I'm a Christian...and It's Not Because I'm An Awesome Guy!

 It's been awhile since I've posted anything here.  I needed to get some thoughts out of my head due to all the stuff going on in "the world" today so here's a bit of a rant.

I am a Christian only because I believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News of the gift of salvation from God.  There is nothing good in me.  I am a wretched sinner whose only hope for rescue is by coming to God begging for His mercy on me.

Even before I heard the Gospel I KNEW I was a sinner and lost, doomed to Hell when I died.  Even though I would have denied it if you had asked me deep down inside I knew I was.  When I heard the Gospel message it confirmed what I already knew about myself.  How did I believe in Hell?  I don't know, I just did.  My life when I heard the Gospel was a small glimpse, a taste, of what Hell was going to be.  The Bible tells me that ALL are sinners in the eyes of God, and everyone's life proves this to be true.  The Bible also tells me that if all sinners do not repent and believe the Gospel while here on earth, when they die they will stand before God and be judged and sent to Hell.  Right now God is the enemy of every sinner and every sinner stand condemned already.  Every sinner is to be punished for sin - the judgement is held off for the time being until they die.  The Gospel is that Jesus Christ took the punishment of God that I rightly and justly deserve.  He took this punishment in my place, He paid my debt to God and rescued me.  By doing these He made peace with God on my behalf.  I believe this with my whole heart and I am SO thankful and grateful to my Lord and Savior.  How do I believe this?  I don't know, I just do.  I heard the Gospel and it was like a light went on.

The world that I live in right now is going through tremendous turmoil.  All people are sinners and when a Christian brings the Gospel message to a person, or takes a stand against a sinful lifestyle and offers a reason why they are against sin, they are violently dismissed, screamed at, raged against, taken to court, fined, etc., for being intolerant, haters of people, bigots.  It is truly fascinating, sad and scary to watch it all unfold.  People do not want to hear the truth that they are sinners.  People want to have their lives and lifestyles affirmed, to be told their lifestyles are acceptable in God's eyes.  The scary thing is that if they do not repent then they will die in their sin and be sent to Hell.

The professing church in the world I live in right now is also going through massive change.  As professing Christians continue to run away from the teaching of the Bible, sound doctrine and a life marked by repentance they are embracing what the world outside the church accepts and embraces already.  Homosexuality is the big thing now.  The absolute crazy thing here is that well known leaders in the professing church are telling sinners that their sin is acceptable in the eye of God.  Whole denominations are going this route, to the applause of the world.  We are seeing the Great Falling Away taking place before our eyes.

Christians do not come from any moral high ground AT ALL - how can they?  A Christian recognizes they are sinners who stand before God condemned for their sin but for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on their behalf.  When a Christian takes a stand against "the world", it's because they recognize sin for what it is and what it does and what it brings.  It's not because they are "holier-than-thou", or somehow "better than" others.  When a Christian tells you the Gospel it's because they are concerned for your very soul and want you to be saved from the punishment of God that will one day be yours in all its fury.  Don't be fooled - God does not love sin!  He hates it and will punish it.  If you don't believe that, look to what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

What Kind of Love?

John 3:36 - “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

We were watching an episode of The West Wing the other night. The President is visiting a small town in Oklahoma that a tornado has just destroyed. He is in a shelter and speaking with a female volunteer about what has happened. She tells him she used to drive the school bus and that a number of the children who took her bus to school had been killed by the tornado. She then questions how a loving God could do this to people. They try to do the right thing. They do good. They go to church. How could He do this?

This verse, John 3:36, came to my mind. The wrath of God REMAINS on all who do not obey, who reject the Son. The Son takes away the wrath of God from all those who believe. As Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace with God. Think about that statement for a moment. Is God our enemy? The fact that we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ did implies there was no peace before. Wait a minute! I thought God loved us all?

Of course it's a terrible thing when a tragedy strikes. I know people question these things and invariably lay the blame at the feet of God for such disasters. This shows how great the deception is that humanity is under. The craziness of this deception is that we are the ones who are fallen, sinful, corrupt, and enemies of God. His wrath is upon us and we stand condemned already. Yet when tragedy strikes we point the finger at God, wondering how He can do this to us; thinking ourselves the innocent ones and He the villain. We hear all the time that “God is love.”, and this is used to trump and justify all wrongdoing, all sin. “Aside from a few bad apples we're all pretty much good. Sure, we're not perfect, but God loves us.” We never hear, “If you reject Jesus Christ, the wrath of God REMAINS on you!” It's there ALREADY! It doesn't just come on you at some future time. You're in it RIGHT NOW! At any moment He can strike you down and be perfectly justified in doing it. As John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” A tornado, a car accident, a fire, some illness, old age. Sooner or later, one way or another, we are all going to die. How could a loving God do this to people?

I found myself thinking of a different question. Knowing what the Scripture says of fallen man's position before God, I wondered, “Why does a loving God allow people to keep on living?” The fact that the rejectors and blasphemers of Christ remain alive and live their lives apart from Him, enjoying the many blessings they do, is a testament to the patience and grace of God. What's more, every breath we take is a gift of God (Acts 17:25 “...since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”) and a proof of His grace bestowed upon sinful, fallen humanity. Romans 2:8 throws a sobering light on the future of those who reject Christ: “...but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” The meaning of “wrath and fury” as copied from the Strong's speak of “passion (as if breathing hard):--fierceness, indignation, violent passion (ire, or (justifiable) abhorrence); by implication punishment:--anger, indignation.” I picture God coming after His enemies in vengeance, breathless in His wrath. Thinking of God like this, as the Bible presents Him, scares the crap out of me!!!

Knowing this is what makes the Gospel the Good News. Jesus came to take the wrath of God upon Himself in the place of the elect. He came to take the punishment from God that we all deserve. For those who believe, the elect, He suffered the wrath of God in their place. Because of this, the truth of Romans 5:1 comes to those who believe – we have been justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is no longer our enemy, breathless in His wrath as He comes after his enemies. Because of what Jesus did we have peace with Him. As it says in Romans 4: 7, 8

“Blessed are those

whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one

whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Memory Lane

This was kinda what it was like for me when I was first introduced to Calvinism.

(Special thanks to Dan Phillips of Pyro for this vid.)

From a slave to his Master

I am as You say I am. I do not have any problem whatsoever agreeing with You on my condition. I am filthy and corrupted. Over and over again I prove that I can do nothing that is spiritually good for anything. You are holy, and righteous and good. You are full of grace, mercy and truth. You hate sin, are at war with the sinner, and Your judgement has already been pronounced – GUILTY! There is none like You – NONE! Every religion, every god, every ethic, every belief system – you are found in none of these. These are empty. These are a distraction - a wide road among many that is so easy to follow. Do I honestly believe that if I do a thing, or don't do a thing, that this somehow saves me from Your wrath? I can only run to You and throw myself at Your feet knowing that only You can save me...from You – Your full wrath poured out on me. What can I bring, apart from Your enabling, that will make You find favor with me? There is nothing. What can I do, apart from Your work in me, that would bring You pleasure? There is nothing. Is not all of MY righteousness as filthy rags? Or, as the original language puts it – used menstrual cloths. I agree with You – this is the best that can be said about ALL of my righteousness. 

 

Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to Christ Jesus! Clothed in His righteousness, You are the one who justifies the sinner. You do it. Not I, the sinner. It is Your righteousness, not mine. I am the slave in the slave market - completely bound, owned by sin and utterly helpless. You purchased me. I am your slave, but what a poor slave I am. It is unfathomable to me – You, my gracious Lord, took the full wrath of God's anger against me. You took ALL of it in my place and in exchange clothed me in Your righteousness. And then the pronouncement - “Paid in Full!” You declared me righteous. You did. I know I am not, but You declared it. All because You saved me...from You.

From: a lowly slave, with immense thankfulness, to his glorious Master.

Change...again.

Another chapter closes.  A new one opens. 

Okay.  That's about as cheesy as I want to go.

Suffice it to say, we're moving...again.

It doesn't seem like that long ago I was writing about moving to Kindersley.  Now we're moving again as I start in a new position in Saskatoon.

We're leaving behind a pretty good church, and a great church family.  Some good co-workers and a VERY cool neighbor. 

May 1, 2014 is "The Day".  We have movers coming to pack us up a few days before and moving us in one day after.  So we'll be camping in our new digs for the first night, eating pizza and watching The Desolation of Smaug - good times!!!

We're looking forward to the change in a lot of ways...but I think leaving our church and church family is going to be harder than we think.

Another chapter closes.  A new one...yeah, enough cheese!

The Blessing, and the Curse, of Discovering John MacArthur

I've been giving some thought lately on my discovery of John MacArthur a few years ago. As I pondered this, I realized that this discovery has been a HUGE blessing to me in so many ways. However, I've also realized that this discovery came with a curse of sorts.

After completing two whole years of Bible College – each year at a different school and roughly six years apart – I felt I had a pretty good grasp on things. I sailed along for many years in this condition. Along the way, I was introduced to Calvinism by a group of people that began to attend the Church I was a part of. I couldn't stand their arrogance! There's just no other way of putting it. I did not agree with them AT ALL!, but a big part of this had to do with how they carried themselves. I went to my Pastor with my concerns about this only to discover that he was a Calvinist as well. All this time and he never said anything of the sort, neither in one-on-one conversations nor from the pulpit. I picked up “What is Reformed Theology” by RC Sproul and finally discovered, with all the snotty arrogance left out, what Calvinism was about. I realized that this is what the Bible taught and did a complete turnaround in my belief on this.  I'd like to think that the "snotty arrogance" in those who initially introduced me to these doctrines has remained with them.  

Both the Bible schools I went to never taught any specific Doctrines, except for one class. It was at the first school I attended. The class was the Doctrine of Salvation. The school's Director came to give us a talk before the teacher came, and one of the things he stressed was a warning for us not to get caught up in the “doctriney stuff”. I realize this now, years later, that I imbibed basically a “We love Jesus, not doctrine” mentality.

Fast forward many years later.

The night I discovered John MacArthur I was searching Bible teachers' names on You Tube. I had heard of MacArthur when I was a new Christian so I put his name in. There were a number of hits and some were with him on Larry King Live. For years prior to this I had watched numerous talk shows in dismay when they had a pastor giving the “religious perspective”. “Wishy-washy” is about the kindest term I can use to describe what those pastors would usually say. MacArthur was COMPLETELY different! Whatever question he was asked would be given an answer based out of the Scriptures. No matter how hokey or crazy the other participants thought he was, it didn't matter – his answers were based on the Bible. I respected that! I watched a number of those Larry King shows and my respect for him continued to grow. I went to the Grace to You website and discovered I could download his sermons for free – I did! I then discovered that he had whole sermon series from the books of the Bible. Galatians, Philippians, Romans – I could get them all...and I did. I began to listen to him teach from a book starting at chapter one, verse one and continuing all the way through the entire book. This was the first time I had ever experienced anything like that. I began to see what God had to say to these specific churches about what was going on in them. It was so eye-opening! ALL the sermons I had ever heard were more often than not based on verses taken out of their context and used to speak to an issue going on in our lives today. Hardly any effort at all was made to exegete a specific passage and teach what was actually being addressed. MacArthur was completely different - he did EXACTLY that!

Over many months I continued to listen and learn. In the process I began to grow in the Lord. My knowledge of His Word increased and so did my love of Him. I began to see that loving Jesus can never take place unless one begins to learn sound doctrine. Divorcing doctrine from Jesus is an absurdity! We must worship God in spirit AND in truth – John 4:24. The huge blessing of discovering John MacArthur has been my growth in the Lord, beginning to really love the Word, and starting to understand what the books of the Bible are about.

Almost on the heels of this blessing has been the curse. In my growing understanding of the Word I've come to see how enemic the teaching in the churches I've been a part of has been. When I began to see how completely ignorant of the Word I was, the term “Biblically Illiterate” came to mind. There I was, standing in my own arrogance (those two whole years of Bible College, don'tcha know!) while all the while being completely illiterate when it came to doctrine. I fit right in with pretty much everyone else because we all were/are illiterate. Two years of Bible school and very little understanding of any of the Doctrines of the Christian faith. Almost two decades in the Church and very little understanding of any of the Doctrines of the Christian faith. The shepherd digging into the Word to feed the sheep is foreign. Shallow and superficial, cultural relevancy, social justice – these are what spews from pulpits Sunday after Sunday. The church has become one more social gathering that meets together to make itself feel better and to help the community. The curse is in seeing this taking place and not being able to do anything about it. In learning the Word and beginning to understand the plumb line of Doctrine I am seeing how far from that plumb line the church has moved...and it kills me!

I am not being facetious when I say that I am thankful to God for these. Raising up John MacArthur, a faithful man who ministers the Word of God in the face of hatred, antagonism and jealousy – and these come from within the Church! Year after year he has taught the Bible, chapter and verse, to the sheep God has given him to shepherd. God has used him to open my eyes to the truth of Scripture, to see how far I am not, and to call me to repentance. Because of this I see more clearly the wretched state of the church today. But I also know that God is sovereign over all, and that He is continuing to save His own. For this I am truly thankful!

This has been the blessing, and the curse, of discovering John MacArthur. And I thank God for this discovery!

Doctor, Doctor Give Me the News. I Got a Bad Case of...?!?

 Luke 5:27-32 “After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

After reading this I asked the question, “How does one know he is sick?” A doctor examines the patient and then provides his diagnosis. Scripture is clear on our diagnosis – All have sinned and are dead in transgressions and sins (Rom 3:23; Eph 2:1,2). How about the examination? Has God in His Word given humanity the means enabling us to recognize our condition? I believe He has.

Luke 18:9-14 "He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

How many times have we seen, or been involved in, conversations about others? This group we see, or are a part of, is basically destroying the character of another and that person is usually not there. There is a self-righteous atmosphere amongst the people doing the talking. This other person who is not there is usually portrayed as the most vile, evil, stupid person to have ever breathed oxygen on this planet. The attitude portrayed by those doing the talking is one of smug confidence in their own moral greatness and virtue. They are masters at seeing every single fault, real or imagined, in other people, but lousy when it comes to recognizing their own. This attitude is summed up in the individual when they say, “I am a good person.” It is this principle that I believe is active in every single one of us. We are great at seeing sin in others, but lousy at seeing it in ourselves. We magnify it in others, but when it comes to our own lives there is very little to be seen. When we measure ourselves by Scripture (the examination) what do we see (the diagnosis)?

To recognize our condition we have been given a great tool – the Law. Romans 3:20 says, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” I'll repeat that - Through the Law we become conscious of our own sin. So lets look at the Law, particularly the 10 Commandments, and see how we do.

Even the most cursory glance causes the sinner to quickly realize the truth of Romans 3:23 – ALL have sinned!, and that “ALL” includes YOU...and it includes ME. But the sinner might look at these and not see what is really there. Jesus gave us more info on these, His interpretation.

Regarding the 6th Commandment, in Matthew 5:21,22 He says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” Sure, you haven't killed anyone. Have you ever been angry with anyone? If you say you haven't, I'm pretty confident in saying that you've just broken the 9th Commandment.

How about the 7th Commandment? Jesus said in Matthew 5:27,28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” If you've even looked at another person with sexual lust in your heart, even if you haven't committed the act, according to Jesus you're guilty of breaking the Law.

How about number 8? Have you ever stolen anything? Number 9? Have you ever lied? James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” So, based on this examination you are a murderer, adulterer, liar and a thief. That's just four of the Commandments that you are guilty of breaking in the sight of God. In the sight of God YOU are GUILTY of breaking His law!

We have now entered the realm of what is being described these days as “hate speech”. It is at this point that people react. You can't do this with a homosexual or lesbian without hearing “hate speech”, or “bigot”, or “homophobe”. But whether you do this with the aforementioned sinners or any other “sinner group” or the individual sinner, the Christian's desire is not to make himself appear better because he is so holy and righteous and wonderful. The Christian's desire is that the sinner will hear God's diagnosis of his illness and seek the Remedy, the Cure. This is how the sick find out they are sick. Jesus came for the sick (sinners) and to call them to repentance. The attitude of the sinner at this point should be like that of the tax collector in Luke 18.

Another aspect of the sinner's attitude I want to address has to do with the person who says in effect, “When I stand before God I'm hoping He will see the good things I've done and let me into Heaven.” I picture a person standing before a judge and presenting himself in this wonderful light, hoping the judge will make a judgement in his favor. The problem with this is that, using this scenario, the judgment has already been passed. The gavel has been pounded. There are no appeals. Jesus said in John 3:18 “He who believes in him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” When the sinner stands before God at the judgement that is it! Ezekiel 18:20 says, “The soul who sins shall die.” There is nothing that he can do but be tossed into the lake of fire (Rev 20:15). This is the default position of all humanity – guilty sinners on their way to the lake of fire. What can be done? How can you escape? Is there any hope for you? THIS is the very point of the Christian's desire. Not hate speech. Love speech! You now know you're sick. THIS is what Jesus was getting at. He came for the express purpose of calling SINNERS to repentance that He might save them!

To the ones who have heard and seen themselves in the mirror of God's Law and still remain as they are, there is this warning: “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works...” (Romans 2:5,6). “Storing up” in the Greek is thēsaurízō, and it is used in the sense of gathering and laying up, to heap up, store up: to accumulate riches. I live in an area of the world that has lots of farmers. Every Spring they plant their fields and in August they harvest. When they bring the seed from the field they store it in huge bins. My unrepentant friend, YOU are like a grain bin and you are continuing to store up wrath for yourself. Wrath that God will bring down on you at the Judgement. Instead of coming to Christ in repentance and having Him pay your sin debt, YOU will now have to pay it yourself, and this is a debt that you can NEVER repay. 

John 3: 16-18a says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned...” This call goes out to everyone! Salvation is for EVERYONE who believes in Him. It was these very verses that God used to open my eyes to His salvation. I thought that I was so awful that God would want nothing to do with me and these verses put those fears to rest. He came, not to condemn me (I was already condemned!), but to save me. He took my sin upon Himself and was nailed to the cross. In exchange for my sin His goodness, His righteousness was given to me, credited to me and because of what He has done God declared me righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Philippians 3:9 says, “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith...”

Ephesians 2:1-9 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” 

Here's a great song by David Wesley to finish this off.