Dr. Ben Merkle Archives - Page 38 of 39

The Fatherhood of God

Joe Harby on October 23, 2011

Revealed as Father

We are familiar with the story of the Exodus, the plagues and such. But why do the plagues culminate in the striking down of the first born sons of Egypt? In the Exodus, Moses came to Pharaoh to announce to him that Israel was the Lord’s son and that the Lord was Israel’s father. If Pharaoh didn’t let Israel go, then God was going to strike down Pharaoh’s first born, a proportional judgment (Ex. 4:21-22). Jesus taught us to pray to God as Father, “Our Father, who art in heaven. . .” (Mat. 6:9). So our relationship to God is, in one sense, the relationship of children to their Father.

A Fallen Image

This metaphor, that of fatherhood, is an image used by God to teach us something about what God is like, an image built into creation. Earthly fathers are a reflection of what our heavenly Father is like. This is problematic, since these are fallen images. And the fact that they are fallen can make the whole thing offensive. Many people hear about a God who is an omniscient, omnipotent version of their earthly dad and they say ‘no thanks.’The problem is that you can’t just edit fathers out of how we have been made. We were created in the image of God and so fatherhood and a need for fatherhood is built into us. Both good and bad fathers reveal something about God the Father.

Love

First, we need the love of a father. God has built this into our souls. This is how fathers, by common grace, instinctively feel about their children. Jesus shows us how the love of our earthly fathers points to the love of our heavenly Father in Luke 11:9-13, via the Jewish “Kal vaChomer” argument.

Delight

Second, not only do fathers love their children, they delight in them. Delight is really just the manifestation of this love. This is all a reflection of the ultimate father / son relationship – God the Father and God the Son (Mat. 3:17). Because fathers can allow their love to grow cold, what began as an intense love for their children does not manifest itself as delight, at least not in the conscious lifetime of their children. This leaves a void that only the heavenly Father can fill.

Pursuit

And lastly, because fathers love and delight in their children, they seek out their children. Loving parents will endanger themselves to save their children. God sought out Israel in Egypt, because Israel was his son. But our earthly fathers are fallen. And the same man who would have given his life to save his child in a house fire, will later sinfully sit and watch his children walk away from the faith with no effort on his behalf to pursue. But our heavenly father is not like this.

Ironically, our heavenly Father has pursued us by becoming a father to us. He has saved us though his fatherhood. He sent his own son, Jesus, so that he could become a brother to us (Heb. 2:14-17). And in becoming our brother, Jesus has shared his sonship with us, so that his father, God the Father could become our father (Gal. 4:4-7). Through this union with Christ we have God the Father as a perfect Father. We are loved, as the Son is loved. The Father delights in us, as he delights in the Son. The Father is pursuing us to deliver us, as he did his Son Jesus, and his son Israel.

He is a model for us to emulate to our own children. And he is the perfect fulfilment of the type that our own fathers were for us. Where we fall short in this work, our children still have a perfect father above us, to whom we must be pointing them. And where our own earthly fathers have failed us, we have a perfect father, who loves us, delights in us, and has pursued and saved us.

Ask and it Will Be Given to You

Joe Harby on July 17, 2011

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The Promises

When it comes to the topic of prayer, the teaching of Scripture is, to be honest, hard to believe. It’s not hard to understand, just hard to believe. If we were to take these promises of Scripture at face value, it would be hard to disagree with the confident boasting of the “health and wealth” / “name it and claim it” preachers.

John 15:7, Ps. 145:19, 1 John 5:14-15, Mark 11:22-24, James 5:16-18
We are all biblical inerrantists, but do we really believe these verses? We all surely know the exasperation of asking for something repeatedly and not seeming to get what we received. Do we just say that sometimes the answer is no?

The Qualification

We all know that we counter the “name it and claim it” application of these verses by explaining that the promise needs to be contextualized (1 John 5:14, etc). We insert a proviso in the promise that these promises are only there if our requests are according to the will of God. But this proviso, the way we are tempted to use it, essentially empties God’s promises of any real comfort. Imagine telling your kids, “Tonight you can have whatever you want for dinner. You name it and we will have it. As long as you pick meatloaf.”

Now this qualification is real. It is true that becoming a Christian does not turn God into your vending machine in the sky. But how do we add this qualification in such a way that we aren’t completely emptying God’s promises of any real meaning? Psalm 37:4 says – “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” There is a kind of desiring that is both straight from our heart (the thing that we really and truly want) and is blessed with a promise from God that it will be fulfilled.

Delighting in His Desires

When people teach on prayer one of the images that you will commonly hear is that of artillery. Prayer is artillery because it hits the enemy from a distance. And though there is much truth in this, distance implies safety for us, something that leaves us untouched. And that is a mistake. When we really pray, we are vulnerable as well. Prayer hits us also.

Prayer is an expression of desire, it is wanting. But it is not “wanting” in the abstract, it is “wanting” before the throne of the Father. And you can’t stand before that throne without the presence of the King having a major impact on what you want. Your delights or your wants are shaped by the one to whom you are bringing them. God offers us this incredible blessing – he patiently teaches us to want the right things. In fact, God actually wants to give to us what we want John 15:7-8.

Earnest prayer consumes us. Look up a bit at Lk. 11:5-8. God wants us to be consumed with our desires and to do it in front of him. Our Father wants us to be pesky with our desires. Paul exhorts us to be vigilant in prayer (Col. 4:2), to be always praying (Eph. 6:18), to be without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:18).

Church Prayer Requests

So let me conclude with some prayer requests on behalf of the church.

Evangelism

Moving up further in Luke 11, the preceding bit is the Lord’s Prayer, where we are commanded to pray that God’s kingdom come on earth (Lk. 11:2). We see the command to pray for the salvation for men in every position in 1 Tim. 2:1-4. We see the example of Paul praying for people and peoples that God has brought to his mind – Israel (Rom. 10:1) Agrippa (Acts 26:29). So please consider praying regularly for the evangelistic ministry of CRF, of the international student ministry, of the Threshold service.

Raising Up Preachers

We also see the continued example of praying for Christians who are specifically engaged in this work. We should pray for the raising up of men to preach the Gospel. – Lk. 10:2. Consider Col. 4:2- 4 and Eph. 6:19-20. So please pray that we would be gathering, training, and sending out Gospel preaching men. Pray in particular for Greyfriars that we would have a bumper crop of strong men.

Faithfulness of the Next Generation

The next decade will be an important season of transition in our church life. One of the perpetual follies of “the next generation” is to try to invent something new under the sun. The other perpetual folly is to enshrine/encrust the externals of what went before, all the while missing the spirit of what had once been radical and now is traditional. One example of this is the upcoming fall conference. We would differ on a number of the particulars with how Mars Hill in Seattle operates. Nevertheless, we see the Holy Spirit blessing what is currently going on in the “young, restless, and reformed” movement. And we don’t want to stand against it. We would like to be in a position where both of us can learn from one another. Please pray for us to have wisdom in this and for God’s blessing on this conference.

Singing by Faith Alone

Joe Harby on July 10, 2011

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Sing a New Song (v. 1-5)

David begins here with an exhortation (v. 1-3) for us to rejoice in the Lord and to praise him with music, with singing and shouting. He then gives us the reason for this exhortation (v. 4-5) – we should praise God because he is upright, because his work is true, righteous, and full of goodness.

The Works of the Lord (v. 6-19)

We praise God for his character, his attributes. But we don’t learn about these by reflecting on them in the abstract. We come to know about God’s character by studying what he has done. We know God through his works. David directs our attention to two key works of God – creation and salvation.

Creation (v. 6-12)

David looks at God’s power in creation and concludes that “all his work is done in truth” and that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”The triune God is our maker, creating and upholding all things by the power of his Word and the strength of his Spirit. This is why our doctrine of creation is so important. Creation is the proof of God’s authority, proof of the authority of his Word and the power of his Spirit. The argument about six day creation is not just about the exegesis, it is about the ever-present, sovereign authority of God in our everyday lives. Because he is the creator, he is the continuing sustainer of all things. This means that all peoples must fear him.

Salvation (v. 13-19)

David now describes how a king, no matter how mighty his army is, cannot stand against God and his plans. The power of a horse in battle might be awesome, but it is no match for the power of the Lord. This section is pointing back to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt at the Red Sea crossing. In fact, even when he was describing creation, he did so in a way that would remind the Israelites of the victory at the Red Sea (v. 7). And God’s deliverance in the Exodus is meant to be a picture of our ultimate salvation.

The church has long understood creation and redemption to be inherently connected and to be the two places in which we most clearly see God’s character. The church father Athanasius argued that because God created the world by the power of his Word, it was only appropriate then that he redeem us by the power of his Word. So, as David teaches us, we praise God and we fear him for his creation and for his redemption.

Mercy, Hope, and Singing

However, this Psalm began as an exhortation to the “righteous” and “upright.” Unfortunately, if we spend any time actually meditating on the greatness of God’s character as revealed in his creation and salvation, we will find it difficult to conclude that we are in this category. How can we sing this new song? But if we look again at God’s work, it will become clear to us. God created ex nihilo. God’s triumph comes not from the strength of horses. This is another way that creation and salvation are connected (2 Cor. 4:6). When God acts, he acts unilaterally, supplying all that is needed for the action. Moses sang about this when he saw God’s deliverance (Ex. 15:1-2). And Isaiah foresaw when this would be fully accomplished in the Messiah (Is. 12:1-2).

Moses sang, not because he was upright, but because he saw the uprightness of God in his actions. And as he sang, God became Moses’ salvation. There is a pun in the Hebrew of Ps. 33, between verses 3 and 4. “Sing to him a new song. . .” “For the word of the Lord is upright. . .” Singing and uprightness are rhymed with one another. Our singing is an expression of our trust in the Lord, a trust inspired by our understanding of God’s work as Creator and Redeemer. And by this faith we receive the uprightness of the Lord. In other words, we sing by faith alone.

Gospel Intentionality

Joe Harby on May 8, 2011

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The Mission at Home

Evangelism begins at home. Paul argues in 1 Tim. 3:4-5 and Tit. 1:6 that the faithfulness of our own children is a prerequisite or foundation for any other teaching that we will do. This is true for individuals and it is true for churches on a corporate level. To certain extent, successful evangelism within families would make all other evangelism unnecessary.

A Post-Millenial Faith

But Scripture teaches that the Gospel is intended to spread to all nations. And in order for the Gospel to go to other nations, it must go to other families, to people other than our own children. Faithfulness to the Great Commission requires that we disciple people other than our own families. A rejection of this truth is what got the Jews of the first century into trouble. Judaizing was a rejection of a world-discipling Gospel. Therefore, while discipling our families and ordering our houses is critical. It is not the end. We as a church, need to be an evangelizing body. We are here to spread the Gospel. The gospel is a river that runs, not a marsh – backed up and in need of draining.

Evangelizing as a Body

To do this rightly, we must understand our role as a body (1 Cor. 12). Not all of us are called to act as the mouth. But when the mouth speaks, all the body is invested in what the mouth says. If the mouth goes talking trash to a biker gang on a Saturday night, the rest of the body is going to end up involved. So when a part of the body is evangelizing, the rest of the body is invested in that work.

Gospel Intentionality

Regardless of our individual giftings, we should learn to live with our minds and hearts set on discipling the nations – Gospel Intentionality. This begins with prayer. Look to expand your fellowship, where it is natural. Who has God put in front of you? Failing to understand that we minister as a body can place a lot of misguided pressure on saints within the church. We are not all gifted in the same ways. But we are all gifted to work together to the same end.

Evangelism as a Body

Strong families and a strong church do not have to be in tension with living evangelistically. These things not only qualify us to preach, they should actually be our greatest strength in evangelism. For instance, our world is characterized by father hunger. And we, of all the people on the Palouse, have fathers. Our world is homeless. And we have homes. Our world is hopeless. And we have hope. We don’t need to act that much different to proclaim the Gospel. We need to be ourselves, the body that God is making us into, in front of the world. This is Gospel intentionality.

The Principle Thing

Joe Harby on May 1, 2011

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The Text

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:2-8)

The Principle Thing

We begin first by a passage from Prov. 4:3-7. Solomon here describes an exhortation pressed on him by his father David when Solomon was a young man. “Wisdom is the principle thing. In all your getting, get wisdom.”When Solomon says “in all your getting” he knew what he was speaking of. He was a man who got everything (Ecc. 2). The point is as easy to trivialize as it is profound. You are here to get wisdom. That is the chief thing, the principle thing.

Christological Wisdom

And according to the James passage that we began with, wisdom is always right there for the taking (Jas. 1:5). Wisdom is near. Solomon emphasizes the nearness of wisdom as well (Prov. 1:20). Wisdom is on the lowest branch. But the reason that Wisdom is so near is that Wisdom is not just a concept. Wisdom is a person, a divine and omnipresent person. Wisdom is Christ (Prov. 8). It makes sense that Wisdom is the principle thing, because it is Christ. The chief thing, in every situation is that we get more and more of Jesus. And we get more of Jesus when we grow to be like him, when we grow more and more Christ-like.

Wisdom in Adversity

Now James brings up wisdom in this passage because he is talking about people who need wisdom, people who are in the midst of a great trial. But notice something subtle here. We are prone to cry out for wisdom in our trials because we need wisdom to get through our trials. But Solomon says that wisdom is the principle thing.
Wisdom is the point. And if that is the case, then we don’t need wisdom to get through trials. We need trials to get us to wisdom.

“Innocent” Lusting

And this upends everything. Because when we are in a trial, the temptation in the flesh is to set all our hopes, all our prayers, all our expectations on the other side of the trial. We think that deliverance in the trial will always come in the form of getting to the other side. We put all of our hopes in the future and we completely miss the principle thing – getting wisdom, becoming Christ-like.

Godly Confidence

James contrasts earthly wisdom with a wisdom that comes from above. There is a Heavenly Wisdom, which delivers us from lust and confusion. This means that the trial that you are currently going through is the point. The suffering that you are currently undergoing is the point. There is a way in which you are currently not Christ-like. And this current situation that you are in, this situation is custom-made for you to address this current weakness present in you. Wisdom is near you. It is here in the present tense, pointing out all the ways that you can turn from your sin and be more Christ-like. Count it all joy, James says, because this current trial is turning you into something better, something perfect.