God’s gifts are not given independently of Him, but through intimate union with Him. In other words, God gives grace like a mother’s milk.  His grace doesn’t function outside of Himself—as though a box of wisdom could be shipped to us—but rather flows directly from Him. He doesn’t send us a package containing joy or hope or love; we get His gifts only by being united to Him. He gives wisdom as we latch on to Him, comfort as we latch on to Him, virtues as we latch on Him. There is no saving, sustaining, or sanctifying grace apart from intimate fellowship with our Savior. So don’t just seek godliness; seek God, and thereby obtain godliness. To speak in precious human terms—with reverence—God doesn’t feed us via a bottle, but holds us closely, to His breast.

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While I was out of town, MTC passed the “half a million hits” mark. When I made my first post back on February 2, 2006 I never imagined that it would be so fun, so personally edifying, and such a source of fellowship with likeminded believers. Much of what I’ve posted here has been just for kicks—funny stuff. Some posts have been quite controversial, though not for the sake of controversy, as much as I know my heart. Most of it’s been pretty temporary: the shelf-life for the average blog post is less than two days. But by God’s grace, there’s some lasting fruit from MTC—friendships, ministry discussions, and perhaps most significantly, hymns (which were first posted here, but now reside at ChurchWorksMedia.com). It’s been a blessing…most of the time.

I praise the Lord for the opportunity. I’m not at all certain that MTC will be around long enough to pass the 1,000,000 hits mark, but it’s been a pleasure heretofore! Thank you, friends, for reading!

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” Psalm 115:1

I preached Sunday on a biblical response to prophecy and current events—a message Joe assigned the more provocative title “How Should the Christian Respond to Fox News.” I’m hopeful that it will provide encouragement and perspective to Christians whose awareness of current events can easily morph into obsession and distraction, myself included.

“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

There’s a common misunderstanding that is really nothing short of heresy: the idea that Jesus is somehow nicer than “the God of the Old Testament.” I’m not sure where the idea comes from—perhaps a misunderstanding of passages like John 1:17. But I’ve heard it from church members, and I recently read hints of it from no less a scholar than Philip Yancey. In his book The Jesus I Never Knew (which I’m enjoying, by the way), he suggests that Jesus is somehow kinder and gentler than the God of the OT:

“In short, Jesus moved the emphasis from God’s holiness (exclusive) to God’s mercy (inclusive)” (p. 155). [In a footnote just before this sentence, Yancey quotes Dorothy Sayers as she contrasts the attitude of Jesus toward women with that of "His prophets before Him" (p. 154). What a strange notion!]

“As Shusaku Endo sees it, Jesus brought the message of mother-love to balance the father-love of the Old Testament” (p. 158).

Jesus certainly didn’t minimize the exclusive holiness of God. He lived a perfect life to fulfill it, then died a penal death to satisfy it! He is merciful, to be sure, but His is a sanctifying mercy…as always.

There are scores of problems with the idea that Jesus is the “good cop” and the Father/OT God the “bad cop.” Here are a few that come to mind:

1. First, Jesus IS the God of the Old Testament. Evidence of this abounds. For example, John 12:41 says that when Isaiah saw the thrice-holy Jehovah lifted up, he was seeing the Son of God. To contrast Jesus with “the God of the OT” reveals a ghastly Christology.

2. Jesus reveals the Father. One of my favorite themes of the New Testament (and one of the most oft neglected, I believe) is the teaching that Jesus came to earth to reveal to us the unseen God (John 1:18; Hebrews 1:1-3). (I’ve written on that grand theme in the 2nd verse of this hymn.) As Christ tells Thomas in John 14:7, to see Him is to see the Father. If you want to know what “the God of the OT” is like, look at Jesus.

3. God has always been nice. Infinitely nice. Omninice. Thus, when asked to uniquely reveal Himself to Moses, here’s what He said:

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Ex 34:6-7).

He’s always been merciful, as the first half of that statement makes clear. And He’s always been holy, as the second half makes clear. And that won’t change. He won’t change (Malachi 3:6).

4. Jesus isn’t as passive as people think. Those who think of “the OT God” as a God of judgment and Jesus as a God of undiluted mercy need to spend some time in the book of Revelation, which has far more blood than any OT book!

5. The three members of the Trinity are indivisible in their attributes. None is more anything than the others. Each—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is perfect.

There are more reasons (share them!), and the ones I’ve listed could probably be expressed and illustrated more clearly. But the bottom line is this: The idea that Jesus is in any way different from “the God of the OT” is bogus. Dangerously so. Don’t believe it.

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Note: While I obviously take exception with the statements I quoted from Philip Yancey, I’m not suggesting that he’s guilty of all I’m addressing here. Not at all. We just need to be careful how we speak of Christ.

Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary (one of my favorite institutions) hosts the Mid-America Conference on Preaching (one of my favorite conferences) each fall. It’s only 3 hours away from my home. It’s not expensive. I have a ton of friends up there. The content is always top shelf. Yet, I rarely am able to attend, for one reason or another.

Thankfully, MP3’s and PDF’s of the general sessions and workshops are already available online. The theme of the conference was “Gospel-Driven Separation.” I look forward to hearing them!

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Another resource on the topic which may be of interest is an article I wrote for the OBF Visitor and have since posted here, also entitled “Gospel-Driven Separation.”

At the request of our elders, I’m preaching tomorrow on a godly response to prophecy and current events. It’s not mystery that “the daily news” is the source of angst to multitudes of professing Christians right now. With that in mind, I’m excited about the message, and I’m hopeful it will be both sanctifying and settling for believers here.

My question for you, then:

In your conversations with fellow Christians, what current events are making them nervous, especially as they attempt to connect the dots between biblical prophecy and current events?

Thanks for your input. Feel free to explain and to share “your two cents” on the topic—why Christians are anxious about these matters, whether it’s healthy, potential dangers to avoid, how we should be thinking about them, etc.

“Maranatha!”

Joel Owen of Cambridge Bible Church in Cambridge, Ohio is one of the most faithful pastors of my acquaintance. He’s a humble, loving, biblically-saturated man. I’m blessed to have him as a friend.

Joel recently preached at the Men’s Retreat at Peniel Bible Camp, the theme for which was cultivating moral purity. I wasn’t able to attend this year, but I just benefitted very much from the message during an hour on my stationary bike. (Joel almost made me forget how bad I felt. Almost.) It focuses on the process of catastrophic failure as demonstrated in the life of Peter. You can find the message here. (After going to the site, click the “download” link in the upper right corner of the screen.) I commend it to you.

The Scripture speaks of the church as a temple in which God dwells. It uses the analogy to communicate several vital truths. Christ is our Builder and Owner (Matt 16:18). He is our Cornerstone, and the apostolic and prophetic revelation about Him is our Foundation (Eph 2:20). We are being built by a team of “sub-contractors,” making competition and schism sinful (1 Cor 3:9-10). God lives in us, corporately (1 Cor 3:16) and individually (1 Cor 6:19), and therefore warns us against “defacing” His temple, either by harming the local church (1 Cor 3:17) or by immorality (1 Cor 6:18, 20).

All of that is wonderful. However, another lesson from the “building” imagery has become increasingly precious to me: The church is a “work in progress.” Ephesians 2:21–22 and 1 Peter 2:5 both indicate that the church is being built. It’s not finished. We haven’t arrived. And construction sites—whether physical or spiritual—are usually messy. Every church could appropriately display a “pardon our dust” sign to announce its spiritual condition.

In light of this, I encourage you to consider what your church’s “Corporate Self-Identity” is. How do you, your church leaders, and your fellow members view your local church? Is it the good church in town? The conservative music church? The uncompromising church? The serious church? The dressy church? The friendly church? The everything-runs-like-clockwork church? The our-children-are-perfect church?

I understand that every church will have a number of words that describe it well. But the most obvious description—the one that pops most readily into every member’s head—should be this: “We’re a congregation of sinners in need of God’s grace. We’re the we’re-a-mess-and-we-need-Jesus church.” Paul’s self-identification as the chief of sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15 should be our corporate calling card, too.

Such a self-perception would turn most churches upside down. It would go a long way in prohibiting the charade church members put on each week in which they pretend that they’re growing, their marriages are healthy, and their children obedient. It would encourage struggling Christians (and that’s all of us!) to get help for relationship problems and besetting sins rather than working to keep up appearances. It would motivate godly transparency. It would increase mutual empathy and spiritual fellowship. It would help the church reach out to the lost, who are either frightened away or turned off by the “we’ve all got it together” air of many churches. It would inspire humility. It would invigorate worship. It would, most importantly, magnify Christ, who came into the world not to gather perfect people to Himself but to save sinners like us (1 Tim 1:15; Luke 5:32; 19:10).

So, what’s your church’s Corporate Self-Identity?

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“Sound Words” is a monthly column in the OBF Visitor, the publication of The Ohio Bible Fellowship. This article was first printed in June 2009. It is cross-posted from the OBF Visitor blog, where many other articles are posted and may be searched by author, category and keyword. Information on subscribing to the Visitor is available here.

Joe Tyrpak provides another psalm that is ideally suited for corporate worship. Joe faithfully represents each line of the text metrically, then concludes with two stirring verses recording Jesus Christ’s fulfillment of the Psalm. I love it, and singing the psalms has added much to our corporate worship at TCBC. Thanks, Joe, for your good ministry!

Psalm 8—How Awesome Is Your Name (Text by Joe Tyrpak; Tune: Gesangbuch der Herzogl, Württemberg, 1784)

Full Page / Half Page / Text / Notes & Discussion / Midi (Ellacombe)

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