“Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.” (Deut. 8:11-20)

The real danger, the most perilous jeopardy, of disobeying God’s commands is not that we fail to present before Him a suitable righteousness or incur His wrath.  The most serious danger inherent in our disobedience is that we “forget the Lord our God” himself.  In our disobedience, God no longer occupies our thoughts and affections.  We worry not that He is not present to us in fellowship and love.  We simply–and horrifyingly, if we think about it–forget Him.  We leave Him off.  How great is our capacity for beastliness–that we could ever forget the greatest Reality in all existence!

Three times in this passage, Moses warns Israel of the serous problem of forgetting God.  “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today…” (v. 11).  We forget God by not obeying Him.  Conversely, obedience entails and promotes remembrance.  Israel must obey God’s statutes–not for righteousness–but for remembering.  The problem with forgetting is that “then your heart will be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (v. 14).  Moses warns as sternly as he can against this evil heart of unbelief.  He pleads, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me all this wealth.’ … And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.” (v. 17, 19)  See how forgetting God results in atheistic pride, the delusion of self-making and autonomous accomplishment, and finally destruction.

The antidote? “You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (v. 18).  Remember the Lord.  Rehearse the reality of the Lord.  Practice His presence.

All of these warnings and exhortations to not forget but remember are given to a rebellious people just like us.  Israel was not given the Promised Land because they were righteous and others were not (Deut. 9:4-6).  In fact, Moses tells them, “… you are a stubborn people” (v. 6).  And, “You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you” (9:24).  They’re not deserving, and neither are we.

Enter the incomparable sovereign grace of God in election.  What follows is a reminder of a call they can not keep–never have–and and a love they did not earn–never could.  “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day” (Deut. 10:12-15).  Oh, the joy of having been loved even while we were still sinners! (Rom. 5:8).  The wonder of being saved–not because of things we’ve done–but because of His love and grace in choosing us! (2 Tim. 1:9-10)

This promise of covenant love in response to stubborn rebelliousness reveals why God ought and must be remembered.  “He is your praise.  He is your God” (Deut. 10:21).

Beloved, remember Him who is your praise and your God.  If you love Him, obey Him (John 14:15, 21, 23).

Bob Kellemen at RPM Ministries offers a gracious review of Glory Road: The Journeys of Ten African-Americans into Reformed Christianity.  Kellemen is a good student of African-American theology and church history and offers a warm critique of Glory Road.

For my part, I think Glory Road could be one of the most important, helpful, and encouraging books published in the last ten years on African-American Christianity.  I think its warmth, humor, honesty, and theological integrity

could be a winsome tool in capturing the hearts of many people who have not come to know the wonderful truths and history of the Reformed tradition.  If you haven’t read this book, rush out and make it a stocking stuffer or New Year’s read.  It’ll reward you.

HT: Phoenix Preacher

We had a wonderful time in Bible study last night at church. I love our Wednesday night meetings; they’re filled with such joy in the word and eager fellowship one with another. We’ve been working our way a couple verses at a time through 2 Thessalonians. In recent weeks we’ve been considering chapter two, with all its interesting and sometimes difficult discussion of apostasy, the “man of lawlessness,” and “the one who now holds it back”. Interesting, humbling, shocking, and energizing time.

Last night we considered verses 10b-12:

“They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”

Just before these verses the text reads: “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan and displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing” (v. 9-10a).

Consider the sweep of things detailed in this passage:

First comes Satanic power displayed in supernatural acts that deceive.
Second is the refusal of some to love the truth and be saved.
Finally God sends a “powerful delusion” that seals people in the lie they believe and condemns them eternally.

Satanic deception. Human self-deception. Divine delusion that dooms.

This scene is horrible! It’s unimaginable for so many who fancy themselves “enlightened” and think of a passage like this as pre-scientific. And surely that’s part of the deception and the refusal to love the truth that God will in His glorious righteousness judge with a powerful delusion, a continuing delusion, a condemning delusion.

But we must not lose sight of this: God is ruling throughout 2 Thessalonians 2. There is no evil–not even that of Satan himself–that goes unbounded by the power and judgment of God. And there is no evil in the history of the world that will not finally be “destroyed by the splendor of Jesus’ coming” (v. 8). And there is no wickedness in men that will not be condemned (v. 12). And in it all, God will be exalted and glorified and praised for all eternity (Rev.).

And so, we don’t merely “accept” the truth of 2 Thessalonians. We don’t just acknowledge it and go on to more “pleasant” things. We don’t look at these realities and grudgingly admit them to our understanding of the faith. No. We are to love the truth–all of it. We are to rejoice and exult in the truth of God’s Son–crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, returning, judging and reigning. All of it, and all of its implications, are to be loved… lest we in any way resemble those who “refused to love the truth” and who “believed the lie” and who “delighted in wickedness.” For what our God does, He does well. What appears horrible to us (the strong delusion that condemns)–and is horrible–is also glorious and will be seen to be glorious when we more fully sympathize with God in His holiness and not with man in his sin.

“What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath–prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory–even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” (Rom. 9:22-24).

If I might attempt a perhaps too simplistic reduction… “What if God prepared some for wrath and destruction so that those he prepared for mercy and glory would better know the riches of his glory?” What if God wants to show the riches of His glory by having an eternal contrast between those prepared for destruction and those prepared for glory? And what if some knowing more fully the riches of His glory justifies God’s preparation of some as objects of His wrath?

What would make such an action by God “defensible” or even “worth it”? It must be that the “riches of His glory” are so indescribably “worth it,” and the expression of that glory not only defensible but the highest possible good, that God is right to act in this way. Seeing and savoring the glory of God must be so ineffably splendid and wonderful that God determines that even the horrible contrast between the eternal state of the wicked and the righteous would be a good and right way of making that glory known to the universe.

Can you imagine a God so wonderful in glory that even the just damnation of sinners makes His glory to shine forth even more?!

Behold your God–awesome and terrible in all His ways. Behold Him, love Him, fear Him, and worship Him.

HT: Reformation Theology

Sovereign Grace from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

“Free and democratic elections” is a phrase typically volleyed about when some country is under military occupation or a “regime change” is in order. Significant numbers of countries around the world do not know either free or democratic political processes. And many others who attempt it seem only to vent violent opposition.

If you’re a pastor that believes the Bible teaches both (1) the responsibility of man to repent and believe and (2) the sovereignty of God in choosing people unto salvation, you probably spend a lot of time explaining at least one-half of that belief to a number of your congregants. It is a joyful privilege to explain the whole counsel of God, to encourage people in new areas of biblical truth that they might not have seen or understood before.

It’s also sometimes disconcerting for people as they learn things they hadn’t understood before, things that really alter their understanding of the Scriptures and of God in a major way. The fancy-smancy psychological term for this is cognitive dissonance. Well, in a number of such conversations, it’s not cognitive but emotional dissonance. People sometimes see the truth, have an emotional reaction to the truth (not necessarily denying the truth), and decide they don’t like it. Patience is required in such cases, as well as helping people understand that an emotional impulse to deny the truth does not come from the Lord. The truth should shape our emotional responses, rather than our emotional responses shaping our acceptance of the truth.

All that to say: it’s really helpful to underscore reasons why a particular truth should be cause for rejoicing. Truth is for our joy. And that’s true of every truth in Scripture, including God’s sovereign choosing of His people.

A few biblical reasons to rejoice in election:

Election ensures that God’s purposes stand:
“Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad–in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls–she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger’.” (Rom. 9:11-12)

Election ensures that our salvation depends on mercy, not ourselves:
“It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Rom. 9:16).

Election maintains the Creator-creature distinction, producing humility:
“One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”‘ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (Rom. 9:19-21)

Election guarantees our good in life and our glorification with Christ:
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:28-30).

“But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thes. 2:13-14).

Election ensures blameless justification:
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies” (Rom. 8:33).

Election guarantees that God will be worshipped:
“God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah–how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’? And what was God’s answer? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace” (Rom. 11:2-5).

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:11-12).

Election establishes grace:
“So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Rom. 11:6).

Election obtains the salvation we seek:
“What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day’.” (Rom. 11:7-8).

“But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).

Election makes the gifts and calling of God irrevocable:
“As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:28-29).

Election accords with God’s plan to make us holy and blameless:
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Eph. 1:4)

Election expresses itself with the Father’s love toward us in adoption:
“In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…” (Eph. 1:4-5).

Election coincides with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit:
“To God’s elect, strangers in the world… who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood” (1 Pet. 1:1-2).

“But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth” (2 Thes. 2:13).

Election provides the ground for our perseverance in gospel ministry:
“One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’ So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (Acts 18:9-11).

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

Election limits the deception and the destruction of the last days:
“those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them” (Mark 13:19-20).

“For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible” (Matthew 24:24).

Rejoice! And again I will say, Rejoice! The truth will make you free!

From Of First Importance, “The Excellency of Election”:

“Oh the excellency of the doctrine of election, and of the saints’ final perseverance, to those who are truly sealed by the Spirit of promise! I am persuaded, till a man comes to believe and feel these important truths, he cannot come out of himself; but when convinced of these, and assured of the application of them to his own heart, he then walks by faith indeed, not in himself but in the Son of God, who died and gave himself for him. Love, not fear, constrains him to obedience.”

From The Purpose Driven Blog, a selection from Whitefield’s “The Lord Our Righteousness”:

Whoever is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general, or the propensity of his own heart in particular, must acknowledge, that self- righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart: being once born under a covenant of works, it is natural for us all to have recourse to a covenant of works, for our everlasting salvation. And we have contracted such devilish pride, by our fall from God, that we would, if not wholly, yet in part at least, glory in being the cause of our own salvation. We cry out against popery, and that very justly; but we are all Papists, at least, I am sure, we are all Arminians by nature; and therefore no wonder so many natural men embrace that scheme. It is true, we disclaim the doctrine of merit, are ashamed directly to say we deserve any good at the hands of God; therefore, as the Apostle excellently well observes, “we go about,” we fetch a circuit, “to establish a righteousness of our own, and,” like the Pharisees of old, “will not wholly submit to that righteousness which is of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

From DG, “Whitefield Exalts in Christ”:

The Lord, the Lord Christ, the everlasting God, is your righteousness. Christ has justified you, who is he that condemneth you? Christ has died for you, nay rather is risen again, and ever liveth to make intercession for you. Being now justified by his grace, you have peace with God, and shall, ere long, be with Jesus in glory, reaping everlasting and unspeakable fruits both in body and soul. For there is no condemnation to those that are really in Christ Jesus. Whether Paul or Apollos, or life or death, all is yours if you are Christ’s, for Christ is God’s.

My brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you! O think of the love of Christ in dying for you! If the Lord be your righteousness, let the righteousness of your Lord be continually in your mouth. Talk of, O talk of, and recommend the righteousness of Christ, when you lie down, and when you rise up, at your going out and coming in! Think of the greatness of the gift, as well as the giver! Show to all the world, in whom you have believed! Let all by your fruits know, that the Lord is your righteousness, and that you are waiting for your Lord from heaven!

This is not Whitefield, but it’s a quote at Unashamed Workman from David Wells that probably describes Whitefield’s preaching:

Preaching is not a conversation about some interesting ideas. It is not the moment in which postmoderns hear their own private message in the biblical words, one unique to each one who hears, and then go their own way. No! This is God speaking! He speaks through the stammering lips of the preacher where that preacher’s mind is on the text of Scripture and his heart is in the presence of God. God, as Luther puts it, lives in the preacher’s mouth.

This is the kind of preaching that issues a summons, which nourishes the soul, which draws the congregation into the very presence of God so that no matter what aspect of his character, his truth, his working in this world is in focus, we leave with awe, gratitude, encouragement, and sometimes a rebuke. We have been in the very presence of God! This is what great preaching always does.