Saturday, August 30, 2008

Romans 3

In the last few posts I've written about our urgent need to return to preaching the law of God. (Scroll down to read them).

For most of the church's 2000 year history this was the accepted norm for gospel preaching. Today, however, it seems such a radical idea that one has to defend it.

Well, let's take a look at just one chapter in Romans - chapter 3. The apostle Paul, who wrote in numerous places in his letters to the churches about the law, gives us understanding of its role in the gospel and the conversion of sinners.

1. To whom is the law directed?

Verse 19 - "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."

There's the answer: "those who are under the law". That is, all those who have not yet come under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. (See Romans 8:2) The unbeliever.

2. What does the law accomplish?

Verse 19 - It silences all arguments and objections by bringing the conviction of sin. "... that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may be guilty before God." There is certainly a place for apologetics - reasoning together with unbelievers about the truth. These arguments, however, are usually only aimed at the intellect and have limited results. But the law of God goes directly to the conscience of man.

3. Who is saved by the law?

Verse 20 - "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

The answer is plain, that no one is saved by the law! It's function is to bring "the knowledge of sin". As D.L.Moody said, "The law can drive a man only to Calvary, and no further."

Notice again that emphatic "no flesh". If a person objects to simply clinging to Christ, and decides instead that (since the law of the Lord is perfect) they are going to try keeping the law to justify themselves before God, they will find themselves only condemned by it. The natural man has already broken it (and thereby stands as a guilty lawbreaker before God), and in his sin nature cannot keep it fully no matter how hard he tries in the future.

This "no flesh" statement also confirms that both Jews and gentiles are the same under the law. Keeping of the law is not a path that will save any Jew, despite the false teaching of some Christian preachers who are no real friends to Israel. If you love the Jewish people you will point them to Jesus Christ as their only hope of salvation. (Their own consciences bear witness that they are only condemned under the law).

4. Now that grace has come, is the need for the law ended?

Verse 31 - "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law."

Is the law now made void by the New Testament? No! It fulfills exactly the same role as it always has. It is the "schoolmaster" which drives us to Christ to be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24) When we come to faith in Christ we "establish the law" - we show it's effectiveness, because if we have abandoned all to put on Christ by faith it can only be that we have come under conviction of our sin. The law, then, has fulfilled it's function in us to bring us to Christ.

So, paradoxically, it is only the Christian (not the religious or the moral man who is trying to keep the law and makes their boast in the law) who truly "establishes" or shows the power of the law.

Pastor Phil

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The perfect law of God

In today's church, the mere mention of the preaching of "law" incites looks of disdain and suspicion. Ever heard Christians say something like this? ...
  • "Surely to preach law makes you a legalist, and doesn't the Bible teach against that?"

  • "The law is Old Testament, and now that Jesus has come all of that has been done away with!"

  • "People don't need to hear about law - they need to hear about grace."
In fact, the routine training of preachers today usually includes the idea, fostered by the pragmatic philosophy of the church growth movement, that it is not expedient to tell people about their sin or failure - instead we must tell people only about a God who loves them no matter what they have done. Preach positive messages that do not offend, and you'll keep people coming back to hear more.

These ideas are 180 degrees, diametrically opposed to Biblical evangelism. The preachers of the New Testament, beginning with Jesus Himself and continuing through the apostles, made it their normal practise to preach "Man's need and God's gift". They declared to people that they were sinners who needed to repent, appealing to their consciences by the law of God, they allowed the Holy Spirit to do His great work of conviction in people's hearts, and THEN (and only then) told of God's gracious answer in the death of Christ to put away sin.

Is the law an outdated message? Is it now superceded in such a way as to have no part to play?

NO! This is a misnomer. Psalm 19:7 tells us that "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." There is nothing wrong with the law - the failure is with sinful man who in his fallen nature cannot keep it. So, can we be saved by the keeping of the law? NO! Every one of us have already broken it, and stand condemned by it, and thereby cut off from a holy God.

We need to understand the PURPOSE of the law. 1 Timothy 1:8 says "But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully". Notice this is a New Testament text, and Paul (a New Testament apostle) teaches that "the law IS good" ... present tense. But it must be used lawfully; that is "rightly" or "correctly", or "for the purpose it was designed for".

He goes on in the very next verse (1:9) to say, "knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine..."

In order to be saved, men must "repent and believe". Repent of their sin, and believe on (cling to, trust in and rely on) Jesus Christ as their only Savior. But how will a person repent unless he sees himself a sinner in need of forgiveness? This is the role of the law. It is to show us how hopelessly short of God's moral standard we fall, and as such we are under His judgment.

Here is the Biblical principle ... it is "Law to the proud, Grace to the humble". Galatians 3:24 tells us, "Therefore the law was our tutor (schoolmaster) to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The law is given as the canon to blast apart man's self-righteousness and expose his conscience to the full and unrelenting gaze of Almighty God. Only when his pride is thus broken, and he sees his desperate need will God's grace be precious to him. The message of God's grace is meaningless and irrelavent to people, until they see their sinfulness.

John Wesley told young preachers that they ought to preach "90% law and 10% grace". Some might think this just hyperbole, and if not then it is an extreme view to say the least. But think about it. The real battle is to get sinful man to recognize his true condition. Once this is accomplished and a person is trembling under the knowledge of God's wrath against their sin, you only need the simplest presentation of the gracious gospel of salvation in Jesus and they will cling to Him immediately.

In discarding the preaching of the law, modern evangelism has given up the real power of God to bring about true repentance. A repentance-less gospel is no gospel at all. There is no true work of salvation without it. Hence, your preaching will produce false converts and a powerless church. Far from saving people, you will only achieve the hardening of their hearts in self-righteousness and false assurance.

May God bring us back to the old gospel, and we shall have the old power!

Pastor Phil

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Wisdom from some guys the Church loves ...

Admiring them and eulogizing them is a poor replacement for listening to them and learning from them!

"Evermore the Law must prepare the way for the gospel. To overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian experience, and to fill the Church with false converts ... Time will make this plain." - Charles Finney

(Time HAS indeed made it plain! See my last post)


"Satan, the god of all dissension stirs up daily new sects. And last of all which of all others I should never have foreseen or once suspected, he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ." (Martin Luther)

"I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law."

"Lower the Law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [its most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ . . . They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law. Therefore the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place." (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

"First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the Law of God." (George Whitefield)


"...it is the ordinary method of the Spirit of God to convict sinners by the Law. It is this which, being set home on the conscience, generally breaketh the rocks in pieces. It is more especially this part of the Word of God which is quick and powerful, full of life and energy and sharper than any two-edged sword."

"Before I can preach love, mercy and grace I must preach sin, law and judgment."(John Wesley)

"Ask Paul why [the Law] was given. Here is his answer, 'That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God' (Romans 3:19). The Law stops every man's mouth. I can always tell a man who is near the kingdom of God; his mouth is stopped. This, then, is why God gives us the Law—to show us ourselves in our true colors."

"The law can only chase a man to Calvary, no further." (D.L.Moody)


And what more shall we say? Time fails us to tell of John Wycliffe, John Newton, Jonathan Edwards, C.S.Lewis, J.I.Packer, John Bunyan, A.W.Pink, St.Augustine, Matthew Henry, J.C.Ryle, A.B.Earle, A.W.Tozer, D.Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, John MacArthur, and a multitude of others who God has used to preach His perfect Law (which "converts the soul" Psalm 19:7), and shut men up under that Law, and bring them to the foot of a blood-stained cross.

Pastor Phil

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The "R" word

Here are the scandalous observable facts:
  • 80-90% of people who are recorded as making "a decision for Christ" in today's Evangelical churches do not go on to committed discipleship. They are lost to the faith within a very short time, many of them immediately.

  • These people will generally be harder to reach again in the future (for simple reasons that we will discuss another day).

  • Of the 10-20% that can still be found in church attendance a year later, many join the swelling ranks of evangelicals who demonstrate little or no difference in lifestyle than unbelievers.

What are we to make of this state of affairs? Quite simply this: the Church is full of false conversions.

How has this happened? It is the natural (entirely predictable) result of the "gospel" that is now preached from the majority of Evangelical pulpits worldwide. We are simply not preaching the same message that was fearlessly declared by Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitefield, C.H.Spurgeon, D.L.Moody, Charles G.Finney, and a host of others who God so powerfully used to bring untold numbers of unbelievers to thoroughly committed faith in Christ. Our "gospel" in fact is not the same gospel that was preached by the Church-at-large up until the 20th century.

What is the difference? During the last 100 years a monumental shift has taken place. Biblical evangelism (as laid down in the New Testament and modeled in the teaching of Jesus Himself and the early church) uses the Law of God to expose to men their sinfulness and the wrathful judgment that they are subject to when they must stand before a holy God and give an account. Only when a person is convicted of these realities by the Holy Spirit will they truly REPENT and cling to Jesus Christ as their only Savior.

You can sum up the deficiency of today's Church in one word. The "R" word. The missing grace. REPENTANCE.

What is the 'gospel' we are preaching today then? There is no doubt that Ray Comfort has accurately diagnosed the problem when he writes:

"The tragedy of modern evangelism is that, around the turn of the twentieth Century, the church forsook the Law in its capacity to convert the soul and drive sinners to Christ. Modern evangelism therefore had to find another reason for sinners to respond to the gospel, and the reason it chose was the issue of 'life enhancement.' The gospel degenerated into 'Jesus Christ will give you peace, joy, love, fulfillment, and lasting happiness.' Something like this is usually said, 'You will never find true happiness until you come to the Lord. You have a ‘God-shaped vacuum’ in your heart that only He can fill. God will heal your marriage and take away that addiction problem. He’ll get you out of financial difficulty and be your best friend.'" (Ray Comfort, The Problem with the Modern Gospel.")

If right now you are saying to yourself, "What's wrong with that? That sounds like the gospel to me!" - you need to be taken back into God's Word to see the real message of true gospel preaching:

1. Bookmark this blog now to read future posts which will continue on this vital subject.
2. Add your question or comment to these posts and let's have some good discussion about it.
3. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you get Ray Comfort's book "Revival's Golden Key". You can download it for free ...
HERE. If you're not a reader, you can watch a video summary of the same concepts entitled "Hell's Best Kept Secret" ... HERE.

Change MUST come!

Pastor Phil

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The peril of loving men's praise

What a tragic verse of Scripture! John 12:42-43, "Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."

These men came to believe in Jesus (they believed He was who He said He was) but they wouldn’t confess Him openly because they were afraid they’d be put out of the synagogue (excommunicated).

Their habit was so formed in them to love the praise of men, and their identity became so tied up with it, that they could not lay it down when Christ came. Here was the Promised One. They’d studied the prophets words about Him. They had taught others about the promises. Here He was at last – and they began to believe it! Time and eternity were in the balance – but they were still afraid to lose their standing, their reputation. They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

Proverbs 29:25 says “The fear of man brings a snare (a trap)”.

What a great stronghold it is! Once the fear of man has its vice-like grip on you, it’s a very difficult thing to break free from. It can take many forms:

1) Intimidation
2) An over-concern with popularity
3) A fear of rejection
4) A fear of persecution
5) A fear of being in a minority

It occurs to me that one of the key characteristics of a truly revived heart – a mark by which you can know that God is making progress with you – is when the fear of man is broken. You see, the revived heart cares ONLY to please God.

The antidote to the fear of man is the fear of God. When you have a true reverence for God there’s no room any longer for the fear of man.

Listen to these words of the Apostle Paul: 1 Corinthians 4:3-5, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God." AND Galatians 1:10, "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ."

This is not Paul being arrogant. But he has only one real concern – pleasing God. He’s truly living for an audience of One. What a liberating way to live!

And this is how God wants US to live. Not afraid of men nor devils. What does the Word say? 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Pastor Phil

Monday, August 18, 2008

I'll take a resurrection please!


While there is still life people believe that God can yet heal, preserve, save. Once death has come, however, everyone sees it as too late. But Jesus declares, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." (John 11:25)

Jesus had been called to come to His friend Lazarus who was gravely ill. But Jesus delayed, and by the time He arrived Lazarus was already dead. Disappointed and heartbroken, Mary and Martha greeted Jesus by saying that if only He'd made it on time their brother would not be in the grave.

How often do we think God is too late? He didn't answer in the manner or according to the schedule that we were expecting. Now it's all over. God didn't make it on time.

Sometimes God will prefer to glorify His name by a resurrection rather than a preservation or healing.

Recently my good friend, Pastor Vinny Provenzano, was sharing with a group of us out of Ezra chapter 4. In that chapter we read how the enemies of God's people disrupted the rebuilding of the Temple. The last verse of the chapter (v24) has the melancholy words, "Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased, and it was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia." That means the project stopped for 15 years. The people had been so envisioned, so excited - but the work "died".

But then in the very next verse (Ezra 5:1), God sent two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, with the Word of the Lord. And so suddenly the building recommenced. The vision was resurrected.

In Nehemiah's day there was similar opposition to the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls by an enemy, but the work was NOT stopped. The enemy was overcome and the work was completed in record time. Why didn't God do the same in Ezra's time?

Sometimes God will prefer to glorify His name by a resurrection rather than a preservation or healing.

In Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37), the death was so set in that it wasn't a scene of mere corpses, but dry bones; bleached skeletons. Clearly it wasn't even a recent death. This army had been slain for a long time.

God asked Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" The prophet answered "Lord, You know." This is not a lack of faith. It is a recognition that there is a sovereignty about the work of God. If God does not move it cannot be done. WE cannot raise the dead.

What will our answer be to the Lord? Do we have the faith to believe that no matter how great the death, yet God knows what He will yet do? Can we say, "You ARE the resurrection and the life."

Maybe you're part of a church or a ministry that doesn't just seem "sick" any longer, it seems to be dead. Once there was life and vitality. Why was it allowed to die? Why didn't God intervene?

Perhaps God wants to encourage you with His word today that sometimes He just will prefer to glorify His name by a resurrection.

Pastor Phil

Sunday, August 17, 2008

"It will be better for you if I go"

Can you imagine the disciples faces when they heard those words?

John 16:7. Jesus said, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you."

This verse has been opening up to me more and more. There are so many ways in which we can realize the truth of what Jesus said. Jesus was actually eager to depart so that the disciples would receive the Holy Spirit.

Jesus had been WITH the disciples during His earthly ministry, but by the Spirit He would come to be IN them. On earth He had only been able to be in one place at one time, but, by the Spirit's indwelling, the Church would take the presence of the Lord simultaneously to the uttermost parts of the earth.

The more you study this verse and compare it with the experience of the early church, the more applications you find of its truth. More is done in the believers life by the indwelling power of God than through any work Jesus could effect by an external influence. Samuel Chadwick wrote, "Inwardness is the distinctive feature of the Spirit. The Son of God reveals and works from without, but the Spirit of God dwells and works from within."

Here's another example that I've just been musing on. In Luke 11:1-4 we're told that, at the disciples request, Jesus TAUGHT them to pray. He gave them that wonderful model that we have come to call "The Lord's Prayer" (it's really the disciples prayer ... the Lord's prayer is better used to describe John 17). Jesus, the Master of prayer, TAUGHT them to pray.

But notice the very different language when we come to Romans 8:26. The indwelling Holy Spirit does not only teach us to pray (He certainly is our teacher), but it says that he HELPS us to pray. Again the external influence has moved inward for something far more glorious.

I've been reading William Gurnall's outstanding work "The Christian in Complete Armour", and I was greatly blessed to read this passage that is a powerful commentary on Romans 8:26 ...

"Even in acts of worship our strength is in the Lord. Consider prayer. Would we pray? Where will we find topics for our prayers? Alas, 'We know not what we should pray for as we ought' (Rom 8:26). Let us alone, and we will soon pray ourselves into some temptation or other, and beg for the very thing God knows we should not have. To protect us, then, God puts words in our mouths (Hos 14:2). But without some heart-heating affections to thaw the tap, the words will freeze on our lips. We may search in vain the corridors of our own hearts and the drafty corners of our souls. We will not find a spark upon our own hearth, unless it is some strange fire of our own desires, which will not do. No, the fire that thaws the iciness of the heart must come from heaven - a gift from God, who is 'a consuming fire' (Heb 12:29).

"First the Spirit stretches Himself upon the soul, as the prophet on the child; then the soul will begin to kindle and put forth some heavenly heat in its affections. At last the Spirit melts the heart, and prayer flows from the lips of the believer as naturally as tears from the eyes. And though the saint is the speaker, the author of the prayer is God. So we see that both the strength to pray and the prayer itself are from God."


I believe in the Holy Ghost!

Pastor Phil

Saturday, August 16, 2008

What's in a name?

I came up with so many different names for this blog.

Some were too cryptic, some were too boring, some sounded high-falutin', and some were just plain lame.

In the end I asked myself "What am I all about?" The answer to that question took about 3 seconds.

God has brought me to the place in my life and in service for Him where I finally know that without Him I can do (precisely) nothing. (John 15:5) Nada. Zilch.

Oh, we all know that!

Yeah, yeah. I "knew" it for years too. But now I do know it ... really ... with understanding and with conviction. That doesn't mean there isn't still a huge part of me that wants to jump in and make things happen by my own strength and "wisdom". I have a hunch I'll be battling that temptation for the rest of my life. But I'm learning every day to wait on God for His strength and leadings, and just be obedient.

I'm no longer surprised when I read that Moses was held out in the wilderness for 40 years before God called him back to Egypt to lead the Israelites. That's about how long it can take to get it. I'm 41 years old, and I think I finally got it.

Jesus gave his disciples a three year intensive crash course before ascending into heaven. And some of His last words to them were that they should "tarry" in Jerusalem (that means "sit down" and "wait") until they were clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49) The Holy Spirit would come as Christ's Advocate and bring them the mind and presence of Christ continuously. Without Him they could do nothing.

Just a few minutes later Jesus was taken up out of their sight, and an angel repeated the instruction to get them moving. (Acts 1:10-11) It was THAT important. It's like the angel was saying "You heard the Lord ... hurry up and wait!" And the disciples obeyed.

Of course we all know what happened about 10 days later on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came as promised, and the Church was animated with His life and power. They could never be the same again.

Now some would say, "Well that's it. The time of 'tarrying' was done. The disciples waited, and the Spirit came." Yes ... and NO! Yes, the Spirit came and thrust the church out into mission. But I put it to you that those disciples never lost sight of their call to "tarry". Their story, recorded in the book of Acts, is a story of prayer meetings, of waiting times, of "tarrying".

They waited for empowerment. They waited for boldness. They waited for instructions. As a result, they were continually filled with the Spirit and bore fruit as Jesus said they would. These were the people who "turned the world upside down". (Acts 17:6)

We need to reclaim the lost art of tarrying. The Church has never been so busy and yet so barren. We are living the Laodicean tragedy, for "(we) say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' - and do not know that (we) are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." (Rev 3:17) That is always the sum total of what the Church can produce when she will not tarry.

So, by the grace of God I intend to tarry. Every day God is helping me. I see His power at work. I sense His presence more and more. And my need to tarry is not diminished, it is increased. Because the minute I say "I can take it from here", I am done. Nothing will be achieved of any consequence from that moment.

Samuel Chadwick said it over a hundred years ago, "Christianity is hopeless without the Holy Ghost." Amen!

Pastor Phil