Strange Bedfellows: Understanding My Enemy’s Enemy

All is not actually fair in love and war. And the enemy of my enemy is likely not to be a trustworthy ally. Some years ago I had the occasion to speak to a group of pro-lifers on ministering outside abortion mills. My desire was to explore how the gospel is what is needed at the gates of hell. I wanted folks to understand we are not there to protest, to affirm, “We oppose what you are doing. We are offended, and we insist you stop.”

Neither, however, are we there merely to plead that we can meet their immediate needs, that if they will not abort, we will ensure their life is good. Rather we are there calling sinners to repent, to trust in the finished work of Christ alone. The need of the “gospel” isn’t some vague expression of the tender love of Jesus. It is instead the call to repentance, and the promise of forgiveness by His shed blood. If we cannot speak of His blood in the killing fields, where can we?

As part of the meetings at which I spoke the movie Babies Are Murdered Here was shown. It’s an outstanding movie, and can be seen here. Before it could begin, however, one attendee cornered me to express his concerns with the movie- he liked it generally, and even wanted to show it at his church, but felt he couldn’t because the film was “anti-Catholic.” Suddenly, the simple “co-belligerency” argument grew more complicated.

It has been my conviction that I am happy to work with anyone who opposes abortion. Some years ago I spoke at a local March for Life with the local Roman Catholic bishop, and felt no guilt whatsoever. I would, indeed, march with Satanists for Life if such a group existed. But there is a great difference between marching and preaching. When we preach we preach the gospel. And Rome preaches a different gospel. I cannot, I will not, set aside the life-saving message of Christ in order to fight a consequence of our sin, no matter how dreadful and evil.

Trouble is we are often so focused on our enemy that we lose sight of who our friends are. That they hate the ones we hate may be a good sign, or a bad one. Maybe they hate my enemy because they are in competition with him. Maybe they hate my enemy for not hating me more. Maybe they hate my enemy because I have lied about him, and if they knew the truth, they’d hate me.

We are on dangerous ground when we judge people on the basis of their friends. We are on still more dangerous ground when we judge them on the basis of their enemies. Our loyalty, from beginning to end, needs to be toward Jesus, for His Word, and with His people. We need to stand with those with whom He stands. We need to set aside our alliances, our parties and our cliques, and learn to judge with wisdom. We need to understand that when we sidle up to the enemy of our enemy, we have just made friends with a maker of enemies. We will be next.

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Live Bible Study Tonight, Philippians- Ode to Joy

Tonight we conclude our study, finishing chapter four of Philippians. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.

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Why is there such a divide in the church on racial issues?

Most of the time when men of good will disagree it stems from competing strategies. We agree on where we want to go. We disagree about how to get there. In this instance, however, while we surely agree where we want to go, we not only disagree about how to get there, but perhaps more important, we disagree about where we are.

The Bible is abundantly clear that all men bear the image of God. We are of equal value and dignity. And we have a duty to treat one another as we would want to be treated. History is abundantly clear that in the west, for centuries, many white people failed in that biblical calling. They treated people of African descent as less than. The evangelical church was no exception. All sides are still in agreement. Our forefathers did poorly and we want to do well.

Ideologies incompatible with the Bible have influenced perspectives on change of some in the church. (Keeping in mind that the same was true for centuries from the other side.) The core of those ideologies is identity politics. Such defines who we are by our victim status, and others by their victimizer status. There are also, on the other hand, some in the church that have inherited the errors of our fathers. They really are racist and either don’t know it or hide it.

The vast majority in the church, however, are well between those two extremes. But because of those extremes they find themselves needing to yell at the other side, and taking offense at being yelled at by the other side. Throw in the sweet, soothing power to bring forth the blessings of peace that is social media and the heavenly chorus of angels sings. No, that’s not what happens.

Here is how it plays out. Institutional racism and privilege are ineffable crimes that carry immediate conviction with the simple act of accusation. To plead innocence is the one sure sign of guilt. There’s only one thing for the guilty to do- embrace the concept of invisible, immeasurable racist guilt, confess personal guilt over it, and join the raucous crowd that is silent no longer, denouncing this invisible, immeasurable, wickedness that is whiteness.

On the other side are those whose perspective is equally skewed. Conservatives who have never used the n word, much less burned a cross in anyone’s yard falsely assume such things are past. If we’ve never committed real racism, and never seen real racism, surely real racism must have disappeared. Because it is invisible, or at least in hiding, racism can’t be real. Which means anyone claiming otherwise must be a race hustler.

When we unjustly convict people who have no animus whatsoever against people of another culture or ethnic background of racism, it’s hard for them to take seriously the claim that we’re all guilty. When people who have experienced racism talk to white people who seem to suggest it doesn’t exist, they find it hard to believe that even the ones they are talking to are innocent. The truth of the matter is that racism is real. It exists. It is not a phantom. The truth of the matter is that racism isn’t hiding in everyone’s heart. There are people who don’t struggle with racism. We are, as a culture, somewhere in between these extremes.

What do we do? Agree we’re somewhere between these extremes. Agree that it is both better than it has been and not as good as it could be, that the progress is commendable and the lack of progress deplorable. That we all bear God’s image, we all struggle with sin, and in the church, all our sins are covered by the blood of Christ. Black and white matter not a lick. What matters is the red that covers us all.

This is the sixteenth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday October 20 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

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Philippians Study from October 8

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Three World Wars and the Peace Who Ends Them

Context is everything. The broadest context of our lives is the same as the context for everyone’s life, from the first advent of the first Adam to the last advent of the last Adam. All of our lives take place in the context of the battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. God declares in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed. You will bruise His heel, and He will crush your head.”

The God who creates the world in Genesis 1 and 2, who divided day and night, sky, land and sea, in turn divides the world in Genesis 3. There is no neutral ground. History, not church history, but history, is the story of the work of Christ in crushing the serpent, and bringing all His enemies into subjection.

This one war that is the context of our lives, isn’t the only war in our lives. There is a lifelong battle every Christian must wage, the battle against our old nature, that dead old man that just keeps fighting to the death. Sanctification is the process by which we, by and through the power and grace of God, win that battle. Over time, as we grow in grace, our fallen nature begins to fall away, and we become more and more what we were in the garden. As we grow in grace, we better and better reflect the image of our Savior, who is the express image of the Father.

But there is a third war as well. It is the war between them and them. That is, just as our old and new natures vie for survival in us, so too in those outside the kingdom there is a battle between the image of God and their fallen nature. But history is moving as inexorably here as it is in our own lives.

Those outside the redeeming grace of God become less and less what they were created to be. To put it another way, there are not only three wars going on, but three great siftings. First, the sheep and goats are separated. Second, that which is goat-like is separated from the sheep. And third, that which is sheep-like is separated from the goats. In eternity that which is white will be all white, that which is black will be all black. Grey will simply fade away.

The culture wars are fought in this context. As the culture seeks to live in greater and greater rebellion, we who are citizens of heaven grow more slowly. And as we become salt and light, they, servants of the serpent, decay more slowly. All sinners, those inside and outside the kingdom, want convenience. But all sinners in turn tend to love their own children, a reflection of the One whose image we all bear.

A culture is in decline when the love of convenience trumps the love of children, as it has in these United States now for more than fifty years. Sixty million image bearers never became warriors in the great battle precisely because the image of God is eclipsed, not principally in how we see them, but in what we are in ourselves. That is, it is the destruction of the image of God in mothers that has led to the denial of the image of God in babies, and through that brought their wanton destruction.

That the evangelical church has barely uttered the least objection is condemning proof that we are not only not fighting well the culture war, but are not fighting well the war within ourselves. Our indifference is a shameful portent of the remaining power of sin in our lives.

It is because our enemies in this great battle yet bear the image of our God that we can and must love them. We love them, however, not by laying down our arms, but by taking them up. We love them not by trying to become like them, but by being the ekklesia, the called-out ones, set apart, separate, holy. We love them by being salt and light. When we seek to protect the unborn because they bear God’s image, we are in turn seeking to protect the already born, because they bear His image.

Though the war is all too real, the weapons with which we fight are not carnal. No gunship will vanquish the serpent. No smart bomb will annihilate the old nature within us. No howitzer will strengthen the image of God in the lost. Rather, the battle cry, indeed the great weapon in all three battles is one, this confession — Jesus Christ is Lord. The more we believe it, the more we will be Him. The more we will be Him, the more they will see Him. And the more they see Him, the more the world will change.

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I’m Just a Sinner In a Rock and Roll Band

It is shocking to me that someone else’s sin seems to shock us. I can only surmise that our shock is the fruit of not having a very clear idea of ourselves. I’ve often suggested that so many of us seem to think, though we’d never articulate it this way, that we were saved from the really bad sins, but once we are saved, there’s only little ones left for us. When some professing believer commits the bad sins, well, maybe we should question the profession.

This flows also out of ignorance of Scripture. The Bible is chock full of redeemed sinners committing great whopper sins. I don’t need, for further evidence, to provide a list of redeemed sinners in our own day committing whopper sins. Your secret sins suffice to make the point, the ones you know about but no one else does.

It is a terrible thing that we seem to have so little understanding of what terrible sinners we are. Perhaps few things demonstrate the scope of our, again, even believers, sinfulness than the hard truth that we are even capable of excusing our sin on the basis of our sinfulness.

“I’m a sinner” is supposed to be a confession, not a defense. Can you imagine a bank robber on trial for robbing a bank, and claiming to be not guilty on the basis of the truth that he’s a bank robber? “Sure, I robbed the bank. But what do you expect? I’m a bank robber.” We think if we name our sin it suddenly is no longer a sin. Struggling with impatience? Just tell yourself you are struggling with impatience, and your conscience will be soothed. It’s a sort of “Name It, Blame It” theology.

How then do we acknowledge the reality of our sinfulness and our sins, without excusing our sins on the basis of our sinfulness? By repenting. By recognizing that affirming “I’m a sinner,” while true, is a shameful truth. I don’t have a sin problem. I am a sin problem. The problem is I sin, because that’s just the kind of person I am.

We’re not the first to do this. Paul’s imaginary Arminian friend in Romans 9 makes the same kind of claim. “Why does He still find fault?” I’m a sinner, and so I’m going to sin. How could He judge me? The simple answer is because I am a sinner. That’s the fault. That’s exactly where the guilt lies.

Which is why we should not be shocked, but should be saddened, when we, or someone we care about commits grievous sins. It is that which is common to man, which doesn’t cover the sin but exposes man. We are called saints, and called to be saints. We are declared just and called to be just. We fail, which is why He died for us.

A few weeks ago I had occasion to send out this message to the twittersphere:

Sometimes our grievous sin reveals we are not in Christ. Sometimes our grievous sin reminds us why we need Him. Few times anyone at a distance knows which.

It’s a reminder we all need, all the time. We are great sinners, redeemed by a great and holy Savior, being washed by a great and Holy Spirit, beloved forever of the great and holy Father.

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Sacred Marriage, Persevering; Controlling Hurricanes & More

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Owning, and Owned By the Pearl of Great Price

There may well be many of them, but perhaps not as many as you might think. Most of the knowledge I was blessed to receive from my Father became melded together with the rest of it. I was blessed to be a son, a student, an employee and a parishioner of my father. I have read more than a hundred of his books, edited more than a thousand of his articles and listened to thousands of his sermons/lectures. Yet only a few tidbits stand out as “unforgettable” on their own. This is one of them.

“What if,” my father asked the crowd within which I sat, “Jesus were to come to you, look you in the eye, cup your chin in His hand and say to you, ‘I promise you that everything that will ever happen to you will be for your good.’ “How much peace would you have?” I confessed that all I would have is peace. It was a beautiful picture, a glorious dream. Then he told us, “He already has, through His servant Paul. He wrote, “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

We worry about the wrong things, the very things that do not matter. The only real problem I have, Jesus has already solved. When He spoke the parable of the Pearl of Great Price His goal wasn’t to persuade us to give up all that we had, to pay for what He was offering us. Rather He was reminding us that everything He calls us to give up as we follow Him is the very stuff we would have sold just to be with Him. Whatever He takes from me in His providence is what I would gladly give up to have Him.

The engine that drove the Reformation wasn’t Luther’s brilliant mind, but his valiant heart. And what drove that was his acute knowledge of his own need for the grace of God. When we realize that we already have the One thing that matters we are suddenly set free. The threat of the loss of our reputation means nothing if we’ve already given it up. The threat of the loss of our standing means nothing if we’ve already embraced our kneeling. The threat of the loss of our lives leaves us unmoved if we have already died to ourselves. We are, when we have the Pearl of Great Price, when the Pearl of Great Price has us, invulnerable.

The Reformation did not happen because we needed to learn how we could be saved. It happened because we needed to know that we had been saved, and that nothing, including all the worldly power of the Pope of Rome could ever take it away. The same is true of the Pope today, of the mainstream media, of the powers in Washington DC, of the progressive lobby, of every enemy of the gospel. We are safe, secure. Better still, we have every reason to live in joy, content and confident.

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Last week’s Philippians Study- Ode to Joy

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Live Bible Study Tonight, Philippians- Ode to Joy

Tonight we continue our study, finishing chapter three of the book of Philippians. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.

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