Hebrews 12:18-29 & …Huh?

You reach for the porcelain collectible for the third time, sure you’ve been warned, but you have called her bluff up to this point.  She is speaking, telling you not to, but you know she hasn’t quite reached that tone yet.  You know that tone that says a beating is imminent.

Have we grown up any?  Do we respond to the gospel with a “…huh?”  Not an inquisitive huh, but a non-interested huh.

In our text we are told that we must listen, because God will speak.  The speaking that God is doing now is different from the speaking that He will do then.  If you are privileged to hear the gospel of Jesus, the revelation of the Son, by the Son (Hebrews 1:1-3), God is speaking to you.  It is the greatest good news in the world; He is speaking to you kindly.  His speaking then, when all is shaken will be different. 

Do not listen to the repeated offers of the gospel, in which God as it were lays the key to His heavenly city before you, do not listen to them in the same way you listen to your mother’s threats.  To respond casually or flippantly to this gospel, is to call more than Mt. Sinai down upon your head.  Every time the gospel is preached you are either softened or hardened.  As the Puritans said, “the same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay.”  Perhaps God’s judgment upon you for a habitual pattern of shirking the gospel is to expose you to more of it, such that your quilt is increased.  Ease and comfort in sin is the scariest state to find oneself in.  We see this kind of terrifying judgment in Romans 1:18-32.

Every time God’s word is preached the gospel should be preached.  Therefore every time God’s word is preached there should be a serious and solemn examination of our hearts.  Are we listening?  Remember the Pharisees heard and taught the Scriptures every Sabbath, yet they were completely ignorant of Jesus.

Jesus did not mute the holiness and righteousness of God that speaks in wrath against our sin.  No rather God’s testimony against sin was amplified as Jesus hung on the cross in our stead.  If you stand outside of Christ this wrath burns against you still.  If you spurn the blood of Jesus, it burns against you more (Hebrews 2:1-4; 10:28-29)

As wise old Uncle Ben said to Peter, “with great power comes great responsibility”.  The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.  With greater revelation, greater glory, greater power comes greater responsibility on our part.

“Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

“For our God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:3-17 & A Prayer

Father,

            Holy and loving,

 

Grant us in our consideration of your courageous Son,

            Sustaining grace to realize that the hostile hand of sinners,

            Is also Your helpful hand of discipline.

 

May we not seek the false remedy of alleviating our suffering by attenuating Your sovereignty.

            May we agonize, struggle, and bleed to keep this faith.

            May Your words come to our minds and hearts as light in dark times.

                        Grant us a sanctified memory, so that we may not forget Your words.

 

Teach us to esteem, value, even treasure Your discipline as it cries out to us that we are:

            Loved,

            Received,

            Delighted in,

            Not a bastard.

 

May we know that Your discipline does not come to us as a penalty, but for our purity.

            We are corrected,

            We are prevented,

            And we are educated,

            But the wrath and penalty due for our sins has been born, for hell hung on the cross in our stead.

 

May we be infected with a childlike awe to look just like our Daddy,

            And may that desire make the bitter medicine of discipline sweet to our souls,

            The unpleasant bud of pain, tolerated in hopes of the beautiful bloom of:

                        Your holiness,

                        And the peaceful fruit of righteousness

 

May the truth of Your loving, fatherly, perfect discipline propel us to run, strive, and encourage one another.

            We move in hope, only because we know You are moving.

 

Father,

            Holy and loving,

 

We plead this with earnest tears, for:

            The consequences are so severe if we respond with bitterness to your loving discipline.

            Our ecstasy is the vision of You, in all Your glory.

            Without holiness we will not see this, it is the stamp of our sonship.

            God put this stamp on our souls.

 

May we not like Esau count corn flakes more than the Christ of the Cross and all He purchased for us.

 

In the name of Your perfect Son, Jesus, 

            I, Your lesser son, adopted and unworthy, pray, amen.

The Doctor: Divorcing Faith

[W]e must never think of faith as something in and of itself.  Faith is never something isolated or alone.  You must never divorce faith from its object.  Faith is always linked to an object.  The object is the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work and His perfect righteousness; and as long as you always remember that, you can never go wrong.  So we must not boast of our faith; it is not faith as such that saves us.  Faith is merely that channel, that instrument, that link that connects us with the righteousness of Christ which saves us.  His is the righteousness that saves, and faith simply brings it to us.  It is His righteousness that saves us by faith, through faith.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 3, p. 120

Hebrews 12:1-3 & From Moons to The Eternal-Supernova

We orbit the illuminated moons of Hebrews 11:4-40 (for five weeks we have orbited!) only to be thrust toward The Eternal-Supernova Son.

Tolle Lege: The Atonement

Readability :  3

Length:  206 pp

Author:  Leon Morris

How does the Bible speak of the atonement?  What words and images does it use?  Leon Morris does an excellent service to us in this work.  Although primarily a word study Morris is always sure that his theology is Biblical as well, that is, he always lets the context and Biblical storyline determine the ultimate meaning of the word.  Many word studies are attempts to violate the clear meaning of the storyline, this is not one.  Although The Atonement is the laymen’s version of his previous work, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, it is still a very scholarly work.  While it is readable, understand what it is, it is not simply reflections, sermons, or exhortations concerning the cross, but a deep study of the meaning of the cross.  Morris deals with images such as covenant, sacrifice, redemption, and reconciliation among others.  If ever we need push ourselves to read deep hard books, it is concerning books of this ilk, books on God’s masterpiece of atonement.

When God gave them commandments in the wilderness, the writer says, the Israelites complained.  But God replied that they were his slaves: ‘For this reason have I redeemed you, that you might give decrees and you should keep them.’  Here the thought is plainly expressed that Israel was not redeemed for the people’s own personal convenience but in order that they might be the servants of God.  The redemption from Egypt was the redemption of a community which was to be in a unique sense bound to God as the people of God.

That peace has a very different content in the Bible from that which we normally give the term is clear from some words towards the end of Romans.  The writer assured his readers that ‘The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet’ (Rom. 16:20).  God is characterized as ‘the God of peace’ by the very fact that he performs a warlike action!  This is strange language to us, but the overthrow of Satan was a necessary ingredient in peace as the men of the New Testament understood it.  So it is quite natural for one of them to speak in this way of God as the God of peace as he crushes the evil one.  What could more vividly show what ‘peace’ means?

Peace means the defeat of evil.  Peace means the breaking down the barrier between man and God.  Peace means the presence of God’s rich and abundant blessing.  Peace means positiveness; it is not the absence of anything – the barrier that separated us from God or anything else.  Peace is presence, the presence of God.  Christ ‘is our peace’.

The Necessity of Gospel Glory

I was skimming back through Jeremiah Burroughs Gospel Reconciliation the other day looking at places that I marked with a red asterisk (* = very important / powerful / good) and came across this gem.

God expects that we should have mighty high thoughts of this work [the wisdom and goodness of God in reconciling the world to Himself in Christ]; and if our thoughts are not high of this work, and are not lifted up above all creatures, we do but take the name of God in vain.  God does not care for any other glory we give Him unless we give Him the glory of this work.  It is true, when we see the works of God in the earth and on the seas, we should glorify God’s power and wisdom.  But unless your heart is taken with this masterpiece (as I may so term it), with this great work of God of reconciling Himself to the world in Christ, God will reject all your other glorifying of Him.  I mean He will so reject them as He will not accept them in comparison.

There is no other name by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12) because no other name glorifies how only God can give us God.  God gives His Son, and the Son He gives, gives us His Father.  Thus God is glorified as both the means and end of the gospel.  This is the marvelous masterpiece of reconciliation.  Revel in it, and know your heavenly Father smiles.

Tolle Lege: Knowing Scripture

Readability :  1

Length:  125 pp

Author:  R.C. Sproul

R.C.  Sproul’s little book is a great, clear, and simple explanation as to both why and how you should study the Bible.  What I always love about Dr. Sproul’s teaching is that by simple I do not mean watered down.  Although concise and easily readable, Sproul tackles big ideas and communicates them as a master teacher.  This is one of those books every child of God ought to have read because I think they will profit by reading it.  Never ignore a book that is rightly used to generate a love for the Book of books.

The preponderance of boredom that people experience with the Bible came home to me several years ago when I was hired to teach the Scriptures in required Bible courses at a Christian college.  The president of the institution phoned me and said, ‘We need someone young and exciting, someone with a dynamic method who will be able to make the Bible come alive.’  I had to force myself to swallow my words.  I wanted to say, ‘You want me to make the Bible come alive?  I didn’t know that it had died.  In fact, I never even heard that it was ill.  Who was the attending physician at the Bible’s demise?’  No, I can’t make the Bible come alive for anyone.  The Bible is already alive.  It makes me come alive.

No Christian can avoid theology.  Every Christian is a theologian.  Perhaps not a theologian in the technical sense, but a theologian nevertheless.  The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians of bad ones.  A good theologian is one who is instructed by God.

The Doctor: Is There a “But Now”?

On Romans 3:21 – [C]an there be two words which are more blessed and more wonderful to us than just these two words, ‘But now’?  To me they provide a very subtle and thorough-going test of our whole position as Christians.  Would you like to know for certain at this moment whether you are a Christian or not?  I suggest that this is one of the best tests.  As I repeat these words, ‘But now,” is there something within you that makes you say, ‘Thank God!’  Is there a ‘But now’ in your experience?  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 3, p. 26

Hebrews 11:32-40 & We Are the Lab Rats

We are the lab rats.  You know the cruel little experiment where if a rat fails to behave a specific way, say pushing a blue button instead of a red one he gets his food, but he gets shocked as well?  He keeps choosing option B over A, why?  “Why won’t he conform?”  “We will give you everything you desire if you just behave as we wish,” says the diabolical scientist that lives in his mother’s garage.  We are those rats.  To the world we are fools, we refuse their offers and are shocked, but if they had but tasted Jesus they would know our behavior the most logical of actions.  Our risk glorifies the Bread of Life, He is worth it.

I’m afraid of reading Hebrews 11:23-40 lightly, the same way that Philippians 4:13 is glibly quoted with no concern for the context.  Consider two scenarios:

Christian # 1 He lives in the States.  He has a great job and makes a sizeable income.  He attends church regularly and tithes.  He has never really suffered.  He has accomplished much.  He is easily deemed “successful” by all his friends.  They talk about how he is so blessed.  Is he?  He is materialistic and consumed with his image.  Always the best – the best clothes, the best car, the best TV.  He isn’t super extravagant, nor living above his means; he is just wanting to invest in good quality he will tell you – you know, being a good steward and all.   And yes, of course, he gives all the glory to God!

Christian # 2 Lives in a hostile Muslim country.  He is despised, hated, persecuted.  He has reaped hardly any fruit.  He barely exists day to day.  It is a task just to buy or find food.  Even though he receives funds from oversees they don’t always make it to him.  And having cash is no guarantee that it will be accepted.  He has little in this world.  Ultimately his wife and child are taken.  Is he cursed?

Who is victorious?  Consider their purposes.  If the ultimate goal is to glorify God as the supreme glory and joy of the universe, who is successful?  Who has treasured Christ above all things and who has “treasured” Christ as a means to things.  As Lewis said, He will not be used as a road.  Certainly Jesus is the road, the only road, but where is He taking us?  Not to rusty things, but to a glorious Father.  He is both the means and the end.  Who has glorified Him as such?

Suffering does not equal defeat.  Often, very often it is the means to victory.

Make like a lab rat, it’s the logical thing to do.  There is risk, the electricity is real, but the Bread of Life is all satisfying.

Tolle Lege: Love in Hard Places

Readability :  1

Length:  195 pp

Author:  D.A. Carson

D.A. Carson’s Love in Hard Places touched the whole of me.  It fed my mind, enflamed my heart, convicted my conscience, and compelled me to action.  Carson is in my humble opinion (though it is substantiated by many  of higher  acumen) the best New Testament Scholar currently living, and it shows in this masterful examination of the difficult command of God to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Carson deals with loving enemies big (those who would persecute us physically or mentally) and small (that annoying co-worker).  One chapter, a most rewarding one, is dedicated toward teasing out two especially difficult cases, racism and Osama bin Laden.  In all of this Carson never ceases to be gospel, Christ, and God-centered.  This is among my most favorite of books, I highly recommend it.

There is a sense in which the followers of Jesus are to see themselves, as it were, as an outpost within time, within the time of fallenness, of the consummated kingdom still to come.

[In response to the accusation that Christian brotherly love is a lesser kind of love] More to the point, in one crucial chapter in John’s gospel, God’s intra-Trinitarian love is set forth as the model and standard of Christians loving Christians.  “I have made you known to them,” Jesus tells his Father, “and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26).  It is very difficult to deprecate the love of Christians, without simultaneously deprecating God’s intra-Trinitarian love and the very unity of the Godhead.

That is why, in the ultimate sense, only God has the ultimate right to forgive sins, all sins – for all sins have first and foremost been committed against him, as David himself recognized (Ps. 51:4).  This is not to deny that many others may be abused, violated, offended; it is to say that in the ultimate sense, what gives sin its deepest odium, its most heinous hue, is that it offends the God who made us and stands as our judge.

What this suggests, then, is that moral indignation, even moral outrage, may on occasion be proof of love – love for the victim, love for the church of God, love for the truth, love for God and his glory.  Not to be outraged may in such cases be evidence, not of gentleness and love, but of a failure of love.