Christ Church

The Love Chapter – Part I

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The Text

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

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Mere Gospel

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Introduction

The world is only a complicated place when we are drifting lazily into the confusion wrought by sin. Think about it for a moment. There are two kinds of people in the world—sons of God and sons of the devil. There are two destinations, and only two, toward which we are all traveling—the resurrection of life and the resurrection to death. There are only two ways of living—clean and dirty. There are only two gospels—one from man that will collapse under the weight of your sins, and one from God that will cause your sins to collapse beneath the weight of God’s grace.

The Texts

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:1–5).

Summary of the Text

At the end of the previous chapter, Paul exults in the scriptural standard of pride. Let the one who boasts, do so in the Lord (Jer. 9:23-24). And he then moves on to remind the Corinthians of something they would well remember. He had not come to them in his own name, in the strength of his own powers, or on his own authority. Rather, he declared to them the testimonyor witness of God (v. 1). He had determined, decided, and judged (krino) that he would know nothing among them except Christ and him crucified (v. 2). His presence in Corinth was not that of some flashy dude exuding charisma. He came in weakness, fear, and trembling (v. 3). His words, and his preaching, were not dependent upon a flattering persuasiveness that naturally arises from sophistry (e.g. man’s wisdom, sophia). Rather, there was in Paul’s life and demeanor a proof of the Spirit and of power (v. 4). The basic alternative is presented. Your faith will either be in the wisdom of man or it will be in the power of God (v. 5). That power displayed by God is encapsulated in the message of Christ and him crucified (v. 2).

Sophistry, Then and Now

Contrary to a common assumption, Paul’s contrast here between the power of the cross and the enticing words of carnal wisdom is not a contrast between eloquence as such and truth over on the other side. This is a fallen world, and there are always sophists who want to substitute human eloquence for divine wisdom, which is absurd. This is what the ancient sophists wanted to do, and it is what their descendants now in our era want to do.

The error is to think, first, that the message of the cross needs to be adorned with human wisdom, and then that it needs to be reinforced or supplemented by human wisdom, and then, in the last analysis, replaced by human wisdom.

So what is the role of human eloquence in preaching the gospel? It is what Paul is actually demonstrating here. The words of the preacher, like the preacher himself, must be a bondservant to the message, and the words of eloquence, if they are to be true and not false, must be driven before the gospel gale, all sails out.

A Caution

It would be a grotesque mistake to say that Christians should talk about nothing but a truncated message that consists of “Christ died on the cross,” and that all other topics are to be avoided. No—far from exulting in the cross, that approach would minimize it. Rather, because Christ is the founder of a new humanity, and because His founding obedience was what He did on the cross, this means that absolutely everything that men and women can do—from forecasting the weather to changing diapers, from sailing a ship to digging a well, from driving a car to teaching a class—falls under the authority of Christ’s death and resurrection. The cross was not just another event in a world filled with events. The cross was a new organizing principle, under which all thingswould be made new (Rev. 21:5). This is why we should be able to talk about absolutely anything in the world, and within a short space of time find ourselves talking about the death of Jesus, without changing the subject.

The Solution First

Our message is straightforward—we preach the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We declare first, who He is. He is the divine Son of Almighty Jehovah. He is Himself fully divine, and He entered—forever—into our human condition through the Incarnation.

He lived a perfect, sinless life, and He did this so that His people of the new Israel could be represented by His obedience. And because they all had been disobedient before this, He represented them also by bending His head underneath all the wrath that a holy God could pour out upon Him. In that moment of dereliction, the Lord Jesus was struck by the fist of God. And in the following moment of ultimate vindication, three days later, that same hand of God raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His own right hand, where there is an everlasting river of pleasure.

The Solution Related to the Problem

This gospel is to be declared to every creature (Mark 16:15). And the creatures who are to hear this message are creatures who are lost in their sins.“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4). The gospel is good news, but there are two kinds of good news. The first is a “bolt from the blue” good news, and which does not require any kind of antecedent difficulty. The second kind of good news (e.g. a pardon from the governor the day before your execution) is a type of news that requires a full apprehension of an earlier delivery of badnews. News that they have discovered a cure for cancer will strike a man who hascancer differently than it will strike a man who is entirely healthy.

And the Solution Applied to the Problem

In the wisdom of God, He determined that men, women and children are delivered by means of this gospel when they (by the grace of God) do two things. They must first turn away from their sins, and secondly they must believe the gospel.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

So what is your condition? Porn junkie? Selfish high school girl who has her parents totally whipped? Embezzler? Malicious and petty biter? Manipulator? Liar?

And so what is the message I have for you? What message is here that is of a kind that makes no sense to your carnal heart but which will deliveryour carnal heart? Look away from that sin. Turn away from it. Turn so that the sin can see nothing but your back. The only way this works is when you look to Christ. And by Christ, I mean a twisted bronze snake on a pole. I mean a rock in the wilderness, with living water flowing out of it. I mean bread from heaven, falling out of the sky.

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State of the Church 2019

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Introduction

As you know, it is our custom to present a “state of the church” message every year around this time. Sometimes the message addresses the state of the church generally, as in, across the nation. Other times, like today, the message concerns particular issues that pertain to our congregation.

The Texts

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith” (Gal. 6: 9–10).

“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing” (2 Thess. 3:13).

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

“Use hospitality one to another without grudging” (1 Pet. 4:9).

Summary of the Texts

Before highlighting what each of our texts is saying, let me begin with the takeaway point from all of them. If we hear the message here rightly, we will see that the fusion of joy and staminais a peculiar work of the Holy Spirit. And if we are in the path we ought to be in, if we are walking in the right way, we will be in great need of Him to perform that work in us. We will need that peculiar fusion of joy and stamina.

In Galatians, Paul exhorts us to not give way to weariness, and the way we are to do this is by keeping our eyes on the agricultural metaphor. We will not grow weary if we keep our eyes on the harvest. Good works, done for all men, but especially for the household of faith, are a form of farming. Plowing hard ground can seem like an eternal distance from the ripening grain of autumn, so lookahead. Consider the whole point.

In Thessalonians, the same exhortation is given—do not grow weary in doing good. In this instance, it is an exhortation given to hard-working saints who are surrounded by goof-offs, leaning on their shovels. Not only must we not grow weary in the good work we are doing, we must also not grow weary in the work of disciplining those who do not understand the biblical view of work, or who do not understand it in their hands.

In Corinthians, Paul says that we are to aboundin our work. We are to be committed to it, and are to be steadfast and immoveable. This work that we are to abound in is work that is not in vain. This means that God wants us to hustle. And remember that this is in the chapter that is talking about the resurrection of the dead. Our abundant work nowis not going to be considered in vain then. Or, as R.C. Sproul put it, right now counts forever. If a cup of cold water given in the name of Christ will not be forgotten in the Lasts Day, then what of the greater words that are assigned to us?

And then Peter tells us to be given to hospitality, and not to be put off by the rudeness or thoughtlessness of others.

As Our Congregation Ages

I know that a number of you have been taking care of elderly parents. This is good and right and holy. Some of you have moved in together, while others are having to navigate this transition from varying distances. As lifespans increase, one of the things that also increases is the need to take care of the elderly. Something that used to be relatively rare is becoming relatively common. So as a congregation, you are to be commended for being the kind of support network that aging families need. And the next generation down needs to be taking notes, because this is a problem that is not likely to shrink. “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8). You all are living it out.

Life’s Report Card

Our congregation is filled with the spirit of entrepreneurship. That is all to the good, but you must remember the key role that failureplays in every true free market system. There is a strong temptation for many to think that objective standards of excellence only exist for as long as you are in school. Thereyou are evaluated, right out of a grade book—everything clean and tidy. And then, after you graduate, and are out in the world of business, you can start to think that all the standards are somehow subjective now. But frequently it is the other way around. “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; He shall not stand before mean men” (Prov. 22:29).

The Hospitality Dilemma

There is a reason why Peter says that we are to show hospitality without grumbling. Hospitality is a principal way of showing love for one another, and hospitality can be a principal occasion for thoughtlessness and rudeness. Love, in short, creates opportunities for lack of love. So take care, and beware. You are a hospitable group, and so the temptations that accompany hospitality—temptations for hosts and guests alike—will be plentiful.

Called to Our Work

Work is not a result of the fall. Adam was given his task of exercising dominion before he disobeyed the commandment. And he was given a helper for the task before he disobeyed the commandment. God has called us to our work.

This is not the same thing as being called to the work that we assumed that we were going to get done today. God often changes the schedule on us. How many times have we said something like, “I didn’t get anything done today,” when what we mean is that we didn’t get any of ourplans accomplished. All we did was what God assigned to us to do. Oh, only that?

Life in a working community is angular. There are bumps, misunderstandings, understandings, collisions, rivalries, envies, competencies, incompetencies, honest evaluations, and much, much more.

All of it is life in the body, which is to say, life in Christ.

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Calvinism 4.0: Man as Fallen

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Introduction

The nature of the problem dictates whether or not there can even be a solution, and if so, what that solution might be. Among evangelical Christians, the nature of the “problem” salvation that salvation solves can be described in two basic ways. Either man is sick in his sin, needing to take the medicine, or he is dead in his sin, needed to be resurrected from the dead.

Our purpose here is to examine which of these two options is the Bible’s teaching on this subject.

Free Agents

As we have already considered, because all men are free agents they are free to do as they please. But because they are sinners, what they please to do is sin. They cannot please to choose contrary to their nature, because if they could, it wouldn’t be their nature.

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Mark 7:21–23).

The source of all the evil things we do is the unflattering fact of the evil creatures that we are.

As creatures, men are free to do as they please. As sinners, men are not free to do right. If a man could repent his sins and believe in Christ with his old heart, then this would be proof positive that he didn’t really need a new heart. He could do all that God requires of us (repent and believe) with his old heart. Apparently the old heart just needed a little encouragement.

Spiritual Death

Now the Scriptures expressly describe the unregenerate condition as being one of death. This does not mean that unbelievers are dead in every possible respect—but with regard to spiritual things, they certainly are in a condition of death. For example, sinners can be physically alive while spiritually dead.

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:1–3).

We walked in accordance with the pattern of the world. The spirit at work in the children of disobedience worked in our conversation (that is, in our manner of living). So clearly we were moving about—all while dead in our trespasses and sins.

Spiritual Slavery

Another picture that excludes “free will” with regard to salvation is the picture of slavery. Dead men do not walk out of the grave, and slaves do not walk away from their masters.

“For when ye were the servants [douloi, slaves] of sin, ye were free from righteousness” (Romans 6:20).

This is a different image, but one that also communicates a sense of utter inability to break free from sin. Dead men can’t reach life. Slaves cannot reach liberty.

No Autonomous Seekers

Now we all know that people do not become Christians unless they seek the Lord. The debate between Christians on this point therefore is not over whether we need to seek the Lord. It is over why we seek the Lord, if and when we do. Men, left to themselves, relinquished to their own devices, will not seek after God. And this is what the Bible explicitly and expressly teaches.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10–12).

How many are unrighteous? All. How many seek a way out of their unrighteousness? None.

An Important Qualification

This doctrine I am setting before you is sometimes called the doctrine of total depravity. This is a poor name for it because it makes people think you are maintaining a doctrine of absolute depravity. But we are not saying that unbelievers are the orcs, and we are the elves. It is not like that. We are saying that unbelievers are, apart from a gift of grace, on their way to Hell. We are not maintaining that they have already arrived there.

We are saying that because of Adam’s sin, and our complicity in it, our fall into helplessness was total. There is a total inability to save ourselves, to prepare ourselves for salvation, or to request salvation.

One other qualification. An unregenerate person can love the Lord, but only by radically misunderstanding and misconstruing Him. An unregenerate person can understand the Lord in His holiness, but this results in a simple recoil away from Him. The only way a sinner can understand who God is, and also love Him, is if the Spirit of God has granted him a new heart.

This basic point is seen in the Bible’s description of the minds of unbelievers. They are seen as hostile to God (that is, to God as He actually is).

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:7–8; cf. 1 Cor. 2:14).

Who Then Can Be Saved?

The problem with all this is that it leaves us without hope of salvation, right? No, it leaves us without hope of salvation from man. What is impossible for men is possible for God.

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

“And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (John 6:65).

If the Father does not do the drawing, if the Father does not give it, a man cannot come. Another translation for the word for draw (elkuo) is drag or haul. “How did you come to Christ?” “Oh, I was hauled.”

But does this mean that no one ever comes? No—it means that everyone who comes (and remember that the entire world will eventually come) has been hauled in by God.

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

What man cannot do with any success, God can do with no failure. And what is that? The resurrection of the dead.

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Calvinism 4.0: The Sin of Sectarianism

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Introduction

What I would like to do, Lord permitting, is preach a series of messages through the basic doctrines of the Reformed faith, as we understand the teaching of Scripture. This is particularly important if you have been attending here for many years, or if you have grown up in this church. It is of course bad to be steeped in sectarian doctrines and be full of pride over it. But it is far worse to be deeply attached to a doctrine or tradition that you know nothing about.

The title of this series refers to Calvinism 4.0. What is that about? The history of the Reformed faith covers one fourth of the entire history of the church, and there have naturally been developments—in my mind, each one consistent with and augmenting what went before. Calvinism 1.0 was the initial period in the 1500s, the time of Calvin’s Institutes. Calvinism 2.0 was the period of the Reformed scholastics, culminating in the Westminster Confession. Calvinism 3.0 is best represented by the fusion of American evangelicalism and the orthodoxy of Old Princeton. Calvinism 4.0 is what we are attempting here in our ministry, fully in line with what has gone before, but with a few additions that I will develop as we go.

The Text

“Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other” (1 Cor. 4:6, NKJV).

Summary of the Text

The Scriptures plainly prohibit any kind of factionalism that arises from undue loyalty to particular Bible teachers (1 Cor.3: 4, 21-22). To prohibit such attitudes is no slam against those teachers necessarily because the ones named in this section by Paul were particularly godly — two were apostles (Paul and Peter), and the other was eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures (Apollos). The problem is one of conceit and pride, taking credit for something that you had actually received as a gift (1 Cor. 4:7). The fact that the problem lies in attitudes, and not in names per se, can be seen in the fact some at Corinth were guilty of this factionalism while using the name of Christ (1 Cor. 1:12). A denomination refers to a name, and you can’t escape denominationalism through the simple expedient of calling yourself non-denominational, or “simply Christian.” It should be so easy.

How Our Statement of Faith Works

Our church has adopted the original British version of the Westminster Confession of Faith. What this means is that it represents the kind of doctrine you can expect to hear taught from the pulpit. Members of the church are not required to subscribe to it—members of the church are simply required to be Christians who are living decent and responsible Christian lives. So this means that a man who loves Jesus, and who is walking in accordance with the gospel can join this church, even if he is a Wesleyan charismatic dispensationalist.

Not Our Table

We practice what is called open communion. This means that anyone who visits us is welcome to partake with us, provided they have been baptized in the triune name by a Trinitarian church or individual, and provided further that they are not under lawful church discipline. This is the Lord’s Table, not ours, and so it is open to any of the Lord’s people. But this is open communion, not promiscuous communion. Vacationing Lutherans are as welcome as anyone, but we do not say the same thing about visiting meth dealers.

An Optical Illusion

The way God created the world, it is necessary for us to live in particular communities. This means that, in a certain stipulated sense, we have to major on minors. What do I mean by this? If you were to quiz me on what doctrines I believe to be very important, the doctrine of an optimistic eschatology would be in the top three. And yet a person could conceivably join our church and not find out about this emphasis for a year and a half. It might occur to him to wonder from time to time about how cheerful these people seem to be in these Last Days, but yet still not encounter an explicit statement of it.

And what is the doctrinal importance of the songs we sing? Well, they are important also, but about seventeen things are on the list ahead of them. And yet he finds out about our music on the first Sunday with us, the second Sunday with us, and so on. It turns out the music is a different kind of important.

Beyond What Is Written

The basic injunction that Paul gives us in our text is that we must be people of the Word. We must be in the Word, and we must live out the Word. We must not get out ahead of ourselves when we assume that “this is what the Bible must teach.”

Churches that have defined systems of doctrine (as we most certainly do) will have temptations that correspond to what they possess. If you enroll in a math class, you will have math problems. If you are a confessional Christian, you will have confessional temptations. And this why all of you need to be Bible readers. This prevents you from relying “for the gist” on the Cliff Notes provided by sermons, catechisms, or Christian books. There is a vast difference between teaching a Bible reader, as Philip did with the Ethiopian eunuch, and providing dashboard summaries for Christians who can’t be troubled. You are exhorted to desire the milk of the Word (1 Pet. 2:2), and while it is sometimes more convenient to get it third hand, the chances of the milk being watered down are greatly increased. This is why a lot of Christians are drinking milk that looks like water somebody cleaned their paint brushes in.

Plausibility Structures

When you grow up in any culture, the assumptions of that culture will naturally seem reasonable to you. This sometimes troubles Christian kids—are Hindu children, and Muslim children, and Mormon children being taught in just the same way that I am being taught, i.e. that “their religion is true.” The answer to that is yes, they quite possibly are. It is possible for Christian kids to be indoctrinated in just the same ways that other kids are indoctrinated elsewhere. This is why you must come to Christ yourself; come to His Word yourself; live by faith yourself. Christianity on cruise control is not what we are after.

Jesus is Everything

When you grow up in a church like this one, it would be a grave mistake to think that we are simply indoctrinating you. What we are seeking to do is tell you the good news in a manner that is consistent with the message itself. You do not know yourself to be a sinner because that was in your catechism. You know that because you read it in your heart. You can see your heart, can you not?

And when Christ is presented to you, as He is every week, you know that He is the Savior of every sinner. It is true that I am telling you this, but someone else is also telling you this. And this is the work of the Spirit of Christ, present with us now, the one who makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).

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