Author: Josh King

Matthew 18:15-20 – A Grace Place?

Grace place—that is why some churches say they abstain from church discipline—they want to be a place of grace. Imagine that you have cancer and pleading with doctor after doctor to remove it to hear, “We don’t do scalpels here. They hurt. They’re not loving.” The last description you would give of such a doctor is gracious.

Church discipline is about love. When discipline is absent we wave with a smile to our brothers as they tread the path to hell. Abstaining from discipline for fear of offending your brother is like not yelling at your kids when they are playing in the street, because yelling might scar their little souls. Cars kill bodies. Sin kills the soul. Better to offend someone into heaven than nice them into hell. Church discipline loves—everyone. It loves:

  • The sinner, by seeking their repentance and restoration.
  • The church, by seeking her purity and protection from the leaven of sin (1 Corinthians 5:6-13).
  • The world, by seeking to guard the church’s testimony and witness to the transforming gospel of Christ.
  • God, as we act in obedience and for His glory.

When leaders and churches ignore church discipline, they are loving. They are loving themselves. They are concerned for their jobs, their reputation, their number, their offerings. A failure to do discipline reveals idols.

Jesus spoke the words in Matthew 18. Jesus commanded discipline to be done. And Jesus promises He is with us when we obey this command (Matthew 18:20). This is the ultimate reason to faithfully do church discipline. Because to do so is to stand with Jesus. And no one loves like Jesus.

“By abstaining from church discipline… we claim we love better than God loves.” —Jonathan Leeman

The Pilgrim: Far in Religion, Far from Jesus

A people may follow Christ far for base ends, as these went after him beyond sea for loaves. A man’s belly will carry him a great way in religion; yea, a man’s belly will make him venture far for Christ.

Note again, They are not feigning compliments, but gracious intentions, that crown the work in the eye of Christ; or thus, it is not the toil and business of professors, but their love to him, that makes him approve of them.

Note again, When men shall look for friendly entertainment at Christ’s hand, if their hearts be rotten, even then will they meet with a check and rebuke. “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.”

Yet observe again, He doth not refuse to give, even to these, good counsel: he bids them labour for the meat that endureth to eternal life. Oh! how willingly would Jesus Christ have even those professors that come to him with pretences only, come to him sincerely, that they may be saved. -John Bunyan, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

Acts 20:28 & When the Watchman Hydes

Elders are watchmen, entrusted with a city dear to the King. A city he bled to conquer with love. The task calls for unceasing vigilance. Not only are enemies without the walls, treachery is within, and the most dangerous men inside the city are the watchmen. In Christ we are all a Mr. Hyde turned Dr. Jeckyl. It is one thing when Hyde is within the city. It is another when He is the watchman of that city. Elders must make sure that Hyde stays dead. They must mortify him (1 Corinthians 9:27, Romans 8:13). They must “pay careful attention,” not only to the city, but to themselves.

Elders are sinners, and in desiring and being appointed to that office, they place themselves in a position to sin disastrously. If Hyde comes out you will sin against God’s little ones (Matthew 18:6), his dear blood bought city. Elders, watch yourself. The greatest danger when the watchman Hydes isn’t his destruction of the city, but the destruction of his own soul.

[T]hat man will never be careful for the salvation of other men who will neglect his own soul. -John Calvin

Still Out of Order

First Baptist Church Meridian, 

We’ve installed elders in this lemon, and that is a good thing. More order is better than less. Yet, while it is true that we have made a step towards order, towards having the right kind of frame in this old klunker, let us not think that the shocks, brakes, power steering, and everything else is in order just because. We have traded a wooden frame for a steel one; this is good, but it doesn’t automatically fix other problems. The church is a classic, but she is also a former rust bucket. She is made up of those made in the image of God being made new. But perfect and full restoration still lie down the road. Until that day, may we be the church semper reformanda for we are still the church simul justus et peccator.

Tolle Lege: Future Men

Readability: 1

Length: 171 pp

Author: Douglas Wilson

Got boys? Then you’ve got future men, and thus may I highly commend to you Future Men. If your interest isn’t peeked because of a failure to realize the magnitude of what was just said, perhaps a controversial statement will rouse you.

[B]oys should not play with dolls, and boys who do play with them have a problem. One of the themes of this book is to reinforce the truism that the boy is the father to the man. What you have young you will have more of later, old.

This is why I love reading Wilson, especially concerning the home. Other author’s focus on the family is all carrot and no stick. But boys thrive when there are sticks, whether it be playing with one, or being corrected by one. Speaking of sticks, take this:

Men who follow Jesus Christ, the dragon-slayer, must themselves become lesser dragon-slayers. And this is why it is absolutely essential for boys to play with wooden swords and plastic guns. Boys have a deep need to have something to defend, something to represent in battle. And to beat the spears into pruning hooks prematurely, before the war is over, will leave you fighting the dragon with a pruning hook.

The Christian faith is in no way pacifistic. The peace that will be ushered in by our great Prince will be a peace purchased with blood. As our Lord sacrificed Himself in this war, so must His followers learn to do.

Sticks should be swung both by the boy, and, when needed, at the boy. There is much stick slinging wisdom here for both ends. If I didn’t provoke you to read the book, perhaps I provoked you to pick up a stick, and that might be a step in the right direction.

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The Pilgrim: None but God, None but Christ

Earth is a drossy thing in this man’s account; earthly greatness and splendours are but like vanishing bubbles in this man’s esteem. None but God, as the end of his desires, none but Christ, as the means to accomplish this his end, are things counted great by this man. -John Bunyan, Christ a Complete Savior

Titus 1:5-9 & Out of Order

Until elders are put in place, the task of missions is incomplete and the church is out of order.

Paul was a pioneer missionary. It was his “ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest [he] build on someone else’s foundation (Romans 15:20).” Paul was fulfilling the Great Commission by going to “all nations.” Evangelism does not complete the task of missions. Church planting does not complete the task of missions. Paul’s normal pattern for missions was to install elders in every church (Acts 14:23). Until this is done, things are out of order. Our call is not to garner professions, but to make disciples. Disciples that we teach to observe all things, whatever Christ has commanded. Biblical church government is one of those things. There is no way to soften it, until a church is led by a plurality of elders, she is disobedient. And disobedience always brings disorder. It turns new creation into chaos.

Sure, every church is sinful, but no church has an excuse to remain that way. Yes, the gospel is chief, but this is not to say that church government is inconsequential. When the toe hurts the body hurts (1 Corinthians 12:26). How much more does the body hurt when the eyes, or the mouth, or the ears are out of wack? Don’t think your obeying the command to not despise the lesser members of the body by denying the cruciality of the leader-members.

In the church car, government may not be the motor, but perhaps it’s the frame. No matter how sound the engine may be at the time, a whompyjawed church government means this car is going to wobble. Sure you can ignore problems in the frame longer than a plume of smoke coming from the hood, but to think that you can ignore the frame altogether isn’t wise. Something has to hold that motor in place. No frame, no order, only chaos.

 

The Pilgrim: A Sweet Drowning

God is the chief good. Good so as nothing is but himself. He is in himself most happy; yea, all good; and all true happiness is only to be found in God, as that which is essential to his nature; nor is there any good or any happiness in or with any creature or thing but what is communicated to it by God. God is the only desirable good, nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. Right thoughts of God are able to ravish the heart; how much more happy is the man that has interest in God. God alone is able by himself to put the soul into a more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition than can the whole world; yea, and more than if all the created happiness of all the angels of heaven did dwell in one man’s bosom. God is the upholder of all creatures, and whatever they have that is a suitable good to their kind, it is from God; by God all things have their subsistence, and all the good that they enjoy. I cannot tell what to say; I am drowned! The life, the glory, the blessedness, the soul-satisfying goodness that is in God is beyond all expression. -John Bunyan, Christ a Complete Savior

Tolle Lege: Delighting in the Trinity

Delighting...Readability: 1

Length: 130 pp

Author: Michael Reeves

I like subtitles but I normally don’t make much of them in these reviews. But Michael Reeves’ Delighting in the Trinity’s subtitle call for special notice. The title alone, unfortunately, is enough to startle some. Delighting in the Trinity? That is shocking enough, but he adds, “an introduction to the Christian faith.” This suggests that some Christians are trying to spell words like “Jesus,” and say phrases like, “justification by faith,” before they even know their ABCs.

“But I thought the Trinity was the deep end of the pool? You know, where the high dive is; for advanced swimmers?” You’re right. The Trinity is deep, but if Christianity is the pool, then the Trinity isn’t a side of the pool, it’s the water. You can’t get into the real Christianity pool, not even the shallow side, without immersing into Trinity. Christians are trinitarian, chosen by the Father, saved by the Son, renewed by the Spirit. Michael Reeves means for you to play in this water, that is, to delight in the Trinity. Please read no allusion to Trinity as water here, liquid, solid, gas, this would make me, and Reeves very distraught. It smacks of the ancient heresy modalism, dubbed moodalism by Reeves. This would work against your joy, but for an explanation of why you’re going to have to get the book.

The most foundational thing in God is not some abstract quality, but the fact that he is Father.

This is salvation with jam on top. In fact, the more trinitarian the salvation, the sweeter it is. For it is not just that we are brought before the Father in the Son; we receive the Spirit with which he was anointed. Jesus said in John 16: 14 that the Spirit ‘will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.’ The Spirit takes what is the Son’s and makes it ours. When the Spirit rested upon the Son at his baptism, Jesus heard the Father declare from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ But now that the same Spirit of sonship rests on me, the same words apply to me: in Christ my high priest I am adopted, beloved, Spirit-anointed son. As Jesus says to the Father in John 17: 23, you ‘have loved them even as you have loved me.’ And so, as the Son brings me before his Father, with their Spirit in me I can boldly cry, ‘Abba,’ for their fellowship I now freely share: The Most High my Father, The Son my great brother, the Spirit no longer Jesus’ Comforter, but mine.

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The Pilgrim: Jesus Saves Our Good Works Too

He saves us, and saves our services too. (Rev 5:9-14) They would be all cast back as dung in our faces, were they not rinsed and washed in the blood, were they not sweetened and perfumed in the incense, and conveyed to God himself through the white hand of Jesus Christ; for that is his golden-censer; from thence ascends the smoke that is in the nostrils of God of such a sweet savour. (Rev 7:12-14, 8:3,4) -John Bunyan, Christ a Complete Savior