“The wind bloweth where it listeth…” (John 3:8).
“So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:7).
On Thursday evening, August 20th, I had very good reason to repent before God (and repent, I did). I attended a pastor’s fellowship held in Pulaski, Tennessee for the Sovereign Grace Baptist churches in the region (we have them about every other month), and I was telling a brother during our lunch break how God had ministered in our village of Scammon Bay, Alaska by my merely preaching Christ, and Him crucified. When I got home to Anniston that night after a three-hour drive, I wept before my God and Savior as I realized how full of myself I must have sounded; how full of filthy flesh I must have appeared to others, and especially before my Master; how pitifully prideful and haughty I must have been… to imply by my zeal and to suggest in my speech that God saved souls in bush Alaska because I had the wherewithal not to stoop to programs, methods, and gimmicks, but instead preached Christ, and Him crucified.
Now, we should preach Christ, and Him crucified. We should teach sound doctrine and make clear presentations rooted in good, God-glorifying Biblical truth. We should study carefully to plow straight furrows with the Word of God unto the hearing of all those souls that would receive the Lord’s truth. Yet, it is a sin to think that because I did so, God is obligated to add to the church, grow the flock, or do any other “amazing” thing. That we have the privilege to preach His Son incarnate, crucified, risen, ascended, and coming again is an honor and privilege that none of us deserves, and yet, are allowed to do so by God’s amazing grace. In fact, it is also by His incredible mercy that we have that privilege because we are merely pathetic beings after all, wretched beings made a little lower than the angels, and our handling of the glory of His infinite truth is weak and feeble at best, for “…not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1 Corinthians 1:26).
We should also pray. We should earnestly seek the blessed favor of our Lord so that we may be nourished by His presence, encouraged by His abounding grace, strengthened by His enduring mercy, and uplifted by His infinite love. Yet, it is sheer folly to think that because I prayed earnestly that He would bring revival because I prayed so diligently; that I worshipped Him so earnestly; that the sincerity of my supplications, the piety of my petitions, or the thoroughness of my thanksgivings placed our sovereign and almighty God under any kind of obligation to act or respond apart from the counsel of His own will and blessedness of His good pleasure.
We should endeavor to be obedient to God’s Word and walk according to all the graces He lavishes upon us; yet, our zeal should not be without knowledge, and specifically, knowledge of just who it is we worship and serve.
We should ever keep in mind that it is all God’s work; it is His church; it is His glory; and what a blessed privilege it is to submit to His eternal will, plans, and purposes.
It is not in how much we labor for the Lord or in what specific way we labor before Him that marks our Christianity; but it is in our trust in Him and our faithfulness to Him in whatever He calls us to do, according to the truth of His Word.
Pastors: whether you minister to a small handful of souls on Sunday or several thousand souls throughout the week, you are responsible for the care, feeding, and nurture of every single one of them before God. What a tremendous responsibility for the care of just one soul! Lean upon Christ by the power of His Spirit and the Word of His truth. It requires the same spiritual power for few or many and we must trust the Lord implicitly for the results in either case. Faithfulness in the one instance is no different than faithfulness in the other.
Saints: in whatever you are called, and wherever He has placed you, rejoice that it is by God’s grace that you are there. Take comfort in the truth that He is in control of every circumstance for He is a sovereign God; and that He is working out every detail of your life, and of those around you, in order to conform you to the image of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Sovereign Work of God
Can I Preach Against My Own Sins?
Dr. David Murray poses a very relevant question for the pulpit ministers of these American times...
Can I preach against my own sins? from Puritan Reformed on Vimeo.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Christian Clothes Commercial
Dr. David P. Murray of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI has some excellent counsel for us in this 5-minute podcast about Christian Clothes Commercials.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Failed to Contact Pastor Drake
UPDATE: My efforts to contact Pastor Drake have been unsuccessful, and that possibly due to his phone and emails being inundated as a result of the many articles circulating on the Internet.
Other Internet resources concerning this story may be found below:
ASSOCIATED BAPTIST PRESS NEWS
FOX NEWS RADIO SOUNDBITE
Let us be reminded that the Bible commands us to pray for all men, with supplications, petitions, and thanksgiving (1 Timothy 2:1), which includes praying for, both, Pastor Drake and President Obama.
Other Internet resources concerning this story may be found below:
ASSOCIATED BAPTIST PRESS NEWS
FOX NEWS RADIO SOUNDBITE
Let us be reminded that the Bible commands us to pray for all men, with supplications, petitions, and thanksgiving (1 Timothy 2:1), which includes praying for, both, Pastor Drake and President Obama.
Pastor Prays for the Death of Others?!
SermonAudio.com has a new feature called "News in Focus" that highlights a current news item with ministers providing a Biblical perspective.
A recent article has just come in concerning SBC pastor, Wiley Drake, of Buena Park, California, who prayed the imprecatory psalms in desiring the death of abortionist, George Tiller, and continues to pray those psalms for the death of President Obama. You can get a jump-start on the news item, and a News in Focus perspective from my friend, and co-laborer in the Lord, Pastor Trevor Hammack of Victory Baptist Church in Ovalo, TX; CLICK HERE for the news item and 14 minute sound bite of Pastor Hammack.
I hope to contact Pastor Drake as soon as I can in order to find out if he actually did make comments to this effect (for we all know how the media can put a spin on anything; however, the Fox News Radio soundbite appears pretty compelling that he did so).
Meanwhile, as it pertains to the imprecatory psalms of the Hebrew Scriptures, let me offer these Biblical perspectives:
1. They are understood as inspired and prophetic and must be interpreted in the light of the whole counsel of God, particularly as it relates to "Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2).
2. As prophetic utterances, these Psalms express the wrath that we deserved when we were unsaved, unregenerate sinners who hated Light, loved darkness, and were the enemies of God (Jn 3:19-20; Rom 5:10; Rom 8:7).
3. Because Jesus Christ is the substitutionary Sacrifice for the wrath that we so rightly deserve, God the Father, with willing obedience from the Son to do so through the eternal covenant, and witnessed and sealed by the Holy Spirit, poured out His holy and just wrath upon Jesus Christ, in His death upon Calvary's Tree, He fullfilled the prophetic uttereances of the Law, the Prophets, and the Imprecatory Psalms (Gen 3:15; Isa 53; Psa 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137, 139; Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:21; et al).
4. Because we have been forgiven of sins through His shed blood, we have been declared righteous by Christ's imputed righteousness, because we have been reconciled to God Almighty through Christ, and have had the wrath for disobedience removed through Christ's Atoning Sacrifice, we have great reason to rejoice that those utterances made in the Psalms have been removed far from us. Our sins which were many, are forgiven, so that we may love much (Lk 7:47).
5. Since salvation was paid by the priceless, precious blood of Jesus Christ, and because His Sacrifice is of such infinite worth and eternal preeminence, through that revelation, as well as the revelation of the height, length, depths, and breadth of wrath that we have been redeemed from, &etc., how could we possibly think that we deserve to judge with finality the vengence that Scripture says belongs to the LORD, and to Him alone? (Deut 32:35; Rom 12:18-21).
6.Therefore, also through the revelation of salvation from the judgment upon the enemies of God, we, by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, upon the authority of God's Word, can submit and surrender to the commandments of God, such as "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you," because "His commandments are not grievous" (Matt 5:44; 1 Jn 5:3).
7. Finally, death is the enemy of God, and the last enemy God will destroy (1 Cor 15:26). Adam ran headlong into death when he disobeyed God in the Garden, for God said, "...in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen 2:17). This is why Jesus must pray the prayer He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane; because for Him to not pray His prayer would be as if He rushed headlong into death apart from the answer to that prayer in communion and obedience to the heavenly Father. This is why it should be unthinkable for the Christian, saved by God's grace, to wish for the death of anyone. We are commissioned to preach eternal life, not desire the death of others.
I preached the following sermons on Imprecatory Psalms in 2008 at Higher Ground Calvary Chapel while I was between churches:
A recent article has just come in concerning SBC pastor, Wiley Drake, of Buena Park, California, who prayed the imprecatory psalms in desiring the death of abortionist, George Tiller, and continues to pray those psalms for the death of President Obama. You can get a jump-start on the news item, and a News in Focus perspective from my friend, and co-laborer in the Lord, Pastor Trevor Hammack of Victory Baptist Church in Ovalo, TX; CLICK HERE for the news item and 14 minute sound bite of Pastor Hammack.
I hope to contact Pastor Drake as soon as I can in order to find out if he actually did make comments to this effect (for we all know how the media can put a spin on anything; however, the Fox News Radio soundbite appears pretty compelling that he did so).
Meanwhile, as it pertains to the imprecatory psalms of the Hebrew Scriptures, let me offer these Biblical perspectives:
1. They are understood as inspired and prophetic and must be interpreted in the light of the whole counsel of God, particularly as it relates to "Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2).
2. As prophetic utterances, these Psalms express the wrath that we deserved when we were unsaved, unregenerate sinners who hated Light, loved darkness, and were the enemies of God (Jn 3:19-20; Rom 5:10; Rom 8:7).
3. Because Jesus Christ is the substitutionary Sacrifice for the wrath that we so rightly deserve, God the Father, with willing obedience from the Son to do so through the eternal covenant, and witnessed and sealed by the Holy Spirit, poured out His holy and just wrath upon Jesus Christ, in His death upon Calvary's Tree, He fullfilled the prophetic uttereances of the Law, the Prophets, and the Imprecatory Psalms (Gen 3:15; Isa 53; Psa 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137, 139; Gal 3:13; 2 Cor 5:21; et al).
4. Because we have been forgiven of sins through His shed blood, we have been declared righteous by Christ's imputed righteousness, because we have been reconciled to God Almighty through Christ, and have had the wrath for disobedience removed through Christ's Atoning Sacrifice, we have great reason to rejoice that those utterances made in the Psalms have been removed far from us. Our sins which were many, are forgiven, so that we may love much (Lk 7:47).
5. Since salvation was paid by the priceless, precious blood of Jesus Christ, and because His Sacrifice is of such infinite worth and eternal preeminence, through that revelation, as well as the revelation of the height, length, depths, and breadth of wrath that we have been redeemed from, &etc., how could we possibly think that we deserve to judge with finality the vengence that Scripture says belongs to the LORD, and to Him alone? (Deut 32:35; Rom 12:18-21).
6.Therefore, also through the revelation of salvation from the judgment upon the enemies of God, we, by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, upon the authority of God's Word, can submit and surrender to the commandments of God, such as "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you," because "His commandments are not grievous" (Matt 5:44; 1 Jn 5:3).
7. Finally, death is the enemy of God, and the last enemy God will destroy (1 Cor 15:26). Adam ran headlong into death when he disobeyed God in the Garden, for God said, "...in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen 2:17). This is why Jesus must pray the prayer He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane; because for Him to not pray His prayer would be as if He rushed headlong into death apart from the answer to that prayer in communion and obedience to the heavenly Father. This is why it should be unthinkable for the Christian, saved by God's grace, to wish for the death of anyone. We are commissioned to preach eternal life, not desire the death of others.
I preached the following sermons on Imprecatory Psalms in 2008 at Higher Ground Calvary Chapel while I was between churches:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Soon Available in Print
John Bunyan's treatise, entitled Christian Behavior, although it will remain available as a free e-Book, this important work will soon be available as a printed paperback publication. Click on the book cover to the left, or CLICK HERE to go to the Christian Behavior weblog.Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Now Available in Print
Essential Spurgeon for Today’s Reformed Pastor, though it will remain available as a free e-Book, is now available as a printed publication… a traditional paperback book. This 222-page book is available for only $12.95 through CreateSpace.com, a division of Amazon.com. Click on the book cover on the left or CLICK HERE to order the book... or you can check it out on the Essential Spurgeon weblog by CLICKING HERE.
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