Martin Luther: "Here I stand....."

Justin Taylor provides an excellent post for Reformation Day.

The Worst Thing That Could Happen to World Evangelization

"...the worst thing that could happen to the future of world evangelization is to bring in 100 million new 'converts' like the last 100 million, since their superficiality obscures rather than reveals the glory of God."

-- S. Douglas Birdsall, the executive director of the Lausanne Movement, describing part of his motivation in working to bring about the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town (2010). (Cited by Scott Hafemann in "For the Fame of His Name" [Crossway], p. 251, n.19)

We can trust the Gospels....

Charles E. Hill, professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, debunks the 'conspiracy theory of the Gospels.'

Confidence and Allegiance

“By establishing his kingdom, God reveals his glory in the world through creating a people who will obey his commands as an expression of their confidence in his sovereignty.”

-- Scott Hafemann, p. 237 “For the Fame of His Name”

"Worship is theology set to music..."

"Worship is theology set to music. The praises of Christ are christology in song since we praise him for who he and for what he has done. Praise is therefore energized and expanded by an increased vision of his accomplishments, and correspondingly limited whenever it fails to show forth the totality of his work."

-- Sinclair Ferguson, "For the Fame of God's Name" (Crossway), p. 186

Martin Luther's 95 Theses

This Sunday is Reformation Sunday. Here is an interview with Carl Trueman about the event that triggered the Reformation -- Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses....

Rapper Curtis Allen and the Heidelberg Catechism

Curtis Allen's rap about the Heidelberg Catechism (inspired by Kevin DeYoung's book, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism (Moody, 2010).

The Song Has Become a Groan

"...Out of God’s own freedom he made creatures in his image; he created us to walk with him, to commune with him as we enjoy his presence and blessing. But we have rejected his love and his
lordship, which has resulted in death and disaster. We have turned from the One to whom we belong. As a result of our sin and rebellion the great song of creation turned into a deafening moan. This rejection of God’s kingship caused a rupture in the entire cosmos, for, if you could hear it, even the rocks and the trees began to cry out against this fissure between the Creator and his creation."

-- Kelly Kapic, "God So Loved He Gave" (Zondervan)

"Bible-believing" Churches Aren't Always Shaped by the Bible

"....every Christian must be shaped from the inside out by a set of convictions about who God is and what he has accomplished in Jesus Christ. As Christians we should be animated (given life) and motivated (compelled to action) by a core of doctrinal truths–truths like God is loving, sovereign, and holy; God created the world and created it good; as a result of Adam’s sin humans are bent toward evil; Jesus Christ was God’s Son, begotten not created; Jesus suffered and died on the cross for sins and rose again on the third day; the Holy Spirit is God and fills us with power, enables us to believe, equips us with gifts, and bears fruit in our lives; the Bible is God’s word; Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead, and justification is by faith alone.

"These truths need to be more than a set of beliefs we assume. They should be the lens through which we look at ourselves and the world. There are many Christians and churches that don’t deny any cardinal doctrine of Christian faith, but they still don’t have a theological core. They have, instead, a musty statement of faith they barely understand and hardly believe and wouldn’t dare preach. They are animated and motivated by politics, church growth, relational concerns and the like, but the gospel is merely assumed. “Yes, yes–of course we believe in the Virgin Birth, and the atonement, and the resurrection, and heaven and hell,” they say. But its all periphery, not core. It’s all assumed, not all-consuming. Theologically hollow congregations and pastors may like to think they will bequeath a gospel legacy to the next generation, but the truth is we only pass on what is our passion. New converts and new kids won’t think and live and love like mature Christians, let alone be able to articulate the Christian story, if our beliefs rest in a pamphlet and not in our hearts."

-- Kevin DeYoung

Our conscience is proof that our communion with God has been brokien

Interesting point here by the great Herman Bavinck (Reformed Dogmatics 3:173):

Before the fall, strictly speaking, there was no conscience in humans.

There was no gap between what they were and what they knew they had to be.

Being and self-consciousness were in harmony.

But the fall produced separation.

By the grace of God, humans still retain the consciousness that they ought to be different, that in all respects they must conform to God’s law. But reality witnesses otherwise; they are not who they ought to be. And this witness is the conscience.

The conscience . . . is proof that communion with God has been broken, that there is a gap between God and us, between his law and our state. . . . The human conscience is the subjective proof of humanity’s fall, a witness to human guilt before the face of God.

HT: Tony Reinke; Justin Taylor

The Fear of the Lord

Go here for an excellent, comprehensive survey of the Bible's teaching on the fear of the Lord from the late John Murray (who was professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in PA).

"Lord, save me from my sins..."

from Charles Spurgeon:

He shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

Lord, save me from my sins. By the name of Jesus I am encouraged thus to pray. Save me from my past sins, that the habit of them may not hold me captive. Save me from my constitutional sins, that I may not be the slave of my own weaknesses. Save me from the sins which are continually under my eye that I may not lose my horror of them. Save me from secret sins; sins unperceived by me from my want of light. Save me from sudden and surprising sins: let me not be carried off my feet by a rush of temptation. Save me, Lord, from every sin. Let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Thou alone canst do this. I cannot snap my own chains or slay my own enemies. Thou knowest temptation, for Thou wast tempted. Thou knowest sin, for Thou didst bear the weight of it. Thou knowest how to succor me in my hour of conflict; Thou canst save me from sinning and save me when I have sinned. It is promised in Thy very name that Thou wilt do this, and I pray Thee let me this day verify the prophecy. Let me not give way to temper, or pride, or despondency, or any form of evil; but do Thou save me unto holiness of life, that the name of Jesus may be glorified in me abundantly.

Re-assurance about being remembered....

“He will tend his flock like a shepherd.” Isaiah 40:11

“Jesus, the good shepherd, will not travel at such a rate as to overdrive the lambs. He has tender consideration for the poor and needy. Kings usually look to the interests of the great and the rich, but in the kingdom of our Great Shepherd he cares most for the poor. . . . The weaklings and the sickly of the flock are the special objects of the Savior’s care. . . . You think, dear heart, that you are forgotten, because of your nothingness and weakness and poverty. This is the very reason you are remembered.”

C. H. Spurgeon, Treasury of the Old Testament (London, n.d.), III:575-576.

HT: Ray Ortlund

Glorifying and Enjoying God, Here and Now

It is not a good sign when a professing Christian seems to be almost exclusively focused on whether or not they are 'saved' -- as if once that question is settled, they can pretty much relax spiritually. John Newton reminds us that a real conversion will entail a change, also, in a person's primary concern -- namely, that God be glorified....

"Whoever is possessed of true faith, will not confine his inquiries to the single point of his acceptance with God, or be satisfied with the distant hope of heaven hereafter. He will be likewise solicitous how he may glorify God in the world, and enjoy such foretastes of heaven as are attainable while he is yet upon earth." -- John Newton

Amazing Grace Trains Us for Godliness

In his day, like ours, John Newton (who penned the lyrics to "Amazing Grace"), faced resistance when he preached on the need for holiness of life, as if such preaching was somehow a grace-less legalism.....

"...There are too many who would have preaching limited to the privileges of believers; and when the fruits of faith, and the tempers of the mind, which should be manifest in those who have "tasted that the Lord is gracious," are inculcated, think they sufficiently evade all that is said, by calling it legal preaching. I would be no advocate for legal preaching; but we must not be deterred, by the fear of a hard word, from declaring the whole counsel of God; and we have the authority and example of Paul, who was a champion of the doctrines of free grace, to animate us in exhorting professors to "walk worthy of God, who has called them to his kingdom and glory." And indeed the expression of a believer's privilege is often misunderstood. It is a believer's privilege to walk with God in the exercise of faith, and, by the power of his Spirit, to mortify the whole body of sin, to gain a growing victory over the world and self, and to make daily advances in conformity to the mind of Christ. And nothing that we profess to know, believe, or hope for, deserves the name of a privilege, farther than we are influenced by it to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.

"Whoever is possessed of true faith, will not confine his inquiries to the single point of his acceptance with God, or be satisfied with the distant hope of heaven hereafter. He will be likewise solicitous how he may glorify God in the world, and enjoy such foretastes of heaven as are attainable while he is yet upon earth."