Author: Josh King

Heroes Have Faults

I am very big on having spiritual heroes.  Some of mine are alive; e.g. John Piper, D.A. Carson, C.J. Mahaney, and R.C. Sproul.  Many are dead; e.g. Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and John G. Paton.  I think you should have both kinds.  A.W. Tozer is amongst the dead ones.  The largest part of his ministry was spent pastoring the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago.  We will be reading his classic work “The Knowledge of the Holy” this year in the Non-Raking Book Club.  This was the first Tozer book I had ever read and I was instantly a fan after reading lines like these:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end up with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.

The simplicity, reverence, and humility with which Tozer passionately deals with God’s attributes is admirable.  Part of my passion to make sure all of my sermons and ministry give a glimpse of God stems from this book.  So I was giddy to find out that a Tozer biography had been produced and quickly added it to my wish list.  I have not read Lyle Dorsett’s “A Passion for God” yet but have read a couple of reviews.  The reviews focus in on Tozer’s failure to let his love for God spill over into his love for his family.  It appears that in his pursuit of God he neglected his family.  (If God is properly pursued it should lead to deeper love for family, seeking to lead them to the God you love and deeper fellowship together in Christ.)

Tozer had faults.  I have faults.  Be gracious to your leaders.  We mess up.  The gracious thing is not to pass over my sins, but to lovingly, humbly, and prayerfully come to me.  I want to know my faults and sins.  I don’t want to know your personal opinions or complaints.  But please if you see any ways that my life is inconsistent or mars the gospel, rebuke me.  This would be the most loving thing you could do for me, and I pray that i will have the grace and wisdom to thank you for it.

HT: Between Two Worlds & Challies

Isaiah 55 & My Way

The wisdom of this world:

My Way by Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra

And now, the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain.
My friend, I’ll say it clear,
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.
I’ve lived, a life that’s full, I’ve traveled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
I did, what I had to do, and saw it through, without exemption.
I planned, each charted course, each careful step, along the byway,
and more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew,
When I bit off, more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up, and spit it out.
I faced it all, and I stood tall,
and did it my way.

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried,
I’ve had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing.
To think, I did all that, and may I say — not in a shy way,
“Oh no, oh no not me,
I did it my way”.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things, he truly feels,
And not the words, of one who kneels.
The record shows, I took the blows —
And did it my way!
I did it my way.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vua8wka5Cys]

The Wisdom of God:

My Savior, My God by Aaron Shust

 

I am not skilled to understand

What God has willed, what God has planned

I only know at His right hand

Stands one who is my Savior

 

I take Him at His word and deed

Christ died to save me; this I read

And in my heart I find a need

Of Him to be my savior

 

That He would leave His place on high

And come for sinful man to die

You count it strange, so once did I

Before I knew my Savior

 

My Savior loves, My Savior lives

My Savior’s always there for me

My God: He was, my God; He is

My God is always gonna be

 

Yes, living, dying, let me bring

My strength, my solace from this spring;

That He who lives to be my King

Once died to be my Savior

 

That He would leave His place on high

And come for sinful man to die

You count it strange, so once did I

Before I knew my Savior

[www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvBG-FVbGFs]

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 

Sermon Quotes from More than Slavery

No matter how well we speak of Jesus as a pattern we have done nothing unless we point him out as the substitute and sinbearer. – C.H. Spurgeon in Death for Sin, and Death to Sin

He himself dying while he made our sins to die; Himself crucified while He crucified our sins once for all. – C.H. Spurgeon in Death for Sin, and Death to Sin

What looked like (and indeed was) the defeat of goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by goodness. Overcome there, He was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, He was Himself crushing the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which He rules the world. – John R.W. Stott in The Cross of Christ

Isaiah 54 & “Ken Lee”

As one journeys out of Isaiah 53 into Isaiah 54 a song should be birthed. In fact, we are commanded to sing, and not just sing, but to break forth into singing. This breaking forth is not a cute, pretty little song in our hearts either; we are to cry aloud or wail this song.

Is your singing properly birthed? Does it flow from properly thinking about the glorious salvation wrought by the mighty arm of God? When you read rich theological content does it stir your heart as you reflect and meditate on it causing you to go musical? When you sing is it the atmosphere and the music that excite you or the precious truths about which you are singing?

(Thanks for the video Dbro)

[youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI]

Enjoy your spiritual food.

Here is the quote David passed along to me that I shared last night.  Don’t scarf…savor.

Remember, it is not hasty reading, but serious meditating upon holy and heavenly truths, that make them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the bee’s touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian. – Thomas Brooks

 HT: Challies

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 or I Rammed the Car Door into My Head!

I was at Wal-Mart, serving you, buying the little electronic game that so entertained you last night. (BTW: How do you pronounce “corps” Danielle?) My allergies were killing me and my wits were numb; hey, that’s as good of an excuse as I can conjure up. You know how the Taurus only unlocks from the passenger side; so I took the laborious venture to the other side of the car, exhausted I flung the door open to place your goodies in the passenger seat and rammed the door into my forehead.

Unfortunately the stupidity didn’t start there. Immediately I thought, “Well, at least it makes me look tough, like I got into a fight.” “I can walk around with a smirk on my face that make others think the other guy must be even more messed up.” Only my prideful depravity could take my stupidity and human fragility and turn it into a reason for boasting.

Again, unfortunately this is not the end or ultimate demonstration of my depravity. No, that is more clearly seen when I try to make the cross an echo of my worth. I like to think God really got a bargain when he ransomed me. I’m special like that, what would he do without me? Foolishness. The cross of Christ shows me the depths of my sin and I want to twist it such that it glorifies me? I would gladly suffer from intense klutziness than this kind of stupidity.

I am an ungrateful, prideful, arrogant, selfish sinner. God grant me eyes to see the depths of my sin so that I might better know and be constrained by the fathoms of your glorious grace and mercy.

Isaiah 52:1-12 & Gone?

I picked my three favorite photos. One has his tiny little fingers wrapped around her thumb; it looks as if he is really clinching it. His precious little face takes up the majority of the second picture. The third is the two most precious faces I know by earthly sight pressed together in sorrow and love. I had them printed 11×14 in sepia tone. Then I placed them in three simple little white frames which I hung at the top of the stairway around noon. I knew she would be home around 3pm. I hear the garage door. We talk about the day in the dining room, she ascends the stairs. “Why are the stairway lights on?” she thinks to herself…oblivious. I wait. As she descends she notices, by her reaction I know I have done well. I love making her happy. Some things can leave us, and we never notice them. A huge wrought iron piece that previously occupied that space in the hallway was not missed. If the picture were removed I think Bethany would instantly notice. If you treasure something, really treasure something, you will quickly realize its absence. Bethany so treasures Elijah; his absence hurts.

The return of the Lord to Zion (v. 8) was occasioned by singing. God’s presence among them was their deepest joy. Could God be absent and our souls comfortable? Are they? Or do we like the Psalmist “seek His presence continually” (Psalm 105:4), pant after him as the deer pants for water (Psalm 42:1), and desire above all to “dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4)?

The Cross is the Crux

That I might preach error is a terror to me, a terror I rejoice to carry with me into the study.  I pray daily that I not stray into error, and thank God that I do so, believing it to be some of the good He brought out of my bad.   I praise God that a movement that once looked so attractive to me now deeply saddens me.  I am speaking of the emergent conversation.  If you are clueless, good for you, but if you have ever wondered about Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Spencer Burke, or Dan Kimball I highly recommend you read Why We’re Not Emergent by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck.  If you were going to read a book on the emerging church, read this one.  Here is a sampling:

This is maybe the biggest difference between emergent Christianity and historic evangelical Christianity.  Being a Christian – for Burke, for McLaren, for Bell, for Jones, and for many others in the emerging conversation – is less about faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as the only access to God the Father and the only atonement for sins before a wrathful God, and more about living a life that Jesus lived and walking in His way.

Remember spoiling the gospel?

Isaiah 50:4-11 & the Person of Christ

I ask your forgiveness that a subject so precious was treated so lightly last night. The doctrine of the person of Christ is a treasure, preserved and fought for by the early church. My words were too brief and not precise enough and my diagram lacking.  Much of what I will say is taken from Grudem’s Systematic Theology. It has some helpful figures that I will present to you the next time we meet, for now words must suffice.

Grudem gives three inadequate views of the person of Christ:

1) Apollinarianism – This view teaches that Christ had a human body but not a human spirit or mind; that the spirit and mind were from His divine nature. One problem with this is that Jesus would only be a fit redeemer for our body but not our soul and mind which equally need redemption.

2) Nestorianism – Teaches that Christ was two separate persons. This would make Christ a “they” and not a “He”. If you don’t understand this mess or why someone would hold to it – you are not alone.

3) Monophysitism (Eutychianism) – This view teaches that Christ had just one nature. Its like the divine nature and human nature were traveling toward each other at light speed, collided, and a new third nature was all that was left, such that Jesus was not fully human nor fully divine but brand x. Because Jesus is not fully man he is not the perfect substitute or high priest who was tempted in every way we were yet without sin. Nor is He truly God rendering Him incapable of earning our salvation. Mono creates a mut Jesus who cannot save.

Finally Grudem brings us to Chalcedonian Definition as the orthodox statement of the biblical teaching on the person of Christ. The statement is:

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial (coessential) with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has been handed down to us.

The two natures, human and divine are united in Christ so that He is one person but yet each nature remains truly human and truly divine. His divine nature is exactly the same as the Father, and His human nature is exactly like ours excepting sin. Grudem goes on to explain that “one nature does some things that the other nature does not do” and yet “everything either nature does the Person of Christ does”.

Finally two statements that help me greatly are: 1) Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.  2) This excerpt from the The Athanasian Creed:

33. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood.
34. Who although he be [is] God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ;
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking assumption of the Manhood into God;
36. One altogether, not by confusion of Substance [Essence], but by unity of Person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ

Solus Christus