Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The [Necessary] Role of Fellowship in our Sanctification

"I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge 
of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ." (Philemon 6, ESV)

In the Greek, this is a very difficult verse to translate into English, as a quick perusal of the many translations of, and technical commentaries on, this verse make clear.

One of the most important principles we learned in studying Greek in seminary is that "context is always king." In other words, as important as scrutinizing every noun, verb, preposition, and participle is, the best way to interpret a passage is to fit it into the overall flow and argument of its surrounding context. 

For example, a sermon emphasizing evangelism will undoubtedly select the NIV's translation:

"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, 
so that you will have a full understanding 
of every good thing we have in Christ."

Rendered this way, the verse would meant that as we "share the gospel with others", we will begin to understand more fully all of the treasures of the gospel that are at our disposal.

Though this certainly preaches well, we need to ask ourselves, "Is this is what Paul is trying to convey to Philemon in light of the overall thrust of his letter?"

In the previous verse, Paul has just expressed his thankfulness to God for Philemon's faith in Christ which is inseparably linked with - and thus expressed in - a demonstration of his love toward all the saints (v. 5).

The idea between these verses seems to be this:
Philemon, you have demonstrated that you are a believer in the Lord Jesus through the expression of your tangible and generous love towards His people. By sovereign grace, your runaway slave Onesimus has become one of Christ's "saints" (cf. vv. 10, 16). Accordingly, refresh my heart by showing him the love of Christ as well (demonstrated most notably in forgiving him). Receive your new brother-in-Christ with the same generosity that you would receive me, your father-in-Christ (v. 17).
This is precisely what the word koinonia in v. 6 means. It means not so much sharing in the sense that we use it in our modern Christianeze vernacular (i.e. evangelistically), but rather the generous sharing of one's life with other Christians in community. Paul is entreating Philemon not so much to share his faith with respect to evangelism, as he is entreating him to share his faith with respect to generous love.

Now this love is generous in every area: forgiveness, patience, humility, money, time, patience, giftings, deference...everything. 

This is the necessity of Christian community for our common growth in grace. Here is my paraphrase of this massively important verse: 
As we lovingly empty ourselves for the good of others in our community, we will begin to understand and experience the vast, unlimited treasure trove of Christ's riches in grace. 
Put negatively, when we hoard our spiritual resources to ourselves, we will never understand all that Christ has 'put in the tank' (or, bank account), so to speak.

When we actively practice biblical koinonia (i.e. fellowship in the Spirit, Philippians 2:2), we begin to do radically, grace-empowered things, like forgiving our brothers and sisters in Christ; we begin to esteem others as more important; we live sacrificially for the good of others; we share generously of our homes, food, time, money, talents, etc. As we make it our habit to live in community this way, then - and only then - will we begin to understand that Christ's grace is sufficient for all these things, that "we can do all things in Him who strengthens us [to do these very things]" (Philippians 4:13).

As we "share" our faith in this way, our understanding of every blessing that belongs to us in Christ will correspondingly be deepened; we will increasingly begin to "know" Christ in much richer ways.

Dear Christian reader, do you long to experience (lit. "know") more of Christ's riches in your life? Then I appeal to you, as Paul did with Philemon, to be generous in your love towards the saints. This is a great benefit to the cause of Christ in the world (v. 20).

Surprisingly, though I disagree with the "evangelistic" translation of the NIV, this verse, when properly translated and interpreted, is an effective "evangelism" methodology in the NT: as we "share our faith" with one another, we ultimately "share our faith" with a watching world (cf. John 13:35, etc.).

[Sacrificial] love-in-action-in-community is a powerful apologetic to a world that, because of its sinful selfishness, experiences very little of, yet desperately longs for. For example, having a ton of 'friends' on Facebook does not fill the void that this kind of "fellowship" in true [Christ-centered/like] community can. This is powerfully proclaimed in word and deed in a Spirit-filled, Christ-imitating community of "saints".

May we be enabled by the grace of Christ to make every effort to maintain & further the unity of the Spirit we who are in Christ have! This is what a city on a hill looks like! It cannot be hidden.

In Christ, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
pastor ryan

Monday, November 19, 2012

Martyn Lloyd-Jones on What True Repentance Is and Is Not

In a sermon on "False Prophets", the Doctor distinguishes the marks between a false and spurious 'repentance' versus the biblical record of what true and saving repentance looks like. Lamenting the soft preaching of the contemporary evangelical landscape of his time, he says,
It does not emphasize repentance in any real sense. It has a very wide gate leading to salvation and a very broad way  leading to heaven. You need not feel much of your own sinfulness; you need not be aware of the blackness of your own heart. You just "decide for Christ" and you rush in with the crowd, and your name is put down, and is one of the large number of "decisions" reported by the press. It is entirely unlike the evangelism of the Puritans and of John Wesley, George Whitefield and others, which led men to be terrified of the judgment of God, and to have an agony of soul sometimes for days and weeks and months. John Bunyan tells us in his Grace Abounding that he endured an agony of repentance for 18 months. There does not seem to be much room for that today.
Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell-bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world what ever the cost, the world and its mind and outlook as well as it's practice, and you deny yourself, and take up the cross and go after Christ. Your nearest and dearest, and the whole world, may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania. You may have to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That is repentance. The false prophet does not put it like that. He heals "the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly", simply saying that it is all right, and that you have but to "come to Christ", "follow Jesus", or "become a Christian." They offer an easy salvation, and an easy type of life always.
Although preached in the year 1952, it is as if Lloyd Jones is surveying the common evangelical landscape today. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

May God raise up a faithful generation of prophets to call a spade a spade. God's glory in the gospel is at stake. Little do we realize that because of our faulty view of sin or our natural inability to come to Christ savingly apart from regenerating grace, the world looks at a 'church' full of goats, and to quote Paul, "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (Romans 2:24).

In Christ, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
pastor ryan

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Thanksgiving

Every second Monday in October, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Traditionally, this holiday was instituted to celebrate the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

From Wikipedia:
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada can be traced back to the 1578 voyage of Martin Frobisher from England in search of the Northwest Passage. In this, his third, voyage to the Frobisher Bay area of Baffin Island in the present Canadian Territory of Nunavut, it was also the intention to start a small settlement and his fleet of 15 ships were so fitted out with men, materials and provisions for this purpose. However, the loss of one of his ships through contact with ice along with much of the building material was to prevent him from doing so. The expedition was plagued by ice and freak storms which at times had scattered the fleet and on meeting together again at their anchorage in Frobisher Bay, Writes Frobisher in his journal, “Mayster Wolfall, a learned man, appointed by her Majesties Councell to be their minister and preacher, made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankefull to God for their strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places…They celebrated Communion and The celebration of divine mystery was the first sign, scale, and confirmation of Christ's name, death and passion ever known in all these quarters. "
Though Thanksgiving Day has degenerated to virtually a pagan holiday of gluttony, its roots go back to the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Frobisher was simply being obedient to the innumerable passages that exhort God's people to give Him thanks.

The one that most clearly comes to mind is his exhortation to the Thessalonian church, wherein the apostle Paul writes:
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (5:18)
This is why God has saved us in Christ: to give thanks to Him in everything and for everything.

Yes, we are thankful for our country. And yes we are thankful for the many physical blessings such as full fridges, closets, garages, and bank accounts.

But ultimately, we are thankful for the true Spiritual riches that we have in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3ff.).

Beloved, God has saved us in Christ that we might praise Him for His glorious grace (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). God, through Christ, has made us His very own possession, that we might proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).

The "continual offering" God seeks from His people is "the sacrifice of praise, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name" (Heb. 13:15).

These are all saying the same thing: God has saved us to give thanks to Him.

What we call Thanksgiving Day, the French call "Jour de l'Action de grĂ¢ce." Spending a day together to celebrate [God's] "action" grace. I like that. And so does our great King.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, make sure you take time to "give thanks to the LORD, for His steadfast love endures forever."

It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
   to sing praises to Your Name,
      O Most High;
to declare Your steadfast love in the morning,
   and Your faithfulness by night. (Psa. 92:1-2)

"Your blood has washed away my sin, Jesus thank You;
     The Father's wrath completely satisfied, Jesus thank You.
  Once an enemy, now seated at Your table, Jesus thank You."

In Christ, and for the sake of His glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Knowing About God is Not Enough!


The following from a John MacArthur sermon was a sobering reminder of the insufficiency and folly of those who seek to accrue more and more "knowledge" about God alone, without "mixing it with faith" (cf. Heb. 4:2, KJV):
A famous actor was once the guest of honor at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favorite excerpts from various literary works. An old preacher who happened to be there asked the actor to recite the Twenty-Third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it. The actor's recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis, for which he received lengthy applause. The preacher's voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room.  When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied, "I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd." Salvation does not come from knowing about the truth of Jesus Christ but from intimately knowing Christ Himself.
As Leonard Ravenhill used to say, there is a great difference between knowing the Word of God, and knowing the God of the Word.

Indeed, there is a pervasively deceptive danger of faithless, lifeless knowledge that has crept not merely into many of our churches, but many of our pulpits.

May God rescue us from the deceptive lie that a mere & shallow head knowledge of the gospel is to be equated with a robust and living faith in our living Savior.

In Christ, God's Word incarnate,
Pastor Ryan

Life is More than Lip- Service

In a tiny little gem entitled, "A Guide to Christian Living", the eminent pastor-theologian John Calvin wrote the following which cut me to the quick.

In the first chapter, under the 4th subheading entitled "Life is More than Lip Service" he writes:
Something should be said at this point to those who, having only the name of Christ, wish nevertheless to be known as Christians. How bold they are to glory in His holy name, seeing that none enjoy His friendship save those who rightly know Him through the gospel...Clearly, when such people claim to know Christ, their claim is false. In the process they do Him much wrong, however persuasively they prattle on about Him.
The gospel is teaching intended not for the tongue, but for life. Unlike other disciplines it involves more than just the mind and memory: it must take full possession of the soul and must have its seat and home deep in the heart. Otherwise it is not really taken in. So let these people cease to shame God by boasting of what they are not, or let them prove themselves to be disciples of Christ.
In the matter of religion, we have so far given priority to what is taught, since that is the beginning of our salvation. But to bear fruit and to be profitable, what is taught must lodge in the heart and demonstrate its power in our lives. More than that, it must transform us so that its nature becomes ours.
I confess that often I am content to let the truth dwell in my mind and intellect, but never really worry about its transforming voyage into my heart and soul. Why? Because it's easier to look holy by quoting (or blogging or tweeting or Facebooking) a lot of other noble theologians or philosophers, or (gasp!), even the holy Scriptures themselves than actually living them out.  And the scary thing is this: we seemingly get away with it, and begin to harden our hearts further, resulting in a life that is utterly and completely hypocritical. Or as Jude warns, "clouds without rain." Scary stuff. This is perhaps one of the worst forms of God's judgment (i.e. giving us over to sin, even if outwardly everything looks "sinless").

Oh how I praise God for the gift of His Spirit's conviction! I praise Him that in His mercy, He has not let me go too far in my proud downward spiral. 

What is the life my Savior wants us to exhibit? The life of faith. Like Abraham, who simply took God at His Word and lived in light of it.  He didn't merely talk about God's promise in ivory towers when visiting theologians stopped by to talk shop.  No, he walked by faith. Or, as James puts it, Abraham showed he was right in the eyes of God because his works backed up his profession.

This is the life I want to live for my Savior.  I want to live like a little child, simply taking God at His Word and then obeying it immediately.  Paul was right: in those who are prone to pride (i.e. me), "knowledge puffeth up." Lately I have been so puffed up, and yet so empty inside.

Please deflate, or if necessary burst, my intellectual bubble, O God, if it draws attention to my intellect instead of Your glorious gospel, wherein Jesus, the Son of God, died a humiliating death at the hands of sinful men and bore the divine wrath my sin had heaped upon Him.

Thank You, glorious God, for giving us the gift of men like John Calvin, who point us back to Your Word afresh.  Forgive us for making men like him our boast, rather than the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ alone, through whom we have adoption as sons,
Pastor Ryan

Friday, May 4, 2012

The New Liberalism in Christianity (Man-Centered "Evangelism")

In an article entitled, "Is the Megachurch the new Liberalism", Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary, writes:
Theological liberalism did not set out to destroy Christianity, but to save it from itself. Is the same temptation now evident? The Great Commission, we must remind ourselves, is not a command merely to reach people, but to make disciples. And disciples are only made when the church teaches all that Christ has commanded, as the Great Commission makes clear.
In a nutshell, Mohler states that the church's infatuation with numbers is a great threat to orthodoxy.  The primary example he gives is from a recent sermon delivered by Andy Stanley, Pastor of Northwood Community Church in Atlanta, which is the 3rd biggest church in America, wherein he implicitly stamped his - and by implication his church's - hearty approval of same-sex marriages, including them in his definition of "the modern family."

Being a pastor myself, I feel the pressure that "evangelicalism" places on churches to be "successful."  Of course, being completely ignorant of any time in history but our own, we as North Americans assume that successful has always been defined in terms of numbers and public approval.

I think this is the dangerous mentality that has permeated most (note: not all) megachurches.  When their god becomes numbers and not faithfulness to God's Word, this is inevitable.  However, as Mohler notes, this is not peculiar to megachurches.  Many small churches, that haven't reached that status, are trying to.  And how do we fill our pews, er, cool movie theater seats? By cheapening the gospel.  Whether or not they are "in" the Kingdom of God is besides the point.  They are in our church, and therefore we must be doing something right.

Let's face it. Jesus didn't suffer for preaching a soft-sell gospel.  He died because He preached a message that confronted sin, and only offered forgiveness to those willing to part with their sin.  As Leonard Ravenhill once said, if all Jesus preached was our American gospel, He would still be alive today.

Like adultery, stealing, gossip, blasphemy, lust, and covetousness, homosexuality is a sin.  If this message keeps homosexuals from attending our church, we must be faithful to the Scriptures, and trust that the Holy Spirit will bring them to repentance through regeneration.  If our message keeps people who are living in adultery from attending our church, we must preach the gospel & likewise trust that God will bring true conviction and repentance.  (By the way, I truly believe that the church has compromised on what the Bible teaches on divorce & remarriage for this reason alone, namely, that our churches are filled with people who treat marriage with such indifferent contempt. God forbid they go across the street to another church! So we let all kinds of people divorce for unbiblical reasons, so they and their families can stay in our church....and keep tithing, of course).

If we "tweek" the gospel, we take away the only tool the Spirit has to bring about the new birth.  It's that simple.  We can fill our churches with people who pray prayers that are not found in the Bible, but we may be inadvertently filling Hell with people who have been given a false bill of sale.

Satan is no fool.  The word "liberalism" is scary, and most 'evangelical' pastors would denounce those who have denied the authority & sufficiency of Scripture in the past.  So Satan gives us something noble, namely "soul-winning via a goat's gospel" to destroy the witness of the church, filling it with unregenerate 'members' who have never truly known what "Jesus is Lord" really means.  Such professors show up to church on Sunday, sing some songs, laugh at some jokes, give some money, are entertained for 25 minutes, then leave so they can return to 'reality'. One little addition to the gospel can completely change it, just as one molecule can radically change the outcome of a chemical reaction.  Since we pander after unbelievers who love their sin, we preach a feel-good gospel that tells them Jesus is OK with our sinfulness.  After all, He came to save sinners, right?  However, Jesus came to save His people "from" their sin (Matt. 1:21), not "for" their sin. One letter makes all the difference!

I close with a quote from Mohler, who is implying that many of the 'pastors' filling pulpits today are the successors of well-known liberals from the past.  This is scary stuff.
The current cultural context creates barriers to the Gospel even as it offers temptations. One of those temptations is to use to use the argument that our message has to change in order to reach people. This was the impetus of theological liberalism’s origin. Liberals such as Harry Emerson Fosdick claimed that the Christian message would have to change or the church would lose all intellectual credibility in the modern world. Fosdick ended up denying the Gospel and transforming the message of the Cross into psychology. Norman Vincent Peale came along and made this transformation even more appealing to a mass audience. Fosdick and Peale have no shortage of modern heirs.
 Gulp.  I would challenge you to check out the 10 Biggest Churches in America. Listen to their "messages" and tell me if the words "sin" or "repentance" are used in their "gospel" appeals.  God have mercy on us!

How different from Paul's final letter, written to Timothy.  We just finished working through it in our family devotions. It's filled with suffering for the gospel.  Sometimes I wonder how we in North America have missed one of the main themes in the New Testament: suffering for preaching & living the (true) gospel. In 2 Tim. 4, Paul reminds Timothy of what needs to be done "in these last days" which are characterized by religious wickedness (ch. 3):
"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."
 May God give us His Spirit in full measure to suffer for the gospel (2 Tim. 1:6-8).

Recommended books:

James Gresham Machen, "Christianity & Liberalism"

Michael Horton, "Christless Christianity"

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Dever on Monologue Preaching

The following is taken from Mark Dever's latest book entitled, Preach.  It is extremely pertinent to a 'christian' generation that has by and large forgotten that it is through "the foolishness of preaching" that people are saved (1 Cor. 1:21, NET). Not entertainment. Not slick presentations. Not emotional appeal. Not hip youth pastors or tight worship teams. The first two chapters of Paul's letter to the immature Corinthian church are a rebuke to our insipid, post-modern, latte drinking, entertainment seeking

The empty pulpit in many of our church buildings well displays the spiritual reality. We run around seeking life for our churches and life for ourselves through a million different methods, and the one means God has given for bringing people into a relationship with Himself stands neglected and disdained. In the act of preaching—a congregation hearing the voice of one man who stands behind the Scriptures—God has given us an important symbol of the fact that we come into relationship with Him by His Word. Just as surely as Abram was called to God by the word of promise addressing him, so we as Christians are made God’s people by believing God and trusting His promises. In a word, we come into relationship with God through faith, and “faith comes,” Paul tells us in Romans 10, “from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
There is only one God, and He is a relational and communicating, personal being who speaks to us and initiates relationship with us. Those powerful, life-giving truths are not only proclaimed but also powerfully symbolized by the preaching of God’s Word. He speaks, and therefore we preach.
As Mark Dever says in an endorsement of Al Mohler's book, He is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World, "Where are the Spurgeons of this generation?"

May our Lord Jesus, in His great love for His church, send this generation many such monologue preachers who speak as God's mouthpieces to a dying, Hell-bound world.

In Christ, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Resurrection Changes Everything

I'm currently reading a book entitled, "Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything" by Adrian Warnock. His preface is just too good to not share with others.

For Christians all over the world, every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. We meet each week, among other things, in order to celebrate the glorious, wondrous fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus' resurrection really did change everything. It changed the cross from a tragedy into a triumph...This was the most powerful divine event in the history of creation, and it ushered in a new age of the Holy Spirit's activity and power in saving and transforming lives.
When considering if Christianity is true, it all boils down to the whether Jesus rose from the dead. The lives of Christians today demonstrate that the resurrection is still changing people. It changes fear into love, despair into joy. The resurrection changes people from being spiritually dead to being alive to God. It changes guilty condemnation into a celebration of forgiveness and freedom. It changes anxiety into a hope that goes beyond the grave. It can change our sinful hearts so they want to follow the Lord Jesus, and the power of the resurrection is relentlessly killing the sin in every true Christian. Because we neglect to emphasize this truth, many Christians have a meager expectation of the extent to which we can today experience resurrection life and victory over sin. The resurrection is far from being something we only benefit from in the future!
As John MacArthur says,
The resurrection is the ground of our assurance, it is the basis for all our future hopes, and it is the source of power in our daily lives here and now. It gives us courage in the midst of persecution, comfort in the midst of trials, and hope in the midst of the world's darkness.
Warnock continues,
Christians have therefore already been changed by Jesus' resurrection. Jesus really is alive today. Because of this Christians are also alive in a whole new way. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is living in every true Christian. God wants us not just to believe in Jesus' resurrection but to be transformed by it and to receive the power we need to live the way we know we ought. For all of us, the questions, did Jesus rise from the dead? and what are the implications of His resurrection? are the most important ones we will ever answer.
 If Warnock is right, we would do well to understand more deeply, and reflect more seriously, and apply more realistically the glorious truth and subsequent implications of the immeasurable greatness of God's power at work in us (Eph. 1:19ff.).

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Is Jesus Yahweh?

One of the younger ladies in our church asked for some resources to help her dialogue with a friend of hers who left the church and has since become a jehovah's witness (I have intentionally not capitalized their title out of reverence for the true & living Yahweh).

I sent her some good stuff from the ESV Study Bible, which I thought was excellent.

Then I went to Robert Reyburn's Systematic Theology and basically sent her his section on how the NT writers ascribe the divine Name of Yahweh used in the OT to Jesus in the NT.

Here, with a couple of additions, is what I sent her.  I hope it will help us as we contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.  Jesus is God.  Let us remain confident and unashamed of what the Scriptures make so abundantly and gloriously clear.

1. Moses' description of Yahweh as "King of kings" (Deut. 10:17) is applied by John to Christ (Rev. 17:14; 19:16).

2. The author of Hebrews applies the entirety of Psalm 102:25-27 to Jesus (1:10-12).

3. Proverbs 18:10 provides the background for Peter's assertion in Acts 4:12

4. Joel's summons to trust in Yahweh (2:32) is employed by Paul to summon men to faith in Christ (Rom. 10:13).

5. When Isaiah looked upon Yahweh (Isa. 6:1-3), according to John he was beholding the glory of the preincarnate Son of God (John 12:40-41).

6. Isaiah's call to sanctify Yahweh in the heart (8:12-13) is applied by Peter to Christ - He is the One who is to be sanctified as "Lord" in the heart (1 Pet. 3:14-15).

7. Isaiah's representation of Yahweh as a stone that causes men to stumble & a rock that makes them fall (8:14) is applied by Paul to Christ (Rom. 9:32-33).

8. Yahweh, whose coming would be preceded by Yahweh's forerunner (Isa. 40:3; Mal. 3:1; 4:5), is equated w/ Christ (Matt. 3:3; 11:10; Mark 1:2-3; Luke 1:16-17; 3:4; John 1:23).

9. Jesus Himself employs Yahweh's words in Isaiah 43:10 & 45:22 to summon men to be His witnesses & to rest in Him (Acts 1:8; Matt. 11:28).

10. Isaiah's description of Yahweh as the "first & last" (44:6) is employed by John to describe the glorified Christ (Rev. 2:8; 22:12-13).

11. Yahweh, "before whom every kneww shall bow & by whom every mouth shall swear (Isa. 45:23) is identified by Paul as Jesus (Rom. 14:10; Phil. 2:10).

12. Yahweh, the pierced One upon whom men would look & mourn (Zech. 12:10), John tells us is the Christ (John 19:37).

13. Jesus is given the divine Name, "Lord" (NT) by the Father in Phil. 2:9).

14. That Yahweh is called "the only Savior" in the OT (Isa. 43:11; 45:15, 21) and applied by multiple NT writers to Jesus shows that Jesus is no mere angel, but divine (see Tit. 1:3 & compare w/ 1:4; 2:10 w/ 2:13; 3:4 w/ 3:6). That Paul does this 3 times in the same context is more than mere coincidence.

There are plenty more examples.  If they deny this much, there is no use giving any more, as their hearts are closed to the truth & hardened to what the Scriptures plainly & repetitively teach.


In Christ, and for His divine glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Loving Our Enemies

In God's great providence, He saw fit to give me one of those minds that has a hard time 'stopping'.  Hours after reading a book, my mind is often found digesting and analyzing and contrasting and comparing and dissecting.  Needless to say, more often than not, sleep can become more of a chore than anything.  One of the ways I have learned to combat this 'gift' is to read "non-theological" books (especially biographies) at night time as I'm 'settling down' to go to bed, as doing so often has the effect of putting my brain into more of a screensaver mode.

Last night, I began reading A Heart for Freedom, the story of Chai Ling and her courageous determination to seek the freedom of her fellow countrymen (and women) in China.  Though best known for her leading role in one of the greatest uprisings in world history (Tiananmen Square), what she is not known is for the amazing journey that God had predetermined for her before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-14).

But before she gets to her freedom in Christ, she recounts for us in the beginning of the book the slavery associated with her upbringing in Communist (read: Atheist) China, along with the massive effects and implications that this had upon her life.  In these introductory chapters, she paints the landscape of her upbringing in a small town in China, highlighting especially the pain of growing up without her parents, who were somewhat renown doctors and loyalists to the People's Liberation Army (PLA). So loyal were they to this 'cause', that they were never home for their children; often they were away from home for up to a year at a time.  Though well fed physically, they were starving spiritually.

By the time she gets to the sixth chapter, which chronicles her University life in Beijing, we begin to see the ramifications of a godless [read: God-hating] upbringing.  For example: having never had a godly male figure in the home - she literally was raised by her grandmother, and then by the age of ten, was raising the rest of her family - she never was taught what true love from a man looked like.  And so we should not be surprised when she recounts how in her time at University she began dating a guy whom she didn't love.  The reason she dated him: he would be a stable husband, much the way her dad was to her mother.

Then, one day, before Chai Ling knew what had been happening, one thing led to another, and, while visiting her parents during a University break, was found to be with child (Chai had no idea, though her mom of course did).  Being brought up in a culture that is completely foreign to us, namely a culture of respect and shame, Chai Ling's father was furious, as the very mention of this would destroy the generations of hard work he and his ancestors had exerted to build the family a respectable name in the their town (not to mention the Army they so loyally served).  Without even discussing the options, her father dragged her to an abortion clinic two hours away (no one would know them in the remote village they went to), where an abortion was administered without any questions whatsoever (again, we need to remember that at that time, China was under the one-child policy).

The details were gory.  As wicked and gruesome as abortion is in "modern and sanitized" America, how this abortion was administered was far more disturbing.  Having the joy of being blessed with children, as well as the pain of losing two via miscarriage and stillbirth, I confess reading this was quite difficult and emotional for me.

And yet, as much as I was grieving over the murder of her first child, I actually was grieving over Chai Ling as well.  In a very real biblical sense, she knew better, namely that murder is wrong (Romans 1:18ff.; 2:12-16).  And yet in another real sense, she was the victim of ignorance and a Satanic government system.  She was the victim of trying to find love in a finite man, because she had never truly heard of the love of God for the world in Jesus Christ.  She was, as Paul says, an ignorant Gentile having no hope and without God in this world (Eph. 4:17-18; 2:11-12).

To console herself from the emotional, physical, and spiritual pain of abortion, she threw herself even more into her studies, which of course as an idol could never deliver her.  Before she knew it, she was pregnant again, and this time concealed her going to the abortion clinic for fear of her dad's wrath.

By the end of the book (I don't know why I read the endings so often), she has become a Christian and is fighting for more than mere political freedom in her country; she is fighting for the freedom that only comes in a personal relationship in the God-man Jesus Christ (Gal. 5:1).

The moral of the story: we don't know the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom. 11:33).  So often, in our rage against injustice we forget that sinners sin by nature.  We really shouldn't be all that surprised.  The reason the world is broken is because it is desperately in need of the saving gospel of Jesus.  Like Chai Ling, the world will continually seek solace & comfort from the "course of this world", which only brings more bondage & slavery to the god of this world (cf. Eph. 2:1-3; 2 Cor. 4:4).

Last night at prayer meeting, we grieved over another instance of injustice in the Federal court system.  Basically, a hockey coach, guilty of numerous accounts of sexual abuse of boys he had been coaching, was given a slap on the wrist (2 years in prison).  But what was sweet was that we not only prayed for justice to be meted out by God; we also, and especially, asked that this man would be regenerated and saved by Jesus Christ.  Vengeance is not ours to repay.  God alone holds that prerogative (Rom. 12:19-21; Heb. 10:30).

How are we to respond to sinners in a fallen world?  Even sinners who kill babies?  Sinners who are trying to change the laws in our education system?  Sinners who gossip about us, lie about us, hurt us, use us, abuse us?

Rather than hating our enemies, Jesus explains how His kingdom works: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, revealing that you are children of your Father in heaven" (my translation of Matt. 5:45a).  Why?  "Because," Jesus continues, the Father acts in the same way towards those who hate Him (5:45b).

Paul says that instead of acting in wrath & rage against those who oppose the Kingdom, we are to feed our enemies when they are hungry, and to give them something to drink when they are thirsty, "for by so doing you will heap coals upon their head" (Rom. 12:20).  Paul closes the chapter by encouraging the gospel-remembering believers (12:1-2) "not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good" (12:21).

In 1 Cor. 6, after listing & categorizing a motley crew of Hell-deserving sinners, Paul says, "And such were some of you."  I wonder what Chai Ling's reaction was when she read the glorious verse for the first time.  I wonder if she wept for the praise of the mercy she found in Jesus when she read the next sentence, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (6:11).  Brethren, because of grace, mercy triumphs over judgement! (James 2:13)

May God give us the grace to love our enemies, and pray that God would save them.  They are already condemned.  Jesus came not into the world to condemn the world (because it already is), but that through Him the world might be saved (John 3:17).  May the gospel of hope for the chiefest of sinners be the theme of our song, for truly, beloved, such were some [read: "all"] of us!

In Christ, and for the glory of His name to the ends of the earth, China included,
Pastor Ryan

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 10 - Ephesians)

Ephesians also destroys the unbiblical notion that one can be a Christian whilst living a life characterized by unrepentant sin.

As mentioned in the very first part of this series, Paul addresses his Christian readers as "saints".  Though the Catholics are certainly wrong in their depiction of such people as being a sinless subclass of super Christians, some Protestants have overreacted in the other direction, completely emptying the Greek word (which is derived from its Hebrew ancestor) of its original meaning.

The word translated by many English versions as "saint" is hagios.  Derived from the Hebrew quadosh, the word is often used of Yahweh Himself, and carries the connotation of being "set apart".  When used for God's people, the idea becomes "set apart for special [i.e. "Yahweh's] use."  Thus, we see that often in the OT, God's people were to be "different" from the nations, because the God whom they worshiped was likewise set apart from the false gods of the nations.  In the OT world, the "god" whom one worshiped determined one's lifestyle.  This is why I am so often perplexed when I see so many 'professing' followers of Christ resembling not Him, but the world (which likely betrays the fact that despite their profession, they really worship themselves & the world, not Christ).

When Yahweh calls Israel to be "holy even as [He] is holy" (Lev. 11:44-45), the word translated "holy" both times is quadosh.  And so the full force of the word is seen when God calls His quadosh (saints) to be quadosh (holy).  Those who are called by God are to resemble Him in the world and to the world, which is ultimately for the world (see Exo. 19:5-6).

This is the background that Paul is drawing from.  Saints are simply those who have been set apart by God and for God.  The idea of someone calling themselves a Christian, yet living a life that looks no different from the world is an unfortunate & God-belittling anomaly.

Likewise in 1:2, the believers (pistoi) in Ephesus are also called "faithful" (pistoi).  Again, the notion that a believer (pistos) can live a life of unfaithfulness (apistos) to Christ is something that entirely foreign and alien to the Word of God.

A couple of verses later, Paul says that such believers were "chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love" (1:4).  Thus, those who are not growing in holiness ought to question their calling & election (cf. 2 Pet. 1:10).

Moreover, God's people have literally received "the redemption" in Christ (1:7).  Not only have they been emancipated from the penalty of sin; in addition to this glorious truth, the cross has also dealt a severing death blow to the power of sin, the flesh, the world, and the devil.  "In Christ", believers are no longer slaves to sin, and are thus to live lives in conformity to this truth.  Therefore, believers must "no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds" (4:17).  Those who have truly "learned Christ" are to daily put off the old man, as well as put on the new man, "created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (4:21-24).

In addition to this, those who have received the monergistic gift of regeneration, evidenced by believing the gospel of our salvation (1:13), are to work out their salvation by walking in the good works which God has prepared for His people.  Not only does God predestine that we be saved; He also predestines that those who are saved will indeed live progressively holy lives (cf. 2:5-10).  Who are those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ?  Who are "God's workmanship created in Christ"?  The answer is simple: those who "walk in good works," that is, those whose lives are characterized by grace-enabled good works (which Paul elaborates upon in chapters 4-6).

The temple that believers are incorporated into (i.e. the church) is called "holy" in 2:21. As God's elect people in the earth, they are thus called to be different from the nations (see 4:17ff.).  As God's holy temple, believers are called to be "imitators of God" (5:1), which involves positively walking in love (5:2), as well as negatively putting off things like sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy talk, crude joking, and ungodly relationships (5:3-7).  Rather than being like the world, believers, as light, are to expose the world's darkness, rather than participate in it (5:8-13).

Believers are watch carefully how they "walk" in this world (5:15; cf. 2:10), redeeming the time (5:16).  This requires not being filled with wine or living debauched lives, but rather being filled with the Holy Spirit who enables us to live lives of obedient worship (5:17ff.).

Jesus has not only saved His bride (i.e. the church) to be saved from the penalty of sin; He has also saved her for the purpose of presenting her to Himself "in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (5:27).  He cleanses His people by the "washing of the water of the Word" (5:26).

Thus those whose lives do not evidence such cleansing have "no part" in Jesus (cf. John 13:8, 10); such people should question if they have ever been "set apart", or "sanctified" (Eph. 5:26, verbal form of hagios) by Jesus (recall the similar argument made in the beginning of this post regarding 1:2).

Of course, as I have mentioned in almost every post ad nauseum, I am not advocating or teaching perfectionism here.  1 John 1:5-10 negates that.  God's people still battle with sin because they still are bearing the weight of a fallen body, living in a fallen world (kosmos), and battling a ruthless enemy (Eph. 6:10ff.).  However, God's people will nonetheless, by the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit (1:13), live differently in this world.  That's what it means to be holy.  As God's people gaze upon Christ in the gospel, they will inevitably be transformed, or cleansed by it (2 Cor. 3:18).

Those who walk not in love to Jesus are anathema (cf. Eph. 6:24).  Those who do not walk in loving obedience to Jesus (cf. John 14:15, 21, 23-24) simply do not belong to Him.

In Christ and for His glory to the ends of the earth, through His "set apart" bride,
Pastor Ryan

Monday, February 20, 2012

A Picture of Hope

As I get older, I am beginning to notice just how many of my parents' peculiar hobbies are beginning to evidence themselves in my own life.  Things like the love of cooking and gardening, things I used to think were for old, boring people, have intruded the desires' chamber in my heart, as I now find myself getting excited over the same things I once used to think were lame.

My mom is a "plant-o-holic".  The house I grew up in literally is filled with all sorts of plants: big, small, tree, flower, common, exotic, tender, tough, pretty, ugly...you name it.

In my room, I only have two.  They were given to me by a couple that attended our church for a year or so, and then left.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that I keep them in my room, as I see in them beautiful & living illustrations of some important biblical truths for the Christian life.



This plant was once a thriving beast.  And then it got some kind of infection that began decimating all the leaves, and even the stalks.  So, in an emergency effort to save the plant, I gave her a good ol' pruning.  Though the plant does not look like much now, the disease has been removed, and the process of recovery has begun.  New shoots are appearing out of their former, apparently lifeless stalks.

This is a beautiful picture of the hope of Israel in the 7th century B.C.  Israel, because of Yahweh's sovereign grace, was a thriving nation, flourishing under God's unique blessing upon His chosen people.  However, in her prosperity she let her guard down and allowed a ruthless & cancerous contagion - sin - to enter, which left unchecked began to decimate the nation at every level.  Because Yahweh loved His people too much to let them wallow in their sin, some painful pruning was in order.  Emergency surgery was required to save the nation from self-destructing into oblivion.  And so, metaphorically speaking, He cut her down, using the foreign nations to purge & discipline her.

Inevitably such pruning would bring about despair to God's people, as they would certainly wonder if He had forsaken His covenantal promises made to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.  And so Yahweh, Israel's intimate Savior, inspired a prophet named Isaiah to prophesy hope to Israel, even though all she saw around her was hopelessness.  In Isaiah 11:1-3, 8-9 we read:
Behold, the Sovereign LORD of Hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.  And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD...
In that day the Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples - of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious.  In that day, the Lord will extend His hand yet  second time to recover that remains of His people.
Any Jew alive at that time knew that this was explicitly referring to God's promise to send His Messiah to the earth to rescue His beaten down & broken people, and then set up the Kingdom of God among the elect remnant.

This pathetic looking plant reminds me that regardless of how hopeless and despairing things might appear to my eye, God is at work.  His promises to His people will never fail.  About 100 years after Isaiah prophesied, God raised up another prophet named Habakkuk, who reminded the people:
"The vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it: it will surely come, it will not delay" (2:3).
If God has saved you, look with eyes of faith to the fact that God's promises to His people will not return to Him void (Isaiah 55).  Even in the great pains we experience in life, He is sovereignly working all things out to conform to the end He designed, for His glory (Eph. 1:10, 13-14; cf. 1:6; Rom. 8:28).  Not only is He God.  He is good.

Pastor Ryan

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 9 - Galatians)

If the gospel that Paul preached was Jesus Christ as Lord (Rom. 10:9, 13; 2 Cor. 4:5; Col. 2:6), then we must be mindful of the eternally serious warning he gives to the churches in Galatia: "There are some who want to distort the gospel of Christ...As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (1:7, 9).  Herein, Paul uses extremely strong & poignant language that many ear-tickling, goat-feeding, & numbers-counting pastors should be warned of, as the Greek word (Anathema) which the ESV translates as "cursed" really means to be "condemned to Hell" (NET, CSB f/n) or "eternally condemned" (NIV).

So, if we have grown weary of this long study, let us be reminded of the stakes that are involved when the 'church' preaches another (the Greek word heteros means "different") gospel than the one that Paul and the other apostles preached (as proven in our previous studies in this series).

Let us now look a little more closely at Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Indeed, as Paul intimates, the gospel of grace does indeed save us for freedom (Gal. 5:1).  However, he equally asserts that those who are truly saved will not abuse God's grace in order that they may have an excuse for a lifestyle of unrepentant sin (cf. Rom. 6:1).  No.  God forbid!  As Paul writes, "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another" (Gal. 5:13).  As we have seen earlier, overcoming our innate proclivity to live solely for the advancement & comfort of ourselves requires the divine gift of a heart transplant.  While the old, natural heart gratified the desires & lusts of the flesh, the new heart "from above" makes war against it, seeking to kill it (cf. Rom. 7; 8:13).

This is precisely what Paul iterates in Gal. 5:16-17, wherein we read:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (NIV, NLT = "sinful nature", NJB = "self-indulgence"). For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Moreover, those who live in the flesh, regardless of their profession, must heed Paul's warning in the final chapter: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (6:7-8).  Those who bear no fruit of the Spirit should not expect eternal life, since there is no evidence that they belong to Christ.

If you have not read any of the previous posts, you might be asking, "What is the evidence, or fruit of true conversion?" May the words of Paul answer your question: "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (5:24).  Those who have not crucified their flesh still live in the flesh.  You never crucify what you love.  You crucify your enemies, not your friends.

You might further ask, "What does such a person look like, in real life?"  Again, let Paul satisfy your query:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (5:19-21)
Those who live "according to the flesh" are not alive, but dead (cf. Rom. 8:13). Regardless of what they think, such professors of Christ's name are not possessors of Christ's kingdom.  Unless such people truly are born from above to truly see both Jesus and themselves, they will never truly repent and believe the gospel.  Despite hearing many a comforting word from pastors who are content to let them fill their pews and membership roles, they will go on this life deceiving others, having themselves been deceived, only to die one day and stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgement Day.  What words will they hear? "I never knew you. Depart from Me, your who practice lawlessness."  This is sobering stuff.

This is no mere game, dear reader.  For those who belong to churches that make much of numbers, remember this: it is not the number of people who raise a hand or sign a card that matters to God, but those whom are truly saved (again, see above for the portrait Paul paints of what such people look like).  Before we confer salvation upon someone, let us remember how conversion is defined biblically, as well as what it looks like practically.  How unmerciful the evangelical church at large is to many of its unregenerate members!  How often do we, for selfish reasons, let them come to our church, and yet never confront them of their unrepenant, and thus unforgiven, sins?  We laugh with them, coddle them, encourage them, but never confront them.  And then they go to Hell.  Is this love?

Finally, let us remember that although Paul repeatedly fought to defend that salvation is freely by faith alone in the finished work of Christ (2:16, 20-21; 3:2-14, 22-26; 5:5-6; cf. Eph. 2:5, 8-9), he also reminds us that those who have been saved by faith alone also (must!) have God the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, enabling them to bear fruit as Christ's new creation.  Or, in Paul's own words:
"Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" (5:16)
Regardless of what anyone says, the only thing that counts is that a person is a new creation.  As we will see in our next post, those whom God has created us in Christ Jesus has created them "for good works, that they might walk in them" (Eph. 2:10).

As harsh as some of these studies may appear, I hope they are received in love.  I love people too much to lie to them.  I believe that eternal condemnation is a reality that is repeatedly set forth in the Word of God.  As a pastor, I personally feel the temptation to make people feel safe and secure even when they're not.  That way, they keep coming to 'my' church, which thus makes me look 'successful'.  But like Paul, I believe that pastors who do this are "hucksters" who "peddle" God's Word for profit.  May God remind us that those of us who teach have to give a much stricter judgment on that Day!

In Christ, and for His eternal glory,
Pastor Ryan

Picture of a Healthy Church

In my room, I have a couple of plants that my wife, Christina, keeps threatening to throw out, as they're just, well, plain ugly.  However, I've asked her to humor me, as I believe both of them are constant reminders to me of how God in Christ has seen fit to spread His glory to the ends of the earth through the body of Christ, which is the [local] church.

As the picture shows, a healthy plant sends out shoots, or copies of itself.  It expends great resources in doing so, as the entire organism will fill up one's garden much more quickly this way (the innate purpose and goal of the plant).  Though it is much easier to maintain 'control' of the plant by continually cutting off these costly suckers, which 'drain' the 'main' plant of much of its resources, it is ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, detrimental to the life cycle of the plant. 


Anyone who knows anything about strawberries knows that it is the new plants that extend from the home base that bear the largest and most juicy berries after a year of growth.  Statistics show that most church growth - that is, conversion growth (and not just the "church shuffle" of disgruntled consumers looking for a better worship band, less offensive message, or better youth 'ministry') - occurs in church plants, as they are vigorous, and have not grown comfortable in their comfy atmosphere (hip & inviting lobbies, professionals running profession ministries, coffee bars, and every other amenity available to make us forget every Christian has been called to be a front-line soldier advancing the line, with Jesus' banner of the cross, in a brutal battle).

In our consumeristic, market-driven culture where companies are 'successful' if they are large & profitable, Jesus' church needs to swim upstream & follow the NT mandate of costly-to-self church planting, rather than the comfortable-to-flesh North American model of the complacent, meet-my-needs-and-forget-the-world-of-perishing-sinners church.

I close with a verse that I think best sums up this memorable reminder to the church, and especially us as pastors, who are often prone to see ourselves as exalted CEOs rather than humble baton-passers in a gloriously rewarding marathon:
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim. 2:1-2)
 May Christ give His church this glorious vision of what it means to make disciples of all the people groups of His world through faithful church planting.  May He give us many godly men who will be groomed as Timothy was to groom other planters.

To sum up: what then does a healthy church really look like?  To put it simply & soberly, a healthy church is one that seriously takes Jesus' command to make disciples, grow disciples, and train up godly men to plant godly, Christ-exalting, fruit-bearing, & church-planting churches.

Cover Your world with Your glory through Your church, Lord Jesus, even as the waters cover the sea!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 8 - 2 Corinthians)

As we have shown through the exegesis of key NT passages in our previous posts, a true Christian is one who not only receives Jesus Christ as the Savior of their sins, but also receives Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives; that is, their life evidences a submissive heart to His commands, and are as James says, "Doers of the word and not merely hearers" (1:22-25).

Today we look at Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.

Consistent with the initial apostolic message preached in the book of Acts (see part 3 & 4 of this series), Paul also preached the message of Jesus (cf. Mark 8:34ff.), namely, the gospel of repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus (cf. Acts 20:21). He did not merely tell stories to tickle ears or emotionally manipulate hearts. No, he determined to preach only Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). However, the crucified Jesus, upon resurrection, was declared by the Father Himself to be Lord of lords (cf. Phil. 2:9-11), and was not merely to be believed & received, but also was to be humbly followed as Master (cf. Rom. 10:13ff). The Jesus that Paul preached was "Lord" (2 Cor. 4:5; Col. 2:6), not a reconstructed Christ "according to human traditions" (Col. 2:8).

In 2 Cor. 5:17, Paul reminded the believers who were prone to believe the false gospel of the false teachers that those who are truly "in Christ" by faith are "a new creation."  Indeed, for those who are truly regenerate, or born from above, "The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Why the stern reminder? Because Paul knew that there were many false professors lurking in the congregations who were prone to "receive the grace of God in vain" (6:2).

Paul, like the rest of the apostles, admonished his hearers not merely to make some flippant or rash decision after the preaching of a sermon (like the modern day abomination called the "altar call"), but to live lives of holiness reflecting the nature of the One whom is thrice holy and actually resides inside every true believer.  This is Paul's argument in 2 Cor. 6, where he clearly reminds believers that there ought to be a clear distinction between them and the world.  God's people, who are His new Temple wherein He dwells and makes His glory & holiness known (6:16), thus says, "Therefore go go out from their midst, and be separate from them...and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty" (6:17-18).  Paul's logical deduction: "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God" (7:1). This is precisely what our previous posts have asserted over and over again.

Finally, before we leave 2 Corinthians, we look at the final chapter, where Paul pleads with his readers to not be so trivial with the apparent professions of faith. "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test?" (13:5)  Following Jesus Christ is no mere trivial 'decision'.  Making "disciples" is not some kind of game that churches are to play. How often our biblically ignorant evangelical churches pronounce salvation upon any and everyone who makes any kind of response (e.g. raising a hand, talking to the pastor after a service, praying a prayer, etc.), regardless of whether or not a changed life is evident!

Do we really believe that God's sovereign and effectual grace actually transforms people? That the gospel of Christ is actually the power of God "for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16)?  Let us be reminded that when we pronounce people who willfully live in unrepentant sin as "saved", we implicitly proclaim a weak gospel that can only "save" sinners from the penalty sin, but not from their love of sin, or the power of sin, or the presence of sin. Oh how this must grieve our Savior!

Dear reader, when is the last time you have examined yourself? Oh may you truly be found in Christ today!

Finally, I close with a plea to pastors. If someone comes into your office who is concerned they may not be saved, take the admonition of Dr. John MacArthur to heart: they may not be saved!  Don't be rash in comforting them if their lives bear no fruit of the divine gift of a new heart.  Take them to the book of 1 John (which we will eventually deal with).  Don't offer assurance if none is warranted.  Take them to the cross!  Point them to Jesus!  The gospel alone has the power to either save the unconverted sinner, or comfort the broken Christian who has lost his way.  Offering rash "assurance" to an unbeliever is one of the most cruel, unloving things we as pastors can do.  Take the time to assess the situation.  It will be worth it.

Lord Jesus, be glorified, even in this long, drawn out study.  We have dealt carefully with Your Word.  It is worthy to be handled this way.  Give me grace to follow You today as my sovereign Master, King, and Lord.

Pastor Ryan

What a "peculiar" person looks like in Nazi Germany



Father, in Jesus' Name, may we shine as Your lights in Your world for Your glory.

**Pictures borrowed from the DesiringGod blog.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Last Words of a Man Who Lived Well

These are the final words in John Paton's autobiography.  He was a Scottish missionary who went to the New Hebrides Islands (now called Vanuatu, about 1500 miles NE of Australia) in the 1800's.  As the adage goes, he who lives well, dies well. 

Well, reading these lines, my heart couldn't help but yearn to give my all for the glory of God in Christ.  I hope it inspires a red-hot passion for Jesus in anyone who reads them as well.

Oh that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining Cannibals on the New Hebrides. Doubtless these poor degraded savages are a part of the Redeemer's inheritance, given to Him in the Father's Eternal Covenant, and thousands of them are destined through us to sing His praise in the glory and the joy of the Heavenly World!
 And should the record of my poor and broken life lead any one to consecrate himself to Mission work at Home or Abroad that he may win souls for Jesus, or should it even deepen the Missionary spirit in those who already know and serve the Redeemer of us all - for this also, and for all through which He has led me by His loving and gracious guidance, I shall, unto the endless ages of Eternity, bless and adore my beloved Master and Savior and Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Oh Lord, give me this kind of heart, to lose my life for Jesus, that I might truly live in Him & for Him!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 7 - 1 Corinthians)

As promised, we continue our study of what is called in theological circles "Lordship salvation."  Having investigated Paul's letter to the Romans, we now proceed to survey the rest of his corpus.

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is still addressing some of the sin issues found in the Corinthian congregation that he began in chapter 5.  There, Paul rebukes the church for their boasting in a 'brother' who had been having sex with his mother-in-law, something which even the unbelieving "outsiders" were ashamed of. People guilty of such arrogant & unrepentant sin were not to be associated with the church; thus Paul commands the congregation to "purge the evil person from among you" (5:13).

In chapter 6, Paul again expresses his shame over the fact that those who had been professing the name of Christ were acting more like the world than like Jesus. To ratchet up the seriousness of his discourse, Paul drops the bomb on anyone who thinks that they can go on living & looking like the world: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (6:9-10).

What I take from this is what the rest of the Bible (especially the NT) teaches, namely that those who claim to have been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ will inevitably begin to become more & more righteous in their conduct.  Or, as we have seen innumerable times, that the root will show fruit.  A heart that has been made righteous will bear righteous fruit. A heart that has not been regenerated will not bear righteous fruit.

Since I can already hear the accusation of legalism or works' righteousness being leveled against me, let me make it clear that Paul says that people who are characterized or identified by a life of sexual immorality, etc. are the ones who will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  In other words, it is not merely those who do the odd unrighteous act that are refused salvation; rather it is those who are unrighteous.

I know of true lovers of Christ who hate sin who have fallen prey to some or all of the sins listed in the passage above. However, rather than living in the sin, and perhaps even boasting of it (as the man of ch. 5 did), those who are truly born again will repent of it. Is this not what Paul implicitly says in the next verse? "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (emphasis mine)

This is the exact same rationale for holy living that Paul uses in Romans 6, where he writes, "How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (vv. 2-4, emphasis mine) He continues his line of argument a few verses later: "We know that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin...So you also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (vv. 6-7, 11).

In verse 15 he continues his barrage against any form of easy believism that eliminates the notion that those who are believers will fight for holiness, rather than live in complacent unholiness: "But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."

Again, Paul is relentless in his attack, as he concludes the chapter the way he started it: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life" (vv. 22).

For those who have been truly regenerated from their wicked, sin-inclined, evil-deeds-addicted hearts, "sin will have no dominion over them" (Rom. 6:14).  Those who show that they are still slaves to sin evidence that they still have a heart like Adam (see Romans 5).  Those who claim to know Jesus as Savior, but do not have any desire to live for His glory reveal that they do not truly belong to Him nor have His Spirit residing in them (Rom. 8:9). Those who show no fight against sin or desire to obey God from the heart simply are not Christians (see Romans 7). In the language of 1 Corinthians 5, such people are not to be considered "brothers", and are not to be considered those who truly belong to Christ, since those who are His sheep will indeed hear His awful words of rebuke and quickly respond in contrition and repentance (the way David did in Psalm 51).

In the penultimate chapter of the book, Paul deals with questions & confusions regarding the resurrection. However, before he begins his discourse, he prefaces it with a reminder that those who are not living lives consistent with the gospel should have no confidence that they will be partakers of this glorious hope that is for true believers only. In 1 Cor. 15:1-2 we read, "Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you are standing, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to to the message I preached to you - unless you believed in vain" (my emphasis).

Again, we see a condition clause. Simply stated, those who do not hold fast to the message Paul preached should be given no confidence that they were saved.  If there is no present salvation from present sins, then any claim that a person has been delivered from past sins is suspect at best, and blasphemous at worst. As this Scripture shows, salvation is not a mere isolated act in the past.  Salvation is continuous: it is past, present, and future.  It is not enough to say "I have been saved" (fancy theological terminology = "justification"). No, we must, with Paul, say that we are "being saved" (fancy theological terminology = "sanctification"). Those who have been justified will indeed by glorified (Rom. 8:30). However, it is only those who are being conformed increasingly into the image of Jesus Christ (8:29) who can boast of this promise.  Those who have had salvation "worked in" must "work it out" (Phil. 2:12-13).

What is the message that Paul preached to the Corinthians?  Jesus Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Cor. 4:5). Those who receive Jesus must receive Him not only as Savior, but also "as Lord" (Col. 2:6, NET [ESV mistranslates the double accusative as "Jesus Christ the Lord"]).  Anyone who has believed in a Jesus who is not Lord has, in the words of Paul, "believed in vain."  This is scary stuff.

The reason why we have so many false believers in our modern evangelical context is because so many pulpits preach "another Jesus".  Preachers should be aware that they will give an account for their ministries (see 1 Cor. 3 & 2 Cor. 5), for when they preach a message that tickles ears, they produce a whole bunch of people who call themselves sheep, but are nothing more than goats with sheep clothing & sheep vernacular.  Instead of preaching Jesus as Lord, many preach Him as friend, cheerleader, genie, 'savior', encourager.  In most pulpits, Jesus is not preached as the thrice holy God of Isaiah 6 (see John 12); no, He is preached as someone who loves us just the way we are.  Though sentimental, this is absolutely not biblical!  Jesus died to save us from our sin, not for our sin.  Oh how wicked, blasphemous, and God-hating this false gospel is!

To get back on track (people no longer can read long posts in our soundbite age), I close with Paul's closing words of 1 Corinthians: "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed!" (16:21, emphasis mine)  Let us remember that Jesus Himself said that those who truly love Him are those who keep [present tense] His commandments (John 14:15, 21, 23).  People who love - er, use - Jesus as their ticket to heaven but do not love Him as Lord of their life will be damned! As harsh as this sounds, it is what the inspired apostle says here.  A half gospel produces a half Christian, which is no Christian at all.

As expected, Paul's theology of Lordship salvation is consistent in 1 Corinthians, just as we saw in every other book of the NT so far.  Back to the sources, people, back to the sources!

In Christ Jesus the Lord,
Pastor Ryan Case

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 6)

As tedious as this may apparently be, we press on in our study of this crucially vital topic.  As James Montgomery Boice said,

[We] are not dealing with some issue that is external to the faith, but with the central issue of all, namely, What does it mean to be a Christian? I consider [this] to be the greatest weakness of contemporary evangelical Christianity in America. Did I say weakness? It is more. It is a tragic error. It is the idea - where did it ever come from? - that one can be a Christian without being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This view promises false peace to thousands who have given verbal assent to this reductionist Christianity but are not truly in God's family.
He goes on to say,
Why is today's church so weak? Why are we able to claim many conversions and enroll many church members but have less and less impact on our culture? Why are Christians indistinguishable from the world? Is it not that many are calling people Christians who are actually unregenerate? Is it not that many are settling for a "form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5)?
Suffice it to say, Boice reminds us that this is an issue worth toiling over. The very glory of God in Christ is at stake, as it is expressly linked by Paul to the church's witness in the world (Eph. 3:10, 21; cf. Matt. 5:13, 14-16). Moreover, the final state of eternal souls is at stake. As I've heard it preached, "How much do you have to hate someone to not tell them the truth?"  If Jesus makes demands (e.g. His oft repeated, "If anyone would be My disciple, He must deny himself, take up His cross, and follow Me"), why do we edit - and even omit - them in our 'gospel' presentations?

As we saw in our first and second posts, those who do not do the will of God should not be considered children of God. If Hell is real - and it is - then we owe it to our fellow neighbors to love them enough to tell them the truth, for one must know the truth before they can be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Tim. 2:25; Tit. 1:1; cf. Rom. 10:14-17).  No one has ever been saved by believing lies! Only the truth can set us free (John 8:32). And who does Jesus say are those who have been set free? "Those who abide in His Word", that is, those who hear it and "continue to follow His teaching" (8:31, NET). Here Jesus gives us the clearest definition of what it means to be His "disciple" (8:31): a disciple is one who follows Jesus Christ as Lord and thus "remains faithful to His teachings" (NLT).

In our next post, we will continue where part 5 left off: an examination of Pauline literature.

In marathon races, there are often stations set up along the way that offer a short reprieve where sustenance is offered to enable the weary runners to press on.  I hope this well-placed reminder of the importance of our discussion will encourage us to not grow weary in our studies.

In Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
Pastor Ryan Case

Monday, January 30, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 5 - Romans)

Today's post will survey Paul's letter to the Romans to reassert our premise of the indissoluble relationship between the Lordship of Christ and true salvation.  As we have iterated over and over in our former posts, we see that Paul likewise asserts that those who unflinchingly deny the Lordship of Jesus, as evidenced in a life characterized by disobedience to Him, are not born-again Christians, regardless of what their profession is.

It has been undeniably clear that the NT data examined so far (the Gospels and Acts) unanimously teaches that persons whose lives are defined by unrepentant sin & defiant unholiness are basically showing their true colors as unregenerate unbelievers.  Despite the fact that such people declare they are fig trees, the only fruit manifested is thistles.  As the old adage goes, "Looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, smells like a duck. Must be a duck."  Jesus warned His followers how to distinguish false believers and false teachers in their midst by simply telling them to examine what kind of fruit they were bearing, or, in His words, "You will know a tree by its fruit" (Matt. 7:17-19; 12:33). 

When we read Paul's letters, we are not surprised when we see that he too explicitly echoes this resounding notion that Jesus is either Lord of all, or Lord not at all.  Those who do not truly confess with both their lips and their lives that Jesus as Lord have ultimately rejected Jesus, since He is not merely the the Savior of their sins, but also the Lord and Master of their lives.

Before we even look at Paul's letter to the Romans, it should be noted that cumulatively, in his letters, he uses the words "Jesus" and "Lord" in tandem a whopping 103 times, whereas he only links "Jesus" with "Savior" seven times.  It would be a damnable heresy from this to deduct that Jesus Christ is any less a Savior than He is Lord; however, when we simply observe the data presented before us, it seems that Paul seems to favor the designation of Jesus Christ as "Lord", something that should not be overlooked in our discussion.

The first explicit reference of the Lordship of Jesus as necessary for genuine conversion is found in Romans 10.  In verse 8, Paul tells us the message he consistently preaches as an apostle of Jesus is the "word of faith" (ESV), better translated "the message about faith [in Jesus]." Basically, he is recapitulating and reaffirming that his message to the Jews in Romans 10 is no different than the gospel message he has presented in the first 8 chapters of the letter, namely, that salvation is by faith alone in the gospel of Jesus Christ alone (cf. 1:16-17; 3:21-31; 4:1-25; 5:1-2, etc.).

But in the very next verse (10:9), we see that Paul's gospel is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. People are saved when they confess with their lips that Jesus is indeed Lord, being fully convinced that God has truly raised Him from the dead (I take v.9 as a Hebrew parallelism, where Jesus is declared as Lord precisely because He has been raised from the dead, cf. 1:4).

In v.10, Paul makes this inseparable link even clearer: "For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." In other words, if one's mouth confesses that they are 'saved', despite the fact that their heart has never truly believed that Jesus was raised and declared Lord, such a confession is to be viewed as null and void.  As the ESV Study Bible aptly comments, "Saving faith is not mere intellectual agreement but a deep inward trust in Christ at the core of one's being." How often I have had reprobates in the very mire of unrepentant sin rashly quote this verse to me to vindicate their "salvation" experience (for example, how they parroted a prayer at the end of a church service quoting this passage) as being legit! Oh, if they had only read the context and realized what Paul was really saying here!

The "Lord Jesus" is indeed "Lord of all" (10:12, note the repetition for emphasis). Whoever calls upon the name of the "Lord" will be saved (10:13).  How I wish huckster preachers would explain - biblically - what the Lordship of Jesus really entails & requires in their 'gospel' presentations!  As we saw in our original posts, Jesus Himself said that on Judgement Day, many will say "Lord, Lord" to Him and yet be banished to Hell forever. Why? Because they evidenced that though their lips may have said one thing, their heart said another, for they were those who habitually practiced a life of iniquity (Matt. 7:21-23).

Before we move on to Paul's next letters, it should be noted that not a few scholars view the context of this confession in Romans 10 as taking place in the ordinance of believer's baptism.  Herein the believer, at great cost and injury to himself (remember the context of the great persecution Christianity faced in the 1st and 2nd centuries), publicly confessed that Jesus was his Lord, and not Caesar, something which could bring about capitol punishment.  Moreover, in making this public declaration, the believer was basically declaring that the reign and Lordship of his heart were being transferred from self to Christ, or, in the language of Jesus, "denying self, taking up cross, and following Him, regardless of the cost."

In addition to this, we would be remiss to overlook the correlation between the book's thesis statement, namely that the gospel reveals God's saving power to save all those who trust in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins, with the necessity of obedience that flows forth out of that saving faith.  This is seen in what scholars call an inclusio. Simply put, an inclusio was a literary devise often used to subtly emphasize an underlying theme to be understood by the reader throughout the whole section. This was done simply by the use of repetition at the beginning and ending of a designated section.  In Romans, the "designated section" is the entire book.

At the beginning of Romans, Paul informs his audience that he has been commissioned by the "Lord Jesus" Himself to preach the gospel to bring about "the obedience of faith" (ESV), or, as the NIV nicely translates it, "the obedience that comes from faith" (1:5). To "close" the inclusio at the end of the book, we see the exact same phrase repeated, as Paul reminds us that those who have true, saving faith will evidence obedience to the Lord Jesus as well.  In Paul's doxology (16:25-27), he reminds the Romans that the gospel he preached was for the purpose of "bringing about the obedience of faith" (see also 15:18).  Thus the evidence that confirmed to Paul that the believers in Rome were truly "saints" was their visible obedience (1:7-8; 16:29), precisely what Jesus taught us in the Gospels and Luke taught us in the book of Acts.

In our next post, we will look at the remaining Pauline literature to make sure that there is an internal consistency within his theology of what salvation is defined by and looks like.

In Christ, and for His supreme glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Can One Be a Christian if Jesus is Not Their Lord? (Part 4 - Acts)

Having defined what repentance is biblically in our last post, let us now consider the rest of the book of Acts to see if Peter's gospel presentation on Pentecost was repeated by the new-formed church as she - in the power of the Holy Spirit - began to take the gospel from Jerusalem and spread it to the ends of the earth (1:8).

Perhaps, we may ascertain, Peter's message in chapter 2 was a unique one, fitted specifically for his particular audience that day.  However, when we read the very next chapter, we see that nothing could be further from the truth, as we see a frighteningly similar message preached to the one preached on Pentecost: "Repent, therefore, and turn, so that your sins may be blotted out."  Herein, and in all the remaining verses in the Book of Acts to be cited, we are going to see a blatantly indivisible connection between repentance and salvation; or here, as Peter makes unashamedly clear: "no repentance/turning (a Hebrew parallelism), no sins forgiven."  This then begs the question: when we see people who live in blatant & unrepentant sin, does the Bible offer any assurance of salvation to such people? Should churches & pastors be consoling such sinners, who love sin more than Christ, to "rededicate themselves"?  Or, should they - with the apostle Peter - be calling on them to repent, thus saving themselves from this depraved generation (2:40)?  As we look at the biblical witness as purveyed in the book of Acts, the answer will become obviously clear.

As noted in the previous post, true repentance is a gift that Christ has purchased for His people - a repentance that brings with it God's forgiveness of sins. Peter verifies this by saying, "God exalted Him [i.e. Jesus] at His right hand as Leader & Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins" (5:31).  If true repentance and true forgiveness of sins are inseparable, why do so many Christians teach that one can be saved without a saving repentance?  The Scriptures, repeatedly, make it so simple: those who belong to Jesus exhibit lives that are characterized by obedience. The Holy Spirit is simply not given to those who refuse to embrace the Lordship of Christ, evidenced primarily by obedience to His commands & demands (5:32).

We are not surprised when Peter again links these two soteriological concepts in Acts 8:22, when he says, "Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you."

Again, in 11:18, the church rejoices when the Gentiles respond to the gospel message.  The evidence: God-given repentance that leads to life.

In 13:24 (cf. 19:4), the early church was not ignorant that the forerunner of the LORD, John the Baptist, was renown for preaching the centrality of repentance as prerequisite to entering the Kingdom of God.

Paul, when preaching to the pagans on Mars Hill, concludes his message as follows: "Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent" (17:30, HCSB).

In Acts 20:21, Paul reminds the elders at the Ephesian church that his message was characterized as follows: "I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike - the necessity of repenting from sin, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus" (NLT).

What does "bearing fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matt. 3:8) look like in Paul's preaching? "I declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance" (26:20).

Even when preaching to Felix, though the word repentance is not explicitly given, Paul spoke both of "faith in Christ Jesus", as well as "righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment" (24:24-25). Those who are "in Christ" will begin to look like Him. Is this not what Paul says in Romans 8:29, namely that those who are Christ's elect have been predestined for the sole purpose of being made into His glorious image?

Christ's life was characterized by obedience to the Father's will.  Thus, those who say they belong to Him and yet live lives characterized by disobedience to the Father's will are, as John simply puts it, liars who should be given no assurance of sins forgiven (1 John 1:6).  Though we are saved by the obedience & merits of Christ, those who have been truly saved by faith in Christ will indeed - by faith - "work out their salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12-13), and "press on to possess the perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed them" (3:12, NLT).

In our next post, we will look at Paul's letters to ponder his thoughts regarding the characteristics of a genuine, bona fide Christian.  Having already surveyed the data, I can guarantee that his message is in perfect harmony with the aforementioned Scriptures (i.e. the Gospels and Acts).

May Christ be seen as He truly is: our Sovereign Lord who is high & lifted up!
In Him, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan