The Doctor: What You Don’t Like Says Nothing About That Which You Don’t Like

You see, any man who thinks that he can examine God, and having done so, dismiss Him, is just saying that he is a fool.  May I put that to you in the form of an illustration.  You will hear people, saying, sometimes, that they just see nothing in Beethoven’s music, but they think jazz is marvelous.  Now in saying that, they tell me nothing about Beethoven, but they do tell me a great deal about themselves!  They do not realize it of course; they think they are being clever.  But they are really just telling us all about themselves from the standpoint of a knowledge of music. – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 388

Hebrews 11:4-7 & Abraham Lincoln vs. Michael Phelps

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  He is a hero.

I want to rebuke any mothers who were upset that Michael Phelps was smoking hash because he was a role model for their children (I don’t know any such moms, I doubt any such moms read my blog, but nonetheless…).  I too watched the greatness that is Phelps sweep up multiple medals with ease.  I admired him in a way.  But as far as a moral role model – why would I ever want to encourage my children to pattern their behavior after him?  If my child’s lighting up a doobie is contingent upon Michael Phelps I have parenting issues.  Point them to a real hero.  Be one yourself and point them towards someone like Lincoln.

President Lincoln is a hero, but his greatness is mixed with sin.  His glory was the cause he pushed, his shame that he didn’t push it far enough.  As John Piper wrote in a post which inspired this bit, his feet are clay.  Perhaps my favorite Latin phrase of Luther’s is “simil justus et peccator.”

simil = (think simultaneous) at the same time

justus = just

et = and

peccator = sinner

All of my heroes are “simil justus et peccator.”  This is encouraging, not disheartening.  And it is God glorifying.  The greatest of my heroes only stands just before God because of the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ.  The things that are truly admirable about my heroes are reflections of Christ, and all their grave sins serve to point me beyond them to the greatness of Christ as well. 

Jesus is the curve breaker; all other heroes are graded in relation to Him.

Tolle Lege: The Gospel and Personal Evangelism

Clear, concise, and convicting – that’s a great way to describe Mark Dever’s teaching on evangelism in this little book.  Nothing astounding here, just good teaching on a good subject, a subject too often ignored in both teaching and practice.  Dever answers seven questions in seven short chapters:  Why don’t we evangelize?  What is the gospel?  Who should evangelize?  How should we evangelize?  What isn’t evangelism?  What should we do after we evangelize? And why should we evangelize?  This book is defiantly worth the hour or two to read.

So that’s the balance we want to see – honesty, urgency, and joy.  Honesty and urgency with no joy gives us a grim determination (read Philippians).  Honest y and joy with no urgency gives us a carelessness about time (read 2 Peter).  And urgency and joy with no honesty leads us into distorted claims about the immediate benefits of the gospel (Read 1 Peter).

Clarity with the claims of Christ will certainly include the translation of the gospel into words that our hearer understands, but it doesn’t necessarily mean translating it into words that our hearers will like.  Too often, advocates of relevant evangelism verge over into being advocates r irrelevant non-evangelism.  A gospel that in no way offends the sinner has not been understood.

The Doctor: The Opposite of Works =?

There are some people who seem to regard faith as the opposite of works.  Now that, in itself, is not right, because the opposite of works is not faith.  The opposite of works is the righteousness of God.  That is what the Apostle is contrasting – men who try to save themselves by works, and this other salvation, which is the giving to us of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  …So you see, the opposite of works is not faith.  No! it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is the opposite of works, and it is righteousness which comes to us through faith.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 311

Hebrews 11:1-3 & MacBook Pro

I want one, yea I even hope for one, my next computer will surely be a MacBook, but at this point it is only a hope.  After all, Tim Challies, the author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment is now a Mac user; it must be the spiritual thing to do.  At this point I am ok, that is, I’m not obsessing.  I’m content with my Vaio, I don’t resent it, haven’t cursed it, and am not thinking of ways to “accidently” break it.  I know however that my hope could easily go haywire in two separate but related ways.

First I could constantly meditate on all the little quirks, faults, and errors my Vaio commits.  Sometimes my function keys will control the volume and display as they should, and at sometimes they want me to assign that key a function first.  Not to worry, if you don’t like the way your PC works, put it to sleep and wake it up again, it will never perform exactly the same way twice.  PC’s are more like humans in this way.  For instance it is always an adventure to discover which icons will show their face in the lower-right notification area.  The most irritating and frequently absent member of this icon family is the volume control.  My Logos Bible Software plays an annoying little ditty (other than this ditty, I really love Logos) when I start it up every morning.  So prior to Logos initiation I mouse over to the little volume icon, but alas it has taken the day off.  So I go to press the function key with the mute symbol emblazoned on it; instead of muting it acts confused, telling me that I need to tell it what it is supposed to do.  As a result I then have to listen to the hated Logos ditty; it is not going to be a very spiritual day.

Or I could simply meditate on the bliss that a MacBook Pro would bring.  I could research it, finding out that it was made out of a single piece of aluminum, how the keyboard perfectly cut for the keys and illuminated, and that the mouse pad has no buttons, instinctively discerning the way you use your fingers as certain commands.  But I wouldn’t do such research now, it is best not to awaken love until it pleases (Song of Songs 2:7; 3:5; 8:4), right?

If I were assured of a MacBook it would heighten my anticipation and excitement.  Inversely I am sure I would grow more dissatisfied with my Vaio.  The weeks preceding the expected arrival would be intense.  I would be… yes, giddy!  Intolerable giddy.  It would rob my thoughts and affections.

Has Christ so arrested your heart and mind?  Do you anticipate His return all the more growing dissatisfied with Satan’s poor substitutes?  Do you fuel your faith by meditating on Him?  Do you live as a giddy fool, expecting your great reward?  This world does not function.  Renewed, perfectly designed bliss is awaiting me.  I will not invest in software or peripherals to maximize my Vaio when a MacBook is expected.

The Doctor: the Non-Existance of Exhaustiveness

A friend of mine who used to attend here regularly and who has now gone to glory – a very good man – once said to me, rather jocularly but very kindly – “You know, I sometimes think that the Apostle Paul must be amazed when he sees what you get out of his epistles!”  Poor man!  By now my friend has discovered that the Apostle Paul is amazed how little that most people, and I with them, get out of his great epistles.  – D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Romans Vol. 1, p. 227

For reference as to how much The Doctor got out of Paul’s epistles this comes from a Sermon on Romans 9:10-11, his seventeenth sermon out of Romans at that point.

Tolle Lege: Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

Each year I try to pick out some particular study of theology and plan some reading on it.  This year I am devoting some reading to spiritual warfare and the first book on my list was Thomas Brook’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.  If by spiritual warfare you are thinking casting out demons and such this is not the book to read; it deals with the much more ordinary and common warfare which Satan wages on our souls every day.  There are four main sections to the book and an appendix.  The first section deals with several devices Satan uses to draw the soul to sin, the second several devices he uses to keep men from holy duties, the third several devices he uses to keep souls in a sad doubting condition, and the fourth several devices he has against particular sorts and ranks of men.  After presenting a particular device he then presents remedies to counter it.  What are the remedies?  Truth, scriptural truth; this is why I think you should read this book.  It gives an awareness of the real spiritual battle you wage every day, it exposes Satan’s lies, and it gives you truth to meditate on to counter those lies.  I don’t think every section will be equally helpful to all.  I found the first most powerful and from there the book dwindled in its impact on me.  Regardless I think the first section should be read by all Christians.  Brooks is one of the more accessible Puritan writers and the paperback version has likely been modernized in language (though I didn’t read this version most of the Puritan Paperbacks I have compared have been).

Many long to be meddling with the murdering morsels of sin, which nourish not, but rend and consume the belly, the soul that receives them. Many eat that on earth that they digest in hell. Sin’s murdering morsels will deceive those that devour them. Adam’s apple was a bitter sweet; Esau’s mess was a bitter sweet; the Israelites’ quails a bitter sweet; Jonathan’s honey a bitter sweet; and Adonijah’s dainties a bitter sweet. After the meal is ended, then comes the reckoning. Men must not think to dance and dine with the devil, and then to sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; to feed upon the poison of asps, and yet that the viper’s tongue should not slay them.

As long as there is fuel in our hearts for a temptation, we cannot be secure. He that hath gunpowder about him had need keep far enough off from sparkles.

Thou art as well able to melt adamant, as to melt thine own heart; to turn a flint into flesh, as to turn thine own heart to the Lord; to raise the dead and to make a world, as to repent. Repentance is a flower that grows not in nature’s garden.

The Doctor: Why We Are

We do not become the beloved because of anything that we do.  We are what we are because he first loved us.  It is His love that initiates the movement that brings us out of that terrible plight and predicament in which we are all are as the result of sin.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 1, Pg. 159

Hebrews 10:26-39 & Warnings that Scare

What warnings and threats scare us can tell us what we really value.  Having the TV taken away from you might not scare you a bit, but the threat of only being allowed a few outfits and restricted from buying any new clothes is deadly serious.  The threat of having computer privileges revoked will not curb any sinful tendencies, but to be banned from the Playstation is your functional hell.  What is your functional hell?  The thing that when threatened causes panic?  Is it weight gain, being unfashionable, your reputation, your physique, your intelligence, cash flow, car, losing your job?  All these hells pale in comparison to the true hell.  And if hell is hell to you, why is it hell to you?  If the fires of hell do not terrify you it is because you have what you treasure.  One day you will lose it all, all the heavens of this earth, but that will not be the cause of your deepest agony.  Hell will be hell not because of the absence of earthly treasures, but because the greatest being in the universe is eternally wrathful in His disposition towards you.  The day when you finally see something all glorious and worth giving your all towards will be the day when eternally you are separated from Him, never to enjoy any of the pleasures that are found explicitly and infinitely in Him.  Far better your hell to be temporal and heaven eternal, than your heaven to be temporal and your hell eternal.  May the true hell terrify you, not the petty hells of this earth.  And in the midst of the hells of this earth, if you are Christ’s, rejoice, heaven is yours, great is your reward.  

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?  – John Piper

Most Influential Books

Outside of God’s Holy Word, what are the most influential (not necessarily the best, but the ones that most radically shaped who you are) books you have read.  Here are mine:

  1. Desiring God by John Piper
  2. The Cross of Christ by John R.W. Stott
  3. The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
  4. The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer
  5. Spiritual Depression by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones