You Can Please God

KYLE GANGEL

Often in counseling, when asked specifically about how a counselee pleased God in a given week, he or she will say something like, “Well, I read my Bible every day, but I’m sure I just did it to be smart and impress my friends.” Or, “I shared the gospel with my neighbor, but after reflecting on it, I think I just did it out of duty, not out of a delight in God.” As a pastor and biblical counselor I appreciate the emphasis on the heart, and certainly don’t want to encourage outward obedience from a heart not directed towards God’s glory. My concern, however, with these types of responses is that they are often coming from an overemphasis on depravity and a corresponding underemphasis on our union with Christ. 

As believers, we want to hold biblical truths together and not allow one to trump the other. If we overemphasize depravity to the neglect of what Christ has accomplished for us, it results in a false humility that presents Christ as a weak savior. In our carelessness, we can begin to think of Christ only as the one who justified us legally (Rom 3:21-26) but not as the one who has overthrown the ruling power of indwelling sin (Romans 6:1-14).

IN CHRIST, IT IS POSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD

It is far better to hold to the totality of Scripture and affirm that, sinful though we are, we can please God in Christ. This is exactly what we’ve been commanded to do. Paul affirms in 2 Corinthians 5:9, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please [Christ].” In context, the mention of “home or away” by Paul is a reference to his being in heaven with Christ or remaining on this earth. Paul asserts then that whether he is on earth or dies and enters the presence of the Lord, he exists for the good pleasure of God. Like the Apostle Paul, even as we await our future glorification, we can please Christ. 

We do readily admit, however, that we cannot do this in our strength, but only in the power which God supplies. The author of Hebrews takes up this theme in his benediction: “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20-21 emphasis mine). It is not hard to spot the active work of “the God of peace” in our works pleasing unto him. It is God who “equip(s) you with everything good” to do his will. It is God “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.” Further, our doing of God’s will is “through Jesus Christ” to his glory. In Christ, we can live, think, and act in ways that accord with God’s will and therefore please him. So what about the sinful desires of the flesh? 

BEWARE THE FLESH

We don’t want to get out of balance in the other direction and disregard the maze of desires that is a sinful heart. We are warned in Scripture about the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13) as well as our inability to decipher the intentions of our hearts (Jer. 17:9). Even the Apostle Paul laments in Romans 7 that he does the very sinful acts he doesn’t want to do and doesn’t do the righteous acts he wants to do. We should certainly heed these warnings and be suspicious of our motives. However, the Bible does not assume that we can never please God even if we can usually point to a hidden motive lurking in our hearts.

WHAT DO WE MAKE OF MIXED MOTIVES?

How then are we to reconcile the truth that we are empowered to please God and that our motives are often amiss when we do the very things God is calling us to do? Not surprisingly, the answer is found in the work of Christ as our perfect representative and substitute. Our good works are acceptable and pleasing to God not because they are without mixed motive, but because Christ obeyed as our representative with nothing less than perfect motives. The Apostle Peter makes this point: “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). The spiritual sacrifices that Peter mentions are good works offered up to God. Notice that these spiritual sacrifices, or good works, are a delight to God because they come through Christ. It is Christ that makes our God-pleasing efforts acceptable, not the fact they are without any admixture of weakness, frailty, or impure motive. The English Puritan John Owen states it well:

“Believers obey Christ as the one whom our obedience is accepted by God. Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect, and unable to abide in God’s presence. Therefore they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God.” 

Ultimately, we can please God because Christ takes our imperfect efforts and makes them acceptable to God. Holding these truths in tension we are free to exercise real humility. We will neither denigrate the Savior by being so introspective that we deny his sanctifying work in us, nor will we take credit for our good works or be afraid to admit that our striving after godliness is often mixed with weakness and imperfection. Instead, we make it our aim to please Christ and insofar as we do that, we recognize that it is only due to God’s grace, the work of Christ, and the sanctification of the Spirit (Philippians 2:12-13).

posted at: https://gospelmercies.com/2020/03/26/you-can-please-god/

Only One Life

By C.T. Studd

Two little lines I heard one day,

Traveling along life’s busy way;

Bringing conviction to my heart,

And from my mind would not depart;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past, 

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,

Soon will its fleeting hours be done;

Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,

And stand before His Judgement seat;

Only one life,’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, the still small voice,

Gently pleads for a better choice

Bidding me selfish aims to leave,

And to God’s holy will to cleave;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, a few brief years,

Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;

Each with its clays I must fulfill,

living for self or in His will;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

When this bright world would tempt me sore,

When Satan would a victory score;

When self would seek to have its way,

Then help me Lord with joy to say;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Give me Father, a purpose deep,

In joy or sorrow Thy word to keep;

Faithful and true what e’er the strife,

Pleasing Thee in my daily life;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Oh let my love with fervor burn,

And from the world now let me turn;

Living for Thee, and Thee alone,

Bringing Thee pleasure on Thy throne;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Only one life, yes only one,

Now let me say,”Thy will be done”;

And when at last I’ll hear the call,

I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;

Only one life,’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

Tempted and Unarmed: Why We Need the Armor of God

Article by Garrett Kell

It was the boy’s first day of junior high. All was going well until three older kids took his lunch, ruffled his hair, and stuffed him in a locker. They snarled at his squeals and high-fived one another as they walked away. What the bullies didn’t know, though, was that the kid in the locker was the little brother of the football team’s starting middle linebacker.

After lunch, the boy told his brother what happened. His brother looked him in the eyes. “Let’s go.” As the boy came to his locker, the bullies were waiting for him, grinning. But he hadn’t come alone this time. He came in the strength of his older brother. That was the last day they messed with him.

As Christians, we have a dangerous adversary. We face something far scarier than getting stuffed in a locker. Our enemy wants to devour our faith and drag us to hell.

“Spiritual warfare is about God’s people joining their Lord in his warfare.”

So, when the apostle Paul instructs the Ephesian church about spiritual warfare, he begins by exhorting them not to go into the battle in their own strength. He reminds them of their Elder Brother. He says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10–11).

Marching into War

Jesus is on a mission to rescue captive souls from a strong enemy (Mark 3:23; Luke 19:10). Through his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus delivered a mortal wound to our formidable foe (Colossians 2:15; 1 John 3:8). He now calls sinners to flee from Satan’s captivity, and align with his everlasting kingdom (Acts 17:30). He commissions his church to join him in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:18–20). This means that, when we follow Jesus, we follow him into a war zone.

Though Satan has been decisively defeated, and his future is doomed, he lives for the present. He still schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11), stalks (1 Peter 5:8), deceives (Revelation 12:9), ensnares (2 Timothy 2:26), hinders (1 Thessalonians 2:18), harasses (2 Corinthians 12:7), and attacks us with fiery darts of temptation (Ephesians 6:16). We wage war against his dark forces, but not with physical artillery (2 Corinthians 10:3–4). Rather, we are commanded to “be strong in the Lord and . . . put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:10–11). When we come to the battle, we do not fight alone. We fight in the strength of our Lord.

What Is the Armor of God?

On the wall of my childhood Sunday school classroom hung a poster of a Roman soldier’s armor. It explained that God’s armor corresponded to what those first-century soldiers wore. While there are similarities, Paul desires our imaginations to be captured by something far greater than a Roman soldier. He wants us to see our warrior God, who powerfully fights “against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The focus of spiritual warfare isn’t Satan or an imaginary Roman soldier; it’s our Savior.

Paul wasn’t using a contemporary illustration to explain spiritual warfare; he was reminding the Ephesians of the prophet Isaiah’s presentation of our warrior King. The afflicted take courage because a Spirit-filled Savior girds himself with a belt of truth to speak on their behalf (Isaiah 11:1–5). God’s people erupt with singing because the Lord is coming with shoes to pronounce gospel peace (Isaiah 52:1–10). This Savior enters evil’s darkness with a breastplate of righteousness and a helmet of salvation to deliver his people from oppression (Isaiah 59:17). The Lord’s servant speaks words like a sharp sword, bringing salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:1–6). It is to this Savior that King David flees to be shielded by faith during his enemy’s attacks (Psalm 18:29–42).

“When we follow Jesus, we follow him into a war zone.”

Too often, spiritual warfare is seen as an individual believer’s call to put on armor and fight demonic forces alone, as if this is a test to prove his faith. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Spiritual warfare is about God’s people joining their Lord in his warfare. He equips (Ephesians 4:7–16) and empowers us (1 Corinthians 12:11) to accompany him into enemy territory and further his kingdom purposes (Matthew 28:20).

Whole Armor of God

Putting on God’s armor isn’t like dressing with clothes from your closet. There’s no mixing and matching, no switching out for whatever the season may require. Spiritual armor is applied by faith, daily — and the entire letter of Ephesians teaches us how to put it on.

BELT OF TRUTH

Satan labors to make you a liar like him. But we put on the Lord’s belt of truth by “[putting] away falsehood” and “[speaking] the truth” to one another (Ephesians 4:25). We don’t hatefully deceive like the devil, but “[speak] the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). We don’t cover our sins but confess them. We don’t slander but speak honest words about others. Putting on the belt of truth is an act of faith that resists Satan’s call to be a liar like him (John 8:44).

BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, HELMET OF SALVATION

Satan wants you to join him in rebelling against God. But we resist him by putting on the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. We “put off [our] old self . . . [and] put on the new self . . . in true righteousness” (Ephesians 4:22–24). We stand confidently in Christ’s imputed righteousness rather than adopt worldly identities (Ephesians 1–3).

We step courageously in Christlike practical righteousness rather than follow worldly ways (Ephesians 4–6). We resist sexual immorality in order to show true love (Ephesians 5:1–6). We resist corrupting talk and crude joking by speaking grace-filled words of edification (Ephesians 4:29) We do not get drunk with worldly indulgence but serve others in the power of the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18–21).

SHOES OF GOSPEL PEACE

Satan hates the good news about Christ’s blood and the forgiveness it purchases. He hates to see sinners reconciled to God (Ephesians 2:1–10) and to one another in the church (Ephesians 2:11–22). He wars to hinder evangelism among unbelievers (Luke 8:12) and strives to stoke angry division among the redeemed (Ephesians 4:26–27).

But hell’s gates will not prevail against Jesus’s church (Matthew 16:18). So, we lace up shoes of gospel peace and sow gospel seed (Romans 10:15). Inspired by his grace, we “[bear] with one another in love” and are “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1–3).

SHIELD OF FAITH

Satan stokes fear in hopes that we will retreat. He threatens us with social rejection, persecution, pain, and death (Hebrews 2:14). But rather than retreat, we take up the shield of faith. We draw near to Jesus, and hide without shame under his cover. We embrace his words to the persecuted church in Smyrna: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison. . . . Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). We “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28). We rest knowing that, even if we die for Christ, we shall forever live with Christ (John 11:25–26).

SWORD OF THE SPIRIT

Satan seduces and accuses us with lies. But we take up the sword of the Spirit and strike down his lofty arguments (2 Corinthians 10:5). When he promises fleeting pleasures, we emulate Jesus by striking them down with God’s word (Matthew 4:1–11). When he heaps shame and condemnation upon us, we slash them with scriptural assurances (Romans 8:1). When we are threatened by Satan’s requests to sift us, we pray, knowing that Jesus ever lives to intercede for us (Luke 22:31; Hebrews 7:25).

“Spiritual warfare most often takes place in the mundane details of life.”

Some of these descriptions may not seem like spiritual warfare because they seem so normal, so everyday. But while spiritual warfare can involve demonic possession and exorcisms, it most often takes place in the mundane details of life. Why do you think confessing your sin is so difficult? Why is obedience so challenging? Why are you so afraid to evangelize? Why is forgiveness so daunting? Why is prayer so marred by distraction?

It is because the world, the flesh, and the devil are continually working against what our Lord is warring for. Yet we do not lose heart, because we face them in our Lord’s strength, knowing that “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). We go into battle with Christ who strengthens us.

When Satan Strikes

At times, we fail to put on the armor. We get busy with our own pursuits, and when the struggle sneaks up on us, we try to fight in our own strength. We step out from under our Lord’s strength and are overcome by temptation. We lie instead of speaking truth. We harbor bitterness instead of forgiving. We slander instead of pursuing peace. We justify sin instead of repenting of it. We indulge our lust instead of loving God. We grieve the Spirit and sap our joy (Ephesians 4:30).

When these fiery darts strike us, we are left wounded and wearied. Our spiritual strength is sapped, desire for prayer dissipates, singing is silenced, shame is stoked, fellowship is avoided, and our taste for temptation increases.

When this happens, we must not lose heart, but rather cry to our warrior God, our great Savior, who leaves none of his fellow soldiers behind. He will not allow us to be snatched from his grasp (John 10:28). Rather, he will throw us over his shoulder, and take us to green pastures and still waters, where he will restore our souls (Psalm 23:1–3). In him we are strengthened to go back into battle, knowing that our warrior God “will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/tempted-and-unarmed?utm_campaign=Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105715159&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9-lt78fCTKbayuxMNBhT_59-9zxJMOEMX0bUNtyCyfpSJ3uoYz_26Q0qGZ71KjAiTxibR_ejVMQoB6g8UvZwpOY5KBDw&utm_content=105715159&utm_source=hs_email

Would It Be Okay For Me To Be Angry With God?

By Tim Challies

It felt like a test—a test of my faith, a test of my convictions, a test of my love for God. Soon, very soon, after I learned that my son had died, I received a message from an old acquaintance. Her intentions were good—she wanted to offer consolation. But her instructions were suspect—she wanted me to rage against God. Paraphrasing one of her favorite authors she said “It’s okay to be angry with God about this. It’s okay to tell him exactly how you feel about him right now. Let him have it. He doesn’t mind.”

My instincts rebelled against her counsel, but for just a moment I wondered. I didn’t feel anger in my loss, but should I? I didn’t resent God’s sovereignty in taking my son, but might that be appropriate? Already I was leaning hard on God for comfort, but should I now also press against him for blame? In that very moment a verse of scripture, a mere fragment, flashed into my mind. “Curse God and die.” In this case it was not a human demanding it of another as Job’s wife did of her husband. Rather, it was the Holy Spirit’s reminder of what it would mean for me to raise my fist to the sky.

That moment was a test of my faith. Haven’t we all wondered whether our faith would be able to withstand a staggering blow like the sudden, unexplained death of a child? I certainly had. In that moment I had to choose whether my faith would push me toward God or away from him. I had to make a choice between submission and rebellion.

That moment was a test of my convictions. I have often proclaimed the glories of God’s goodness and sovereignty, yet this has been easy because they’ve so constantly been aligned with my own desires. In that moment I had to choose whether I would continue to proclaim in the dark what I had celebrated in the light, or whether, instead, I would allow my circumstances to overturn my beliefs. I had to choose whether these doctrines would draw me to God in comfort or alienate me in anger.

That moment was a test of my love. I have so often proclaimed my love for God, but now he had taken my child, my firstborn, my son, my protégé, the man in all the world who was most precious to me. In that moment I had to choose whether I would love God through this or rage against him, whether it would turn my affections ever-more toward him, or whether it would steer them away.

That moment was a test, I’m sure of it. For though there is a thread of teaching in the Christian world that says it is a sign of maturity and authenticity to be angry with God, I am unconvinced. In fact, I’m sure the opposite is true—that there would never be an appropriate time for me to be angry with God or at God. Why? Because, ultimately, to be angry at what God does is to be angry at who God is. To be angry with his actions is to be angry with his person. It’s to doubt that his actions were just, that they were wise, that they were right, that they were good. It’s to cast aspersions on his very character.

That’s not to say we can never be angry. It’s not to say we must be completely impassive in the face of grief, sorrow, and suffering. On this note John Piper helpfully distinguishes between anger at a thing and anger at a person: “Anger at a thing does not contain indignation at a choice or an act. We simply don’t like the effect of the thing: the broken clutch, or the grain of sand that just blew in our eye, or rain on our picnic. But when we get angry at a person, we are displeased with a choice they made and an act they performed. Anger at a person always implies strong disapproval. If you are angry at me, you think I have done something I should not have done.”

And who am I to be angry at what God has done? Who am I to disapprove of what he has permitted? Who am I to conclude God has done something he should not have, or to even suggest the notion? I might be angry at what I do, or what you do, or what John Piper does, but all of us are sinful, all of us are foolish, all of us are wrongheaded, all of us make mistakes, all of us sometimes bring harm even when we attempt to do good. We might very well have done something we ought not to have done. But not God. He only ever does what is right and what is good. He only ever permits what is best. He is so for us that no action he takes would ever ultimately be against us.

Little wonder, then, that, after Job’s wife encouraged her husband to curse God and die, he gently corrected her. He warned her that in her grief (for she, too, had suffered terrible loss) she was speaking words that were suitable only for the mouth of a fool. Then he asked rhetorically, faithfully, wonderfully, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” Then follows this affirmation of his tremendous faith: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

Comfort comes not from anger at the divine will, but acquiescence to it.

Job knew that consolation does not come by raging against God, but by submitting to him. Comfort comes not from anger at the divine will, but acquiescence to it. J.R. Miller says it sweetly: “[God] has a right to take from us what he will, for all our joys and treasures belong to Him and are only lent to us for a time. It was in love that He gave them to us; it is in love that He takes them away. When we cease our struggle, and in faith and confidence submit our will to His, peace flows into our heart and we are comforted.” Comfort comes when we align our will with the will of God. Peace flows when we bless him in our grief as we did in our joys. For his love is as constant, his character is as perfect, his actions are as irreproachable in the taking as they were in the giving.

Posted at: https://www.challies.com/articles/would-it-be-okay-for-me-to-be-angry-with-god/

The Five Solas

By Matthew Barrett

DEFINITION

The five solas of the Reformation, which distinguished the Reformers from the teachings of Rome, include sola scriptura (Scripture alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone).

SUMMARY

These five statements of the evangelical faith lay at the center of what distinguished the theology of the Reformation from the theology of the Roman Catholic church in the 16th century. Sola scriptura is the belief that because Scripture is God’s inspired Word, it is the only inerrant, sufficient, and final authority for the church. Solus Christus is the assertion that Christ alone is the basis on which the ungodly are justified in God’s sight. Sola fide maintains that the believer receives the redemption Christ has accomplished only through faith. Sola gratia proclaims that all of our salvation, from beginning to end, is by grace and grace alone. Because of these things, the Reformers held fast to the phrase soli Deo gloria, that only God receives glory for our salvation.

The five solas form the nucleus of the evangelical faith. They not only capture the gospel of Jesus Christ and explain how that gospel takes root in the sinner, but they also define where the authority of that gospel resides and to what end that gospel is preached and proclaimed. Although the phrase “five solas” may be more recent in its usage, the concepts are rooted in the 16th century Reformation. These five solas distinguished Reformers like Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, John Calvin, and so many others from the teachings of Rome. But at the heart of this divide was not merely a theological dispute, but a celebration of the gospel itself. The reformers were willing to lay their lives down for these solas first and foremost because they believed the gospel itself was at stake.

Sola Scriptura

Sola scriptura, sometimes referred to as the formal principle of the Reformation, is the belief that “only Scripture, because it is God’s inspired Word, is our inerrant, sufficient, and final authority for the church” (God’s Word Alone, 23). Notice, the basis of sola scriptura is Scripture’s inspired nature. As Paul says, “All Scripture is breathed-out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). That cannot be said of church tradition, councils, or church leaders, as important as they all may be. While Scripture may have many human authors, it has one divine author. The Holy Spirit, Peter tells us, carried along the biblical authors so that what they said, God himself said (2 Pet. 1:21), down to the very words.

For that reason, Scripture is also inerrant, inerrancy being a corollary of inspiration. Inerrancy means that Scripture is true, without error, in all that it asserts. As the Holy Spirit carried along the biblical authors, he ensured that their human words reflected his own holy character. Hence Scripture is truth because God himself is truth. It is, after all, God’s Word. Inerrancy is essential not only because it provides warrant for our assurance, giving us every reason to believe Scripture is trustworthy, but inerrancy also distinguishes Scripture from all other fallible authorities. Scripture alone is our infallible, inerrant authority.

Last, sola scriptura means that only Scripture is our sufficient authority. Not only does Paul say all Scripture is God-breathed, but on that basis, Scripture is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Or as the Belgic Confession says so well, “We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught therein.”

Sola Scriptura teaches us, in the end, that all other authorities in the Christian life serve underneath Scripture, while Scripture alone rules over other authorities, for it alone is God’s inspired, inerrant, and sufficient word.

Solus Christus

Scripture, as the Christian’s final authority, is a gift from God. It is a gift because in Scripture we are given Jesus Christ himself. God would have been perfectly just and holy to leave us in our sin and condemnation. But our great God stooped down so low as to speak a saving word to us lost sinners, a word that reached its pinnacle in the living Word, the Lord Jesus himself (John 1:1).

Our temptation is to think, however, that there is something in ourselves, even in the slightest, that can contribute to our redemption. Perhaps it’s obedience to the law, or perhaps it’s good works that spring from faith itself. But Scripture counters: “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10). God and God alone can save us.

The Father has done just that by sending his Son to “become flesh” (John 1:14) to represent us, substituting himself on our behalf. Whereas we failed to keep the law, Christ obeyed the law for us; whereas we deserve the penalty for breaking the law, Christ died for us. Christ fulfilled the law we could not keep, and he bore the wrath of God that we deserve (Rom. 3:21–26). And he did so in full. As that old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all.” That means, then, that the work of Christ, and Christ alone, is the basis on which the ungodly are justified in God’s sight.

Sola Fide

But how does the believer receive the redemption Christ has accomplished? Through faith and faith alone. Rather than trusting in ourselves, we trust in another: Jesus Christ.

The Reformers loved to talk about a “great, marvelous exchange.” Christ has taken our sin and its penalty on the cross. What have we received in exchange? The perfect, spotless, righteousness of Christ. Not only have we been forgiven, and our debt been paid in full but imputed to our account is Christ’s perfect record of obedience.

That means, then, that God declares us right with him not on the basis of something in us but only on the basis of an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is extra nos, outside ourselves. Of course, it is none other than the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9). Faith, then, is the instrument through which we receive this alien righteousness. Through faith in Christ that blessed status in Christ, which God alone can give, is reckoned to us. Hence Paul warns Christians that no one will be justified by works of the law but only through faith in Christ (Gal. 2:15–3:14).

Sola Gratia

If the work of Christ is the basis of our right standing before God, and if we are justified by God not on the basis of our works but only through faith in the works of his Son, then it follows that our salvation is by grace and by grace alone.

Sola gratia, however, is not limited to our justification, but spans all of salvation from start to finish. In fact, the grace that saves us is, as John Newton so famously sung, “amazing,” because it does not originate with us at all but stems from God’s mercy in eternity. As Paul says, God “chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

“But wait a minute,” you might say, “Surely my will and my choice must be the determining factor.” Not according to Paul: God’s election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16) His choice, in short, is not conditioned on us; that would give us reason to boast. Rather, his electing grace is unconditional.

And if his grace in eternity is so free, then so too must his grace be unconditional when applied by the Holy Spirit. The God who has chosen us by grace alone, is the one who alone can call us out of darkness into the light of his own Son (effectual calling; John 6) and raise us from spiritual death to spiritual life (regeneration; John 3). His grace is not synergistic, as if it depends on our will for its success. No, it is monergistic, for he alone works to bring us dead, lifeless sinners to new life in his Son. Moreover, he alone can grant us the faith that believes and work such belief within us so that we embrace Christ as our Savior and Lord (Acts 13:48–50; Eph. 2:8–10; Phil. 1:29–30; 2 Pet. 1:1).

Soli Deo Gloria

Only if our salvation is by grace alone will God alone receive all the glory. If there is something of our own we can claim, then we no longer boast in Christ alone. But if he is the author and finisher of our salvation then he alone is to be magnified for his sovereign grace. As Christians, these solas should cultivate an attitude of total humility. Whether it is in our secular vocations or our praise on a Sunday morning, to God alone be the glory.

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-five-solas/

Cultivating Practical Godliness

By Donald Whitney

DEFINITION

Cultivating practical godliness is essential to the Christian life and is made up of pursuing spiritual disciplines that are both personal (bible reading, prayer, fasting, etc.) and interpersonal (baptism, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, family worship, etc.).

SUMMARY

Christians cultivate practical godliness in obedience to the Lord and in order to strive “for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Discipline is essential to this task, both personally and interpersonally. These disciplines are activities that are not godliness themselves but help to put the Christian in the flow of God’s grace. Personal spiritual disciplines include reading the Bible, praying, fasting, managing money well, journaling, and learning. Interpersonal spiritual disciplines include participating in the ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) of the church, hearing the Word of God preached, worshiping and witnessing with the church, serving others, giving to the church, fellowshipping (not merely socializing) and praying with the church, and learning with the church.

Why is it important to cultivate practical godliness? For starters, the Lord commands us in 1 Timothy 4:7, “Train yourself for godliness.” Those God-breathed words carry the same authority as if spoken to you by the Lord Himself looking you directly in the eye. If you believe that, and want to obey God, then you’ll cultivate practical godliness.

Second, you won’t see the Lord after death if you don’t strive for godliness in this life. For He says in Hebrews 12:14, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” It’s not our striving for holiness (that is, godliness, Christlikeness, sanctification) that persuades the Lord to let us into Heaven. Rather it is the holiness of Christ Himself on our behalf—a holiness credited to us when we are united to Christ by faith—that qualifies us to see the Lord. Those who rely on Christ to make them right with God have been given the Holy Spirit. His holy presence creates holy hungers and longings for the holy things of God. And as Jonathan Edwards said, these are no “idle, ineffectual desires.” So those who are not acting on these holy impulses and not striving for holiness indicate they do not know the Holy One, and thus in eternity they will not “see the Lord.”

Discipline is Essential

Although the Holy Spirit produces the desire for godliness, progress in godliness isn’t automatic. After all, God says, “Train yourself for godliness.” The Spirit motivates and enables us to train ourselves, but He doesn’t do the training for us. The practical, day-by-day obedience to the command is our Spirit-empowered responsibility.

The key to cultivating practical godliness in real life is discipline: intentional, ongoing participation in the God-given means of grace found in God’s Word. That’s why I prefer the New American Standard Bible’s rendering of 1 Timothy 4:7, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” The “purpose” of the practice is godliness, that is, the “holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” The God-designed responsibility you have in this lifelong pursuit is to “discipline yourself.”

What kind of discipline? Well, obviously it’s not bodily discipline (as the next verse—1 Tim. 4:8—makes clear), otherwise body-builders would be the godliest people on earth. Rather the Bible is referring to spiritual discipline. And the practices found in Scripture which cultivate practical godliness have come to be known as “the spiritual disciplines.” So, the way we discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness is by practicing the biblical spiritual disciplines.

Disciplines Are Means, Not Ends

I don’t suppose that any list of the spiritual disciplines is authoritatively complete. In part this is because there is some difference of opinion over what constitutes a biblical discipline/practice/habit and what is simply a matter of obedience to a biblical command. For instance, no one doubts that fasting is a biblical spiritual discipline, but is gratitude? Some would say it is, while others would teach that it is more of a Christlike character quality.

In general, I would contend that a spiritual discipline involves a specific activity, that is, something that you do rather than something you are. Thus fasting is an external activity; it can be evaluated in terms of duration, type (such as with or without liquids), and other factors. Describing what fasting is and how to do it is relatively straightforward.

Gratitude, on the other hand, is essentially an internal quality. It is much harder to evaluate objectively. And while true gratitude will be expressed outwardly, it’s impossible to list all the ways it might be expressed.

Let’s be very clear at this point: The spiritual disciplines found in Scripture are not marks of godliness in and of themselves. The Pharisees diligently practiced many spiritual disciplines, and even fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12). But Jesus considered them the epitome of ungodliness. The Pharisees, just as many people today, saw the disciplines as ends, not means. They mistook the practice of spiritual disciplines as godliness, not a path to godliness.

Any practice—including those in the Bible—that can be measured, timed, counted, etc., is always subject to being wrongly equated with godliness. But that danger does not mean we should abandon the practices, for they are taught in Scripture. Remember that Jesus fasted, too (Matt. 4:2). Rather, our call is to practice the biblical spiritual disciplines, like Jesus, with the right motivation. That means we engage in the disciplines to pursue godliness. So to return to our example, gratitude is a mark of godliness; fasting can be a means to develop it. Therefore we should not fast merely to endure it and think we are more godly just because we’ve fasted. Rather we should fast for a biblical purpose, to pursue some godly goal such as an answer to prayer, deeper intimacy with Christ, or to cultivate a more Christlike character regarding a particular matter.

The same is true for any of the spiritual disciplines found in Scripture. We should practice them all, not with the mindset that we are impressing God or earning His favor, but in the pursuit of holy ends, that is, “for the purpose of godliness.”

Thus, the disciplines are like a pipe through which the water of God’s grace flows. Apart from God’s grace, the disciplines are empty of power to bless us or make us more godly. But practiced rightly and with biblical motivations, we can rely upon God’s grace to flow to us through them.

Personal Spiritual Disciplines

The biblical spiritual disciplines may be divided into two large groups: the personal spiritual disciplines (those you practice alone) and the interpersonal spiritual disciplines (those you practice with others). We’ll start with the personal disciplines because practical godliness begins with our individual relationship with the Lord.

The personal disciplines include all forms of Bible intake, prayer, private worship, fasting, stewardship of time and money, keeping a spiritual journal, godly learning, and more. But the two most important are the intake of the Word (God speaking to us) and prayer (our speaking to God).

Bible Intake

The disciplines directly involving the Bible involve hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating on, and applying God’s Word. God made our hearts and minds, and He made them to be fed by the Word of God. It is primarily by the Spirit ministering to us through His Word that we grow in godliness. There simply is no substitute for the regular intake of the milk and meat of God’s Word.

Space permits us to elaborate on only two forms of Bible intake (for more, see Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, chs. 2–3). First is Bible reading. Just as we feed our bodies every day, we should seek to feed our souls every day on God’s Word. Jesus reiterated the Old Testament proclamation that, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). How shall we live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” if we’ve never even read every word? I would encourage you not only to read the Bible every day, but also to try to read through the entire Bible (that is, “every word that comes from the mouth of God”) as often as you can. Countless Bible reading plans are available online, and they can take you systematically through the Scriptures. Each believer in Christ needs “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Most people can read the entire Bible in a year by reading just fifteen minutes per day.

Second, meditation on Scripture is very important; in fact, it may be the single greatest devotional need of most Christians. The failure to meditate on something they’ve read is the main reason most Christians say they can’t remember what they’ve read. If it takes you two or three seconds to read each verse in a passage, no wonder you don’t remember! What sentences anywhere do you remember after looking at them for just two or three seconds?

It is through meditation that the information on the page becomes experience in our hearts and lives. By reading we learn the truth of God; it is by meditation that we feel it. Reading the Bible, for example, teaches us “God is love” (1 John 4:8). But it is through meditation that we begin to feel the love of God, in biblically appropriate ways. And only when our hearts are moved do we more willingly obey in the ways of practical godliness.

How do you meditate on Scripture? Simply choose a verse from your reading and think about it. Ask questions of it. Emphasize one word or phrase at a time. There’s not just one way to meditate on Scripture. The book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life describe seventeen different ways to meditate on something in the Bible (46–69).

So, the general rule for the intake of God’s Word each day is read big, meditate small. Read a big section, such as a chapter or more. Then choose something small—such as one verse, phrase, or word—and meditate on that. If you have only ten minutes, don’t read for ten minutes. Read for five and meditate for five. Far better to read less (if necessary) and remember and be affected by something, than to read more and remember nothing. By so doing you’ll discover that you can recall throughout the day what you’ve meditated on, and thus be able to do what the Bible says when it exhorts us to meditate “day and night” (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2).

Prayer

All those indwelled by the Spirit want to pray, for both Romans (8:15) and Galatians (4:6) declare that He causes us to cry, “Abba! Father!” Those who know God find themselves spontaneously talking to their Father throughout the day, often in brief, “arrow” prayers (as they used to be called). But these random, momentary prayers are never enough to satisfy hearts turned Godward by the Holy Spirit. Progress in personal godliness requires the cultivation of habits of prayer, both alone and with others. The apostle Paul goes so far as to say to us all, “Devote yourselves to prayer” (Col. 4:2). At the very least this means more than just shooting an occasional arrow of prayer into Heaven.

Many, though, find consistent prayer impeded by at least two obstacles: they seem too busy to pray and when they do pray, it’s often boring.

Regarding busyness, we’re back to discipline, aren’t we? Almost everyone today feels like they have more to do every day than they have time for. But do we really want to say we have no time to talk to God? Just as we do with other loved ones, we must make time to talk with the one we love the most.

But when prayer is boring, our discipline weakens. Prayer will be boring if you say the same old things about the same old things every time. Even when talking to God, words without variety eventually become words without meaning. The problem is not that we pray about the same old things, for that’s normal. Our lives tend to consist of the same things from one day to the next—the same people, location, work, needs, etc. The problem is that we tend to say the same things about the same things. That’s boring.

What’s the solution, a solution simple enough for all God’s people? Here it is: when you pray, pray the Bible. Turn the words of Scripture into the words of your prayers. Although, once learned, you can do this from any part of the Bible, the easiest places to do this are the Psalms and the New Testament letters.

So if you were to pray through Psalm 23, you’d read the first line—“The Lord is my shepherd”—and pray something like, “Thank You, Lord, that You are my Shepherd. You are a good shepherd. Please shepherd my family; cause them to love You as their Shepherd as I love You as my Shepherd. Please shepherd me in the decision before me. Shepherd those at the church who shepherd us.” Continue praying about whatever is prompted by “The Lord is my shepherd.” When nothing else comes to mind, go to the next line that prompts prayer, and continue in this way until you run out of time.

Any Christian can do this. You’ll never run out of anything to say, and you’ll never again say the same old things in prayer. You’ll pray about both the matters you usually want to pray about (but in new ways) as well as things you never pray about. And by so doing you’ll follow the example of Jesus who prayed from two Psalms on the cross (Matt. 27:46; Luke 23:46), Christians in the book of Acts (4:24-26), and countless followers of Christ since.

Interpersonal Spiritual Disciplines

Personal godliness extends beyond our private lives. And the means to godliness involves more than just our devotion to the personal spiritual disciplines. Christlikeness involves our relationship to all things, people, and situations. We must think of godliness as it relates both to the inward life and the outward life, to both the church and the world, to the saved and the lost.

Christlikeness toward others and by the help of others is essential to biblical Christianity. That’s where the interpersonal spiritual disciplines come in. The disciplines we practice in the presence of others are where we both display progress in Christlikeness and are stimulated toward Christlikeness.

What Are They?

The interpersonal spiritual disciplines found in Scripture include gathering with and becoming a confessing member of the church, participating in the ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) of the church, hearing the Word of God preached, worshiping and witnessing with the church, serving others, giving to the church, fellowshipping (not merely socializing) and praying with the church, and learning with the church. Although done in the home, family worship could be included with this list as it’s not quite a personal spiritual discipline.

Many of these disciplines are enjoyed with the entire congregation. Others occur in a small group situation, and some are experienced one-on-one. Most of them are practiced primarily in a church setting; a few (particularly acts of service and group witness) can (and often should) be done intentionally in a non-Christian environment.

Involvement in these disciplines, just as with the personal ones, should be a delight and not a mere duty. It is work of the Holy Spirit who makes it so. He’s the One who gives us a binding love for other believers, so much so that “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers,” (1 John 3:14). Christians realize that God’s Spirit indwells other believers and that so much of His ministry to us is through them. So, to distance ourselves from regular, meaningful engagement with other believers in biblical ways is to cut ourselves off from so much of the Lord’s ministry to us. And no Christian wants to experience that.

And now?

1. Remember that the desire for godliness and the disciplines is given by the Spirit, but the practice of the disciplines often feels like it’s all you. When you wake up on Sunday morning, you may not feel like going to church. But what makes you willing to get out of a warm bed and get ready for church when most of your neighbors will not? A desire produced by the Holy Spirit that’s greater than laziness. But that doesn’t make you feel less sleepy. On a weekday, He doesn’t drag you to a chair and open the pages of the Bible for you. It feels like it’s all you. But God’s Spirit gets credit for the desire to discipline yourself and pick up the Scriptures.

Cultivating practical godliness is often more “fight” than “flow.” The Bible reminds us that “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5:17). The flesh—that part of Spirit-indwelled people on this side of Heaven that still finds sin appealing—will pull like gravity against anything that cultivates godliness. Disciplining yourself to follow the promptings of the Spirit is the Christlike response.

2. Sow to the Spirit in at least two practical ways. The Bible says, “The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:8). The words, “the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life,” are another way of saying, “Strive . . . for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Those indwelled by the Spirit want to sow to the Spirit.

How, practically, do we do that? Just as no farmer sows a crop accidentally, so Christians must sow to the Spirit intentionally. This essay has been about how to do that. You sow to the Spirit by disciplining yourself for the purpose of godliness. When you practice the biblical spiritual disciplines you are placing seeds of godliness into your soul that the Spirit grows into Christlikeness.

But you have to put them there. So, may I suggest that you prayerfully select at least one “seed” from the personal spiritual disciplines and one from the interpersonal disciplines and plant them firmly into your life? Perhaps it will be one you’ve practiced one before but abandoned. Perhaps there’ll be one you’ve never practiced before, but the Spirit is prompting you now to plant it. Don’t let the time invested to read these pages about cultivating personal godliness be fruitless!

Posted at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/cultivating-practical-godliness/

Standing Strong in the Fight Against Sin

By Krista Paolino

Though most of us may not be engaged in physical warfare, God’s word tells us we are always battling “against the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph. 6:12). We sometimes forget this reality when day to day tasks consume us. We rarely take time to think about eternal things because we are caught up in the here and now. We are prone to forget that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle, but this doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

Our forgetfulness leaves us vulnerable to attack. We need to remember that a war is waging, and a real enemy seeks to destroy us. Spiritual warfare is our ongoing fight against sin—anything that opposes God and his purposes. Though this sounds dramatic and a little scary, we need not despair because God is with us in the battle.

Psalm 144:1-2 says,

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

In physical warfare, a soldier must train well before he is ready to fight. And during battle, there are times when he must find rest in a safe place. This is also true for believers engaged in spiritual warfare. As Psalm 144:1-2 reminds us, we are called to both train for battle and to take refuge in God, our fortress.

Train for Battle

Throughout his Word, God has graciously warned us about the reality of spiritual warfare, and he has offered himself as the one who trains “[our] hands for war, and [our] fingers for battle” (Ps. 144:1). God also provides armor that will help us to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” and be able “to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:10). Putting it on means to practice using the tools that God has given: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of readiness from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and prayer. Putting on the armor of God helps us to both train for and stand strong during attacks from our enemy.

In his first letter, Timothy reminds us of another kind of preparation for battle: training ourselves for godliness. We can do this by watching our teaching (1 Tim. 4:6-8). We must know what God’s Word says in order to determine if the teaching we receive is biblical. Listening to unbiblical teaching will not help us wage war on our sin. Since our hearts are naturally deceitful and wicked (Jer. 17:9), we can be easily overcome by the temptations of this world. Just as the powerful ocean currents cause the tides to shift, so our hearts can drift from the truth if we are not persistently training ourselves according to God’s Word.

Take Refuge in God

There are times when a soldier at war must take cover—find refuge in a safe place. Where do we go for refuge during spiritual attack? Psalm 144:2 says, “[the LORD] is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.” God is our dependable refuge, unlike any other person or place on which we might be tempted to put our trust. He is steadfast, loving, strong, and able to save. This and many other Psalms proclaim God as a rock—a safe refuge. Here are just a few examples:

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us (Ps. 62:8).

How do we take refuge in God? We do so by trusting him—putting our faith in him alone—and pouring out our hearts to him in prayer. Spending regular time in God’s Word and prayer will help us to trust him and will guard us from weariness. If we neglect these means of grace, over time our spiritual strength will diminish, and we will likely not stand strong under temptation. If we regularly hear from and call upon the Lord, we will be able to draw from a well of strength in the day of great battle.

This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him (Ps. 18:30).

How do we take refuge in God? We do so by believing the truths of God’s word. Sin often begins when we listen to lies and believe the false promises that Satan makes to us. Instead, when we call to mind a promise of God, which is truth, it acts as a shield of refuge for us. God’s word always proves true. His word is dependable and strong to shield us.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Ps. 46:1).

How do we take refuge in God? We do so by remembering that the Lord is with us. When we who are in Christ were born again, we “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13). The Lord, who is the Holy Spirit, is now with us at all times. In moments of temptation and attack, the Holy Spirit aids us in the battle by providing strength and refuge with his presence. We can take rest by drawing near to him, knowing that we are not alone in the fight against sin.

Win Some Battles

For those who are born again in Christ, a war wages within us, and the greatest struggle is with our own sinful nature. Though we will always be battling sin on earth, we can make progress. Though we will give in to temptation at times, our goal is to win some battles. Our ability to fight well doesn’t come from our own strength or skill. Instead, our success is rooted in the reality that Jesus Christ has already won the ultimate victory through his death and resurrection. Through his Spirit, the Lord Jesus is training us into his image and offering himself as an ever-present refuge. We can stand strong because this Savior is on our side!

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2020/12/stand-strong-fight-sin/

The Greatest Need in the World

By Brad Wetherell

In the first paragraph of his classic book, Preaching & Preachers D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes:

“The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.” [1]

Is Lloyd-Jones right? Of all the needs in the church and in the world today, is faithful preaching actually the greatest?

Yes. And here’s why:

What is humanity’s deepest need?

Humanity’s greatest need is sight. We are all born blind. Not physically, but spiritually. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, Paul makes a sweeping statement about our natural human condition. He writes:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Think about what he’s saying. The god of this world (note the small “g”) has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Satan’s greatest victory on planet earth is the blindness he has brought into the lives of every fallen human since Adam and Eve. What are we incapable of seeing? The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. From birth, the eyes of our minds and hearts cannot see the truth and the goodness and the beauty of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all creation and the Savior of sinners. And if we remain unable to see him and believe in him, we will go to hell. No one comes to the Father, except through Jesus (Jn. 14:6). “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Therefore, avoiding an eternity of wrath, and enjoying an eternity of glory, depends on the ability to see the truth about Jesus. And since everyone is naturally blind to this reality, what greater need could there possibly be than to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ?

The illuminating power of true preaching

Lloyd-Jones was wise to modify the word “preaching” with the word “true.” There is plenty of false preaching that will not do any church or any person any good. Preaching that proclaims a “gospel” reducing the blessing of Jesus to health, wealth, and prosperity in this life is false, and worthless. Preaching that proclaims a “gospel” calling men and women to work their way into a right relationship with God is false, and worthless. Preaching that proclaims a “gospel” promising the favor of God to all people of all religious persuasions regardless of their faith in Christ is false, and worthless.

But true preaching of the true gospel cures satanic blindness and imparts spiritual sight. Again, in 2 Corinthians 4 Paul writes, “What we proclaim [preach!] is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:5-6). When the true gospel is preached, in the same way that God said, “let there be light” at the beginning of creation, he opens the blind eyes of men and women to show them the light of the glory of Christ. Paul experienced this first hand, and the entirety of his ministry was focused on the kind of work that allows others to experience this miracle of grace, as well. “Him [Jesus] we proclaim [preach],” Paul writes to the Colossians, “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28).

In God’s grace, and by his power, true preaching opens blind eyes to the glory of Jesus and matures believers until the day we stand in his presence. There is no greater need on planet Earth than this.

You know this

Preacher, you know these things. You’re giving your life to proclaim the glories of Jesus because you know that his gospel is the power of God “for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). And yet, as the years pass and perhaps you don’t see as many blind eyes opened as you desire, it can be tempting to divert from the course. Resist this. Resist the pull toward novelty for novelty’s sake. Resist the pull to tweak your teaching that it might better align with the contemporary mood. Resist the pull to water the message down. Don’t lose heart. Renounce underhanded ways. Refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word (2 Cor. 4:1-2). Preach the gospel, and leave the results in God’s sovereign hands.

Christian, you know these things. You see the glory of Jesus because someone preached the gospel to you. Pray for your pastor, asking God to keep him faithful to this task. Pray for his preaching, asking God to use it to open the eyes of many more and to mature you in your own faith. And proclaim Christ yourself, whenever the opportunity comes, that more people might see what you see.

The day is coming when every eye will see Jesus (Rev. 1:7). For those who see him in this life, that day will be full of joy, leading into an eternity of glory. For those who do not see him in this life, that day will be full of sorrow, leading to an eternity of shame. Seeing the glory of Christ now, and responding in faith, is the most urgent and important matter we face. And that is why preaching the glory of Christ, and calling people to faith, is the most urgent and important and greatest need of the world.

_____

1. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 17.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2021/01/greatest-need-in-the-world/

Your Work Matters More Than You Think

By Colin Smith

And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water (1 Kings 18:3-4).

God puts his people in some surprising places. The testimony of Obadiah can encourage Christians who have been called to serve God in dark places for His purposes.

Called to Unlikely Places

Obadiah is a godly man, and God has put him in the palace, next to Ahab. Imagine the darkness of this palace with its evil king and its wicked queen. King Ahab didn’t fear the Lord or walk in His ways. But God placed someone next to him who did.

Perhaps you can relate to Obadiah, who loved the Lord but lived and worked in a place that must have torn him apart. Maybe you are serving a company where many things make you deeply uncomfortable. You say to yourself, “I am a Christian. Should I even be here? How long can I go on working for these people?”

Maybe you face intense pressures in your career. You ask yourself, “Should I even be doing this?” And you wonder, “Is it possible to be a Christian and pursue a secular calling in this world that is increasingly hostile to our faith? Can I stay or should I go?”

Then you think, “Maybe I can get a job in ministry. Maybe I could become a pastor or a missionary or work for a nice Christian organization. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with these pressures.” The darker the world becomes, the greater the pressure on Christians to withdraw.

Don’t shy away from positions of influence because they are difficult. God calls His people to be lights in very dark places.

Called for Surprising Purposes

I Kings 18 tells us that there were at least a hundred men who had been called to preach the Word of God (v. 4), but there was only one man standing at the right hand of Ahab. The best that Obadiah can do for God is not to abandon his job and become the 101st preacher, but to persevere in his high-pressure position. Take him out of the palace, and so much is lost.

Obadiah couldn’t possibly have hidden the prophets apart from information gleaned by working in the palace. Think about the risk involved in that! Jezebel is killing prophets, and her husband’s chief of staff is hiding them in caves. Think about the cost! Obadiah supplied food to a hundred missionaries out of his own pocket!

The prophet Elijah could never have done what Obadiah did. Though the two men are brothers in the faith, they have very different callings. Elijah works from the “outside”—standing apart from and speaking into national life—and God has given him a platform to do that (1 Kings 18). But Obadiah has a ministry of influence from the “inside.” He stays in the palace, and he has to be very careful about what he says. Everything in his life is about staying faithful in a situation that often must have felt as if it was tearing him apart. Here are three insights we can gain from his testimony:

a. Expect to be troubled.

In any career, you will find yourself torn, because you are in the world but not of it. Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble” (Jn. 16:33). This world is not your home, so you are serving where you do not belong in a system that will pass away. That will always cause tension.

When you feel pressure to withdraw from your profession because it’s a dark place, please remember—God calls Obadiah’s as well as Elijah’s. He puts his light in some dark places because that’s where it’s needed most. The steadfastness of Obadiah is a great means of preserving the witness of God, and it’s a warning against Christian withdrawal from the world.

b. Expect to be misunderstood.

It is fascinating to me that some writers take a very negative view of Obadiah. F. B. Meyer, a wonderful Christian writer from whom I have benefitted, sees Elijah as the hero, Ahab as the villain, and Obadiah as the compromiser—and what use is a compromiser? But Scripture tells us that Obadiah “feared the Lord greatly,” that he took a great risk to save the lives of a hundred prophets, and that he played an important role in bringing Ahab to Elijah (1 Kings 18).

Some Christians have it in for anyone who is given a trusted position at a high level, whether it be in the world of business, politics, and increasingly in the church. When other Christians don’t understand your work, remember you’re not accountable to them. You’re accountable to God.

c. Trust God to keep you.

How could Obadiah survive in the spiritually stifling world of Ahab’s palace? God can keep you wherever he has placed you. Spurgeon says, “Grace can live where you would never expect it to survive for one hour.” [1]

That’s true in a secular university and in the world of business and politics. God protected the soul of this faithful man who served in the cesspool that was Ahab’s palace. He can do the same for you.

Called to Goodness 

Elijah was a “change the world” person. His mission was to call the whole nation to repentance. His strategy was one of open confrontation on Mount Carmel. God was in that, and God used him in a remarkable way. But God has more than one kind of servant.

What’s fascinating is that Elijah ended his life in great disappointment that God had not done more. Carmel did not lead to the revival he longed to see. But read on in the story of 1 Kings and here is what you will find: In the end, Ahab (who did more evil than all who were before him) repented! It’s one of the biggest surprises in the Bible.

We’re not told if Obadiah lived to see Ahab’s repentance. But at the end of the day, Elijah ended up achieving less than he’d hoped, and Obadiah ended up achieving more than he’d expected.

Dale Ralph Davis has this comment that speaks to all of us who, like Elijah, want to do something great for God:

You want to see the community changed…You want to see the church built…You want to see the nation transformed…You want to see the world reached… How helpful then that Elijah is not God’s only faithful servant. Faithfulness is not so dull that it only comes in one flavor. Moreover, your own pride requires the correction this story can give: You are not called to great works but to good works, not to flamboyant ministry but to faithful ministry, not to be a dashing, but only to be a devoted servant. [2]

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1. C. H. Spurgeon, “Obadiah”, sermon, October 19, 1884.

2. Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Kings: The Wisdom and the Folly (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2008), 233.

Photo: Unsplash

This article is adapted from Pastor Colin’s sermon, “Your Work Matters More Than You Think”, from his series, The Surprising Influence of a Godly Life.

Posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2021/01/your-work-matters-more-than-you-think/

Obeying God Will Make You Wise

Article by Abigail Dodds

When our children were small, our days consisted of almost constant instructions and routines.

Naptime came after lunch. Beds had to be made, and teeth had to be brushed, and hair had to meet with a comb before school. Snacks were for snack time, not for grazing. We prayed and sang our way through the days of getting things out and learning to put things away. We read books before bedtime and learned verses in the mornings. I can hardly think of a moment when instruction wasn’t on my tongue. “Put your boots in the closet, please!” “Markers are for paper, not for tables!” “Food stays on your plate!” “Go outside and ride your bikes until supper!”

“Through the folly of the cross, Christ became wisdom for us.”

Our rules and routines were not forever statutes — many of them have changed or the need for them has expired — but they were particularly helpful in the season of babies, toddlers, and early school years. As parents, the rules made perfect sense. They were for the good of our children, not for ill. We were not some dictatorial spoil sports; rather, we put up boundaries so that our children could flourish.

Laws of Love

Instructions and boundaries were genuine (and imperfect) expressions of our love for them. When we require children to do chores and study and practice instruments, we require the activities that make for faithful, wise adults. And so it is with God.

God’s commands are expressions of love. When God brought his people out of Egypt, for instance, he had a lot of instructions for them. After reminding them of these instructions, Moses told them,

See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples. (Deuteronomy 4:5–6)

The obedience of the Israelites would be their wisdom and understanding. Obedience would set them apart as wise in the world, and over time it would teach them wisdom. And yet, all through the wilderness, God’s people refused to keep and do his commandments, often going their own way, because they believed they knew better than God what was in their best interest.

Who Knows Better Than God?

Believing ourselves wise apart from obedience to God is the great sin of the human heart. It is the essence of pride. When we declare that we are wiser than God by judging and weighing his commands to see if they suit us, or to gauge whether or not we think they are wise, we are hardening the wet cement of foolishness. But when we, by faith, receive and obey his commands, our hearts and minds are taught wisdom. His instructions become our wisdom and understanding. Consider Eve’s folly.

The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:4–7)

“Believing ourselves wise apart from obedience to God is the great sin of the human heart.”

Eve’s folly was in exercising her own judgment apart from obedience to God. She took it upon herself to evaluate the wisdom or folly of God’s rule. She assessed the tree’s fruit using her own wisdom: it was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, and, in an irony, it was desired to make one wise. Eve, in her own wisdom, sought the path of wisdom through forbidden fruit, forsaking the instructions of her Creator — instructions that would have led her to true wisdom.

Because I Said So

If you’re anything like me, though, you might be wondering to yourself, “If Eve isn’t supposed to use her own judgment to judge the rightness of something, then what is the basis of her obeying someone else? Are you saying she should have just blindly obeyed others?” No, she should not have blindly obeyed others. With eyes beholding her Creator, she should have fully obeyed her Lord — the one who made the heavens and the earth, the one in whom is all wisdom and knowledge, the one who made her, knew her, and cared for her.

We see this dynamic in a godly Christian home. When children kick back against a bit of instruction coming from the mouth of their father or mother, saying, “Why should I do that?” the truest statement a loving parent can say back is, “Because I said so.” That doesn’t mean that they should say nothing else, or that the parent is perfect, or that every single thing a parent requires of his child is as good as it possibly could be. What it does mean is that children should obey because the source of the instruction is coming from a father or mother who loves them, is older and wiser than they are, and has their best interest in mind.

Children don’t obey because they fully understand all the reasons behind screen-time limits or bedtime routines — they obey because of who is requiring it. And the more they learn to obey their parents with gladness and trust, the more they come to see the wisdom of their instructions. So it is for us with God.

Obedience of Faith

The Christian life is one of supernaturally substituted discernment. Christians, by the work of the Holy Spirit, acknowledge that we, in ourselves, do not know what’s best for us.

When Jesus went to the cross, he became our substitute — he was punished for our sake and in our place. He who knew no sin became sin for us, “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). But that substitution goes further. Through the folly of the cross, Christ became wisdom for us (1 Corinthians 1:30). He endured the foolishness of the cross, so that God might destroy the wisdom of the wise, thwart the discernment of the discerning, and make us truly wise in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:19; 2:16).

Jesus commands, “Believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). How do we obey such a command? How do we incline our ear to this instruction? How do we do differently than Eve did when she decided to use her own judgment in place of God’s? We do it by “the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26). God gives the free gift of faith (John 3:7–8), the supernatural ability to believe, and that faith produces our obedience to his commands. John Piper says of the obedience of faith,

That is the ultimate goal of the gospel: the gospel awakens and strengthens faith that leads to conformity to Christ, which displays the glory of God. . . . If there is any people group on planet earth where faith in Jesus Christ is not producing conformity to Jesus Christ, God’s aim for the gospel is not complete. (“Command of God”)

Real faith produces real obedience, our conformity to Christ, and then, through that obedience, we grow in understanding and discernment. We see the loving wisdom in what he has commanded.

How Obedience Produces Wisdom

Faith-filled obedience beholds the Command-Giver in all his righteousness, goodness, sovereignty, and power, and trusts that the words coming from his mouth are better than any coming from ours — even if we don’t understand them. Through that faith-filled obedience, we learn to substitute the perfect judgment and instructions and wisdom of God for our own sickly sense of things.

“As we increase in our obedience to God, all that he commands increasingly makes sense to us.”

When I was growing up, my parents required us to clean up the kitchen after supper. If I started to complain about the jobs that needed to be done, my dad always said the same thing to me: “You don’t have to do the dishes, Abigail; you get to.” “You don’t have to wipe down the counters, Abigail; you get to. Aren’t you thankful that we have food to eat and a kitchen to clean?” So, I would groan a little inwardly and obey my dad.

As I grew older and continued to (imperfectly) obey and do what he required, I noticed that his attitude of “get to” rather than “have to” extended to every area of his life. On Thursday evenings, he would pay bills. I remember one evening asking him if he disliked getting so many bills in the mail, since it seemed like it was the only mail we got. He said to me, “No. I’m so thankful that I get to pay the bills.” He said the same thing when paying taxes. And getting up in the middle of the night as an on-call doctor. And cleaning out his workbench in the deep recesses of our cellar.

Even as a teenager, my eyes were opened to the wisdom of my parents requiring me to clean up after supper. Through obedience, I came to know the wisdom of a “get to” attitude over a begrudging “have to” attitude. It was made clear not merely through the commands themselves, but through witnessing and experiencing wisdom through obedience.

As we increase in our obedience to God — in whom all the riches of wisdom and knowledge reside — God is pleased to grow our wisdom and understanding, so that all that he commands increasingly makes sense to us. As that happens, not only will he be beautiful to us, but so will all his ways.

Abigail Dodds (@abigaildodds) is a wife, mother of five, and graduate of Bethlehem College & Seminary. She is author of (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ (2019).

Posted at: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/obeying-god-will-make-you-wise