“When the Word of God, faithfully taught by the people of God and empowered by the Spirit of God, falls down, people become different. Lusting people become pure, fearful people become courageous, thieve become givers, demanding people become servants, angry people become peacemakers, complainers become thankful, and idolaters come to joyfully worship the one true God. The ultimate purpose of the Word of God is not theological information but heart and life transformation.” Paul David Tripp, Dangerous Calling, 51.
Justified by Grace Alone
“Justification by faith is the anthropological reflex of Paul’s basic conviction that what God has done for sinful human beings is entirely a matter of grace.” -Douglas Moo
Not everything changes…
Winston Churchill is one of my favorite historical heros. His wit and wisdom is often needed in this flippant and politically correct age. Here is a great quote that I came upon today.
“It is curious that, while in the days of my youth I was much reproached with inconsistency and being changeable, I am now scolded for adhering to the same views I had early in life and even of repeating passages from speeches which I made long before most of you were born. Of course the world moves on and we dwell in a constantly changing climate of opinion. But the broad principles and truths of wise and sane political actions do not necessarily alter with the changing moods of a democratic electorate. Not everything changes. Two and two still make four, and I could give you other instances which go to prove that all wisdom is not new wisdom.” –Speech delivered in Manchester, December 6, 1947.
Fellow preachers, we should never be accused of preaching something new. Yes, new ways of saying old truths, but never allow novelty to replace the faithful declaration of those grand old doctrines of the faith.
Biblical Reform that Leads to Biblical Revival, pt. 3
In this series of posts I have been demonstrating the reforms that lay the groundwork for biblical revival. Those can be found here and here. Just as a caution, I don’t want to overstate my case. These are not sure-fire steps that lead to certain revival. There’s enough of that nonsense in the church today. The Bible doesn’t give that sort of prescription. But as we have seen, the Bible does teach through precept and example. In this case, we have looked at the reforms of Kings Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah along with the observations of Jonathan Edwards and his participation in the Great Awakening.
Previously we have seen that biblical reform must come in the areas of leadership and a high regard for the Word of God. Today we will look at the need to reject everything that is contrary to God’s Word and will.
3. Rejection of Everything Contrary to God’s Word and Will-2Chron 17:6; 30:14; 31:1; 34:3-5
King Jehoshaphat was clear about the prohibition of idol worship. So had all the other kings before him that had allowed it. But in 2 Chronicles 17:6, it tells us that Jehoshaphat did something about it. The text says that “his heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord.” This courageous heart sought to obey the Lord in all things, including the destruction of the popular high places of worship and the Asherim.
For his part, King Hezekiah did similarly brave acts recorded in 2 Chronicles 30:14 and 31:1. And Josiah at the ripe young age of 20 likewise followed in the godly footsteps of these two kings (2Chron 34:3-5), making sure to defile the graves of the pagan priests.
We see that often times the problem isn’t knowing what the will of the Lord is or where we can find counsel in His Word. The problem so often in the church is that it lacks leaders with backbone and deep conviction of heart to risk losing everything in order to bring things into biblical alignment.
Jonathan Edwards wrote that when the Spirit began to actively sweep through New England, not only was there the fruit of godly leadership and a respect for the Word of God, but the people began to show signs of radically changed lives. Edwards described them as people who lived not for the pleasures and amusements of this world but for the breaks in between their daily work and their free time to engaged in spiritual activities. These renewed Christians prayed and read the Word together; they put aside their sinful amusements and picked up new, godly habits. Edwards wrote that hardly a conversation was had that didn’t include talk about Christ. True biblical fellowship began to sprout afresh in New England.
Our culture is saturated with filth and worldliness. But it seems that there is a massive pipeline that pumps that filth right into Christian homes. And if it comes into our homes, it is often coming into our churches. Our churches are becoming Corinthianized–adapting the church to fit into the sinful elements of our culture instead of reaching out to the sinful world we live in with the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ.
What we need is a return to the Word. We need to realize that our too many Christians are being entertained to death. They are overwhelmed with cable TV, streaming movies, the internet, streaming music, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I know that many of these social media sites can be used for good purposes (including blogging), as well as for evil. We must help our churches, and for some of us, even our own families, see what God outright rejects as, while we teach them what he expects. This begins with a reformation of the heart. Only when the heart is changed will those attractions of the world begin to lose their luster and Christ will be seen for the treasure that He truly is.
Biblical Reformation that Leads to Biblical Revival, pt. 2
On Friday I posted part one of this article that compared the biblical revivals of Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah with the Great Awakening as recording by Jonathan Edwards in his work, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God. You can read that post here. In that post I explained the necessity of godly leadership as a catalyst for effecting revival. This leadership needs to exist in the church and the home. Today I would like to continue by showing that biblical reformation also requires three more elements to set the stage which will allow God to move forward if he wished to bring about true biblical revival.
2. Respect for the Word of God; 2Chron 17:7-9; 30:1-27; 34:8-21
Second Chronicles 17:7-9 tells us that Jehoshaphat had a high view of the Word of God. In the third year of his reign, having cleared Judah of false worship, Jehoshaphat sent out his officials, along with a group of Levites and some priests to go throughout Judah to teach the “book of the Law of the Lord” to the people. The king knew that change is not merely an organizational or motivational agenda. He didn’t seek to write up a mission statement or cast a vision for the people. Instead, he immediately removed the clear violations of God’s Word and then proceeded to teach the people the Law so that they could see for themselves what God expected of them.
King Hezekiah understood that a respect for the Word of God is more than a mere reverence for the Book. True respect means to honor God with obedience. In 2 Chronicles 30, Hezekiah took the next step that was necessary after restoring the Temple–celebrating the Passover as prescribed in the Law. This required preparations that had not occurred for many years, including calling all of Israel to join in the feast. The priests were required to consecrate themselves in preparation for the day. With the feast and offerings came a renewed delight in God and his Word.
Josiah lived in a day when the Law had been lost. The Word of God was nowhere to be found and because of this, it was neither read nor obeyed. When the workmen assigned to restore and cleanse the Temple came across the Book of the Law it was brought before the King. As Shaphan the secretary read the Book before the king he immediately realized how disobedient Judah had been in not keeping the Law. From this reading Josiah could now understand God’s displeasure with His people and why He had poured out his wrath upon them. Straightaway Josiah sought to restore what had not been observed in the Law.
During the beginning of the Great Awakening, the people began to react to the preaching of the Word with intense passion. Societally, people were expected to attend church with the result that nominal Christians filled the pews at times. As Edwards saw the Spirit moving, he saw many of these same people respond to the preached Word with increased power and emotional response. The hard hearts of the people were being softened by the Word.
There is a way to pay lip service to the preaching of the Word–a mechanical way of going through the motions. But do we weep over our Bibles as we see our sinful selves reflected in the pages of Scripture (James 1:22-24)? Are we broken by the Word allowing it to pierce into our hearts and scan our very souls (Heb 4:12-13)? And the man in the pulpit is no different. Many preachers lack passion in their preaching because they lack a passion in their hearts for God. Cold sermons often times come from a cold heart.
Let me ask you friend, do you think deeply about the Word of God, or do you plow through your Bible reading and devotions, excusing your quick reading as “better than nothing?”Do you think that God subscribes to the “quantity is better than quality” idea behind Bible reading?
At our churches, do we expect the Word to break hardened hearts, or are we timid, never really expecting that the Word will change much in ourselves or others? If we look at the amount of evangelism you do personally, we can see what you expect.
Opening up ourselves to be revived by the Holy Spirit will take the efforts of those who lead the church and the home. But every believer is called to have a holy reverence for the Word of God that extends beyond mere lip service. In the next blog post I will look at two more steps that our godly trio of Judean Kings took that we can also emulate in our homes and churches.
Always Reforming 