A few days conflict will be crowned

The believer is to persevere in his Christian course to the end of his life. We have known many who have gone into the field, and liked the work of a soldier for a battle or two, but soon have had enough, and come running home. There are so many professors and so few Christians indeed; so many that run and so few obtain; many go into the field against Satan, and so few come out conquerors. Few have the courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in the way. Israel came joyfully out of Egypt, but when their bellies were a little pinched with hunger, they were ready to fly from their colours, and make a dishonourable retreat into Egypt. Many who profess the gospel fail to endure when trouble comes, and alas! their hearts fail them. O how many depart from Christ at this crossroads! Do not say you have royal blood running in your veins, and you are born of God, except you can prove your pedigree by this heroic spirit; to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils. How uncomely a sight it is to see a bold sinner and a fearful saint; one resolved to be wicked, and a Christian wavering in his holy course; to see hell keep the field while the saints hide their colours for shame. Take heart, O ye saints, and be strong; your cause is good. God himself adopts your quarrel. He shall lead you on with courage, and bring you off with honour. He lived and died for you. For mercy and tenderness to his soldiers, there is none like him. Christ poured out his blood as balm to heal your wounds. He never turned his head from danger: no, not even when hell's malice and heaven's justice appeared in the field against him. A few days' conflict will be crowned with heaven's glory. In a word, Christians, every exploit of faith causes a shout in heaven while you slip out of your enemies' hands.

William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour; 1:15-17

Taken from Voices From The Past

How do we "take heart and be strong?" Consider him who endured (Hebrews 12:1-2) and pray for the Holy Spirit to help you want what you have in Christ. For more on that, check out "The Disciple and His Devotion" from Faithwalkers 2011.

Unpacking Hebrews: John Owen on Melchizedek as a type of Christ

From Owen's commentary on Hebrews 7:1-3:

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only king of righteousness and peace for the church (see Isaiah 9:6; 32:1-2). Christ is not only a righteous and peaceable king, as were his types, Melchizedek and Solomon, but he is the author and dispenser of righteousness and peace to the church. "'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:5-6). Christ is righteous and reigns righteously; but this not all, he is "the LORD Our Righteousness."

Words to the discouraged and overwhelmed - only

For me, it has been a season of tremendous internal tumult. Steady waves of late-thirty-something questions have struck their blows against an already failure-battered stern. This is no kitschy, hipster, I'm-so-much-cooler-because-of-my-crisis attempt at relevance (or whatever). It is an honest revelation of a soul on the verge of breaking up. But, amidst the who am Is, what am I doings and maybe its already to lates, the grace of God appeared and ministered to another man under a broom tree.

In this season, God's means of grace to me were the nearly 400 year-old words of Puritan Richard Sibbes in his exposition of Isaiah 42:1-3. This is the triumph of Christ; the bruised reed he will not break, the smoldering wick he will not snuff out until he brings forth judgment to victory. Through Christ's horrific and justifying death, God's favor is ever towards His children.  "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." (Romans 8:29-30)

These final words in "The Bruised Reed" are offered as a summary, an encouragement and a commendation to every weary follower of Christ: put this on your reading list.

In conclusion and as a general application to ourselves of all that has been said, we see the conflicting, but yet sure and hopeful, state of God's people. The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies' strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours. Let us therefore be `strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might' (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory? None is here overcome but he that will not fight. Therefore, when any base fainting seizes on us, let us lay the blame where it ought to be laid.

Discouragement rising from unbelief and the ill report brought upon the good land by the spies moved God to swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. Let us take heed that a spirit of faint heartedness, rising from the seeming difficulty and disgrace involved in God's good ways, does not provoke God to keep us out of heaven. We see here what we may look for from heaven. O beloved, it is a comfortable thing to conceive of Christ aright, to know what love, mercy and strength we have laid up for us in the breast of Christ. A good opinion of the physician, we say, is half the cure. Let us make use of this mercy and power of his every day in our daily combats: `Lord Jesus, thou hast promised not to quench the smoking flax, nor to break the bruised reed. Cherish thy grace in me; leave me not to myself; the glory shall be thine.' Let us not allow Satan to transform Christ to us, to make him other than he is to those that are his. Christ will not leave us till he has made us like himself, all glorious within and without, and presented us blameless before his Father (Jude 24).

What a comfort this is in our conflicts with our unruly hearts, that it shall not always be thus! Let us strive a little while, and we shall be happy for ever. Let us think when we are troubled with our sins that Christ has this in charge from his Father, that he shall not `quench the smoking flax' until he has subdued all. This puts a shield into our hands to beat back `all the fiery darts of the wicked' (Eph. 6:16). Satan will object, `You are a great sinner.' We may answer, `Christ is a strong Saviour.' But he will object, `You have no faith, no love.' `Yes, a spark of faith and love.' `But Christ will not regard that.' `Yes, he will not quench the smoking flax: `But this is so little and weak that it will vanish and come to naught."  Nay, but Christ will cherish it, until he has brought judgment to victory.' And this much we have already for our comfort, that, even when we first believed, we overcame God himself, as it were, by believing the pardon of all our sins, notwithstanding the guilt of our own consciences and his absolute justice. Now, having been prevailers with God, what shall stand against us if we can learn to make use of our faith?

...
According to our faith, so is our encouragement to all duties, therefore let us strengthen faith, so that it may strengthen all other graces. The very belief that faith shall be victorious is a means to make it so indeed. Believe it, therefore, that, though it is often as smoking flax, yet it shall prevail. If it prevails with God himself in trials, shall it not prevail over all other opposition? Let us wait a while, `stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD' (Exod. 14:13).

The Lord reveal himself more and more to us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ and magnify the power of his grace in cherishing those beginnings of grace in the midst of our corruptions, and sanctify the consideration of our own infirmities to humble us, and of his tender mercy to encourage us. And may he persuade us that, since he has taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off for those corruptions which, as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in our own eyes. And because Satan labors to obscure the glory of his mercy and hinder our comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that, since he is so gracious to those that yield to his government, we may make the right use of this grace, and not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for us in Christ. And may he grant that the prevailing power of his Spirit in us should be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final victory, at that time when he will be all in all, in all his, for all eternity. Amen.

The mingling of grace and corruption in our lives... Why?

The last few weeks have been brutal for me. Not because I am a victim, but because I am a sinner. The stubborn pride of my heart and my inability to change has, at times, caused me to despair. But it has occurred to me that this season is one of the "all things" of Romans 8:28. What good could God possibly be working through my own wretchedness? Puritan Richard Sibbes' classic work "A Bruised Reed" has provided tremendous encouragement. I offer this section as encouragement to those who feel overwhelmed by their sin. There is always a mingling of "smoke and fire" in our lives; grace and corruption.  Thankfully, Christ will not snuff out the smoldering wick (Isaiah 42:1-3).

In pursuing his calling, Christ will not quench the smoking flax, or wick, but will blow it up till it flames. In smoking flax there is but a little light, and that weak, as being unable to flame, and that little mixed with smoke. The observations from this are that, in God's children, especially in their first conversion, there is but a little measure of grace, and that little mixed with much corruption, which, as smoke, is offensive; but that Christ will not quench this smoking flax.
 ...

GRACE IS MINGLED WITH CORRUPTION

But grace is not only little, but mingled with corruption; therefore a Christian is said to be smoking flax. So we see that grace does not do away with corruption all at once, but some is left for believers to fight with. The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office. When we pray, we need to pray again for Christ to pardon the defects of our prayers. Consider some instances of this smoking flax:

Moses at the Red Sea, being in a great perplexity, and knowing not what to say, or which way to turn, groaned to God. No doubt this was a great conflict in him. In great distresses we know not what to pray, but the Spirit makes request with sighs that cannot be expressed (Rom. 8:26). Broken hearts can yield but broken prayers. When David was before the king of Gath (1 Sam. 21:13) and disfigured himself in an uncomely manner, in that smoke there was some fire also. You may see what an excellent psalm he makes upon that occasion, Psalm 34, in which, on the basis of experience, he says, `The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart' (Psa. 34:18). `I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.' There is smoke. `Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications' (Psa. 31:22). There is fire. `Lord, save us: we perish' (Matt. 8:25), cry the disciples. Here is smoke of infidelity, yet so much light of faith as stirred them up to pray to Christ. `Lord, I believe.' There is light. ‘Help thou mine unbelief.' There is smoke (Mark 9:24). Jonah cries, `I am cast out of thy sight.' There is smoke. `Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.' There is light (Jon. 2:4). `O wretched man that I am!', says Paul, with a sense of his corruption. Yet he breaks out into thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:24). `I sleep,' says the church in the Song of Solomon, `but my heart waketh' (Song of Sol. 5:2). In the seven churches, which for their light are called `seven golden candlesticks' (Rev. 2 and 3), most of them had much smoke with their light.

The reason for this mixture is that we carry about us a double principle, grace and nature. The end of it is especially to preserve us from those two dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride, and to force us to pitch our rest on justification, not sanctification, which, besides imperfection, has some stains. Our spiritual fire is like our ordinary fire here below, that is, mixed. Fire is most pure in its own element above; so shall all our graces be when we are where we would be, in heaven, which is our proper element.

From this mixture arises the fact that the people of God have so different judgments of themselves, looking sometimes at the work of grace, sometimes at the remainder of corruption, and when they look upon that, then they think they have no grace. Though they love Christ in his ordinances and children, yet they dare not claim so near acquaintance as to be his. Even as a candle in the socket sometimes shows its light, and sometimes the show of light is lost; so sometimes they are well persuaded of themselves, sometimes at a loss. 

Additional Resources
Complete in Christ - Spurgeon
What should we seek in Scripture? - Calvin

Consuming His Mercies On Our Lusts

When the heart is set upon earthly success, pleasure, or comfort, then it cannot accept a denial without murmuring. The children of God should desire only God's glory, and in all other things themselves to his disposal. What is the the disposition of our hearts when our prayers are answered and God has given us the blessing we prayed for? We do not ask if for God's glory, if we do not use it for God's glory. If we consume his mercies on our lusts, or they do not encourage us to control our sins, it is a sign God's glory is not the desire of our hearts as it should be.

Thomas Manton, Works 1:73-74
taken from Voices from the Past: Puritan Devotional Readings, edited by Richard Rushing, Banner of Truth Trust

When the hour of temptation has come

"All will experience a season in which their temptations will be more urgent, sin’s reasonings more plausible, its pretensions more glorious, hopes of recovery seemingly clearer, opportunities broader and more open, the doors of evil more beautiful than ever they have been before. Blessed is he who is prepared for such a season! There is no escape without this preparation. "

John Owen from "Temptation Resisted and Repulsed", Banner of Truth 2007, pg 15.

Additional Resources
Be Killing Sin or It Will Be Killing You - a recent sermon by J.P. (I know, I know... this one came out after we had decided on Kill or Be Killed. Trust me. The message is very helpful.)

Piper's intro to "Overcoming Sin and Temptation" for "Kill or Be Killed"

My buddy Anthony Alvarado gave me the heads up on this intro from an Owen compilation (which includes "Mortification of Sin" and "Of Temptation") published by Crossway in 2006. It is a great starting point for anyone encountering Owen for the first time.

As I look across the Christian landscape, I think it is fair to say concerning sin, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly” (Jer. 6:14; 8:11, ESV). I take this to refer to leaders who should be helping the church know and feel the seriousness of indwelling sin (Rom. 7:20), and how to fight it and kill it (Rom. 8:13). Instead the depth and complexity and ugliness and danger of sin in professing Christians is either minimized—since we are already justified—or psychologized as a symptom of woundedness rather than corruption. This is a tragically light healing. I call it a tragedy because by making life easier for ourselves in minimizing the nature and seriousness of our sin, we become greater victims of it. We are in fact not healing ourselves. Those who say that they already feel bad enough without being told about the corruptions of indwelling sin misread the path to peace. When our people have not been taught well about the real nature of sin and how it works and how to put it to death, most of the miseries people report are not owing to the disease but its symptoms. They feel a general malaise and don’t know why, their marriages are at the breaking point, they feel weak in their spiritual witness and devotion, their workplace is embattled, their church is tense with unrest, their fuse is short with the children, etc. They report these miseries as if they were the disease. And they want the symptoms removed. We proceed to heal the wound of the people lightly. We look first and mainly for circumstantial causes for the misery—present or past. If we’re good at it, we can find partial causes and give some relief. But the healing is light. We have not done the kind of soul surgery that is possible only when the soul doctor knows the kind of things Owen talks about in these books, and when the patient is willing to let the doctor’s scalpel go deep.

Read the whole thing here.

Additional Resources
Intro to "Kill or Be Killed"

The "feedback" of atheism and porn (or any willful sin)

A recent conversation with a friend helped me see something chilling about sin. This friend is looking at porn and, simultaneously, discovering a growing doubt in his soul. This is because every indulgence of pornography must include some level of atheism. To keep looking we have to believe:

• God is not there.
  
• God is not good (at least He is holding out on me, so I will get what I want for myself).
• God does not see.
• God doesn't care about my sin.

To do what God forbids, at least one of these prerequisite beliefs is required. I couldn't look at porn if Jesus were physically present. (Some of the more hardened types might think they could, but my guess is they aren't free with their viewing when any person walks in the room). So I must repress the idea that he sees, cares about and must deal with my sin.

The problem with "believing" these things (even temporarily) is that I cannot plant the seed and not expect it to grow. Puritan pastor John Owen said it this way:

"Every time sin rises to tempt or entice, it always seeks to express itself in the extreme. Every unclean thought or glance would be adultery if it could; every covetous desire would be oppression; and every unbelieving thought would be atheism. It is like the grace that is never satisfied."

So the temporary atheism required to willfully sin will increase to more lasting doubt in God and His promises. This doubt will open the way for more sin. It is a feedback loop that leads to hardness of heart. We shouldn't be surprised if we find a growing doubt in the midst of our willful sin. We are fostering it.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3.12–14)

There is much more than morality at stake here. With every click (or any willful sin) you are choosing to lose softness to God and your original confidence in the gospel.

Stay Tuned...
This year's Spring Training for Men starts on 3/24 (for 7 weeks) and will include reading "The Mortification of Sin" by John Owen (I have purchased 40 copies)

The "Heinous Crime" of Anyone Who Teaches Anything [from Richard Baxter]

shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight,not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. (1Peter 5.2-3)

I'm becoming more aware of my self-concern.

It's grievous to consider how much my work and happiness are governed by my reputation. Indeed, the pool of Narcissus is not far from this very confession.

The words of Puritan Richard Baxter moved me further down the road of repentance this morning. My prayer is that they will do the same for you and that we will all be more self-forgetful, Christ-exalting workers, regardless of our vocation.

A couple of quotes:

"[pride] maketh men, both in studying and preaching to seek themselves, and deny God, when they should seek God’s glory, and deny themselves. When they should inquire, What shall I say, and how shall I say it, to please God best, and do most good? It makes them ask, What shall I say, and how shall I deliver it, to be thought a learned able preacher, and to be applauded by all that hear me? When the sermon is done, pride goeth home with them, and maketh them more eager to know whether they were applauded, than whether they did prevail for the saving of souls.

...

Yea, so far doth this cursed vice prevail, that in great congregations, which have need of the help of many preachers, we can scarcely, in many places, get two of equality to live together in love and quietness, and unanimously to carry on the work of God. But unless one of them be quite below the other in parts, and content to be so esteemed, or unless, he be a curate to the other, and ruled by him, they are contending for precedency, and envying each other’s interest, and walking in strangeness and jealousy towards one another, to the shame of their profession, and the great wrong of their people."

Additional Resources:
A brutal collection of quotes from Chapter 3 of "The Reformed Pastor" in .pdf

Resourcing as an act of ministry: Would the Puritans blog today?

This tidbit in the The Reformed Pastor was confirmation to my growing burden to resource the church. I think Puritan pastors would have blogged.

"See that in every family there are some useful moving books, beside the Bible. If they have none, persuade them to buy some: if they be not able to but them, give them some if you can. If you are not able yourself, get some gentlemen, or other rich persons, that are ready to good works , to do it. And engage them to read them at night, when they have leisure, and especially on the Lord's day." - Richard Baxter

"Moving" resources:
Fill in the margins of life; a list resources for the thirsty

The Theater of God - Messages from this weekend's Desiring God National Conference. Great hope-giving, heart-stirring, Christ-exalting stuff.

Why Pastor's Should Blog

"What an ornament to the Church!"

Now, seeing the case of weakness in the converted is so sad, how diligent should we be to cherish and increase their grace! The strength of Christians is the honour of the Church. When they are inflamed with the love of God, and live by a lively working faith, and set light by the profits and honours of the world, and love one another with a pure heart fervently, and can bear and heartily forgive a wrong, and suffer joyfully for the cause of Christ, and study to do good, and walk inoffensively and harmlessly in the world, are ready to be servants to all men for their good, becoming all things to all men in order to win them to Christ, and yet abstaining from the appearance of evil, and seasoning all their actions with a sweet mixture of prudence, humility, zeal, and heavenly mindedness - oh, what an honour are such to their profession! What an ornament to the Church; and how serviceable to God and man! Men would sooner believe that the gospel is from heaven, if they saw more such efforts of it upon the hearts and lives of those who profess it. The world is better able to read the nature of religion in a man's life than in the Bible. - Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor pg. 98

A parting wish from Jonathan Edwards to his congregation: a call to parenting

From Edwards 'Farewell Sermon' (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. I, p. ccvi.)

"Let me now therefore, once more, before I finally cease to speak to this congregation, repeat, and earnestly plea the counsel which I have often urged on the heads of families, while I was their pastor, to great painfulness in teaching, warning, and directing their children; bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord; beginning early, where there is yet opportunity, and maintaining constant diligence in labours of this kind." - Jonathan Edwards

Coming Attractions

Blessing and Reward (a parenting class for "amateurs") - 8 weeks, beginning October 29th at Summitview Community Church

John Owen: Getting fed up with God and the things of God? Fight for sight.

From The Glory of Christ:

"It is possible to weary God by the way we fulfill our spiritual responsibilities (Isaiah 1:13-14). As the prophet Malachi said, 'You have wearied the Lord with your words' (Mal 2:17). God says he is weary with everything you do for him, and you say you are weary with everything you do for God (Mal. 1:13). You think you are being faithful to God but that he does not reward you as he should. You find no joy in your religion. You have given up holding regular family prayers, or they are only done sporadically and formally. Although family prayer is grounded in the light of nature and shows the family is dedicated to God, and is encouraged by the example of all the saints of old, and necessary in the experience of all that walk with God, yet you make excuses and justify yourself in your neglect of this duty. You show your weariness also by neglecting attendance at public worship. You used to find public worship a joy, but now, what a weariness it is! Things show that you are indeed getting fed up with God and with the things of God." (emphasis mine)

The remedy according to Owen:

"So if you are to avoid growing weary of God and with the things of God then you must continually stir up all the graces of the Spirit in you as you seek spiritual revival in your soul. Do not plunge straight into prayer or worship, but spend time meditating on the glory of Christ first in this way the graces necessary for carrying out that duty will be roused and ready. Keep a prayerful watch for those temptations that will try and draw you away from this holy duty. Many excuses will arise to persuade you to put off the duty of reviving your spiritual life. Laziness, formality, physical tiredness and the business of life will combine to frustrate every effort you make." (emphasis mine)

Fix-your-eye-on-Christ resources here.