingly suppress means of accountability, especially when it comes to matters of doctrine. As Southern Baptists, we know the high price of assuming doctrinal integrity. We dare not be asleep at the wheel theologically. Thus, I’d rather serve in a confessional community too concerned about doctrinal compromise than one apathetic about the same.

Moreover,
Southern Baptists have a right to know what their leaders believe, how their
entities operate, and why they make the decisions and take the positions they
do. Most especially, they have a right to know what their seminaries teach. And
it’s actually easy to know.  Look to the
confessional statement(s) the seminaries require their faculty to affirm. There
might be more work to do, but that’s the right place to start.

As
a Southern Baptist seminary president, I’m fully aware the churches own their
entities. As a seminary president, I serve Southern Baptists; they don’t serve
me. I work for Southern Baptists; they don’t work for me. Southern Baptists
hold me accountable; I don’t hold them accountable. I report to Southern
Baptists; they don’t report to me.

When in Doubt, Ask
Questions

The
primary context of my accountability within the SBC is the Midwestern Seminary
Board of Trustees, but it doesn’t end there. I field questions from Southern
Baptists regularly and, of course, before the gathered convention every June as
well.

And
ask questions of our leaders we should. No entity or national leader is above
accountability. To ask honest questions isn’t launching an attack, it’s being a
responsible Southern Baptist stakeholder. 

I’m
always happy to hear from Southern Baptists, and I often do. I work to respond
to their correspondence in a timely and forthright manner. At times, my answers
may be less-than-satisfying, especially if personnel or other legally sensitive
matters are involved.

For
inquirers, the best way to express concerns, especially if you don’t personally
know the leader, is by writing them a letter. A letter arrives with a certain
degree of formality, which prompts a response. A letter has a name associated
with it, a return address and, hopefully, a cogent statement of the question or
concern.

If
you write a letter to a ministry leader, especially a Southern Baptist leader,
I’m confident you’ll receive an answer from them or their office. If not,
you’ll have a legitimate complaint, and perhaps legitimate cause to escalate by
writing the entity’s chairman of the board or even drawing public attention to
the matter.

In summary, questions are always in-bounds. Accusations are always out-of-bounds. Honest inquirers should be treated with respect. Direct questions should receive direct answers. False accusations should be dismissed, and those who traffic in such should be called out.

In Conclusion

The
Southern Baptist Convention’s organizing principle is that our churches can
accomplish more collectively than we can individually. Within the boundaries of
the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, we choose to partner for missions,
evangelism, theological education, and the like.

The
SBC’s lynchpin is mutual trust, which is built upon shared convictions and
shared mission. When false accusations abound, that mutual trust is weakened.
No organization can long survive, much less thrive, if that trust is daily under
assault. Southern Baptists are a great people, but if we are able to maintain doctrinal
accountability while rejecting false accusations, we’ll be even greater.

Winston
Churchill purportedly said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before
the truth can get its boots on.” If the Southern Baptist Convention is to
endure, we’re going to have to get our boots on more quickly.

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “The Eternal God Is Thy Refuge” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “The Eternal God Is Thy Refuge” by C.H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, November 10, Morning)

“The eternal God is thy refuge.” (Deuteronomy 33:27)

The word refuge may be translated “mansion,” or
“abiding- place,” which gives the thought that God is our abode, our
home. There is a fulness and sweetness in the metaphor, for dear to our hearts
is our home, although it be the humblest cottage, or the scantiest garret; and
dearer far is our blessed God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.
It is at home that we feel safe: we shut the world out and dwell in quiet
security. So when we are with our God we “fear no evil.” He is our
shelter and retreat, our abiding refuge. At home, we take our rest; it is there
we find repose after the fatigue and toil of the day. And so our hearts find
rest in God, when, wearied with life’s conflict, we turn to him, and our soul
dwells at ease. At home, also, we let our hearts loose; we are not afraid of
being misunderstood, nor of our words being misconstrued. So when we are with
God we can commune freely with him, laying open all our hidden desires; for if
the “secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,” the secrets of
them that fear him ought to be, and must be, with their Lord. Home, too, is the
place of our truest and purest happiness: and it is in God that our hearts find
their deepest delight. We have joy in him which far surpasses all other joy. It
is also for home that we work and labour. The thought of it gives strength to
bear the daily burden, and quickens the fingers to perform the task; and in
this sense we may also say that God is our home. Love to him strengthens us. We
think of him in the person of his dear Son; and a glimpse of the suffering face
of the Redeemer constrains us to labour in his cause. We feel that we must
work, for we have brethren yet to be saved, and we have our Father’s heart to
make glad by bringing home his wandering sons; we would fill with holy mirth
the sacred family among whom we dwell. Happy are those who have thus the God of
Jacob for their refuge!

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The Essential Marks of a Preacher

“How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). With
airtight logic, the Apostle Paul sets forth the indispensable human link in
fulfilling the Great Commission—the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In
so doing, he instructs us in the way of the kingdom, that in every generation
God is calling out preachers to serve His church.

Paul’s timeless question is especially relevant for the
twenty-first-century church. Evangelical churches are in the midst of a massive
generational transition, with vacant pastorates and empty pulpits dotting the
landscape.

Vacant pulpits ought not induce the wringing of hands.
Christ is building His church. He does not hope for ministerial volunteers; He
sovereignly sets apart pastors to serve His church and preach His gospel.

Nonetheless, the church is to call out the called, and every
qualified man of God should consider if God is calling him to pastoral
ministry.

How might one know if God is calling him to the ministry?
There are four essential marks.

A Burning Desire

The leading indicator of a call to ministry is a burning
desire for the work. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul begins the list of ministry
qualifications by asserting, “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he
desires a noble task.” In fact, Paul testified that he ministered as one “under
compulsion,” fearful of God’s judgment if he did not peach.

In his Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon argued,
“The first sign of the heavenly calling is an intense, all-absorbing desire for
the work. In order to be a true call to the ministry, there must be an
irresistible, overwhelming craving and raging thirst for telling to others what
God has done to our own souls.”

Those who have been most used of God carried this weight of
the soul. Men such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Spurgeon owned
this inner compulsion that, like an artesian well, continuously poured power
and urgency into their ministries.

The preacher may not feel every Sunday what Richard Baxter
felt when he famously resolved “to preach as a dying man, to dying men; as one
not sure to ever preach again.” But the one called of God knows a constant,
ongoing desire for the work of ministry.

A Holy Life

First Timothy 3:1–7 offers a clear and nonnegotiable list of
character qualifications for the ministry. This list is prescriptive, not
descriptive; it is regulative, not suggestive. In summary, the minister of God
must be above reproach.

Before a church evaluates a pastoral candidate’s gifting or
talent, it must first evaluate his character. To be sure, for a man aspiring to
ministry, it may help to be winsome, to be eloquent, or to possess a magnetic
personality. Yet, before one looks for these secondary—and tertiary—strengths,
one must first meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3.

What is more, the 1 Timothy 3 qualifications do not simply
represent a one-time threshold to cross. Rather, they are a lifestyle to be
maintained, a character to be cultivated, and an ongoing accountability to
God’s Word and God’s people. One’s call to ministry is inextricably linked to
one’s biblical character. The two cannot—and must not—be decoupled.

A Surrendered Will

The Apostle Paul was set apart from his mother’s womb and
testified that he “became a minister according to the stewardship from God that
was given to me” (Col. 1:25). Paul chose to preach because God chose him to
preach. Every call to preach originates in heaven. Our response is total
surrender.

In fact, “surrendering to ministry” used to be common
parlance in evangelical churches. We would do well to recover that phrase,
because that is how one enters the ministry—through surrender. God’s call to
ministry comes with the expectation that you will go whenever and wherever He
calls you. His ministers are His agents, deployed for service according to His
providential plan.

An Ability to Teach

Finally, the one called to the ministry must be able to
teach the Word of God. In 1 Timothy 3, this is the distinguishing qualification
between the office of the deacon and elder. There are a thousand ways a
minister can serve the church, but there is one, indispensable, and
nonnegotiable responsibility—to preach and teach the Word of God.

Does the preparation and delivery of sermons fulfill you? Do
the people of God benefit from your ministry of the Word? Does your church
sense your gifting and affirm your ability to preach or teach about God?

Conclusion

Any man can choose the ministry, and too many unqualified
men have. Only a select few are called by God. Discerning between being called
of men and called of God is urgently important.

If God is calling you to be His servant, then realize, in the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “the work of preaching is the highest and greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.” If God has called you to be His preacher, never stoop to be a king of men.

*This article was originally published November 2015

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “His Place of Defense Shall Be the Munitions of Rocks” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “His Place of Defense Shall Be the Munitions of Rocks” by C.H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, November 9, Evening)

“His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” (Isaiah 33:16)

Do you doubt, O Christian, do you doubt as to whether God will fulfill his promise? Shall the munitions of rock be carried by storm? Shall the storehouses of heaven fail? Do you think that your heavenly Father, though he knoweth that you have need of food and raiment, will yet forget you? When not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered, will you mistrust and doubt him? Perhaps your affliction will continue upon you till you dare to trust your God, and then it shall end. Full many there be who have been tried and sore vexed till at last they have been driven in sheer desperation to exercise faith in God, and the moment of their faith has been the instant of their deliverance; they have seen whether God would keep his promise or not. Oh, I pray you, doubt him no longer! Please not Satan, and vex not yourself by indulging any more those hard thoughts of God. Think it not a light matter to doubt Jehovah. Remember, it is a sin; and not a little sin either, but in the highest degree criminal. The angels never doubted him, nor the devils either: we alone, out of all the beings that God has fashioned, dishonour him by unbelief, and tarnish his honour by mistrust. Shame upon us for this! Our God does not deserve to be so basely suspected; in our past life we have proved him to be true and faithful to his word, and with so many instances of his love and of his kindness as we have received, and are daily receiving, at his hands, it is base and inexcusable that we suffer a doubt to sojourn within our heart. May we henceforth wage constant war against doubts of our God–enemies to our peace and to his honour; and with an unstaggering faith believe that what he has promised he will also perform. “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.”

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Recovering the Exclusivity of the Gospel Pt. 2

“Does it matter what you believe as long as you are
sincere?” I still remember, as a boy, posing that question to my mother. It may
well have been my first theological inquiry, and it was prompted by an awareness
that our neighbors went to a different church.

That question I first pondered as a child reverberates
through churches, homes and lecture halls today. And, as demonstrated in “No
Other Name: Recovering the Exclusivity of the Gospel Pt.1,” many evangelical
church members answer that question with a resounding “no.”

In an age of doctrinal minimization, one can point to any
number of theological challenges facing the church. Yet, neglecting the
exclusivity of the gospel comes with tragic ramifications.

No Need to Evangelize

Without a Great Commission imperative established in the
exclusivity of the gospel, the logic of evangelism collapses under its own
weight. If one need not believe in Christ for salvation, then one need not tell
others to believe in Christ.

Dean Kelly, in his “Why Conservative Churches Are Growing,” famously chronicled this very dynamic. Kelly juxtaposed the belief system of the mainline Protestant denominations with more conservative, evangelical ones and tracked how a church’s convictions regarding the Word of God and the gospel impacts one’s urgency in evangelism. To reject or minimize the former always adversely affects the latter.

Perhaps the tepidness of our witness is not due to
out-of-date methodologies or insufficient training. Perhaps the problem—at its
core—is convictional; is theological. Do we really believe that persons must
believe in Jesus Christ to be saved?

No Need to Send Missionaries

Paul, in Romans 10, sets forth one of the New Testament’s
great evangelistic manifestos: “How will they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? How will they believe in Him in whom they have not heard? And how
will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?”

The Great Commission itself rests on this Romans 10 logic:
all must believe in Jesus to be saved, but they cannot believe in whom they
have not heard, and will never hear unless gospel servants are sent.

The church that equivocates on the exclusivity of the gospel
will not likely send forth a generation of William Careys, Lottie Moons,
Adonirum Judsons or Jim Elliotts. Young adults not convinced of the necessity
Great Commission will not feel the allure and romance of the Great Commission,
the urgency of the gospel, and the unremitting passion to eradicate the moniker
“unreached people group.”

No Need to Give Sacrificially

In my own denominational context, the Southern Baptist
Convention, collective funding for missions and ministry as channeled through
the Cooperative Program has been plateaued or declining for approximately three
decades. Similar trends are reflected in general offering plate contributions
throughout the evangelical movement.

The church member that does not understand and embrace the
exclusivity of the gospel will never be moved to sacrificial giving. The church
that is not consciously convinced of the exclusivity of the gospel will be more
concerned with their meeting their own immediate needs than sacrificially
forwarding money to reach the nations with the gospel. And the denomination
that equivocates on the exclusivity of the gospel, collectively, will not
mobilize itself toward Great Commission ends.

Recovering the Exclusivity of the Gospel

Losing the exclusivity of the gospel is a theological
problem, not a methodological or practical one. Its recovery will be
theological as well. Regaining the exclusivity of the gospel will only take
place in the midst of a broader theological recovery, rooted in the full
truthfulness and authority of Scripture.

Those who preach bear a special burden in this regard. We
must be intentional about transmitting the full spectrum of sound doctrine in
our churches, especially to our lay leaders and Sunday School teachers. A
conscious awareness of the exclusivity of the gospel must also shape how we
preach.

Preachers must give themselves to specific, Christ-centered
sermons, wherein we iterate and reiterate the exclusivity of the gospel and the
necessity of believing in Christ. Preachers, be done with vague, generic
“God-talk.” Point your people specifically to Jesus Christ, and compel them to
believe in him.

Conclusion

In my home study, I have displayed artifacts from the modern
missions movement, including William Carey’s shoe form and Samuel Pearce’s
Geneva Bible. These mementos are visible reminders of the urgency of the Great
Commission and our call, in this generation, to take the gospel to the nations.

But, if the gospel does not exclusively save, William Carey
and Samuel Pierce were on fools’ errands. Adoniram Judson and Lottie Moon
should be pitied, not revered. And Jim Elliott and Nate Saint died in vain. On
the contrary, these great saints believed and ministered in light of what we
must recover—an unreserved conviction of the exclusivity of the gospel.

*This article was originally posted on 12/15/2014*

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “So Walk Ye in Him” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “So Walk Ye in Him” by C.H. Spurgeon (Morning & Evening, November 9, Morning)

“So walk ye in him.” (Colossians 2:6)

If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our
new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by a walk of faith in
him. Walking implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet;
we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe. If a man walks
in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him, his
hope, his love, his joy, his life, he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and
men say of that man, “He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus
Christ.” Walking signifies progress. “So walk ye in him”;
proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree
of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved. Walking implies
continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ. How many Christians
think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of
Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all the day: but this is
poor living; we should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his
will. Walking also implies habit. When we speak of a man’s walk and
conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor of his life. Now, if we
sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget him; sometimes call him ours, and anon
lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in him. We must keep to him,
cling to him, never let him go, but live and have our being in him. “As ye
have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”; persevere in the
same way in which ye have begun, and, as at the first Christ Jesus was the
trust of your faith, the source of your life, the principle of your action, and
the joy of your spirit, so let him be the same till life’s end; the same when
you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and enter into the joy and
the rest which remain for the people of God. O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey
this heavenly precept.

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “Where I Shall Eat the Passover with My Disciples” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “Where I Shall Eat the Passover with My Disciples” by C.H. Spurgeon (Morning & Evening, November 8, Evening)

“The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?” (Mark 14:14)

Jerusalem at the time of the passover was one great inn;
each householder had invited his own friends, but no one had invited the
Saviour, and he had no dwelling of his own. It was by his own supernatural
power that he found himself an upper room in which to keep the feast. It is so
even to this day–Jesus is not received among the sons of men save only where
by his supernatural power and grace he makes the heart anew. All doors are open
enough to the prince of darkness, but Jesus must clear a way for himself or
lodge in the streets. It was through the mysterious power exerted by our Lord
that the householder raised no question, but at once cheerfully and joyfully
opened his guestchamber. Who he was, and what he was, we do not know, but he
readily accepted the honour which the Redeemer proposed to confer upon him. In
like manner it is still discovered who are the Lord’s chosen, and who are not;
for when the gospel comes to some, they fight against it, and will not have it,
but where men receive it, welcoming it, this is a sure indication that there is
a secret work going on in the soul, and that God has chosen them unto eternal
life. Are you willing, dear reader, to receive Christ? then there is no
difficulty in the way; Christ will be your guest; his own power is working with
you, making you willing. What an honour to entertain the Son of God! The heaven
of heavens cannot contain him, and yet he condescends to find a house within
our hearts! We are not worthy that he should come under our roof, but what an unutterable
privilege when he condescends to enter! for then he makes a feast, and causes
us to feast with him upon royal dainties, we sit at a banquet where the viands
are immortal, and give immortality to those who feed thereon. Blessed among the
sons of Adam is he who entertains the angels’ Lord.

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