(By: Eddie Goodwin)

In 2004, while training as a ministerial student, I had the privilege of preaching an assigned doctrinal-topical sermon on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Though the sermon and its delivery bore the obvious marks of a novice preacher struggling to grow and develop, the doctrine itself was nevertheless glorious.  What child of God can hear such words as “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21) and not be moved in the very depths of his blood-bought soul!

For me personally, the theology of that particular study led to doxology in a most unexpected way.  The fruit of that particular study led to the writing of a song.  The lyrics are set to the public domain tune used for The Church’s One Foundation.  This song is being shared with the hope that you will be renewed in your ardent love and zeal for the One whose one act of obedience resulted in justification of life to all men (Rom. 5:18).

Christ, Our Righteousness (tune: The Church’s One Foundation)

Through Adam’s one transgression death came to all the race

The hope of life then perished and judgment took its place

The cherubim were stationed to bar the holy tree

Unrighteousness and sorrow became man’s legacy.

Yet, in that darkest moment of mankind’s greatest need

God intervened in mercy by promising a seed

A suf-fer-ing Deliv’rer would crush the serpent’s head

while offering up obedience in fallen Adam’s stead.

In vain do sinners labor and trust in deeds they’ve done

To satisfy God’s justice we need the Righteous One

The Sacrifice unblemished, ordained to bleed and die

in resurrection glory now lives to justify.

O marvelous reversal, the sinless One made sin!

The curse of Law is broken for those who enter in

By grace through faith receive Him–the Son that we adore

who grants to over-comers the tree of life once more.

We’ll revel in our Savior, the precious, spotless Lamb

when dressed in white apparel before the judgment stand

We’ll boast in none but Jesus, no works will we profess

but rest forever, only, in Christ our Righteousness.

 

(By David Giarrizzo)

Growing up in a church where the Gospel was preached every week from the pulpit and in a home where biblical evangelism was just a part of life, I have understood from an early age the importance of gospel missions as it relates to the local body of believers. Tales of missions and missionaries were commonplace stories at bedtime or at the breakfast table in the Giarrizzo home. I remember fellowshipping with David Straub in our home on various occasions, listening to his stories of the spread of the Gospel to faraway lands, and being amazed by this man who would eat an entire apple—everything but the stem. (Rumor has it that ARBCA’s current coordinator also eats whole apples, core and all!) I remember attending RBMS missions banquets at Cornerstone Bible Church, even singing a duet with my brother at one of these conferences. As children, my brother and I knew who our missionaries were because we were taught to pray for them often.

I think I was in fifth grade when I went as a missionary for Career Day; I basically dressed like my dad on Sunday mornings and carried my Bible around all day. But there was a time in my life when I seriously wondered if God would someday call me to be a missionary to a foreign land, be it Australia or Hollywood. Since then, however, God has taught me more than I deserve to know about His Word, the Gospel of His Son, and His means of saving His elect throughout the world.

Ironically enough, even though I have never lived more than 13 miles from the house I grew up in, God has shown me still that I really am called to be a missionary.

In about two weeks from now, at this year’s Building Tomorrow’s Church conference for Reformed Baptist young adults, the emphasis will be on missions and how it relates to the local church, ultimately to each one of us individually. Although I grew up understanding the definition and importance of mission work, I had trouble really grasping my part in the work of missions. And I have a feeling I’m not the only one to experience this. At BTC’10, attendees will here from two men qualified to teach others about the biblical reasons for missions and the practical application the subject has on the lives of everyday church members. Pastors Raymond Perron and Don Donell will be bringing two messages each to help conference attendees synthesize the biblical doctrine of evangelism with personal practice. (To view the session titles, click here: BTC 2010 Messages)

Please pray that the Lord of the harvest might be pleased to instill in the lives of those who attend BTC 2010 a sincere and lasting desire to see Christ’s kingdom grow; a yearning so strong that maybe even one person from this conference will be used of God to bring a sinner to repentance and faith.

May the words of this song ever be a prayer in our hearts, our homes, and our churches:

Let Your Kingdom Come

Your glorious cause, O God, engages our hearts
May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are
We ask not for ourselves, but for Your renown
The cross has saved us so we pray
Your kingdom come

Let Your kingdom come
Let Your will be done
So that everyone might know Your Name
Let Your song be heard everywhere on earth
Till Your sovereign work on earth is done
Let Your kingdom come

Give us Your strength, O God, and courage to speak
Perform Your wondrous deeds through those who are weak
Lord use us as You want, whatever the test
By grace we’ll preach Your gospel
Till our dying breath

-Bob Kauflin

© 2006 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

(By: Christopher Powell) This is just a quick note to say that the audio from the ARBCA 2010 GA is now up on the ARBCA website and free for download. I especially appreciated the exhortation from our Missionary to France, Pastor David Vaughn.

 

ARBCA 2010 GA audio

(By David Giarrizzo)

[On Friday of this week, July 16^th, two Ardent Cries bloggers—Chad Bennett and myself—will celebrate 5 years of marriage to our wonderful wives. In light of that occasion, here is a short review I wrote about a month ago of Piper’s recent book on marriage.]

In a world where subjectivism, relativity, and personal feelings reign supreme, God has blessed some men with the wonderful ability of cutting through culture’s philosophical garbage heap and explaining the truths of God’s Word in a powerful, unambiguous way.

In my opinion, John Piper is one of those men.

His name has become a common word in the YouTube search field of many “New Calvinists.” His sermons have been downloaded and listened to on thousands of iPods. His books have been a blessing to Christians from differing denominational affiliations around the world. And it’s no wonder why Piper has become so well-known. Piper—alongside men like Sproul, MacArthur, White, Mohler, Dever, Horton, etc.—is telling the truth about God, His Son, His Word, and His world. It’s clear by his preaching, teaching, and writing that Piper get’s the Gospel; and it’s clear he wants others to spend their lifetimes getting the Gospel too. So I respect John Piper for being right about the most important things in Christianity.

This Momentary Marriage

Like all humans, however, Piper has his shortcomings. Some of Piper’s doctrinal flaws are readily apparent in his book, This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. This work is a vivid example of Piper’s theological hits and misses interlaced within the same binding. I want to take the rest of this opportunity to briefly outline some of those hits and misses. I’ll start with the points of disagreement between Piper and myself (and truly, between Piper and a great number of others beyond myself) simply because I want to end on a positive note. For all of the positive statements that I want to make about this book, I am first compelled to highlight the negative aspects of the book because Piper devotes so much of his ink to them.

Misses

The Thesis—

 “…therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream.”

With these words from chapter one, Piper establishes his central point and lays the foundation for the rest of his book. But the problem with this thesis is that while marriage does indeed reflect the relationship between Christ and His Church, in the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve and instituted marriage, He said nothing about marriage reflecting the covenantal love between Christ and His Bride. Instead, God said something specific about His purpose for marriage in Genesis 2:18: “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” Companionship, then, was God’s purpose for marriage.

The reason this distinction is so important here is because upon this foundation Piper builds his argument against all cases of divorce and any possible allowance of remarriage. As Reformed Baptists, however, we do not make the same conclusion about the purpose of marriage. To quote our Confession: “Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and for preventing uncleanness” (LBC 1689 25:2).

Divorce and Remarriage—

“Whether you agree with me concerning the grounds of divorce and remarriage or not, I pray that we will all recognize the deepest and high­est meaning of marriage—not sexual intimacy, as good as that is, not friendship, or mutual helpfulness, or childbearing, or child-rearing, but the flesh-and-blood display in the world of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church.”

Piper spends two of the final chapters of his book laying out his argument against divorce and against remarriage after divorce. Piper himself has admitted that he holds a “radical, narrow” view amongst believers on this topic; in fact, Piper’s view of remarriage after divorce is not even the held position of his church. Nevertheless, he holds to his view strongly and explains it in part in chapters 14 & 15 of This Momentary Marriage. One of the strongest lines emotionally in chapter 14 is also one of the weakest lines logically: “Therefore, if Christ ever abandons and discards his church, then a man may divorce his wife. And if the blood-bought church, under a new covenant, ever ceases to be the bride of Christ, then a wife may legitimately divorce her husband” (p 159). Using this poor premise Piper continued to construct an invalid conclusion about the Bible’s position on divorce and remarriage.

Other Thoughts—On a non-theological level, I felt that This Momentary Marriage was pieced together from a series of different topics under the umbrella of the theme of marriage. While the book made sense, it just wasn’t as fluid as I hoped it would be.

Additionally, I felt as if this book could have been a lot shorter. Here’s what I mean: The amount of time Piper spent on reasserting his thesis (The purpose of marriage is to represent the covenantal love between Christ and the Church) and summarizing a previous chapter at the beginning of a new chapter was truly excessive. Piper is a naturally gifted communicator; and summary and recap is often important in asserting a specific point; but I felt like I was reading the same things over-and-over without much expansion on the original idea. In other words, Piper should have tried harder to keep it short and sweet.

Hits

 “There never has been a generation whose general view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between the biblical vision of mar­riage and the common human vision is now, and has always been, gargantuan. Some cultures in history respect the importance and the permanence of marriage more than others. Some, like our own, have such low, casual, take-it-or-leave-it attitudes toward marriage as to make the biblical vision seem ludicrous to most people.”

A High View of Marriage—In light of the poor arguments Piper presents, mostly on the topic of divorce and remarriage, what I really appreciate is Piper’s high view of marriage and low view of divorce. I appreciate this about the book because that’s the view I see presented to us in God’s Word.

“Staying Married Is Not Mainly about Staying in Love”—What a wonderful way to start a book on marriage. I think it was this chapter’s title (chapter 1) that first enticed me to read the whole book. There is so much truth packed into that statement.

Husbands and Wives—As expected, Piper does a fine job dealing with the roles of husband and wife in marriage. He lays out the biblically-defined roles of headship and submission, wraps each with the understanding of Christ-like love, and encourages Gospel-centered living within the home.

Singles and Married Couples—To be honest, I was a little surprised to see a chapter in a book on marriage devoted to a discussion about singles and singleness; but I think that’s the point. Piper acknowledged that many married couples in the body of Christ are in need of a greater awareness for the non-married within the flock. Essentially, this part of the book served as a reminder to show love and hospitality to others in our churches.

The Gospel—Finally, I wasn’t at all surprised to see how much of the message of the gospel Piper infused into this book. I am thankful for Piper’s ability to focus our eyes on Christ and a God-centered view of married life. For all of this book’s flaws, it still has much to offer to married believers.

(By: Christopher Powell) Many of us memorize 2 Timothy 3:16-17 as children, but the real question is, do we practically believe that ALL Scripture is “useful”? This past Sunday evening I preached from the closing verses of Ephesians 6:21-24. The details that we see in these closing verses when we examine them illustrate much of what Paul was trying to teach in the whole letter. It also provides a beautiful and humourous picture of the irony of God’s grace when a man whose name means “Lucky” is the one whom God (through Paul) chooses to bring one of the greatest treatise on predestination and the sovereignty of God to the church!

 

I was thinking about this as I was reading the genealogy of Jesus in morning devotions. I have posted before on the wonders of the Matthew Genealogy and I came across this amazing account of the practical value of it as I was reading Phil Ryken’s commentary on Luke in the REC series (p.144). This brought home to me again the great value and usefulness of these genealogies and by extension ALL of Scripture:

 

When a Bible translator in Papua New Guinea started to translate Matthew’s Gospel, he thought, “The last thing I want to do is bog these people down with a genealogy.” So he began with chapter 2.

 

But the day came when all the other chapters were done. He called together the men who were helping him, and they decided on the best way to say “begat.” Then they proceeded with Matthew chapter one: “…Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob begat…”

 

By the time they completed about six of these “begats,” the translator could sense the men were becoming excited.

 

“Do you mean that these were real men?” they asked.

 

“Yes,” he answered. “They were real men.”

 

“That’s what we do!” they added, referring to their custom of keeping track of genealogies. “We had thought that these were just white man’s stories. Do you really mean that Abraham was a real man?”

 

“Yes,” the translator said, “that’s what I’ve been telling you.”

 

“We didn’t know that,” they said, “but now we believe.”

 

That night they gathered the village together and said, “Listen to this!” Then they read the first chapter of Matthew. This chapter was the key for belief in the tribe.

 

If that just wants to make you sing, then here’s a great song to accompany it. The song of God’s saving grace traced through the “begats” of Matthew by Andrew Peterson.

 

(By David Giarrizzo)

In last week’s post I gave my simple definition of a small group and discussed some of the benefits that small groups offer. This week I want to consider some of the potential pit-falls of small groups. As with any kind of ministry in this world of sin, men have been found to misuse or abuse something like small groups which are intended for our good. Based on my definition of a small group—“an identifiable, regular, and deliberate gathering of people (usually 12 or less?) from within the larger congregation who meet together to study God’s Word, pray, practice their spiritual gifts, and fellowship for the purpose of spiritual growth”—the very first part of the definition points to the very first potential problem with small groups: they’re full of people.

Small(er) Groups of Sinners—It is important for us to remember the doctrine of Total Depravity when we think about assemblies of people, especially when those assemblies involve lot of talking. Proverbs 10:19 aptly describes the idea here: “When words are many, sin is not absent…”. Furthermore, Matthew 12:36 warns, “…men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” Small groups, though they can be wonderful environments of peace, love, and unity, they can also be precarious minefields of pride, selfishness, and anger. We all have our opinions about things; we all have our suggestions and criticisms. But the small group setting is not the place to air our feelings on a wide variety of church issues or publicize our perspectives on specific areas of doctrine. Both small group leaders and members must remember humility and self-control. Judgmentalism, gossip, self-promotion, grumbling, defiance, exaggeration, course joking, divisiveness, and lying are sinful attitudes or behaviors and should have no place in a Christian’s life. May our small groups promote dying to self and living for Christ.

Self-Serving & Inept Leaders—In my last post I considered how one of the benefits of small groups is to allow believers to exercise their spiritual gifts, namely the ability to teach. Conversely, however, one of the dangers of small groups is that a group may be harmed by a poor teacher. Poor leaders come in various forms; but for the sake of this post, I will break it down into two types: the self-serving leader and the inept leader.

1.) The self-serving leader is a person with an agenda. This kind of person has volunteered for the “position” of small group leader/teacher (by no means, a biblical office of the church) because he has something to either gain or ingrain, not because he sincerely cares for the study of God’s Word and the edification of God’s people. This person’s mission may be political in nature: to earn the respect of others; to make a name for himself; to gain friends (or future followers). Or maybe he just has an opinion or belief or perspective that he is aching to share or promote and ingrain in the minds of others. Unfortunately, there have been numerous instances in churches across the country where a teacher has taught so persuasively on a position contrary to the church’s position that he convinced others of his position. Instances like these seldom end well. I have heard of these kinds of self-serving teachers leading their small groups away from the held position of the church and eventually away from the church itself. This is an example of the danger of self-serving teachers. (2 Timothy 6:3-6)

2.) There is another danger of having a leader who is unqualified to teach. While small group lessons are often discussion-heavy, I think that the leader should be a man who is gifted to teach. This doesn’t mean that a small group leader should necessarily be a seminary graduate, but simply someone who has some ability to handle the Word of God and lead a discussion on a specific text with others. According to Mark Mullery, “small group leaders are in place to extend the pastoral ministry of the church by providing a context in which to apply God’s Word so that growth, care, and relationships may occur.” I read this to mean that a small group leader’s role is not to serve self but to serve others through the faithful application of God’s Word for the purpose of sanctification and under the submission and oversight of his elders.

Formal & Informal Extremes—We humans are prone to extremes. Finding a proper, balanced way is often a difficulty we all face. This propensity can be evidenced in some churches’ small groups. Some small groups are so well-planned, neatly structured, and diligently led that they feel more like a business meeting or rehearsed performance than a Bible study. They are just too formal. Other small groups are so relaxed, casual, and spontaneous that they resemble more of a Fourth of July Bar-B-Que or Friday afternoon happy hour than a time of fervent prayer and true fellowship. Either extreme is a divergence from what C.J. Mahaney describes as the purpose of small group ministry: “…to be provoked and challenged by others so we can grow in spiritual maturity, for the glory of God.” Small groups should be places where Christ’s preeminence and our sanctification for God’s glory—not mental exercising or social networking—are primary themes.

Elder Planning & Oversight—All of the above dangers of small groups can boil down to a lack of awareness on the part of the church’s leaders. When the elders of a congregation cease from shepherding the flock, wolves are more likely to creep in the fold and sheep are more likely to get lost or stolen or eaten by wolves. Therefore, with any small group’s style or setup, elder oversight is essential to spiritual safety. However a church decides to do it, oversight must occur. Of course, while the only proven safeguard against Satan’s attacks is the sustaining grace of God at work in our churches, elders still carry the responsibility to look out for the health of the body. This, then, requires concerted effort and time to stay involved in the various ministries of the local church.

As we think about the ins and outs of small groups, it’s important for us to remember that the local church is a family. No family is perfect; they are comprised of people who have unique and peculiar personalities that when interacting with others can result in disagreements and bickering. The cause is remaining sin in the lives of believers; the solution is the Gospel and love of Christ.

May God grant us biblical wisdom and spiritual discernment as we consider our own church small groups and their potential for immense blessing as well as their potential for great harm within the local body. May the grace of God be upon our churches to keep us safe and keep us strong as we seek to further His Kingdom and give God all the glory in all things.