Why Membership Matters

Kevin DeYoung on the important question of why church membership matters.

"Counterfeit Gods" by Timothy Keller

I am consistently impressed with the Biblically-profound, life-related wisdom of Tim Keller (pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, and author of excellent books like "The Reason for God" and "The Prodigal God").

Here is a preview excerpt from his soon to be released book, "Counterfeit Gods -- The Empty Promises of Money, Sex and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters."

Even just this preview is well worth reading.

Lloyd-Jones On Seriousness in the Pulpit

From D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ Preaching & Preachers, pp. 85-86:

"The preacher must be a serious man; he must never give the impression that preaching is something light or superficial or trivial….What is happening [in the act of preaching] is that he is speaking to them from God, he is speaking to them about God, he is speaking about their condition, the state of their souls. He is telling them that they are, by nature, under the wrath of God–”the children of wrath even as others”–that the character of the life they’re living is offensive to God and under the judgment of God, and warning them of the dread eternal possibility that lies ahead of them. In any case the preacher, of all men, should realize the fleeting nature of life in this world.

"The men of the world are so immersed in its business and affairs, its pleasures and all is vain show, that the one thing they never stop to consider is the fleeting nature of life. All this means that the preacher should create and convey the impression of the seriousness of what is happening the moment he even appears in the pulpit. You remember the famous lines of Richard Baxter: 'I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.'…

"You remember what was said of the saintly Robert Murray McCheyne of Scotland in the last century. It is said that when he appeared in the pulpit, even before he had uttered a single word, people would begin to weep silently. Why? Because of this very element of seriousness. The very sight of the man gave the impression that he had come from the presence of God and that he was to deliver a message from God to them. That is what had such an effect upon the people even before he had opened his mouth. We forget this at our peril, and at great cost to our listeners."

True Friendship

Ray Ortlund: “True friendship thrives when, before God, each one is more aware of his debts than his rights.”

Read the whole thing.

HT: Justin Taylor

Responding to the Lordship of Christ (series on "The Kingdom of God")

Here are the study questions to this morning's lesson and discussion in our series on the kingdom of God:

Kingdom. Lordship applied -- Matthew 4:17
Discussion/application questions

Lesson summary:
Rightly responding to the reality of the (coming) kingdom in the present means rightly responding to the reality of Christ’s total Lordship (Matt.28:18-20.; Rom.10:9).

This means that the Christian life is a life lived devoted to the glory of God, in obedience and service (spiritually, vocationally….). But it also means living a Spirit-empowered life – we do not obey and serve in our own strength, or in the flesh.

To actually live out this new allegiance, one must be baptized, join the church (the body of those already devoted) and progressively learn to live by all Christ has taught, applying that teaching (again, progressively) to every sphere of life.

Questions for discussion and application:

Discuss how this relates to key areas like… (use this underlined areas for this application)
--Worship
--Discipleship: holiness of character, in relationships (family, friendships, community)
--Service (use of your spiritual gift for the good of the rest of the Body [1 Cor. 12:4-11])
--Stewardship of your time, finances, resources, etc.
--Witness/evangelism
--Vocation (your work life)
--Recreation (re-creation) – for example, have you deliberately thought through how your allegiance to Christ as Lord applies to your recreational life (e.g, the place of sports in your life)?


Do your habits of choosing, valuing, doing demonstrate and principled allegiance to Christ as Lord? How is this different from being a ‘nominal’, “Laodicean” professing Christian? (Rev. 3:15-16ff.)

Why is presenting Christianity/the Gospel in a man-centered, self-centered way a fundamental contradiction of what Christianity essentially is?

What are the implications of this understanding of what it means to ‘get saved’ in relation to your kids? ….and in relation to our church’s ‘outreach’ and evangelism?

In what ways is Kingdom-focused living highly purposeful, intentional and rewarding?

What is the only alternative to living under the Lordship of Christ in the kingdom/reign of God? (Col. 1:13; Rom. 6:17, 22)

"God's Purposes in Our Troubles"

Justin Taylor posts excerpts from J.I. Packer's classic "Knowing God" regarding God's good purposes in the troubles we experience.

National Public Religiousness

Is is just me, or does any one else find it bizarre to see Wayne Dyer's "New Age' strangeness (which is essentially a secularized version of 'name it-claim it' theology) trotted out every pledge week by the purportedly secular National Public Radio?

Prayer: One of the Surest Marks of a True Christian

“A habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian. All the children of God on earth are alike in this respect. From the moment there is any life and reality about their religion, they pray. Just as the first sign of the life of an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying.”

~ J.C. Ryle
A Call to Prayer, 5.

Christ-centered worship

"Christ-centered worship is not just talking or singing about Jesus a lot. Christ-centered worship reflects the contours of the gospel. In the individual life of a believer, the gospel progresses through recognition of the greatness and goodness of God, the acknowledgment of our sin and need of grace, assurance of God's forgiveness through Christ, thankful acknowledgment of God's blessing, desire for greater knowledge of him through his Word, grateful obedience in response to his grace, and a life devoted to his purposes with assurance of his blessing.

"In the corporate life of the church this same gospel pattern is reflected in worship. Opening moments offer recognition of the greatness and goodness of God that naturally folds into confession, assurance of pardon, thanksgiving, instruction, and a charge to serve God in response to his grace in Christ. This is not a novel idea but, in fact, is the way most churches have organized their worship across the centuries. Only in recent times have we lost sight of these gospel contours and substituted pragmatic preferences for Christ-centered worship. My goal is to re-acquaint the church with the gospel-shape of its worship so that we are united around Christ's purposes rather than arguing about stylistic preferences."

-- Bryan Chappell, in an interview with Collin Hansen on "Christianity Today" online

Belonging to God, Belonging to God's Church

“By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity. . . . If the church is the body of Christ, then we should not live as disembodied Christians.”

- Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill, Crossway Books, 2008), 41.

The Enlightenment as a Christian Heresy

“One way of understanding [the Enlightenment] is to think of it as a Christian heresy. What Christian faith had offered was retained while the Source from which that offer had been made was rejected. The prerogatives that had belonged to God did not simply disappear; now they reappeared in human beings. The revelation he had given now reappeared in the form of natural reason, which would do what revelation had done but without the discomfort of requiring humanity to submit to God from whom the revelation had come; the idea of salvation was retained but transformed into the drive for human perfectibility, at first achieved by moral striving and then, as we know it today, by psychological technique; grace became effort; the life of faith became the hope of personal growth; and eschatology became progress (what Lord Acton called the religion of those who have none).”

~ David F. Wells, Above All Earthly Powers (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 30.

"The Gospel-Driven Life"

WTS Books is offering Michael Horton's new book, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World (Baker), for 45% off. The offer is good for the next week and a half.

This book is a sequel to Christless Christianity, moving from "the crisis to solutions, in the hope that we will see a new reformation in the faith, practice, and witness of contemporary Christianity."

Here are some excerpts:

"Unique among all religious claims, the gospel is an announcement about certain historical events. At its heart, then, Christianity is not a resource for spirituality, religion, and morality, but a dramatic story at the heart of which is the claim that during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus was crucified for our sins and, after three days, was raised bodily from the dead. As we will see, the arguments for his resurrection are eminently reasonable—more reasonable, in fact, than alternative explanations. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians that if Christ was not raised, then we are not saved. No other religion makes its validity wholly dependent on a historical fact….

"It is interesting that the biblical writers chose the word “gospel.” The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources. Nothing new can be found inside of us. There is no inner rescuer deep down in my soul; I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my sense of fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify.

"But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us. Good advice may help us in daily direction; the Good News concerning Jesus Christ saves us from sin’s guilt and tyranny over our lives and the fear of death. It’s Good News because it does not depend on us. It is about God and his faithfulness to his own purposes and promises."


--Michael Horton, "The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World," Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2009.

HT: Justin Taylor

"What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory?"

“The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies’ strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours.

"Let us therefore be `strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory?”

—Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 122
posted at "Of First Importance"

"Take Heed What You Read" (and Watch)

“Do not let newspapers, novels, and romances be read, while the prophets and Apostles be despised. Do not let the exciting and sensual swallow up your attention, while the edifying and the sanctifying can find no place in your mind.”

“Young men, give the Bible the honor due to it every day you live. Whatever you read, read that first. And beware of bad books: there are plenty in this day. Take heed what you read.”

~ J.C. Ryle


Thoughts For Young Men, 42.

Judge Yourself By What Christ Is

“Ah! believer, it is safer always for you to be led of the Spirit into gospel liberty than to wear legal fetters. Judge yourself at what Christ is rather than what you are. Satan will try to mar your peace by reminding you of your sinfulness and imperfections: you can only meet his accusations by faithfully adhering to the Gospel and refusing to wear the yoke of bondage.”

- Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, September 6