Doctrine of Assurance in the Sermon on the Mount

I completed D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount” a few nights ago and there are so many things I could talk about. The book is full of great expository teaching and careful handling of the Word. I highly recommend this volume to anyone who may be taking a season to study the Sermon on the Mount; it’s an excellent resource for living the theology that our Lord taught.

I wish to focus on a specific section, which I think may benefit us, especially with the piqued interest previously when discussing the doctrine of assurance. The three chapters are aptly titled “False Peace,” “Unconscious Hypocrisy” and “The Signs of Self-Deception.” In these three chapters, Lloyd-Jones deals with Matthew 7:21-23, one of the most terrifying things that I’ve read in the Gospels.

What is most terrifying about the passage is that the unsaved sinners are those who have prophesied, driven out demons and performed miracles, all in His name, and yet they are not in fact saved. We can profess orthodox beliefs, handle the Word with accuracy and even act Christian, and yet may in fact be turned away at the gates of the kingdom. I’m not going to go into a discussion of what Lloyd-Jones says about the doctrine of assurance in-depth, but I’ve listed below some of the causes and signs of ‘self-deception’ that he lists. I’ve found them searching and very humbling and commend them to you for thoughtful perusal.

Causes of self-deception:

1. False doctrine of assurance. Tendency to base our assurance only upon certain statements that we ourselves make.
2. Refusal to examine oneself. We are ready to say certain things, even orthodox things, but are not ready to examine our lives in the light of the commandments and scriptural teaching.
3. Living on one’s activities. We must not be so busy “doing the work of the kingdom” that we forget our own spiritual life.
4. Balancing our lives by putting one thing against another. Our conscience condemns us because of certain sins we are entertaining, but we waive it aside because of the good work we are also doing.
5. Failure to heed the plain teachings of Scripture. We try to wiggle out of certain teachings and try to argue with them.
6. Failure to realize what matters is our relationship to Christ. Importance is not in our activities or their results, but our relationship to Christ.
7. Failure to submit ourselves. God does not want our zeal, fervour, works or anything else. What he wants is our submission, he wants us.

Signs of self-deception

1. Our main interest is in our activities (church, small groups, etc.) not Christ
2. Undue interest in phenomena
3. Undue interest in organizations, denominations, particular churches, movements or fellowships
4. Interest in social and general rather than personal aspects of Christianity
5. Our main interest is in apologetics instead of true relationship with Christ
6. Purely academic and theoretical interest in theology
7. Reading the Bible intellectually rather than in a spiritual manner
8. Listening to sermons while interested in just the letter of the Word preached
9. Playing grace against and law and only being interested in grace

NOTE: I’m unsure if people are notified of comments made via RSS/email subscription or not, but if not, there is a “Recent Comments” box on the uppermost right hand navigation column. I’m just pointing this out because Kaitlyn has posted some comments, but it’s on older posts so may not be noticed, so check regularly at this “Recent Comments” box because older topics may be brought back to life.

Going Into Debt for His Glory

As some of you might know, I listen to church sermons, conference seminars and seminary lectures while I travel and generally alternate between the three “genres”. This is something I commend to those of you who use public transportation to get to work; I find it a good use of time.

Currently, in terms of conferences, I’m working through the New Attitude 2007 Conference. The focus of the conference was on discernment. Of the seminars at NA2007, I would recommend “Discern Your Culture” by Al Mohler, “Discern Your Doctrine” by Mark Dever and “Discern What Pleases God (2 Parts)” by John Piper. If you want to listen to the main sessions at NA2007, click here to download them.

This is the nugget of gold I got out of John Piper’s seminar titled “Discern What Pleases God: Personal Obedience.” The overarching concept of Piper’s message was not falling into the subtle temptations of using work as a means of justification. We’ve thought through this concept quite a bit, I think, in regards to the role of grace in justification and sanctification, so I’m not going to go too deep into Piper’s cautions of not falling into the mindset of obedience as a way to “pay God back” or obedience as the groundwork for a “works-based theology”.

Piper brought forward an objection to this idea of not “paying God back” for the cross, and in responding to that objection he presented a wonderful Biblical truth.

“¹²What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? ¹³I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD” (Psalm 116:12-13).

So in verse 12, we see the question of how we “pay God back.” But what is seen here is that we do not in fact pay Him back. In the next verse, we see the psalmist explaining what we must “render to the LORD for all his benefits,” which is to lift up the cup of salvation. The cup of salvation is an empty cup that must be filled. How do we see this? Because the psalmist couples the lifting of the cup with calling on the name of the LORD.

So what do we “render to the LORD”? Ask for more! God is glorified when we ask Him for more grace. Thank God for His grace to us sinners by asking for more grace. This truth can be summed up in the third stanza of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”:

O to grace how great a debtor

            Daily I’m constrained to be!

Daily, we grow more and more in debt to the grace of God. And by growing more in debt to grace, the more God is glorified.

This Project’s Future

This is just a quick update on where this blog’s going. As I see it, I think this blog will slowly be evolving into a more standard blog whereby posts are going to be more along the lines of commentary on things I have read (books/articles/etc) and heard (sermons/lectures/conferences) instead of summaries. I have a few reasons for this:

1) Time. It takes quite a bit of time to summarize, and as the summer comes to a close, I’m finding myself with less and less of it.

2) Discussion-oriented vs. Reading-oriented. I have found that the blogosphere is really not a very effective place to host discussions and so am going to redirect the blog to a more reading-oriented/comment-oriented atmosphere instead of a discussion-oriented one.

3) New academic year. This plays into both #1 and #2. With the starting of school, there will be even less time, but what the starting of school means is that there will be more opportunity for discussion. So what I hope is that the blog will maintain some readership during the academic year and that we can in fact discuss Biblical truths and teaching in person as we see each other on campus, large group, etc.

So posts should resume soon hopefully, but will be taking on a more reading-oriented commentary style. And I hope that the vision of this project can continue, namely encouraging discussion about Biblical truths, into the academic year as we see each other in person and can more easily think through these things together.

So what are the benefits? I can see it being two-fold: first, posts should be more readable and a lot faster to read, so there should be less “i need to catch up” messages; second, posts should be more frequent since writing them will not take as long as summarizing an article/chapter/sermon/etc.

Comments are still welcomed and encouraged, just that dialogue will not necessarily be emphasized (but of course is also encouraged).

Brief Hiatus

Hey, I’m going to be busy with a friend whose visiting me in Taiwan, so I will not be posting anything for a few days. Don’t worry, I’m still alive!

Sanctification via Union with Christ, by John Hendryx

“God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:28-31)

Sanctification, like justification, works in an ironic manner. As we grow in grace, the more we understand the depth of our sin. And so sanctification is less about our own spirituality but about Christ becoming greater and glorified. We should not look in ourselves, but look to Christ. As the verse states, Christ is not only our redemption but also our sanctification.

The Everlasting Covenant, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Lloyd-Jones reminds us at the get-go that it is Paul’s tendency to write a wealth of knowledge and doctrine into a nutshell. And so it is with Ephesians 1:3. We should not simply glance over it quickly and be charmed by just the sound of the words. Instead, we need to read and analyze every single word to discover their meaning.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

The Context
In the first verse, Apostle reminds the Ephesians who and what they are. The second verse is a prayer offered for them and reminds them of what they can enjoy in the Christian life. This common greeting of “grace and peace” is not just a salutation or formality, but full of Pauline logic. Because of who they are (v.1) they enjoy the blessings of grace and peace (v. 2). And finally, in the third verse, Paul makes examines how this is possible. In a way, verse 3 is the center of the entire Epistle.

Quote: Ray Ortlund on Being Truly Reformed

My Reformed friend, can you move among other Christian groups and really enjoy them? Do you admire them? Even if you disagree with them in some ways, do you learn from them? What is the emotional tilt of your heart – toward them or away from them? If your Reformed theology has morphed functionally into Galatian sociology, the remedy is not to abandon your Reformed theology. The remedy is to take your Reformed theology to a deeper level. Let it reduce you to Jesus only. Let it humble you. Let this gracious doctrine make you a fun person to be around. The proof that we are Reformed will be all the wonderful Christians we discover around us who are not Reformed. Amazing people. Heroic people. Blood-bought people. People with whom we are eternally one – in Christ alone.

Ray Ortlund’s post “Truly Reformed” on Christ is Deeper Still.

God Glorified in Man’s Dependence, by Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards preached this sermon on the Public Lecture in Boston, July 8, 1731 and was published after several ministers requested it. This was the first sermon published by Jonathan Edwards. The issue that Edwards addresses is in what way are we are dependent on God and how the work of redemption strips us of all reasons to glorify ourselves. Edwards gives more examples than I listed, and so I would recommend reading his sermon for a full exposition of these Biblical truths.

“So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:29-31).

Corinth was not far from Athens, the seat of Greek philosophy. Paul explains how the gospel has made the wisdom of the Greeks foolishness for they cannot know God through all their philosophizing. And when God reveals the gospel to these “wise men,” they label it as foolishness. So why did God choose “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise”? Paul explains it here-so that no man may boast.

Quote: Martin Luther on Galatians 4:8

Whether you understand the “elements of the world” to mean the Law of Moses, or the religions of the heathen nations, it makes no difference. Those who lapse from the Gospel to the Law are no better off than those who lapse from grace into idolatry. Without Christ all religion is idolatry.

Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 4 Verse 8

Not Faith, But Christ, by Horatius Bonar

In the opening paragraph of this essay, Bonar speaks of justification and assurance. There is justification resulting from believing the gospel and there is assurance of that justification from believing God’s promise. The central issue of this essay, to put in oversimplified terms, is that Christ saves, not faith. Faith applies the atonement to individual believers, but in and of itself it lacks a salvific nature.

Faith is not our righteousness. It is accounted as righteousness, but is not righteousness itself. If there is righteousness in us (if we have faith), then it contradicts the need for the righteousness of Christ which is by faith. Faith imputes righteousness, but is distinct from it.