Whole Counsel Theology

Sunday, February 26, 2006

The last page of the GOSPEL tract

Some have requested it so I'll post it! The reason I didn't is because it is a personalized page; I plan to offer the tract to anyone who wants it and will personalize it to their needs (name, church, websites, etc.). That being said, here is what it looks like for the tracts I'll be giving out:

Please contact me at rincrast@yahoo.com or visit
http://wholecounsel.blogspot.com and let me know
what God has done for you! Also, I would encourage
you to come to church with me (or to find a good Bible-
believing church) and talk to the pastor about you new
faith and about being baptized. Church is critical for a
Christian (yes, that is what you are now!) to grow in
Christ and become more like Him. Start reading the
Bible regularly as well; you’ll be amazed at how
exciting it is now! The Gospel of John is a good place
to start. I would also strongly recommend a book by
Donald S. Whitney called Spiritual Disciplines for the
Christian Life, a book that has helped thousands grow
closer to Christ. You can find it at www.amazon.com or
at a local Christian bookstore.

You can get information about my church at
http://www.newlifecalvary.org or by calling 317-881-
5743. I look forward to growing with you in Christ, my
new brother or sister!

Sincerely in Christ,
David Hewitt (actual tracts will be signed)


Tract by David B. Hewitt, http://wholecounsel.blogspot.com
All Scripture taken from the HCSB version of the Bible

Saturday, February 25, 2006

The GOSPEL Presentation!

Given some of my experiences with people with whom I've shared the Gospel, I've found some common ways I've shared the Good News in the past to have run into some objections that I wasn't able to deal with properly. I've discovered some people who have denied that they are sinners, and therefore see no need for forgiveness. I've found people who flat out have denied the existence of God (or at least a personal God) and thus care nothing at all if He has a plan or not.

I have also been thinking -- when presenting the Gospel, would it not be best to start with God? Explaining who God is and then using the Law of God in some way to show us how we've missed God's standard and are justly condemned would help with those objections, and they would fit the whole counsel of God better.

That being said, I've spent the better part of the day writing a new Gospel Tract, and I'm simply calling it the GOSPEL tract! Like other presentations such as FAITH or GRACE, this one is an acronym as well. It stands for:
G - God
OS - Our Sin
P - Propitiation
EL - Eternal Life

The text of the completed tract follows below. Feel free to use it if you like, or to offer suggestions!

G stands for GOD

* The first thing we need to understand about the GOSPEL is who God is.
* God created everything in the entire universe for Himself.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” -- Genesis 1:1

* Human beings were God’s special creation to show His glory in a way unique from the rest of creation.
“So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.” -- Genesis 1:27

* Because God created everything, He has rights to all of creation, including people.
“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD;” -- Psalm 24:1

* Because God is creator, He’s worthy to receive all praise and worship from all creation. Everything gets its life and being from Him!
“Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You have created all things, and because of Your will they exist and were created.” – Revelation 4:11

*The purpose of everything and everyone in creation is to glorify God and live for Him.
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.” -- Romans 11:36

*However, have we glorified God as we ought?

OS stands for OUR SIN

* The answer to the previous question is a resounding NO. God requires us to be holy and perfect morally.
“Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” -- Leviticus 19:2b
“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” -- Matthew 5:48

* We are required to do everything for God’s glory.
“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God's glory.” -- 1 Corinthians 10:31

* Every person ever born has grossly fallen short of this standard. The Bible calls this falling short and rebellion against God “sin.” Sin separates us from God.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” -- Romans 3:23
“For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all.” --James 2:10
“But your iniquities [sins] have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face
from you so that He does not listen.” -- Isaiah 59:2

* Everything we do good is stained with sin, so it means nothing to God, who demands perfection.
“All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.” -- Isaiah 64:6

* Because of our sin, we earn death and Hell for ourselves.
“For the wages of sin is death,” -- Romans 6:23a

* We are justly under God’s judgment because we hated the light of His goodness and righteousness.
“This, then, is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. (20) For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.” -- John 3:19-20

* No one is righteous, and no person seeks God on his own. No one does anything good. We are hostile to God and unable to submit to Him.
“as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one; (11) there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. (12) All have turned away, together they have become useless; there is no one who does good, there is not even one.” -- Romans 3:10-12
“For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law, for it is unable to do so. (8) Those whose lives are in the flesh are unable to please God.” -- Romans 8:7-8

* God’s righteous judgment and wrath will come on all godlessness and unrighteousness.
“For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,” -- Romans 1:18

* Everyone apart from God is dead in trespasses and sins, under God’s wrath, unable to help themselves.
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins[.] (3) We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and by nature we were children under wrath, as the others were also.” -- Ephesians 2:1, 3
*So how is there any hope for anyone, since we are all under God’s just wrath for our sins and unable to lift a finger out of our sin, seeing as we hate God’s righteousness?

P stands for PROPITIATION

* Propitiation means “to turn away wrath.” Jesus’s death on the Cross removed God’s wrath from all who believe in Him, everyone who ever has or ever will, and purchased for them all they need in order to have salvation! God’s wrath against them was poured out on Jesus instead.
* Jesus’s perfect life made Him the perfect sacrifice for sin and substitute for sinners. He never sinned, and always glorified God.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.” -- Hebrews 4:15

* Since we were powerless to get rid of our sin, God did it for all who believe. It was purely an act of His grace, something no one could ever earn or deserve.
“But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, (5) made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved!” -- Ephesians 2:4-5

* Jesus’s perfect life and perfect righteousness are also imputed to those who place faith in Christ. That is, believers are seen as having Christ’s righteousness.
“They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (25) God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. (26) He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.” -- Romans 3:24-26
“Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” -- Romans 5:1

* Jesus dying for the people He bought proves once and for all His love for them! He is worthy of all praise and worship because of it!
“But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!” -- Romans 5:8
“And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals; because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.” -- Revelation 5:9
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” -- John 3:16

EL stands for ETERNAL LIFE

* How does anyone get this eternal life and become a child of God? How can God grant eternal life at all? In addition to paying the price for redemption, Jesus also rose from the dead, demonstrating once and for all His power over death.
“God has resurrected this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this.” -- Acts 2:32
“because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” -- Acts 17:31

* Because of His death and resurrection, God is just to give forgiveness of sin and eternal life. The price has been paid in full. The debt has been cleared completely. Where we were powerless, God was strong to overcome.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -- Romans 6:23

* Everyone who receives Jesus becomes a child of God, and this receiving, even the faith we need, is all from God.
“But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in His name,” -- John 1:12
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift– (9) not from works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9

* What we need to do then is confess Jesus as Lord (meaning He is the boss of our lives and we desire to live for Him now), and believe He is alive. We bank everything on Him, and believe that He is rich to those who call on Him.
“if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. (11) Now the Scripture says, No one who believes on Him will be put to shame, (12) for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is wonderfully good to all who call on Him. (13) For everyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” -- Romans 10:9-13

* Jesus guarantees that if anyone receives Him by faith, believing in Him, that person has eternal life and will not come under judgment. In receiving Him, we die to the sin we once lived in; it is no longer the ruling power in our lives. We repent (turn away from) our sin and believe this Good News (GOSPEL).
“I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.” -- John 5:24
“For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. (6) For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin's dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,” -- Romans 6:5-6
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!” -- Mark 1:15

* When we do, God holds us fast in Him, and nothing can separate us from His love. NOTHING.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, (39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” -- Romans 8:38-39

*What then does someone need to do to know Jesus, be forgiven of sin, and live for God? What you need to do is pray to God, admitting that you are a sinner deserving of Hell. You need to confess (agree with) Him as Lord and, believe He is alive (was raised from the dead) and that His death covered your sins. You need to repent of your sins, and bank everything on Jesus, giving up any claim on your life by surrendering to Jesus and His authority. God WILL have saved you if you have done these things!
* If you have done that, it was only because God worked in you to make it happen! He sought you out and loved you, and you are now His child! Welcome to the family of God!

---====---- UPDATE ---====----
Some have requested it so I'll post it! The reason I didn't is because it is a personalized page; I plan to offer the tract to anyone who wants it and will personalize it to their needs (name, church, websites, etc.). So, if you want some of these tracts, email me through my blogger profile, and I'll send you a PDF version of them. Please be sure to include your personalized information corresponding to what I have below.

That being said, here is what it looks like for the tracts I'll be giving out:

Please contact me at rincrast@yahoo.com or visit http://wholecounsel.blogspot.com and let me know what God has done for you! Also, I would encourage you to come to church with me (or to find a good Bible-believing church) and talk to the pastor about you new faith and about being baptized. Church is critical for a Christian (yes, havnig received Christ, that is what you are now!) to grow in Christ and become more like Him. Start reading the Bible regularly as well; you’ll be amazed at how exciting it is now! The Gospel of John is a good place to start. I would also strongly recommend a book by Donald S. Whitney called Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, a book that has helped thousands grow closer to Christ. You can find it at www.amazon.com or at a local Christian bookstore.

You can get information about my church at http://www.newlifecalvary.org or by calling 317-881-5743. I look forward to growing with you in Christ, my new brother or sister!

Sincerely in Christ,
David Hewitt (actual tracts will be signed)


Tract by David B. Hewitt, http://wholecounsel.blogspot.com
All Scripture taken from the HCSB version of the Bible

___________________________________________-
UPDATE! 7/11/2006

Now you can download your own copy of it in PDF format if you like. You'll have to write in your own church information and sign them of course, but feel free to duplicate them as you wish!

Here is how it works. You'll need to make a double sided copy of it. Then, cut it in half the SHORT way. Then, take the P and EL section and place it OVER the G and OS section. The title page and back should be on the outside now.

Then fold them together and staple the left side of it in two places right along the edge. You would have created a four page document. It should also read in order of the presentation found here. :)

Click here to get yours!

I hope you find it useful in communicating the Gospel to people!

Sunday, February 19, 2006

My son was born today!

Benjamin Michael Hewitt was born this morning at 11:13am, 8lbs 11oz 21inches long. Both he and my wife are doing great!

Please join me in thanking God for His blessings on my family with this addition. He is SO good!

SDG

Friday, February 17, 2006

The Seriousness of Sin

As our Sunday School class continues our discussion of the Sermon on the Mount, I'll continue to post some of the passages and comment on them. Jesus had some very pointed things to say, and far too often we ignore our Lord's teaching. May God rebuke us and forgive us when we do it, and then remind us of what we've so foolishly ignored. I truly believe this post and the following will penetrate us deeply.

Let's examine our Lord's words:
Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matthew 5:30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell!

This is a very strong teaching, as is obvious from the language Jesus used. Jesus just finished talking about the sin of adultery, and the fact that if a man lusts after a woman, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. This went beyond a common understanding of the day, which indicated that if a man didn't do anything physical, it didn't matter much what else he did. Jesus corrected this abuse of the Commandment with God's intention in it when He handed it down originally.

Following up on that, Jesus made a statement that should make us all repent with tears if we ever deal with sin in a light-hearted, flippant manner. Sin is serious business, and none of it should be taken lightly.

There have been those in church history who have taken Jesus's statements in these two verses literally, and have cut off hands, gouged out eyes, or done even more things to try to get rid of sinful influences on their lives. There is a problem with these courses of action, however:

1.) First of all, few if any of us have never sinned with our eyes and our hands. King David of course did both (in committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband killed), and from what the Scriptures tell us, he kept both his eyes and his hands. One would think that if this were meant to be taken literally, there would be a lot more people around missing an eye or a hand. In addition to that, when Peter struck the high priest's servant and cut off his ear, Jesus didn't demand Peter's dismemberment.

2.) If we have lusted or stolen, and we remove an eye or a hand, will that keep us from lusting or stealing again? Chances are we'd lust with our other eye and steal with our other hand. Furthermore, even if we lose both eyes, inappropriate images we have seen in the past could still revisit our minds, and might even do so more frequently since there wouldn't be anything new registering in our brains. The human mind does not easily forget.

That being said, I do not think that Jesus intended us to dismember ourselves when we sin -- but He did make a very important point. Sin is a serious matter. We cannot think we are immune to it, and we must ALWAYS be on guard against it. If there is even a small sin (calling any sin "small" is really a misnomer), we must repent of it immediately, and never think that to "sin a little" is acceptable, ever.

May God bring this truth to our minds and bring us to repentance for His glory.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

An Important Side Note

A wise, very dear friend and brother of mine pointed something out to me about my recent blog post about God's sovereignty. His concern was that, in talking about experiences I've had at my particular church and with people in my church, what I say could be construed as an attack against my church or people in it if I'm not very careful.

This is an important concern. When people give warnings like that (especially when they come from someone I trust so much), they must be taken seriously. I received a similar warning when I first started my blog back in December from another friend at my church about my post on The Lord's Supper. The rebuke he offered led me to write my following post in which I affirmed my love and devotion to the church that God has placed me in as a member and teacher, and yes, as a person under the authority of men with whom I do not always see eye to eye, but men who I love dearly as brothers in Christ.

I was reading a post by James Spurgeon over at TeamPyro earlier today that struck home and made a very good point. We all need teachers, and God will teach us through people who are not completely theologically correct. How do I know this?

Well, I've been a teacher of sorts for a while, and I'm certainly still learning about God. I would dare say that anyone reading this blog, whether they are a teacher or not, doesn't know everything there is to know about God. :) We are always learning, and each of us is at a different stage in our discipleship and sanctification process.

I have leared a lot of things from people with whom I've disagreed. Many of those people with whom I've disagreed in the past I now count as some of my greatest teachers, people who God used to bring me more into the likeness of Christ, and to increase my understanding of Him. In some cases, I still don't agree with them. In many cases, I now do.

It's no secret that I disagree with my pastor on a few issues. However, does this mean I don't submit to him? It most certainly does NOT mean that. Does it mean that I cannot learn from him? NO! I can and HAVE learned from him, and I thank God for that! There are areas where God has brought him that I have not been -- and I desire God to teach me through him about those things!

We all have areas where we need to grow. I truly see greater understanding in areas like God's sovereignty (see previous post) as matters of discipleship. The more we learn about our great God, the more we want to worship Him, and the more we want others to worship Him. God has seen fit to give me some understanding in this area -- and I have much more to learn. However, He has also seen fit to give different understanding to others, even people with whom I don't agree completely (go figure). :) I need to learn from those people, and from the understanding God has given them in His Word.

I know this has been a bit of rambling, but I hope it makes a good point. God can and will teach us many things through His Word and through people who have had different levels of exposure to Him in His Word and in His world. We must always be ready to listen to what God has done when we hear something; take it back to the Word to see if it is true, and if there is anything which is true, we accept it, no matter who it comes from.

I love my church. I love the people in my church. I love my pastors. I love being in my church; I pray that God would continue to reform my church to be completely in line with His Word in doctrine and deed. Sure, there are frustrations at times, but that's ok. God is still in control, and is still working out His wonders. He is still making and growing worshipers for Himself. He is still teaching me where I am, and always will be.

He'll teach you where you are too. Be thankful to be where you are!

To God Alone Be the Glory!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Our God is [Absolutely] Sovereign

The title of this post I think is interesting; it is interesting that there should be any need for an adverb to modify the adjective of "sovereign." A book I am reading for a discipleship class at church right now during our F.A.I.T.H. semester brings this out quite nicely:
The psalmist declared that "The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all" (Psalm 103:19). This verse gives us a perfect definition of sovereignty: to rule over everything. A ruler cannot be semisovereign anymore than a woman can be semipregnant. Either He is in control or He is not. The Bible affirms God's rule over all of humankind, over all of His created beings (including Satan), and over all circumstances.
--from Hell? Yes! by Robert Jeffress, page 57

That being said, to say "sovereign" really means "absolutely sovereign," because by default it means "ruling over all."

Our class talked about this a for about half an hour last night, and we readily agreed with the statement in the above quote. We all agreed that, even though we may not understand (and in fact will not understand) how or why God does things, we believe He is sovereign, in control, and in some sense the ultimate cause behind everything, because that is what the Bible teaches. He does as He pleases (Psalm 115:3), and no one can stay His hand! (Daniel 4:35) We don't have to understand it to believe it, and we have no right whatsoever to call God into OUR court of justice. As was said clearly last night, God is just, holy, righteous and loving because that is who He is, and not because he conforms to any standard of ours; God IS the standard, and we must accept it.

This was a wonderful discussion, and I enjoyed it a lot -- until the end of it. The teacher of the class asked a question at the beginning, how to respond to a person who might say, "How can you believe in a God that is loving when there is so much suffering in the world?" My answer at the beginning of the class was simply this, "That is the wrong question." The problem this person is having is that he or she doesn't understand the magnitude of their own sin, and it would be a wonderful opportunity to explain that part of the Gospel to them, I would have to think. God is completely just in bringing these disasters on the world, and even more than He has, because He is just that -- just and righteous. We deserve nothing but wrath from Him for our sins, and we should be thankful that He's been as merciful as He has been.

My response, while regarded as correct, was deflected for a time. It was, after all, the beginning of the class and we had some discussion to do, and the teacher also said that it was not the only way to respond, and perhaps not the best way. I really have no problem agreeing with that; after all, I'm fallible. I would maintain that is a very good way to repsond however.

At the end of the class, the question was revisited. One of the men in the class who I respect very much gave a much different response than me, not in contrast to it, but just as another possible way to answer the question. However, the way he answered it left me with an eyebrow raised. He said that what we should explain to the person asking why God allows suffering is that this is not "the world that God planned." The sinful state of affairs that we are in was not part of God's plan in the Garden -- that was what he was implying.

As I sat there with my eyebrow raised, I began to look around the room to see a few heads nodding in agreement. I was almost dumbfounded -- did this not stand in stark contrast to the rest of the discussion that we had? Could we not agree that the fall of mankind was in fact planned by God, even though we don't understand all of the details or why?

I asked this gentleman after the class what exactly he meant, and offered what I typed above as an explanation for the fall. I also began to suggest that what he stated seemed to be contradicting the rest of the discussion that we had in our class. He gave the reason for the fall as "man's free-will" and then stated to me very clearly, almost forcefully:
David, if Calvinism were true, then there wouldn't be any lost people.

My response was, "Really?" He simply said yes, and then we went out on our visitation for the evening; we didn't have time to continue.

I had to laugh at myself a little; really. I thought he was Reformed himself; he's the guy that got me to listen to Alistair Begg a little, after all; shows what I know. :) My response was one of surprise and confusion. I chuckled to myself a little and then, after our visitation, began to think about what he said a little more. I already knew part of the biblical response for that, and God willing, I hope to be able to share it with him so that God would receive all the more glory in both our lives for it.

What he seemed to be saying was that if God really did predestine everything, then there wouldn't be any lost people because there would be no point to their existence. There is no conceivable explanation why God would decide to create the reprobate -- or so the argument goes.

My friend was not the first person to say this of course. I used to think this way, as have many respected Christian leaders of times past. This includes godly men like Adrian Rogers (to whom I'll be indebted no doubt for some time) , whom God used mightily in the Southern Baptist Convention during the conversative resurgence (which I'll maintain is still continuing in some ways). In fact, regarding Romans 9:20-23, Dr. Rogers made this statement:
Now use a little sense. What potter in his right mind would be making vessels so he could turn around and destroy them? What potter is going to say, "I'm going to get a whole stack of them over here on the wall and then I'm going to break them all?" That sounds more like a madman.

Dr. Rogers rejects that people are created as reprobate as is clear by his statement above, but is that really a fair treatment of the passage? If reprobation is true, is that all God does, just create people who will never believe the Gospel just so He could "turn around and destroy them?" I certainly don't believe that, but do in fact believe that God creates people elect and reprobate, and that these distinctions were made before the foundation of the word (see my Ephesians 1 exegesis).

I mean no disrespect to Dr. Roger's memory at all, nor would I mean any disrespect to the man were he still living. However, the passage in Romans 9 and other parts of Scripture do in fact mean what he appears to be mocking, and it is NOT without purpose that God does this. Let's look at a couple of passages:
Proverbs 16:1 The reflections of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
Proverbs 16:2 All a man's ways seem right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the motives.
Proverbs 16:3 Commit your activities to the LORD and your plans will be achieved.
Proverbs 16:4 The LORD has prepared everything for His purpose--even the wicked for the day of disaster.

This short passage in Proverbs makes a couple of things clear about God's sovereignty. First, in verse one, though we think to ourselves, nothing comes out of our mouths that God has not ordained. The anwer of the tongue is from the LORD; seems pretty simple.

Verse four is a bit more pointed. It declares that God has prepared everything for His purpose. How much has God prepared? The answer this verse gives is "everything" and the word does not appear to be qualified by anything else around it; Proverbs often don't have much context anyway. However, the writer gives us an example of what he's talking about. We cannot ignore it --- it is right there in front of us. Even the wicked are prepared for the day of disaster. God prepared everything for HIS purpose -- get that -- HIS purpose. This includes the destruction of the wicked! It is not a purposeless, madman-style breaking of pots on a shelf in a house that were there to look pretty. There is PURPOSE in God's preparing the wicked for destruction. What purpose is that? It is HIS purpose....and there is more.
Romans 9:17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh: For this reason I raised you up: so that I may display My power in you, and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Romans 9:18 So then, He shows mercy to whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
Romans 9:19 You will say to me, therefore, "Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?"
Romans 9:20 But who are you--anyone who talks back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"
Romans 9:21 Or has the potter no right over His clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?
Romans 9:22 And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction?
Romans 9:23 And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory--

It seems clear from this passage that yes, God does indeed make some for honor and some for dishonor. There are some (those made for honor) that are "objects of His mercy" and some (those made for dishonor) who are "objects of wrath ready for destruction." There is a reason given for it in this passage: God endured with patience those objects of wrath so that He would not destroy them all before all those who He had selected as objects of mercy would indeed receive His mercy.

Paul uses Pharoah as the example of this, quoting from Exodus 9:16. God raised up Pharoah for the very purpose of displaying His (God's) glory. It was for showing His power, to make the greatness of His Name known. Paul makes it clear that God "shows mercy to whom He wills and hardens whom He wills," and just like the example of Pharoah, those things that were made for dishonor were made that way so that God's glory and power would be made known.

John Piper compiled an excellent biblical argument for God's decreeing that evil exist here; I recommend reading it. It was certainly not purposeless, and neither are those who are reprobate. At the end of Dr. Piper's article, he quotes the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards in his answer to the question "How does the existence of evil serve a good end?"

It is a proper and excellent thing for infinite glory to shine forth; and for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God's glory should be complete; that is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionably effulgent, that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested, and another not at all. . . .

Thus it is necessary, that God's awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God's glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all.

If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired. . . .

So evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect.


Edward's answer takes into account the teaching of the passage in Exodus, Romans, and many, many others. It is indeed why there is evil in this world.

I would challenge anyone who would take a different view of election than this to see what kind of response your view gets when you share it with people. Does it get the response that Paul anticipated getting in verse 19? If not, perhaps you should rethink it and go back to the Word of God on it; just a thought.

Having said all of those things, I would have to disagree with Dr. Roger's assessment of Romans 9. I would also have to disagree with my friend's understanding of Calvinism when he said that there would be no lost people if it were true. I'm a Calvinist, as was Jonathan Edwards, as is John Piper. We Reformed people simply affirm that God does indeed have a purpose for those who remain lost, and it is to reveal His glory in His justice.

Does this grant complete understanding? Does it answer all questions? No, it does not, and I don't think we can have total understanding of it. However, this does not by any means exempt us from accepting it. Why is that? It is because this is the teaching of the Bible. Just like we accept the fact that God is sovereign over all His creatures and all suffering, we accept that He was sovereign in the Garden, and that yes indeed, this fallen world was part of His plan, for the display of the Glory of His Name. We don't need to understand it to accept it.

The Bible says it, and that settles it.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Friday, February 10, 2006

A Few Comments on Dr. Mohler's Articles

I absolutely loved reading Dr. Mohler's three part blog entry on worship and what it means. I wanted to address something in it that I think is very timely in our churches today, one that has been on my mind very much in recent months. You can find the third installment here, and at the bottom of the page, you can also find links for the other two parts. However, now I want to get on to one of the comments he made:
Worship calls for an ongoing response seen in the proclamation of the gospel, in evangelism, and in missions. If our worship is weakened, our missionary witness will be weakened as well. We will forget the God who has sent us. We will neglect the content of the message of redemption with which he has sent us.

To this I can only say amen, and AMEN! I firmly believe that a main reason, if not the main reason why the people of God are not passionate in sharing the Gospel is that they are not worshiping the God they are being told to witness about! How can we be a witness of this Great God of ours if we are not experiencing Him in worship for ourselves? How can we tell others how awesome He is if we are not seeing his awesomeness? How is it possible for us to "declare His glory among the nations" (Psalm 96:1-3) if we are not seeing some of that glory?

Worship is absolutely critical; as Dr. Mohler says later on in his post:
We were created to worship God. The whole story of our redemption retells how we were created to worship God but by our sin became disqualified from that true and authentic worship. By God's redemption in Jesus Christ, we were created anew for the purpose of worshiping God. And every glimpse of heaven we have in Scripture indicates that worship will be our eternal occupation. It is for that purpose that we are being prepared even in the present.

Far too often in our evangelism we make man the end of it all. This is not the correct way to evangelize! YES, it is true that people will be condemned to an eternity in Hell if they do not receive Christ as Lord and Savior (John 1:12, Romans 10:9), and that is a powerful motivation for our sharing Christ -- but it is not the chief motivation! The chief motivation is this: GOD deserves the worship of everyone, and He is not getting it. JESUS paid a price on the cross to redeem a people for Himself, and He deserves His reward.

Our lives and our mission are not about the people in the church or the people outside of it (though more emphasis should be given to the people inside than out, Galatians 6:10). They are about our great and mighty God, and for the glory of His Name.

May we never forget that.

To God Alone Be the Glory!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Real Worship

Today I read something that Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, wrote about worship on his blog.

It is worth your time. Find it here.

May worship always be what it must be -- focusing on and responding to God.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Dave Hewitt

The Requirement of Matthew 5:23-24

This past Lord's Day in our Sunday School lesson (thank you, my students, for bearing with me since I was sick), we talked about Jesus's statements in Matthew 5:21-26. This is a continuation of our current Sunday School series on the Sermon on the Mount, a study that has been extremely beneficial to myself and our students so far (at least I suspect it has been). Though there is a lot here to discuss, I am going to focus on verses 23 and 24 in this post.

Matthew 5:23 So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,
Matthew 5:24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

How often do we read over this passage of Scripture and blow right on past it with the casual thought in our heads that goes something like, "Well, we don't have sacrifices that we offer on altar's anymore, so what Jesus is saying doesn't really apply to me." Similar arguments have been used to dismiss the entire book of Leviticus and other parts of the Old Testament as obselete and not useful for us anymore. Jesus had a few things to say about how He viewed the Old Testament, and the same applies here. Shame on us for daring to dismiss ANY of the Word of God, and shame on us further for not digging into it to find the greater context of what was going on and the principles behind it.

Even though we do not offer something as a sacrifice on an altar, what is the context in which something on an altar is offered? When ancient Israel offered a sacrifice, whether it was an offering for sin, or for thanksgiving, or anything for that matter, it was acknowledging God was Who He said He was. He hates sin, and they were guilty before Him -- that is why they needed to make a sin offering. He is the Giver of all good things; the harvest and flock come from Him. This is why an offering of thanksgiving was important; it acknowledged that God was responsible for the blessings they were enjoying.

In some way, therefore, all of this was in the context of worship. The sacrifices offered on the altar were more about God than they were about the people offering them. Not only that, our praise is sometimes called a sacrifice:

Hebrews 13:15 Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name.

The tie-in to the Old Testament sacrificial system is fairly clear; the ancient Israelites offered up the fruit of the ground, and the fruit of their flocks. We offer up "the fruit of our lips," which the Bible calls "a sacrifice of praise."

With all of that said, it becomes clearer that there is important application for us in these two verses. When we approach God in worship and offer up "the fruit of our lips that confess His name," we need to make sure, as Jesus said, that a brother doesn't have something against us. If someone does, then we won't be able to worship properly. We'll be sinning, disobeying our Lord's command.

Now, that begs a couple of questions. Do we then need to have EVERYTHING taken care of? What about things that we don't remember? These are important questions, and they need answers.

First, we are not immediately responsible for things that we cannot remember. Why is that? Jesus says we aren't. He said, "and there you remember that your brother has something against you." If we honestly cannot remember it, then we are not under the obligation to resolve it before worship (since we are not aware of it). Of course, when we DO become aware of it, we are then responsible to right the wrong.

Secondly, and stay with me here for a moment, I would have to say that we are not responsible to have EVERYTHING remedied with someone before we come to worship. I think Dr. John Piper addresses that issue very well, using the context of the Sermon on the Mount to guide us. You can find the whole article here, but the main point is below:

But then notice what comes next in Matthew 5:10-12:

10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness [not sin, but righteousness], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely [not truly], on account of Me. 12 Rejoice, and be glad [that is, don't let your conscience be troubled as if you were guilty of their hostility], for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Now this is remarkable. What Jesus says is that sometimes people will hold something against you when they shouldn't—insulting you, persecuting you, saying all kinds of evil against you falsely. What do you do in such circumstances? Do you stop worshipping as long as someone feels like this about you?

If so, Jesus would never have been able to worship in the latter years of his life. He was constantly opposed. They sought to trip him up in his speech. They tried to kill him. They tried to shame him. Was he responsible for this? Not only that, he said that the same would be true for his disciples. In Matthew 24:9 he said, "You will be hated by all nations on account of my name." In other words, if you are faithful to me, somebody will always have something against you."

Don't think we're off easy now that this has been established, however. Jesus, of course, never sinned. Therefore, he wouldn't have needed to go to someone before He worshiped. We, of course, are not that way. The only way we are going to find out if we are completely in the right or not is to go to someone with whom we have had conflict and make sure it is resolved.

Chances are also that we are not completely in the right. I have learned long ago, by the grace of God, that I'm almost NEVER completely in the right when I'm involved in a conflict. I might have failed to be meek and gentle in how I said something (violating one of the beatitudes and failing to show the fruit of the Spirit). Perhaps I failed to speak the truth in love. Maybe I got angry inappropriately, or maybe I flat out did something that was obviously a sin to me and the person I was sinning against. It is a lot easier to sin than we might think.

We also should NOT wait for the other person to come to us and repent first. It doesn't matter if the problem was 90% our fault or even just 1% our fault. If it was just 1%, then repent of your 1%! Sin is sin, and no matter how little there is, we are guilty of it either way. We are not responsible for the other person; we are responsible for ourselves. God doesn't tell us to repent of another person's sin; it isn't possible ((though there are times when it is appropriate to rebuke such a person). He tells us to repent of our own, and there is not a measure put on it.

So then, if indeed we can think of something that someone has against us, we should go to them and repent of anything we did or might have done. Our ability to worship God properly depends on it.

Glory be to God alone.

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Sunday, February 05, 2006

A revision!

I edited my post on 2 Peter 3:9 a little, changing my references to 1 Timothy and a link related to it.

Check it out here.

SDG

Thursday, February 02, 2006

An Exegesis of Ephesians 1:1-6

I have decided to begin my book exegesis posts with Ephesians. I'll work through it in its entirety, though I'll post other things as well. Don't expect this do be done any time soon. :)

I have selected to start with the first six verses. The truth of the matter is, the first main unit is probably Ephesians 1:1-14, with the first two verses as an introduction and the remaining 12 verses as one sentence. Paul, though a brilliant individual and godly man, didn't seem to like punctuation. :) However, stopping at verse six is the end of the first "glory" mini-section, so for the sake of brevity in the posts and the fact that the text has a SMALL break here, I'm limiting the first post to these six verses. With that said, we must also keep in mind all 14 verses for the immediate context.

I'm grabbing one verse at a time and explaining it in light of the other verses around it for one main reason: it will be easier to follow, and people won't have to scroll back up to get to the verse I'm addressing. With that said, I proceed to the text itself! May God bless the reading and study of His precious Word, through which He has revealed Himself, His purposes, and His ways!

All Scripture is taken from the HCSB version of the Bible, unless otherwise noted.

Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will: To the saints and believers in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.

This is Paul's introduction to the letter where he identifies himself and his audience. Paul is an apostle (one sent), and he is not an apostle because he came up with the idea one day and decided to be one. No, Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will. The word will is significant; it has the idea of "a choice, a determination, a decree" (Strong's). This was no accident or the contrivance of any man; God is the one who made Paul an apostle. Paul makes that very clear at the outset.

His audience is the saints and believers in Christ Jesus at Ephesus. Some texts omit at Ephesus, so we might not know for sure the recipients of the letter, but there seems to be no good reason to doubt it. Let this be known however: Paul writes to the saints (literally, holy ones) and believers (or, as some translations render it, the "faithful" -- Greek is pistos). Paul was addressing Christians, people who had put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul continues his address to these faithful saints by wishing them grace and peace from God. Paul is likely wishing them favor (which is a connotation of the word grace) from God, and that His peace would work powerfully in them. It is unlikely that Paul means physical peace, as in peace from any and all harm, given that he himself had God's peace and had experienced in his life many sufferings. Rather, it is more likely Paul is talking about this kind of peace.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ;

Ah, now we begin the theological discourse, and what a wonderful discourse it is! Paul starts out saying that God is blessed, that is, that He is to be praised! God is to be praised for all of these things He has done and is doing -- what things?

You might remember before (if not, scroll up) that verses 3--14 are one sentence in the Greek. Everything included in here is reason for praise to God. I would encourage you when you read this passage to look carefully and ask yourself as you read each verse, "What do I need to praise God about here?" It will be a wonderful time of worship for you, I would expect.

In this verse, Paul starts out his reasons why God should be blessed/praised (not to mention that he praises Him in the process!). What has God done for us here? He has blessed us! Not only that, but He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ. What is this in the heavens? If we check verse 20, we'll see something of what Paul was talking about perhaps. Christ is seated in the heavens -- Heaven itself! Note this too -- the comma allows us to bring out this description too, just by breaking the sentence down (and the division is apparent in other translations too):

God has blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the heavens!
God has blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in Christ!

That is truely awesome -- we have every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; God blesses us beyond what we could ever ask for, more than we probably ever will realize in this life. Have a look at this passage over in Romans:
Romans 8:31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Romans 8:32 He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?

There is nothing that we lack that we need. Mediatate on that and worship God Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing! Now we will see WHY God has blessed in this way.
Ephesians 1:4 for He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love
Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will,

These verses follow the preceding one and provide a sort of purpose clause. The reason God blesses us is because He has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be holy; that He predestined us to be adopted.

There is a lot of disagreement over the use of the word chose in this passage (Greek: eklegomai). The word means "to select: - make choice, choose (out)" (Strong's), and is a combination of the Greek preposition ek, which means "out of, from, by, away from" (Thayer) and the verb lego (though a different form).

So, the work eklegomai would mean, as Strong said above (again emphasizing the preposition), "to choose (out {of})" something. So then, there would have to be a group out of which to choose the object of this verb.

Some have argued that it is JESUS who is elected here, and not individuals, saying that since all election is in Christ, then it is really Christ who Paul is talking about here and not individuals.

There are a few problems with that. First of all, the object of the verb "chose" is "us" and not "Christ." Second, as I mentioned a moment ago, we are talking about picking something out of a group. The world is a group of people, but who is in the group with Christ? Christ stands alone; He's in a class all by Himself. :) Furthermore, Bethlehem Baptist Church's doctrinal statement on TULIP can help us:
Nor does the literal wording of verse 4 fit this interpretation. The ordinary meaning of the word for "choose" in verse 4 is to select or pick out of a group (cf. Luke 6:13; 14:7; John 13:18; 15:16,19). So the natural meaning of the verse is that God chooses his people from all humanity, before the foundation of the world by viewing them in relationship to Christ their redeemer.

So then, to deny that this verse is talking about individuals is to read something into the text that isn't there, also called eisegesis. The text is clear -- God chose individuals out of humanity before the foundation of the world to be in Christ, to be holy and blameless in His sight! Thanks be to God! We deserved nothing but His wrath, but instead He chose us to be holy, to be blameless in His sight. The word for blameless is the Greek amomos, which means "faultless; unblemished." Thayer mentions that the word is also used to refer to the state of a sacrifice; that is, a sacrifice without blemish. In the Old Testament, for an animal to be brought before God to be offered as a sacrifice for sin it had to be "unblemished." It could have no physical defect at all; God demanded the best.

Because of Christ (remember, the in Him refers to Christ) God views us as without fault, without blame, without defect. God looks at us through the righteousness of Christ, a righteousness we could never attain on our own. Thanks be to God! This is just AMAZING!

...but there is more! The end of verse four tells us that this, as well as what is going on in verse five, is done in love. This is the word agape, which means "affection" or "benevolence." God decided to show us His affection and benevolence! And what did He do? He predestined us to be adopted. This word predestined means to "predetermine" or "ordain" (Strongs). This is something that God determined would happen, just like in verse four, from before the foundation of the world. There are no accidents with God, and that also goes for how people are saved just like it does for everything else. Everyone that will be saved has been chosen and predetermined to be just that, and the word this verse (5) uses to describe that salvation, in some sense, is the word adopted.

Adopted is a very good word to use to translate the Greek uihothesia, which means "placing as a son" according to Strong. Just like when someone adopts a child and that child legally becomes one of his own, so it is with God. He adopts us; we become His children.

Just like being chosen is "in Him (Christ)," so being adopted is "through Christ." Because of what Christ has done for the elect, we are made His, being chosen and adopted.

So then, what was God's motivation for doing this, for choosing His elect and viewing them in relation to Christ, for loving them? Verse five gives us part of the answer, and verse six completes it.

The first reason we are given for God doing this is that it was according to His favor and will. Notice what this text does not say. It does NOT say is was because of some foreseen faith. It does NOT say it was because of some goodness that we were going to have. The text gives no indication that there anything about man considered at all with respect to God's motivation for doing this. No, He does it according to His favor and will. He has chosen and adopts because He chose to; there is no other reason. His favor is His "delight, kindness, wish, purpose" (Strong's). It's what God decided to take delight in doing, what He purposed to do; it was His will. (determination)

This is in line with another powerful passage Paul uses to talk about election over in Romans 9:
Romans 9:10 And not only that, but also when Rebekah became pregnant by Isaac our forefather
Romans 9:11 (for though they had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to election might stand,
Romans 9:12 not from works but from the One who calls) she was told: The older will serve the younger.

Here we are talking about Jacob and Esau. God chose Jacob and not Esau to have His blessing, to be the one through whom He would work wonders and bring the Messiah. It was Jacob's descendants, the nation of Israel who would be God's chosen people in the Old Testament, and it was Jacob the man, and not Esau, who God spoke with and favored more, as is clear with a reading of the book of Genesis.

Now, back to the point for citing this passage. What was the reaosn God did this? Was it because of forseen merit in Jacob? Absolutely not! The man lived up to his name (which means, figuratively, "he deceives"). He was a trickster and a deceiver. Well then, why did God choose to set His love on him? Romans 9:12 tells us that it was "not from works but from the One who calls." It wasn't because of anything except the fact that God wanted to do it, just like the reason in Ephesians 1:5. God willed it, and therefore did it. He doesn't have to justify His decision to anyone, and the fact that He chose to save anyone at all should be reason for much thanks and praise. In fact, that is the second reason Paul gives us in our passage for God doing this:
Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.

Why has God done all of this? Why has He blessed us, chosen us, adopted us? It was His own decision, but why did He make that decision? The reason is given here: it was for His glory. It was so that we would praise His glorious grace. It was for Him (as verse five has already made clear, by saying we were adopted through Jesus "for Himself"), for the greatness of His Name. Yes, we benefit for sure! We are favored in the Beloved (Jesus). However, we are not the end of God's desire. All of this was done so He would receive glory. Praise be to God, Who is worthy of ALL glory and praise, and worship, and thanks!

To God Be the Glory Alone!

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Wednesday, February 01, 2006

More Righteous than the Pharisees

Did you know that our righteousness has to be more than that of the Pharisees in the New Testament that argued with Jesus so much?

This was part of the subject of last week's Sunday School lesson that I taught. This verse was the last one that we worked on:
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus made it clear. This statement likely came as a shock to his hearers -- more righteous than the PHARISEES? They were the religious teachers; no one knew the Scriptures like they did, and no one likely kept them better! How on earth was this to be possible?

Clearly, the Pharisees were not innocent of breaking the Law. James tells us why:
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all.

That being the case, even if the Pharisees broke fewer of the laws, they were still guilty of the entire law, just like everyone else. The question then is, how can we possibly get around the guilty verdict that is rightly placed on us? We'd have to be viewed as having the righteousness of someone who kept the law perfectly, since none of us can. Is there anyone who can be viewed that way? YES!

JESUS kept the law perfectly! When we place our faith in Him, we are declared righteous; His righteousness is imputed to us and we are viewed by God as righteous, even though the righteousness is not ours.

This is a rather simply description, but it still points to this: Thanks be to GOD for His marvelous gift! He alone deserves the worship and praise for this wonderful act He has done.

To God be the Glory Alone!