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.
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.
There are two Greek words that are translated “church” in our English Bibles. The first, kuriake, comes from the root word Kurios, which means “Lord.” The “kuriake” are those who belong to the Lord. The second is ekklesia, from which we get the English word “ecclesiastical.” Ekklesia means “called out.” It is not a healthy thing for the church that we have forgotten this root.
The church is, of course, called to go forth. The Great Commission calls us to go and disciple the nations. The notion that the church is called to cloister itself from the world comes from the world and not the Word. Yet, we are the called out ones. How do we reconcile these truths?
Though this sentiment is not actually found in the Bible, (John 17:15 is as close as it gets to this) there is wisdom in this idea that believers are to be in the world but not of the world. Jesus did pray in His high priestly prayer that though we are not of the world, we should not be taken out of the world. As long as we are alive we are in the world. We’ve got that part covered. Now, how do we be not of the world?
The answer is as broad as all of life. At every turn a life in the light will look distinct from a life in the dark. Our minds are focused on glorifying God, while theirs are focused on denying Him. Our hearts are set on loving our neighbors, while our unbelieving neighbor loves death. Our labors are bent on manifesting the glory of the reign of our Lord, while theirs are bent on destruction.
The message of the gospel is not, “We’re not so different from you. Repenting and believing is just a tiny step in this direction. You’ll hardly even notice.” It is instead the call to cling to His cross while picking up our own daily. It is the call to consider the cost, to receive the world’s hatred without fear. The message is “Choose ye this day whom you will serve.”
The church dies a little death every time we take a step away from what we are called to, every time we sacrifice that which makes us distinct on the altar of finding approval from the world. We’re fools who believe that when the world complains about the brightness of the light, we are being light by shrouding our light. We are called to shine before men, the very men who hate the light and love the darkness.
The church is weak and ineffectual not because we’re not smart enough, not clever enough, not hip or sophisticated enough. We are weak and ineffectual because we are not courageous enough. We don’t want to be stand out, which means we don’t want to be called out. We are, however, the kuriake, the Lord’s. And He will complete the good work He has begun in us. Because Jesus always wins.
This is the fifteenth 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 13 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.
A given culture’s depravity isn’t measured simply by the percentage of Christians in that culture. Vital to the equation are two other factors. First, and most important, is how spiritually mature those Christians are. Corinth remained a sewer not because there weren’t enough Christians there, but because the Christians there weren’t Christian enough. But there is another part of the calculus, the common grace of God in the lives of the lost. God sometimes gives over not only people but cultures to the depravity of their minds. Other times chastity, fidelity, and love are given a fighting chance.
Ruth Graham first said that if God doesn’t judge these United States, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. We are in the midst of a radical sea change over our understanding of marriage, especially as it relates to homosexuals. There was a time, not too long ago, that this didn’t much worry me. I figured, culturally speaking, the homosexual agenda would get no where because of the grand coalition that wouldn’t budge. The allies were the church, which would stand with the Word of God and roundly condemn perversion as perversion, and the rest of the straight world that had enough common grace to recognize perversion when they saw it. Both fronts are in rapid retreat.
The church is retreating because the world has fired its biggest cannon against us, suggesting that we aren’t nice. We in turn have responded as we always do, loving the sinner, and quietly hoping the sin will go away. Now the only thing left in the closet is our prophet’s mantle.
The retreat of the straight world, however, is driven by a whole other cultural phenomenon, the internet. It has given us a technology that carpet bombed the last great defense against sexual perversion, shame. The internet is the first pornography delivery system that doesn’t require any interaction with a live human being. The only thing standing between millions of men and oceans of pornography thirty years ago was the public shame of consuming it. That shame is now gone. There is no longer a convenience or video store clerk, or bouncer at the “Gentleman’s Club.” It’s just you and the pictures.
The very pleasure of pornography is the shock of it. This explains the all too familiar phenomena of the downward spiral. Like illicit drugs, each “hit” requires a stronger hit the next time to get the desired effect. What was once delightfully forbidden soon becomes all too commonplace. And so darker perversions are pursued. The path from marijuana to crack cocaine runs parallel to the path from Playboy to pedophilia. It is, in the words of Solomon in the Proverbs, the path to death.
Culturally speaking, we are treading the same path. We are slouching toward Gomorrah. Once, for instance, homosexuality was considered a gross perversion. Then it became an illness. Thirty years ago, when the psychiatric profession removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses, the Christians howled in anger. Better we should have howled when it was first called an illness. Now homosexuality has gone mainstream, and homosexuals have become a protected class.
It will only get worse. We are culturally treading that path because we are individually treading that path. As more and more people get tangled in this web, we will more and more define deviancy downward. As homosexuals enjoy their moment in the sun, pedophiles wait patiently in the wings, knowing that their time is coming. They are building momentum, as more and more people visit more and more websites, and sink lower and lower. If we were to empty every prison in America tomorrow, and then arrest every man consuming child pornography, there wouldn’t be enough room for them.
There is never a good time for the church to be worldly. But the least bad times are those when the world is at its most churchy. It is safer to mimic the mores of a decent culture than a decadent one. Which means in turn that it is all the more important to be set apart when the world is at its worst. Our standards are not their standards. We don’t define deviancy by the culture, but by the Word of God.
Now more than ever, we as a body must manifest chastity and fidelity. How might the world change if all the world knew that within the church one could find faithful spouses? Now more than ever we must covenant with our eyes. Now more than ever we must cherish our spouses, the wives of our youth. Now more than ever we must encourage one another onto righteousness. Now more than ever we must be a body that calls sin “sin,” and grace “grace.”
Now more than ever we must believe the promises of God, who has told us not only that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but that He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now more than ever we must eschew not only the filth that passes for normal all around us, but the despair that it will ever be like this. He can change men, and He can change cultures. He can and will make all His enemies a footstool. The darkness hates the light, but the light has already come into the world. Indeed we must be of good cheer, for the light has already overcome the world.
With the recent passing of Pete Rose we are once again debating the merits of whether he should be in the baseball Hall of Fame. He was, by all accounts, one of the greatest to ever play the game. He holds the record for, among other things, most hits in a career. He was, however, banned, in accordance with league rules, from any connection to the game. He had been found guilty of gambling on baseball.
For the last thirty years of his life Rose cut a rather pathetic figure, rejected by the game that he dearly loved. For most of that time he denied any wrongdoing. Eventually, pieces of confession, like wilting rose petals, began to fall. What never happened was full ownership, full confession. He went to his grave apparently believing that his accomplishments should be enough to outweigh his failures. That he deserved a spot in the Hall of Fame.
There are a few ways that I see myself in Pete Rose. While I was always a country mile away from him in terms of athletic talent, I shared with him a passion for the sport, a dependence on out hustling the other guy. Intensity has always been the name of my game. Second, like him, I’m prone to thinking too highly of myself. I too struggle with pride.
There is, however, a potent difference as well. Though I of course can’t begin to guess the state of the man’s soul at the time of his death, I am well aware that my accomplishments could never outweigh my failures.
In fact, I know, because the Bible tells me so, that even my accomplishments are failures (Isaiah 64:6). Failures cannot outweigh failures. As such, I’ve already been inducted into the only hall that ultimately matters, the Hall of Faith. Even that had to be given to me.
“Everybody deserves a second chance” is worldly “wisdom” born of the fact that everybody needs a second, and third and fourth, ad infinitum chance. We don’t, however, deserve any such thing. We deserve judgment, exclusion, induction into the Hall of Shame. We are not showing compassion when demanding someone else’s second chance but a woeful failure to understand the difference between justice and mercy.
God’s mercy isn’t merely a disposition toward forgiveness. Rather it is His sacrificing His only Son so that He might be both just and justifier (Romans 3:26). He is justifier in that He declares we who are not just to be just. But just in doing so because His Son suffered justice in our place. He did not overturn justice in welcoming sinners like us, but fulfilled it.
My hope is not that Pete Rose will receive mercy from Major League Baseball. My hope is that he has already received mercy from his Maker. If he has, he carries no sorrow over his exclusion from the temple of the baseball gods. Rather he would be rejoicing to be in the presence of the living God, and laying down his crowns before Him.
Grammers defiantly not easy getting it right. Know what I mean? Of course you know what I mean. So what difference does it make that I didn’t begin “Grammar’s definitely not easy to get right?” Aren’t grammar nerds, you know, like editors, professors, writers, just pedantic snobs, geek bullies trying to make the rest of us look bad? In a word, no. The truth is, understanding the basics of grammar can make all the difference in the world, and our ignorance is showing.
Not long ago a pastor friend of mine found himself on the cancel culture chopping block because he had the audacity to compare Vice President Harris, who is second in command to the President, who is a female, who is bloodthirsty in her rabid defense of the murder of the unborn to a certain queen in Israel who was second in command, who was female and who was bloodthirsty in her raging hatred of the prophets of God. His crime? That’s it. He made that comparison. He was accused, however, of something far different- of calling the Vice President a Jezebel.
It is not just Christians, however, who seem to have trouble with the English language. Gina Carano actually fell under the ax, being removed from her role on The Mandalorian. Her crime? Well, before I tell you, you might want to be sure no children are in the room. She posted this on social media:
“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…. even by children.”
The actor continued to say, “Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
I know it’s horrible, the denigration of people’s cultures and religious identities. It’s abhorrent and unacceptable. That said, as Hollywood would say, “No people’s cultures or religious identities were harmed in the creation of this faux scandal.” There is literally nothing in the least offensive in this statement. It is the creators of the program, Lucasfilm, who apparently live in a galaxy long, long ago and far, far away where the English language is not spoken, as they are the ones saying the actress’s comments denigrate people’s cultures and religious identities, are abhorrent and unacceptable.
Somehow, it seems using the words “Jews,” “Nazis” and “hate” in a statement is enough to melt snowflakes from a thousand paces. Even if said statement condemns Nazis for hating Jews. Because, reasons.
Grammar matters. It gives actual meaning to words spoken or written. It keeps words from meaning something other than what they mean. It keeps love from being hate, freedom from being slavery and ignorance from being strength. Grammar is what keeps Big Brother at bay.
Here’s a free lesson. Comparing does not mean equating. Comparing two things is not making them into synonyms. Not when treating them as synonyms means scoring points against your ideological foes. Not when treating them like synonyms scores you virtue signal points. They are not synonyms in a boat; they’re not synonyms on a goat. They are not synonyms to a mouse; they are not synonyms in my house. They are not synonyms here nor there; they are not synonyms anywhere.
Love your grammar. She’s the one who taught you how to talk, and how to listen.
Tonight we continue our study, considering the second haLf of chapter two 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.
