The Old Testament and Jesus Christ

One of the ways the Old Testament witnesses to Christ is to say that it depicts Him as a prophet greater than Moses, a priest greater than Aaron and a king greater than David. That is to say, He will perfectly reveal God to man, reconcile man to God and rule over man for God (John Stott, Understanding the Bible, 25).

The Holy Spirit and the New Creation

How many believers today recognize that the present work of the Spirit within the church and in their lives is of one piece with God's great work of restoring the entire creation, begun in sending the Son 'in the fullness of time' (Gal 4:4) and to be consummated at his return (Richard Gaffin, "Life Giving Spirit," p. 585).

Parenting

Joe White's Christian camps in Missouri draw thousands of kids each year from all over the United States. Most of these kids come from Christian homes. Joe surveyed more than one thousand of these kids and found some common themes:

1. 95 % of the boys say their father regularly tell them, "I love you."
2. 98 % of the girls say their mothers tell them regularly, "I'm proud of you" or "You're doing a great job."
3. 91% of the kids say their parents play games with them.
4. 94% say their fathers attend their athletic events.
5. 97% of the boys say they get hugs from their dads.
6. 100% of the girls say they get hugs from their moms and dads.
7. Recalling their childhood, 100% of the girls remember having stories read to them by their mothers. 85% of the boys recall having stories read to them by their dads.
8. 89% of the boys say their dads have taken them fishing.
9. 100% of the girls say their parents have taken them to Sunday School.

January 30 Sermon

Please be praying for our worship service on Sunday as we consider Colossians 3:12-13.

The Center of the Gospel

“The gospel centers on what God did for us in the incarnate Christ in order to save us from sin, the devil and death. Its goal is the new creation where the people of God redeemed by Christ will enjoy the presence of God for eternity” (Graeme Goldsworthy, "Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics," 58-9).

The Everlasting God

"Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God" (Ps 90:1-2).

Augustine on Love

"Love is the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and one's neighbor for the sake of God."
-Augustine of Hippo

Free Worship EP

I wanted to share this link where you can download Brett Younker's new acoustic worship album "The New Acoustic EP" for FREE! I have greatly benefited in my worship time reflecting on these songs and highly recommend them to you. Younker is an up and coming worship leader out of Atlanta, GA and is similar to Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin. To get the downloads a Facebook or Twitter account is needed. Blessings!

http://www.brettyounker.com/acoustic/

The Glory of the Cross

"The notion which the phrase 'penal substitution' expresses is that Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by a love that was determined to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the destructive divine judgment for which we were otherwise inescapably destined, and so won us forgiveness, adoption and glory. To affirm penal substitution is to say that believers are in debt to Christ specifically for this, and that this is the mainspring of all their joy, peace and praise both now and for eternity" (J.I Packer, "What Did the Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution”).

Good Fruit, Bad Fruit

Martin Luther: "These two sayings are true: ‘Good, pious works never make a good, pious man, but a good, pious man does good, pious works. Evil works never make an evil man, but an evil man does evil works.’ As Christ says, ‘A bad tree bears no good fruit, a good tree bears no bad fruit.’ Now it is obvious that the fruit does not bear the tree, nor do the trees grow on the fruit, but again the trees bear the fruit, and the fruit grows on the trees. Now as the trees must be there before the fruit, and the fruit makes the tree neither good nor bad, but the trees make the fruit, so must man first be pious or evil in his person before he does good or evil works. And his works do not make him good or evil, but he does good or evil works."

2 points stem from Luther's argument: 1) men commit sins because their hearts are wicked, not the other way around; 2) an evil disposition is more culpable and blameworthy than the evil deeds which give expression to it.

Indwelling Sin and the Cross

Pilgrim's Progress and Defeating Sin

Prudence asked further, 'Do you not still carry some of the baggage from the place you escaped?'

[Christian:] 'Yes, but against my will. I still have within me some of the carnal thoughts that all my countrymen, as well as myself, were delighted with. Now all those things cause me to grieve. If I could master my own heart, I would choose never to think of those things again, but when I try only to think about those things that are best, those things that are worst creep back into my mind and behavior.'
'Don't you find that sometimes you can defeat those evil things that at other times seem to defeat you?' Prudence suggested.

Christian answered, 'Yes, it happens occasionally. They are golden hours that I treasure.'

'Can you remember the means by which you're able occasionally to defeat the evil desires and thoughts that assail you?'

Christian said, 'Yes. When I think about what I experienced at the cross, that will do it.'
From pages 76-77 of the new edition of Pilgrim's Progress

The Gospel's Effect

"When the gospel is embraced, it controls. It controls lives, affecting hearts, values, and commitments" (Bryan Chapell, "Christ Centered Worship," 85).

Doctrinal Preaching

Sound doctrine (in preaching) doesn’t guarantee better programs or more efficient management structures or an answer to the age-old problem of which came first—the bigger sanctuary or the bigger parking lot. If it’s answers to questions like these you want, you’re going to have to look elsewhere. Doctrine isn’t very useful in a ministry of crowd management. But if you want practical help in promoting godliness in your church, fostering love and unity, making disciples, and growing in grace, there’s nothing more practical than sound theology. Could it be that some of us in ministry have lost our interest in sound theology because we’re not really doing Christian ministry anymore? (Michael Lawrence, "Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church," 94).

The Preacher's Responsibility

The expositor (preacher) is only to provide mouth and lips for the passage itself, so that the Word may advance . . . The really great preachers . . . are, in fact, only the servants of the Scriptures. When they have spoken for a time . . . the Word . . . gleams within the passage itself and is listened to: the voice makes itself heard . . . The passage itself is the voice, the speech of God; the preacher is the mouth and the lips, and the congregation . . . the ear in which the voice sounds . . . Only in order that the Word may advance—may go out into the enemy walls to the prisoners world, and force its way through within (Gustaf Wingren).

Christian Living

Do you know what I think is one of the most damaging trends in the 21st century Western church? "Privatism." One dictionary defines privatism as "being noncommittal to or uninvolved with anything other than one's own immediate interests and lifestyle."
What are some ways you think this mentality could weaken the impact and health of the local church?

Community

"When God saves sinners, he saves them 'as' individuals but 'to' community. Isolation from other Christians is not an option for a believer. The Bible nowhere says that one can have Christ the Head without Christ the body (the church). A real relationship with God shows itself in a real relationship with his people. To neglect the body of Christ is to neglect Christ; to be isolated from the body is to be isolated from Christ" (Tullian Tchividjian, "Unfashionable," p. 42).

Lectio Continua

Why do I preach through books of the Bible? Let me give you 15 reasons:
(1) Helps the preacher grow personally in knowledge and obedience by his disciplined exposure to God’s Word.
(2) Helps the preacher conserve time and energy used in choosing a sermon for each week.
(3) Balances the preacher’s area of “expertise” and preferred topics with the breadth of God’s thoughts in the Bible.
(4) Sensitive matters can be addressed without the appearance of pointing a finger at persons or problems in the church.
(5) Gives the preacher accountability to not avoid skipping over what does suit his taste or temperament on any given day.
6) Promotes biblical literacy in the preacher’s congregation by teaching them through example how to study their Bibles. That is, it teaches a reproducible method of Bible study.
(7) Forces the preacher to address a greater number of issues than what readily springs to mind.
8) Much research time can be saved because each new sermon does not require a new study of the book’s or the passage’s authors, background, context, and cause.
9) Increases the likelihood of the pastor preaching the whole counsel of God over time.
(10) Increases the pastor’s God-given prophetic authority in the pulpit by grounding his preaching in the divinely intended meaning of the text.
11) Increases the trustworthiness of the pastor’s preaching in the eyes of the congregation.
(12) Increases the pastor’s God-given blessing in the pulpit by remaining faithful to the intention of the One who sent him to preach.
(13) Increases the congregation’s trust in the inspiration, inerrancy, clarity, and sufficiency of Scripture.
(14) Decreases their likelihood of being deceived by false teaching.
(15) Best communicates that we need all 1189 chapters & 31,102 verses of the Bible for our salvation.

Good Deeds

Did you know that good deeds and noble works can be motivated by many things other than genuine love and faith? For example:
(a) Like the deeds of Ananias and Sapphira, a person's good deeds may be motivated by a desire to win the approval of people. They weren't genuinely concerned about the needs of the poor, but in elevating themselves (Acts 5).
(b) Like the Pharisees, of whom Jesus spoke in Matthew 6:1-4, a person may perform good deeds to impress people with his generosity. The Pharisees engaged in good works so "that they may be praised by others."
(c) The Pharisee described in Luke 18:12 gave, but for the wrong reason. He was trying to impress God with his giving and in doing so became selfish and legalistic.
(d) Some people give to relieve a guilty conscience. It makes them feel good about themselves and gives them something to brag about.
(e) Others may give out of a feeling of obligation and duty, which often translates into a grudging giver, as in 2 Corinthians 9:7, Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (Wayne Mack, Maximum Impact, 21-22).
Keep in mind, whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Rom 14:23). Yes, that includes even good deeds. Lord, may our faith grow abundantly and our love increase (2 Thess 1:3) so that our good deeds would be fueled by faith working through love (Gal 5:6).

Gospel-Powered Parenting Link

Here is a link to the book Pastor Brian talked about in the post below.

Purchase the Gospel-Powered Parenting Book

Parenting

I have a great book I would like to recommend for all parents (and grandparents): Gospel-Powered Parenting by William P. Farley. It is worth your time, your money, and effort. You can find it on Amazon or at Lifeway.

The Word of God

I'm very excited to introduce our new blog for First Baptist Church of Fisherville. I think a beneficial way to begin is by reflecting on the Word of God. I just completed reading John Frame's new book The Doctrine of the Word of God and he lays out what the Scripture says about it's own attributes. They include righteousness (Ps 119:7), faithfulness (119:86), wonderfulness (Ps 119:129), uprightness (119:137), purity (119:40), truth (119:142; John 17:17), eternality (Ps 119:89, 160), omnipotence (Gen 18:14; Isa 55:11; Luke 1:37), perfection (Ps 19:7ff.). These attributes are not merely the attributes of something in creation, such as human faithfulness, righteousness, or truth. Clearly, in context these passages are saying that the words of God are different from merely human words because they embody the unique qualities of God's own nature (p. 66-67). What a glorious, effective, powerful Word we have from God. Let's be faithful stewards of it.