Heavenly Springs

Holding Fast The Doctrines of Grace

The Church and the World

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“There is and always has been a fundamental, irreconcilable incompatibility between the church and the world. Christian thought is out of harmony with all the world’s philosophies. Genuine faith in Christ entails a denial of every worldly value. Biblical truth contradicts all the world’s religions. Christianity itself is therefore antithetical to virtually everything this world admires.

Jesus told His disciples, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

Notice that our Lord considered it a given that the world would despise the church. Far from teaching His disciples to try to win the world’s favor by reinventing the gospel to suit worldly preferences, Jesus expressly warned that the quest for worldly accolades is a characteristic of false prophets: “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).

He further explained: “The world . . . hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). In other words, the world’s contempt for Christianity stems from moral, not intellectual, motives: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19-20). That is why no matter how dramatically worldly opinion might vary, Christian truth will never be popular with the world.

Yet in virtually every era of church history there have been people in the church who are convinced that the best way to win the world is by catering to worldly tastes. Such an approach has always been to the detriment of the gospel message. The only times the church has made any significant impact on the world are when the people of God have stood firm, refused to compromise, and boldly proclaimed the truth despite the world’s hostility. When Christians have shrunk away from the task of confronting popular worldly delusions with unpopular biblical truths, the church has invariably lost influence and impotently blended into the world. Both Scripture and history attest to that fact.

And the Christian message simply cannot be twisted to conform to the vicissitudes of worldly opinion. Biblical truth is fixed and constant, not subject to change or adaptation. Worldly opinion, on the other hand, is in constant flux. The various fads and philosophies that dominate the world change radically and regularly from generation to generation. The only thing that remains constant is the world’s hatred of Christ and His gospel.

In all likelihood, the world will not long embrace whatever ideology is in vogue this year. If the pattern of history is any indicator, by the time our great grandchildren become adults, worldly opinion will be dominated by a completely new system of belief and a whole different set of values. Tomorrow’s generation will renounce all of today’s fads and philosophies. But one thing will remain unchanged: until the Lord Himself returns and establishes His kingdom on earth, whatever ideology gains popularity in the world will be as hostile to biblical truth as all its predecessors have been.”

– John MacArthur

Source: Grace to You

Christmas Bloodline: Notorious Women in Jesus’s Family

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Jon Bloom, at Desiring God, points to Matthew chapter one to show us what a geneology of grace looks like. This post is beautiful – so, so beautiful…I plan to share it with the young women at our next meeting. How about you?  Is there a woman in your world who needs to hear this message of hope in Christ? He came to seek and save disgraceful sinners – just like ones in his lineage. To God be the glory!

“Buried in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one is a gospel treasure. That treasure is five women. Their inclusion in the list is notable because it’s a patrilineal genealogy — a record of fathers and sons. Their inclusion is also notable because they were among the most notorious women in biblical history.

Tamar

The first mentioned is Tamar (Matthew 1:3). Remember her? Tamar entered the royal bloodline of the Messiah by disguising herself as a prostitute and seducing her father-in-law, Judah, so he would make her pregnant. Honestly, Judah had it coming because he had denied her justice, but it was an ugly affair all around (see Genesis 38).

Rahab

The second is Rahab (Matthew 1:5). She didn’t have to disguise herself. She had been a prostitute. And a Gentile! A Canaanite, no less. Not a desired pedigree. She and her family were the only survivors of Israel’s conquest of Jericho because she hid the Jewish spies and helped them escape. Once integrated into Israel, she married Salmon (wouldn’t you like to know that story?) and became King David’s great, great grandmother.

Ruth

Ruth is the third (Matthew 1:5) and she too was a Gentile. A Moabite. Her ancestry had its origin in the incest committed between Lot and his oldest daughter. Ruth’s people were polytheistic pagans, occasionally offering human sacrifices to idol-gods like Chemosh. Through personal tragedy and loyalty she wound up at Bethlehem and in the arms of Boaz.

We simply can’t move on without mentioning the staggering fact that Ruth has a book of the Bible named after her! How did that happen? Jews were prohibited from intermarrying with Moabites (Ezra 9:10–12) — unless a Moabite renounced all that being a Moabite meant and became all that it meant to be a Jew. In the fact that one of the canonical books of the Old Covenant is named after a Moabite woman, God is shouting something about his grace.

Bathsheba

The fourth woman mentioned in the list is “the wife of Uriah” (Matthew 1:6), Bathsheba. This woman suffered sexual abuse and the murder of her husband by Israel’s greatest king. And as a result she became an ancestor of Jesus.

Mary

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the fifth (Matthew 1:16). She became pregnant with Jesus before her wedding, and the Child’s father was not her betrothed, Joseph. This scandal would have lingered like a cloud in the whispers and suspicions of her wider family and fellow Nazarenes for many years.

Highlights of Grace

All five of these women share something in common: disgrace. These women either committed or suffered disgrace. They had tainted reputations. They likely would have endured the contempt of others. And at least the first four would have struggled with very painful, even sordid memories.

And here’s the thing. Most of us want to conceal the more disgraceful events and people in our families. But not Jesus. He goes out of his way here to draw attention to these women whose very names call to mind scandalous things. Why? I think to remind us, before Matthew even begins the story of his birth, why he came.

Even in the genealogies God weaves his grace. He loves to redeem sinners. He loves to produce something beautiful out of sordid family backgrounds. He loves to make foreigners his children. He loves to reconcile his enemies. He loves to make all things work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).

Each of these women are beautiful Old Covenant illustrations of what God would later say to Peter when clarifying that his grace is extended to all peoples: “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15).

And that’s his word to you and me. The amazingly good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to make notorious unclean sinners and foreigners like us — people with disgraceful pasts who believe in his name (John 1:12) — clean.”

Come to Jesus!

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“I give this appeal, too: Come to Jesus!

Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles, too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

PreachingTheGospel

Is God the God of Americans only? Is he not the God of Asians, too? Yes, of Asians, too, since there is only one God, who will justify the Caucasian by faith and the Asian through that same faith.

Is God the God of Catholics only? Is he not the God of Protestants, too? Yes, of Protestants, too, since there is only one God, who will justify the Catholic by faith and the Protestant by that same faith.

Is God the God of upper-middle class people only? Is he not the God of working-class people, too? Yes, of working-class people, too, since there is only one God who will justify the upper-middle class by faith and the working class through that same faith.

Is God the God of elderly people only? Is he not the God of children, too? Yes, of children, too, since there is only one God who will justify the elderly by faith and children through that same faith.

I can only think of one thing that could possibly turn you away from this gracious, embracing, “all are welcome” gospel. And that is that you do not want to go into the Father’s house with all those other types of people. But if that is so, do not call Christianity narrow or bigoted or mean or self-righteous or sectarian. It is you who are sectarian, and Christianity is the only thing I know of that can cleanse you of that blight. Only Jesus can give you grace to place your pride aside and step through that wide door of salvation as the rebellious sinner you truly are.

No one else will go through—only sinners who have confessed their sin, turned from it, and believed on Jesus Christ as their Savior.”

Boice, J. M. (1991-). Romans, Volume 1: Justification by Faith (417–418). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

A New Reformation

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The Spread of the Protestant Reformation by Franz von Wagner

“If we are convinced that the Protestant Reformation was the greatest recovery of the gospel since the time of the apostles and that it left us with a treasure whose riches await rediscovery by a new generation, then surely a new reformation represent a goal for us.

It is not that we want to simply replay the Reformation, but that we want to recover and confess the faith as the Reformers did in their time. It is the same message, but it is we now who must step up to the plate. We are not only confessional (that is, bound to believe, preach, and teach that which our confessions set forth), but confessing.

It is not merely a commitment to a past fidelity, although it is that, but it is also our confession in this time and place. Our world, surrounded by new fears and false hopes, requires a new confession–not new in its message, but fresh in its delivery.” (Michael Horton) [1]

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“We need, again, Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitfields—men fit to mark eras—whose names breathe terror in our enemies’ ears. We have dire need of such! Where are they? From where will they come to us? We cannot tell in what farmhouse or village smithy, or schoolhouse such men may be, but our Lord has them in store. They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church and will come in due time.

He has power to give us back, again, a golden age of preachers, a time as fertile of great Divines and mighty ministers as was the Puritan age which many of us account to have been the golden age of theology! He can send, again, the men of studious heart to search the Word and bring forth its treasures! The men of wisdom and experience rightly to divide it! The golden-mouthed speakers who, either as sons of thunder or sons of consolation, shall deliver the message of the Lord which the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven. When the Redeemer ascended on high He received gifts for men and those gifts were men fit to accomplish the edification of the Church, such as evangelists, pastors and teachers. These He is still able to bestow upon His people! It is their duty to pray for them, and when they come, to receive them with gratitude.

Let us believe in the power of Jesus to give us valiant men, and men of renown, and we little know how soon He will supply them!” [2]

[1] Here We Stand: A Call From Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern Day Reformation edited by James Montgomery Boice and Benjamin E. Sasse, P&R Publishing Company, 2004, page 103.

[2] Charles Spurgeon, Sermon #1200, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, The Power of the Risen Saviour, October 25, 1874.