The Primacy Of Preaching

The people of God need His Word. They need to read it, meditate on it for themselves and when we congregate to worship God who is "Holy, Holy, Holy" we need it to be preached to us. It is the way in which we behold the glory and majesty of God until we are bowing before Him in His presence. It proclaims the precious Gospel of Christ Jesus and directs our steps in how to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. We need the Word of God heralded to us.

I, as a pastor, need the Word proclaimed to me. I not only preach it but I must have it preached to me, too. When I happen to step foot in a church that I am visiting, I'm looking to be edified by the proclamation of Christ through His Word. If I am convicted in of sin in the process, so be it. If I am rebuked through the Word, so be it. If I walk away with warm fuzzies in my soul, so be it- just proclaim the Word of God to me. You don't have to get fancy with it and dress it up. You don't have to aim to make me "feel good" as I walk away. No, No, just cut it straight. Open up the Word and expound the text that is before you. Draw my attention to Christ my Lord. Just passionately preach the Word to me (us) and let the Spirit do His work.

If you're anything like me, perhaps, you may get discouraged as you are simply heralding the Sacred Text and as you are looking out into the congregation you may see apathy and looks of boredom on the faces of people. It becomes real tempting to want to "spice" up your sermon which ends up more at entertaining them. We are already in a problem of entertainment driven Christians. We don't need to add any more fuel to the problem. Sadly, those folks that thrive on and look forward to entertainment at church are severely malnourished Christians, if indeed they are Christians to begin with. They may be going to church for all the wrong reasons. It may be that they go to a service more for their own selfish desires rather than to give praise, honor and glory to God as a corporate body of believers. They don't need you to continue to malnourish them. They need you to nourish them through the Gospel of Christ. They need the nutrients of the whole counsel of God. Remember even as the Apostle Paul was preaching he had people fall asleep on him (Acts 20:9) as did many other faithful expositors of God's holy Word. Just proclaim it.

A note of caution- we must ever be examining our preaching. Our we being faithful to the text? Are we preaching the Word in a boring manner so as to impress upon the people of God that if it is not impacting us why should they take us seriously when we proclaim it? The problem may not always be with the people. Often, it lies with ourselves. Many times we proclaim the Word un-passionately. The Word needs to be preached with passion (not to be confused with animation or loudness). The body of Christ needs to see and know that we are rightly handling the Bible; we ourselves have been moved by the Word of God and take it seriously. We also need to be extremely thankful to our congregations for bearing with out folly's. They have put up with our pathetic sermons and other times our inaccuracies. But we must ever be striving to improve our preaching. It takes primacy in the gathering of God's people.

Here is some helpful encouragement from faithful expositor's of the Holy Writ-
Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

These men were pulpiteers rather than preachers. I mean they were men who could  occupy a pulpit and dominate it, and dominate the people. They were professionals. There was a good deal of the element of showmanship in them, and they were experts at handling congregations and playing on their emotions. in the end they could do almost what they liked with them... That is a most important point, and i think it has very real relevance to this point about the pernicious influence of pulpiteerism upon true preaching. You see, the from became more important that the substance, the oratory and the eloquence became things in and of themselves, and ultimately preaching became a form of entertainment. The Truth was noticed, they paid a passing respect to it, but the great thing was the form. I believe we are living in an age which is experiencing a reaction to that. And this has been continued in the present century when there has often been a form of popular preaching, in evangelism particularly, that has brought true preaching into disrepute because of a lack of substance and too much attention being paid to the from and to the presentation. It degenerates ultimately into what I have described as professionalism , not to say showmanship.*  

John Stott:

 Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Without preaching a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal himself savingly to fallen humanity ; or that his self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us, namely by a word and words; or that he calls upon those who have heard his Word to speak it to others. First, God spoke through the prophets, interpreting to them the significance of his actions in the history of Israel, and simultaneously instructing them to convey his message to his people either by speech or by writing or both. Next, and supremely, he spoke in his Son, his ‘Word ... made flesh’, and in his Word’s words, whether spoken directly or through his apostles. Thirdly, he speaks through his Spirit, who himself bears witness to Christ and to Scripture, and makes both living to the people of God today. This Trinitarian statement of a speaking Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so of a Word of God that is scriptural, incarnate and contemporary, is fundamental to the Christian religion. And it is God’s speech which makes our speech necessary. We must speak what he has spoken. Hence the paramount obligation to preach.*

Brian Borgman:

A biblical theology of preaching must begin and end with God (Rom. 11:36). His glory is the greatest end of preaching. Cotton Mather said, 'The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.' The man of God must be convinced that biblical preaching is ordained by God as His appointed means of glorifying Himself through saving sinners and building up the saints (1 Cor. 1:17-2:5). 'God uses contemporary preaching to bring His salvation to people today, to build His church, to bring in His Kingdom. In short, contemporary biblical preaching is nothing less than a redemptive event'. 

God-owned biblical preaching, which reaches people with the truth can be pictured as a convergence of two forces, one from above, one from underneath. The force from above is the unction of the Spirit, the felt power of the truth, which comes mightily on the man of God when preaching. the force erupting from underneath is the man of God's own biblical theology of preaching, which always is beneath him , but in the act of preaching, combined with the force from above, serves to propel the man of God in such a way that preaching becomes 'truth on fire'. Without a sufficient theology of preaching, the pastor's preaching ministry will lack power! He must know what he is there to do.* 

Charles Spurgeon:

 Sermons should have real teaching in them, and their doctrine should be solid, substantial, and abundant. We do not enter the pulpit to talk for talk’s sake; we have instructions to convey important to the last degree, and we cannot afford to utter pretty nothings. Our range of subjects is all but boundless, and we cannot, therefore, be excused if our discourses are threadbare and devoid of substance. If we speak as ambassadors for God, we need never complain of want of matter, for our message is full to overflowing. The entire gospel must be presented from the pulpit; the whole faith once delivered to the saints must be proclaimed by us. The truth as it is in Jesus must be instructively declared, so that the people may not merely hear, but know, the joyful sound. We serve not at the altar of “the unknown God,” but we speak to the worshipers of him of whom it is written, “they that know thy name will put their trust in thee.” To divide a sermon well may be a very useful art, but how if there is nothing to divide? A mere division maker is like an excellent carver with an empty dish before him. To be able to deliver an exordium which shall be appropriate and attractive, to be at ease in speaking with propriety during the time allotted for the discourse, and to wind up with a respectable peroration, may appear to mere religious performers to be all that is requisite; but the true minister of Christ knows that the true value of a sermon must lie, not in its fashion and manner, but in the truth which it contains. Nothing can compensate for the absence of teaching; all the rhetoric in the world is but as chaff to the wheat in contrast to the gospel of our salvation. However beautiful the sower’s basket, it is a miserable mockery if it be without seed. The grandest discourse ever delivered is an ostentatious failure if the doctrine of the grace of God be absent from it; it sweeps over men’s heads like a cloud, but it distributes no rain upon the thirsty earth; and therefore the remembrance of it to souls taught wisdom by an experience of pressing need is one of disappointment, or worse. A man’s style may be as fascinating as that of the authoress of whom one said, “that she 

should write with a crystal pen dipped in dew upon silver paper, and use for pounce the dust of a butterfly’s wing”; but to an audience whose souls are in instant jeopardy, what will mere elegance be but “altogether lighter than vanity”? Horses are not to be judged by their bells or their trappings, but by limb and bone and blood; and sermons, when criticized by judicious hearers, are largely measured by the amount of gospel truth and force of gospel spirit which they contain. Brethren, weigh your sermons. Do not retail them by the yard, but deal them out by the pound. Set no store by the quantity of words which you utter, but strive to be esteemed for the quality of your matter. It is foolish to be lavish in words and niggardly in truth. He must be very destitute of wit who would be pleased to hear himself described after the manner of the world’s great poet, who says, “Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than any man in all Venice: his reasons are as two grains of wheat hidden in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them; and when you have them they are not worth the search.”*

"preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Ti 4:1–5). Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Lloyd-Jones, Martyn. Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids Michigan: Zondervan, 1971), p. 14-15

*Stott, John R. W. (1994-01-01). Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today (p. 15). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Kindle Edition.

*Borman, Brian. My Heart for Thy Cause: Albert N. Martin's Theology of Preaching ( Great Britain: Mentor, 2002), p. 127-128

*Spurgeon, C. H. (1905-07-02). Lectures to My Students (pp. 73-74). Hendrickson Publishers. Kindle Edition. 

IS GOD EVIL?

One might wonder, “Who could even ask such a thing,” yet it is heard in the halls and rooms of Christendom very often, and is an insult and a stench in our holy Father’s nose.

God created all things; He created the devil and man with the capacity for evil, and He uses that capacity to bring about His glory, as He uses all things and works all things according to the good council of His will, and this especially applies to those who love Him, more than it does to those who do not, because of His willing these things (Romans 8:28; 9:22-24; Ephesians 1:11).

Now, a man purposes evil in his heart because he is, in essence, evil - even born again, that tent of flesh yet proves our unworthiness, even if only in thought, and such as that is highly doubtful (Romans 7; 1 John 1:8-10); God, however, does not so purpose, but to use secondary causes (such as evil spirits and men) to bring about the greatest glory to Himself and the most beneficial results to His elect saints, even when they do not understand such - the wisdom that begins with the fear of God and is hidden with knowledge in treasures of God's grace in our Lord Jesus Christ prove such, and the complete light, meaning goodness infinite and incomprehensible, of which there is no darkness or mutability, ensures the faith of those chosen has been and will be rewarded in manner quite beyond our ability to now comprehend, but through His gracious gifts and Spirit (Romans 11:33-36; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Colossians 2:2-3; James 1:16-17; 1 John 1:5).

What manner of reasoning could bring itself to declare the most high, holy, inestimable thrice holy God, who sent His Son, the infinite and co-equal Son, to take on flesh, that out of this world of all who hate Him, He might save some?

Human reasoning (1 Corinthians 1:18-29) – naturalistic philosophies of men we are warned against, some of which parade around among Christendom seeking to look as if they were one with that world view, when instead, they are children of the devil, acting pious but spewing bile, as much as those our Lord said such too, and as such, will receive their just reward (Colossians 2:4, 8; John 8:44; Matthew 6:1-5).

No man who encounters God in the Scriptures says such a thing of Him as He is evil, unless that man is deceived, and God does not mercifully change His innermost being.

There is a blatancy of evil in such a statement that is as hateful to God as the sin of Adam pridefully and willingly taking the forbidden fruit from his deceived wife, so that he might “be like God, and know good and evil.” It is always the same sin, and it is repeated every time man seeks to judge the God who created him from dirt by his dirty measure.

May God have mercy on these foolish lumps of clay; may He not blow in His fury, that the dirt returns to the dust it was made from, with no life but that of eternal suffering in hellfire.

To God alone be the glory. - Bill Hier

You Can't Preach That, It's Law!

There is a lot of that mentality out there. They say we can't preach "law" because some have been hurt in the church by legalists in the pulpit. The objection is that people have been emotionally hurt by "hell-fire and brimstone" preaching and people always being told they are not good enough in their behavior to be a Christian. While that is very tragic and true that many men in the pulpit have turned the grace of God into sheer legalism, we cannot let personal experience determine what we preach. After all, we are called to preach the whole Word of God-every whit of it. And if I went by the model of preaching that is determined by people's experiences I would be left to preach another gospel. Namely an Emergent gospel that is so prevalent in my community. People have stated they have been emotionally scarred by all the talk about sin, judgment and hell growing up. What they say we need, is only the "love" of God and how much "grace" he gives to us.

If I was left to my using my experience to be effective in ministry, then I would have to adopt that kind of a different gospel. But it is not chiefly about my experience that determines what I preach on. I make it my aim to proclaim the Gospel and not move from it. Yet I'm called to preach the Word of God and there are plenty of times where the imperatives will be preached. It's not my decision for it is God's Word, not mine. Furthermore, experiences differ. Many will differ from mine in that they are in a more Pharisaical environment that teaches people that they are saved by what they do. In all truth I can make the case (and have) that the Emergent theology is also a form of legalism, albeit a liberal legalism, but whose experience trumps whose to prevail on when and how the imperatives should be preached? The answer- none. It's not about our experiences that determines if we should preach the Law or not. As the bible is open before us we preach every jot and tittle of it.

I've said enough for now so I'll turn to more learned men (Stott, Owen, Lloyd-Jones) than I:

Individual or personal morality was taught in the Old Testament by prophets, priests, scribes and wise men, who sought to draw out the implications of the Ten Commandments. John the Baptist was the last representative of this honourable tradition, before Christ came. He not only exhorted the people to ‘bear fruits that befit repentenance’, but spelled out what this would mean to different people, instructing the tax-gatherers to collect no more than was appointed them, and the soldiers to rob nobody, accuse nobody falsely, and be content with their wages. (Luke 3:8—14) Similar teaching in personal ethics is given in the New Testament letters, sometimes in the general commendation of Christian virtues (‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ Gal. 5:22, 23), and sometimes in a particular requirement like the control of that unruly organ and ‘restless evil’, the tongue. (Jas 3:1-12) To me the most striking example, however, is to be found in the second chapter of the Letter to Titus. Here Titus is told to give detailed ethical instruction to different groups in the congregation: the older men are to be temperate, serious and mature; the older women are to be self-controlled and to teach the young wives their responsibilities to husband and children; the younger men are to learn self-mastery; Titus himself is to set a blameless example; and slaves are to be submissive, hard-working and honest. More impressive even than these particularities is their grounding in Christian doctrine. For the paragraph begins with the command to ‘teach what befits sound doctrine’ and ends with the statement that good behaviour will ‘adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour’. There were, then, two parts to Titus’ pedagogical responsibilities. On the one hand, he was to teach ‘the sound doctrine’ (the apostolic faith which, like the human body, is an integrated whole). On the other, he was to teach ‘the things which befit it’ (the ethical conduct which is appropriate to it and will ‘adorn’ it or display its beauty). It is of the utmost importance that we follow the apostles by keeping these two together in our preaching ministry and by refusing to divorce them. When we proclaim the gospel, we must go on to unfold its ethical implications, and when we teach Christian behaviour we must lay its gospel foundations. Christians need to grasp both that their faith in Christ has practical consequences and that the main incentive to good works is to be found in the gospel. God’s saving grace in Christ is actually personified as our moral teacher, ‘training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright and godly lives in this world’. (Titus 2:11, 12)...these sentences about violations of the brotherhood. It is already quite evident that, although good behaviour is an inevitable consequence of the good news, it is not ‘automatic’ in the sense that it does not need to be taught. The apostles who proclaimed the gospel gave clear and concrete ethical instruction as well. The law and the gospel were thus related in their teaching. If the law is a ‘schoolmaster’ to bring us to Christ, placing us under such discipline and condemnation as to make Christ our only hope of salvation, Christ now sends us back to the law to tell us how to live. Even the purpose of his death for our sins was not only that we might be forgiven but that, having been forgiven, ‘the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit’. (Rom. 8:3, 4) There are many pastors today who, for fear of being branded ‘legalists’, give their congregation no ethical teaching. How far we have strayed from the apostles! ‘Legalism’ is the misguided attempt to earn our salvation by obedience to the law. ‘Pharisaism’ is a preoccupation with the externals and the minutiae of religious duty. To teach the standards of moral conduct which adorn the gospel is neither legalism nor pharisaism but plain apostolic Christianity.*

 This was seconded by an observation of some men’s dangerous mistakes, who of late days have taken upon them to give directions for the mortification of sin, who, being unacquainted with the mystery of the gospel and the efficacy of the death of Christ, have anew imposed the yoke of a self-wrought-out mortification on the necks of their disciples, which neither they nor their forefathers were ever able to bear. A mortification they cry up and press, suitable to that of the gospel neither in respect of nature, subject, causes, means, nor effects; which constantly produces the deplorable issues of superstition, self-righteousness, and anxiety of conscience in them who take up the burden which is so bound for them.

What is here proposed in weakness, I humbly hope will answer the spirit and letter of the gospel, with the experiences of them who know what it is to walk with God, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace. So that if not this, yet certainly something of this kind, is very necessary at this season for the promotion and furtherance of this work of gospel mortification in the hearts of believers, and their direction in paths safe, and wherein they may find rest to their souls...The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.*

God sets us apart as his peculiar people, and because of this we must be a holy people: ‘Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy,’ says God (Lev 19:2). So that we are to be holy because we are holy, and that is the great New Testament appeal for sanctification. So this second meaning is that God does a work within us, a work of purifying, of cleansing, and of purging, and this work is designed to fit us for the title which has been put upon us. We have been adopted, taken out of the world and set apart, and we are now being conformed increasingly to the image, the pattern, of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may in truth be the people of God: in reality as well as in name. So this is obviously a progressive work. The first is something that is done once and for all, and it is because we are set apart that we are justified. God has looked upon his people from all eternity and has set them apart—we dealt with that at great length in verses 6, 7 and 8. He sanctified them before the foundation of the world, and it is because of that, that they are justified, and, again, because of that, they are sanctified in this second sense.
So the question is, which of these two meanings is to be attached to the word in the seventeenth verse? It seems to me that there is only one adequate answer to that: obviously both meanings are involved. Let me put it like this: as his followers we are separated from the world—‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world’—they are separated for God’s special service, to represent him in the world. For he says in verse 18, ‘As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.’ He has already said that he is to be glorified in us and through us; we have been set apart for this special task of glorifying Christ, of bearing the message to an unbelieving world; and because we have been set apart for that, we must be fitted to do it. We must be kept from the evil, and from the tarnishing effect of the world. We must be fit to represent the Father, to proclaim his message and to glorify his dear Son. In other words, this petition is that we should become more and more the special people of God. Our very task and calling demands that we must be a holy people since we cannot represent a holy God unless we ourselves are holy.
Therefore, we are obviously here face to face with the great New Testament doctrine of sanctification. Now I shall not use this as an occasion for giving a full-orbed description and account of that doctrine—although in a sense I shall be doing so, because I shall be dealing with fundamental principles—but at this point we shall deal with the subject solely in terms of what we are told about it in these three verses.
So then, let me give you the divisions as I understand them. We shall not deal with them all in this study, but let me give you the complete outline. Our Lord here deals with three great matters with regard to this subject of our sanctification. First: Why does our Lord pray for our sanctification? And a complete answer is given here to that question. The first answer is that he does so because that is the way in which we are to be kept from the world and from the evil. He also prays for it because of the task which has been allotted to us (v. 18), and thirdly, he prays for it because the whole object of his going to the death of the cross is that we might be sanctified—‘And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified … ’ (v. 19).
The second great matter which is dealt with here is the method of sanctification: ‘Sanctify them,’ he says, ‘through thy truth’—in thy truth—‘thy word is truth.’ The way in which God sanctifies us is obviously vitally important, and our Lord deals with it here, we are to be sanctified in the truth.
And the third subject with which he deals is the question of what it is that ultimately makes our sanctification possible: and again he gives the answer in verse 19: ‘for their sakes I sanctify myself.’ Without that we never could be sanctified, it would be quite impossible. So the whole basis of sanctification is ultimately our Lord’s action and work on our behalf, supremely upon the cross.*

Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Stott, John R. W. (1994-01-01). Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today (p. 156- 158). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. Kindle Edition.



*Owen, J. Vol. 6: The works of John Owen. (W. H. Goold, Ed.) (3,7). Edinburg: T&T Clark.

*Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (2000). The assurance of our salvation : Exploring the depth of Jesus' prayer for His own : Studies in John 17 (354–356). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

Against the World - Ep. 6 - Why I Do Not Go to Church

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20  Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (ESV)

Remember Who Brings The Sheep Into The Fold - Glory to God - Bill Hier

John 3:1-8 Breaking it down - Pt. 3

I have sought to show that which is true of our Lord's word's to Nicodemus, and to us, in the initial installments of this short series; in this last part, we will end up with observations about how the natural man views such things, and how those who have literally experienced the new birth,  by our Lord and God's gracious mercy and love, are to view these things, beginning with verse 6, and finishing on verse 8.

There is more to be said for this chapter, and perhaps I shall put the study up for the entirety of it; that, however, remains to be seen.

As for now, we will simply go through what was brought out during the delivery of the study in these last 3 verses of John 3:1-8.

V. 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Our Lord puts emphasis on the misunderstanding of Nicodemus in thinking the new birth He has spoken of to him about has anything whatsoever to do with the natural life of men born from the womb – again, we hear the echo of John 1:12-13 in these words.

That any aspect of natural birth has to do with the child is the same error as any aspect of the new birth having to do with anything other than receiving from God, by His Spirit, that work which is complete in Christ; other teaching than this is a fundamental error, and the same error which leads to the wrong teaching concerning God’s sovereignty and man’s radical depravity before such reception of eternal, or everlasting, life. The only thing we bring to the table is the fact that we are sinners, in need of the merciful grace of God, and such is intended by “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It must be the free action of God the Holy Spirit which brings one into the kingdom of God, or it is not that which is born of the Spirit of God.

The flesh – the carnal, sin-laden nature housed within the body of those same traits, or characteristics, is not fit or able to make itself into that which is of service of God, and it has been thus throughout the entirety of Scriptures.

Did Moses call God, or did God call Moses (Exodus 3:1-6)?

If there are those who tell us that Moses turned aside, and that was His free will choice, we may answer that God has assured us, in the entirety of His Scriptures and the further light the New Testament shines upon the Old Testament, that only enablement by the Lord would give Moses to turn aside to see – this was not a matter of curiosity by Moses, but of wonderment, which ended in His right attitude of fear of the One who had redeemed him to lead Israel out of bondage to the Egyptians.

What man of God in the Scriptures do we see who makes himself holy by application of the things of God, rather than appeal to the lack of those things in admission of that one’s, and those others who are to  be God’s people, sinfulness (Nehemiah 1)?

As it was, so it is: those who are called of God will respond, for His grace is irresistible to His own, and they will know of themselves as sinners, and cry out for their sin, forgiveness and repentance, and call on God to remember His promises to His people, who fear Him, and love to keep His commandments – that we are privileged to see this very thing explained to us by the Lord as being of the Lord alone, in our present passage, is great light indeed, and should cause us to continually respond in like manner.

We have been blessed, without any cause but His grace, to be born again of God’s Spirit, to have Christ our Lord take our sins upon His holy Self, and to have His righteousness accounted to us, though we lack anything which would cause God to give such – and this is of Him who alone is good.

Vs. 7-8: Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus is indeed marveling that our Lord has told him, “You must be born again.” He expressed this in verse 4; he will again express it in an upcoming verse.

There are sermons on the freedom of the wind, and so must be understood what our Lord is saying to the learned Pharisee here. There is no gauging the wind, though we measure it with many instruments; there is no discerning where it comes from, though we may say it originates in this or that longitude and latitude. The truth of the matter when our Lord spoke these words over two thousand years ago remains the truth today – what man cannot fathom is that, though his knowledge increase, he will no more understand the nature of the wind to act independently of his control than he will understand his sinful nature and need of the rebirth of the Holy Spirit which comes about independently of man’s will and knowledge. It is true that science reveals to us more and more, yet what we are most often not told – indeed, forbid, in most cases, among secular, and even some “Christian” schools, is the fact that every true discovery of Science vindicates the divine record of He who created Science.

Nicodemus was as the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-26), trusting in his observance of the law to make himself righteous before God, teaching those under him that such must be the case, and so had no understanding of the lack of the law of grace and life (Romans 8:1-2) that must replace the stone heart with a fleshly one, and the dead spirit with a resurrected one. There is no reason for us to suppose otherwise, for his questions reveal his understanding, which comes from the nature of a man. To comprehend what Jesus was saying to him, he would have need of the very miraculous birth of which our Lord spoke, for only the knowledge that comes from God can give birth to that which is of God; only those brought face-to-face with their own inability to perceive and receive the gospel can understand that no amount of external law keeping will suffice, in the face of the most Holy God of all that exists, who Himself stands beyond that He created, yet interacts within it. The God who causes all to come to pass must surely be as sovereign over the salvation of His people as He is over the very fabric of that which He created man from; from which He hung the planets; today, we can still ask man, mighty man, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion (Job 38:31)?

The answer will no doubt proudly return, “No, but one day we shall conquer the stars.” Man, who cannot even conquer the lusts of his own body, so righteous in his own sight, whether of a moralistic religious nature, or the negative assent of God in the statement that God does not exist, thereby proving themselves fools, in stating that which they deny (for the fool says in their heart “there is no God,” yet what is it they are objecting too?), thinks himself able to rise to the station of He who created him from the dust of the ground, which He created out of literally nothing – such is the pride that God’s completely effective grace absolutely and irresistibly overcomes, and yet we have legions of those who say they overcome such by seeing this grace from a nature which houses this very pride.

Nicodemus was one who would assert that he was of God, and he was a much more religious man than those who, today, insist on this cooperative effort between their dead moral nature and the most holy “effort” of trying to convince them they say God puts forth to all men – we have but to look at the record of the Scriptures to know that such is not true, and we can say, in effect, one might as likely try to catch the wind, as the old Donavan song stated. This is the import of our Lord’s statement to Nicodemus which we just read.

To God be the glory - Bill Hier

Allergic To The Law?

Some Christians certainly act as if they are allergic to the Law of God. They fear or tend to avoid preaching on the imperatives because they don't want to burden people with the Law. They assert (correctly) that Paul didn't answer the charge of antinomianism (lawlessness) with more Law but more grace. They charge their opponents with the allegation of a "phantom fear" that preaching "radical grace" will lead to antinomianism.

I, however, have not observed any charge of antinomianism. The proper concern is a failure to preach the whole counsel of God. No one is taking issue with preaching the grace of God. We all agree on that. All the objectors (that I'm aware of) to this indicatives only preaching , have not only preached and defended the Gospel of the grace of Christ, they have rejoiced and glory in the cross of Christ. It truly is finished.

The concern is that, while the third use of the law is often affirmed, it seems to be paid only lip service. There seems to be this underlying idea that to preach on the "law" or imperatives (commands) is to drive people into legalism. Perhaps the "phantom fear" lies there. A fear that people will have some allergic to reaction to preaching on a text that says "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother"(1 Jn 3:9–10), that results in the preacher endorsing legalism and driving some poor soul into being burdened by the Law. That is the only "phantom fear" that I see.

Yet, in my observation, I do not see the  objectors hailing only the Law of God. I do not see them trying to modify behavior by only harping on the imperatives. What I do see is the preaching the whole counsel of God. So that when they are preaching through a book in the Holy Writ and they come across a text like "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"(1 Co 5:1–8), they are not just yelling "radical grace, radical grace!" They are expounding on the text, reminding the people of God of the Gospel for any that are stuck in sexual immorality, yet emphasizing that open, blatant sexual misconduct in the body of Christ will not be tolerated. That grace is not the issue (in this context) but the glory of Christ in the midst of His congregating people is. Now, let me emphasize that these texts are not, should not, be always sought out and preached on. Yet, they should not be deliberately avoided or neglected for fear of some person fleeing the church because of "legalism." We deal with the imperatives when we come across them in the Word of God (and there are quite a few!). How a person responds to them is not up to us nor should it change what we preach because someone mistakes holiness for "legalism" and only wants to hear "grace." We, after all, are to herald the Word, not smother it. We proclaim and the Spirit will apply the message.

We say- a loud- amen to Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones when he said, "if your preaching of the gospel of Gods' free grace in Jesus Christ does not provoke the charge from some of antinomianism you're not preaching the gospel of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ."


We also say amen when he said, "The Christian is a man who of necessity must be concerned about keeping God's law...So the Christian is a man who is always concerned about living and keeping the law of God. Here he is reminded how that is to be done."*


We, like David, can say, "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies"(Ps 119:97–98). We love it so much that we not only say we believe in the third use of the Law, but we preach on the third use of the Law when we come across the imperatives of the Bible. As for the accusations of "legalism" that tend to come when we do preach the Law, whether these come subtle or blatant- so be it. We say with John, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"(1 Jn 5:2–5). Because we believe in Christ, shows we have been born of God and because we have been born of God and believe in Christ, we do not think His commandments are burdensome or "legalistic." We don't have an allergy to the moral Law of God. We delight in it.  Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando

*Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Kindle Locations307, 310-311). Kindle Edition.

A Warning From Spurgeon

Brethren, I beseech you, in your experience, know nothing except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. You may go out tomorrow, not merely into the outside world, but into the church, the nominal church, and you will meet with a class of persons who take you by the ear, and who invite you into their houses, and the moment you are there, they begin to talk to you about the doctrines of the gospel. They say nothing about Christ Jesus; but they begin at once to talk of the eternal decrees of God, of election, and of the high mysteries of the covenant of grace. While they are talking to you, you say in your hearts, "What they are saying is true, but there is one lamentable defect in it all; their teaching is truth apart from Christ." Conscience whispers, "The election I believe is election in Christ. These people do not talk anything about that, but of only election. The redemption that I believe always has a very special reference to the cross of Christ. They do not mention Christ; they talk of redemption as a commercial transaction, and say nothing about Jesus. With regard to final perseverance, I believe all that these men say; but I have  been taught that the saints only persevere in consequence of their relation to Christ, ad these men say nothing about that."

This minister, they say, is not sound, and that other minister is not sound; and let me tell you that if you get in among this class of persons, you will learn to rue the day that you ever looked them in the face. If you must come into contact with them, I beseech you to say to them, "I love all the truths that you hold, but my love of them can never overpower and supersede my love to Jesus Christ, and Him crucified: and I tell you plainly, while I could not sit to hear erroneous doctrine, I could just as soon do that as to sit to hear truthful doctrine apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. I could not go to a place where I saw a man, dressed in gorgeous robes, who pretended to be Christ, and was not; and on the other hand, I could not go to a place where I saw Christ's real robes, but the Master Himself was absent; for what I want is, not His robe, not His dress, I want the Master Himself; and if you preach to me dry doctrine without Jesus Christ, I tell you it will not suit my experience; for my experience is just this that while I know my election, I can never know it except I know my union with the Lamb. I tell you plainly that I know I am redeemed, but I cannot bear to think of my redemption without thinking of the Savior who redeemed me. It is my boast that I shall to the end endure, but I know- each hour makes me know- that my endurance depends on my standing in Christ, and I must have the truth preached in connection with the cross of Christ."

 O have nothing to do with these people, unless it is to set them right; for you will find that they are full of the gall of bitterness, the poison of asps is under their tongue. Instead of giving you things whereon your soul can feed, they will make you full of all manner of bitterness, and malice, and evil speaking against those who truly love the Lord Jesus, but who differ from them in some slight matter.*

 "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Co. 2:2).
Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando


 *Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Spurgeon's Sermons on the Cross of Christ ( Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1993), p. 77