What Then Is True Practical Holiness?

J. C. Ryle answers the question in several ways in his treatise on the subject.

"First, holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God's judgment--hating what He hates, loving what He loves--and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. He who most entirely agrees with God, he is the most holy man."

Are you seeking the mind of God in His word and pleading with Him for a spirit of agreement in your entire being? This is part of what it means to be holy.

A Seasonable & Profitable Question

Are we holy? That's the question. J. C. Ryle calls it the most seasonable and profitable question anyone can ask of himself.

I ask to be heard today about this question. How stands the account between our souls and God? In this hurrying, bustling world, let us stand still for a few minutes and consider the matter of holiness. I believe I might have choseen a subject more popular and pleasant. I am sure I might have found one more easy to handle. But I feel deeply I could not have chosen one more seasonable and more profitable to our souls. It is a solemn thing to hear the Word of God saying, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).

A solemn thing indeed. Stand still for a time today and ask yourself this most seasonable and profitable question. Are you holy? What do you hear God say in response? Remember the gospel and do what He requires.

Seek & You Shall NOT Find?

Never in all these years of hunting have I missed so many shots. Near shots. Far shots. In between shots. No matter. I failed to fell a deer in ’09. At one point toward the end of our vacation I concluded it would take an animal coming right up to me and shaking my hand for me to hit one. I used to think I was a good shot. Not anymore.

One night toward the end I thought I finally broke through. At dusk we sighted two nice size bucks on the sky line of the ridge pictured here. I fired at the bigger one first. Missed again. What else is new? Then I got off a round at the second. Missed yet again. Sigh. This is getting monotonous. One more chance. I fired a second shot. Finally. He staggered and disappeared beyond the skyline. “He went down out of sight,” my friend Dick assured me.

We marked the shot and began our climb. This ridge is precipitous. The heart pumps hard as you zig zag up the fence line. Finally, we reached the spot on the hillside. Nothing. No blood trail, no deer. You’ve got to be kidding me! I worked my way up to the very top of the ridge, well beyond the scene of the shooting. Slowly I crisscrossed back and forth scouring every square foot. My friend did the same. When darkness enveloped the hillside, we gave up and headed back to the truck. Unbelievable.

We came back at dawn the next morning. The law of the woods says if you think you hit something, make sure you do the right thing in looking for it until you are absolutely sure you did or didn’t hit it. My friend, who has hunted these hills all his life, was certain I got the buck given the way he staggered. So we climbed again. We zigged and zagged again. In the full light of day we searched for that deer to no avail. The case of the missing deer. Beyond baffling. Go figure.

It occurred to me while looking just how much effort the two of us put into the search, all in the hope of finding an animal to butcher and eat along with another rack to nail to the rail on my deck. Not that the pursuit of venison for the freezer is insignificant, mind you. But it pales in comparison to the rewards that come from seeking God. And unlike the occasional deer on the hillside, God promises to be found.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says, “You will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Jeremiah 29:13 repeats virtually the same promise. “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jesus said, in Matt. 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.”

Notice the proviso in these Old Testament verses. It concerns the way we must seek – with all our heart and soul. With at least the same, if not more vigor, that hunters seek after their felled quarry, believers should seek after God and His glory, banking all the way on His gracious promise to be found.

I asked myself some hard questions on that ridge. Do I seek God with the same energy I devote to finding a deer I might have shot? How earnest is my daily reading of the Scriptures? Does my zeal for Scripture memory match my passion for hunting? Where does my passionate pursuit of God in prayer compare to the enthusiasm with which I tackle an arduous climb up an Idaho hillside?

What do you value so greatly that you seek it with all your heart and all your soul? Don’t blow by this question. Stop and think about it for a time. Honestly, how do you answer?

With hunting or any other inferior pursuit, seek and you may or may not find. With God, your supreme satisfaction, seek with all your heart and soul and you will find.

Sanctification Can Be Seen

In the second chapter of his book, Holiness, J. C. Ryle contends that sanctification is a visible reality in a Christian. He gives the reader ten aspects of the visible evidence of sanctification in a Christian's life.

1. True sanctification does not consist in talk about religion (1 John 3:18).
2. True sanctification does not consist in temporary religious feelings (Matt. 13:20).
3. True sanctification does not consist in outward formalism and external devoutness (1 Tim. 4:8).
4. True sanctification does not consist in retirement from our place in life, and the renunciation of our social duties (Jn. 17:15).
5. True sanctification does not consist in the occasional performance of right actions (Psa. 119:1-4).
6. Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual respect to God’s law, and habitual effort to live in obedience to it as the rule of life (1 Tim. 1:8; Rom. 7:22).
7. Genuine sanctification will show itself in an habitual endeavor to do Christ’s will, and to live by His practical precepts (Jn 15:14).
8. Genuine sanctification will show itself in an habitual desire to live up to the standard which St. Paul sets before the churches in his writings.
9. Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual attention to the active graces which our Lord so beautifully exemplified, and especially to the grace of charity (Jn. 13:34-35; Col. 3:10).
10. Genuine sanctification will show itself in habitual attention to the passive graces of Christianity (1 Pet. 2:21-23). These are the graces of being forbearing to one another. It is nonsense to pretend to sanctification unless we follow after the meekness, gentleness, longsuffering, and forgivingness of which the Bible makes so much.

GENUINE SANCTIFICATION IS A THING THAT CAN BE SEEN!

How visible a reality is it in you and me?

Are You Growing in Grace?

In his book, Holiness, J. C. Ryle describes what it means to grow in grace.

When I speak of growth in grace, I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigour, and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer's heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life. When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this: that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart; he manifests more of it in his life; he is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace. I leave it to others to describe such a man's condition by any words they please. For myself, I think the truest and best account of him is this: he is growing in grace.

Give yourself to the means of grace today that you may grow in grace to the glory of God, the increase of your joy, and your love for others.

More Puritan Power for the LB

William Gurnall writes:

Wickedness must be weak. The devil's guilt tells them their cause is lost before the battle is ever fought. They fear you, Christian, because you are holy; so you do not need to fear them at all. When you see them as subtle, mighty, and many, your heart beats fast. But look on all these spirits as ungodly wretches who hate God more than they hate you. And the only reason they detest you at all is your kinship to Him. Whose side is God on? In the past He rebuked kings for touching His anointed ones. Will He stand still now and let those wicked spirits threaten his life in you without coming to your rescue? It is impossible.

Amazing Grace

For a pretty sweet rendition by Il Divo click on here.

Faith & Food (Part 7)

Here is the John MacArthur quote about Jesus' meaning in saying we must eat of Him as the bread of life that I shared from this morning's message in John 6:52-59.

Now, when we think about this analogy, it should just conjure up in your mind all kinds of appropriate relationships to the spiritual apprehension of Christ. Let me see if I can't help you with that. Eating, just take eating in general. If we're talking about the physical bread and the physical eating. First of all, eating is a necessary act if I am to derive any advantage from the bread. Is that not true? Now I like bread. I like bread a lot. I grew up with a mother and a grandmother that made bread all the time, still do. Rarely do I ever visit my mother when she, knowing I'm coming, doesn't have bread made for me. I love bread. My wife makes bread. We have a bread maker. I like to walk in the house and smell it. I like to see it. I like the color of it. Sometimes I like just to squeeze it. And I can go on and on about the - I can eulogize the crust. I can get into this stuff. I like all kinds of bread with all kinds of different things in it. But I may look at that bread, and I may admire that bread, and I may sniff that bread, and I may analyze that bread, and I may philosophize about that bread, and I may eulogize its qualities, and I may touch it and handle it, and I may be assured of its excellencies. And I might even trust the baker. But if I don't eat it, it doesn't nourish me. How obvious is that.

You may access his entire sermon here.

The Gun Cabinet & Re-Creation

Finally, we found one. We searched a long time. Every time we’ve come to Idaho the last several years we’ve visited the thrift and second-hand stores looking for a good bargain on a used gun cabinet. It simply will not do for a Nimrod-wanna-be (see Gen 10:8-9) to store his rifles in a closet!

Not until this trip however did Nancy and I enjoy success. B&B in Grangeville had an old, beat up, paint-splattered, locked-with-no-keys-available, six-slotted deal with a glass front sporting some nifty etching of ducks and cattails. And the man only wanted $35 for it!

After talking him down to $30 (I have no shame, but that’s what those kind of places are for, if you ask me), we loaded up and took the thing back to our place. No one surpasses my bride in taking used stuff and making it shine like new. Out came the Old English furniture scratch repair polish. We covered over every imperfection from top to bottom. The polish acted like a solvent so we were able to scrape off all the paint speckles. Windex sprayed within and without put sparkle on the glass. We vacuumed out the inside. Voila. Good as new. Ready for guns in the spot in the living room I imagined for it all these years. Sweet. Good things come to those who wait.

But who’s kidding whom? While the thing looks great thanks to Nancy’s extreme makeover magic, it isn’t new, not by a long shot. It’s still basically the same old used, pressed wood, cheap man’s gun cabinet. All we did was make some repairs and mask the imperfections the best we could. More than suitable for a mountain home in Idaho, but certainly not just-out-of-the-carton-brand-spanking-new by any means.

How entirely different is the case for anyone known to be “in Christ.” The apostle Paul declares in 2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” When God gets a hold of someone by His amazing grace, He doesn’t just make some repairs and mask imperfections in us; He makes us entirely new! At the moment of faith where one becomes organically linked to Jesus, we say good-bye to the old us and hello to a brand new version. Our God, Rev. 21:5 says, specializes in making all things new. That’s His deal. That’s what ultimately matters when it comes to our relationship with Him (Gal. 6:15).

The Baker New Testament commentary on 2 Corinthians says this about 5:17 - “When people become part of the body of Christ at conversion, their lives take a complete reversal. They now abhor the world of sin and former friends are hostile to them. Their preconversion lifestyle is history.”

Old gun cabinets may enjoy a transformation of sorts by external treatment and concentrated repair. But they remain old gun cabinets just the same. But behold! Believers in Christ enjoy a transformation of another sort that leaves them fundamentally and completely changed – so much so that we may rightly refer to ourselves as new, gloriously and wonderfully new in Him.

Things We Do Before the Lord

It didn’t take long. Within half a day of touching down on Idaho soil, shot gun in hand, I headed out to hunt on the final day of turkey season. As you can see, the Lord went with me. He gave me good success. I bagged a hen from last year’s hatchlings.

An obscure verse of Scripture from the genealogy in Genesis 10 came to mind somewhere along the way. Verse 8 says, “Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man.” What a way to go down in the biblical record!

How did he demonstrate his strength? Verse 9a gives the answer – “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD.” It was true to so great an extent that the rest of the verse indicates that the ancients coined a proverb in light of Nimrod’s prowess in the field. “Therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.’”

I suspect Nimrod gained his reputation for hunting game bigger and badder than turkeys. Never fear. Whitetail deer and elk season in these parts opened the next day. The thing that ultimately arrested my attention however was the fact that he hunted BEFORE THE LORD. All that traipsing around the woods with a weapon occurred before the eyes of a watching God. Hunting? Yes, hunting.

What else goes on before the Lord, I wondered? Even a brief survey of the Bible reveals a lot of specifics that go on before the eyes of the omniscient One.

For example – Being silent (Zech. 2:13). Fasting (Jer. 36:9). Trembling (Psalm 96:9). Walking (Psalm 116:9). Being guilty (2 Chron. 19:10). Praying (Dan. 9:20). Sacrificing (2 Chron. 7:4). Humbling self (2 Kings 22:19). Doing evil (2 Kings 21:2). Hanging (2 Sam. 21:6). Worshiping/dancing (2 Sam. 6:5, 14). Being detained (1 Sam. 21:7). Ministering (1 Sam. 3:1). Growing up (1 Sam. 2:21). Sinning (1 Sam. 2:17). Weeping (Judges 20:23). Eating (Deut. 12:7). Feasting (Ex. 32:5). Bringing a case (Num. 27:5). Even dying (Lev. 10:2).

Proverbs 5:21 makes the obvious point of this word search exercise. “For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.”

From hunting to worshipping to living and dying, we do it all before the eyes of God in heaven. He takes it all in. And He ponders our paths. The Hebrew word means to weigh something – to judge it. The One who bring all things to judgment on the last day, weighs our every action as it unfolds before His eyes.

This sobering truth should lead to some pondering of our own. Proverbs 4:26 exhorts us – “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.”

Whether your feet take you into the forest to hunt, into the sanctuary to worship, into the dining room to feast, or, God forbid, onto the gallows to hang, and finally even onto your deathbed to die, remember this – every last bit of it, all of it is before the Lord.

Time to Vacate

It's that time of year again. The Pacific Northwest beckons. Today we fly to Clearwater, Idaho for two weeks of R&R. Turkey season closes tomorrow. That's the bad news. Whitetail deer season opens tomorrow. That's the good news. Fishing season never closes. More good news.

All of that to say that my bride and I are headed for the wilderness, pictured above, to refuel the engines and kill and catch some stuff. We ARE remote and have little access to the web, so I do not know how much, if at all, I will post during these two weeks.

Lord willing, we will return on October 23 and I will resume preaching on the 25th with more from John's Gospel and the bread of life discourse.

Please pray for refreshment from the Lord in both spirit and body!

OGC Men's Retreat - October 30-31

We are pleased to have Pastor Jack Jenkins, pictured here with his wife Gayle, of Faith Baptist Church, Orlando, as our keynote speaker for this year's men's retreat on October 30 and 31 at Camp Ithiel.

The theme of this year's retreat is:

Trusting the Sovereignty of God in Adversity:
A Study from the Life of Joseph

Here are the four session titles for the weekend:

Session #1: God's sovereignty can be trusted when we do what's right and everything seems to go wrong!

Session #2: God's sovereignty works to our advantage, especially in adversity.

Session #3: God's sovereignty gives us divine reasons for granting forgiveness to others.

Session #4: If God is sovereign, then what's my responsibility?

Be sure to stop by the registration table this Sunday or next and reserve your spot! The cost is $75 per man, $40 per student. Some scholarship assistance is available upon request.

Twelve Propositions About Sanctification

These are from J. C. Ryle in his book Holiness.

He cites these propositions after defining sanctification as that inward work which the Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Ghost, when He calls him to be a true believer. He not only washes him from his sins in His own blood, but He also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart, and makes him practically godly in life.

1. Sanctification is the invariable result of that vital union with Christ which true faith gives to a Christian.


2. Sanctification is the outcome and inseparable consequence of regeneration.


3. Sanctification is the only certain evidence of that indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is essential to salvation.


4. Sanctification is the only sure mark of God's election.


5. Sanctification is a thing that will always be seen.


6. Sanctification is a thing for which every believer is responsible.


7. Sanctification is a thing which admits of growth and degrees.


8. Sanctification is a thing which depends greatly on a diligent use of means.


9. Sanctification is a thing which does not prevent a man having a great deal of inward spiritual conflict.


10. Sanctification is a thing which cannot justify a man, and yet it pleases God.


11. Sanctification is a thing which will be found absolutely necessary as a witness to our character in the great day of judgment.


12. Sanctification is absolutely necessary, in order to train and prepare us for heaven.
    

He quotes the Puritan John Owen regarding this last proposition:

There is no imagination wherewith man is besotted, more foolish,none so pernicious, as this--that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in their life, should afterwards be taken into that state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. Neither can such persons enjoy God, nor would God be a reward to them. . . . Holiness indeed is perfected in heaven: but the beginning of it is invariably confined to this world.

Saint of God, give yourself today to the means of grace that help conform you to the Son of God to the glory of God to prepare you for the dwelling place of God.

Bless You Cancer (19)

It has been some time since I have revisited this stream of posts. Today I reviewed several entries from my journal of 2005 covering the end of September into the beginning of October. This comes from 09.24.05, thirty-four days after finishing treatment for my head and neck cancer (note - I was still virtually completely unable to eat any solid food):

The Lord knew I would feel discouraged yesterday. He sent me multiple encouragements by email and visitor. Fred P's (a fellow head and neck survivor from Philadelphia I encountered through my network of friends and fellow-believers) gave me perspective through his doctor of all sources. I'm about where I'm supposed to be. My kind of cancer has among the harshest treatments in terms of impact on the body. That doctor tells people to expect a full year to recover normalcy. That was both good news and bad news to me. Clearly I have to adjust my expectations at how quickly my mouth will heal (I was under the faulty impression improvement would begin immediately). It is just going to take time. The whole R family came by for the night. We had a lovely visit. They lifted my spirits. Jeannie S sent me a nice letter too. God comforts the depressed by sending a Titus or two (2 Cor. 7:6). Praise His name.

Do you know a downcast saint you could comfort by a note, email, or visit today or sometime soon? Don't underestimate the significance to him or her of even the slightest encouragement on your part. God's comfort may well come through you at just the most needful time.

Responsibility & Inability

I made the point in the sermon from John 6:41-51 that Jesus requires us to repent and believe (v. 47). But it is also true (obnoxiously so according to Spurgeon) that we cannot do it (v. 44) left to our own devices. What are we to make of this conundrum between our responsibility to come and our inability to do so? Shouldn't we be responsible only for what we are able to do and not what we are unable to do?

Wayne Grudem offers this in reply in his one volume systematic theology:

The idea that we are responsible before God only for what we are able to do is contrary to the testimony of Scripture, which affirms both that we “were dead through the trespasses and sins” in which we once walked (Eph. 2:1), and thus unable to do any spiritual good, and also that we are all guilty before God. Moreover, if our responsibility before God were limited by our ability, then extremely hardened sinners, who are in great bondage to sin, could be less guilty before God than mature Christians who were striving daily to obey him. And Satan himself, who is eternally able to do only evil, would have no guilt at all—surely an incorrect conclusion. The true measure of our responsibility and guilt is not our own ability to obey God, but rather the absolute perfection of God’s moral law and his own holiness (which is reflected in that law).

Grudem, W. A. (1994). Systematic Theology : An introduction to Biblical Doctrine (499). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

How Faith & Food Figure in Following Jesus (Part 6)

In the interest of driving home some of the truths of yesterday's message, here is a portion of my preaching manuscript from John 6:41-51.

Our part is clear. Repent and believe. That’s all over John’s gospel. Jesus gets right in their face and calls them over and over again to come, to believe, to eat. But something else is clear, painfully clear, Spurgeon said obnoxiously clear. We can’t do it left to ourselves and our own devices. Look at v. 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This should sound familiar. It strikingly resembles Jesus’ words back in v. 37 – All that the Father gives me will come to me. This is the same doctrine of Christ related to salvation but said in two different ways. The first is from a positive view looking at the gifting to the Son by the Father all those He chooses out of His love and grace. The second is from a negative view looking at the total inability of absolutely everyone – no one can come – apart from that intervening love and grace of God on their behalf.

He’ll punctuate it again with this same crowd nearly the exact same way in 6:65 – This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. Why is this so? Sin. Sin has left every last one of us like the invalid man at the pool of Bethesda. We are morally and spiritually unable to do a thing to remedy our condition. We are as Paul put it in Eph. 2:3 – dead in our trespasses and sins. Or in Rom. 8:7 – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot. Or to use Jesus’ words to another crowd in John 8:43 – Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. It’s not your nature. Sin has corrupted it through and through. Rom. 3:10-12 – None is righteous, no, not one, no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

The good folks at Desiring God ministries have summarized the implications of this truth, what Reformed types call Total Depravity, as well as I have ever encountered:

It is hard to exaggerate the importance of admitting our condition to be this bad. If we think of ourselves as basically good or even less than totally at odds with God, our grasp of the work of God in redemption will be defective. But if we humble ourselves under this terrible truth of our total depravity, we will be in a position to see and appreciate the glory and wonder of the work of God. (For the entire document go here.)

What must happen then? Where then is there hope? Another great doctrine of the Reformed faith, irresistible grace, or what we might better call effectual grace! And its truth is all tied up in that massively important word in v 44 – draws. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Jesus uses the same word in 12:32 of the power He will exert in having gone to the cross – And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. When this word for draw gets used in the NT, whether for a fishing net that gets dragged from the sea, or a sword that gets drawn from its sheath, it always implies a couple of things. There is resistance and that resistance is ultimately overcome.

Thanks be to God that though our sin paralyzes grace regenerates!

7 Reasons We Need Small Groups

This comes from a message by Pastor John Piper. You may access the entire talk here.

He has given pastors to the church “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). I believe in what I do. And I believe that it is not enough. Here are the seven reasons I gave the small group leaders.

1.The impulse avoid painful growth by disappearing safely into the crowd in corporate worship is very strong.

2.The tendency toward passivity in listening to a sermon is part of our human weakness.

3.Listeners in a big group can more easily evade redemptive crises. If tears well up in your eyes in a small group, wise friends will gently find out why. But in a large gathering, you can just walk away from it.

4.Listeners in a large group tend to neglect efforts of personal application. The sermon may touch a nerve of conviction, but without someone to press in, it can easily be avoided.

5.Opportunity for questions leading to growth is missing. Sermons are not dialogue. Nor should they be. But asking questions is a key to understanding and growth. Small groups are great occasions for this.

6.Accountability for follow-through on good resolves is missing. But if someone knows what you intended to do, the resolve is stronger.

7.Prayer support for a specific need or conviction or resolve goes wanting. O how many blessings we do not have because we are not surrounded by a band of friends who pray for us.

So please know that when this small-group ministry of our church is lifted up, I don’t think it’s an optional add-on to basic Christian living. I think it is normal, healthy, needed, New Testament Christianity. I pray that you will be part of one of these small groups or that you will get the training and start one. This is the main strategy through which our pastors and elders shepherd the flock at Bethlehem: Elders > small group leaders > members to one another.

21 Days for Global Harvest

21 Days for Global Harvest from SVM2 on Vimeo.

Click on this video to learn about this prayer and fasting effort coming up soon. You may access the daily email prayer guide for free here.

Sanctification & the Use of Means

Here is the quote from J. C. Ryle's book Holiness that I read before the Lord's Table today in our worship at OGC.

Sanctification, again, is a thing that depends greatly on a diligent use of Scriptural means. When I speak of “means”, I have in view Bible-reading, private prayer, regular attendance on public worship, regular hearing of God’s Word, and regular reception of the Lord’s Supper. I lay it down as a simple matter of fact that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification. I can find no record of any eminent saint who ever neglected them. They are the appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to the soul, and strengthens the work that He has begun in the inward man. Let men call this legal doctrine if they please, but I will never shrink from declaring my belief that there are no “spiritual gains without pains”. I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest, as expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible-reading, his prayers, and the use of his Sundays. Our God is a God who works by means, and He will never bless the soul of that man who pretends to be so high and spiritual that he can get on without them.

Lay hold of the varied means of grace in your pursuit of the holiness of God in your everyday life.

More Puritan Power for the LB

This is a particularly good word from William Gurnall in The Christian in Complete Armour:

Afflictions are a spade which God uses to dig into His people's hearts to find the gold of faith. Not that He does not seek out the other graces also, but faith is the most precious of them all. Even when God delays and seems to withdraw His hand before coming with the mercy He promises, it is so that He can explore our faith.

Do you find God using the spade of affliction to dig into your heart in this present season of your life? What is He finding in you? May we say to Him with the man in the Gospels, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.

The Gospel’s Highest Privilege

I have to admit it. Until recently reading chapter 19, God the Son, in J. I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God, I never considered the notion of ranking the manifold privileges of the gospel. Is there a highest among such heights of the spiritual blessings of our salvation in Christ--election, predestination, justification, adoption, redemption, sanctification, and glorification?

Packer thinks so. He calls adoption the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification (p. 206). That turned my head a bit. After all, reformed types cherish justification as a gift of gifts from God ever since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Wittenberg door.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith summarizes the biblical doctrine of adoption this way in chapter twelve:

For the sake of His only Son, Jesus Christ, God has been pleased to make all justified persons sharers in the grace of adoption, by means of which they are numbered with, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of children of God. Furthermore, God's name is put upon them, they receive the spirit of adoption, and they are enabled to come boldly to the throne of grace and to cry 'Abba, Father'. They are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by God as by a Father. He never casts them off, but, as they remain sealed to the day of redemption, they inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

No wonder John exclaims in 1 John 3:1a – See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The truths contained within this doctrine of sacred Scriptures take your breath away. But do they do so enough to warrant ranking them above the likes of justification?

Packer explains why he thinks so:

Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves. . . . The two ideas are distinct, and adoption is the more exalted. Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge. In justification, God declares of penitent believers that they are not, and never will be, liable to the death that their sins deserve, because Jesus Christ, their substitute and sacrifice, tasted death in their place on the cross.

The free gift of acquittal and peace, won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience--but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting. [Chew on that notion for a bit!]

But contrast this, now with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship--he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater (p. 207).

To borrow from Wesley and dare embellish a bit, Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me AND make me your child! And can it be? Yes, oh my, yes, it can! Thanks be to God for His indescribable gifts of justification AND adoption!

A Reflection on the Desiring God National Conference

I say reflection singular, not reflections plural, for this article does not contain room to record all God brought to mind and worked in my heart this past weekend in Minneapolis. The title of the conference was With Calvin in the Theater of God. DG meant to honor the magisterial (of, pertaining to, or befitting a master; authoritative) reformer during this year marking the 500th anniversary of his birth.

My reflection comes from the final message of the conference delivered by Dr. John Piper. He entitled it Jesus Christ as Denouement in the Theater of God: Calvin and the Supremacy of Christ in All Things. Fortunately, he defined denouement for us; I did not have a clue. This comes directly from his message which you can access online here.

The dictionary says that the dénouement is “the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.” Or: “the climax of a chain of events, usually when something is decided or made clear.”

Piper sought to answer the question, What is the ultimate goal of God in the theater of God? He argued that the answer is to glorify Himself in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He made his case for that with an exposition of Ephesians 1:4-6 and other related passages:

. . . even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

In what he called the ultimate statement in the Bible about the purpose of God in the theater of God, Piper explained from v. 6 that this is why everything exists. God is to be praised by innumerable redeemed beings. Specifically, we are not just to praise His glory but the glory of His grace. The apex of the glory of God is the grace of God. Every other attribute serves the purpose to make the grace of God more plain and precious.

He closed with a series of applications in answer to the question, So what? He called them five ways of believing this denouement.

1. The highest pleasure of the human being is the pleasure of admiration. Seeing it, savoring it, speaking it, is the end -- to admire the infinite admirability which is found only in God's grace in Christ. Make it your life-long, eternity-long vocation to see and know Him so that all else is counted loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ.

2. When the theater of God is renewed the dazzling creation will be as nothing as compared to Christ. Beware to become excessively excited about the new heavens and new earth. It will be as nothing in comparison. We won't need a sun or moon any more, because the glory of God will be its sun and the Son will be its lamp. Everywhere we look we will see Christ reflected. It will be unlike anything we've known. So don't get excited about eternal golf! Many in our churches will be shocked when denied entrance into heaven when the Lord says to them, All you ever really wanted was my gifts and not me. See Matt. 7:21-23.

3. Now that we understand what it means to be loved by God given the mercies of His grace we must also understand that this love is not in and of ourselves to be made much of but to be rescued from the need to be made much of.

4. To be sure, we ourselves will be glorified. We will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. We will shine with the glory of Christ, not our own. It will be so stunning that we will be tempted to bow down and worship one another, said C. S. Lewis. But remember the glory will be a reflected glory, the glory of Christ.

5. When God gives us eyes to see His glory in the gospel of Christ, we are gradually being changed into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). This is the most important verse in the Bible on sanctification. Beholding is becoming. Seeing Christ in His glory changes us. Any other way toward change leads to legalism. The role of the pastor is to open eyes to the glory of Christ. Theirs' is an impossible task. It begins with the pastor seeing Christ for himself and then relentlessly commending Him to others.

This is the legacy of John Calvin. This is the call of the Holy Scriptures. This is the desire of my heart as a pastor. Let us continually stand in awe, amazed at the glory of Christ as the denouement of the theater of God.

Puritan Power for the LB

This from William Gurnall:

Faith, then, becomes active when it rests on Christ crucified for pardon and life. There are many acts of the soul which must precede this, for a person can never truly exercise this faith unless he first has knowledge of Christ and relies on His authority. Only then can he say, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12). Most people are reluctant to trust a complete stranger. Abraham did not know where he was going, but he knew with whom he was going! God worked with Abraham to teach him the knowledge of His own glorious self—who He was—so that His child could rely on His word, assenting to the truth of it no matter how harsh and improbable and impossible it seemed. “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1).

Wherever your journey takes you today in the life of faith, you may not know where you are going, but as a child of God you know with whom you are going. Be strong and courageous!