kerux noemata: T4G: Quotes

Kerux's favourite quotes from Together for the Gospel... good stuff from good men!

kerux noemata: T4G: Quotes

Going Deep

God is big... infinite, in fact. It only makes sense, then, that a finite being like me can't understand everything about God. One thing the emergent *cough*neo-orthodoxy*cough* crew likes to point out is that we can't put God in a box. Generally it's phrased in a 'witty' sarcastic statement intended as a 'humble' rebuke of some 'fundamentalist' that goes something like this: 'Well, I'm glad that some of you have God all figured out, but for those of us who think God is too big to fit into a little box (or sometimes 'book'), we prefer to think that he is free to act as he sees fit.'

Sure. But no one was denying that. In fact, we would argue that the Scriptures themselves teach that God is free to act as he sees fit (even in spite of what we might choose).

The idea of God being 'really big' should not effect the basic doctrines the way emergents often quote it. Infinity does not negate perspicuity. When deep sea diving, it can get dark. When snorkeling, there is plenty of light to see where we're swimming. You could very well be in the same ocean either way, but in one place the water is murky and in another it's clear.

The same is true of God. Just as he has claimed to have not revealed everything to us, neither do we claim to know everything. But the things that God has revealed, we can and must know! The fact that God is bigger, deeper, more profound, complex and wonderful than me should not discourage me from ever knowing anything about God, but rather, should inspire to look into the mystery of his revelation all the more.

But the complex does not complicate the simple. Some aspects of God are plain. He is holy and righteous and he hates sin. He will not compromise, change his mind, or give his glory to another. He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. He will accomplish his purpose in history, despite sinful man's every effort to thwart God's plan (as pictured in the cross). God will always be victorious (as pictured in the resurrection and ascension). He requires propitiation of his holy wrath, and he provided it for all his sheep in the person of Jesus Christ. He will one day raise all the dead from all time to face judgment: either unto eternal life or eternal punishment. This much is plain.

When Christ returns, I want to be able to say that I used the 'talent' he left us (his word) to get to know him and that I've spoken his truth to others, not that I buried it in the ground in order to 'ask questions,' because I was afraid to conclude anything about him because he's too 'big.'

The Church Benefits when the Pastor Preaches

Tim Challies has been live-blogging the T4G Conference. There have been many interesting posts (from many interesting messages), but this one from John MacArthur caught my eye. John, in his message, was discussing 40 years of gospel ministry at his church. He identifies several benefits from expository preaching in the church:

Having discussed the benefit of expository preaching, he turned to the benefits to the church in this type of consistent, Bible-focused ministry:

1) A church full of genuine Christians who think biblically. "I go to church at a real church." We can go to a real church with real believers. It is the real deal!

2) People develop conviction where they have clarity. Conviction makes strength and strength has impact.

3) When you exposit the Word of God, everyone's belief is tested at every text. "Everything I've ever taught has had to survive the scrutiny of the text."

When the word is faithfully exposited and taught week-in and week-out the people learn (oftentimes without even knowing it) how to exposit the word on their own as they read. I've got lots of friends in various ministry roles and often they complain about the general ignorance of the average church-goer.

I have no such complaint about people in our church.

That is not bragging. I think it is simply evidence of the truthfulness of what MacArthur has noted above. Faithful Bible teaching bears fruit in the lives of individual Christians who come to know their Bibles better and are apply to learn from it and apply it to their lives on their own.

Maybe the problem with Church (and the Christians who make up church) isn't the Christians, but the leadership who have not been faithful to preach the word expositionally.

Spurgeon vs. Emergent

Words of wisdom from Spurgeon, writing against (ironically enough) proponents of 'modern thought' who would 'fiddle' with doctrine, always looking to change the theology of the church.

Our 'modern thought' gentry are doing incalculable mischief to the souls of men, and resemble Nero fiddling upont the top of a tower with Rome burning at his feet. Souls are being damned, and yet these men are spinning theories. Hell gapes wide, and with her open mouth swallows up myriads, and those who should spread the tidings of salvation are 'pursuing fresh lines thought.' Highly cultured soul-murderers will find their boasted 'culture' to be no excuse in the day of judgment. For God's sake, let us know how men are to be saved, and get to the work: to be for ever deliberating as to the proper mode of making bread while a nation dies of famine is detestable trifling. It is time we knew what to teach, or else renounced the office. 'For ever learning and never coming to the truth' is the motto of the worst rather than the best of men.

Something like this helps me put my finger on exactly what it is (at least one of the things) that bugs me so much about emergent. The more time we spend re-inventing the wheel, the more people live and die without ever hearing the plain gospel truth from a Christian. The more Satan keeps Christians busy arguing over how seriously we should take warnings of hell for all who don't consciously put faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, the more people die convinced they are fine because even a Christian wouldn't tell them their sin is sin.

Not posting like usual...

Well, the past week or so has been incredibly busy and I haven't even had time to keep up with reading other people's blogs, nevermind writing for my own!

Today, however, I posted some reflections of "Good Friday" and the Problem of Evil here. Feel free to check that out.

Hopefully I'll be able to write more in the coming days and weeks.

Love Your Children!

Pastor David N. Robinson says, "Love your children!" In today's culture, somehow loving our kids means buying them the latest sneakers more than it means being willing to spend the time. Parents spend all day and night pursuing their own pleasures... and just now we're starting to reap the results.

Amen.

I couldn't agree more. This post is definitely worth checking out.

The Blue Jays Win the World Series!!

Okay, this is a little outside of what you may have come to expect from this blog, but it just hit me today that the only thing I've ever really posted about this wonderful city I live in was that stupid fan thing.

And today is opening day!! So, all things considered, I thought we should give it the old "Okay, Blue Jays, Let's Play Ball!" routine. Some may think that the title of this post is a little premature, but Ken Rosenthal, senior baseball writer for Fox Sportsnet has predicted the Jays to bring home the big prize this year. Check it out!

So... make sure if you're visiting our beautiful city, you come check out the Jays. Since the Maple Leafs stink so badly this year the Jays are the only show in town (we're not even going to mention the miserable Raptors). If you live here, get out and cheer on Doc and the boys... it could be a fun year.