Wrath and Mercy

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
- Romans 3:10-12

“We are stiff-necked, rebellious, and ungrateful. Free, unmerited grace is our only hope to be otherwise.”
- John Piper, Spectacular Sins, p. 93

“Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him…”
- Isaiah 53:10a

“Jesus, the servant of whom Isaiah spoke, was crushed for us; therefore, if we believe and turn from our sins, we are not crushed. We have been rescued from deadly peril and endless pain. But as we get farther from the day we were rescued, do we remember what we were saved from? Do we remember that we should have been crushed by God’s wrath? Do we realize that, from our perspective the cross is the greatest injustice there will ever be? The Perfect One crushed in the place of sinners? And do we remember that there will be a divine judgment when God’s wrath will be revealed (Romans 2:5)? Hell teaches us about the fear of the Lord.”
- Edward Welch, When People are Big and God is Small, p. 123-124

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow;We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.

The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;In all the universe we have no place.Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars we claim Thy grace.

If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;We know today what wounds are; have no fear;Show us Thy Scars; we know the countersign.

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak;They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.
Edward Shillito (1872-1948), Jesus of the Scars

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

Yesterday I had the privilege of listening to D.A. Carson at The Spurgeon Fellowship at Western Seminary (www.thespurgeonfellowship.org). Dr. Carson’s message was on suffering and evil, and since he was speaking primarily to pastors his efforts were aimed at building and reinforcing a pastoral theology of suffering and evil. The question of suffering and evil is a moot point when everything in the world is rosy. As long as things are going our way and the vestiges of a fallen creation are held at bay, then suffering and evil are relatively inconsequential. The rub comes when our world begins to unravel. It’s then we begin the blame and accusation. Several years ago I read John Gerstner’s, The Problem of Pleasure, and found his argument compelling. He turned the classical theodicy argument on its head. Theodicy argues for God’s goodness in spite of the existence of evil. Gerstner (and Chesterton before him) asked why sinful humans experience pleasure in a fallen world. This is a very important question. I’m afraid we have become accustomed to grace. We’ve come to expect God to act in munificence and we’ve forgotten His wrath and judgment rightly directed to sinners. God is graciously withholding His hand of judgment for now, but a day is coming when the full measure of His wrath will be unleashed. A sober assessment of God’s wrath and judgment rightly deserved by sinners will sober us. Understanding wrath helps us understand mercy. Understanding our state outside of Christ will bring deep and pervasive humility. Understanding the righteous judgment God has rightly leveled against us is only averted through Jesus Christ will change how we interact with one another. Dr. Carson urged us pastors to give greater attention to the wrath and judgment of God lest for us mercy and grace become commonplace.

I’m sobered by God’s wrath once directed towards me and grateful for His mercy, averting that wrath, through Christ,

Dan

Our Children and Their Faith

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.1 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
- Ephesians 6:4

“To help our children come to an enduring faith in Christ, we must begin the parenting process with a clear view of their spiritual nature at birth. We must also have a clear view of the final goal of the parenting process as it relates to our children’s ultimate spiritual condition.”
- Parents Passing on the Faith, Carl Spackman, p. 13

“In each generation, the church’s most critical task is to uphold and proclaim the truth as it was delivered to her by her Lord. One important aspect of this task is the diligent preparation of the church’s children to continue to be the support and pillar of the truth in the generation to come.”
- Training Hearts – Teaching Minds, Starr Meade, p. 1

“Reader, if you would train your children wisely, mark well how God the Father trains His. He doeth all things well; the plan which He adopts must be right.”
- J.C. Ryle, The Duties of Parents


Dear Christ our Redeemer Family and Friends,

As Christians and as parents we have been given a joyful and yet sober responsibility. God’s electing love directed towards sinners is entirely His prerogative and is given freely by His grace, but this does not negate our responsibility to raise our children ‘Christianly’. In other words, with the counsel of Scripture we are to bring instruction to our children that accurately portrays man in his fallen state, God in His acts of redemption (specifically revealed in the gospel), and their need for true repentance and faith. As far as is possible our children must be brought again and again to Christ. We mustn’t assume their conversion if there is no evidence of conversion. We must instruct them, we must appeal to them, we must urge them, we must pray for them and foremost we must live Christian lives before them. Pat’s sermon last Sunday is easily applied to our homes as well. The demonstration of the power and life of Christ must be evident in us for our children to see. The greatest opportunities for discipleship and evangelism exist within our own homes. We must ‘be’ the gospel to our kids. They will never see the validity or the power of it otherwise.

Please pray for the children of COR and please pray that God would make us the godly parents He would have us to be. The next generation at COR will depend upon it.

Praying with you for our children,

Dan

Proto-Evangelism and the Call to the Nations

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion - to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”
- Isaiah 61:1-3

“God the Father is the author of evangelism. He conceived evangelism in eternity. Likewise in eternity He commissioned the Son to merit salvation for sinners by His substitutionary death on the accursed cross and by His rendering to the Father on behalf of sinners that perfect obedience the reward of which is eternal life.”
- R.B Kuiper, God-Centered Evangelism, p. 14

“The Lord of the Scriptures is a missionary God who not only reaches out and gathers the lost but also sends his servants, and particularly His beloved Son, to achieve his gracious saving purposes.”
- Kostenberger and O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth, p. 269

“Knowing the desperate plight of men and women under divine judgment and that the gospel was the only hope for deliverance from the wrath to come, those who had once been in this predicament should be wholly involved in bringing it into the hearts and lives of others.”
- P.T. O’Brien, Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul, p. 112

“Never forget that the gospel is good news about the coming of a King.”
- John Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord, p. 157


Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

Evangelism is the glad and grace-filled responsibility God has given to the church, but only because God is Himself an evangelist. His desire is that the nations are gathered to worship Him and in Christ He has issued the world-wide call to repent and believe. Therefore, the mission mandate is derivative. Our call to evangelism comes from God’s call to the nations. Our call to outreach finds its source in the God who has already extended Himself to sinners and when we engage in evangelism we are simply heralding the call already given. Over the last few weeks there has been bad news all around. But this is truly good news - God has called sinners to Himself and in His sovereignty He’s called us to the same task. We are simply echoing the call already given.

This coming Saturday we are holding an evangelism seminar for Christ Our Redeemer Church. We will be meeting at Vista Community Church in Ridgefield from 9am to noon on Saturday. We’ve invited Living Waters Church and Red Sea Church to join us. My dear friend Pat Sczebel will be leading this. If you are able, please make every effort to attend, because this will enable us to more effectively repeat God’s call to the nations, starting with our own neighbors and friends.

Thank you for loving the Savior and desiring to make His name known.

Dan

Notorious Repentance

“Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”
- Luke 3:8

“Doing right is not the way into the Kingdom; but it is the way of life in the Kingdom. It is not the condition of regeneration, but it is its inevitable consequence and invariable accompaniment.”
- Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God, p. 69

“But nonexistence of remorse makes repentance impossible, and nonexistence of repentance makes forgiveness impossible.”
- J.I. Packer, Concise Theology, p. 245

“We cannot be saved from sin without recognizing the awful evil of our sin, hating it with our whole soul, and earnestly desiring to be delivered not only from its guilt but also from its power. That is to say, we cannot be saved from sin while we desire and intend to continue in sin. If we are to escape God’s wrath and curse, we must turn from our sins to God.”
- Johannes Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism Commentary, p. 432

“Repentance is not just believing that one is a sinner, or feeling sorry for one’s sin, or even hating them. It is the very act of turning away from them. To turn from sin is to turn to goodness.”
- John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, p. 331

“When a preacher of righteousness has stood in the way of sinners, he should never again open his lips in the great congregation until his repentance is as notorious as his sin.”
- John Angell James, quoted by Charles Spurgeon in Lectures to my Students, p. 9


Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

As the 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon stood to exhort young preachers, he warned them to keep watch over both their souls and their lives. He specifically warned them about notorious sins and their effect. Said Spurgeon, there are certain sins which disqualify men from pastoral ministry, but do not discount the importance of reputation. He said, “Alas, the beard of reputation, once shorn is hard to grow again.” His encouragement in this came from another preacher, John Angell James, who said that one’s repentance should became as notorious as one’s sin. These are important and wise words for us. The glory of God in the saving work of Christ is reflected in ’notorious’ repentance. Think of David. Think of Zachaeus. Think of Peter. Think of Nicodemus. Think of Lydia. And think of the Philippian jailer. These saints are recorded in the annals of Holy Scripture by their acts of ‘notorious’ repentance. Their acts of repentance are a demonstration of the powerful and effectual work of the Holy Spirit.

As we consider our own lives may our repentance be pervasive, radical, and notorious. When others think of us may they see the Spirit’s work in vibrancy, and life, and turning from sin in a manner that calls attention to the pervasive, radical and saving nature of God’s work through the gospel. May God keep tepid and shallow repentance far from us. Please pray that our repentance will become as notorious as our sins.

Longing for God to make us a church of notorious repenters,

Dan

The Comfort of Care

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
- Psalm 23:1

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
- Philippians 4:19-20

“Our faithful God is an ever-flowing well of delight, and our fellowship with the Son of God is a river full of joy. Knowing these glorious things, we cannot be discouraged.”
- Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace, p. 125

The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
- John Newton, Amazing Grace, verse 4

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

The above John Newton hymn keeps playing in my mind. And my comfort is this - God cares for His own. I’m reminded that the unbreakable bond of God’s love for His people has been sealed for all eternity. God has deigned good for us through an oath of promise and it cannot be broken. God’s mercies endure forever toward us, because they are secured for us by His own dear Son. For those that are in Christ every possible combination of difficulty can only have good at its end, and this because of Christ’s mediating work and God’s unfailing promises toward us through Him. This gives me great hope in difficulty and endears great love for the Savior.

The Lord has promised good to us.

Dan

Crises Reveal the Cracks

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
-1 Peter 1:6-7

“To begin with, the older I get, the less impressed I am with flashy successes and enthusiasms that are not truth-based. Everybody knows that with the right personality, the right music, the right location, and the right schedule you can grow a church without anybody really knowing what doctrinal commitments sustain it, if any. Church-planting specialists generally downplay biblical doctrine in the core values of what makes a church “successful.” The long-term effect of this ethos is a weakening of the church that is concealed as long as the crowds are large, the band is loud, the tragedies are few, and persecution is still at the level of preferences. But more and more this doctrinally-diluted brew of music, drama, life-tips, and marketing seems out of touch with real life in this world - not to mention the next. It tastes like watered-down gruel, not a nourishing meal. It simply isn’t serious enough. It’s too playful and chatty and casual. Its joy just doesn’t feel deep enough or heartbroken or well-rooted. The injustice and persecution and suffering and hellish realities in the world today are so many and so large and so close that I can’t help but think that, deep inside, people are longing for something weighty and massive and rooted and stable and eternal. So it seems to me that the trifling with silly little sketches and breezy welcome-to-the-den styles on Sunday morning are just out of touch with what matters in life. Of course, it works. Sort of. Because, in the name of felt needs, it resonates with people’s impulse to run from what is most serious and weighty and what makes them most human and what might open the depths of God to their souls. The design is noble. Silliness is a stepping-stone to substance. But it’s an odd path. And evidence is not ample that many are willing to move beyond fun and simplicity. So the price of minimizing truth-based joy and maximizing atmosphere-based comfort is high. More and more, it seems to me, the end might be in view. I doubt that a religious ethos with such a feel for entertainment can really survive as Christian can survive for too many more decades. Crises reveal the cracks.”
-John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ, pp. 22-23

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

What we believe and what we treasure are revealed in crisis. When everything around us begins to give way our heart and affections are laid bare. When the scorching heat of trial evaporates all hope the dross becomes apparent. Our God is a consuming fire. Crises reveals the cracks. This is not only true for the Christian, it is true for the church universal, and it is true for Christ Our Redeemer. Crises reveal the cracks, and in spite of what we say we believe God has designed suffering and trial to bring congruity between what we say we believe and what we truly believe. Last Sunday we celebrated our first anniversary as a church plant. It has been a wonderful first year. We have seen the kindness and favor of God multiplied times. In this time of blessing we should be cognizant that difficulties and crises will come. Crises not only reveal cracks, they are the God-appointed means He uses to reveal the dross in our lives and conform us into the image of His Son. While rarely ever pleasant, crises are a means of grace for us and God has appointed them for our good and His glory. To experience suffering and trial is to experience blessing of a different kind. God’s means to help us in the middle of difficulty is a robust and God-honoring theology that finds it’s grounding in the Scriptures. Accurate views of God and accurate views of man will help us when difficulties come. When Satan’s temptation came to Jesus in the stark Galilean wilderness His response was the citation of Scripture. God’s self-revelation through the words of Scripture is our anchor during the storm.

Thanking God for trial that confirms the faithfulness of God and the truthfulness of Scripture,

Dan

A Meditation on Grace

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
- Psalm 86:15

“The word ‘grace’ thus comes to express the thought of God acting in spontaneous goodness to save sinners: God loving the unlovely, making covenant with them, pardoning their sins, accepting their persons, revealing Himself to them, moving them to response, leading them ultimately into full knowledge and enjoyment of Himself, and overcoming all obstacles to the fulfillment of this purpose that at each stage arise.”
- J.I. Packer, The Most Important 18 Words You Will Ever Know, p. 94

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

This past week I’ve been thinking a lot about grace and I was moved by the J.I. Packer quote above. Just think about these things for a moment -

• Grace is - God acting in spontaneous goodness to save us when everything in us was an affront to Him (Romans 5:8).
• Grace is - God loving us when we’re sinful and unlovely (Romans 3:21-26).
• Grace is - God promising His salvation to us by an unbreakable oath (Galatians 3:29).
• Grace is - God pardoning all of our sins- past, present and future (Hebrews 10:12).
• Grace is - God accepting us completely through the thoroughgoing work of His Son (Romans 8:3,4).
• Grace is - God revealing Himself to us by reviving our dead hearts and opening our eyes to His incomparable beauty (Ephesians 2:4-7).
• Grace is - God moving in our hearts so that we might respond to Him (Romans 6:13).
• Grace is - God ultimately leading us into full knowledge of Himself (1 Cor. 13:12).
• Grace is - God ultimately leading us into full enjoyment of Himself (Ephesians 1:7-12).
• Grace is - God fulfilling His purposes for us, no matter the obstacles (Romans 8:38,39).

And as we consider our gracious God, here are some questions for you to think about -

1) How might our deficiencies in understanding grace impede our apprehension of the character and glory of God in our salvation?

2) How might our deficiencies in understanding grace impede our apprehension of the character and glory of God in the salvation of those we live our lives with (family, church, work, etc.)?

3) How might we improve upon our understanding of grace?

4) And how might we anticipate how an improved understanding of grace will affect our lives and and how we live out life with others?

I want to understand and glorify our gracious God more fully.

Dan