When people say, “Calvinism destroys any motivation to evangelize”, they often fail to realize they silently say, “If the salvation of souls depended upon the free choice of man then I would be motivated to share the gospel, but if it depends solely on the free choice of God I am not motivated.” Thus man’s goodness and freedom become the basis of evangelism instead of God’s goodness and freedom.
Author: Josh King
The Sweet Dropper: Praise Me or Praise Him
“He that enjoys the glories of heaven, needs not the praises of men.” – Written by Arthur Jackson, James Nalton, and William Taylor concerning Richard Sibbes in their “Note to the Reader” prefacing Sibbes’ The Glorious Feast of the Gospel
Numbers 6:22-27 & When Vanity is Virtuous
For God alone vanity is virtue.
God is holy, that is to say more than that He is pure and without sin. Holy primarily means separate, distinct, other. God is the ultimate other. Nothing else belongs in His classification. There is only One who falls under the category “creator”, all else belongs to the category “creation”. Part of God’s distinct otherness is He is the only one for whom vanity is a virtue.
God can give us nothing greater than Himself. God’s passion for His own glory is His passion for our deepest joy.
The Blesser is the Blessing; the Giver is the Gift.
Blessedness is not God making much of you, but making much of Himself. Blessedness does not mean God worshipping us, but showing us how worthy He is of all of our worship. Blessedness does not mean God giving us whatever our sinful hearts desire, but giving us new hearts that desire the best thing He can give us – Himself.
God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. – To go to heaven fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows. But the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean. – Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives, to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness? -Jonathan Edwards
Tolle Lege: Christless Christianity
Readability: 2
Length: 259 pp
Author: Michael Horton
Michael Horton loves and fights for the gospel, the message of sola fide. In Christless Christianity he shows how the American church, thinking itself to be so smart and innovative, has really swallowed ancient heresies that are contrary to the gospel. Pelagianism and Gnosticism have infiltrated the church. Pelagianism is the message of self salvation by works. From the social gospel, to the emergent church, to Joel Osteen what is emphasized is not the work of Christ, but our works. In Gnosticism experience is salvific. The Gnostics sought superior knowledge experientially. What matters is not what you do, but if you have had some experience. It is not faith in an objective gospel but a subjective experience that makes you a Christian according to this scheme.
If you think you are immune from American culture, read this book! If you realize you are not, I take it for granted that you have already clicked the picture and purchased this book.
Imagine two scenarios of church life. In the first, God gathers His people together in a covenantal event to judge and to justify, to kill and to make alive. The emphasis is on God’s work for us – the Father’s gracious plan, the Son’s saving life, death, and resurrection, and the Spirit’s work of bringing life to the valley of dry bones through the proclamation of Christ. The preaching focuses on God’s work in the history of redemption from Genesis through Revelation, and sinners are swept into this unfolding drama. Trained and ordained to mine the riches of Scripture for the benefit of God’s people, ministers try to push their own agendas, opinions, and personalities to the background so that God’s Word will be clearly proclaimed. In this preaching, the people once again are simply receivers – recipients of grace. Similarly in baptism, they do not baptize themselves; they are baptized. In the Lord’s Supper, they do not prepare and cook the meal, they do not contribute to the fare; but they are guests who simply enjoy the bread of heaven. Having been served by God in the public assembly, the people are then servants of each other and their neighbors in the world. Pursuing their callings in the world with vigor and dedication, they win the respect of outsiders. Because they have been served well themselves – especially by pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons – they are able to share the Good News of Christ in well-informed, natural ways. And because they have been relieved of numerous burdens to spend all of their energy on church-related ministries throughout the week, they have more time to serve their families, neighbors, and coworkers in the world.
In the second scenario, the church is its own subculture, and alternative community not only for weekly dying and rising in Christ but for one’s entire circle of friends, electricians, and neighbors. In this scenario, the people assume that they come to church primarily to do something. The emphasis is on their work for God. The preaching concentrates on principles and steps to live a better life, with a constant stream of exhortations: Be more committed. Read your bible more. Pray more. Witness more. Give more. Get involved in this cause or that movement to save the world. Their calling by God to secular vocations is made secondary to finding their ministry in the church. Often malnourished because of a ministry defined by personal charisma and motivational skills rather than by knowledge and godliness, these same sheep are expected to be shepherds themselves. Always serving, they are rarely served. Ill-informed about the grand narrative of God’s work in redemptive history, they do not really know what to say to a non-Christian except to talk about their own experiences and perhaps repeat some slogans or formulas that they might be hard-pressed to explain. Furthermore, because they are expected to be so heavily involved in church-related activities (often considered more important even than the public services on Sunday), they do not have the time, energy, or opportunity to develop significant relationships outside the church. And if they were to bring a friend to church, they could not be sure that he or she would ear the gospel.
The Sweet Dropper: A Warning to Fruitless “Christians”
It were better for a bramble to be in the wilderness than in an orchard. – Richard Sibbes in Divine Meditations and Holy Contemplations
1 Corinthians 15:1-8 & God Speaks Therefore I Am
[Commenting on 1 Corinthians 15;1-4] Here we see that the gospel is continual, in that we must continually be reminded of it; proclamational, in that it must be preached to us often, including preaching it to ourselves; essential, in that we must continually cling to it alone for the assurance of our salvation; central, in that it is the most important truth in all the world; eternal, in that it is passed on from one generation to the next without modification by religion; Christological, in that it is about the person and work of Jesus Christ alone; penal, in that the wages for sin – death – was paid; substitutional, in that Jesus’ death on the cross was literally in our place for our sins; biblical, in that it is in agreement with and the fulfillment of all Scripture; and eschatological, in that the resurrection of Jesus reveals to us our future hope of resurrected eternal life with him. Mark Driscoll in Death by Love
When Paul seeks to remind the Corinthians of the gospel this isn’t simply an instance of remedial Christianity, for it is by this gospel that they “are being saved” and it is in this gospel alone that they “stand”. The gospel of Christ isn’t the ABC’s of Christianity but the A to Z of Christianity. You don’t graduate the gospel as a Christian to go on to other things. If you ever graduate the gospel, you graduate Jesus only to flunk.
As a church we gather not to do, but to hear and be reminded what God has done for us in Christ. In fact, it is God who gathers us by His proclamation. It is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, making a people of those who were not His people. God’s Word gathers and sanctifies His church. Having heard God in the public assembly we then scatter to tell others what God has done, and in doing so long for Him in that act of proclamation to further act.
We begin our services with a call to worship to subtly communicate this fact. God first speaks, then we respond. We do not pull God down by our sacrifices, rather He has graciously condescended in Christ and become the sacrifice for us, and now the Spirit ministers this Christ to us as God’s Word is heralded. We sing because He has spoken. We gather not to serve, nor to be served by man, but as needy beggars we come to the table to feast on Christ. We serve because He has served. Having feasted we then serve others shouting to them that there is eternally satisfying bread available without cost.
The Sweet Dropper: Look at God in Christ First
We must take heed of coming to God in our own persons or worthiness, but in all things look at God in Christ. If we look at God as a Father, we must see him Christ’s Father first. If we see ourselves acquitted from our sins, let us look at Christ risen first. If we think of glorification in heaven, let us see Christ glorified first, and when we consider of any spiritual blessing, consider of it in Christ first. All the promises are made to Christ. He takes them first from God the Father, and derives [communicates] them to us by his Spirit. The first fulness [sic] is in God, and then he empties himself into Christ. ‘ And of his fulness we all receive grace ,’ &c. – Richard Sibbes in Divine Meditations and Holy Contemplations
2 Timothy 2:1 & I Need the Water with which I Am to Flow
True gospel ministers are just buckets and pipes.
Imagine you are traveling through a desert and your water runs out. Soon your lips are cracked, your mouth is dry, your throat is parched, your stomach is in knots, and your skin is blistered – you are dehydrated and dying. If you see a bucket lying in the sand, or a pipe lying horizontally in the sand you do not get excited about them, no matter how pretty they may be. But if the bucket is attached to a rope that is attached to a well, or if that pipe is standing out of the sand vertically with a faucet on top then you might begin to get excited. And as you investigate to find that the well is indeed full of clean, clear, cool water then you celebrate. Your joy wouldn’t terminate on the bucket or the pipe, but climax in the drinking of the water.
Only the insane would just stare at the bucket or pipe rest content. Spiritually we are insane. Sin is an insanity; it makes no sense. We are more enamored with the plate than the feast of Christ. We judge the meal by the plate, rather than the plate by the meal. We pass by heavenly delicacies to gorge ourselves on earthly refuse because of the plate.
Demand water from pipes or deem them useless. Better a cracked pipe that preaches Christ crucified than a pretty pipe that pumps the poison of performance.
I am a pipe that drinks what I flow with. I hope by God’s grace that when I present the feast of Christ, I have already richly dined on the meal, and plan to further do so even in the act of preaching. The grace I preach is the grace I need. I hope to come not just having snacked or licked my fingers in preparing the feast, but already overstuffed, and seeking more. We cannot be gluttonous when feasting on Christ; and there is always more bread and wine.
Pray for me that the flow not cease. The fountain is inexhaustible and infinite. I am sinful, desperately needing the water that is to flow through me. I am not strong, but the fountain is full of strengthening grace.
Tolle Lege: The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism
Readability: 1
Length: 126 pp
Author: Craig R. Brown
This little book is an excellent place to begin if you are wrestling with Calvinism. In my opinion there are books that are better, but none that are so brief, winsome, or simple. Simplicity is the strongest attribute of The Five Dilemmas of Calvinism. Often Brown just hits you with a litany of Scriptures that demonstrate the truth he is advocating for and then calls on the reader to think on them. This I think is the best way to get someone to consider Reformed theology, give them some Scriptures and ask them to read them prayerfully as you pray for them.
The Sweet Dropper: Killing Pride by His Humility
God so hated pride, that he became humble to the death of the cross to redeem me from it, and shall I be proud? – Richard Sibbes, Divine Meditations and Holy Contemplations
No Other Boast 