Archives for 2008

11.30.08 gbcvic sermon summaries

Not by Rite, Not by Power, but by My Spirit (Rm 2.28-29)
or, What makes a True Jew?

Our concluding message for the second chapter of Romans concludes Paul’s main argument against the Religious man. The Religious man thinks he is exempt from God’s judgement because he has divinely revealed Rites and special judgement escaping Power because of his superior morality and way of life. These notions misunderstand the nature of true acceptance by God, a regeneration of the inner man by the power of the Spirit instead of the works of the flesh.

Pilgrim’s Progress: The Celestial City

We conclude the first half of The Pilgrim’s Progress as we see Christian and Hopeful finally reach the destination of all believers, the Celestial City. We see them linger first in Beulah land, the land where the seasoned saint is partly in this world and partly in the next, then they cross the river of death, entering into the joy of their Lord. Bunyan says (as in his vision the gates to the City close) “After that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them.”

In our own ministry, we have seen many saints go on ahead of us. I can sincerely say that I wish myself among them. Our folks gave what I thought were moving testimonies at the end of this session on that subject. I amplified their words so that you can hear them also, hopefully the distortions at that amplification will not be too distracting.

The Moravians and their Star (Lk 18.18-30)

We begin our Christmas season with an introductory message. The Moravians have a Christmas ornament that is a multi-pointed star. It began as an educational project but quickly became a beloved symbol of Christmas. Four passages are associated with its meaning, these will form our theme for the month of December, all related to the ’star’ and its association with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our first message introduced this theme by taking a look first at the rich young ruler and the spiritual investment to which the Lord called him – give up everything. Then the Lord taught his disciples the principle of multiplied returns – give up everything and get one hundred fold in this life and in the life to come, everlasting life! Exactly what the rich young ruler asked for.

We compared these themes to the spiritual investment Count Zinzendorf made in the 1700s. He was the spiritual leader of the Moravian movement, called by some ‘the rich young ruler who said Yes!’ When Zinzendorf died, his Moravians and their mission sent out over 228 missionaries, seeing many thousands come to Christ, simply because they made the right spiritual investment.

Unfortunately, the modern Moravian church does not match the orthodoxy of former days, but the missionary efforts of the 18th century Moravians are an inspiration to us today.

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My apologies for the delay in posting this! (I know the world was waiting with bated breath.) We had a blessed day yesterday and a busy day today.

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everybody sing!

Back in May, Scott Aniol posted Leading Music at the Conference on the Church for God’s Glory on his site, Religious Affections.

In the article, he commented on the music at the Together for the Gospel conference he had attended earlier in the year. Among other things he said this:

Although every hymn choice for that conference was in and of itself conservative, and although the accompaniment was simple in theory, a completely different underlying philosophy bled through. The leader of the singing, who led from the piano, was a master at emotional manipulation stimulation. How he accompanied the hymns moved and swayed the audience in certain emotional directions. He constantly shouted out unintelligible exclamations that further roused the audience. And the audience did respond. Hands waving in the air, enthusiastic shouting, vigorous singing, and even some jumping around.

I would recommend you read Scott’s entire article. There is some discussion following, but the article is the main thing. Now, I don’t have the time, the $$$, nor the interest to attend such conferences. I didn’t really have a full picture of what Scott was describing, but I had an idea what it was like. Now you can get a sense of exactly what Scott is describing…

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some good words from Southern Baptists on alcohol

I recently posted a review of a book by my good friend, Randy Jaeggli, on the subject of the Christian and alcohol consumption. As Calvin Coolidge is said to have said about a preacher’s attitude toward sin: “He was agin it.”

I came across an article in the Criswell Theological Review today. The article is by Richard Land and Barrett Duke. In The Christian and Alcohol, they appear to be ‘agin’ it also. The whole issue of the CTR is devoted to the subject of Christians and alcohol use. I commend Land and Duke’s article to you, I think they present a well-reasoned position for adopting a policy of total abstinence. [Read more…]

11.23.08 gbcvic sermon summaries

The Rite judged by the Un-Rite if the Un-Rite is Right (Rm 2.26-27)

In this message we look at what good our religion is if we have the right rites but the wrong lives. Paul proposes a situation where the uncircumcised (the Un-Rite)nevertheless keeps the righteousness of the Law. He asks, will not his law keeping equal the value of your circumcision? Moreover, will not his law keeping judge your law breaking? Jesus gave examples, the men of Nineveh and the ‘queen of the south’ (Mt 12.41-42). The same problems attend our religion today. We have the Bible,we have baptism, we have the customs and practices of Christianity, but when we sin (as professing Christians) we stand judged by the lives of non-Christians who don’t sin in the same ways we do.

All of this builds the case that neither morality (Rm 2.1-16) nor religion (Rm 2.17-29) can exempt us from the judgement of God and the sentence of wrath that has fallen on mankind. (Rm 1.18-32). We need something superior to morality and religion.

Pilgrim’s Progress: Ignorance Ignores Christian (pp. 174-187)

In this session we see the renewed attempt by Christian and Hopeful to evangelize Ignorance. Ignorance is completely confident in his own obedience, he has no sense that he needs more than his own self-justification. He does not know he needs the merits of Christ. Leaving him to his own deserts, Christian and Hopeful talk of another man, Mr. Temporary, who made a show of going on a pilgrimage, but turned back when his mind was not changed, he feared other men, could not bear the shame of religion and was grieved to feel guilt for his sin.

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.16-24)

Our message this afternoon returns to a theme we considered eight years ago, the fruit of the Spirit as taught in Galatians. Today’s message looked at the whole idea of spiritual fruit, the desirability of spiritual fruit, and the method of cultivating spiritual fruit. For cultivation, we must crucify the flesh — weed the garden, and so enhance the working of the Spirit in our own lives.

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We had a visiting couple today… lots of visitors lately, but not many returnees. That’s what we would really like, but so far our many visitors lately have been just visitors.

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11.16.08 gbcvic sermons

A Rite is Right only if Law is not Wronged (Rm 2.25)

Our study of Romans moves from showing the insufficiency of even revealed religion to eradicate sin (Rm 2.17-24). Now Paul attacks confidence in the rites of revealed religion. Men made idols out of the rites of Judaism, thinking that their possession and performance of the rites meant they escaped God’s wrath towards sin, failing to realize that their sin invalidated their rituals. The same condition afflicts us today, even us as independent Baptists. We easily make our religious exercises into ‘magic’ rituals that act as ‘charms’ to keep us safe from condemnation. We think that if we regularly attend church, if we’ve been baptized, if we’ve prayed a prayer or walked an aisle, we’ve escaped! But we fail to understand that sins invalidate rituals. What we need is genuine Biblical repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ for our sins. From that faith decision flows the newness of life.

The Enchanted Grounds [Pilgrim’s Progress]

In this session we see Christian and Hopeful keeping themselves wakeful in the Enchanted Grounds by engaging in ‘well managed fellowship’. The specific topic that engages their minds is a discussion of Hopeful’s salvation testimony. In this section Bunyan gives us a clear picture of a soul under conviction and turning to Christ. We made our reading shorter this week to spend more time covering this section in detail.

For Our God is a Consuming Fire (Hb 12.25-29)

This afternoon we considered another distinctive of our Church life, reverent worship. Much has been said all over the world about worship in recent years, but we stand as a body of believers committed to conservative, reverent, traditional worship. By worship we mean more than music, but everything from music to offering to announcements to preaching and all the bits in between. Our reason for insisting on this kind of worship is found in Hb 12.18-29, as the Christian experience is compared to Mt Sinai and found to be far more solemn and far more holy than that awe inspiring experience. We intend to be reverent in worship because God is who He is.

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A smallish crowd today, but blessed services nonetheless.

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advice from minnick

The September/October issue of Frontline magazine features the second instalment in a series of articles by Mark Minnick on the subject, “What’s an Evangelical to Do?”

The question is asking what is the appropriate response for any evangelical Christian to the false teaching of alleged evangelical Christians. N. T. Wright is offered as the exemplary false teacher. John Piper is offered as a typical evangelical in response to Wright’s false teaching. The article concludes with these words:

This is the first thing Evangelicals ought to do. They ought to require that any organization to which they belong for Christian endeavor or any professing Christian theologian with whom they enter into any spiritual cooperation whatsoever give unfeigned, unqualified, dogmatic assent to every single Fundamental of the Christian (that is, “Evangelical”) faith.

If, after repeated appeals, an organization or individual refuses to do so, those who are truly Evangelical ought to withhold Christian recognition and avoid him (Rom 16.17), and for the love of the Truth and the safety of Christ’s flock, cry “wolf!” Interminable, deferential, academic fencing will not do. There’s no Scriptural paradigm for it whatsoever. Well-intentioned or not, it’s a betrayal of Christ and the gospel. [bolded words my emphasis]

This advice is exactly what ought to be done, but it is exactly what many Evangelicals will not do. Take for example

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on non-technical communication

I love computers. I am self-taught on this subject, but am fairly conversant with how they work. When a techno-geek starts “talking techie to me”, I can usually follow a good bit of the conversation.

But, alas, there is a point where the tech can lose me. I’m not that computer literate after all.

In any technical field, be it the arcane nuances of computer networking or the intricacies of the hypostatic union, those ‘in the know’ find themselves afflicted with their own jargon – terms that mean much to the speaker, but almost nothing to the hearer.

If you would be an effective communicator, what to do?

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interesting

I am working on a major series of posts, but thought I’d give you a link to an article I found today.

The article comes from the Associated Baptist Press. This is the more left wing news service connected to Southern Baptist types, at least as I understand it.

The article points to a generational change where the younger set is at odds with the values of the older set.

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11.9.08 gbcvic sermon summaries

We had a special speaker this week, read on for the details!

An Open Door and many Adversaries (1 Cor 16.9)

Today we had the great privilege of a guest speaker in our services. Scott Holloway is our pastor’s cousin (technically, 1st cousin once removed!). He received his training for the ministry in a local church Bible institute in Trail, BC where he currently serves as an assistant pastor. He plans to begin a church planting ministry in Kindersley, Saskatchewan in the New Year. We invited him out to present his ministry to our church.

Scott’s message for us in our Sunday morning worship challenged us concerning the open door God puts before us in the form of various opportunities of service. At the same time, every opportunity will be blocked by adversaries. In order to take advantage of the opportunities God gives us, while overcoming our adversaries, we need spiritual preparation, we need to employ much prayer, and we need to be persistent in our service to God.

Wayward Travelers

Our study of Pilgrim’s Progress leads out of the Delectable Mountains into new encounters with various travelers. For this session, we first covered a few points of clarification from last week’s lesson and then plunged into this week’s reading. This week begins with an initial encounter of ‘a very brisk lad,’ Ignorance, who is unwilling to hear of a gospel of salvation by faith but is content with his own works. Leaving Ignorance, we encounter one Turn-away, and a weak Christian called Little-faith. We are encouraged by the discussion of these characters, but we end finding Christian and Hopeful being chastised for being led astray by a Flatterer, who captures them in a net. All of these events serve to illustrate situations believers may experience in their Christian lives.

Entering the Harvest (Jn 4.27-35)

In our afternoon service, Scott Holloway presented his vision and plans for a church planting ministry in Kindersley, Saskatchewan. He gave the presentation on overheads, then preached another message for us.

The message comes from the Lord’s teaching of his astonished disciples when they discover him speaking to the Samaritan woman. He teaches them that there is a harvest they did not see. He teaches them that the harvest is often in a place they would not expect. Finally, he teaches that the harvest is ready. These principles admonish us today as well.

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Scott and I traveled north for the evening service in my brother’s church, Grace Baptist of the Comox Valley. Scott preached another fine message for the congregation there. I was especially blessed to have this opportunity for fellowship with Scott. The trip to Courtenay is about 3 hours each way. I was 20 when Scott was born, so I have had little opportunity for interaction over the years. Yesterday blessed my heart.

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oh boy…

So I’m listening to the One’s acceptance speech…

And this is what keeps running through the back of my mind…

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P.S. What’s he so angry about? He just won? Why can’t he smile?