If you missed reading this on April 1, this is what you would have seen.

My biannual facelift wasn’t scheduled until June, but with Spring in the air, I’m in the mood for something fresh right now.

This upgrade is more than just a new look. It represents a whole new mindset, one that is more positive, upbeat, and optimistic. I’m sure I’ve benefited in some ways from the reading I’ve done to bring you the content to which you’ve become accustomed, but really, enough is enough. Those old, dead theologians were good, as are the living who follow in their footsteps, but there comes a time to move on and embrace the present, with a cheerful eye to the future.

So I’m leaving the past behind, and beginning a new journey. My traveling companions will be today’s prophets of hope. In the coming months, if you join me, we’ll be soaking up the optimistic wisdom of great contemporary thinkers like Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and Joel Osteen.

I look forward to embarking on this new adventure, and sharing new insights with you daily. Will you join me?

Our regularly scheduled posts will be at least partially suspended for the next few days. We’ve had a death in our extended family, and will most likely be traveling to a funeral in Wisconsin on Monday. I will still be announcing another The Holiness of God drawing tomorrow, but I will most likely not be updating Twitter or Facebook until things get back to normal next week.

There are some unusually difficult circumstances involved in this situation, so your prayers are appreciated.

Free RC!

Last week’s winner has been drawn and notified, and now it’s time the next round. The rules are the same as last week. To win a copy of The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul, just send me an email that includes

• Your name
• How you follow this blog, i.e. RSS, Twitter, or Facebook
• “The Holiness of God Giveaway 2” in the subject line

Entries will be accepted through next Friday (April 9), and the winner will be notified by email. Another giveaway will be announced next Saturday (and the next, and the next . . .), so there will be multiple chances to win.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
   He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
   He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
   Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
   Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
   Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

. . . on the Way to a Funeral:

Crossing two states peopled largely by Norwegians and Swedes, why do all the signs point to places with Indian names?

Q. What do convenience stores and Congress have in common?
A. You can ride the short bus to either job.

Said the lady at the convenience store in Wisconsin to my wife, upon learning that we were headed home to North Dakota, “Do you have to go through Nebraska?”

A few miles down the road (hadn’t yet reached Nebraska), we were treated to our favorite Twin Cities talk radio host Joe Soucheray carrying on about this Congressman from Georgia who thinks Guam might capsize if too many Marines climb aboard.

Traveling this great land of ours always makes me prowd too be an Amerikun.

I want to thank those who offered prayers on our behalf in the last few days. We are back home safe and sound from a trip that went fairly well, all things considered. God continues to perform above my expectations.

I should be getting back to my Gospel of John commentary reading program today, but we’re trying to get our ducks in a row so we can hit the road to Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday for the 2010 Together for the Gospel Conference. So I might as well face it: I’m not going to get much meaningful reading or blogging done between now and then.

I do intend to blog from Louisville, but I don’t yet know what that will look like. It won’t be anything like live-blogging à la Challies. I’m sure it will be something very new and exciting. Or not. Try not to fall off the edge of your seats in anticipation.

In lieu of a regular post today in the Gospel of John series, I will simply leave you to meditate upon this passage from John 1:

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Our Fridays are dedicated to the promotion of liberty.

In a 1980 Presidential campaign debate against the second worst President in United States history, Ronald Reagan closed his remarks with the question, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” It was a masterful rhetorical stroke. The answer was obvious, and the opposition had no riposte. Americans were decidedly not better off after four years of bumbling socialist leadership, and Jimmy Carter went back to the farm.

As much as I understand the political expediency of Reagan’s question in a campaign event, and as much as I admire him for the great man and President he was, I deeply regret that one rhetorical, highly political, flourish has taken the place of the question that would have been asked two hundred years ago. At the birth of this nation, government was not looked to as a source of prosperity. Indeed, history has proven that government can never provide prosperity, and that all efforts to do so are miserable failures and only lead us farther along The Road to Serfdom.

“Are you better off now?” is a question we may rightly ask when assessing the results of our own efforts. When judging the effectiveness of government, however, there is only one question to ask, and one we should voice frequently in 2012:

Are you more, or less, free than you were four years ago?

Free RC!

Last week’s winner has been drawn and notified, and now it’s time the next round. The rules are the same as last week. To win a copy of The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul, just send me an email that includes

• Your name
• How you follow this blog, i.e. RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or Kindle
• “The Holiness of God Giveaway 3” in the subject line

Entries will be accepted through next Friday (April 16), and the winner will be notified by email. Another giveaway will be announced next Saturday (and the next, and the next . . .), so there will be multiple chances to win.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

The Devil defeated by Faith,
Well Fixed and Furnished
Ralph Erskine (1685–1752)

Be sober, vigilant, and stout;
For every day and hour,
Your foe, the devil, walks about,
Still seeking to devour.

Whom, by a steady faith resist,
In Christ, the Captain’s name;
Knowing your fellow-soldiers blessed,
Your welfare is the same.

But may the God, and source of all,
Your grace and warlike store,
Who did by Jesus Christ you call,
To his eternal glore.

After your short while’s suff’ring now,
May he perfect you all,
Establish, strengthen, settle you,
Firm like a brazen wall.

To him whose all-sufficiency,
Alone can thus sustain;
All glory and dominion be
Forevermore. Amen.

—Worthy Is the Lamb (Soli Deo Gloria, 2004).

John 9:13–25

They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath “ But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.”
   18 The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

These verses show us how little the Jews of our Lord’s time understood the right use of the Sabbath day. We read that some of the Pharisees found fault because a blind man was miraculously healed on the Sabbath. They said, “This man is not of God, because He keeps not the Sabbath day.” A good work had manifestly been done to a helpless fellow-creature. A heavy bodily infirmity had been removed. A mighty act of mercy had been performed. But the blind-hearted enemies of Christ could see no beauty in the act. They called it a breach of the Fourth Commandment!
   These would-be wise men completely mistook the intention of the Sabbath. They did not see that it was “made for man,” and meant for the good of man’s body, mind, and soul. It was a day to be set apart from others, no doubt, and to be carefully sanctified and kept holy. But its sanctification was never intended to prevent works of necessity and acts of mercy. To heal a sick man was no breach of the Sabbath day. In finding fault with our Lord for so doing, the Jews only exposed their ignorance of their own law. They had forgotten that it is as great a sin to add to a commandment, as to take it away.
   Here, as in other places, we must take care that we do not put a wrong meaning on our Lord’s conduct. We must not for a moment suppose that the Sabbath is no longer binding on Christians, and that they have nothing to do with the Fourth Commandment. This is a great mistake, and the root of great evil. Not one of the ten commandments has ever been repealed or put aside. Our Lord never meant the Sabbath to become a day of pleasure, or a day of business, or a day of traveling and idle dissipation. He meant it to be “kept holy” as long as the world stands. It is one thing to employ the Sabbath in works of mercy, in ministering to the sick, and doing good to the distressed. It is quite another thing to spend the day in visiting, feasting, and self-indulgence. Whatever men may please to say, the way in which we use the Sabbath a sure test of the state of our religion. By the Sabbath may be found out whether we love communion with God. By the Sabbath may be found out whether we are in tune for heaven. By the Sabbath, in short, the secrets of many hearts are revealed. There are only too many of whom we may say with sorrow, “These men are not of God, because they keep not the Sabbath day.” *
   These verses show us, secondly, the desperate lengths to which prejudice will sometimes carry wicked men. We read that the “Jews agreed that if any man did confess that Jesus was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.” They were determined not to believe. They were resolved that no evidence should change their minds, and no proofs influence their will. They were like men who shut their eyes and tie a bandage over them, and refuse to have it untied. Just as in after times they stopped their ears when Stephen preached, and refused to listen when Paul made his defense, so they behaved at this period of our Lord’s ministry.
   Of all states of mind into which unconverted men can fall, this is by far the most dangerous to the soul. So long as a person is open, fair, and honest-minded, there is hope for him, however ignorant he may be. He may be much in the dark at present. But is he willing to follow the light, if set before him? He may be walking in the broad road with all his might. But is he ready to listen to any one who will show him a more excellent way? In a word, is he teachable, childlike, and unfettered by prejudice? If these questions can be answered satisfactorily, we never need despair about the man’s soul.
   The state of mind we should always desire to possess is that of the noble-minded Bereans. When they first heard the Apostle Paul preach, they listened with attention. They received the Word “with all readiness of mind.” They “searched the Scriptures,” and compared what they heard with God’s Word. “And therefore,” we are told, “many of them believed.” Happy are those who go and do likewise! (Acts xvii. 11, 12.)
   These verses show us, lastly, that nothing convinces a man so thoroughly as his own senses and feelings. We read that the unbelieving Jews tried in vain to persuade the blind man whom Jesus healed, that nothing had been done for him. They only got from him one plain answer: “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” How the miracle had been worked, he did not pretend to explain. Whether the person who had healed him was a sinner, he did not profess to know. But that something had been done for him he stoutly maintained. He was not to be reasoned out of his senses. Whatever the Jews might think, there were two distinct facts of which he was conscious: “I was blind: now I see.”
   There is no kind of evidence so satisfactory as this to the heart of a real Christian. His knowledge may be small. His faith may be feeble. His doctrinal views may be at present confused and indistinct. But if Christ has really wrought a work of grace in his heart by His Spirit, he feels within him something that you cannot overthrow. “I was dark, and now I have light. I was afraid of God, and now I love Him. I was fond of sin, and now I hate it. I was blind, and now I see.” Let us never rest until we know and feel within us some real work of the Holy Ghost. Let us not be content with the name and form of Christianity. Let us desire to have true experimental acquaintance with it. Feelings no doubt, are deceitful, and are not everything in religion. But if we have no inward feelings about spiritual matters, it is a very bad sign. The hungry man eats, and feels strengthened; the thirsty man drinks, and feels refreshed. Surely the man who has within him the grace of God, ought to be able to say, “I feel its power.”

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

* Once again, Ryle’s sabbatarianism comes through, and, as noted before, I disagree.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is my first cinematic production. Video was shot with the webcam on my Dell Mini and edited and mixed on the same machine with Windows Movie Maker in about two hours at a total cost of $12.06 (lunch for the cast).

On the Road with
The Thirsty Theologian

If my movie producer cousin is reading this, I’m sorry, no, I can’t jet out to California to work on your latest project. I’m much too busy. You’ll just have to muddle through on your own.

Greetings from Louisville! We got in about 10:00 PM last night, tired and hungry. Fortunately, there was one restaurant still open here at the Galt House. On that note, it would be a great sin of omission not to recommend the onion soup at the Café Magnolia. I would drive 1200 miles just for that. I would crawl 1200 miles on my hands and knees . . . no, I wouldn’t, but that is the kind of hyperbole it inspires.

We’re heading out to get registered for the 2010 Together for the Gospel Conference and then off to the Band of Bloggers meeting. We’re looking forward to hearing from Mark Dever, R. C. Sproul, and Albert Mohler this afternoon. I don’t know how often I’ll update, but I probably won’t again until late tonight or tomorrow morning.

I type very poorly, 35wpm at my lightning-fastest when I’m typing my own material, so I’m definitely not live-blogging. However, as Mark Dever was being introduced yesterday, I leaned over and asked my dear wife, Kelly, if she intended to take notes. She nodded affirmatively, whereupon I said, “type them, then.” What I meant, of course was, “If you please, My Dear, would you be so kind as to type them for me?” but time restraints precluded good manners. Understanding as she was (and always is), she unsheathed my laptop and began immediately. Now, Kelly seldom types, and never takes dictation, so what follows will hardly be a verbatim account. But, having abilities I lack — listening and typing simultaneously, and doing so with all ten fingers — she brings you what I never could. So I thank her, and so should you.

Kelly’s Notes on Mark Dever’s Conference Session (only barely proofread and edited —David)

Introduced by Albert Mohler ( Note: Mohler has lost weight!)
Dever was commended for his training of men in his church.

Ephesians 3:10
The church is the Gospel made visible.
How does your church make the Gospel visible? A healthy church reinforces the Gospel. It reflects it to folks around us.

1- The truth about God. How his nature is displayed. The lives of the members in our congregations should make God clear. Our lives are to make clear the Gospel Lev.12. When people in the OT run into God they are undone and repent. We are also to reflect His character in love by the concern we have for others. A love that is willing to be inconvenienced for someone else. If we don’t have that kind of love we are just another group. The church should also reflect God and His authority. Authority is meant to be a good thing. Satan tempts us to think otherwise. But God can both rule us and correct us. A right use of authority reflects God’s Authority. Example:husbands, parents, elders. This reflects the character of God. A word of caution; authority abused is especially destructive. Do our churches show the world a better use of authority? We can lead in such a way that people will say that pastor was trustworthy.

2- The truth about human beings. Each person is of value because they are created in God’s image. Not their wealth or other things. The local church needs to include all. We need to teach human depravity. We are fallen and we know that. We must show people that we are sinners. Saints are sinners. The world does not need to see sin soft-pedaled.

3- the truth about the savior Jesus Christ. We are the people who worship Him and we are his temple his body How do we make Him visible to the world? It is His work at the heart of our churches. We need to be gracious and merciful and loving. How do we know we are loving God? By how we love each other. We are to love by being inconvenienced, by laying our lives down as Jesus did. Are we valuing the differences of others in our churches? The world then asks what keeps you together, How come you love those so different from you? In our world today one of the biggest divisions is generational. Without the local church the cross is a just an abstract idea.

4- the right response to the Gospel. Our churches are to confess our sin and to repent from it. The Christian life will necessarily involve us in the lives of others. We are to teach faith faith in God. We are all acting on things we cannot see with our eyes. God’s promises are to be foundational We are to run to those promises to hold to them. It is the word of God that will build his church. We look forward to seeing God and our faith will be sight Heb 10:34. We have better and lasting possessions. He is a faithful God at times we bring him glory by just putting one foot in front of another, in hard times.

Conclusion- help your church be built on the Lord. A Christian church is proof of the Gospel to the world. It shows what the Gospel looks like. It is the clearest picture of what God is to the world. Be careful for this church. Pray for those churches who do not proclaim the Gospel clearly. Be willing to get involved in the lives of your People.

This is another quick-and-dirty summary taken down on the run by my wonderfully accommodating wife.

Kelly’s Notes on Thabiti Anyabwile’s Conference Session

“Fine-Sounding Arguments”—How Wrongly “Engaging the Culture” adjusts the Gospel

A lot has been said about engaging in the culture. It is fraught with pitfalls. What is culture? Is it pop culture? Is it the things a society produces? Is it ethnic culture, political culture, or high culture meaning beliefs and ideas? If we engage in the culture how do we know we’ve won or changed it? We can’t predict the outcome if we do change it. What are the terms if we do engage in changing the culture? Is it what Christians are called to do? Col. 1:24-2:?

1- Paul’s pastoral purpose
His purpose was to make the word of God fully known and to make every Christian mature in Christ. His purpose is that everyone embody Christ. He joyfully suffers, preaches, and toils for this purpose. He relates the care for all the churches weighs heavily on him. He desires to make them conform to Christ. Is this our burden? Does this consume us? We need to be gripped by the beauty and splendor of this task. 2:4 a danger false arguments. It is possible for ideas to displace the goal. We must be ruthless in holding to the Gospel. We need to be gospel men. Paul’s social context was complicated. Slavery, Roman occupation and idolatry were practices of his day. He writes to address the church, God’s people. Paul wants God’s people to think of slavery as inconsistent with the Gospel. He wants the Gospel to change how you address that issue. He engages the culture by engaging the church and lets the gospel change the culture. 2:6-7 Paul wants his people to be rooted in Christ. How do we do that? He begins by talking about the person of Christ. He reminds us of benefits and promises of the Gospel. Then Paul talks about baptism, new life. Then he talks about forgiveness through the cross. Paul wants his people to wake up in the morning and hear the nails of the cross.

2- Paul’s philosophy.
His concern is are we captured by Christ or the world’s ideas. If we depend on human wisdom we do not need the cross. Paul sets the gospel over and against human philosophies of the world. Christ cannot be blended with the world. The world is not a safe place. It manipulates. We need to be prayerful and discerning. We cannot hobnob with the world. Scripture talks of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. The world is at warfare with God. Paul commends us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Paul wants us not to be carried away by other philosophies.

3- paul’s practice Paul wants us to not let others judge us by our practices. Such an approach is futile. How do our various cultures affect our pursuit of the gospel? All our cultures are basically apostate. We need to shed the skin of our culture. We notice different peoples and their different cultures What then does it means to be God’s people. God gives us a culture. God gives his people law and sets them apart. The gentiles question, Acts 15: the Jerusalem council. How do we include these people? The council said don’t put any other burden on them then what the gospel says. All the other things are a shadow but the substance is Christ. There is a unique threat to the gospel that says let me just be with people like me. Think of the church as not the building but people. Multiethnic but not multicultural.

4- Paul’s perspective His ambition was to present them with Christ and to see Him because that’s where we should live. We need to set our minds on Christ’s coming. We need to raise our gaze form the culture and look at Christ.

Another on-the-fly summary taken down on the run by Mrs. Thirsty Theologian.

Kelly’s Notes on John MacArthur’s Conference Session

Mark 4: A Theology of Sleep

MacArthur notes he can enjoy rest wherever he is because he rests in the lord. We are here because we are motivated by Scripture. The crowds that followed Jesus were not committed, but shallow. The parable of sower only appears in John. The man who sows and does not know how the crop grows, but he harvests it. The Gospel is like this: you sow it, then go to sleep, and it grows. We cannot explain it. All the work and forces are apart from us as the farmer sows but God caused the increase. Spiritual birth and life is a divine miracle. Nicodemus comes to Jesus and asks, “How do I enter the kingdom of God.” It calls for something beyond us. We did not participate in our earthly birth we cannot participate in our spiritual birth. Jesus gives the example of the wind blowing: we do not know how it works or the power of it. This is like the Holy Spirit. One of the most unique conversions in the scripture is the thief on the cross. Of the two thieves, one of them was sarcastically thinking, “You, the Messiah! You are a victim, a joke.” But the other one rebukes him. Where did he get his theology? He understood the sinlessness of Christ and his kingdom. The only explanation is the power of God on his soul. Jesus looked so defeated, yet God brings salvation to a thief’s soul. This is in MacArthur’s mind the greatest conversions in the bible. In salvation we may be the means but we are not the power. We go to sleep and let God do the work. The simple principle is sow and sleep. However, there are essential elements at work.

How do we approach evangelism:

1- humility
The surprise in the first parable is that the seed produced 30, 60, 100 fold. The Lord is saying there will come a harvest that is massive. He then explained the parable. The sower sows the Word. No adjectives describe the sower; he is just one who throws the seed. We are not the issue in evangelism. The seed is the word. Salvation cannot occur apart from the word of God. Why did Christ do miracles and then say don’t tell? Luke 9:22- The son of man must suffer many things, and then be raised. The message is the cross and the resurrection; after that, then go tell everyone. This is our seed and our message. It is offensive, foolish, but it is our message. We preach Christ because to those who are called this is the power of God. We can sow the seed we cannot change the heart. In MacArthur’s preaching he does not appeal to the human will. All appeals are to the mind, to understand the truth. We do not want self-willed responses. No fleshly religiosity. These are a far cry from genuine salvation. It makes acceptance hard. The sinner needs to get past the self will. It is not enough to have good feelings about Jesus. True repentance is not necessarily joyful. We approach this sowing humbly. The lord is the one to take out stony hearts.

2- Parable of the Lamp
We are obedient because we know we posses the light. Our role is to be the lamp. How will they know without a preacher. Nothing is to be hidden. Scatter the seed, spread the light.

3- Evangelize diligently
Evangelism is in proportion to the seed sown. That leads to divine blessing and eternal reward. To those who sowed little, little was given; to those who sow much, much is given.

4- Evangelize confidently
How do we picture the kingdom of God? Like a mustard seed. God has determined an exponential outcome. The disciples went from being in a boat where they all could have drowned to turning the world upside down.

Free RC!

Last week’s winner has been drawn and notified, and now it’s time the next round. The rules are the same as last week. To win a copy of The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul, just send me an email that includes

• Your name
• How you follow this blog, i.e. RSS, Twitter, Facebook, or Kindle
• “The Holiness of God Giveaway 4” in the subject line

Entries will be accepted through next Friday (April 23), and the winner will be notified by email. Another giveaway will be announced next Saturday (and the next, and the next . . .), so there will be multiple chances to win.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

The Sleep of the Beloved.
“So he giveth his beloved sleep.” —Psalm cxxvii. 2.
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Sunlight has vanished, and the weary earth
   Lies resting from a long day’s toil and pain,
And, looking for a new dawn’s early birth,
   Seeks strength in slumber for its toil again.

We too would rest, but ere we close the eye
   Upon the consciousness of waking thought,
Would calmly turn it to yon star-bright sky,
   And lift the soul to him who slumbers not.

Above us is thy hand with tender care,
   Distilling over us the dew of sleep:
Darkness seems loaded with oblivious air,
   In deep forgetfulness each sense to steep.

Thou hast provided midnight’s hour of peace,
   Thou stretchest over us the wing of rest;
With more than all a parent’s tenderness,
   Foldest us sleeping to thy gentle breast.

Grief flies away; care quits our easy couch,
   Till wakened by thy hand, when breaks the day—
Like the one prophet by the angel’s touch,—
   We rise to tread again our pilgrim-way.

God of our life! God of each day and night!
   Oh, keep us till life’s short race is run!
Until there dawns the long, long day of light,
   That knows no night, yet needs no star nor sun.

—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).

John 9:25–41

He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?” 28 They reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out.
   35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” 38 And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” 40 Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

We see in these verses how much wiser the poor sometimes are than the rich. The man whom our Lord healed of his blindness was evidently a person of very humble condition. It is written that he was one who “sat and begged.” (See v. 8.) Yet he saw things which the proud rulers of the Jews could not see, and would not receive. He saw in our Lord’s miracle an unanswerable proof of our Lord’s divine commission. “If this Man were not of God,” he cries, “He could do nothing.” In fact, from the day of his cure his position was completely altered. He had eyes, and the Pharisees were blind.
   The same thing may be seen in other places of Scripture. The servants of Pharaoh saw “the finger of God” in the plagues of Egypt, when their master’s heart was hardened. The servants of Naaman saw the wisdom of Elisha’s advice, when their master was turning away in a rage. The high, the great, and the noble are often the last to learn spiritual lessons. Their possessions and their position often blind the eyes of their understanding, and keep them back from the kingdom of God. It is written that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” (1 Cor. i. 26.)
   The Christian poor man never need be ashamed of his poverty. It is a sin to be proud, and worldly-minded, and unbelieving; but it is no sin to be poor. The very riches which many long to possess are often veils over the eyes of men’s souls, and prevent their seeing Christ. The teaching of the Holy Ghost is more frequently to be seen among men of low degree than among men of rank and education. The words of our Lord are continually proved most true, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God.”—“Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” (Mark x. 23; Matt. xi. 25.)
   We see, secondly, in these verses, how cruelly and unjustly unconverted men will sometimes treat those who disagree with them. When the Pharisees could not frighten the blind man who had been cured, they expelled him from the Jewish Church. Because he manfully refused to deny the evidence of his own senses, they excommunicated him, and put him to an open shame. They cast him out “as a heathen man and a publican.”
   The temporal injury that such treatment did to a poor Jew was very great indeed. It cut him off from the outward privileges of the Jewish Church. It made him an object of scorn and suspicion among all true Israelites. But it could do no harm to his soul. That which wicked men bind on earth is not bound in heaven. “The curse causeless shall not come.” (Prov. xxvi. 2.)
   The children of God in every age have only too frequently met with like treatment. Excommunication, persecution, and imprisonment have generally been favourite weapons with ecclesiastical tyrants. Unable, like the Pharisees, to answer arguments, they have resorted to violence and injustice. Let the child of God console himself with the thought that there is a true Church out of which no man can cast him, and a Church-membership which no earthly power can take away. He only is blessed whom Christ calls blessed; and he only is accursed whom Christ shall pronounce accursed at the last day.
   We see, thirdly, in these verses, how great is the kindness and condescension of Christ. No sooner was this poor blind man cast out of the Jewish Church than Jesus finds him and speaks words of comfort. He knew full well how heavy an affliction excommunication was to an Israelite, and at once cheered him with kind words. He now revealed Himself more fully to this man than He did to any one except the Samaritan woman. In reply to the question, “Who is the Son of God?” He says plainly, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.”
   We have here one among many beautiful illustrations of the mind of Christ. He sees all that His people go through for His sake, and feels for all, from the highest to the lowest. He keeps account of all their losses, crosses, and persecutions. “Are they not all written in His book?” (Psal. lvi. 8.) He knows how to come to their hearts with consolation in their time of need, and to speak peace to them when all men seem to hate them. The time when men forsake us is often the very time when Christ draws near, saying, “Fear not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isai. xli. 10.)
   We see, lastly, in these verses, how dangerous it is to possess knowledge, if we do not make a good use of it. The rulers of the Jews were fully persuaded that they knew all religious truth. They were indignant at the very idea of being ignorant and devoid of spiritual eyesight. “Are we blind also?” they cried. And then came the mighty sentence, “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.”
   Knowledge undoubtedly is a very great blessing. The man who cannot read, and is utterly ignorant of Scripture, is in a pitiable condition. He is at the mercy of any false teacher who comes across him, and may be taught to take up any absurd creed, or to follow any vicious practice. Almost any education is better than no education at all.
   But when knowledge only sticks in a man’s head, and has no influence over his heart and life, it becomes a most perilous possession. And when, in addition to this, its possessor is self-conceited and self-satisfied, and imagines he knows everything, the result is one of the worst states of soul into which man can fall. There is far more hope about him who says, “I am a poor blind sinner and want God to teach me,” than about him who is ever saying, “I know it, I know it, I am not ignorant,” and yet cleaves to his sins.—The sin of that man “remaineth.”
   Let us use diligently whatever religious knowledge we possess, and ask continually that God would give us more. Let us never forget that the devil himself is a creature of vast head-knowledge, and yet none the better for it, because it is not rightly used. Let our constant prayer be that which David so often sent up in the hundred and nineteenth Psalm. “Lord, teach me thy statutes: give me understanding: unite my heart to fear Your name.”

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Louisville is pronounced lō-ŭ-v’l.

Some people are more comfortable with themselves than perhaps they ought to be. At lunch with Steve Weaver, he found himself sitting above an air conditioning vent. I suggested moving to another table, but Steve declined. “I’m fine,” he said. “It just feels like I don’t have any pants on.”

My wife doesn’t trust my self control. Sitting on the sidewalk in front of an Irish pub Wednesday afternoon, I sipping a glass of Jameson, she expressed her concern that I might get liquored up and do something crazy, “like raise [my] hands during the singing.”

I shook Mark Dever’s hand. I did not swoon or become speechless.

Finally, and more importantly, T4G 2010 video can be found here. Audio is here.

Addendum: We got these!

R. C. Sproul:

Quoting Francis Schaeffer, “The church has lost its sense of antitheses.”

Albert Mohler:

“Once you buy into the logic of anti-supernaturalism, there’s no place to stop. . . . If you start to say, ‘It can’t happen; there is no possibility of a god who would act in that way,’ then you can’t stop at one doctrine just because you decide to stop there, or if you do, you need to understand that what you’re doing is merely exercising some arbitrary operation of the will, not some consistent operation of a theological mind. And one of the other problems that you have with this is that you run out of doctrines to deny. This is one of the most delicious predicaments of modern Protestantism. They started here, and they pretty much run through the catalog. Bishop Spong has denied every doctrine there is to deny, and he’s written a book on it, and he’s already been on the Today Show and Good Morning America, and there are no more doctrines to deny. He’s retired now.”

“When you come to understand liberal theology, you don’t know anything about theology, but you know a lot about liberals. Because their theology is an expression of who they are: ‘This is who I am; here’s my doctrine.’”

Thabiti Anyabwile:

“We must be ruthless about rooting our pastoral purpose and the mission of the church in the Word of God itself, and the gospel itself. So just to make this plain, is it the purpose of the church to win the culture, or engage the culture, or change the culture? Is that your pastoral purpose when you show up Monday morning at the church office? I would suggest to you that that very language — winning the culture, engaging the culture, changing the culture — as ambiguous as it is, the language itself signifies that mission-drift is already underway. We are gospel men. We are proclaimers of this gospel; we are appliers of this gospel; we are representatives of this gospel; we are stewards of this gospel; and the one thing we must do, and not go away from, is this gospel, its proclamation, its preaching.”

“This attempt to acculturate the gospel, to make it fit into our own cultural confines, as we engage the culture, is an adjustment of the gospel, and less than the gospel. When we say ‘church,’ I would implore us to think, to understand, to see, whenever we hear the word ‘church’ — certainly not the building, certainly not just the Sunday gathering — when we say church, I implore us to see the people, and not just people, but by definition, nations. The church is a multi-ethnic thing. And let me be clear: it is not only inescapably multi-ethnic, biblically, but it’s not multi-cultural. It is multi-ethnic, but it is mono-cultural. And it is not any of our native cultures. It’s this new way of being that God has created through Christ in the gospel. It’s a gospel culture.”

Mark Dever:

“I wonder if God’s holiness, his awesomeness, is reflected in our public gatherings. So is God presented in our services, in our lives, as one who is unique, and holy, and set apart, and distinct. You know. I think in our generation, we treat casualness as if it’s the height of intimacy. But in the Bible, what happens again and again when people really run into the real God? They are undone; they confess their sins; they fall on their face. Ezekiel, with all of his religious knowledge and training as a priest, is silent.”

“Many of you are very careful about what the gospel is, and you should be. We hope to help you in that in this very conference. Should you also be very careful for the church who Christ gave this gospel to? Recapturing seminaries and even whole denominations for gospel work is good, but its fruit will not be with us for long if we don’t get on with the much larger task of cleaning up thousands upon thousands of local congregations who are poor witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“Realize that if we denounce sin from the pulpit, if we clearly, courageously, stand for the fact that abortion is a murder, the taking of a human life, and we do nothing about the members in our church who are doctors who are performing those abortions, then what are we saying with all our courageous-sounding words, if we’re not willing to do that difficult work down in the trenches of calling the guy up, getting involved in his life, speaking to him clearly about the decision he has to make, either to abandon his claim to follow Christ, or to abandon his sin? Friends, that’s what gives all our high-sounding words reality, and without them, those words can even be dangerous drugs to fool us into thinking we’re doing what we’re not really doing at all.”

John MacArthur:

“. . . I sleep very well. Just generally, wherever I am in the world, it seems I sleep. I think that my ability to sleep is, to some degree, related to my theology. That’s kind of where that title [A Theology of Sleep] comes from. If I believed that the salvation of souls depended on me, I don’t know that I could sleep well. I understand the horrors of eternal hell; I understand the wrath of God; I understand eternal judgment; I understand what’s at stake. It’s a passion for me to reach people with the gospel, and I suppose with that kind of conviction dominating my heart, under some circumstances and under the framework of some kinds of theology, I might have a hard time sleeping because of the urgencies of the issues at hand. But my confidence is in the Lord and in his power, and not in me. So I can enjoy rest, refreshment physically, occasionally diversion from the task, because I don’t do the Lord’s work. My responsibilities are very limited.”

John Piper:

“No matter how righteous you are, or how moral you are, or how religious you are, and no matter whether God has worked that in you or you have worked that in you, don’t trust in it. Don’t trust in anything that is in you, I don’t care how good it is, and I don’t care if it’s the work of the Holy Spirit. Don’t trust in what God has worked in you. Don’t trust in it. Trust in Christ alone, and his life, and his work on the cross, his blood and righteousness. Trust that. Trust that for your acceptance with God, for your justification.”

I seldom get very personal on this blog. Blogger “transparency” is a fashion that should not only be allowed to die, but should perhaps be brutally bludgeoned to death. Those very sincere sentiments notwithstanding, . . .

Today, I ask your indulgence as I — inadequately, to be sure — publicly acknowledge and pay tribute to the one who has stuck with me for better and worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and heath, for twenty-two years now: my wife.

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing / And obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).

Kelly, you are the love of my life. Practically, you become more of a “helper suitable” to me as time goes by. Impractically, but more wonderfully, you become more attractive and desirable by the hour. You make my life possible, and, although you hear it far too seldom, make my life pleasant. You are truly “the grace of life” to me. If the Lord grants us another twenty-two years or more, it will be my privilege to spend them with you.

You are my most precious earthly treasure.

Ligon Duncan:

“How should we read the fathers? We should read the fathers respectfully, but carefully, under the authority of scripture. . . . Our greatest concern in studying the church fathers is not to read what they said about a particular doctrine and then decide that what they said about that particular doctrine is authoritative, infallible, and true, but to learn what they said about a particular doctrine in order to know how they read the scriptures. The scriptures are our final authority, and they help test our reading of scripture. Sometimes they’re right; sometimes they’re wrong. But they help us, whether they’re right or wrong, to read the Bible better, and to sit under its authority better, and that’s how we need to read the church fathers. We don’t go back and say, ‘What did they say about this doctrine, and whatever they say about this doctrine must be infallibly true.’ No, we say, ‘What did they say about this doctrine, because what they say about this doctrine will help me see if I am completely out to lunch as to how I’m reading the Bible.’ They may be wrong, and I may be right. I may be wrong, and they may be right, but I’ll read the scriptures in conversation with these expositors, these early expositors, of God’s Word. So we read the fathers respectfully, but carefully, under the authority of scripture. This is exactly what the Magisterial Reformers in the days of the Reformation did.”

“The fathers were best in polemics. We do not like polemics today, or we don’t like it for very long; it feels to negative for us. When godly men start criticizing other Christians, after just a short period of time, we get the heebie-jeebies, and there’s a whole psychology behind that that is unique to this generation. But listen to this, my friends, when you read the fathers, in areas that were not disputed contested matters of church doctrine in their own time, let me give you this word of advice: watch out, because they’re all over the map. But when you read the fathers in any area which was a disputed debate in the church in their time, they almost always get it right, and gloriously so. And so heresy served the church to get the Bible’s proper understanding rightly articulated to the people of god. In the church fathers you find this repeatedly. So the church fathers will serve you best in the areas where the truth of the scriptures is under assault in their own time, and where it is not under assault, you better watch out, because sometimes they will assume the gospel, sometimes they will muddle the truth, and they will contradict one another, but put them in a fight, and they’ll almost always get it right.”

Matt Chandler [possibly the most quotable statement from the entire conference]:

“I don’t care what you think; I care what the Bible says. There’s a way that seems right to all of us, and in the end, it gets everybody killed. If you want to talk about the text, that’s great; if you want to tell a story about your cousin Jim, I don’t care.”

C. J. Mahaney:

“Never assume those in your church have exhausted their need for the gospel. Never assume those in your church have a sufficient knowledge of the gospel. Never address a topic isolated from the gospel. Never exhort to obedience apart from the gospel. Never be more passionate in your preaching on another topic than you are the gospel. You have been entrusted with the old, old story. You must not alter that story; you must not adjust that story; you must not add to that story. Instead, we are charged to faithfully proclaim this story. You will experience temptations to stray from this story, temptations to satisfy the sinful inclinations described in [2 Timothy 4] 3 and 4, but you, as for you, you must be faithful to preach the Word, and in order to be faithful to this charge, you must resolve to be unoriginal. . . . You must preach the Word with an absolutely clear commitment to unoriginality, because if you don’t resolve to be unoriginal, you will easily be distracted by matters of secondary importance instead of fixed on the matter of first importance. If you don’t resolve to be unoriginal, you’ll be distracted by all that is new, and trendy, and popular, and supposedly original. If you don’t resolve to be unoriginal, the administration of the church will eventually take precedence over your preaching the gospel to the church. If you don’t resolve to be unoriginal, your intelligence, or historical skill, or personality will take precedence over you faithfulness to the message of the gospel. If you don’t resolve to be unoriginal, you will lose sight of what matters the most.”

Free RC!

Last week’s winner has been drawn and notified, and now it’s time for the next round. The rules are the same as last week. To win a copy of The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul, just send me an email that includes

• Your name
• How you follow this blog, i.e. RSS, Twitter, Facebook, Kindle, link from your blog, bookmark, etc.
• “The Holiness of God Giveaway 5” in the subject line

Entries will be accepted through next Friday (April 30), and the winner will be notified by email. Another giveaway will be announced next Saturday (and the next, until I run out), so there will be multiple chances to win.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Self-Knowledge

Searcher of hearts,

It is a good day to me when thou givest me
a glimpse of myself;
Sin is my greatest evil,
   but thou art my greatest good;
I have cause to loathe myself,
   and not to seek self-honour,
   for no one desires to commend his own dung-hill.
My country, family, church
   fare worse because of my sins,
   for sinners bring judgment in thinking
      sins are small,
   or that God is not angry with them.
Let me not take other good man as my example,
   and think I am good because I am like them,
For all good men are not so good as thou desirest,
   and not always consistent,
   do not always follow holiness,
   do not feel eternal good in sore affliction.
Show me how to know when a thing is evil
   which I think is right and good,
   how to know when what is lawful
   comes from an evil principle,
   such as desire for reputation or wealth by usury.
Give me grace to recall my needs,
   my lack of knowing thy will in scripture,
      of wisdom to guide others,
      of daily repentance, want of which keeps thee
         at bay,
      of the spirit of prayer, having words
         without love,
      of zeal for thy glory, seeking my own ends,
      of joy of thee and thy will,
      of love to others.
And let me not lay my pipe
   too short of the fountain,
   never touching the eternal spring,
   never drawing down water from above.

—The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, editor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).

The Gospel According to John

“I Am the Good Shepherd”

10 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.
   7 So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

The chapter we have now begun is closely connected with the preceding one. The parable before us was spoken with direct reference to the blind teachers of the Jewish Church. The Scribes and Pharisees were the people our Lord had in view, when He described the false shepherd. The very men who had just said “We see,” were denounced with holy boldness, as “thieves and robbers.”
   We have, for one thing, in these verses, a vivid picture of a false teacher of religion. Our Lord says that he is one who “enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way.”
   The “door,” in this sentence, must evidently mean something far more than outward calling and commission. The Jewish teachers, at any rate, were not deficient in this point: they could probably trace up their orders in direct succession to Aaron himself. Ordination is no proof whatever that a man is fit to show others the way to heaven. He may have been regularly set apart by those who have authority to call ministers, and yet all his life may never come near the door, and at last may die nothing better than “a thief and a robber.”
   The true sense of the “door” must be sought in our Lord’s own interpretation. It is Christ Himself who is “the door.” The true shepherd of souls is he who enters the ministry with a single eye to Christ, desiring to glorify Christ, doing all in the strength of Christ, preaching Christ’s doctrine, walking in Christ’s steps, and labouring to bring men and women to Christ. The false shepherd of souls is he who enters the ministerial office with little or no thought about Christ, from worldly and self-exalting motives, but from no desire to exalt Jesus, and the great salvation that is in Him. Christ, in one word, is the grand touchstone of the minister of religion. The man who makes much of Christ is a pastor after God’s own heart, whom God delights to honour. The minister who makes little of Christ is one whom God regards as an impostor,—as one who has climbed up to his holy office not by the door, but by “some other way.”
   The sentence before us is a sorrowful and humbling one. That it condemns the Jewish teachers of our Lord’s time all men can see. There was no “door” in their ministry. They taught nothing rightly about Messiah. They rejected Christ Himself when He appeared,—but all men do not see that the sentence condemns thousands of so-called Christian teachers, quite as much as the leaders and teachers of the Jews. Thousands of ordained men in the present day know nothing whatever about Christ, except His name. They have not entered “the door” themselves, and they are unable to show it to others. Well would it be for Christendom if this were more widely known, and more seriously considered! Unconverted ministers are the dry-rot of the Church. “When the blind lead the blind” both must fall into the ditch. If we would know the value of a man’s ministry, we must never fail to ask, Where is the Lamb? Where is the Door? Does he bring forward Christ, and give Him his rightful place?
   We have, for another thing, in these verses, a peculiar picture of true Christians. Our Lord describes them as sheep who “hear the voice of a true Shepherd, and know His voice;” and as “sheep who will not follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.”
   The thing taught in these words is a very curious one, and may seem “foolishness” to the world. There is a spiritual instinct in most true believers, which generally enables them to distinguish between true and false teaching. When they hear unsound religious instruction, there is something within them that says, “This is wrong.” When they hear the real truth as it is in Jesus, there is something in their hearts which responds, “This is right.” The careless man of the world may see no difference whatever between minister and minister, sermon and sermon. The poorest sheep of Christ, as a general rule, will “distinguish things that differ,” though he may sometimes be unable to explain why.
   Let us beware of despising this spiritual instinct. Whatever a sneering world may please to say, it is one of the peculiar marks of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. As such, it is specially mentioned by St. John, when he says, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” (1 John ii. 20.) Let us rather pray for it daily, in order that we may be kept from the influence of false shepherds. To lose all power of distinguishing between bitter and sweet is one of the worst symptoms of bodily disease. To be unable to see any difference between law and gospel, truth and error, Protestantism and Popery, the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of man, is a sure proof that we are yet dead in heart, and need conversion.
   We have, lastly, in these verses, a most instructive picture of Christ Himself. He utters one of those golden sayings which ought to be dear to all true Christians. They apply to people as well as to ministers. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
   We are all by nature separate and far off from God. Sin, like a great barrier-wall, rises between us and our Maker. The sense of guilt makes us afraid of Him. The sense of His holiness keeps us at a distance from Him. Born with a heart at enmity with God, we become more and more alienated from Him, by practice, the longer we live. The very first questions in religion that must be answered, are these: “How can I draw near to God? How can I be justified? How can a sinner like me be reconciled to my Maker?”
   The Lord Jesus Christ has provided an answer to these mighty questions. By His sacrifice for us on the cross, He has opened a way through the great barrier, and provided pardon and peace for sinners. He has “suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” He has opened a way into the holiest, through His blood, by which we may draw near to God with boldness, and approach God without fear. And now He is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. In the highest sense He is “the door.” No one “can come to the Father” but by Him.
   Let us take heed that we use this door, and do not merely stand outside looking at it. It is a door free and open to the chief of sinners: “If any man enter in by it, he shall be saved.” It is a door within which we shall find a full and constant supply for every need of our souls. We shall find that we can “go in and out,” and enjoy liberty and peace. The day comes when this door will be shut forever, and men shall strive to enter in, but not be able. Then let us make sure work of our own salvation. Let us not stand tarrying outside, and halting between two opinions. Let us enter in and be saved.

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I suppose the title might offend some readers. The truth about that is that I didn’t put a great deal of thought into it. It’s not intended to be mocking; it’s just the first thing that came to mind when I asked, “What should I call this?” If you read his account of things, and watch the video*, and take note of the language he uses (“crazy,” “weird,” “freaked out,” etc.), perhaps you’ll understand why.

As you may know, Francis Chan is a pastor in Simi Valley, California. He is the author of Crazy Love, a book I have not read, but has received positive reviews by people who are neither crazy nor freaked out. Some time ago, he was featured in an evangelistic video on YouTube that was neither remarkable nor deserving of most of the criticism it received. He is now receiving some attention for announcing that he is leaving his church to go who-knows-where.

Why do I need to chime in on this, especially since Dan Phillips has already said most of what I’m thinking much better than I would have said it? Well, I suppose I don’t, and I don’t want to be guilty of piling on. But I’ve still got some additional questions. Chan, I believe, has set a very bad example for how Christians ought to think — yes, think — about God’s will, God’s leading, and how decisions are made. Since Mr. Phillips has dealt quite thoroughly with Chan’s claim to divine direction, I’ll leave that alone. Still, these questions remain:

Who, other than the voices in your head† Holy Spirit, called you to leave? Who is sending you? Is your church sending you and supporting you, or are you on your own? Under whose authority will you be working? To whom are you accountable?

Without answers to those questions — and this is not one of those cases in which “there are no right or wrong answers” — I have to view whatever work Chan stumbles into as illegitimate, and that goes for certain other high profile, self-appointed church planters and ministry leaders, as well. But that will not be strange territory for the man who explained, “It’s kind of like when I started the church. Lisa and I had been married for like two or three weeks, and I just kind of felt this weird calling by the Lord like I’m supposed to start my own church, and that’s hard to say to your new bride, that she’ll have to support the family . . .”

What? All it takes is a “weird calling by ‘the Lord’” to start a church and — here’s another enormous red flag — dump your primary, God-given responsibility on your wife? “Honey, you’re going to have to do my job so I can go serve the Lord.” I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it because it goes against everything the Bible, i.e. God, says about responsibility, order, and authority.

I want to reiterate that my intention is not to pile on. Chan is not the issue. Erroneous, and dangerous, thinking is the issue. Christians ought not to think this way. “I feel led” is not your get-out-of-explaining-yourself-biblicallly card. Christians must follow the plan mapped out in Scripture — and make no mistake, there is one — or find themselves featured in Judges 17:6.

* Disclosure: I haven’t watched the whole video. It quit mysteriously at about 16 minutes, for which I was grateful. I had had quite enough rambling, mystical mumbo jumbo, thank you very much. In any case, Mr. Phillips assures me that that’s OK.

† I know, I said I’d leave that alone. I just couldn’t resist that one little poke.

‘Having your loins girt about with truth’ (Eph. vi. 14).

Gurnall presents us with “a double design Satan hath to rob Christians of truth,” and a corresponding “twofold girding about with this truth.”

First Girding About.
[It is the Christian’s duty to labour for an established judgment in the truth.]
Since Satan comes as a serpent in the persons of false teachers, and by them labours to put a cheat on us and cozen [cheat, deceive] us with error for truth; to defend us against this design, it is necessary that we be girt with truth in our understanding—that we have an established judgment in the truths of Christ. It should be the care of every Christian to get an established judgment in the truth. The Bereans are highly commended for the inquiry they made into the Scripture, to satisfy their judgements concerning the doctrine Paul preached. They did not believe hand over head, but their faith was the result of a judgement, upon diligent search, convinced by the scripture evidence, Ac. xvii. 11. It is said there that ‘they searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so.’ They carried the preacher’s doctrine to the written word, and compared it with that; and mark, ‘therefore many of them believed,’ ver. 12. As they did not believe before, so they durst not but believe now. I remember Tertullian, speaking of some heretics as to their manner of preaching, saith persuadendo docent, non docendo persuadent—they teach by persuading, and do not by teaching persuade, that is, they woo and entice the affections of their hearers, without convincing their judgement about what they preach. Indeed, it were a hard work for the adulterer to convince her he would prostitute, that the fact is lawful; no, he goes another way to work. First by some amorous insinuations he inveigles her affections, and they, once bewitched, the other is not much questioned—it being easy for the affections to make the judgment of their party. Well, though error, like a thief, comes thus in at the window; yet truth, like the true owner of the house, delights to enter at the right door of the understanding, from thence into the conscience, and so passeth into the will and affections. Indeed, he that hits upon truth, and takes up the profession of it, before he is brought into the acquaintance of its excellency and heavenly beauty by his understanding, cannot entertain it becoming to its heavenly birth and descent. It is as a prince that travels in a disguise, not known, therefore not honoured. Truth is loved and prized only of those that know it. And not to desire to know it, is to despise it, as much as knowing it, to reject it. It were not hard, sure, to cheat that man of truth, who knows not what he hath. Truth and error are all one to the ignorant man, so it hath but the name of truth. Leah and Rachel were both alike to Jacob in the dark. Indeed it is said, ‘In the morning behold it was Leah,’ Ge. xxix. 25. So in the morning, when it is day in the understanding, then the deceived person will see he hath had a false bride in his bosom; will cry out, Behold, it is an error which I took for a truth. You have, may be, heard of the covetous man, that hugged himself in the many bags of gold he had, but never opened them or used them. When the thief took away his gold, and left him his bags full of pebbles in the room, he was as happy as when he had his gold, for he looked not on the one or other. And verily an ignorant person is in a manner no better with truth than error on his side. Both are alike to him, day and night all one to a blind man.

—William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002), 1:293–294.

John 5:41 “I do not receive glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. 43 I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Calvin writes of the depravity of men’s hearts that predisposes them to being deceived:

   If another come in his own name, him you will receive. That the Jews do not love God, and have no reverence for him, Christ proves by this argument, that they will eagerly receive the false prophets, while they refuse to obey God; for he takes for granted, that it is a sign of a wicked and ungodly mind, when men disregard truth and willingly assent to falsehoods. If it be objected that this is generally done rather through ignorance than through malice, the answer is easy. No man is exposed to the impostures of Satan, except so far as, through some wicked disposition, he prefers falsehood to truth. For how comes it that we are deaf when God speaks, and that Satan finds us ready and active, but because we are averse to righteousness, and of our own accord desire iniquity? Though it ought to be observed that here Christ speaks chiefly of those whom God peculiarly enlightened, as he bestowed on the Jews this privilege, that, having been instructed in his Law, they might keep the right way of salvation. It is certain that such persons lend an ear to false teachers for no other reason than because they wish to be deceived. Accordingly, Moses says that, when false prophets arise, this is intended to prove and try the people if they love the Lord their God, (Deut. xiii. 3.) In many persons, no doubt, there appears to be an innocent and guileless simplicity, but their eyes are undoubtedly blinded by the hypocrisy which lurks within their minds. For it is certain that God never shuts the door to those who knock, (Matth. vii. 8,) never disappoints those who sincerely pray to him, (Isai.xlv. 19.) Justly, therefore, does Paul ascribe it to the vengeance of God, when the power of deceiving is given to Satan, that they who have rejected the truth, and taken pleasure in unrighteousness, may believe a lie, and says that they perish who did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved, (2 Thess. ii. 9, 12.) In this manner is discovered the hypocrisy of many who, devoted to the impostures and wicked superstitions of the Pope, burn with envenomed rage against the Gospel; for if they had hearts disposed to the fear of God, that fear would likewise produce obedience.

—John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries Volume XVII, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Volume I (Baker Books, 2009), 220–221.

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal. 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

I find it very useful — and invariably, quite convicting — to consider where my treasure is, and if I truly value Christ, or just the benefits of following him. This was the problem of the crowds that followed Jesus. While they were amazed by his miracles, they cared more for the product of miracles than for the worker of miracles. Calvin wrote:

Christ does not reply to the question put to him, which would have been fitted to show to them his power in having come thither by a miracle. But, on the contrary, he chides them for throwing themselves forward without consideration; for they were not acquainted with the true and proper reason of what he did, because they sought in Christ something else than Christ himself. The fault which he complains of in them is, that they seek Christ for the sake of the belly and not of the miracles And yet it cannot be denied that they looked to the miracle; nay more, the Evangelist has already told us that they were excited by the miracles to follow Christ. But because they abused the miracles for an improper purpose, he justly reproaches them with having a greater regard to the belly than to miracles. His meaning was, that they did not profit by the works of God as they ought to have done; for the true way of profiting would have been to acknowledge Christ as the Messiah in such a manner as to surrender themselves to be taught and governed by him, and, under his guidance, to aspire to the heavenly kingdom of God. On the contrary, they expect nothing greater from him than to live happily and at ease in this world. This is to rob Christ of his chief power; for the reason why he was given by the Father and revealed himself to men is, that he may form them anew after the image of God by giving them his Holy Spirit, and that he may conduct them to eternal life by clothing them with his righteousness.
   It is of great importance, therefore, what we keep in view in the miracles of Christ; for he who does not aspire to the kingdom of God, but rests satisfied with the conveniences of the present life, seeks nothing else than to fill his belly. In like manner, there are many persons in the present day who would gladly embrace the gospel, if it were free from the bitterness of the cross, and if it brought nothing but carnal pleasures. Nay, we see many who make a Christian profession, that they may live in greater gaiety and with less restraint. Some through the expectation of gain, others through fear, and others for the sake of those whom they wish to please, profess to be the disciples of Christ. In seeking Christ, therefore, the chief point is, to despise the world and seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, (Matth. vi. 33.) Besides, as men very generally impose on themselves, and persuade themselves that they are seeking Christ in the best manner, while they debase the whole of his power, for this reason Christ, in his usual manner, doubles the word verily, as if by the oath he intended to bring to light the vice which lurks under our hypocrisy.

—John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries Volume XVII, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Volume I (Baker Books, 2009), 239–240.

Freedom Friday is on hiatus until I come across something that inspires me or puts a burr under my saddle in that area.

I have recently made a few comments about people who pay to read blogs, this one in particular, that are available free of charge. In spite of my insinuation that it is silly to do so, I realize that convenience and other factors of which I am ignorant might make it desirable to pay 99¢.month to read via Kindle. The question behind my raised eyebrow was not so much “why pay to read a blog?” as “why pay to read this blog?” So you Kindle readers can relax and stop emailing me (about this); I don’t really think you’re foolish.

Anyway, I recently exchanged a few words with a friend on things related, including “tip jars,” i.e. PayPal buttons by which readers may make donations. Now, I want to state one thing loud and clear; it’s important, so pay attention: I have no intention of setting that up here. I am not now putting out feelers in advance of such an enterprise. However, I am curious. If I did do that, would you

1. ignore it,
2. leave a token pittance and forget it thereafter,
3. donate regularly (or at least semi-regularly),
4. or give me a piece of your mind?

Please be brutally honest. My answer, if I was in your shoes, would be a, and that is no faux humility. What I’m really trying to learn by this is not whether or not I could make any money, nor am I fishing for compliments. I really just want to know if I’m right about what I think your answer will be.