Jason K. Allen's Blog, page 14

The Gospel and Your Work

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That question,
which is so common today, would be shockingly irrelevant for the vast majority
of humans who have ever lived.

In the premodern world, one’s work usually was not a matter
of choice. It was essential to one’s identity. It was more a matter of who you
were than what you did. Let’s consider farming, for example. Farming was not
merely what one did; a farmer was who you were. It was just as much a matter of
one’s identity as it was one’s activity. If your father and his forebears had
been farmers for generations on end, you would most likely become the same. You
would till the land and husband its resources like your predecessors did, and
your descendants would likely follow after you.

In the post-Industrial Era, work took on a different aspect,
and the sense of calling and pride in one’s work—which often accompanied
it—gave way to more practical considerations. Hence, many men took factory jobs
in the twentieth century, not because they felt called to manufacture widgets
on an assembly line but because they wanted to provide a steady income and
health insurance for their families. The end of their work was no less noble,
even if the means to provide for their families wasn’t particularly a matter of
pride.

For Christians, though, as we will see, God created us to
work. It is the context in which we spend the bulk of our adult lives, and it
is the primary arena in which we can glorify Christ. And as we work
intentionally for God’s glory, our work lives can become a potent gospel
witness.

Reconsidering Vocation

During the Middle Ages, a class distinction emerged between
the clergy and laity, which recognized the former as more noble, desirable, and
beneficial than the latter. During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther,
along with other Reformers, reasserted the biblical concept of vocation and
argued that God extends two calls on a person’s life. One, a general call to
follow Christ; another, a call to a specific vocation, or work. We know our
vocational call by gifting, ability, and opportunity, and we both honor God and
serve man as we fulfill it. Thus, our vocational lives are a key component of
our Christian identity and Christian witness. Consider Gene Veith on this
point:

The ability to read God’s Word is an inexpressibly precious
blessing, but reading is an ability that did not spring fully formed in our
young minds, it required the vocation of teachers. God protects us through the
cop on the beat and the whole panoply of the legal system. He gives us beauty
and meaning through artists. He lets us travel through the ministry of auto
workers, mechanics, road crews, and airline employees. He keeps us clean
through the work of garbage collectors, plumbers, sanitation workers, and
sometimes undocumented aliens who clean our hotel rooms. He brings people to
salvation through pastors and through anyone else who proclaims the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to the lost. The fast-food worker, the inventor; the clerical
assistant, the scientist; the accountant, the musician—they all have high
callings, used by God to bless and serve His people and His creation.[1]

Therefore, as a Christian, even if you are independently
wealthy, you are still called to lead a productive life. Endless days of sun
tanning, golfing, and, as John Piper has lamented, “sea-shell collecting,” are
vacuous if they become the end goal of your life. In order to glorify God
through your work and in retirement, your steady productivity is imperative.
The point is not that it is dishonorable to retire. The point is that even in
our retirement we are to live in a way that is productive, Christ-honoring, and
given to our families and our churches. In other words, regardless of our
life-stage, we are called to honor Christ through what we do and how we do it.
God has indeed made us, by gifting and by calling, for certain tasks. As we
fulfill those tasks, we flourish, our families are strengthened, others are
well served, and Christ is honored. We need, then, to discover and pursue our
vocation. As Keith Welton encourages us,

“Our hands are the instruments of our heart. They express
outwardly what we believe inwardly. Our work ought to show we have a higher
calling. It ought to say that something greater than earthly reward motivates
it. The quality of our work should glorify God.”[2]

See Your Job as a Gospel Platform

Finally, understand that, as an adult, your job is where you
spend the bulk of your daylight hours. Do not fall into the mind-set that your
Monday-through- Saturday life is secular, divorced from your Sunday life.
Understand your work life, when lived with a redemptive purpose, is an awesome
platform for the gospel of Christ.

Popular Christian author Tim Keller made this very case in his book Every Good Endeavor. In it, he rightly observed, “Christians who grasp a biblical theology of work learn not only to value and participate in the work of all people but to also see ways to work distinctively as Christians.”[3] Let’s make sure we cultivate this mind-set in our lives and in our work.

____________________________________________________

[1] Gene Edward Veith, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation
in All of Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2011), 14–15.

[2] Keith Welton, in his article, “Six Ways God’s at Work in
You—at Work,” as found at
http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/s....

[3] Timothy Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 2012), 149.

*This article was originally posted on March 21, 2018

The post The Gospel and Your Work appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Lord’s Day Meditation: “Horror Hath Taken Hold upon Me” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “Horror Hath Taken Hold upon Me ” by C. H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, November 2, Evening)

“Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” (Psalm 119:53)

My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at
the sins of others? for otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David’s cheeks
were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness, Jeremiah
desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and
Lot was vexed with the conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the
mark was set in Ezekiel’s vision, were those who sighed and cried for the
abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what
pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and
they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the
righteous shudder, because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man’s
highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in
others horrifies a believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his
own heart: when he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by
Bernard, “He fell today, and I may fall to-morrow.” Sin to a believer
is horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the
nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin
without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is
an awful thing to insult God to His face. The good God deserves better
treatment, the great God claims it, the just God will have it, or repay His
adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and
stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is
rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh
at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy,
and thy Lord’s enemy. View it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence
the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.

The post Lord’s Day Meditation: “Horror Hath Taken Hold upon Me” by C.H. Spurgeon appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Christ and Discipleship

Transcript:

This is our fifth annual For the Church Conference here in
Kansas City. Have on this campus and it is a particular joy every year for me
to get to preach it and to reconnect with so many friends and ministry partners
and then to see over the past five years this go from being a dream, a
conference that we said, “We’ll host and hopefully a few folks will show
up.” And a few folks did show up that first year in the fall of ’14 and
then year by year to see it grow in momentum and attendance and then to come
together for just a concentrated period of time and to encourage one another to
fellowship together to worship together and to sit under the Ministry of the
Word together. It’s a particular stewardship, a joyous stewardship we have here
at Midwestern Seminary. So, thank you on the front end of this conference for
entrusting us with about 24 of your hours and trusting us with the privilege to
open God’s Word and to speak it to you and trusting us with opportunity to host
you on this campus.

And it’s to enjoy all the, the synergistic ministry
opportunities and conversations that take place. Thank you. My title assigned
to me is Christ and discipleship, Christ and discipleship. And I want to invite
you to turn with me in your Bibles this afternoon to the gospel of John. We’re
looking together at John Chapter 15 verses one through 11 thinking together
about Christ and discipleship. As you’re turning my prayer for you and for this
day and for tomorrow has been three things that together we honor the Lord. I
have attended conferences doubtlessly as have many of you where you leave there
thinking “I had some enjoyable conversations. I laughed a lot, but I’m not
sure we honored the Lord.” My prayer is that we will honor the Lord
together through worshiping the Lord together through coming to God’s word
together. My prayer, secondly is that all of the Lord servants here, hundreds
of pastors and ministers and ministers in training that you would leave here in
encouraged by the grace of Christ and that that would result in churches being
strengthened.

Our motto here, you know well, For the Church. That’s not
just a tagline–that pulsates across this campus and through the hearts of
those who serve here and so our desire is that you leave this conference and
that churches around the country and beyond are strengthened through what takes
place. Here my title, Christ and Discipleship, my theme, Christ and
discipleship. We’ll be looking together in John Chapter 15 verses one through
11. Begin reading with me in verse one Jesus says, “I am the true vine and
my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he
takes away every branch that bears fruit. He prunes it so that it may bear more
fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it
abides in the vine

so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the true
vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much
fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me. He
is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into
the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, my words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish and it will be done, done for you. My father is glorified by
this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples just as the
father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father’s
commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in
you and that your joy may be made full.” Let’s pray together. Father, we
bow in this sacred moment and father, our hearts have been stirred. We’ve been
awakened through worship and into worship and we sang so triumphantly that
final song together. And Father, that is our hope. That is our prayer. That is
our, our certainty, that the life we have is the life that we have through
Christ. And Father I pray now as we look at these verses together, would you
probe us? Would you open our lives and our hearts before you in a way that we
come to grips with the glory of Christ and of being his disciple and abiding in
him. Would you through these verses dislodge complacency from our lives, make
known before us sins that we are to confess sinful habits that we are partaking
in.

May this be a time, a moment, an hour of cleansing as it
were, cleansing and washing by your Word and by the Ministry of your Spirit. In
Jesus’s name we pray. Amen. These are powerful words we read from our Lord
Jesus Christ. This is not a mere quaint passage with quaint words of devotion.
There is a severity here that pops up throughout these 11 verses. At times
these verses are soothing, are comforting, are full of promises for us but in
other places we are, we are probed. We are prodded, we are cut as it were.
There’s a severity in this passage which reminds us that the Christian life,
discipleship is a life and death struggle. For the minister, the Gospel
minister, to live life is to be engaged in a spiritual warfare ministry combat
where sin is to be treated seriously. Spiritual growth and vibrancy is to be
pursued earnestly and we’re to live life with a keen realization that the
stakes are high in these things. Stakes are high for the lives of those to whom
we preach.

Stakes are high for the congregations that we shepherd,
but most urgently and most personally, the stakes are high for us. Those who
open the Word, those who speak it. My aim from this passage and from this
sermon and through this text is to challenge us anew as it relates to our
personal discipleship, our personal sanctification, our personal growth in
Christ to be challenged anew from these verses and that these verses would open
up for us and remind us and disclose to us where our lives in Christ truly are.
As I was reflecting on this passage, my mind was taken back to a frequent
travel occurrence for me these past several years. About three years ago, I was
traveling international with my wife and we were seeking to come back from
being overseas and as we were seeking to actually to come back into the United
States, I was pulled, pulled aside for extra screening and extra conversation
and more screening and more conversation. My luggage was unpacked, my things
were filtered through, my hands were swabbed and then I was interrogated.
Uncommon to me it doesn’t typically happen. Well as I would travel a couple
times later, a few months later, a similar occurrence and, and finally I found
a TSA agent who was a little talkative. I began to ask him what was going on.
He said to me, he said, “Mr. Allen, you are on the international terrorist
watch list.” Yes, me, your friendly neighborhood seminary president.

And I said, “You’re kidding me.” He said,
“No, you are on the international terrorist watch list.” I said,
“You mean to tell me that every time I travel internationally, I should
expect this?” He said, “Yes, if not more.” I said, “Can I
go to like you know, a local Homeland Security office and have this cleared
up?” He said, “Well, you can try and it may help you state side, but
anywhere you go international, your name will continue to pop up.”
“Why?” “Because someone with your exact name and your exact
birth date has committed an act of terror.” “Me? Is this a matter of
stolen identity?” “No, it’s not you. It’s a different person, but he
has your name. He has your birthday so you should always plan to have extended
travel and extended time to get through security wherever you go.”

Recent weeks I was traveling internationally, recent
months traveling international. I had a colleague with me and I got pulled out
the line to be searched, to be unpacked. I went through that a second time
before I boarded the plane. I was pulled out to be searched. All my clothes
were unpacked again. My hands were swabbed twice. I was interrogated for 15
minutes. Alas, I barely made the flight there. “When might I expect to be
free from this burden?” I asked the TSA agent, “He said, when you age
out of it, which should be in about 12 to 15 years.” They treat it so
seriously because lives are at stake. We ought to treat this passage in our
personal discipleship, our personal life and Christ similarly, because lives
are at stake for us as ministers, and I use that word elastically today.

I assume that if you’re in the room today, you’re in some
way engaged in ministry. You may be a pastor, you may be training for ministry.
You may be the, the wife of a pastor. You may be leading a small group, a
counselor, whatever it is, but you’re here in the room. You’re at this
conference because you care about gospel ministry and to some degree in some
way, most likely you are engaged in said ministry for us, for you. Nonetheless,
priority number one is not the size crowd we preach, not the size of church we
grow, not the beauty of the music we produce, the punchiness of the articles we
write or any other metric. Priority. Number one must be that we are faithful,
fruitful, growing disciples of Christ. It matters for you, for your ministry,
for your family, for your life. Why? So?

How so? We confess this afternoon together that your
ministry, our ministry is first dependent upon our character. 1 Timothy 3 one
through seven teaches us what it means to measure up as a man of God. As a
pastor, as an elder, and I remind us this afternoon that those qualifications
are not a onetime threshold to cross, but an ongoing accountability to God’s
Word and to God’s people. We all have seen tragically the man or woman whose
gifts took him or her someplace where his or her character could not keep them.
Secondly, the crucible of spiritual leadership demands our growth in Christ.
The pressures the urgencies of local church ministry are such that we have to
first and foremost steward the hearts within us before we seek to shepherd the
hearts beyond us. We can’t take other spiritually where we have not been. We
may be able to point them the way, but we cannot show them the way. Third
reason why this is important. This passage speaks to us. That is because as we
are growing in Christ, we will be able to avoid the status of being a Pharisee.
Phariseeism as this piqued of all tragedies is it not? We see it throughout the
New Testament. We see Pharisees throughout the New Testament, this, select
group of Jewish spiritual leaders. They were credentialed, they were
accomplished, they were universally respected, but Jesus likened them to
whitewashed tombs, clean on the outside but dead and decaying on the inside.

Fourth reason why this matters to us. The stewardship of
your call demands that you are a growing disciple of Christ and investments
have been made in you. Parents have poured into you, churches have invested in
you, mentors have guided you, professors have instructed you, churches have
supported you, spouses have propped you up, children have sacrificed for you,
and all of this comes together with a profound stewardship that every gospel
minister owns. Fifth, the glory of God is at stake in your life and in your
ministry. The church is plagued by hypocrites who rob God of his glory.
Slippage and compromise in small things often leads to calamitous falls,

but more urgently and perhaps more appropriately. today,
we have all seen the tragic implosions in very well known public ministries and
public ministers, but less noted in the flameout are the fizzle out. Those
whose ministry never erupts in scandal, but they just slowly, quietly drift
away from Christ, drift away from the word and drift away from the ministry
that God had set them apart to. How do we guard against that? None of us here
wants to be numbered amongst that list. We guard against that by prioritizing
what it means to be a disciple of Christ, to follow Christ, to live for Christ,
to enjoy the life of Christ, to bear the fruit of Christ in our lives. So we
come together this afternoon at the beginning of this conference at what I
believe is a, is a sacred moment, a strategic moment, a strategic occasion for
the word to filter and to sift our lives together.

Remember what’s going on here. The Gospel of John, this
great book. By the apostle written to teach us that Jesus is the son of God
throughout the Gospel. We see page after page, chapter after chapter of this
demonstration that this man, Jesus, is unlike any other man who has ever lived.
To make that plain, the apostle documents for us, seven different signs in this
book. Chapter Two verses one through eleven Jesus turns the water into wine.
Chapter four verses 46 through 54 Jesus heals the nobleman’s son. Chapter five
verses one through seventeen Jesus heals at the pool of Bethesda. Chapter six
verses one through 14 Jesus feeds the 5,000. Chapter six verses 15 through 21
Jesus walks on the water. Chapter nine verses one through 41 Jesus heals the
man born blind and then chapter 11 Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

Each sign is a flashing signal to first century Jews that
this man is the Messiah. This man is the one to whom the prophets pointed. This
one man is the one that that the prophets of old wrote of and taught us to
expect. And so John documents that claim with seven signs and then also of
course, he overlays that with the seven great “I Am” statements which
are even more compelling and more shocking because every time Jesus stands
before a crowd and declares “I Am” their minds harken back to Exodus
chapter three. Remember that great scene–Moses is there in the wilderness. He
sees a bush, ablaze, but not being consumed by fire. A voice speaks from that
bush and reminds Moses, instructs Moses that he is standing on holy ground. He
removes his sandals, his knees are shaking, he is wobbly there. So much so he
hides his face because he knows that he’ll be ruined if he beheld the holy one
that speaks from this bush. And the Lord tells Moses to go to the children of
Israel and to tell them to get ready because we’re about to leave captivity.
Moses asks, “But who do I tell them sent me? Who do I say to the sons of
Israel that has sent me?” And the Lord says, “I am who I am. Say to
the sons of Israel, ‘I am’ has sent you, thus you shall say to the sons of
Israel, this is my name forever. This is my memorial name to all
generations.” And so every Jewish boy, every Jewish girl was taught from
childhood the great story of Exodus three. And they were taught from childhood
to celebrate the Passover feast. And they were taught from childhood this great
unspeakable name of Yahweh I am.

And so Jesus bursts on the scene, performing signs,
healing the lame, raising the dead, feeding the multitude, walking on the water
day after day after day, demonstrating that he is the divine one, the sent one.
But if that weren’t enough, he shows up at what is even more shocking than
these miraculous signs are these labels he claims for himself. And John Six he
says, I am the bread of life. In John 10 he says, “I am the Good
Shepherd.” In John 10 he says, “I am the door of the sheep.” And
in John 11 he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In John 12
he says, “I am the light of the world.” In John 14 he says, “I
am the way and the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but
through me.” And now lastly in John 15 in the upper room, he looks to his
disciples, these collective few and he says, “I am the true vine.

My Father is the vine dresser.” The last “I
am” statement, the final “I am” statement, but also the only one
to make an additional assertion. “My father is the vine dresser.”
This is a stunning assertion of deity. Jesus has owned the divine name “I
am.” He announces himself I am the true vine in my Father, I am his Son.
He is the vine dresser. Now, what do we see in these 11 verses here? Just let
your eye fall down through this passage with me here before we walk through it
and clearly thematically we see this call to bear fruit and admittedly on the
front end, there are some knotty phrases here, some things that that we have to
kind of harmonize with the broader New Testament and broader Scriptures. But
the theme here I believe is encapsulated in verse 11 where Jesus says, in
summary, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that
your joy may be made full.

So thematically here, Jesus is saying, as you abide in me,
my joy will be in you and that joy will be complete. Verse two he tells them to
bear fruit. Verse four he talks about bearing fruit. Verse five bearing fruit,
verse eight bearing fruit. So in summary, we are called to bear fruit. We do
bear fruit through lives committed to and saturated in the life of Christ. What
does it mean to bear fruit? What is this talk of peaches and apples? Grapes? Of
course not. It’s a common biblical expression we see in other places, and we
can think of it this way. To bear the fruit of Christ is to have motives that
resemble the modus of Christ, to speak words that resembled the words of
Christ, to have hearts desires that represent the desires of Christ, virtues
and virtuous acts that resemble the virtues and virtuous acts of Christ; deeds
that resemble the works of Christ.

And then we see other places like Galatians five and the
fruits of the spirit and, and this life in Christ living through us. Now the
passage in my estimation breaks down in basically three groups here, three
movements. And so we’ll just walk through this together and we’ll be equally
convicted along the way. Number one, the father’s purpose, the father’s desire.
We might even say the father’s expectation is for us to bear fruit. Verses one
through three. Verse one, ego eimi. I am the true vine. Why this analogy of the
vine? The vine is a common analogy in the ancient world, a common occurrence in
the ancient world. In the Old Testament, we see Israel referenced as the vine
in multiple places on multiple occasions. But Jesus here is sharpening the
metaphor in such a way as to say, you have heard it said that Israel was the
vine. But I say to you that I am the true vine, not Israel. They have proven
dead, not Israel. They have proven a failed state and a failed people, not
Israel. They have failed to bear fruit. Christ is saying, I am greater than
Israel. I am. The true is true. I am the true vine and it is through me and
through me alone that you might bear spiritual fruit.

Chapter 14 we won’t turn there but we’ve already
encountered this, this mutual and indwelling between Christ and his disciples
where Jesus says, you are in me and I in you. My wife and I celebrated 20 years
of marriage this summer and as two people have been married 20 years and we
grow together with each passing year we know one another better. We can
complete one another’s thoughts and sentences as a good married couples should
be able to do with increasing frequency. Over the years there’s a oneness that
draws us closer and closer and closer and closer. That’s the picture we get
here of life in Christ where as we grow in him, we are drawn closer to him. We
are in him, he is in us. We are one in him. The father is the vine dresser, the
viticulturist, the one who? The gardener

we might say. The one who works the vine the one who works
the vineyards, Jesus says, I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser.
Now, verse two, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes
away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more
fruit.” Now verse two is knotty and we admit that on the front end. It’s a
little puzzling because it seems at first glance pretty straight that the
branch that doesn’t bear fruit is a dead fruit, a dead branch, a dried up
branch, and it’s whacked away and thrown out. But Jesus here seems to be
suggesting that branch was well in me. Verse two, the same time that these
other branches that are bearing fruit, hey, the father prunes so that it may
bear more fruit. What’s going on here?

Don Carson reflects on this verse and says, “The
transparent purpose of this verse is to insist that there are no true
Christians without some measure of fruit. Fruitfulness is an infallible mark of
true Christianity. The alternative is dead wood. Verse two is a touch alarming.

One can be taken away; a synthetic, not authentic convert.

Jesus is saying to us here that life in Christ resembles
the life of Christ and perhaps at times in contemporary evangelicalism we’ve
grown so accustomed to the air of decisionism where we point to a moment or to
an event and we hang our spiritual hat on that happening where Jesus is poking
us here and saying through these verses, “But what is going on in your
inner man?”

For some, it was a gesture towards Christ in Vacation
Bible school, others, a gesture towards Christ at youth camp or some outward
act of writing your sins on a piece of paper or throwing a pine cone in the
fire or some other act that you look at it and say, “What exactly did take
place 14 years ago?” I praise God for every childhood conversion and there
are many, and there are many of my own family and I rejoice in that. But if our
Christianity began and ended at some distant point in the past, then I would
caution you not to be too reliant on that occasion. The picture here is it life
in Christ is a life of bearing fruit. The end of verse two, the Father prunes
so that may bear more fruit. The picture is of again of the gardener lifting
the vine up and chopping it and cutting it, chopping away the sucker branches,
chopping away the drying branches so that these branches may be lifted up and
may flourish.

We’re taught this in Hebrews chapter 12 are we not?
Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 through 11. I’ll turn there and read quickly. You
can turn with me quickly or just, or just listen slowly. Hebrews 12 we’re told,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when
you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he
scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God
deals with you as with sons, for what son is there, whom his father does not
discipline. But if you are without discipline of which all have become
partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had
earthly fathers to discipline us and we respect them. Shall we not much rather
be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a
short time as seen best to them, but he disciplines us for our good so that we
may share his holiness.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but
sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness. They’re many ways to distinguish between my
children and someone else’s children. They tend to resemble me. They are tall
like my wife and I are. They, they talk like we talk. They have certain
behavior patterns that are indicative that they are Allen children, but one
very obvious way to determine they’re my children is I actually will discipline
them. I don’t discipline my neighbor’s children. I don’t discipline my
colleagues’ children. I don’t discipline my church members’ children or
certainly not in the same way that I would discipline my own, right? Why?
Because I am their father and I care about them in the ultimate degree. And
Jesus is saying that in verse two the Father cares. He prunes, he lifts up.

The author of Hebrews is saying the same. Verse three
“For you have been cleansed because the word which I have spoken to
you.” The regenerative power of the word and the Spirit work and our life.
What is Jesus saying? These verses ought to make us sit up. The father’s
purpose, his desire, even his expectation is that we as his children will bear
fruit, the fruit of the Christian life, the fruit of conversion. I was
reflecting with some friends recently just about church services and the local
church and ministry and local church these days. And we got to swapping stories
about our own childhood and adolescent years in our local church and different
preachers we heard and some of these preachers, they came through my church and
I was this kid. I mean, they scared me to death. Okay. I think many of us in
the room are recovering fundamentalists, and I say that with a smile on my
face.

We grew up in spiritual contexts where spirituality was
about what you did do and what you didn’t do and no confusing the two and it
was rigid and clear and that it sometimes felt harsh. I remember one occasion,
I was a very young adolescent, probably 11, 12, 13 years old. We had a guest
preacher, famous preacher by the name of Jay Harold Smith, came to our church
and preached. A few of the older folks in the room will probably remember that
name. I remember as a kid reading the church bulletin leading up to it, they
said a congregation of our size, which the church I was grew up in average
about 3000, a congregation of our size should expect about 10% of Sunday
morning worshipers or about 300 to get saved that Sunday. I was like,
“Whoa, this is like, this is big stuff here. What’s going to happen?”
Well I’m like 12 years old, I’m there. He shows up, he comes down, he preaches
a sermon. I was scared spitless. The title of the sermon was “God’s Three
Deadlines” and all three illustrations were about some individual who had
crossed a line with God and was struck dead before the sun went down

and I wanted to hide under the pew the whole time. I’m not
kidding. It scared me to death. I don’t know how many people got saved that
weekend. I know everybody got scared that weekend. And my friend and I and
friends, we were talking about this. We were kind of chuckling about it, but
then it occurred to me

when is the last time I was scared in corporate worship?
When was the last time the preached word convicted me in such a way that fear
was an emotion I sensed. I’m not suggesting that should be a routine emotion.
In fact, we even talk about the appropriateness of that emotion for those of us
who are in Christ and held securely by his hand. But I wonder if something may
be missing from contemporary evangelicalism. If we have a generation of church
goers who have never encountered the fear of the Lord. It’s hard for me to read
verse one, two and three without a touch of fear hitting me. I don’t want to
know a branch that’s taken away for not bearing fruit. I don’t want to be such
a branch. Our passage turns more hopeful though in verses four and five and we
see secondly, the Son’s power enables you to bear fruit.

Notice what we see here. Jesus says, “Abide in me,
remain in me, grow in me.” Simple but not easy. Abide in me how clearly
the sense here abiding or remaining. There’s a sense of patience involved in
this. A sense of deliberateness involved in this, sense of saying no to
distractions. The spiritual disciplines as a mean of grace plays a part in
prayer and Bible study and worship, corporate and private. The other spiritual
disciplines may play a part, but we’re told here, Jesus says, you being in me
and in my presence and I and you, that is the linchpin. That is the key. Verse
Four, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, cannot, not even, will not,
cannot

unless it abides in me. So neither can you unless you
abide in me again. These words are severe, cannot, will not unless neither.
Verse Five I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in
him, he bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. There’s a
promise here. There’s also a warning here. And they both are in the extreme
sense, are they not? As you are in me, as you abide in me, you will bear much
fruit. You can bear much fruit, you can expect to bear much fruit.

But apart from me you can do nothing. Nothing of spiritual
importance, nothing of spiritual worth, nothing of ultimate spiritual good. So
what do we make of these two verses? I think the application goes something
like this. In our parents’ generation church life in the 70s and the eighties
and nineties the great word of application from this verse in places like Luke
10 Mary and Martha would be to contrast doers versus abiders and to challenge
the doers in the room to spend more time abiding so they’re not just busy in
Christ, but they’re actually growing in Christ. That’s a legitimate word of
application, especially for those of us in the room who are ministers, because
we often find ourselves going from responsibility to responsibility from sermon
to sermon, from visit to visit, counseling session, to counseling session, and
all the more and being drained dry. There is indeed, often a barrenness to
busyness. We mustn’t let ministry keep us from Christ. Well, I wonder if a more
appropriate word of application in the year 2019 for us in the room is
something like this. Perhaps the great contrast isn’t doers versus abiders.
Maybe it’s abiders versus distracted. Maybe it’s abiders versus those who
merely at best occasionally attend church and their commitment is nothing
greater to Christ. I read in recent days, Lifeway research produced a report
showing that the average church member in evangelical churches now attends an
average of 1.6 times per month.

Serving on seven committees, a body of deacons and go on
to three Bible studies a week and three services a week and all that can choke
out growth because there is no time to abide. But shuttling your children from
sports league to sports league, shuttling yourself from entertainment
opportunity, entertainment opportunity, shuttling your family from vacation to
retreat to this outing, to that outing to such a degree where a local church is
an ancillary part of your life and not essential part of your life. Don’t be
surprised if you raise a generation who know nothing of abiding in Christ.

But here’s the point, verses four and five fruit bearing
is not something we accomplish for Christ. It’s something we realize in Christ.
In other words, ask not what you can do for Christ. Ask what he can do in you
and through you. The only way to bear fruit is through abiding in Christ. Now
see with me thirdly and finally verses six through 11 and that is that our
passion, your passion should be to bear fruit. And there I see half a dozen
reasons why here listed. Reason number one, verse six ‘If anyone does not abide
in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gathered them and
cast them into the fire and they are burning.” And what’s going on here?
This is a difficult verse. Is this suggesting that we can at once be in Christ
but then lose our salvation? Well, I think not for theological and biblical
reasons. One basic principle of hermeneutics is that you interpret the less
clear passages by the clearer passages. John writes in places like John 10 and
John 6 an overwhelming slam dunk case for the security of the believer. We see
other places like Romans eight and of course the entirety of the Pauline corpus
where we see the fact that we are protected and held in Christ.

So it’s not what he’s saying here. He’s not suggesting
that you lose something you once had, but there is a hint of warning here that
the person who strolls in and out of church but has no real sense of the life
of Christ in them. Perhaps all along they were tares and not wheat, and so at
the end of the age that will be revealed. You see, we desire to bear fruit
verse six because it evidences we are in Christ. It doesn’t guarantee we’re in
Christ. It does it keep us in Christ but it reminds the world, reminds
ourselves that we are in Christ. Second reason, verse seven an empowered
prayer, life. Notice verse seven if you abide in me, my words abide in you, ask
whatever you wish and it will be done for you. We tend to fantasize about the
second half of that verse, what we may be able to get, but the key to the
second half of the verses, the first half of the verse, then a few are in
Christ and your mind and heart is saturated with his mind and heart and your
desires are his desires and your ambitions are his ambitions.

Then your requests will be remarkably similar to his
requests. Notice the link here between Word and love and Christ. My words abide
in you.

Ask whatever you wish and it will be given. Abiding in
Christ leads to empowered prayer life. Third, abiding Christ and bearing fruit
glorifies God. That’s the first half of verse eight “My father is
glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove so demonstrate to be my
disciples.” That’s a basic goal of the Christian, right? We were taught
that as kids when we taught our kids, “What is the chief end of man? To
glorify God and enjoy him forever.” The goal of the Christian. How was God
so glorified? His life on display through you and ministers bear a particular
stewardship for God’s glory. The more visible the ministry, the greater the
platform, the higher the pedestal from which we speak. The more heightened the
stewardship. It doesn’t make breaking news when the guy pastoring a church of
28 runs off with the church secretary; that might be local news in that town.
It might be disastrous local news in that town, but it tends not to make the
Drudge Report. But when a minister, with a high platform with hundreds of
thousands of Twitter followers, with the large church who has spoken
prophetically to issues in the culture, when that flame out happens can take
years, decades, generations to overcome.

Jesus is saying in verse eight, as you bear much fruit, on
the contrary, God is glorified in that. Reason number four. Verse eight,
assurance of salvation. “You so proved to be my disciples.”

Matthew chapter seven verses 16 through 23 Jesus talked
about bearing fruit. Did he not? Again, alarming words. They convict, but here
Jesus makes plain as you live for the Lord and the Father’s glorified through
you it’s a reminder that you are disciples. Say, how do you know you are a
Christian anyway? How do you know? Well, I think the Bible presents two
parallel and complementing realities. Number one, the objective reality. Have
you called on the name of Christ? Have you repented of your sins? Has there
been a moment, a place where you felt conviction and faith, faith burst in your
heart and you believed in Christ? That is the objective reality and the primary
reality and the main reality that is fleshed out and added assurance comes
through this subjective reality of a life that has been changed, new desires, a
new direction and new vocabulary, new passions, new ambitions, the waning of
sin and sinful tendencies, the increase and the desire for Christ.

Why has your passion to bear fruit? Fifth, verses 9 and 10
to enjoy the unmatched experiential love of the father and the son. “Just
as the father has loved me I have also loved you.” We should revel in that
phrase. Think of the Father’s love for the Son. Unmatched, unquantifiable,
inestimable so that though, just as I have also loved you, abide in my love.
Remain in my love, enjoy my love. Verse 10 “If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and
abide in his love.” You see the Father, the Son, the disciple, the love
between the Father and the Son and the Son and you, the love between the Father
and the Son and the keeping of the commandments, the obedience to the Father
and the call for us to obey the Father and Son as an expression of that love.
You see, it’s a sign of love. Why don’t you maintain fidelity to your spouse?
For me, I don’t want to get shot, but there are other reasons, right? It’s not
a contractual obligation. Merely

it’s not a legal responsibility. Merely

it’s the heart of love. You love this person. You
willingly, happily say no to every other. When you say “yes” to your
other, it’s the heart of love and that’s the picture of verses 9 and 10. It’s
not an “Okay, it’s my duty. I’ll keep your commandments.” No, it’s a,
it’s a heart of love to want to honor the Father and to want to honor the Son
and then notice sixthly we bear fruit to experience the fullness of joy in
Christ. Peculiar verse 11 abiding, bearing fruit, keeping commandments, cast
out a lot is at stake in verses 1 through 10. Verse 11 “These things I
have spoken to you.” Why? “So that my joy may be in you.” See
the connection? Abiding in Christ. You’re in him, he’s in you. His joy is
within you. His joy is coming out of you and that joy is complete, is full and
so I have spoken to these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that
your joy may the made full as disciples of Christ.

We are here in this September afternoon thinking carefully
about this passage because it matters and I’ll confess as I read these verses
at times they jolt even me. I’ll confess as I’ve studied these past weeks or
so, they’ve jolted me. I’ll also confess that if I get to heaven one day and
God says to me, you took this passage like this a little bit too seriously, I
can live with that. I think I can’t live with just casually brushing through a
passage like this and saying, “We’re all one saved, all saved. No matter
how you live, just enjoy Christ and get on your merry way.” Passages like
this are to bind us and what we know theologically about the security of
believers and all that we gained through Christ and our victory through Christ
experientially that is fleshed out in the here and now day to day by being
warned and passages like this. Being encouraged in passages like this being
strengthened from passages like this. For those of you in the room who are ministers
in particular, the final word of challenge, we all, we all are fatigued by the
flame outs and the fizzle outs. We all are saddened. We all are shocked. We all
are wearied by seeing the name of Christ sullied on a near weekly basis.

I was reading an in recent days, or I saw an analogy there
that just made a lot of sense to me. This article was reflecting on the
aftermath of World War II and the fact that during World War II, the allies
dropped about close to 3 million tons of bombs on Europe. About 1.5 million
tons dropped in Germany alone. That equals several million bombs. Estimates are
that about 10% of those or several hundred thousand of those bombs remain not
yet detonated thus annually in Germany for instance, annually several thousand
undetonated bombs are found that have to be dealt with. You can imagine
disarming these bombs is a treacherous job to the few such a bomb is to
jeopardize one’s life. It’s assigned in Germany to the bomb disposal services.
Let’s thank the Lord we don’t have to have such an agency here. A highly
trained corps of engineers and bomb specialists that take all the precautions,
leave nothing to chance annually.

They deal with several thousand bombs. It’s a dangerous
job. Routinely these bombs actually go off while the German bomb squad seek to
diffuse them. Here we are, 75 years later, still tens of thousands have yet to
detonate bombs, lying just under the German landscape in churchyards,
schoolhouses neighborhoods, playgrounds, hospitals, places of business, shopping
centers, restaurants, recreation space, and to the naked eye, all this happy,
all a serene, all is safe but just under the surface and tens of thousands of
places there is a bomb. Oh so close to detonation, poised to take lives,
collapsed buildings, shatter families, brother ministers. So it is with sin.

And John 15 one through eleven instructs us to guard our
lives, to be first and foremost to be growing disciples of Christ. Because
whether we realize it or not, we think we are walking through fields that are
safe and serene. But just like in Germany, we saw offering a strolling through
the valley of the undetonated bombs. Let’s pray. Father, we come to you this
afternoon and I pray Father, that you would help us to apply these verses to
our lives. Help us Father to think carefully and clearly on this passage and
passages yet to be preached today and tomorrow. Help us Father to renew
ourselves to priority number one, and to be men and women who are marked by the
life of Christ in us, through us, flowing out from us. Father, we pray. I pray
in particular for ourselves that this conference for many who came here weary,
who came from the verge of some foolish decision who came here as it were,
dancing through fields littered with undetonated bombs. Would you do a fresh
work in our hearts today and tomorrow for the glory of Jesus; for the glory of
your church? And in his name we pray. Amen.

The post Christ and Discipleship appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Lord’s Day Meditation: “I Am the Lord, I Change Not” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “I Am the Lord, I Change Not” by C. H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, November 2, Morning)

“I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6)

It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life,
there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on
whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed–all
things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing
old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and
earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a
garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no
end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner
feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon
the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the
changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this
truth–“I am the Lord, I change not.”

The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at
last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him
when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God “is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Whatever his attributes were of
old, they are now; his power, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike
unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the
day of trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love.
He has loved his people with “an everlasting love”; he loves them now
as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the
last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is
the assurance that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its
axle is eternal love.

“Death and change are busy ever,

Man decays, and ages move;

But his mercy waneth never;

God is wisdom, God is love.”

The post Lord’s Day Meditation: “I Am the Lord, I Change Not” by C.H. Spurgeon appeared first on Jason K. Allen.

Four Marks of Faithful Preaching

Transcript:

Thank you so much Dr. Swain. I can tell you, I so looked forward to every Tuesday and Wednesday to gather together and I hope you do as well. I realize there are the urgencies of life and the business of the academic semester in classes and papers and tests and all that goes with it. But this is always a cherished reprieve for me. Tuesday and Wednesday. And I say that not to strut my personal piety, but just to say I hope there’s a sense in you where you look forward to it and have the music led by Dr Swain and students and the various others who participate just really helps to catapult my heart forward every day we come together and then to sit of the preaching of the word by colleagues and local church pastors. I regret, I was out of town yesterday for Dr. Juan Sanchez, but I’ve heard he did a spectacular job yesterday.

So here we are, we’re having a for the church workshop on
preaching. And we began this really last year, this concept and thinking
intentionally about how we as a seminary can serve not only the community, the
students and those who are on this campus and taking classes here, but can
periodically really serve local pastors and local ministers and even beyond
the, our locality here to others in the region. So, we kind of hung out a
shingle in the spring semester and Dr Köstenberger did a for the church
workshop on preaching. Jared Wilson did a for the Church Workshop on the Gospel
Driven Church and it just went great. It went very well and we began to plan to
do these once or twice a semester going forward. And so I get to step into the
batter’s box this morning and today and really on the back side of my new book,
out letters to my students on preaching and Dr. Strachan will be holding

And will be speaking for one of our workshops here in just
a few weeks on his new book, Reenchanting Humanity. So turn with me this
morning in your bibles to second Timothy chapter four verses one through five
for our time together and this hour of worship. I’ll be leading us to think
together on four marks of faithful preaching. So this is going to be more
sermonic. And then as we go to the banquet hall for the hundred and forty of
you who registered as we go to the banquet hall afterwards, I’ll dig into more
of the mechanics of preparing a sermon and to try to just invest in you as much
as I can for two and a half, three hours together. Second Timothy Chapter four
verses one through five, four marks of faithful preaching. Now I forgive me for
nostalgia or anecdotalism as we begin our time together.

But I can’t help to speak about preaching and this group
without just sharing a touch of my personal narrative. I grew up in a middle
class, southern Baptist family, happily members of Cottage Hill Baptist church
in Mobile, Alabama at a large southern Baptist Church and conservative, Bible
believing church. My Pastor, Fred Wolf, served there for about 25 years and
still living, ministering in the mobile area. For me though, I grew up as just
a kid, like a lost kid. Not openly rebellious, wasn’t doing anything too
scandalous on the side, but just was very much given to sports and to kind of
enjoying life as a teenager and adolescent and really was tuned out to the
things of the Lord. I went off to college my freshman year in college intending
to really close the door on my religious life, my spiritual life, kind of
moving out of the house, out of parental oversight, wanting to just kind of go
live life on my own.

My ambitions were to go into politics. I wanted to get a
political science degree. I did get a political science degree and a minor in
history, wanting to go to law school, go into politics and make a bunch of
money and run for office and do something to make a name for myself. My
freshman year in college, just a period of weeks in had a radical encounter
with Christ; was convicted of my sin, surrendered to Christ on Sunday morning
and my local church and everything began to change both rapidly and slowly at
the same time, rapidly new affections, immediately, rapidly new ambitions
immediately rapid, a new vocabulary immediately, rapidly a sense of social
engagements and where I went and what I did and what I should live for. All
that was just being transformed abruptly, immediately, but slowly over the
course of about two, nearly three years, kind of like a dimmer switch on a
light bulb begins to get brighter and brighter and brighter

that call to ministry began to take shape. The first time
I had the thought of like, is God calling me to ministry? I was driving down
Old Shell Road, which is the road in front of my college campus. And it
horrified me. The thought, I mean the picture my mind was like, God’s going to
call me to go live in Africa. I’ll never be heard from again and I’ll die some
anonymous death over there. And by the way, Christians do that and that’s not a
bad thing, but for me as whatever I was 20 years old processing that and just
it was a horrifying thought. And then over a period of months, what went from
an absolutely implausible thought began to become a compelling thought and overwhelming
thought, an inescapable thought. I must do this thought. At that time I was
dating the young woman who’d become my wife and she was, we were talking
marriage and she thought I was going to go to law school and she agreed to
marry me, think I was going to law school and then I did the Switcheroo, uh,
after she said “Yes” to my proposals and I said, “I think I’m
going to go to seminary.”

But uh, I remember I met with her and then her parents
about what God was calling me to do. They were supportive. She of course was
supportive and it was an exhilarating season of life for me in college this
call to ministry was happening. I’m exploring the scriptures. I’m seeing, I’m
learning, I’m reading day to day, week to week, month to month. Life is taking
shape and my future is taking shape. Three single events happened in that
midst, in college that again, frame preaching for me and frame even the
importance of a day like this as I was a college athlete playing basketball and
becoming increasingly clear to me that I was not going to make it to the NBA
and become increasing clear to me. I didn’t want to make it to the NBA. God had
something different for me, something better. I began to have opportunities to
share my testimony.

You find yourself as you know, 20 year old college student
following Christ, speaking at FCA events and Church youth group events and
college ministries and like, so how do I do this? What does it mean to share my
testimony? What does one share and not having any idea what was entailed with that?
Well, dovetail with that began some little opportunities to like to speak a
little bit and teach the Bible in the Sunday school lesson here in a Bible
study there. And again, it was inscrutable to me, mysterious to me what, what?
How does this work? What do you do? I remember going into the local Christian
bookstore in those early months and wanting to buy a Bible to help me and you
know, kind of had a thousand bibles around the house as a kid, but one of my
own Bible and I went in to discover there are a hundred different translations.

Which one did you pick? I had no idea. I just literally
like did the lucky dip method. I just kind of went for that one, bought it and
stuck it in my pocket. It was a pocket size new testament NIV and just kind of
lived in and out of that Bible for the months that would follow that. That
sense of how do I preach or how do I teach the Bible just continued to haunt
me. I began to have the opportunity, as I said, to share my testimony some and
one of those places was a place called the home of grace, which is just outside
of Mobile and it was a kind of a halfway house for ladies. They had one for men
and one for ladies. I was at the one for the ladies who are recovering from
some sort of substance abuse or some other traumatic life experience.

And they were there and on Sunday afternoons, men from our
Church would go and minister to them in a chapel setting. And I was invited to
go share my testimony one week and I did. And I kind of went back a time or two
over a period of weeks to kind of just be there as kind of a second or third
hand to those who are really doing the preaching. And then I was invited by the
gentleman who led that outreach to actually deliver the sermon one week. And it
was a couple of weeks away and I was both exhilarated and horrified
simultaneously; did not know how to prepare a sermon. Don’t know what one would
say when one would preach. And I still remember squirreling away in my dorm
room in Murray Hall and like taking out a legal pad and my NIV and writing down
all the Bible verses I knew.

And right now, like all the preachers jargon I’d ever
heard and writing down, you know, some college basketball illustrations and
this and that and patching this thing together and going that Sunday to preach
and getting up there and you know, going through my notes thinking you had
about 30 minutes and you know, I’m done like in 12 minutes and not knowing what
to do. So I just start over from my notes again and began to go through them
again and we’re driving home that day. And again, it was exhilarating and
horrifying. Simultaneously. I’m driving home with the gentleman who facilitated
and we were reflecting on the service, which at the end, seven ladies came
forward during the invitation. So it ended on a high note, at least momentarily
as we were driving home. The gentleman who hosted the outreach said to me,
“It made you feel great when those ladies came forward during the
invitation?”

I said, “Man, you bet.” He said, “You know,
every week those same seven ladies come forward during the invitation.” It
was a puncture to my fledgling preaching ego. Well, shortly thereafter I was
invited to teach Sunday school. And the gentleman facilitating that Sunday
school ministry asked me to teach from the book of Colossians and he gave me
two Bible commentaries. One was a MacArthur new testament commentary, the other
was one of the NIV, New Testament commentaries. And I had never seen a
commentary in my life. I didn’t know these things existed. I had no idea. And I
was like, it was like I had hit the lottery. “You mean to tell me there’s
a book that helps me understand these verses?” And I got these and I
cleared a little shelf in my dorm room and these are my first two starter
books, little starter family, these two volumes.

And, and then, you know, over time the shelf was filled
out and then the case was filled out. And, and on we go. But getting to teach
in that setting, to me what was so life-giving, so fulfilling, so enjoyable. So
meanwhile, I’m also shelling back and forth between my college basketball team
and practicing on Wednesday night and Sunday night and across the street to
Dauphin Baptist church where Steve Lawson was the preacher then and I just met
him kind of from attending there and I could go there on Sunday night and
Wednesday night and be back in time for practice and like my home church, which
was further away and couldn’t be back in time for practice. Well, Dr. Lawson,
who is a dear friend and to whom I dedicated my new book, he’s just there on
Sunday night, Wednesday night like opening the Bible and preaching verse by
verse through books in the Bible, the gospel of John on Wednesday night, First
John at that time on Sunday night and just, and I had never encountered
anything like it.

To me, the Bible was just a random collection of like a
zillion memory verses. It just, it was mysterious. It was fuzzy. I believed
that, I believe those God’s Word I believed it was true. I believe that it
spoke to me. It spoke to others. I believed the right things about it kind of
at the gut level, but it was like there was no way this all fit together and he
began to take the Bible and open the Bible and just preach the verses of the
Bible. And I was mesmerized because I was beginning to see clearly what to me
had just been one great fog.

And so as I began to teach Sunday school and hear him
preach, I began to see some things. I began to see an appreciation, a profound
appreciation for verse by verse expository preaching really for three reasons.
First of all, what it did in me as I heard it, it impacted me. It challenged
me. It shaped me spiritually unlike any other preaching I’ve ever encountered.
Also, what it did for me as I began to study, to teach lessons, to prepare
sermons, and again, before it was a an exhilarating, but yet a horrifying
reality, to be asked to preach or teach and just not knowing how to do this,
and just beginning to kind of feel my way through trying to make something up.
But I actually could study the text and there is a fixed meaning and there are
cross-references and there are commentaries and they’re really linguistic tools
that help.

And it was, I mean light bulbs are coming off by the day,
but also through me as I preach, I was able to see people impacted, not based
upon my witticisms, not based upon you know, snappy things. But based upon
Scripture working in the lives of people. Now I said there were three events
that shaped me in the early season. One was that ill-fated first sermon. The
second was the opportunity to get to know and sit under the preaching ministry
of Steve Lawson. The third was a road trip in college, just as I was leaving
the college basketball team to pursue ministry. A couple of other guys were
pursuing ministry and one in the group says he and his girlfriend then they’re
now married. His name is Randy McKinnon and he and his wife, uh, April, he’s a
professor at Cedarville University and he and his wife said to a group of us,
“You guys would like the sermon tapes.”

Yes, I grew up in the age of sermon tapes. You guys would
like these sermon tapes. They’re by a guy named John Piper. Never heard of John
Piper. And I said, “Oh yeah. I said, well, who’s he?” And I’ll never
get the description they said, “He is like the John MacArthur of the
north.” Now being from the north, he was immediately suspect in my mind,
but I gave it a fair shake and the sermon tapes were really powerful. Well then
another friend says to me, “You know, he’s delivering the Conger lectures
at Beeson Divinity School a period of weeks away, why don’t we go?” So
doing what dignified college students do, the four of us decided to drive up
and rack in one room together and we began to go and the gentleman who is going
to drive, who has the car that seems most fit to make it the 300 or so, give or
take miles to Birmingham. His bumper literally is like falling off. We
literally take bread ties and fasten it back to the structure of the car. And
off we go. We get there, we get there early. We plant ourselves all two or
three days on the very front row as Dr Piper preached. And he preached on this
passage 2 Timothy 4:2. I’d never heard it preached before. I’d read it a few
times, but I was gripped by the power of the passage.

And that event began to further give oxygen to this, to
this call to ministry. And what does it mean to, to preach? So look with me in
these verses. “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ
Jesus.” 2 Timothy Chapter Four, verse one

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and
his kingdom,

preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction

for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for
themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. They will turn away
their ears from the truth and will turn aside to

myths, but you be sober in all things endure hardship. Do
the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry.” Let’s pray. Father, in
the minutes that follow, help us to think clearly from this passage and use it
to frame the rest of our time together with those attending the workshop, would
you in this room, these individuals, these men who are preachers of your word,
these women who are teachers of your word, all of us who are called to speak
your word, do something new in our lives this day. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, the context, I will not spend much time rehearsing
because you largely know it. We’re on a seminary campus and our time is short
in the chapel hour, but just remember the drama. Paul is near death, Timothy,
his son in the faith, he has demonstrated vacillation, weakness, questioning
and Paul in this last book is writing Timothy to buck up, to be strong, to
stand firm. In chapter three, Paul catalogs so much of what is wrong in the
world and what is wrong in the church as well. Apostasy has taken place, is
taking place. Erstwhile trusted brothers and sisters are

falling away as well. And Paul is seeking to speak a
prophetic word of instruction to this young man likely in his early to mid-thirties
and charge him to do something, to preach the word. But this charge of course
has roared through the centuries from this passage to most every preacher of
the Gospel. We receive it. We identify with it. We find ourselves being
simultaneously charged by it and encouraged by it. It’s our charge as well to
preach the word. It’s a reminder that regardless of what is or isn’t happening
favorably or unfavorably in the culture, regardless of what the church is doing
or not doing or what church members are appreciating or not appreciating, this
charge stands clear. It stands firm.

Preach the Word.

For the minister, the pastor it is the irreducible,
indispensable task that we’re called to do again and again and again to preach
the Word. Now see with me this morning just kind of quickly but intentionally
four marks of faithful preaching, number one: to preach biblically. Now notice
chapter four verse one. This is Paul’s way of getting our attention. Paul’s way
of getting Timothy’s attention, Paul’s way of getting our attention. He tells
him this, I solemnly charge you. Now, sometimes when we read our bibles, we are
inclined to run by verses or even entire passages to get to the money verse or
the money line. And we kind of tend to think subconsciously that all of those
preceding verses and phrases were just kind of a pile-on of words that don’t
matter that much. But just savor verse one. This is Paul’s way of getting our
attention. It’s not just a charge, it’s a solemn charge. It’s not just a solemn
charge. This is a charge, delivered in the presence of God and of his son
Christ Jesus, who by the way will judge the living and the dead. In other
words, you by his appearing and his kingdom, what is he doing? Paul is grabbing
Timothy figuratively speaking and us by the lapels drawing us in,

telling us we must do something. We must preach the word.

So the central charge in verse two again, it just, it just
towers above the surrounding passage in some ways, especially for the
pastorate, it just towers out and stands out amongst the broader New Testament
to preach the word to herald, to lift up one’s voice, to proclaim, to speak
boldly, even loudly. Yes, we do more than shout, but there’s nothing wrong with
raising your voice on occasion when you preach to do so without fear, without
recrimination to make known. In other words, to have something to say
biblically and to say it.

Preach the Word. The Word.

There’s a simplicity to this three-word phrase. Preach the
word in English. There is no need to clarify which word or whose word, no need
to elaborate on which portion of Scripture to or to not preach or to or to not
prioritize.

Preach the Word.

Now interestingly enough, and this passage in this moment
as Paul is writing Timothy, of course, this is the immediate reference back to
the Old Testament, which we refer to as the Old Testament. The apostles
teaching the New Testament is literally taking shape as Paul is writing to
Timothy and yes, Paul understood that he was writing and teaching divine
revelation. He makes that clear in other places in the New Testament. So Paul
is saying, this is a special word. This is God’s Word. This is for you to
preach and to teach. Why this charge? Well, chapter three which we won’t read
through in particular, reminds us why. Because the backdrop is one of death, of
decadence, of fallenness, of spiritual need. Just let your eye glance through
chapter three Paul then in verse 12 says, “In light of this,” really
the truth of the matter is, Timothy, “all who desire to live godly in
Christ Jesus will face persecution.”

But verse 14 “You continue in the things you have
learned, what you have become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned
them.” Verse 15 “That from childhood you have known the sacred
writings, the Scriptures which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to
salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.” Now notice verse 16.
Verses we’re familiar with. “All scripture is inspired by God. It is
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness. So the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good
work.” So in light of the darkness of our times, in light of the state of
the church, which is in want. And in light of the power and integrity and
inspiration and authority of scripture. Here’s what you do with this. You
preach the Word. Now, this book, this notion of the Scriptures and the
importance of Scripture just flows throughout. Notice chapter one, just let
your eye fall down to chapter one verse 13.

Paul tells Timothy, “Retain the standard of sound
words which you have heard from me and the faith and love which are in Christ
Jesus.” Retain the standard of sound words. Chapter two verse 15 again,
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not
need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” Chapter two
verse 25,

“The Lord’s bond servant, the Lord’s servant is to
gently correct those who oppose, hoping God to grant them repentance so they
may come to the knowledge of the truth.” Chapter three verse 10, “You
followed my teaching…” Chapter three verse 14 “Which we’ve seen you
continue in the things you have learned from me and become convinced of,”
chapter four verse three, “they will not endure sound doctrine.”
Chapter four verse four, “They will turn away their ears from the
truth.” Chapter four verse seven, “But I have kept the faith.”

What do we see going on here? We see throughout this book,
this continuing reference back to the power of Scripture, the importance of
Scripture, the truthfulness of Scripture. Defend the Scriptures, preach the
Scripture, stand firm in the Scriptures. It’s unmissable, it’s unmistakable.
It’s there in black and white for us to see. Then in verses 15 through 17 this
this clear statement on Scripture, which is one of the most majestic and
informative and convicting statements in all the Bible about the Bible. We are
presented with the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. What in the world
does that mean? It means that the words verbal, the words themselves are
inspired by God. These words are inspired not just the thoughts behind the
words. The authors weren’t merely inspired like a playwright might be inspired
or an author might be inspired. The words themselves are inspired and not some
of them or a portion of them or most of them, but all of them in a plenary
sense collectively are inspired.

So again, this is not just kind of Paul reflecting and
drafting his memoirs before he goes to be with the Lord. No, this comes
together. The times are dark. The church is experiencing tremendous need. The
Scriptures are this powerful. Therefore you must do something now not to play
games with what the Bible says or doesn’t say. But I would be remiss not to
note that the charge is to preach the Word. It’s not to share the work. It’s
not to mumble the Word. It’s not even to counsel the Word or to teach the Word.
Some of these have very legitimate and needed and healthy functions within the
church, but here Paul again elevates the proclamation of the Word. He is saying
this, the Bible is our message. It is our Word. It is a perennial Word. It is a
necessary Word. If you’re not convinced of scripture, it’s truthfulness, it’s
authority, it’s relevance, it’s power; then you will be disinclined to preach
it. You may look to it for sermon points or for sermon fodder, so that’s what
evangelical preachers are told to do, but you’ll never let the Word become the
point and actual points of your sermon.

Brothers and sisters, the Bible is more than resource
book. It’s more than a book of sermon illustrations. We are not doctors who,
who rightly diagnose an illness and then prescribe medicine without referencing
our medical training or reference books. No, we have no message without this
book. Here’s what Paul is saying. Here’s what I’m saying. There is a
correlation between biblical conviction and biblical preaching and it’s hard to
have a high view of scripture without a high view of biblical preaching.
Moreover, you will never engage in a high and lofty view of biblical preaching
and of preaching if you don’t have a high and lofty view of scripture. There is
a correlation between what is a biblical conviction and of biblical preaching.
We know this. Preaching as I have said before, it rats us out.

Who you are tends to come through in the pulpit and if the
preacher is, if the scriptures are kind of one book amongst many, you consult
on occasion, then it’ll come up one book amongst many in your sermons. If the
Bible for you is just a place to go to occasionally be reminded of Bible
promises, then your preaching will so reflect. But if you believe the
scriptures are the word of God and they’ve gripped your life and you go back to
them day after day after day and you pound away in them as you study to preach,
then guess what? Your sermons will be bibline.

So why preach the word? Because it is this clear,
unmistakable unmissable charge. Four marks of faithful preaching. Number one is
that you preach the word. Why? Because the scriptures search us and the
scripture searches our people. Unlike any other message we have to preach. I’m
not a conspiracy theorist, I’m far from it, but I’m about convinced there’s a
conspiracy as far as our iPhones go. And I’m convinced the iPhone not only
hears what I say, it knows where I go. It can actually know what I’m thinking.
And I’ll be driving down the road with my wife and we’ll mention a restaurant.
Guess what pops up in our Facebook feed or Instagram feed? A few minutes later,
an ad from that restaurant, you’re around town somewhere and geographically,
you know you’re there and you’re in a location. And then ads begin to show up
shortly thereafter, pointing you to places and things in that exact location.
It seems to know us better than we know ourselves at times.

That’s the scriptures. It searches, they search, they
know. And as we preach, that takes place in the lives of our people as we study
to preach. It takes place in our own lives. Point number two, mark. Number two,
not just preach biblically, but preach authoritatively. You preach the word. Be
ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, reprove, rebuke,
exhort this call to be ready. Verse two–it’s this unique command and it means
to stand up, to, to be equipped, to be alert, to be poised and on hand, to be
ready, always ready, equipped and poised. John Stott says here “it appears
to take on the flavor of not just of alertness and eagerness, but even of
insistence and urgency.”

Preach. Be ready to preach authoritatively. Now notice
these three words here in verse two, be ready in season and out of season. What
does that mean? Well, it means whether it’s popular or not, whether your
hearers want to hear it or not, and frankly, whether you as preacher feels like
preaching it or not, be ready in season and out of season to do three things:
reprove, rebuke, exhort. What does it mean to reprove? Well, if you are a
parent, you do this on occasion with children. If you have oversight
responsibilities, you have to do this perhaps on occasion to those who are
entrusted to your charge. If you’re a military commander, you do this
frequency. If you’re a sports coach, you do this occasionally. What does it
mean to reprove? It’s a negative, corrective word. It’s the same word he
referenced in Chapter Three Verse 16 where Paul references the function of
Scripture. One function is for reproof is say corrective word– and listen to
me this morning, friends–preaching is to be corrective.

Not only is there nothing wrong with that, there is
something wrong with it not being corrective. If you can attend church Lord’s
Day after Lord’s Day and never be challenged and never be reproved by what’s
coming to you from the pulpit, find another church. If you find yourself
preaching Lord’s day after Lord’s Day and never reproving those within your
hearers, another vocation

Reprove and then notice, rebuke. It’s a reference to the
heart. Bringing a person under conviction of sin. John MacArthur writes,
“To reprove, discloses the sinfulness of sin, whereas to rebuke, discloses
the sinfulness of the sinner.” And then notice, exhort woven here
together, packaged together to come alongside of and encourage. So the point is
not reproof, reproof, reproof, rebuke, rebuke, rebuke. But notice exhort,
encourage. But, but something is to happen when we preach such that the act of
preaching is not mistaken as just a data dump on Biblical backgrounds and Word
Studies. For Heaven’s Sake, bring it to bear. For Heaven’s sake. Actually let
folks know that they have encountered the Word of God. Several years ago, I had
to leave the campus very early in the morning about 4:00 AM as I recall to get
to Tulsa, Oklahoma for an important development meeting. And we were leaving
the house at 4:00 AM, myself and a seminary colleague who for this story, we’ll
just, we’ll just call him Charles because that’s who it was.

And Charles Smith is there with me and we’re driving down
together. He’s driving and I’m an early riser. I love to get up early. I do not
like to communicate early. And so I’ll let you get up early to have hours to
kind of study and do what I need to do before I get into heavy conversation.
Well, we’re there leaving the driveway about 4:00 AM and Charles is driving, I’m
in the passenger seat and I’m working on a sermon that I’m set to preach here
very soon. And I’m reviewing the notes and Scripture and trying to work and
thinking, well, Charles is like chatting 90 to nothing. He’s talking, asking me
questions about life and ministry and seminary and everything and all good
things. And I’m trying to focus and I’m trying to get this sermon done and he’s
talking. And finally I say, “Charles, man, I don’t want to be, I don’t want
to be rude, but I just cannot talk right now. I have to focus on this.”
So, “Great understand.” Well, like 30 seconds later I hear him say
into the phone, “What y’all doing?” And I’m thinking, who in the
world can he be calling pre 5:00 AM to wonder what they’re doing?

And it was just like another channel with whom he could
chat and I said, “Charles, I need to not only you to not chat with me, I
need you to chat with no one for a couple of hours. Just let me focus
here.” Nothing wrong with chatting with friends, but there’s something
wrong with preaching if it just resembles a casual chat with friends.

This is not the place to chat. This is not the place to
share a few nuggets about life. This is the place to preach and the place to
preach authoritatively. Third, preach pastorally, 2b through 4. “With great
patience and instruction for the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for
themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires. They will turn away
their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” Paul here I think
is speaking a bit more specifically, not just theoretically about preaching but
it’s as though he’s saying to Timothy, those to whom you preach, understand
what’s at stake. Your church, your people, they are inclined to drift away from
sound doctrine. They are inclined just to receive an unfiltered way and kind of
buy into the conventional thinking of the age.

And in fact, if left unguarded they will actually go find
a preacher that will encourage that and do that. You see the end result is
devastation. Turn away their ears from the truth, pursuing myths. For every
preacher, and I have been there, my goodness, I’ve been there. You’re there
talking to a sweet old lady in your churches, you know, in her eighth or ninth
decade of life. And she says something you like this: “Preacher, I saw the
best sermon on TV this week.” And then you immediately are like poised to
die. And who do they hear? “And I heard the best sermon from Joel Osteen
this week,” and like a little part of me or a big part of me dies in that
moment. You’ve been there. The reality is you have about 40 minutes, maybe a
little less, maybe a little more on any given Sunday to try to preach a week’s
worth of nonsense, cultural confusion, bad televangelists and everything else
that has gone in their ears and before their eyes and into their hearts that
week out of them. It’s urgent. It’s urgent. We do that with a pastoral touch.
Again, we’re not trying to win preaching awards by how harsh we can preach.
We’re not trying to brandish our reputation amongst other preachers as to how
firm we are. But no, these are real people who we know, whom we serve. And so
we want to speak with patience and instruction, but we do that, verse three,
out of the about heart of protection, wanting to guard the flock, to guard the
sheep.

Because it’s so easy for their ears just to turn away,
just to drift away.

Time is racing here. So let me just quickly draw you to
the fourth mark.

Fourth mark. Preach persistently. Verse Five, “You be
sober in all things. You endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist fulfill
your ministry.”

I’ll tell you what my number one prayer for my life is.
This morning, every morning and a lot of prayers and a lot of desires, but I
find myself daily praying something that sounds like this: “Lord, help me
this day to steward wisely and faithfully what you’ve entrusted to me and Lord
help me this day to be faithful.” I long ago have quit pining about
success in ministry. I long ago quit romanticizing what it would be to preach
to a church of 5,000. I long ago quit romanticizing about the accoutrements of
a successful ministry. Our desire needs to be faithful, to be faithful. We have
to be persistent,

be sober, alert to the times to the challenges and during
hardship. Why Paul would you have to say that to Timothy? Because hardship was
his and he was weak. Hardship is ours and we’ll be increasingly so. If God does
not send revival to our nation and to our churches, hardship will be perhaps in
abundance.

But through that we do the work of the evangelist. We are
called to fulfill

our ministry.

Preach persistently by way of identity. It’s who you are.
If you’re called to preach

by way of calling, it’s what God has set you apart to do.
By way of urgency is what our churches need

and by way of having no other option, it’s spelled out
that clearly

before us. Preach persistently. Now,

to pull this together in my fainting, 30 seconds. It’s a glorious, exhilarating calling to be a minister of the Gospel, to get to preach. I wouldn’t relive those initial months of couldn’t find genesis from revelation 20 plus years ago, but in a sense I wouldn’t exchange them for everything, anything, because it forced me to study and learn and buy books and read and seek out mentors and talk to people and ask questions and bird-dog key pastors and just keep exploring, learning, asking, looking back, I would have driven over my mother that to get to do that here with professors like this. During that time of life and that season of calling brothers and sisters, we have that here. We have faithful professors and instructors and staff members who are eager to invest in you students and to all of us. I say we get to do a lot of things as a seminary and a Spurgeon College.

The heart of that is to train pastors. At the heart of that calling to train pastors is to equip preachers. Let’s pray. Father, thank you so much for this morning, for these verses, for our time together. I do ask Father, as we look towards next week, may it be a couple of days of profound encouragement in Christ this day. For those of us who are going to be together the next several hours to think more intentionally and thoroughly about preaching, help us to learn much and to leave here in courage and with your churches be further inflamed from the truth of scripture because of it. We pray these things in Jesus name.

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “And Knew Not Until the Flood Came” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “And Knew Not Until the Flood Came” by C. H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, November 1, Evening)

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:39)

Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the
learned and the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the religious and the
profane, the old and the young, all sank in one common ruin. Some had doubtless
ridiculed the patriarch–where now their merry jests? Others had threatened him
for his zeal which they counted madness–where now their boastings and hard
speeches? The critic who judged the old man’s work is drowned in the same sea
which covers his sneering companions. Those who spoke patronizingly of the good
man’s fidelity to his convictions, but shared not in them, have sunk to rise no
more, and the workers who for pay helped to build the wondrous ark, are all
lost also. The flood swept them all away, and made no single exception. Even
so, out of Christ, final destruction is sure to every man of woman born; no
rank, possession, or character, shall suffice to save a single soul who has not
believed in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this wide-spread judgment and
tremble at it.

How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. There
was not one wise man upon earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole race,
folly as to self-preservation–the most foolish of all follies. Folly in
doubting the most true God–the most malignant of fooleries. Strange, my soul,
is it not? All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason,
then they leave their madness and act like rational beings, but not till then.

All, blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered
there. From the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid
hare was equally secure with the courageous lion, the helpless cony as safe as
the laborious ox. All are safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou in him?

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The Gospel and Your Time

We live in an age where adults are trying to stop the unstoppable—the onward march of time. With only so many hours in a day and a limited amount of years in a lifetime, preserving and elongating one’s life has become high priority through trends like extreme fitness, nutritional supplements, human growth hormones, and the cryogenics movement. Fitness and healthy living are commendable, but the mind-set that through them you will outpace death is not.

The Bible teaches, emphatically, that we cannot outrun death. Our days are numbered and we cannot presume upon tomorrow (Job. 14:5). Therefore, we should live with the length of eternity, not the length of our earthly days, on the forefront of our minds by stewarding our time like our money—saving it, investing it, and using it, with wisdom and intentionality.

Below are 4 steps you can take each day to keep your mind and heart in the right perspective regarding time.

Reflect on the brevity of life and the length of eternity

Life passes us by at a shockingly rapid pace. With each passing year, this pace seems to pick up speed. One day our kids are born; the next day they graduate high school. One day we enter the workforce; the next day we retire.

In Psalm 90, a psalm of Moses, he describes the brevity of life and prays that God might “teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts” (v. 12). The brevity of life in the light of eternity creates an even starker contrast between the two, a contrast upon which we must regularly reflect and meditate.

Realize the uncertainty of tomorrow

Prudence is a biblical virtue. Presumption is not. We should save, work, plan, and prepare for life’s contingencies well into the future. At the same time, we cannot assume we will have a future. Consider what Jesus’ brother, James, has to say about this:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring— what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it. (James 4:13–17)

The Bible itself describes our lives as vapors that vanish quickly. We must recognize today that we are not promised tomorrow.

Remember, time is your most precious possession

Time, not money, is your most precious possession. And we often throw away our time in alarming ways: social media, television, and idle chatter. Accordingly, Don Whitney observed, “If people threw away their money as thoughtlessly as they throw away their time, we would think them insane. Yet time is infinitely more precious than money because money can’t buy time.” Yet, this is not just for our own benefit; it is for that of Christ and his kingdom. Our allotment of time is a special gift from him, for us to use in light of our divine stewardship.

Learn to say “no”

For me, saying the word “no” did not come naturally. I was equipped to say “no” over issues of doctrine, conviction, or morality, but I was much less capable of saying “no” over more subjective, less consequential issues—especially when asked to do something by someone I knew and loved, like family, friends, or fellow church members.

The result usually was not disaster, but it often brought about some other downside—a dilution of my time and resources. The old adage holds true, when you say “yes” to something, you are saying “no” to something else. As such, you will not rightly steward your time until you learn to pronounce the word no.

It matters how we use our time, because ultimately, our time is a gospel issue. How will you use your time for the gospel?

*This page was originally published on 02/14/2018

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “The Church in Thy House” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “The Church in Thy House” by C. H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, November 1, Morning)

“The church in thy house.” (Philemon 2)

Is there a Church in this house? Are parents, children,
friends, servants, all members of it? or are some still unconverted? Let us
pause here and let the question go round–Am I a member of the Church in this
house? How would father’s heart leap for joy, and mother’s eyes fill with holy
tears if from the eldest to the youngest all were saved! Let us pray for this
great mercy until the Lord shall grant it to us. Probably it had been the
dearest object of Philemon’s desires to have all his household saved; but it
was not at first granted him in its fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus,
who, having wronged him, ran away from his service. His master’s prayers
followed him, and at last, as God would have it, Onesimus was led to hear Paul
preach; his heart was touched, and he returned to Philemon, not only to be a
faithful servant, but a brother beloved, adding another member to the Church in
Philemon’s house. Is there an unconverted servant or child absent this morning?
Make special supplication that such may, on their return to their home, gladden
all hearts with good news of what grace has done! Is there one present? Let him
partake in the same earnest entreaty.

If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it
well, and let all act as in the sight of God. Let us move in the common affairs
of life with studied holiness, diligence, kindness, and integrity. More is
expected of a Church than of an ordinary household; family worship must, in
such a case, be more devout and hearty; internal love must be more warm and
unbroken, and external conduct must be more sanctified and Christlike. We need
not fear that the smallness of our number will put us out of the list of
Churches, for the Holy Spirit has here enrolled a family-church in the inspired
book of remembrance. As a Church let us now draw nigh to the great head of the
one Church universal, and let us beseech him to give us grace to shine before
men to the glory of his name.

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Did We in Our Own Strength Confide? Martin Luther & Our Everlasting Hope

One of the most celebrated hymns of the Christian faith is Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Drawing upon Psalm 46, Luther’s hymn buoys the spirit by reflecting on God’s unfailing providence, even in the midst of catastrophe and adversity. Luther’s hymn also serves as a reminder of the ongoing spiritual struggle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Christ.

A Mighty Fortress is Our God is something of a cultural and ecclesiastical mainstay. It has been sung at both royal coronations and state funerals; enjoyed as a celebratory hymn in weddings and featured at services of remembrance, such as at the National Cathedral in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Yet, the real meaning of A Mighty Fortress is Our God is reserved for followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The history of the Christian church is largely a history of hardship among God’s people. Whether it be the Apostle Paul’s incarcerations, the early church’s sufferings under Nero, Luther’s flight from papal imprisonment, Baptists laboring for religious liberty, or Jim Elliott’s death at the end of a native’s spear, to follow Christ indeed is the call to take up one’s cross. For Jesus’ sake, God’s people have known ostracism, ridicule, persecution, and even martyrdom.

However, one need not look to history to find signs of gospel challenge; one simply needs to look around. Oppressive regimes abroad and secular thought at home situate the 21st century church in the midst of daunting gospel adversity. The modern era has not alleviated gospel hardship, but in many ways has intensified it.

Full-throated secularism—as witnessed through the rejection of objective truth, sexual libertinism, the disintegration of the nuclear family, declining church attendance, and threatened religious liberty—appears to be gaining ground. The church will have to contend with it.

Yet, where one finds the persecution of Christians, one also finds ministerial courage and gospel faithfulness. This present generation of gospel ministers labors in increasingly antagonistic environments, often preaching to hardened hearts and in hostile settings.

In light of these realities, Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God is all the more heartening. Far from self-affirmation or mere positive thinking, Luther’s hymn rightly points believers to strength in Christ and the hope he furnishes.

As A Mighty Fortress is Our God’s second stanza confesses, “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabbaoth his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.”

Our hope awaits an eternal consummation, but we minister with buoyancy and confidence even now. After all, Christ declared “He will build his church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail.” So we press on in this age, “until the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.”

Luther’s hymn rings true. Christ arms his servants with spiritual armor, the power of the gospel to save, the authority of the Word of God, and his unflagging promise to build his church. His servants join the battle, but Christ secures the victory.

May we find hope not in a hymn, but in Christ’s strength, to which A Mighty Fortress is Our God points. May we say “yes” and “amen” to Luther’s concluding appeal in his great hymn, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever.”

*This article was originally posted on 03/10/2014*

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Lord’s Day Meditation: “I Did Know Thee in the Wilderness” by C.H. Spurgeon

Lord’s Day Meditation: “I Did Know Thee in the Wilderness” by C. H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening, October 31, Evening)

“I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought” (Hosea 13:5)

Yes, Lord, thou didst indeed know me in my fallen state, and
thou didst even then choose me for thyself. When I was loathsome and
self-abhorred, thou didst receive me as thy child, and thou didst satisfy my
craving wants. Blessed forever be thy name for this free, rich, abounding
mercy. Since then, my inward experience has often been a wilderness; but thou
hast owned me still as thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into
me to gladden me, and make me fruitful. Yea, when my outward circumstances have
been at the worst, and I have wandered in a land of drought, thy sweet presence
has solaced me. Men have not known me when scorn has awaited me, but thou hast
known my soul in adversities, for no affliction dims the lustre of thy love.
Most gracious Lord, I magnify thee for all thy faithfulness to me in trying
circumstances, and I deplore that I should at any time have forgotten thee and
been exalted in heart, when I have owed all to thy gentleness and love. Have
mercy upon thy servant in this thing!

My soul, if Jesus thus acknowledged thee in thy low estate,
be sure that thou own both himself and his cause now that thou art in thy
prosperity. Be not lifted up by thy worldly successes so as to be ashamed of
the truth or of the poor church with which thou hast been associated. Follow
Jesus into the wilderness: bear the cross with him when the heat of persecution
grows hot. He owned thee, O my soul, in thy poverty and shame–never be so
treacherous as to be ashamed of him. O for more shame at the thought of being
ashamed of my best Beloved! Jesus, my soul cleaveth to thee.

“I’ll turn to thee in days of light,

As well as nights of care,

Thou brightest amid all that’s bright!

Thou fairest of the fair!”

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