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Humility & Honesty Needed

1 John Podcast

— This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Light of God,” on 1 John 1:5-10 —

In sixth grade a few friends and I built a rather large fort in a forest near our neighborhood. With all the ignorant imagination of young men we decided one day to build a fire for our forest castle. (It’s an amazing grace of God we never set the entire forest ablaze.) Early on we were quite terrible at getting a fire going, but that all changed one day when a friend showed up with a large white can labeled, “Ignition Fluid.” And so if you every came to our fortress in the winter after that day you’d find a blazing furnace to warm your bones.

Just like certain substances have unusual power in accelerating the growth of a fire, some elements have special force in fueling the light of God in every church’s fellowship. 1 John 1:5-10 says a fellowship of light is a fellowship of holiness. Let’s simply meditate on the two fuels for holiness – the fire of God – I find in this text.

2 Fuels for the Light of Holiness

The fuel of humility. What we see throughout 1 John is that the false teachers were pursuing and perpetuating a spiritual elitism, and their pride was destroying the church. May God protect us from such inflated views of our personal holiness. False spirituality (“I’m a Christian, but I walk in constant unrepentant sin”; “I’m a Christian who doesn’t struggle with sin at all”) fractures congregations. It takes great humility to walk earnestly and joyfully with people of different perspectives and preferences. If we earnestly and eagerly situate ourselves in God’s light and gospel, we will be in the fertile soil for humility to grow in our midst – and the light of holiness to shine.

The fuel of honesty. This is clearly assumed within the culture of confession John advocates (cf. 1:9). God’s light reveals our sin; we cannot hide from Him. We reveal our honesty with Him by confessing our sin to Him. Honest confession to God and one another brings holy cleansing. A joyful fellowship is one free in the joy of Christ; free from the burdens and stains of sin. Oh, may Spirit-wrought honesty perpetuate our lives so that we may together live in the light of God’s glory and grace.

God is light and so His people must walk in the light. Humble and honesty are necessary for a church to shine.

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Recent Reads

I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

9781596388413mThe Heart is the Target: Preaching Practical Application from Every Text by Murray Capill. There are relatively few books in the homiletical market exclusively concerned with application in sermons. The one I most often see referenced is Dan Doriani’s Putting Truth to Work, but for a variety of reasons his work feels dated. Bursting into the fray is an Aussie you’ve probably never heard of: Murray Capill. Capill is principal of Reformed Theological College in Geelong, Australia and he’s given us a masterstroke in The Heart is the Target. I generally judge preaching books not merely on their usefulness, but on if they stir fresh desire for the work. At almost every turn Capill made me want to put down his book, take up The Book, and go preach.

Capill, for my mind, gets just about everything right. I can’t see a pastor picking this up without it changing something in his preparation and delivery of God’s word. I hope The Heart is the Target gets the widest audience possible. Grab a copy today and let Capill sharpen your skills with the Spirit’s sword.

0801091683mThe Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians by DA Carson. On Sunday I grabbed Carson’s famous book on the gospel ministry off a shelf in my study and was shocked to find I hadn’t read it yet! I guess it was the Spirit’s saying, “Tolle lege.” The work is simply enough: Carson walks through various passages in 1 Corinthians to show how the cross relates to preaching, the Holy Spirit, factionalism, servant-leadership, and forming believers into “world Christians.” The book is more a commentary on 1 Corinthians than 1 Corinthians applied to pastoral ministry. For some that will be a good thing, but for others it may be somewhat disappointing.

ASAFA Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre. Studying Cold War espionage has long been a favorite hobby of mine. No Cold War spy was more prolific and destructive than Kim Philby, a Soviet mole in MI6 who stole secrets and sabotaged operations for over two decades. Macintyre is the perfect author for this tale; he has perfected the art of narrative espionage-history in recent years. His main contribution to “Philby Cottage Industry” is his recounting the traitor’s life through the lens of friendship. Particularly his friendship with two spy masters and supposed allies: Nicholas Elliot of MI6 and the legendary mystery man of the CIA, James Jesus Angleton. A Spy Among Friends is Macintyre’s best book to date, I simply could not put it down.

RS1Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. Matthews spent thirty-three in the CIA and upon retirement he did what many former intelligence officers have done: write a spy novel. Yet, Matthews is unlike those who’ve come before. He’s actually really good a telling a realistic spy tale. The Company itself said, “The amount of tradecraft, particularly surveillance and countersurveillance, will make the in-house reader wonder how he got all this past the Publications Review Board.” The novel isn’t perfect though. The pacing is unbalanced at several points, the content unnecessarily lascivious (especially early on), and his depiction of Russia one dimensional. Nevertheless, Red Sparrow is a gripping portrait of modern day espionage and I hope Matthews is no one-hit wonder.

TTDDHThe Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey. I was completely taken with Sakey’s “The Brilliance Saga,” but do his other works match the magic? To answer that question I picked up The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, Sakey’s last publication before all the brilliance arrived. Gillian Flynn calls the story of Hayes, “A brainy, twisty, sometimes twisted mystery.” I did find it a bit twisted, but – on the whole – it’s terrifically twisty. At several points the plot line shifts rather dramatically and the turns are mostly believable, if somewhat conventional. The more I read Sakey the more I find him to be some sort of Connelly/Flynn blend. And that mixture will win many a fan.

Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.

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A Motley Crew

The gang over at Mortification of Spin keeps churning out valuable content for ordinary pastors.

Their podcast is full of witty banter and sober analysis on the current evangelical landscape. You won’t always agree with their conclusions, but at least you’ll never have to doubt which side of the pastoral/theological fence they love to live.

You’ve got the Housewife Theologian, the cranky English historian, and a Presbyterian who recently converted from being a Baptist. Sounds quite fun, doesn’t it? My wife even loves listening to the MOS episodes, but I don’t yet know if it’s because of Amy’s presence or merely because Trueman has “a cool accent.”

If you haven’t tuned in before here’s your golden opportunity. Westminster Theological Seminary recently invited the venerable Kent Hughes on campus for the 2014 Institute on Biblical Preaching. The MOS team led the panel discussion with Dr. Hughes and my, my, what wise fun ensued.

Watch how this quartet of theological know-how takes on questions like: “How can I get in the pulpit when I am so sinful?” and, “Now that you’ve reached the pinnacle of evangelical celebrity, what’s the view like from the top?” and a Spin favorite: “Where would you draw the line of being vulnerable from the pulpit in sharing your own personal sin?”

Questions

– What is the secret of staying fresh after preaching to the same congregation after so many years? (4:08)
– How do you preach to a congregation with eight-year-old and eighty-year-old? (7:26)
– How do you preach through pain and sorrow? (11:10)
– Does pain, sorrow, and heartbreak make a pastor a better preacher? (14:46)
– How does friendship function in pastoral ministry? (16:07)
– Do we, as pastors, tell our wives everything in ministry? (18:56)
– How do you cultivate humility? (24:09)
– How do you strike the balance between powerful rhetoric and the power of the cross in preaching? (27:10)
– Do I always have to preach Christ in a sermon? Even from Proverbs? (31:00)
– Outside of ministerial positions where are Christians, training in theology, needed most? (32:55)
– Would you each discuss how you do family worship in your home? (36:06)
– Are can pastors cultivate a love for the church in their children? (38:42)
– Now that you – MOS team – have reached the pinnacle of celebrity evangelicalism, what’s the view like from the top? Will you sign my Bible? (41:49)
– How can I get in the pulpit when I am so sinful? (43:48)
– Should a pastor share his personal struggles and sins from the pulpit? (49:10)
– Do you think a layman can preach? (51:22)
– Should churches only serve grape juice for the Lord’s Supper? (56:17)
– Should a catechism be preached every Lord’s Day? (59:49)
– If we don’t take the time to pray and meditate on the passage we’ll preach, can we say the Holy Spirit accompanies our preaching? (1:03:32)
– How do Luther and Calvin differ in their preaching? (105:30)
– How should we think about unction in preaching? (1:10:08)
– What’s the most difficult text you’ve had to preach through Dr. Hughes? (1:13:56)
– What’s the role for women on the mission field who have M.Div. degrees? (1:15:09)

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A Wednesday of Weeping

Today is one of those days when tears of sorrow cover a pastor’s soul.

Back in November I mentioned how some members at IDC – and close family friends – found out their third child, a thirteen-week-old infant, had anencephaly. It’s a serious birth defect that meant the baby, if it made it to term, would not survive many hours out of the womb.

Yesterday they found out little Eli didn’t even make it to term. He died in the womb at twenty-four weeks.

And so this Wednesday is one of weeping for our church body.

Yet we do not weep from fear. We weep with faith, for death will be no more.

Then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

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Conditional Preaching

Preach to the Heart

The best preachers are physicians of the heart. They have peculiar wisdom in diagnosing the soul’s ailment and prescribing the vital treatment. I long to be like that.

Spiritual Discrimination

The great soul doctors know many spiritual conditions are present in every congregation. They therefore think about different categories of hearers. William Perkins had four categories: 1) the hard heart, 2) the seeker, 3) the converted, and 4) the backslider. Charles Bridges, in his classic The Christian Ministry, was even more detailed. His first category consists of “the infidel,” a hearer impatient with all moral restraint and lives in defiance of God’s rule. Second, there are ignorant and careless listeners. These people simply don’t know or understand the gospel. The self-righteous soul occupies Bridges’ third category. Then comes the “false professor,” one who has been persuaded of the gospel, yet doesn’t embrace it in his life. Such a person, Bridges says, has “no dread of self-deception, no acquaintance with his own sinfulness, no assault from Satan, because there is no real exercise of grace, or incentive to diligence.” To these categories the old Englishmen adds the young Christian, the unestablished Christian, the backslider, and the confirmed and consistent Christian.

If you think Mr. Bridges is specific, then you ought to run down an old Tim Keller article from the Journal of Biblical Counseling titled, “A Model for Preaching (Part 2).” There the Manhattan Man offers a list of “Possible Spiritual Conditions in an Audience.” He has non-Christians, conscious unbelievers, non-church nominal Christians, church nominal Christians, awakened sinners, and apostates. He then categorizes Christians into seven groups: new believers, mature and growing Christians, the afflicted, the tempted, immature believers, the depressed, and the backslidden. And, believe it or not, he has further breakdowns in each category. So “The Afflicted” category includes the physically afflicted, the bereaved, the lonely, the persecuted/abused, the poor, and the deserted.

No wonder Keller seems to wield unusual and pointed force in his heart-searching application.

Do you have a method for wisely discriminating between hearers when you preach? If not, here’s another one that might be of great help.

A Memorable Method

Murray Capill’s excellent book The Heart is the Target: Preaching Practical Application from Every Text offers a wonderful “Spiritual Conditions Grid” for preaching to different kinds of hearers. It’s simultaneously simple and searching.

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1) Those who are not going well and don’t know it. Capill says, “This is a dangerous place to be, and can be the condition of both believers and unbelievers.” These people are deceived into believing they are fine, but they don’t realize they are wretched, poor, blind, and naked (cf. Rev. 3:17). They may be smug in their unbelief, complacent in their immature faith, or wayward in their pursuit of God. Either way, they are those the preacher must shake up spiritually and call to repentance.

2) Those who are not going well and know it. Many people – Christian and non-Christian alike – will come to hear a sermon knowing their life is a spiritual train wreck. Maybe they are consciously backsliding into sin and temptation. They might truly believe, but long for God to help stifling, present unbelief. Or it may just be that they are quite young in the faith and need spiritual aid. Some unbelievers will come to the church’s gathered worship knowing they are apart from God, under His wrath, but don’t know what to do about it. Will you help them? Will you provide wise counsel and direction for their soul?

3) Those who are going well and don’t know it. We all have these, don’t we? The tenderhearted souls who constantly feel inadequate. The sensitive conscience who is inclined to undue worry, guilt, and condemnation. Capill writes, “These people need encouragement and consolation. They need the load to be lightened.” Plead with them to come to Christ’s rest and make sure you don’t tie a Pharisaically heavy load on their necks.

4) Those who are going well and know it. These are people who believe the gospel, love the Lord, and warmly respond to God’s Word. They are humble, hopeful, and grateful children of God. They come to feast upon the red meat of Scripture, so we must serve an exquisite meal of encouragement and doctrine for their pilgrim way.

Hit the Target

The heart is the target. Let us, with the Spirit’s help, drive the arrow of God’s truth home into the souls of our people. If the arrow needs to be a flame of fire, then light it up. If it needs to be a calm balm of comfort, let it soar. Know the diversity of conditions ordinarily present in your flock. Do the hard work of putting the text into their respective conditions and you’ll find God’s truth stinging and singing.

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Washed in the Blood

1 John Podcast

–This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Light of God,” on 1 John 1:5-10.–1

In 1 John 1:5-10 the apostle’s loving boldness is on full display as he “launch[es] us into,” according to David Jackman, “one of the greatest theological statements of the whole Bible.” It’s a statement we want to feel as the pulsating engine behind the first half of this book, and maybe even the book as a whole. It’s telling us what must be true about our life together if our joy is indeed going to be complete in our fellowship with Christ.

The Foundation of Light

In 1:5 John says Jesus gave me a message to proclaim, a message about who God is. If you could announce to the world one characteristic of God, what would it be? Fill in the blank in this sentence, “God is _______.” What came to your mind? God is love, compassionate, gracious, sovereign, good? Notice as 1:5 continues what Jesus, through John, wants us to know – first and foremost – about God as 1:5 continues, “God is light.” How many people today revel in the proclamation that “God is light”? What does it even mean that God is light?

The Old Testament is full of references to the light of God. And ordinary the light of God refers to His salvation, revelation, and separation. And it’s that third facet John has in mind here, the separation of God from everything in the universe. He is utterly and unalterably holy; “in him is no darkness at all.”

So God is the foundation of a fellowship of light, and now what John is going to do in 1:6-7 is give us a few “Implications of Light.”

The Implications of Light

In studying this passage throughout the week I began to feel like a spectator at a theological tennis match. To follow John in the rest of the passage means our heads must be on a swivel as he keeps bouncing back and forth between the negative claims of the false teachers and the positive realities of a people living in light.

And notice how the doctrinal ball falls in their court in 1:6, where the apostle says, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” The false teachers were like spiritual double agents; they claim allegiance to God, but actively live for the kingdom of darkness. John minces no words here, “A person who lives unreservedly, unrepentantly, and habitually in darkness cannot be in fellowship with the God of light, and are lying if they say otherwise.” It’s a shot across the bow, a warning, to any who would profess to be a Christian while living as if Christ hasn’t changed their life.

We should also see from 1:6 that what we believe about sin shows what we believe about God. Whenever sin is flippantly addressed, you have a God flippant about sin; a God unknown to the Bible. But wherever sin despised and with God’s help put to death, you have a God who seeks the death of sin. In what ways does your view of sin reveal your view of God?

See now how John bounces from the negative to the positive in 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1:7 gives us two implications for living in the light as God is in the light.

Implication #1: We have corporate fellowship. You’d expect – wouldn’t you? – John to say, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with Him.” But John says we have fellowship with “one another.” Many commentators call the false teachers the “secessionists” because they broke away from the fellowship; they went to pursue godliness on their own. But John is saying that’s not godliness at all. It’s biblically impossible to have fellowship with God without having fellowship with one another. Do you recognize your need to consistently be in corporate fellowship with God’s people? The world will lure you to think things of earth are more important than gathering with the citizens of heaven. The Worm named Satan will tempt you to isolation, thinking you don’t need God’s people. But consistent fellowship with God’s people reveals the light of God and helps keep us in the light of God.

Implication #2: We have cleansed fellowship. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” The language here is continually, a more literally translation would say His blood “keeps cleansing us from all sin.” One of my greatest fears in life is whenever Emily wants to get something from Ikea because self-assembly furniture is the bane of my existence. Especially when the set of little boy bunk-beds has hundreds of pieces that go into the construction of the edifice. So we spent one Sunday afternoon putting the beds together and painting them with an oil-based paint. When clean up time came regular tap water couldn’t wash away the point from our hands, something stronger was necessary to cleanse us from the stain. Such is the case when it comes to the stain of our sin.

If you aren’t a Christian, what will you do with the sin the Bible says stains your soul? It’s a stain of unbelief that will lead to death if it isn’t washed away. Good works can’t wash it away and superhuman effort can’t wipe it clean. What you need is the cleansing blood of Jesus. Jesus went lived a perfect life and so when He hung on the cross, He was as a spotless lamb led to slaughter. Jesus, the Lamb of God, shed His perfect blood in His death on the cross, to pay the penalty for your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The cleansing blood of Christ is offered to you, will you take it by turning from your sin and trusting in Jesus?

What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus . . .
Oh precious is the flow! That makes me white as snow.

What do you find most precious? What is most valuable to you? Wherever your mind floats in the free minutes of the day reveals what is precious to you. Oh may we increasingly find like John, and like Peter in 1 Peter 1:18, of supreme value to us! This is the ocean of grace in which our souls must swim as a church, let us jump in with joy. What ocean of power are you swimming in today?

So: a faithful church is a fellowship of light. God’s light is its foundation (1:5) and a corporate life constantly being cleansed by the blood of Jesus is what it means to walk in the light.

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  1. What’s with all the color in this text? See my post, “Colorful Preaching,” on why I color code my sermon manuscripts. ↩
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Study for Sweetness

“Study God’s Word diligently for your own edification and then, when it has become more to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or the honeycomb, it will be impossible for you to speak of it to others without a glow passing into your words which will betray the delight with which it has inspired yourself.” – James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models: The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1891

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Heart Application

Preach the Word 1

I’m working my way through Murray Capill’s The Heart is the Target: Preaching Practical Application from Every Text and it is good. Really good.

Purposeful Application

One excellent point he makes is on the various purposes Scripture gives for Scripture. For example, notice the diverse aims God’s word has for itself according to these verses:

  • “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16)
  • “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Tim. 4:2)
  • “On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” (1 Cor. 14:3)
  • “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Rom. 15:4)
  • “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet'” (Rom. 7:7).
  • “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Heb. 4:12-13)
  • “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)

These various purposes give preachers a variety of ways to apply God’s word. Capill summarizes them under four headings:

  1. Teaching the truth and rebuking false doctrine. (Teaching/rebuking)
  2. Training believers in godly living and correcting wrong patters of behavior. (Training/Correcting)
  3. Testing the state of people’s hearts and bringing conviction of sin. (Testing/Convicting)
  4. Encouraging and exhorting people according to their particular needs. (Encouraging/exhorting)

“So we can ask of any text, ‘What is this text doing?’ Is it teaching, training, rebuking, warning, convicting, testing, comforting, encouraging, strengthening? What teaching is given, what warnings are sounded, what tests are suggesting, what encouragements are provided?” (72)

Questions to Guide Your Way

Sermons that “sting and sing” – a delightful little phrase from Murray – are those whose tone and application stick with the applicational tone of the text. To help preachers discover this Murray offers the following questions as a guide in sermon preparation, particularly in preparing heart-searching application:1

Main question: What is this text doing?

  1. Is it teaching?
    – What truths are taught?
    – What errors should be opposed?
    – What teaching should I give?
  2. Is it training?
    – What behavior is called for?
    – What wrongs ways of conduct need correcting?
    – What “how to” and “how not to” application is called for?
  3. Is it testing?
    – Does the text suggest tests against which we should measure ourselves?
    – In what ways does the text convict us of sin?
  4. It is exhorting?
    – What exhortations are given?
    – What encouragements are given?
    – How does this text spur us on?

If you are in the final stages of a sermon for this weekend try Murray’s little grid on for size, it surely will help. Or maybe your sermon is stuck in an applicational rut? Give your message fresh purpose so it may appropriately sting and sing this coming Lord’s Day.

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  1. These questions are found in Appendix B of the book. ↩
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Another Arrow

imageKnox Andrew Stone made his long-awaited debut yesterday. We are praising God for His blessing of a fourth arrow in our quiver! (Psa. 127:3-4)

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Liberate Your Soul

9781581349740There are many books a pastor should consider reading, but only a few – outside of Scripture – I’d say he must read. One such book is Kent and Barbara Hughes’ Liberating Ministry from the Success Sindrome.

This book saved my pastoral soul back in 2009 when the waves of worldly wisdom dominated my church network. I remember one brother saying, “If you can’t plant a church and grow it to over 100 people within a year you should get out of ministry.” Another said, “You’ve only baptized seven people this year? You should pray about not preaching anymore.” Sure, such counsel is probably on the far end of the wisdom spectrum, but it was quenching my joy in a powerful way.

And so it was one day, while putzing around on the computer, I somehow come across the Hughes’ book. After reading the blurb I ordered copy, rushed the shipping, and three days later finished it while tears flooded my eyes. Here was counsel that comforted, not condemned. And while you may not be on the brink I was, I venture to say this book will still serve you in untold ways.

Don’t want to spend the money or time on the book? Carve out an hour to watch Hughes speak on the book’s message at the 2013 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference. May you be encouraged today!