The Scriptures and the World, by A.W. Pink

To more and more desire the “sincere milk” that is God’s Word, we must constantly seek His face in this dark world (I Pet. 1:19).  The question we should then ask ourselves, then, with regards to our spiritual growth, is the following: “Does my reading and study of God’s Word make me less worldly?” (Click here to view the full article.)

We profit from the Word when:
1) our eyes are opened to discern the true character of the world
2) we learn that the world is an enemy to be resisted and overcome
3) we learn that Christ died to deliver us from “this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4)
4) our hearts are weaned from the world
5) we walk in separation from the world
6) when we evoke the hatred of the world
7) we are elevated above the world

Thoughts:
How attached are we to this world?  How distressed do we find ourselves when troubles come and how to we compare our reactions to such events to our reactions when the name or Word of the Lord is profaned?  “Have you learned to be independent of and defy the world?”

“Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord”

The Scriptures and Obedience, by A.W. Pink

We are not Christians at all unless we have fully surrendered to and “received Christ Jesus the Lord” (Col. 2:6). We would plead with you to ponder that statement diligently. Satan is deceiving many today by leading them to suppose that they are savingly trusting in “the finished work” of Christ while their hearts remain unchanged and self still rules their lives. Listen to God’s Word: “Salvation is far from the wicked; for they seek not thy statutes” (Ps. 119:155). Do you really seek His statutes”? Do you diligently search His Word to discover what He has commanded? “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). What could be plainer than that?

A man profits from the Word when:
1) he discovers God’s demands upon him
2) he discovers how entirely and how sinfully he has failed to meet God’s demands
3) he is taught therefrom that God, in His infinite grace, has fully provided for His people’s meeting His own demands
4) there is wrought in us a love for His commandments
5) our heart and will are yielded to all God’s commandments
6) our soul is moved to pray earnestly for enabling grace
(Click Here) 

Lopsided Relationships

I read a post on Between Two Worlds by Justin Taylor and thought he brought up an interesting point from Ed Welch’s book “Running Scared.” We as Christians are commanded to serve others for Christ came not to be served, but to serve. So we are always humbled by the example set by Christ and aim for the selfless life.

However, here’s the question that Welch provides: “Which do we really need–to give love or receive it?”  Obviously we need both and so we may try to get around the question with the ‘middle path’ between the two. But the middle ground is clearly not a Biblical understanding of relationship. Our relationship with God is a lopsided relationship! God loved us before we knew Him and even now we cannot fairly reciprocate the perfect love He has given us. To tie into the covenantal theology that I have been posting on, God is the one who initiates, affirms and fulfills covenant with his people, a clearly lopsided arrangement. Just like in the covenant, God’s relationship with us is not a contract or pact of some sort, but is divinely monergistic by grace alone.

The world tells us to have a ‘middle ground’ kind of life, both giving and receiving love. Yet Christ gave his life for those who did not love him, let alone know him. And as Christ demonstrated perfected love as he hung on the cross, he was mocked and scoffed at. Likewise, we should pour out ourselves for those who do not love us and seek to model Christ’s lopsided relationship with us.

The Scriptures and Good Works, by A.W. Pink

So often Christians, throughout the history of theology, have taken various extremes in Biblical truths—thus, corrupting these truths.  From the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of the Christian to “the justifying faith of Paul and the justifying works of James” because Christians do not understand Biblical truths, and instead, create there own, they are left to wonder how their understanding of Scripture fits into the Bible’s overall truth-claims.  Only by the power of the Holy Spirit can guide the believer’s mind to total honesty when interpreting Scripture.  But, to many, a tough question still remains to be answered in total; it is that of good works.  How do good works play into this idea of not taking extremes but instead maintain precisely what Scripture says?  How do good works play into truly profiting from the Word of God?  Pink offers seven points by which they relate and build upon one another when.  We know we are profiting from the word when:

1) we are thereby taught the true place of good works
2) we are thereby taught the absolute necessity of good works
3) we are taught thereby the true nature of good works
4) we are taught thereby the true source of good works
5) we are taught thereby the great importance of good works
6) we are taught thereby the true scope of good works

Side-note:
The reason I don’t give an extended summary under each of the five points is that Pink’s analysis of these points are very clear and concise, and I just want the reader to read it because I think that may be more helpful that way.  (Click here to read the article!)

What Role Does Evangelism Play in the Church?

Tony Payne, from the Sola Panel writes…

Now, at the very least, we would have to say, “Yes, evangelism should and will happen in Christian assemblies, because of their very nature as places where the word of God is prayerfully proclaimed”. In any true Christian gathering, the gospel will be taught and heard, and since outsiders or non-Christians will often be present (by invitation or otherwise), evangelism, by definition, will take place…However, even if we acknowledge that there will be ‘gospel’ things happening all over the place in church, it is also important to say that evangelism is not the purpose of Christian assemblies. It is certainly not their focus. In the New Testament, churches are characteristically the fruit of evangelism, not its agent. Evangelism usually takes place outside the assembly-in the marketplace, the synagogue, the prison, and in daily gospel conversation.

I think Payne provides a good argument against the idea of the seeker-friendly church. It seems like many church try to balance the “seeker-friendliness” and good, solid Biblical teaching that does not stay on the surface level for the sake of the non-Christians present in the congregation. I feel that non-Christians should always be acknowledged in church, but this should not necessarily come into play in how the sermon is written and delivered. As long as the gospel is preached faithfully during the sermon, that is the most important thing for non-Christians to hear, not a sermon trying to lure them into the Christian faith. Perhaps this balancing act should be removed from this on-going discussion about how to “do church”?

To read the whole article, click here.

The Scriptures and Prayer, by A.W. Pink

God’s children tend to sin more when they are praying rather than when acting in other ways, because so often do believers not understand the sickness they are repenting and asking for forgiveness for.  But how do we know how to pray?  How can we please God with prayers from the depths of our hearts?  Jude 20 tells us to “pray in the Spirit”.  The Word of God explains to us the holiness of Him and what he requires of us.  The believer is profiting little from the Word if the purity and power of his prayer life is dead.  “Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves” (James 1:22).

Pink provides seven criterion by which an individual knows he is profited from the Scriptures:
1)  when he is brought to realize the deep importance of prayer.
2)  when he is made to feel that we know not how to pray.
3)  when he is made conscious of our need of the Spirit’s help.
4)  when the Spirit teaches us the right end in praying.
5)  when he is taught how to plead God’s promises.
6)  when he is brought to complete submission unto God.
7)  when prayer become a real and deep joy.

For those, like me, who believe they are too busy:
“…the fact remains that each of us takes time for anything we deem to be imperative. Who ever lived a busier life than our Saviour? Yet who found more time for prayer? If we truly yearn to be suppliants and intercessors before God and use all the available time we now have, He will so order things for us that we shall have more time.” 

John Murray on the New Covenant

Three preliminary thoughts from John Murray:

The language Zacharias uses in Luke 1:72 runs parallel with the language God used when preparing the Israelites for deliverance from Egypt.

Paul mentions covenants as plural in Romans 9:4, so the New Testament writers did not think of God’s covenants with Israel as simply Abrahamic. Also, in Ephesians 2:12, Paul speaks of the covenants as covenants of promise.

Murray stresses this last one the most, that in Galatians 3:15, 17, Paul stresses the immutable nature of covenants. Thus follows security.

New and Old Covenants

The fact that there is a new and an old covenant, does not mean that one is a covenant and the other is not. Instead, they should carry the same similar characteristics, and they do-namely its monergistic bestowment, divine establishment and fulfillment. The new covenant is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant (Lk. 1:72; Gal. 3:15).

Christ said that his blood was the blood of the covenant, shed for the forgiveness of sins. The covenant is the epitome of grace, truth and relationship, and this fullness of grace is purchased by Christ’s blood. In Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians, he clearly shows that he views the new covenant as the climax of redemptive history and the ultimate union of relationship.

In Hebrews, the author describes reasons why the new covenant is better than the Mosaic covenant. The previous description of covenant is applied directly here. The new covenant is a wonderfully closer spiritual relationship, that was established in the Abrahamic covenant, but reaches its fruition here. The new covenant has better promises. However, the new covenant does not nullify the law, but instead is more fulfilled in us (Heb. 8:10). Also, the new covenant covers sins (Heb. 8:12). Finally, the new covenant is one of growing in knowledge of God available to all (Heb. 8:11). The new covenant is a true manifestation of all the descriptors we have seen applied to covenants, being divinely initiated, confirmed and fulfilled.

Click here to read the article.

John Murray on the Davidic Covenant

If the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants were both divinely appointed, then we should expect the same for future covenants. Murray turns to David and first defends the notion that David even had a covenant with God. He references Samuel 7:12-17:

When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

What is characteristic about the Davidic covenant is that it seems to emphasize security and immutability on the part of God’s divine, sovereign will. Later, when David is in despair, his assurance rests in God’s covenant with him (2 Sa. 13:5). The promises to David are messianic because Christ will eventually be the one to establish the Davidic throne for all eternity. Following passages support the idea that Christ was given for a covenant: Is. 42:1, 6; 44:8; 55:3-4. God establishes the covenant and also fulfills the promise by sending Christ as a servant of the covenant.

He is the angel of the covenant because He comes in pursuance of the covenant promise and purpose, and He is Himself the covenant because the blessings and provisions of the covenant are to such an extent bound up with Him that He is Himself the embodiment of these blessings and of the presence of the Lord with His people which the covenant insures. To whatever extent the response of inclining the ear, of hearing, and of coming (Is. lv. 3) may be requisite in order that the blessings of covenant grace and relationship may be ours, it must be apparent that the covenant itself is a sovereign donation of the child born and the Son given (Is. ix. 6).

Next time we will finally be hitting the New Testament covenant.

Click here to read the article.

The Scriptures and Christ, by A.W. Pink

Man must contemplate God’s purity and his impurity because the Scriptures testify to Christ’s purity (John 5:39) and our depravity.  Our profiting lay in “mystery of Christ” which is only revealed in the Bible (Eph. 3:4).  Our profiting from the Word of God can then be determined based upon the extent to which Christ becomes more and more real and precious to us.  Pink continues with his typical layout of seven points by which, he believes (and, I think, Scripture deems legitimate), an Individual can know if he or she is profiting from the Word.  He is profiting when:
1)  The Scriptures show the individual his need for Christ.  This is, however, not simply upon conversion, but throughout the sanctification of the believer.
2)  The Scriptures makes Christ more real to the individual.  That is, as Job said, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee” (42:5).
3)  When the individual is more engrossed with Christ’s perfections.
4)  As Christ becomes more precious to the individual (I Pet. 2:7).
5)  As the individual’s confidence in Christ increases.
6)  When the individual feels a deepening desire to please Christ (John 14:23).
7)  When the Scriptures cause the individual to long for the return of Christ.
 
Side-note:
The greatest difficulty that many believers have–my self included–is to more and more long for the supernatural knowledge that is spoken of in the Scriptures—that is, that which is “not intellectual but spiritual, not theoretical but experimental, not general but personal.”  The question to continually ask ourselves, then, is “Is it your chief joy to get alone and be occupied with Him? If not, your Bible reading and study has profited you little indeed” (Pink).  (Click here to read it.)

John Murray on the Mosaic Covenant

The Mosaic covenant is the covenant most easily construed as supporting the idea of covenant being a compact. Thus, the Mosaic covenant has oftentimes been put in contradistinction from the Abrahamic and New Testament covenants. Murray lists three preliminary observations:

1. Conditional fulfillment is not only visible in the Mosaic covenant, but is also in the Abrahamic covenant.
2. God rescuing Israel out of Egypt was in faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant (Ex. 2:24).
3. Relationship is the core of the Mosaic covenant, much like the Abrahamic covenant (Ex. 6:7, Dt. 29:13).

So we should not think that the Mosaic covenant is a sequel to the Abrahamic covenant, but instead that the Mosaic covenant was to help fulfill the Abrahamic covenant.

The Mosaic covenant is referred to oftentimes with the requirement of God for them to keep it. These references include Exodus 19:5, 6; 24:7, 8). These make it seem as if God needed Israel’s acceptance of the covenant before it could be made. Murray contends this point and references Exodus 19:5:

If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me.

The covenant is ordained by grace, creating a relationship. It is not a conditional agreement in which Israel had to do something before the covenant was “signed.” What keeping the covenant actually does is it will give the blessing that the covenant stipulates. Before blood was shed, the covenant was already in effect, blood being only an outward sign of its establishment. Other verses support this idea of “sovereign appointment”: Ex. 34:27, 28; Lv. 24:8; Nu. 18:19, 25:13).

So how does obedience coincide with a “monergistic administration of grace”?