Month: August 2013

Thoughts on Preaching

Reading Ian Murray’s biography of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, I was struck with Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ illustration of right preaching.  His firm belief was that “conviction of sin is the essential prelude to salvation”, and it is not enough to tell a man he is a sinner, we must prove it to him, point it out, make him look at it in himself.  He lamented the lack of that kind of preaching and the disastrous results in Wales in his day. Drawing from his experience as a medical doctor, he used this illustration.  I hope it helps you if you are a preacher, or if you listen to preaching:

“If a man goes to a doctor with a bad liver as the result of constant drinking of alcoholic beverages and the doctor says to him, ‘Well, of course, you are an ill man, that is to say, you are not well.  I will give you some medicine and then perhaps you will be as well as Mr. Davies round the corner’, is the man likely to get well?  Of course not, because he has not been told the cause of his trouble.   He thinks the alcohol is the one thing that keeps him going, especially when he feels faint.  The only thing to do with such a man is to tell him plainly that his troubles are all due to the drink and that if he persists in drinking there is no hope for him.  Keep on telling him until you make him think, then he will realize the truth and mend his ways.  Of course the patient will go home and say, ‘The doctor is not a sport.’ He may not be a sport but he is certainly a good doctor, an honest doctor, a doctor who does not merely wish to please his patient at the time, but to save him, whatever the patient may think of him.”

Oh that all of us preachers would stop worrying about what men think of us and start worrying about their eternal souls!

Taking Inventory

I’m reading Francis Chan’s best-selling book “Crazy Love” with a few guys from our congregation.  The author’s point is that God is so great and we are so small and sinful, which makes it crazy, incomprehensible, even shocking that God would love us and how He loves us.  The obvious application ( at least to me ) is what Paul told the Corinthians – “the love of Christ compels us”, and what John wrote in his first epistle – “we love Him because He first loved us”.

Now, this blog is not meant to be a review or critique of the book.  I only want to share one of his statements with the hope that it will impact you as it did me.  The statement was made within a section which listed characteristics of lukewarm people.  His specific point was that lukewarm people do not live by faith.  To further explain what he meant he said this – “their lives wouldn’t look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.”  Up until then I had been breezing through that chapter, not paying much attention, not really expecting to see anything “new”.  But for some reason that statement stopped me in my tracks, and it was almost like someone asked me out loud, “would your life look much different if you suddenly stopped believing in God?”  The knee-jerk, defensive reaction of every professing Christian would be, “Well, sure it would!”  But would it really?

Think about it.  How much does your belief in God really impact your daily life: how you do your job, how you spend your non-work time, what you watch on TV, how you spend your money, how you interact with your neighbors and strangers and the poor, what your conversations sound like, what you get excited about, how you raise your kids, what you do for vacation, how you treat your spouse, even how you spend the Lord’s Day?  For many professing Christians, if they stopped believing in God today, the only thing that would really change about their lives is where they are for a couple of hours on Sunday mornings.  Most areas of their lives would not change at all. Honestly, we do most of what we do for reasons other than God.  We work hard because that’s how we were raised, or to get a raise.  We treat our wife well because “if momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”, and if we scratch her back she’ll scratch ours.  Our greatest goals for our kids are for them to stay out of trouble and get good grades. We help those who deserve our help, and only out of our “extra”.  You see, most of the things we do and why we do them could be done by atheists in the same ways and for the same reasons.

But shouldn’t the opposite be true?  Shouldn’t our belief in and appreciation for God radically impact every facet of our lives?  Shouldn’t our belief in God cause us to work as hard as we can at all times, never stealing time, doing even what we’re not required to do, helping co-workers to do their jobs well, having a gracious/grateful attitude toward our employers?  Shouldn’t our belief in God drive us to use our spare time to learn more about Christ and to serve others?  Shouldn’t our belief in God dictate what we do with our money, supporting the local church, sending out missionaries, meeting the needs of the poor, rescuing orphans and widows in need, even sacrificing to do it?  Shouldn’t our belief in God flavor all of our conversations, not just eliminating all cursing, but speaking what is true, pure, righteous, edifying, and Christ-centered?  Shouldn’t our belief in God produce the desire to hear as much biblical teaching as possible and be with the body of Christ as much as possible on the Lords’ Day?  If our belief in God was impacting our lives in these ways, we would look radically different if we stopped believing in Him today.

So let’s turn the question around to make it clearer.  How does your belief in God shape your life?  What impact does your belief in God really have on where you work, how you do your job, how you spend your money, how you use your spare time, how you treat your wife, how you raise your children, how you speak to people, how you treat strangers, what you do for the poor, what you watch on TV, what you find funny, what you do on the rest of the Lord’s Day, how you deal with sickness, how you choose your friends, etc…Does the evidence convict you of being lukewarm or cold or hot concerning the God you claim to love?  The facts don’t lie.  Take inventory and respond accordingly.

Reform

When people find out that I’m a pastor one of their first questions is what kind of a church I pastor.  On some of my more sarcastic days I’m tempted to say, “Rosemont Baptist Church…Did you not hear the Baptist?”  But that would be a corrupt way to speak, and it would also be a vague way to describe our congregation.  “Baptist”, like Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Evangelical, can mean many things.   So I usually describe Rosemont as a “reforming” Baptist Church.  We are traditionally baptistic in most of our doctrine and practice, but we are constantly comparing and adjusting our doctrine and practices to the Word of God, not Baptist tradition.   This is known in most reformed circles as Sola Scriptura, a latin phrase meaning Scripture is our sole rule for faith and practice.

In many places it’s no more than that – a phrase.  At Rosemont, it’s a commitment.  We are trying, individually and corporately, to make the Word of God our blueprint for everything we believe and everything we do.  It is changing individuals, couples, families, and our congregation.  It is changing how we lead and who leads, it is changing our music, it is changing how we spend our money and use our resources, it is changing how we deal with sin, how we do “missions”, how we train our children, etc…

And let me tell you, you never know how much needs to be reformed until you start reforming!  So much of what we do personally and corporately has no biblical foundation.  We do it from tradition, or out of pragmatism ( it gets the results we want ), or for fleshly comfort and pleasure, or for material benefits, or for acceptance and recognition in the world, or to avoid persecution from the church.  That’s why reform meets such resistance sometimes – because people and congregations don’t like to give these things up, even when they see that they are not biblical.  But the joy of doing all things Jesus commanded His apostles, and the blessing which comes from denying self, taking up our cross, and following Him is real.  I recommend it to every Christian and to every church.

Come visit and see how Christ is reforming this group of sinners!

Worship Music

We enjoy finding and singing new songs around here.  We do enjoy the sound of the music, but we’re more interested in the lyrics.  Are they biblically accurate?  Are they Christ-centered?  Do they really serve as a channel for us to think about and declare the worth of God?

Words from three songs we sang this past Sunday are still sticking in my mind today.  One song is familiar to most – “And Can It Be?”, by Charles Wesley.  The first verse expresses the amazement, shock, humility we should have as we consider the grace of God to us – Can it be, is it possible, can it really be true that I should benefit from the Savior’s death which I caused with my sin?!  “Amazing love!  How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”

Another song is “Sing His Bleeding Love“, by Isaac Watts.  Here is the final verse and chorus – “My soul looks back to see the burdens Thou didst bear hanging on the cursed tree and trusts her guilt was there.  Believing we rejoice to see the curse removed.  O praise the Lamb with cheerful voice and sing His bleeding love.”  How much does He love us?  Enough to bleed for us, to take the curse for us, to remove our guilt from us.

The last song is “Deeper and Deeper” by Oswald J. Smith.  The verses express our desire to go deeper and deeper into an experiential knowledge of the heart, will, cross, joy, and love of Jesus.  The second verse says “Into the will of Jesus deeper and deeper I go, praying for grace to follow, seeking His way to know; bowing in full surrender, low at His blessed feet, bidding Him take, break me and make, till I am molded, complete.”  That’s a dangerous verse to sing, but an accurate one from someone who truly worships Christ.

I hope these music samples help you to worship as they helped me.

Christmas Reality

I came back to the office this morning and and opened a Christmas card and letter which had come during my time away.  The second sentence from my friend said, “I pray that you had a good Christmas.”  We haven’t spoken since I sent a letter to him before Christmas, so he had no idea how I spent the time in between.  Many who are familiar with the events of my Christmas would say there is no way anyone could consider it “good”.  You see, my mother passed away on Christmas day.  She was only 73, had been in good health, and was serving the poor of a local community when she had the stroke that eventually took her life.  She left behind a lonely, heartbroken husband of 52 years.  Would I consider that a good Christmas?  Would I consider it a good Christmas day when my father, brother, and I had to make that excruciating decision to stop life support for my mother?  Would I consider it a good Christmas day as I stood by her bed and watched her breathing get slower and slower until she breathed no more?  My answer to all of these questions is YES!  In fact, this may have been the first time I ever really celebrated what is called “Christmas”.  Christmas was no holiday for me this year, no “season”, no tradition.  I was not allowed to get lost in parties and dramas and cantatas and candies and decorations.  As I watched my mother drift off Sunday afternoon I couldn’t have been any more focused and any happier that God the Son set aside the form of God and took on the form of man, was born of a virgin, to live and die as the righteous Substitute for sinners!  The incarnation of Christ was my rock, my confidence, my peace, and my joy this year like never before.  My mother is face to face with her Savior because that Savior was born to live and die for her some 2000 years ago.  I pray that all of you had as good of a Christmas as I did this year!