Josh King

Tolle Lege: It Is Well

Readability: 1

Length: 216 pp

In 2007 Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach wrote an excellent, thorough, and important defense of penal substationary atonement entitled Pierced for our Transgressions. It is a book for the serious student. Dever and Lawrence set out to compliment that book with this collection of sermons tracing the theme of substitution progressively through the Bible. It Is Well is not only more assessable, but here penal substitionay atonement is Biblically defended, reveled in, and applied.

It’s amazing when you think about it that God’s meeting place with man, the place where atonement would be made, was in the very symbol of his holiness and righteousness. This room, separated physically and by rules – with the ark of the covenant, the bowing cherubim, the law written by God’s own hand – is where not only God’s righteousness and holiness but also his mercy would be shown most clearly.

Contrary to what liberal theologians like to say about the symbolic meaning of the cross, the good news is that there is nothing symbolic about it. The symbols were in the Old Testament; they were given so that when the real thing happened, we’d know what we were looking at. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, he wasn’t making a symbolic statement about the power of faith over the meaninglessness of life. No, he was making atonement for sin, as only he could do.

You are included in that wide-open whoever if you will turn away from your rebellion and put your faith in the God whose love is measured not by your feelings but by his actions – a love measured by the span of a wooden beam and nail-pierced hands. Oh, friend, look to Jesus today and be saved.

So this is the scene: the Judge of the world condemned by a corrupt court. The true High Priest to be murdered by an unholy counterfeit. The lamb of God sacrificed by the high priest as a political scapegoat.

Atheists like Hitchens and Dawkins may, if they’re honest, admit the strange pervasiveness of moral evil, but they have no real explanation for it. It’s like a coin flipped six billion times always coming up tails. I think something’s going on there.

WTS Books: $13.31 Amazon: $13.49

The Sweet Dropper: Flash or Fountain

These desires, first of all, they were but flashes: for we never read that he [Balaam] had them long. They were mere flashes; as a sudden light, that rather blinds a man than shews him the way. So these enlightenings they are not constant. Wicked men ofttimes have sudden motions and flashes and desires. ‘Oh that I might die the death of the righteous. ‘Oh that I were in such [a] man’s estate. But it is but a sudden flash and lightning. They are like a torrent, a strong sudden stream, that comes suddenly and makes a noise, but it hath no spring to feed it. The desires of God’s children they are fed with a spring, they are constant; they are streams, and not flashes. – Richard Sibbes, Balaam’s Wish

Sheep Need Shepherds, Not to be Shepherds

People Want a Pastor from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

The Sweet Dropper: Receive Gold from Dirty Hands

[R]efuse not all that ill men say; they may have good apprehensions, and give good counsel. It had been good for Josiah to have followed the counsel of wicked Pharaoh, a heathen. God often enlightens men that otherwise are reprobates. Refuse not gold from a dirty hand; do not refuse directions from wicked men. – Richard Sibbes, Balaam’s Wish

Tolle Lege: Holy Subversion

Readability: 1

Length: 147 pp

Author: Trevin Wax

Caesar is not Lord, Jesus is. This would be a most radical statement in the early Christian world – it would be subversive. Not subversive in the sense of overthrowing Caesar, but in the sense of putting him back in his proper place.

In , Tevin Wax calls for us to put the idols that rule over us (Caesars) back in their place, under the Lordship of Christ. Trevin deals well with the Caesars of the self, success, money, leisure, sex, and power. Here is a necessary book that is also very helpful.

The disciples we produce are a direct result of the gospel we preach.

Abstinence education may be effective for the public school system, but churches should not preach abstinence alone. After all, telling young people that they should not have sex because of all the bad things that could happen to them actually perpetuates a self-centered view of sexuality. The teenagers who engage in sexual activity are having sex to please themselves. The teenagers who do not engage in sexual activity are not having sex in order to protect themselves. But the common root in both of these mindsets is self-centeredness.

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The Sweet Dropper: Water the Root, Not the Branches

As a tree, we cast not water on the branches, but on the root. All the branches are cherished by the root. So strengthen faith. We strengthen love, and hope, and all, if we strengthen faith, and assurance of God’s love in Christ. – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

A Strategic Approach to Candyland or Why I Finally Joined Facebook

I hate Candyland. I have never liked it. As a child I remember liking Trouble or checkers, never Candyland. There is no strategy, there is no candy, so what’s to like?

But nowadays I find myself playing Candyland, and enjoying it, though it has nothing to do with the game. I can’t redesign Candyland to make it a game of strategy, so I bring the strategy to it. I play Candyland because of my kids.

I approach Facebook the same way. Facebook is fantasy world, and a dangerous one. Facebook has many candies, but they are illusions, they do not satisfy.

[Narcissism] One of the characters you’re sure to encounter is Narcissus. Do you remember him? In Greek mythology he was the man who when lured to a pool fell in love with his own image and died staring at it. Facebook is the garden revisited, and we fall a thousand times over, wanting to be gods. Failing at real life to be worshipped, we enter a virtual world to promote our own glory. We are so presumptuous as to think our every banal action needs to be broadcast for the benefit of mankind. We are our own paparazzi. My friend David described Twitter (which I also joined for the same reason I will soon give) like this, “It’s like a guy carrying around a megaphone who periodically announces to no one in particular; ‘I’m shopping at Pay Less!’, or ‘Just waiting at a stop light!’, for no other reason than to justify the carrying of it.”

[Gossip] Facebook is TMZ for the commoners. While some approach Facebook to promote themselves, others journey there to demote others, if only in their own heart. Perhaps this is just a more sinister way of convincing oneself that they are god, or at least more god than others are. The saddest reality is that often one need not talk to a friend or enemy to get some leverage on you, you provide that yourself. “Curious how sinful I am? Have a look!”

[Voyeurism] Molasses Swamp exists in Facebook as well, or we might now call it The Matrix – a group of people living in a virtual world or living voyeuristically through others. The real is traded for the less real. Friendship is redefined to mean nothing more than acquaintance. Molasses Swamp is sticky, people get stuck here. Instead of enjoying good company, a vacation, or a meal, we either are preoccupied with how we are going to share it with others, or instead of enjoying our own, we are envious of someone else’s.

[Lust] Princes Lollipop is everywhere. She is very attractive. She can be a close friend, even a sister in Christ. Proverbs speaks a lot about this whore. Avoid her. Don’t click on her photos. Hide all posts by her. Establish a one-way route of influence. De-friend her if she is invasive. It is a shame for a woman to tolerate pornography, worse still to enjoy it herself, worse yet to become a self-promoted, softened version of it. Modesty is platinum; a rare treasure in this land. Celebrate it where you find the Proverbs 31 woman.

So why play such a deadly game? Because there is no new thing under the sun. Facebook isn’t evil, we are – we bring the evil to it – ourselves. I’m coming to this game with a strategy.

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”, so said Abraham Kuyper. And this truth rings true over virtual worlds as much as real ones. Facebook does not exist for us. The chief end of your life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We should bring this purpose to everything we do, including Facebook.

So why then join this candyland full of deadly enticements? One may as easily ask “Why live in this world?” There is only one acceptable answer – for His glory.

Tolle Lege: A God-Sized Vision

Readability: 1

Length: 187 pp

Author: Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge

Burnt on revival? Does the word conjure up images of a planned event that failed to produce the thing longed for?

If you are not longing for revival may I submit to you that it is because you don’t know what one is? It isn’t something we schedule. It isn’t something we pull down from heaven; rather it is heaven graciously coming down to us. Revival is God doing what He is always doing redemptively for His church, but in a concentrated manner. God is always saving and sanctifying His people, but in revival He does so in a marvelous way. We should long for this.

Here Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge help us in A God-Sized Vision. They show us that revival is both a Biblical and historical truth and reality. History is God’s story. The Bible is His inspired Word, but God has also spoken through church history for our edification. Church history is not infallible, but nonetheless, we like the ancient Israelites, would do well to remember what God has done in our past, so that we may anticipate His mighty redemption yet to come.

Here is a book of revival stories that will bring joy and inspiration, but best of all, that will move you to pray and long for God to do it again.

WTS Books: $11.38 Amazon:$11.55

The Sweet Dropper: Comfort Is Nothing But Digested Doctrine

As in plants and tree, what is the fruit of the tree? nothing but the juice of the tree applied and digested into fruit; so, indeed, doctrine is that that runs through the whole life of a Christian, and the strength of doctrine is in comfort. Comfort is nothing but doctrine sweetly digested and applied to the affections. He will never be a good comforter, that doth not first stablish the judgment in some grounds of doctrine, to shew whence the comfort flows. – Richard Sibbes, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians 1

Tolle Lege: Do Hard Things

Readability: 1

Length: 232 pp

Author: Alex and Brett Harris

Adolescence is a myth, and Alex and Brett Harris do an excellent job of exposing it. They defied the norm as teenagers and now call you to do so as well in Do Hard Things. Don’t just read this book, do it, do hard things!

In order to understand the modern “teenager” concept, we have to go back in time only a hundred years. At that time, right around the year 1900, a cascade of labor- and school-reform laws were passed in an attempt to protect kids from the harsh conditions in factories. These laws were good because conditions had been brutal, and children’s health and education suffered. Unfortunately, the laws had some unintended and far-reaching consequences. By completely removing children from the workplace and mandating school attendance through high school, teen’s once-established role as key producers and contributors came to an end. Suddenly their role was almost exclusively that of consumers.

Young people were suddenly stuck in a poorly defined category between childhood and adulthood. …Instead, the “teenager” was invented – a young person with most of the desires and abilities of an adult but few of the expectations or responsibilities.

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