Christ The Only Way-R.C. Sproul

Predestination - Responsiblity

A fleshly mind may ask, “How can these things be?” How can Divine predestination accord with human agency and accountableness? But a truly humble Christian, finding both in his Bible, will believe both, though he may be unable to fully understand their consistency ; and he will find in one a motive to depend entirely on God, and in the other a caution against slothfulness and presumptuous neglect of duty. And thus a Christian minister, if he view the doctrine in its proper connexions, will find nothing in it to hinder the free use of warnings, invitations, and persuasions, either to the converted or the unconverted. Yet he will not ground his hopes of success on the pliability of the human mind, but on the promised grace of God, who (while he prophesies to the dry bones, as he is commanded) is known to inspire them with the breath of life.

-Andrew Fuller. Letters on Systematic Divinity. Letter II: Importance of a True System

How Sweet and Awesome is This Place

How sweet and awesome is this place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores!

Here every bowel of our God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought with blood
Is food for dying souls.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.

By Isaac Watts.

Where I am

Another summer come, another semester done. I have finished the Spring semester here at Boyce and am looking forward to the summer.

I know that I was not able to post more regularly than I would have liked for the past few weeks. But, when I started my spring break I had several things to get done. From finishing those things came the sprint to the finish as the semester wound down. Finishing books and reviews of books transformed into studying for finals. What looked like a slow finished from my contentment post turned into going from assignment to assignment until the end of the semester.

But now it is the end!

It has been a full semester at that. One with God's hand continually working in my life. Working Christ likeness into my being while showing more of Himself to my mind. I look back and see his hand moving. As usual, It was in no way that I could have foreseen. When I though that circumstances were signifying that God was doing this over there, I was swung around to find myself in a totally different place. Where I thought I need to grow spiritually was not the place that God wanted me to grow. He had other areas in my life in mind to work in. And for those workings I am grateful. It is awe inspiring to sit back and realize that the One who spoke all the worlds into being is interested in my life!

Actually interested is wrong...He's relation to me is much more than "interested,"

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Eph 1:3-14

He is so much more than "interested."


Well, what about my blog?

I know, I know that I said I was going to start a series on contentment. And I still plan to. The reason my begining plans were thwarted was due to the school work I needed to do. But I still plan to work through contentment. I know I need that virtue!

But, things are going to put on hold for another week. I have a summer class May 5-9. The class starts on Monday and goes to Friday of the same week. Each class goes from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening.

After which, I have the whole summer in front of me! So there should be plenty of blogging.

C. J. Mahaney: Philippians 1:3-9

Pastor ministry not only about doctrinal knowledge, but Godliness.

Ministry is a carousel of victory and defeat.

Paul did all of his responsibility with joy. This set Him apart. Thus we need to consider the joy of Paul. There is no doubt that most pastors are serving God’s church faithfully, but they are not serving it joyfully. Are you happy pastor? (not speaking of a particular personality)Underlining the grief in your life, is their a joy that characterizes you as a pastor?

Would your wife describe you as glad as a pastor? How would your children describe you? Pastoral team? Members of your congregation? What is your church like? Have you built a culture of joy in your church? It would be right and humble to ask each of these if they see you as a happy pastor?

How did Paul consistently serve God with joy?
The dominate feeling in the letter of Philippians is joy. Remember, it was written in prison.

1.Gratefulness to God (3-5).High priority to gratefulness.
What is it like to encounter you? Is it seen that you assign a high priority to gratefulness.
Paul’s gratefulness was theological inclines.

• Recognize the working of God in the church.
  
• Expressed thanksgiving for God’s work.
  
• When there is the abstinent of joy then there is a lack of seeing God’s
  work.

Study this topic for a season.
Apply this subject to your life.
If you don’t you will be vulnerable to a predicable temptation. (complain)

• Complaining is a daily temptation.
  
• Many are unaware of the seriousness of this sin against God Himself.

You can see the difference in a grateful pastor and a self-righteous pastor.
Protect your wife, children. What do your children hear about the church from you.
Teach your church to see evidences of God’s grace in things. This is a priority!

2. Faith for the Future. (6).
Faith inform Paul’s labors for this church.

Our confidence is based on the fact that God will see them to the end.

You can be certain about God’s work in your church’s life.

This will make all the difference. (Heb 11:6) To have faith in God’s work in your church.

Set aside time to study faith.

Charles Bridges, all our failures lay in our lack of faith. The main difficulty is in ourselves, in conflict with our own unbelief. It is faith that enlightens our work with perpetual cheerfulness.

Where is your confidence when you stand behind the sacred desk? In the one that will keep his ones to the end. In the gospel of salvation.

If you are discouraged by the intelligence of other, then your confidence is in the wrong place.

We need confidence in God and in the gospel. And in the promises of God.

Be cheerful in your private seeking to please God.

3. Affection for others (7-8).
Do you yearn for your church?

We are to reflect the affection Christ has for the church. (It was a theologically informed affection)

Could you write the same thing to your church?

Contemplate the love of Christ for that individual if you don’t have that affection.
See the cross and contemplate the love of the Savior.


The challenge is maintaining joy over the long run. We have every reason to be joyful pastors.

John Piper: How does the Supremacy of Christ Create Radical Christian Sacrifice

What is the great reward? What is the joy set before us?
All of those ultimately refer to the supremacy experienced as the all satisfying to your life.

Hebrews 10:32-35, 11:6, 11: 24-26, 12:2, 13:12-14.

Wider context. That my ministry would have radical flavor, a gusts, counter culture flavor. It makes people uneasy because you are pursuing Christ. You live and preach in such a way that your church becomes salty. Crazy people that meet cancer and death with trust in Christ and treasure Him above all else.

The world is not going to glorify Christ because they see that Christians are wealthy and healthy and prosperous. For that is what they live for! Don’t build a church on being safe, middle class. Have a radical flavor! It will cost your life to build a church that is radical for Christ.
Where are the pastors that say with Paul, “my life is not any worth at all, but to proclaim the gospel.” The world needs to see that type of pastorThe only authentic ministry is one that will suffer. Jesus says that all Christians will suffer.

2 Tim 3, Rom 8,
Do not think it strange when you have come in to various trails thinking that something unusually is happing to you .How can you ever want to get through the world safe!?


What creates such a ministry?
Hebrews is a sermon to believers (13:22). The sermon was given to call Christians to radical services of sacrificial love.
10:32-35. What cause these people to accept the plundering was their persuasion of the value of the reward that they would receive. What created this sacrificial service was heavenly minded us.
11:24-26. Present sacrifice is sustained by the hope of eternal reward.
12:2. Jesus looked to the reward.
13:12-14.

In all these texts, the arguments are the same. We are treasure our eternal world vastly more than we treasure this world.


Christ is that reward.
The book seems to show Christ as a means to the reward.
Clearly, from the Bible, Christ and His work are a means to something. In the very moment of his means work he became and displayed the supreme beauty of the glory of the grace God. So Christ in His means works becomes at the moment the clearest focus of the purpose for which we are made. We are made to praise the grace of the glory of God. In His means work, He becomes my end.


Conclusion
Everything in the book that it says intensifies our love for him and our desire for him to be our final reward. This supremacy of Christ is poured into the pronoun “him” in 13:13. The sweetest fellowship that you will ever know with the Savior is the fellowship of His suffering.
The Supremacy of Christ is present, personal, precious treasure.

Albert Mohler: Why They Hate It So: The Doctrine of Penal Substitution.

There are some that hate the idea of substitution. Any reference to penal substitution, wrath, meets resistance. The question is not why the unbelievers hate it so, it is why some that call themselves Christians hate it so.

Antipathy is sometimes showed so clearly against substitution that you cannot miss it.



Atonement, Objective, Subjective
Objective: Centered in the fact that God’s disposition towards sinners must change
Subjective: The key issue is the sinners disposition to God. Something inside the sinner must change toward God.

If we hold to the objective we will see the subjective. The subjective is always determined by the objective.

The dividing line is clear, That a holy God who must demand a penalty for sin and provides a penalty through His Son who meets the full righteous demands of the Father and satisfied the wrath of God. If not we change the atonement.

This truth is reaffirmed in the reformation and growing Protestantism.

There is a growing rejection of a need for an objective atonement



Theories of the atonement: (J I Packer)
1. The cross has it effect on humanity
2. On hostile spiritual forces
3. For God’s hostility towards sin.

Number three contains one and two.

Refer to three different problems
1. Humans problem is that they are trapped by hostile spiritual forces
2. Humans need to know that God loves us.
3. God’s righteous wrath against sin.

Penal substitution is a belief for all evangelicals.



A denial of a penal understanding is never alone. It has a system of ramifications in all fields of theology.

This controversy is across the Christian world. But it is more focused in those that want to change the whole of theology.



Four lager groups of objections to substitution,
1. Biblical:
We have misunderstood the scripture in whole or part. We have the whole bible story line wrong:
(1) It is a misconstrue of sin. It is a self induced pain Wrath.
(2)Where ever wrath is mentioned it is the natural out working of sin. It comes with its own consequences.
(3)Sacrifice. The animal was not being punished. It is a model but was not a objective. The Bible did not require sacrifice. Disobedience brings about alienation.
(4)Is. 53. The language has to been properly understood. Suffering alongside us, not for use.
Prophetic expectation. Isaiah was not looking for one that would pay for sin but one that would free.
(5)NT, OT. Reading categories in the OT text from the NT.
(6)Words of Jesus. In the NT we have no direct access because he never wrote anything. (denial is always connected to other doctrine)
(7)We miss the message of Jesus which is non-violence.

Some say, the Bible does teach it, but we are not going to believe it.

The central objection is the view of God. His holiness defines his love.

Walter Wink: "The soul message of the cross is the victory is non-violence over violence."

Theological objections
1. Sounds like God wanted Jesus to die.
2. We needed to be changed towards God not God towards us.
3. At the cross we meet, not wrath, love and educational experience.
4. God is not a God who punishes sinners, but a God who is merciful.

We can forgive wrongs against us, but we cannot atone for them.

Moral objections
1. Divine Child abuse.
2. The OT is wrong in the sacrificial system and Christ died to end it.
3. Marital abuse is from penal substitution.

Cultural objection
1. Not compelling to today’s people. People don’t view themselves as sinners.
2. To individualistic.


With the denial rejection of penal you open the gospel up in inclusivism. Under cuts eschatology, no hell. Undercuts the church.

1. The cross is central to Christian preaching
2. There is always more to the cross than one concept can bare.
3. There is no way to modify the gospel with out repudiating the gospel
4. Gospel deals with sin.
5. A therapeutic age demands the therapeutic answer.
6. Penal is the only adequate explanation for God being loving and merciful
7. We have been to individualistic.
8. Sinners need to here the truth and be saved from the wrath to come.