New Testament Archives - Page 179 of 204

The Gospel and Thanksgiving

Joe Harby on November 20, 2011

Introduction

The gospel is good news for everyone, and this includes all those who have already heard and believed it. The gospel is food, not just information, and so when the gospel is declared rightly it creates and reinforces true faith. The gospel does not unsettle true faith. You are a congregation of God’s people, a congregation of saints. So if I address you this morning with a charge to believe the gospel, it is not because your faith in Christ is doubted, but rather because we must all believe the gospel, and we must do so always. At the same time, to encourage you—not unsettle you—I want to declare the gospel to you. Established saints will be strengthened by it, professing Christians (but unconverted) may be quickened by it, and unbelievers who are visiting us may be called to Jesus Christ.

The Texts

“And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:17-22).

“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 7:7).

Summary of the Texts

When a young man runs up (whom I believe to have been Mark himself), he asks Jesus the way to eternal life. Jesus points him to the law of God, giving him a list of the commandments from the second table of the law, all but one—the prohibition of covetousness in the Tenth Commandment. The young man answered that he had done well on all that. All that obedience and he still did not have eternal life! So Jesus tells him that one thing was still missing. He gives him an assignment that touches the nerve center of his ongoing disobedience to the Tenth Commandment. He went away sad, it says, because he had great possessions, which he wanted to keep.

Saul of Tarsus was another young Jewish man who was prepared for the gospel by that same Tenth Commandment. He would not have known sin except for the law. He would not have known lust if the law had not said “Thou shalt not covet.” The second table of the law can be summarized. The law leads us to Christ by posing the fundamental question, which is, “what do you want?”

Wanting and Thanking

We are told in Scripture not to let anyone beguile us with enticing words (Col. 2:4). We are told to overflow with thanksgiving (Col. 2:7). Thanksgiving and covetousness are therefore mutually exclusive. Being seduced or enticed by covetousness (by what you are wanting) is therefore not possible in a thankful heart.

The Arc of the Story

One of the reasons the doctrine of regeneration is so important is because the doctrine of generation is so important. God fashioned man out of the dust of the ground in the first place, but it was the breath of God that established us after His image. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). First God formed, and then God breathed. When God breathed the breath of life into our first father, it was then that he became a living soul, created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). This scriptural language of “image” is closely connected to the reality of generation. When Adam had a son, it was a son in his own image, in his own likeness (Gen. 5:3). This is language that plainly echoes what God had done initially with Adam. Adam had a son after his own image just as God had a son after His own image. In some sense, Adam was son of God by generation.

The way it was with Adam downstream was also the way it was with Adam one generation upstream (Luke 3:38). And keep in mind that Adam means man, or mankind. We may therefore read it as “mankind, the son of God.” Now when Adam sinned, what he was sinned. He was a son of God who sinned. This meant that a new form of generation was established. In some sense, the sons of God became sons of the devil. The mechanism that accomplished this was the mechanism of separating us, as a race, from the life of God. “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18). First there was generation, then degeneration, and then, for the elect, regeneration.

Here is the fundamental question behind each of these categories. Who’s your daddy? Never seek to define your identity apart from your relationships. When did we become sons of God? We were generated in His image when He breathed the breath of life into our first father. When did we become objects of wrath, children of the devil? When our first father took the fruit that had been forbidden to him, but which he coveted anyway (Gen. 3:6; 1 Jn. 2:16). When were we born again, when were we regenerated? When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ in truth, moved by the Spirit to do so, and God the Father became our Father once again. In short, it happened when the central covetousness died, and the central thanksgiving was born. What is it to be born again? It is the death of covetous wanting, and the birth of thankful wanting.

The Grace of God’s Law

Theologians refer to the three uses of God’s law. But the first use refers to a revelation of God’s character, the righteousness of God that condemns the unrighteousness of man. With regard to the rich young ruler, we are talking about the first use. In order to come to Christ, the old man must die (in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, which is the glorious gospel). But do not grab the old man, and cut his fingernails, or give him a haircut. Do not arm wrestle with him. He must be crucified—his beating heart, which is wanting, always wanting, must die. When that man is raised in Christ, his grasping covetousness has been replaced.

Reformation Sunday 2011: Reformation in the Boneyard

Joe Harby on October 30, 2011

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Introduction

The end of October approaches, and as we mark and celebrate Luther’s Reformation, our heart’s desire and prayer should be for future historians to be able to describe it as a relatively small one. “Small” does not mean insignificant, but we should still see it as the Holy Spirit just getting started (Heb. 9:10). Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those of us who love Him. So as we emphasize the five solas (as we should), let us exult in the one which is the true integration point for all of them—solus Christus—the cornerstone of every future reformation.

The Text

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16).

Summary of the Text

Christ died and rose for the world, and if we are to follow the apostle Paul’s argument here, this means that we have an obligation to see that world differently. We are called to see the world as saved in principle, beforehand, in the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. We should not see the world as saved when our eyes finally tell us it is all right for us to believe. Who hopes for what he already has? The world will be saved because we already see Christ crucified and risen, and so we declare to the world what that means. What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith?

The apostle tells us that how we see non-Christians is directly related to how we see Jesus. How we see the world is directly related to how we see Jesus. We like to think that a high Christology and a low cosmology go together, but they do not. We like to think that a high Christology and a low anthropology go together, but they do not. New Age mystics and distorters notwithstanding, we worship a cosmic Christ. Externalists notwithstanding, we worship a personal, heart-felt Jesus. “For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart” (2 Cor. 5:12).

Believing this to be the case, we are no longer permitted to understand any man “after the flesh.”There is a way of understanding humanity that does not take into account what Jesus did on the cross, and what He accomplished when He rose from the grave. That way of understanding humanity may call itself “realistic,” but how is it realistic to ignore God’s inauguration of the new creation?

The Obstacle of Total Depravity

Some may want to see men “after the flesh” because of the orthodox doctrine of total depravity (which is the orthodox and biblical doctrine), but how is it that we have come to believe that total depravity somehow has more power to hold down Jesus than the stone tomb did? The fact that Jesus was buried in a stone tomb is a biblical doctrine also, but that was not the end of the story.

Yes, unregenerate mankind is totally depraved. Yes, it is true that we cannot autonomously contribute in any way to our own salvation. Yes, it is true that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But let us never preach the doctrine of total depravity without also declaring there has been a great earthquake, and that an angel of the Lord has rolled away the stone in front of that imposing doctrine.

We should magnify the greatness of our disease so that we might magnify even more the greatness of the cure. We do not magnify the greatness of the disease in order to proclaim that “not even Jesus, the great Healer, could deal with it.”

Resurrection Talk is Crazy Talk

This is crazy talk, I know. But it is also biblical talk. This whole world, since the sin of Adam, has been nothing but one, vast, pole-to-pole boneyard. We believe that death is the one inexorable ruler. We live in a global Marbletown. Whatever could Jesus do in a world like this? What could He possibly do that could transform a world like this? The gospel reply is that He could come back from the dead in it.

Billions of sinners, dead in their sins. Son of man, shall these bones live? Ah, sovereign Lord, you know. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, bones can’t hear anything. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, they are not paying any attention. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, that’s not how I learned to do it in seminary. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord . . . but Lord . . . To see men after the flesh is to see nothing but the bones.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

We do not invite Jesus into our lives—down here in the boneyard. Rather, Jesus invites us into His life, and the whole world is invited. The ministry of reconciliation is based on the fact of the cosmic reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

Definite Atonement Both Ways

Some may object that this dilutes the truth of definite atonement. Not in the slightest. All who were purchased for eternal salvation by Christ will in fact be eternally saved. Those who were not so purchased will not be. The point here is not that Christ died indiscriminately for every last man, whether elect or damned. The point is that Christ died for the world, and those who are excluded from Christ are therefore excluded from that world—they are cast into the outer darkness. To be saved is to be saved into the new humanity. It is to be saved into the world.

But it further means that definite atonement is not synonymous with “tiny atonement.”The reality of definite atonement is seen in the specific numbers allotted to each tribe—12,000 from each tribe, no more, no less. The majestic extent of definite atonement is seen when John turned and looked. What did he see? He saw a multitude that no man can number (Rev. 7:9). How many will be saved? We can’t count that high. Look at the stars, Abraham. Use the Hubble telescope, Abraham. So shall your descendants be.

How will these things happen? What will bring it to pass? The glorious message of a glorious substitution will be declared and presented to every living creature. What shall we tell them? We should give them the message that we were told to give to them. We should prophesy to the bones. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

The Fatherhood of God

Joe Harby on October 23, 2011

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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.

Pentecostal Authority

Joe Harby on June 12, 2011

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Introduction

The Jewish festival of Pentecost is now famously connected to the sign gifts that were poured out on this day— gifts of tongues, and prophecy, and the like. We get the denominational name of Pentecostal from this day, and so one of the things we should learn as we mark this day is how that day should be understood in the history of the Church. This means also guarding against how it can be misunderstood.

The Texts

“In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe” (1 Cor. 14:21-22).

“Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds” (2 Cor. 12:12).

Summary of the Text

The outpouring of gifts on the day of Pentecost was a historical mile-marker, and was specially designated as a sign to unbelieving Jews. Paul says that tongues are a sign for unbelievers, and because of the passage he cites from Isaiah 28:11-12, we can see that he means unbelieving Jews. With men of other tongues God says that He will speak to this people. Despite this clear indication and sign, they will continue on in their unbelief. Now this is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost, in the streets of a Jerusalem that (within a generation) was going to be filled with armies speaking other tongues—like speaking German in Paris, or English in Baghdad. It is a sign of conquest and defeat, not of happy prayer times. The gift of tongues was given as a sign of an historical judgment falling upon Israel in a terrible way. In contrast, Paul argues, prophesy was intended to serve those within the Church.

In addition to this, we see that these gifts simpliciter were apostolic marks, meaning that those in possession of them had the authority of an apostle, meaning that in effect they could write Scripture.

Isaianic Background

An understanding of the 28th chapter of Isaiah is essential to understanding much of the New Testament. Isaiah rebukes the corrupts of Israel (Is. 28:1-8). But they do not receive it—who’s he trying to teach? Little kids? They mock him, and he replies that instead of sing-songy precepts they will finally hear gibberish, right before they are captured and “taken.”This is right before Isaiah introduces the cornerstone—the one the builders rejected.

Philip’s Daughters and the Uniqueness of Scripture

Whenever anyone says “thus saith the Lord,” that person must also be willing, in the next breath, to claim that the message he speaks belongs in the Scriptures, Vol. 2. The answer to this claim is often that Scripture speaks of the existence of prophecies that never made it into the Bible (Acts 21:9). And this is quite true—but God can dispense with His own words whenever He wants, and however He deems fit. We cannot be in possession of what we claim to be inspired words from God, and then throw them away. If we have them, and we believe them to be God’s words, then we must act accordingly. If prophesy proper is an extant gift, then it follows that the canon of Scripture is not closed. If the canon of Scripture is closed, then prophecy proper is not an extant gift.

Now I use the phrase “prophecy proper” because every preacher of the Word is called upon to prophesy in one sense, a lesser sense (1 Pet. 4:11). On account of this, the Puritans even called preaching “prophesying.” But this was sharply distinguished from what Jeremiah, Isaiah, or Agabus did. You should come to the sermon prepared to encounter the Word of God there, but without equating the sermon outline with Scripture. In short, what the neo- orthodox claim about the Scriptures, the Reformed claim for faithful evangelical preaching. This particular gift is not dependent, incidentally, on a preacher’s gifts or graces.

But God is Not Bound

We must distinguish between a sign gift of power, resident within someone, and answers to prayer. The fact that the sign gifts, authenticating the ministry of an apostle, have ceased, does not mean that the Holy Spirit has ceased, or gone out of the world. The choice is not between a lively Pentecostalism and a duddy non- Pentecostalism. Too often cessationists act like God died, and they are in charge of holding the ongoing memorial services. But we are not weeping for Tammuz.

A man with the gift of healing, for example, could walk through a hospital ward, and heal the people there, with power flowing out of him. And incidentally, if there were a man who could do that, we would all know his name. When the woman with the hemorrhage touched Him, the Lord felt the healing power go out from Him. This is different than when we intercede for the sick, and God answers the prayer. To deny that the first kind of thing still happens is not to say that the second happens rarely, if at all. These are two separate questions. Disbelief in false apostles should never translate over to unbelief in God.

So Guard Against Reductionism

The fact that we believe that the sign gifts have ceased does not mean that we hold that the universe functions in the way that the materialists believe that it does. We live and move and have our being in God, and spiritual realities surround us on every hand. The world is not a machine grinding away in accordance with natural laws. The universe is personally governed.

So the gift of prophecy (or tongues plus interpretation) is not a gift of spiritual utterance. It is a gift of guaranteed spiritual utterance. In other words, the fact that something is spiritual doesn’t make it true. The Bible is not our ultimate, infallible authority because it consists of spiritual words. It is our final and infallible authority because it represents the perfections of God Himself. The devil is a spirit, and can speak, and we have spirits, and we can speak spiritual words. Our words are not just the motion of atoms in the air, or the function of ink on a page. We do not surrender the nature of the world by guarding the true nature and boundaries of the Bible.