[Evening Reading ~ July 29, 2008]
“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.”—John 6:37.
THIS declaration involves the doctrine of election: there are some whom the Father gave to Christ. It involves the doctrine of effectual calling: these who are given must and shall come; however stoutly they may set themselves against it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. It teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith; for even those who are given to Christ are not saved except they come to Jesus. Even they must come, for there is no other way to heaven but by the door, Christ Jesus. All that the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to Him, therefore none can come to heaven except they come to Christ.
Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the words “shall come.” He does not say they have power to come, nor they may come if they will, but they “shall come.” The Lord Jesus doth by His messengers, His word, and His Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they may eat of His marriage supper; and this He does, not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of His grace. I may exercise power over another man’s will, and yet that other man’s will may be perfectly free, because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to His government, subdued by sovereign love. But how shall those be known whom God hath chosen? By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to Him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon Him as all their salvation and all their desire. Reader, have you thus come to Jesus?
In our post-Christian culture, as we become increasingly Marxist, my vision for ministry is one of desperation. It is hard for me to watch Christendom crumble around me. So instead of worrying about the “Big Picture” and all the global nonsense, I have become convicted to focus on my sphere of influence which is primarily my family, the parish under my care and the community in which I serve. We do want to support those that are church planters and foreign missionaries, but in order to see the foundations restored, my task is local.
Recognizing the post-Christian character of our culture, my own philosophy is not to dumb-down the reformed message or adopt the trends of the present in order to “reach this generation.” I firmly believe the historic church has its own meta-narrative. We have our own legitimate vocabulary, traditions and story. In order to reach those in an increasingly post-Christian culture, I desire to see people come to church and feel as if they have stepped into another world. In my leading worship, I emphasize that when we gather together on the Lord’s Day, we are taken up in our call to worship to heaven in the communion of saints; we are assembled with the martyrs, angels and are in the presence of the Holy Trinity. All this is meta-empirical and supra-historical, but nonetheless very real. I do not de-emphasize the immanence in the transcendence, but underscore the later precisely because of the former.
I envision churches becoming cities of refuge; beacons on hills and the elders as watchmen on the walls. The church does not have to lose its historic worship, her language, her liturgics in order to be relevant. The Truth is the Truth and it is the same message properly expounded; it is the same proclamation that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and in that faithful exposition, God the Holy Spirit raises the dead, like Aslan in the castle of the White Witch—breathing on the statues—giving them faith and granting them repentance; calling the elect from the four corners of the earth. This happens every Sunday, every Sabbath of the New Creation. In our celebration of the Christian year, we offer a meta-narrative that transcends the gossip and mudslinging of the newsmedia and the profane idolatry of the entertainment industry. As we watch the deterioration of our culture, our church culture can provide an atmosphere of safety that transcends the aforementioned evils. The trends will come and go; sufficient for today is the evil thereof. The Church as the Church, anchored on Christ will weather the philosophical storms of the current age.
Benji
Well, there he is, Lil Benji. God’s gift one again . . . we have a precious daughter and now a son. God’s proof of sovereign grace is in infant baptism. How’s that? Well, a baby that cannot save itself, much less baptise itself, cannot defend itself, is by the grace of the parents brought before the congregation and the minister and made a member of the visible church by being graciously brought through the waters of baptism–something it did not choose to do of his own free will, because, well, he can’t. He doesn’t have the ability. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:65). So, too, infants presented to the mercies of God on the promise alone that the gift salvation of salvation belongs to children (Acts 2:39) and God determines into what families children are born (Acts 17).
So too, God the Holy Spirit takes whomever he may choose when we were dead in sin and unable to respond to God, helpless and lost–he takes us in mercy, gives us life and changes our hearts. He presents us to God the Father, washed by the blood of God the Son, having given us the gifts of faith, belief and repentence. Indeed, he saves us when are incapable of saving ourselves. Soli Deo Gloria.
My friend Rev. Toby Sumpter of Holy Trinity Reformed Church (CREC) in Greer wrote an excellent post about the culture of the church with regard to her worship. The post is called “When Worship Becomes Liturgical Clap Trap.” Here’s a snippet,
In nearly every letter of the New Testament, the apostles insist that Christians must live out the gospel in their families. As we seek to build this church, this must be one of the central results of our gathering here. Husbands who worship here must be characterized by loving their wives, cherishing their wives, and teaching and leading their wives just as Christ loves, cherishes, teaches, and leads us. Wives who worship here must be characterized by love and submission to their husbands, rejoicing in their callings just as we submit ourselves as the Church to the leading and teaching of our head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, children who worship here (whether they are three or eighteen) must be characterized by love and obedience to their parents just as we love and obey the Word of God declared here. If we are not being characterized by these things, we are not getting it. If our families are not living out this gospel then our worship here is useless at best and at worst a high handed blasphemy against God.
Read the rest of this insightful post here.
