AIMS

From John Piper:

I have a new acronym.

Along with I.O.U.S. and A.P.T.A.T. and A.N.T.H.E.M. I now use A.I.M.S. to help me maintain my Christ-consciousness through the day.

Two times in his second letter Peter said he meant to stir us up “by way of reminder” (2 Peter 1:13; 3:1). This is what I need all day long. Reminders of massive truth.

If my mind is empty or worldly, my faith languishes. My joy in Christ weakens. I need truth. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

My mind needs glory: “Set your minds on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2). I need to think on excellent praiseworthy reality:. “If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

But my mind drifts into banal and trivial things. And my soul shrivels.

What shall I do? I “will call to mind” amazing things about God (Lamentations 3:21). I will “remember” his all-gracious covenant (1 Chronicles 16:15). I will set my mind on “the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). I will “consider his wondrous works” (Psalm 106:7).

How?

Among other ways, with A.I.M.S. Through the day I will pause and ask, What are you’re A.I.M.S. And I will answer:

A. I will call to mind the stupendous truth that Jesus is ALIVE. (Luke 24:5–6)

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”

I. I will remember the breathtaking reality that Jesus is IN me. (Romans 8:10).

“Christ is in you.”

M. I will ponder the all-comforting fact that Jesus is MIGHTY. (Matthew 28:18).

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

S. And I will savor the sweetness that Jesus is SATISFYING. (John 6:35)

"Whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

Truth from an Unexpected Source

When the Accounts are Called

Albert Mohler has an excellent article about the Christian's response to gambling.

Christians struggle with this question. Do you have a Biblical response?

Gambling corrupts the culture, polluting everything it touches. Recent scandals in college basketball are proof positive that gambling is not a problem limited to casinos and horse tracks. Ominously, industry executives see great promise in the development of on-line gambling over the Internet, bringing gambling to every computer terminal and overcoming state regulation.

The silence and complacency of the Christian church must end. As the late pulpiteer R. G. Lee used to remind us, there will be a “payday, someday.” The Church had better not bet on this problem just going away.

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Wisdom

Wisdom is more than brains. It is more than morals. We could memorize the whole Bible, and mean it from the heart, without wisdom. Wisdom is skill, expertise, competence that understands how life really works, how to achieve successful and even beautiful results. We see a picture of wisdom in Exodus 35:31, where the word translated “wisdom” in Proverbs 1:2 is used for the skill of an artist adorning the tabernacle. We see wisdom in Jeremiah 10:9 where the expertise of goldsmiths is called “the work of skilled men,” or wise men. We see wisdom in Psalm 107:27 for the know-how of sailors, who use the winds and tides to make their way through the sea to their destination.

Whether craftsmanship working with the materials of life or seamanship steering through the currents of life, so to speak, wisdom understands how real life can work well. Wisdom knows better than to walk onto the football field and hope the game will go well somehow; wisdom draws up a game plan that will score more touchdowns than the opponents because that plan takes into account not only the rules of the game but also psychology and timing and strategy and everything it takes to win. That is wisdom.

-Ray Ortlund Jr.

Proverbs: Wisdom that Works

When Your Son Asks

Deuteronomy 6:20–21:When your son asks you in time to come, "What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?" then you shall say to your son, "We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand."

Charles Spurgeon:

Fathers and mothers are the most natural agents for God to use in the salvation of their children. I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever had such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such influence over the young heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring.

We should especially tell our children our own experience… Perhaps, my friend, there is no testimony that you can bear which will be so useful, so interesting and so striking, as the testimony of what you have, yourself, seen and handled of the Word of Life.

Tell the gospel as you find it in the Bible, but set it in the frame of your own experience of its preciousness! Tell your son how you sinned and how the Lord had mercy upon you. Tell him how he met with you, how you were brought to seek his face, how you were born again, how you received a new heart and a right spirit. He will think the more of this great change because it happened to his father, or to his mother, or to some kind friend. And, perhaps, if he is not himself converted as a child, in his later life he may think of what you told him or the remembrance of his mother’s God may rise before him when he is far away from the scenes of his youth and has spent many years in foolish vanities — and he may even then turn to God, beckoned back to the great Father’s House above by the memory of his godly father and mother here below.

-Charles Spurgeon "Brought Out to be Brought In."

God Has Two Problems With Us

“God has two problems with us. The relationship can be broken in two ways. The first would be by our failure, our immorality, our vices. . . . That problem is usually quite obvious.

But the second problem is not so obvious. It is precisely our supposed success, even our ‘morality,’ our virtues — the relationship with God is broken to the degree that we don’t think we need the unconditional justification . . . .

The first problem, our failure and our immorality, is usually most easily recognized and generally condemned because it has consequences, both personally and socially.

But the second problem, while generally approved in human eyes because it is advantageous and socially useful, is more dangerous before God . . . precisely because it is praised and sought after.”

Gerhard O. Forde, “The Lutheran View,” in Christian Spirituality, edited by Donald L. Alexander (Downers Grove, 1988), page 26.

The Archaeology of Repentance

From Roy Ortlund:

In a sermon preached during the First Great Awakening, George Whitefield laid bare the four archaeological layers always uncovered in true repentance. Preaching on “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14), Whitefield said that before we can speak peace to our hearts:

One, “You must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the law of God.” The dawning of realism. Honesty. Brokenhearted self-awareness. “Was ever the remembrance of your sins grievous to you? Was the burden of your sins intolerable to your thoughts? Did ever any such thing as this pass between God and your soul? If not, for Jesus Christ’s sake, do not call yourselves Christians.”

Two, “You must be convinced of the foundation of all your transgressions. And what is that? I mean original sin.” We realize that, even when we haven’t acted on our impulses, the very fact that our hearts rise up against God is itself damning. All self-hope stripped away. “When the sinner is first awakened, he begins to wonder, ‘How came I to be so wicked?’ The Spirit of God then strikes in and shows that he has no good thing in him by nature.”

Three, “You must be troubled for the sins of your best duties and performances.” Our righteous self-images start to unravel, our excuses, our rationalizations, our entitlements. Every self-invented refuge collapses. “You must be brought to see that God may damn you for the best prayer you ever put up. Our best duties are so many splendid sins. There must be a deep conviction before you can be brought out of your self-righteousness; it is the last idol taken out of the heart.”

Four, “There is one particular sin you must be greatly troubled for, and yet I fear there are few of you think what it is. It is the reigning, the damning sin of the Christian world, and yet the Christian world seldom or never thinks of it. And pray what is that? It is what most of you think you are not guilty of, and that is the sin of unbelief.” Treating God as unreal at a functional level in our hearts and lives and churches and strategies. “Most of you have not so much faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the devil himself. I am persuaded the devil believes more of the Bible than most of you do.”

“One more then. Before you can speak peace to your heart, you must not only be convinced of your actual and original sin, the sins of your own righteousness, the sin of unbelief, but you must be enabled to lay hold upon the perfect righteousness, the all-sufficient righteousness, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you shall have peace.”

Select Sermons of George Whitefield, pages 75-95.

Quote of the Day

“It always seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have the right to choose His own bride?”

– C. H. Spurgeon

Never Waste A Good Crisis

From Tim Challies:

You never want to waste a good crisis. That is true in politics and religion and any other field that values ideology, that values one thing over another or one thing in place of another. As Christians we know that the Lord often uses times of crisis to call people to himself, that when people are weak, he remains strong and reveals himself as strong. Of course if God uses crisis, so must Satan. In those times of intense difficulty we may be more aware than ever of the cosmic battle that wages around and inside us.

I have been thinking of the value of crisis as I have watched Americans grapple with President Obama’s recent mandate that demands that almost all employers and health insurance companies provide free contraceptives, up to and including contraceptives that cause (or can cause) abortions. The outrage to this mandate is multi-faceted. On the one hand it forces employers and insurance companies to violate conscience in providing contraceptives for those who are opposed to all forms of birth control, or abortifacient birth control for those who have no objection to preventive contraceptives. In either case, it ignores the separation of church and state that is so integral to America; with this mandate government forces violation of religious conscience.

This is a true crisis and I feel great sympathy for Americans as they wrestle with the implications and call for this bill to be abandoned. I would do the same if I lived south of the border.

As my friends to the south deal with this crisis, I want to offer a word of advice or encouragement: Please do not forget that there are many people who will seek to take advantage of this crisis in order to advance their agenda. Please keep fighting against this injustice, but do be careful how you fight and who it is you fight with.

I was not surprised that one of the first and loudest objections came from Charles Colson. He is, after all, a cultural commentator and a leader within evangelicalism. He and Timothy George worked together to pen a piece for Christianity Today they titled First They Came for the Catholics. Acknowledging that this crisis was first advanced against the Roman Catholic Church and their hard [official] stance against contraception, Colson and George said, “We evangelicals must stand unequivocally with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. Because when the government violates the religious liberty of one group, it threatens the religious liberty of all.” They are right, of course, that violating the religious liberty of one group violates the religious liberty of all. But note their underlying assumption that Roman Catholics are brothers and sisters. Rick Warren offered a very similar note via Twitter: “I’m not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers and sisters to practice their belief against government pressure.”

The solutions Colson and George propose revolves around The Manhattan Declaration, a document that has already been much debated since its 2009 release. This document was framed around three cultural and biblical issues: the sanctity of life, the meaning of marriage, and religious liberty. It has been a while since most of us have thought of the Declaration, but a crisis like this one brings it right back to the forefront. After all, today’s crisis treads upon two of those three issues: the sanctity of life and religious liberty. It is exactly the kind of crisis that make that Declaration appear relevant and necessary.

Yet that Declaration is dangerous, and particularly so in the way it does damage to the gospel. You may want to revisit R.C. Sproul’s article Why Didn’t R.C. Sproul Sign the Manhattan Declaration?. The heart of his objection is this: “The Manhattan Declaration confuses common grace and special grace by combining them. While I would march with the bishop of Rome and an Orthodox prelate to resist the slaughter of innocents in the womb, I could never ground that cobelligerency on the assumption that we share a common faith and a unified understanding of the gospel.” John MacArthur’s reasoning is much the same: “Support for The Manhattan Declaration would not only contradict the stance I have taken since long before the original ‘Evangelicals and Catholics Together’ document was issued; it would also tacitly relegate the very essence of gospel truth to the level of a secondary issue.” Whatever was true of that Declaration in 2009 is true today.

I cannot speak of the motives of Colson and George, not without some speculation, but I do know that we do well to be alert. Their desire to lower the wall between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics—the wall of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone—is well-documented. Don’t think that they will allow today’s crisis to go to waste. There may be times for cobelligerency, to fight side-by-side with people who are on the other side of the gospel divide. This may even be such a time. But please remember that these are times to be more careful than ever, to continue to preach those gospel truths to yourself, and to ensure that the gospel is never, ever minimized or compromised. The more we labor with people on the other side of that gospel divide, the more we are prone to allow our similarities on non-gospel issues to blur our differences on the gospel itself.

I know that in times like this many Christians look for leadership, they look for trusted leaders to help them think through the issues so they know what to do. My encouragement is to take your cues from a few trusted individuals, people who have earned the right to be heard. In times like this so many of us turn to men like John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul and ask their help. These are men who have a long history of ensuring that the gospel remains central, men who have always valued truth over popularity, who have been willing to stand firm on truth. If this crisis continues without quick and happy resolution, I hope we will hear from men like MacArthur and Sproul who are specially gifted to help us interpret this time and help us know how to act.

For now, tread carefully, pray earnestly, hold tightly to the gospel, and remind yourself that no one wants to waste a good crisis. Through it all, know that Christ has already conquered and even this is under his complete and total sovereignty. In some way, at some time, he will glorify himself in it and through it.

Quote of the Day

“The Pharisees’ problem was not that they were too concerned with orthodox teaching, but that they had invented their own orthodoxy. Jesus condemned them for replacing and modifying the clear truth of Scripture with their own traditions (Matthew 15:1-9). They were the chief theological miscreants of their day.

So how did Jesus treat them? Did He show them love — i.e., did He obey the Second Great Commandment in His dealings with them? Of course.

What did that love entail? First and foremost, Jesus declared the truth to them. He also frequently delivered public rebukes for the errors that threatened to damn them. He castigated them. He occasionally held them up to public ridicule. He obviously valued their souls more than their feelings. That is what authentic love looks like. In other words, Christ, not Rodney King, is the paragon of perfect love.

The vast majority of Pharisees didn’t heed Jesus’ warnings, of course. The smug or snide ones might have even claimed it was because He didn’t “have a relationship based upon love.” It was nonetheless the right thing for Him to correct their false teaching and warn others of the danger posed by their error.”

– Phil Johnson

Study the Word for More Than Just Words

From Desiring God:

Learn a lesson from Jerry Seinfeld. Daily Bible intake is about soul survival.

Very Much into Just Surviving

When his wildly successful sitcom ended, Seinfeld went on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour called “I’m Telling You for the Last Time.” The routine was recorded for compact disc (remember those?) at New York’s Broadhurst Theater in August of 1998. At the end is a question-and-answer segment, where a zealous fan shouts, “Do you have favorite Seinfeld episode?”

Seinfeld answers,

I get this question quite often. I don’t really have a favorite; they’re all kind of my babies. I did the best I could with each one. [Audience applauds.]

You know, comedy is kind of a survival industry. Comedians are very much into just surviving. It’s like if I were to ask you, “What is your favorite breath of air that you’ve ever taken?” You would say, “Whichever one I’m taking that gets me to the next one.” That’s kind of the mindset.

And that kind of mindset, alongside others, is a wise one for the seminary student (indeed, every Christian) to embrace. That you took a deep breath an hour ago won’t be much appreciated unless you’re still breathing. A great meal a month ago won’t do you much good if you haven’t eaten since. And delighting in God through taking in his word isn’t an annual, monthly, or even weekly event for the healthy Christian, but a daily rhythm.

Keeping Your Soul Alive

There is more to say about seminary, and the whole of the Christian life, than just the necessity of pursuing daily soul-survival in the Scriptures, but this need must not be overlooked. An otherwise impressive theology degree is utterly unimpressive if your soul has shriveled in the course of study.

As Christians, daily Bible intake is to our souls what breathing, eating, and drinking are to our physical bodies. As the Word Incarnate himself says, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Our souls will die without the word of God. And so, like Seinfeld says about comedians, seminarians also should be “very much into just surviving”—at least in this sense.

Making Your Studies Devotional

First, seek to make your seminary studies devotional. Pray for God’s help before class and during, before studying and during, before writing a paper, or taking a test, and during. Continually consecrate your studies to Jesus, and ask him to freshly meet you in it, keep your spiritual blood flowing, and keep you soft to his grace.

Important for every Christian, and perhaps especially for seminary students, is never coming to the Scriptures with anything less than a devotional approach. Whatever the assignment, intentionally seek the growth and warming of your soul. There’s no spiritually neutral gear when handling the Bible. We either survive or shrivel. Don’t repeat the lesson far too many have learned about trifling with holy things.

Keeping Space for Daily Devotions

So, by all means, make your studies devotional, but secondly, do take at least a brief season (daily if possible) to focus just on feeding your own soul. Find a good patch in the Scriptures (maybe through a Bible-reading plan), where you’re not preparing for class or for a test or a sermon, and graze a while, just for the survival of your own soul—knowing that crumbs from such a meal will inevitably bless those you minister to, but not having your future flock (or present internship) as your explicit focus in your study. The aim is the daily strengthening and sustaining of your own soul.

And often a helpful reminder to seminary students is to not read merely for information. Seek spiritual sight of the living Christ. Be on the unashamed lookout for Jesus, for soul-satisfaction in him that runs up verses and doctrines to a person, the God-man, rather than terminating on concepts and ideas.

In such an explicitly “devotional” time, set out to explicitly enjoy Jesus in the Scriptures as your great end, not as a means to anything else, whether some assignment or ministering to others in some way.

More Than Words

And keep in mind that having a daily “quiet time” or “devotions,” without communing with Jesus, won’t keep your soul alive. Mere reading and studying won’t do it. By itself, new information about God—glorious as it is—won’t keep our hearts soft and our souls breathing. We need the person of Jesus himself whom we find in and through the Scriptures. Our souls long for a living connection with the living God-man. We were made for this.

We can never afford to settle for anything less than the words of the Bible, but extreme as it may seem, our souls need more than words, more than facts, more than studies and new head knowledge. We need the Word himself. Our souls need Jesus to survive. And for now, the devotional imbibing of the Scriptures is an essential place to find him.

Quote of the Day

“But why is faith the means of justification? Simply because it is the action of union with Jesus Christ. Faith is our coming to Him, our trusting Him, our resting in Him. The moment we are united to Him, we are immediately endowed with all that He has secured for us. We are immediately justified before we have done a single good deed, because we are His and He is God’s. Just as a very poor woman is a very poor woman until the very moment that she marries a wealthy man. But at the moment that she becomes his wife, she becomes a wealthy woman. It is by means of her acceptance that she becomes a wealthy woman, but her acceptance does not make her a wealthy woman; it is her husband’s wealth that makes her so. So faith does not justify; Christ justifies. But faith is the act of union with Christ.”

– John H. Gerstner

What's the Big Deal with Profanity?

“What’s the big deal about profanity?” It’s a question I sometimes hear from young people who consider profanity a normal part of modern communication. Indeed, some Christian leaders in supposedly “cutting-edge” ministries use profanity in their presentations in an attempt to relate to the street language many unsaved people use.

What is profanity? The word profane literally means “outside the temple.” The term originally identified people or things that were secular as opposed to religious. The proliferation of profanity in American culture indicates secularization and an attack on Christian values. Media ratings of movies, music and videos continue to use language as a criterion, but standards of censorship on public airwaves are clearly eroding.

Profanity is used for shock value in expressing anger and humor. The words often are associated with sexuality and filth. Names of the Deity are used to bring additional potency and irreverence to the expressions. It is worth noting in our politically correct culture that the blasphemous use of the names of God and Jesus Christ are not regarded as “hate speech.”

The Bible recognizes the power of words. God spoke His creation into existence, and the gift of speech is one aspect of man’s creation in the image of God (Gen. 2:19-20). In the revelation of God’s law, words as well as actions are assigned moral values. Lying, blasphemy, taking the Lord’s name in vain, and cursing are examples of sinful speech forbidden in the Mosaic Law.

The New Testament also commands believers to be pure in speech by controlling their tongues: “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way” (James 3:9-10). Christians should honor the purpose of speech by using our mouths to praise God and leading others to obey the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ. Every word we speak should be “gracious” and “seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6).

Christians are called upon to live differently and to act differently than the world of unbelievers. I do not need to speak profanity to win a cursing unbeliever anymore than I need to drink alcohol to win an alcoholic. The words of Scripture have all the potency and power we need to reach the heart of the lost.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, LORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Hal Lane is pastor of West Side Baptist Church in Greenwood, South Carolina

Quote of the Day

“The closer we are to God, the more the slightest sin will cause us deep sorrow.”

– R. C. Sproul

The Glory of God

Consider:

• the glory of his eternality that makes the mind want to explode with the infinite thought that God never had a beginning, but simply always was;
• the glory of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox and quantum physics like a first grade reader;
• the glory of his wisdom that has never been and can never be counseled by men;
• the glory of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch;
• the glory of his providence without which not one bird falls to the ground or a single hair turns gray;
• the glory of his word that upholds the universe and keeps all the atoms and molecules together;
• the glory of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers, heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear, still storms with a word, and raise the dead;
• the glory of his purity never to sin, or to have a two-second bad attitude or evil thought;
• the glory of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground;
• the glory of his justice to render all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;
• the glory of his patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade;
• the glory of his sovereign, slave-like obedience to embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;
• the glory of his wrath that will one day cause people to call out for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them;
• the glory of his grace that justifies the ungodly;
• and the glory of his love that dies for us even while we were sinners.

List excerpted from John Piper, "The Surpassing Goal: Marriage Lived for the Glory of God,"Building Strong Families

Quote of the Day

“No person ever said, at the end of their days, ‘I have read my Bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful with my soul.’”

– J. C. Ryle

20 Ways Satan Will Try to Destroy You This Week

From Paul Tautges:

He is the serpent, the Great Dragon, Beelzebul, the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the evil one, and the adversary. He is Satan. And—if you are a follower of Jesus Christ—he hates your guts with a passion. Like a roaring lion he is prowling about seeking to destroy you.

How can you stand firm and resist the devil so that he will flee from you?

First, do not be naive; you must consider his ways.

1. He may slander God to you in order to cast doubt on God’s goodness and shipwreck your faith (Gen 3:4-5).
2. He may tempt you to deceive others in order to create, or maintain, the impression of being more spiritual (Acts 5:3; Jn 8:44).
3. He may corrupt your mind and steer you away from the simplicity of Christ and His gospel (2 Cor 11:3).
4. He may hinder [cut in on, as in a race] your gospel witness (1 Thess 2:18).
5. He may wrestle against you, fighting against your progress in Christ (Eph 6:12).
6. He may tempt you to commit sexual immorality against your spouse as a result of neglecting the intimacy of the marriage bed (1 Cor 7:5).
7. He may harass you with some form of fleshly affliction (2 Cor 12:7).
8. He may blind the spiritual eyes of your unsaved family, friends, and neighbors so that they may not see the glory of Jesus in the gospel (2 Cor 4:4).
9. He may keep your unsaved acquaintances in bondage to sins that hinder them from coming to God (Gal 4:8).
10. He may smite you with physical disease (Luke 13:16; Job 2:7).
11. He may murder you (Ps 106:37; Jn 8:44).
12. He may sow tares [counterfeit Christians, sons of the evil one] within your assembly of believers in order to deceive and create disunity (Mt 13:38-39; 2 Cor 11:13-15).
13. He may lead you toward theological compromise by causing you to be friendly to false doctrine and its teachers (1 Tim 4:1-3).
14. He may persecute you for your godliness (Rev 2:10).
15. He may tempt you to do evil (Matt 4:1; 1 Thess 3:5).
16. He is, at this moment, prowling about seeking to capture and destroy you, chiefly through pride (1 Pet 5:6-8).
17. He will most assuredly slander you before God in heaven (Rev 12:10).
18. He may ask God for permission to sift you out for concentrated attack and temptation (Luke 22:31).
19. He may use the power of suggestion to move you away from the will of God (Matt 16:21-23).
20. He may try to cripple your effectiveness through confusion, discouragement, and despair (2 Cor 4:8-9).

How can you stand firm and resist the devil so that he will flee? The Bible exhorts believers to war against the enemy of faith by not remaining ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor 2:11); by submitting to God (Jas 4:7), being sober and alert and resistant to him (Eph 4:27; Jas 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8), and by not speaking lightly of him (Jude 8; 2 Pet 2:10).

5 Defensive Pieces of Armor and 2 Offensive Weapons: We must put on the armor of God, which includes thedefensive weapons of truth, righteousness, gospel proclamation, faith, and salvation. We must also employ theoffensive weapons of the sword of Scripture and prayer (Eph 6:11-18). These are the only means by which we may firmly stand against the devil.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:12).

Quote of the Day

“If you are superficial about sin, then you will also be superficial about salvation.”

– Dr. John MacArthur

What Is The Great Commission?

What is the Great Commission? from Westminster Seminary California on Vimeo.

Quote of the Day

“To test the genuineness of a diamond, jewelers often place it in clear water, which causes a real diamond to sparkle with special brilliance. An imitation stone, on the other hand, will have almost no sparkle at all. When the two are placed side by side, even an untrained eye can easily tell the difference. In a similar way, even the world can often notice the marked differences between genuine Christians and those who merely profess faith in Christ. As with jewels, there is a noticeable difference in radiance, especially when people are undergoing difficult times. Many people have great confidence in their faith until it is severely tested by hardships and disappointments. How a person handles trouble will reveal whether his faith is living or dead, genuine or imitation, saving or non-saving.”
– Dr. John Macarthur

Whole hearted Worship

Worship is the primary duty of every man toward God. Think about that statement for a moment: “Worship is the primary duty of every man toward God.” Do you agree? Probably you do. But do you live your life consistently with such a claim? Is this priority of worship reflected in your everyday life? Is it reflected in the way that you approach the public worship of God every Lord’s Day?

As Dr. David VanDrunen has pointed out in his book Living in God’s Two Kingdoms: A Biblical Vision for Christianity and Culture, many Christians today view the public worship of the church as if it were a huddle in the middle of a football game or like a gas station stop on a road trip: it is a time to regroup or refuel for the “real action” which occurs elsewhere. Worship is seen as a means to another end, a mere preparation for the “real action” of the Christian life that occurs out in the world during the rest of the week. But as Dr. VanDrunen argues, “The church’s worship and fellowship are ends in themselves. Nothing that we do in this world is more important than participation in these activities” (p. 133).

John Calvin made the same point in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. He observed that in the summary of God’s absolute, unchanging Moral Law, the Ten Commandments, the first four Commandments all have to do with worship. That the duty of man to worship God is stated first is no accident: God was revealing by that order that “the first foundation of righteousness is the worship of God” (II. viii. 11).

But worship is not just the primary duty of all men; it is also the highest privilege of all believers. Standing as they do in Christ’s perfect righteousness, Christians have access to God’s holy presence in which they can even now rejoice (Rom. 5:1-11). And the best part about worshiping God under the New Covenant is that we can enter into that presence of God directly and with confidence, with no need for any mediator, any priest (Israelite or Roman Catholic), other than Jesus Christ Himself (Heb. 10:11-25).

But if all of this is true – that worship is both our primary duty and our highest privilege – then we need to ask ourselves, “Do we take our worship of God as seriously and engage in it as whole-heartedly as we should?” The Puritan “Directory for Public Worship” states that it is the responsibility of every person present, once the public worship of the church has begun, “wholly to attend upon it,” that is, to give it his undivided attention and to participate in it fully. Pastors are not priests: they cannot worship God for us. They can only lead us in worship: it is the duty of each one, then, to follow and to worship God for himself.

May God help us all to be more intentional and more engaged in every aspect of our corporate worship, to “wholly to attend upon it”; and may He draw out from our churches and from each one of us worship that is true and heartfelt, for such worship is indeed our primary duty and our highest privilege.

Jason Walter, Pastor

Christ Reformed Baptist Church

Quote of the Day

“If Christ died for many whose salvation He didn’t secure, that doesn’t give me assurance.”

– Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

Quote of the Day

“So great is the depravity of unregenerate man that, although there is nothing that he needs more than the gospel, there is nothing that he desires less.”

– R. B. Kuiper

We Are Justified Only By Christ

The true Christian is not justified because of any goodness of his own. His peace is not to be traced up to any work that he has done. It is not purchased by his prayers and regularity, his repentance and his amendment, his morality and his charity. All these are utterly unable to justify him. In themselves they are defective in many things and need a large forgiveness. And as to justifying him, such a thing is not to be named. Tried by the perfect standard of God’s law the best of Christians is nothing better than a justified sinner, a pardoned criminal. As to merit, worthiness, desert, or claim upon God’s mercy—he has none. Peace built on any such foundations as these is utterly worthless. The man who rests upon them is miserably deceived. The true Christian is counted righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is justified because of the death and atonement of Christ.

~ J.C. Ryle