the jerusalem sinner

My wife and I rented The Nativity Story the other night. I had seen it before, and recently read Carla’s great post on it; what I noticed most the second time is the music used in the film. There are many refrains of popular (and obscure) carols–the Coventry Carol, Sing We Now of Christmas, etc. The one that most brought tears to my eyes, and impacted me most when I watched the film, was The Basque Carol. Also known as The Infant King, the song is played while Mary and Joseph are visited by the shepherds and Wise Men. The words are especially poignant, even as we near Easter.

Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now reclining,
sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the infant King.
Angels are watching, stars are shining
over the place where He is lying:
sing lullaby!

Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-sleeping,
sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the infant King.
Soon will come sorrow with the morning,
soon will come bitter grief and weeping:
sing lullaby!

Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-dozing,
sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the infant King.
Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing,
then in the grave at last reposing;
sing lullaby!

Sing lullaby!
Lullaby! is the babe awaking?
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not stir the infant King.
Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning.
conquering death, its bondage breaking:
sing lullaby!

What a powerful song! It is easily my favourite!

I read this today, and found it quite convicting!

The minimum Christian! And who is he? The Christian who is going to heaven at the cheapest rate possible. The Christian who intends to get all of the world he can, and not meet the worldling’s doom. The Christian who aims to have as little religion as he may without lacking it altogether.

The minimum Christian goes to worship in the morning; and in the evening also, unless it rains, or is too warm, or too cold, or he is sleepy, or has the headache from eating too much at dinner. He listens most respectfully to the preacher, and joins in prayer and praise. He applies the truth very judiciously, sometimes to himself, oftener to his neighbours.

The minimum Christian is very friendly to all good works. He wishes them well, but it is not in his power to do much for them. The Sabbath-school he looks upon as an admirable institution, especially for the neglected and ignorant. It is not convenient, however, for him to take a class: his business engagements are so pressing during the week that he needs the Sabbath as a day of rest; nor does he think himself qualified to act as a teacher. There are so many persons better prepared for this important duty, that he must beg to be excused. He is very friendly to home and foreign missions, and colportage, and give his mite, but he is quite unable to aid in the management, for his own concerns are so excessively important. He thinks there are “too many appeals;” but he gives, if not enough to save his reputation, pretty near it, at all events he aims at it, and never overshoots the mark.

The minimum Christian is not clear on a number of points. The opera and dancing, the theatre and card-playing, and large fashionable parties give him much trouble. He cannot see the harm in this, or that, or the other popular amusement. There is nothing in the Bible against it. He does not see but what a man may be a Christian and dance or go to the opera. He knows several excellent persons who do so; at least, so he says. Why should not he? He stands so close to the dividing-line between the people of God and the people of the world, that it is hard to say on which side of it he is actually to be found.

Ah, my brother, are you making this attempt? Beware, lest you find at last that in trying to get to heaven with a little religion, you miss it altogether; lest without gaining the whole world, you lose your own soul. True godliness demands self-denial and cross-bearing, and if you have none of these you are making a false profession.

–Charles Spurgeon, Sword & the Trowel, June 1876

My pastor spoke today about the two-fold attributes we have as humans–we are at the same time wretched, miserable creatures, and yet of such worth to the Father that He would send His Son to die for us. Many times, we tend to focus on either our exceeding worth, or exceeding wickedness. Proper perspective demands a healthy view of both. He took his text from Mark 8, where Christ exhorts the crowd following Him:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

He used a quote by Bonhoeffer, one that I had heard before, but for some reason really stuck with me today. Bonhoeffer wrote, in The Cost of Discipleship, that Christ bids us follow Him and die. This echoes Paul’s words in Colossians 3, when he commands us to “put to death therefore” those besetting sins in our lives.

I wish I could talk my pastor into publishing his sermons on SermonAudio.com. Maybe I could start a petition!

From a master (not the Master!)…

What does our Lord mean when He prays, “Sanctify them through thy truth” or “in thy truth”? We need to be very careful at this point in our definition of the term sanctify, because we must interpret it bearing in mind that the same word is used in John 17:19: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” In verse 19 our Lord uses exactly the same word about Himself as He uses with regard to His followers here. So we must start by arriving at a true definition of what is meant by “sanctify.”
Now it is generally agreed that there are two main senses in which this word is used throughout the Bible. The first sense of “sanctify”–and we must always put this one first because it is the one most emphasised in Scripture–is to set apart for God and for God’s service. So you will find that this term sanctify is not only used of men–it is used even of a mountain, the holy mount on which the law was given to Moses. Mount Sinai was sanctified, it was set apart for a special function and purpose, in order that God might use it to give the revelation of the law. The word is used, too, of buildings and of vessels, instruments and utensils, and various things that were used in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Anything that is devoted to or set aside for God and for His service is sanctified. So there is a double aspect to this primary meaning of the word. It means, first, a separation from everything that contaminates and perverts, and the second, positive aspect is that something or someone is wholly devoted to God and to His use.

–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Sanctified Through the Truth

My friend Lynn has a new site I highly recommend. Here you will find much to nourish your soul. Definitely worth a visit!

The Thirsty Theologian posted a great set of motivational pictures. Perhaps now is the time to order prints for your loved ones, ex-girlfriends, and mothers-in-law!

Here is the second part of a series examining the backwards thinking in the Emerging Church. These quotes show their complete lack of respect for any type of systematic approach to understanding Scripture (which, apparently, can’t be understood anyway).

Doctrine

[There is a] problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is. So when I affirm the Bible as God’s Word, in the same breath I have to affirm that when those people voted, God was somehow present, guiding them to do what they did. When people say that all we need is the Bible, it is simply not true.—Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis (p. 68).

Fundamentalists and Calvinists share two traits that I hope will be dropped by any who wish to participate in a generous orthodoxy. The first is a fondness for reductionism, epitomized by their love for the Latin word SOLA, seen in what are often called Reformation mottoes: sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola TULIP, sola the five fundamentals, etc. The belief that truth is best understood by reducing it to a few fundamentals or a single “sola” insight is, to me, at least questionable if not down-right dangerous. Isn’t truth often best understood in a conversation, a dialectic (or trialectic), or a dynamic tension?…Reductionism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.—Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (p. 221)

I care little for arguments about how many sacraments there are (although I tend to prefer longer lists than shorter ones)…start with three sacraments—or seven—and pretty soon everything becomes potentially sacramental as, I believe, it should be.–ibid (p. 254).

Have you ever heard a Christian say, “I’m just a sinner”? I can’t find one place in the teachings of Jesus, or the Bible for that matter, where we are to identify ourselves first and foremost as sinners.—Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis (p. 139)

Today my Junior Highers learned about assurance. We studied the Shorter Catechism Question #36, and spent a good long while talking about those things we are sure of—2+2=4, gravity, and this nasty disease that seems to affect only women. Again, I turned to Thomas Watson’s Body of Divinity in helping my understanding of this doctrine. Here is what he says about assurance:

How should they conduct themselves who have assurance?

1) If you have assurance of your justification, do not abuse it…we abuse assurance when we grow presumptuous and less fearful of sin…It is bad to sin when one wants assurance, but it is worse to sin when one has it. We abuse assurance when the pulse of our souls beats faster in sin, and slower in duty.

2)  If you have assurance, admire [God’s] stupendous mercy. You deserved that God should give you gall and vinegar to drink, and has he made the honeycomb of his love to drop upon you? Oh, fall down and adore his goodness!

3)  Let your hearts be endeared in love to God. Has God brought you to the borders of Canaan, given you a bunch of grapes, crowned you with lovingkindness, confirmed your pardon under the broad seal of heaven? How can you be frozen at such a fire? Say as Augustine “I would hate my own soul, if I did not find it loving God!”

4)  If you have assurance, (i) improve it for God’s glory by encouraging such as are yet unconverted. Tell them how sweet this hidden manna is; tell them what a good master you serve; what gales you have had; tell them God has carried you to the hill of myrrh, to the mountains of spices; he has given you not only a prospect of heaven, but an earnest. (ii) Improve assurance, by walking more heavenly. You should scorn the things below; you who have an earnest of heaven, should not be too earnest for the earth. You have angel’s food; and it becomes not you, with the serpent, to lick the dust. (iii) Improve assurance by a cheerful walking. It is for condemned persons to go hanging down their heads. But hast thou thy absolution? Does thy God smile on thee? Cheer up!

5)   If you have an assurance of salvation, let it make you long after a glorified state. The soul that has tasted how sweet the Lord is, should long for a fuller enjoyment of him in heaven. Be content to live, but willing to die.

6)  If you have assurance, be careful you do not lose it. Keep assurance first by prayer (Psalm 36:10); secondly by humility. Paul had assurance, and he baptised himself with the name ‘Chief of sinners.’ The jewel of assurance is best kept in the cabinet of a humble heart.

The Apostle Peter exhorts us to make our calling and election sure. Many times I see in my own heart a vacillation like that of David, who says one time: ‘Thy lovingkindness is before my eyes’ (Psalm 26:3) and then another ‘Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses?’ (Psalm 89:49). I have come to realise that assurance is not like justification or adoption—instantaneous; oh, that it would be! Rather, for me at least, assurance is a varied process whose goal is to be able to say with surety: “my only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ!”

This past Friday I gave a talk at our church on Postmodernity & the Emerging Church. It was my first time lecturing on the topic, and all in all I think it went well. Most of those in attendance had only vaguely heard of the emerging church, which made my job easier, I guess. I spent most of my time discussing the philosophy of postmodernity (meta-narratives, Hegelian dialectic, etc.–and yes, I did define those terms!), but at the end, in talking about the emerging church, I let the authors speak for themselves; I think that said more than I ever could. I’ve posted the three sections I discussed with everyone–perhaps, if you’ve never read the authors, you might find this interesting (sad and scary, actually) too. This is the first section I’ll post.

Emerging Views of Scripture

The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can’t be put into words. Language fails. And if we do definitively put God into words, we have at that very moment made God something God is not.—Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis (p. 32)

Jesus at one point claimed to be “the way, the truth, and the life”. Jesus was not making claims about one religion being better than all other religions. That completely misses the point, the depth, and the truth. Rather, he was telling those who were following him that his way is the way to the depth of reality. This kind of life Jesus was living, perfectly and completely in connection and cooperation with God, is the best possible way for a person to live.—Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis (p. 21)

In the Bible, “save” means “rescue” or “heal.” It emphatically does NOT automatically mean “save from hell” or “give eternal life after death,” as many preachers seem to imply in sermon after sermon. Rather, its meaning varies from passage to passage, but in general, in any context, “save” means “get out of trouble.” The trouble could be sickness, war, political intrigue, oppression, poverty, imprisonment, or any kind of danger or evil.—Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (p. 101).

In continuing a prior post, I wanted to offer some words by the great John Owen. He writes in his book Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers about the work that the Holy Spirit effects in our lives to rid us of sin, and to sanctify us unto the Lord. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately—this need to constantly be killing sin, or else it will kill us. I taught from Colossians 3 the other day, and had an interesting thought. I was teaching this passage to my Junior High students, and I said something like this. “I get really convicted when I hear about suicide bombers in Iraq and elsewhere killing themselves for the sake of Islam. I’m convicted because they are so willing to die for their lord. How can they, who worship what is false and satanic, be so eager to die for their religion, and we who serve the Living and True God, be so reluctant to kill the sin in our lives?” It is still a question I struggle with. There is a sinful complacency about my attitude toward the sin in my own heart; too often, I don’t see the terrible danger I’m in because of “active sin”—that sin that hasn’t been “put to death” in my life. Here’s what Owen has to say:

How the Spirit Mortifies Sin

 The first question is: How does the Spirit mortify sin? I answer, in general, two ways.

By causing our hearts to abound in grace and the fruits that are contrary to the flesh, and the fruits thereof and principles of them. So the apostle opposes the fruits of the flesh and of the Spirit: “The fruits of the flesh,” says he, “are so and so” (Gal 5:19ff); “but,” says he, “the fruits of the Spirit are quite contrary, quite of another sort” (vv. 22-23). Yea; but what if these are in us and do abound, may not the other abound also? No, says he, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (v.24). But how? Why, “by living in the Spirit and walking after the Spirit” (v.25)—that is, by the abounding of these graces of the Spirit in us and walking according to them. For, says the apostle, “these are contrary to one another” (v.17); so that they cannot both be in the same subject in any intense or high degree. This “renewing of us by the Holy Ghost,” as it is called (Titus 3:5), is one great way of mortification; he causes us to grow, thrive, flourish, and abound in those graces which are contrary, opposite, and destructive to all the fruits of the flesh, and to the quiet or thriving of indwelling sin itself.

By a real physical efficiency on the root and habit of sin, for the weakening, destroying, and taking it away. Hence, he is called a “spirit of judgment and…burning” (Isa. 4:4), really consuming and destroying our lusts. He takes away the stony heart by an almighty efficiency; for as he begins the work as to its kind, so he carries it on as to its degrees. He is the fire which burns up the very root of lust.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to read Owen, I highly commend him to you. His observations on mortification are priceless, and terribly difficult to read. Not because the words are hard, but because he shows the reader what Christ requires in the life of the believer. May we who worship the One Living and True God be eager to put to death the indwelling sin in our hearts!