I've had a more than normally interesting week.  Wonderful wedding & sermon at CHBC (by Thabiti Anyabwile on all of Psalm 119) this past weekend.  Then 3 days in Birmingham for the J I Packer conference at Beeson.  I think I was the one dissonant voice, with great appreciation, and also with some concern.  Tomorrow I head to Grand Cayman to preach for Thabiti at his installation service as the Senior Pastor there.  Connie & Nathan will be there to join me.  What a privilege to watch the Lord bless and use the brother.

But enough travelogue.  On to the point of this post.  Tonight I'm to speak at a conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I'm to address the topic of church membership.  I am going to suggest that it be thought of in terms of love.  And one aspect of this love that expresses itself in terms of church membership is obedience to particular elders (see Hebrews 13:17).

Here's a little bit of what I'm hoping to say on this:  “Obedience” is an awkward word for sinners.  By nature, we don’t like it.  We immediately think of abuses of authority.  Abuse is widespread and at times terrible in its consequences.  But such abuses do not de-legitimize authority itself.  Satan’s attack on God from the very beginning has been to tell humans that authority and love cannot go together.  And his great proof is God’s call for us to deny ourselves when our own desires contradict His commands (e.g., in the garden of Eden).  And yet, God has shown Himself unbelievably loving as He has in Christ sacrificed His comfort for our good (e.g., in the garden of Gethsemane).  God is worthy of trust.  Throughout creation, authority is to be an expression of God’s own character (see Eph. 3:14-15).  David’s final words are a beautiful reflection of authority’s divine nature:  “When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth,” (II Sam. 23:3-4).  Authority well exercised blesses those under it.  This is as true in the home as it is in the nation, and as true in church as it is in marriage.

A friend of mine, and a faithful pastor, Tom Myers, recently read these words of Spurgeon to me by way of encouragement. No, I'm not discouraged! Nor am I in a season of trial (though I've seen my share and have so far lived to tell it). But these thoughts were encouraging to meditate on nevertheless. So, I pass along Spurgeon's wise, pastoral words for your edification and encouragement - something that all Gospel ministers need!

"I know that, whenever God chooses a man for the ministry, and means to make him useful, if that man hopes to have an easy life of it, he will be the most disappointed mortal in the world. From the day when God calls him to be one of his captains, and says to him, “See I have made thee to be a leader of the hosts of Israel,” he must accept all that his commission includes, even if that involves a sevenfold measure of abuse, misrepresentation, and slander. We need greater soul-exercise than any of our flock, or else we shall not keep ahead of them. We shall not be able to teach others unless God thus teaches us. We must have fellowship with Christ in suffering as well as fellowship in faith. Still, with all its drawbacks, it is a blessed service, and we would not retire from it. Did we not accept all this with our commission? Then we should be cowards and deserters if we were to turn back. These castings down of the spirit are part of our calling. If you are to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, you must endure hardness. You will have to lie in the trenches, sometimes, with a bullet lodged here or there, with a sabre-cut on your forehead, or an arm or a leg shot away; where there is war, there must be wounds, and there must be war where there is to be victory.” (C. H. Spurgeon)

SWEET STIMULANTS FOR THE FAINTING SOUL

Sermon No. 2798 - AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL,
Lord’s Day Evening, Winter 1860

John Chrysostom ("golden-mouthed"), bishop of Constantinople (from 398) and "Spurgeon" of the late fourth and early fifth century, known for his deep respect for Christian women (as witnessed, for instance, in his beautiful letter to Olympias) has this to say about Christian wives both loving and respecting their husbands in Ephesians 5:33 -

"How, one may say, is there to be love when there is respect?  Love is most powerfully present when accompanied by respect.  For what she loves she also reveres, and what she reveres she also loves.  She reveres him as the  head and loves him as a member of the whole body.  God’s purpose in ordering marriage is peace.  One takes the husband’s role, one takes the wife’s role, one in guiding, one in supporting.  If both had the very same roles, there would be no peace.  The house is not rightly governed when all have precisely the same roles.  There must be a differentiation of roles under a single head."  (Homily on Ephesians 20:5.33)

I think it's time that Randy Stinson and CBMW establish the complementarian hall of fame in Christian history, and I'm nominating Chrysostom! Here, as the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (IVP) on this passage observes, Chrysostom is saying "The household cannot be rightly ordered or governed on the basis of undifferentiated roles, wherein each voice claims absolute parity without respect for functional differences."

As most of you already know, Christianity Today ran a nice story this month on the resurgence of "Calvinism" among the younger generation. Many of the interviewees were a part of Together for the Gospel (e.g., Mark Dever, John Piper, Al Mohler and C.J. Mahaney). You can read the article online. Here.

So, is the church's mission to save souls or to bring about progress in the world?  Both are good.  But are both good for the church as the church to do?   Both are good, and Christians should and must be involved in both.  But is one paramount and the other secondary for the church?  Are these purposes of equal importance for the church?  Is there any way that the church is NOT supposed to help the city, the state, the wider culture?  What is the vision of the New Testament for the church?

With this in mind consider David Wells' observation from his book, God in the Wasteland:  “The New Testament vision, then, is not about winning a victory but about entering into the victory that Christ has won, not of gaining the world but of saving the soul. . . . That is to say, the message is grounded not in ourselves but in Christ. It presents a teleology of redemption, not of progress.  The purpose of the world, under the hand of God, is redemption from sin, death, and the devil, from what is fading and passing to what is eternal and enduring,” (David Wells, God in the Wasteland, p. 172).

Many organizations work for the good of all--family, state, business, schools.  Christians get to be involved in all of these.  Does the church have a unique priority set out for us by the Lord?

Everyone is dying to know if the new Air Jordan T4G is going to be C.J.'s choice of basketball footwear - as he dishes the rock low after the pump fake from the top of the key?

"Every autumn I have a spate of letters from fond parents, teachers, guardians, and monitors, appealing to me to follow up on such and such a youngster who is away from home at college for the first time, and who has to be hunted, followed, shadowed, intercepted and driven to Christian meetings. I have scarcely ever known this desperate technique to work. I understand the panic of parents and guardians, but it is too late then to try high pressure tactics. Prayer, example and precept, in that order, are the means of bringing up children and young folk in the faith. Nor will high pressure tactics and brainwashing techniques avail when young folk have gone off on their own. Some young folk, alas, will have their fling and sow their wild oats, and come at last to heel, sadly, like the prodigal son. It is where Christians pathetically put their trust in external techniques and artificial stratagems that young folk go astray. Nothing takes the place of the realism of holy living and secret wrestling before God in prayer for our youngsters. We must commit them to God so utterly that we dare not interfere or tamper with their precious souls."

(William Still, late Pastor of Gilcomston South Church, Aberdeen, Scotland) HT: Matt Lucas

In preparing to give a lecture on Richard Sibbes (puritan preacher 1577-1635) up at Fourth Presbyterian Church tomorrow night, I'm reminded of how richly Sibbes rewards his readers.  He was a rich meditator on God and His Word.  On this day when tragedy reminds us all of that truth which we Christians know so well--this world is passing--consider these words.  This is a quotation from Sibbes' commentary on 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

"We cannot live long in this world.
We owe God a death.
We owe nature a death.
The sentence of death is passed upon us.
We cannot enjoy the comfort of this world long.
And for favour and applause of the world,
we must leave it,
and it will leave us,
we know not how soon.
And this meditation should enforce us to be willing,
however it go with us,
for anything here, for life, or goods, or friends, or credit and reputation, or whatsoever,
to be willing to seal the cause of Christ

with that which is dearest to us."

(Works of Richard Sibbes, volume 3, pp. 84-85) 

None of us will agree with Spurgeon on everything, but many of us will on much of what he says.  Consider this passage from one of Spurgeon's early sermons.  In it, he touches on a topic that is dynamite in some circles today--elders!

"The "Church of Christ" according to the Scripture, is an assembly of faithful men.  Ecclesia according to the Scripture, is an assembly of faithful men.  Ecclesia originally signified assembly; not a mob, but an assembly of persons who were called together on account of their special right to meet for the discussion of certain subjects.  They were a called-out assembly.  The "Church of God" itself, in its full sense, is a company of persons called out by the Holy Spirit from among the rest of mankind, banded together for the holy purpose of the defense and the propagation of the truth.  If there be but three or four, yet if theybe so banded together in the fear of God,they are to all intents and purposes a Church and if they should happen to number thousands, they are no more a Church on account of their numbers--a Church being a company of faithful men.  To our minds, the Scripture seems very explicit as to how this Church should be ordered.  We believe that every Church member should have equal rights and privileges; that there is no power in Church officers to execute anything unless they have the full authorization of the members of the Church.  We believe, however, that the Church should choose its pastor, and having chosen him, that they should love him and respect him for his work's sake; that with him should be associated the deacons of the Church to take the oversight of pecuniary matters; and the elders of the Church to assist in all the works of the pastorate in the fear of God, being overseers of the flock.  Such a Church we believe to be scripturally ordered; and if it abide in the faith, rooted, and grounded, and settled, such a Church may expect the benediction of heaven, and so it shall become the pillar and ground of the truth."  From the sermon of C. H. Spurgeon, "The Church Conservative and Aggressive," Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, volume 7, pp. 658-659.

Mark, I'll take you up on your challenge. It will give me an opportunity to give praise to God for his providence in my life, and to praise him for giving me friends like you, Al and C.J. It will also afford the opportunity for me to highlight the unique gifts each of you have, and the way you are each suited to be a blessing to the churches.

Meanwhile, we've been working through Ephesians 5 at First Presbyterian, and a Lloyd-Jones quote/thought has recently taken my breath away. While looking at Eph. 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her," we asked -- so what does that love look like? How are we supposed to love? Paul doesn’t leave us without an answer. He points to the cross. What is Christ’s love for the church like? Look at the cross.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught me something about Ephesians 5:25 that I had never before grasped. How many times have I read, and preached, this verse and missed it? Then I read his pastoral words of application: "How many of us have realized that we are always to think of the married state in terms of the doctrine of the atonement? Is that our customary way of thinking of marriage?. . . Where do we find what the books have to say about marriage? Under which section? Under ethics. But it does not belong there. We must consider marriage in terms of the doctrine of the atonement." (Life in the Spirit, 148)

That means, by the way, that every time we hear a sermon on the atonement, we as Christian husbands are being shown and taught by our Lord how to love our wives. Yes, certainly, above all, whenever we hear atonement proclaimed, we are always first to consider the matchless work of God on our behalf. The atonement always and foremost is to evoke in us wonder, love, gratitude and praise for saving grace freely given to us at the cost of the Father’s only and beloved Son. It is about what God is doing for us, for our redemption, outside of us, without any assistance from us, or any input from us, or any contribution from us. For the atonement is the awesome display of the stunningly surprising saving love of God at work on our behalf. It is never a mere example of love. It is never a mere illustration. It is never merely a means of moral influence.

But here in Ephesians 5:25b, Paul bids Christian husbands to look at the cross, to look at how Christ gave himself for his people there, to look at how he gave himself totally, to look at how he gave himself to the uttermost, to look at how he endured the shame and suffering, to look at how he died – all for his bride, all for his people, all for the church.

And then the apostle Paul applies the atonement to Christian husbands. "Men," he says, "Christ lived, suffered and died for the eternal good of his bride – now, you go love your wives like that. Love your wives like Christ loved the church. Love your wives like Christ gave himself for the church. Love your wives in light of the atonement."

So next time you are wishing that the preacher would talk about something practical, and he’s up there again preaching about the cross, preaching about the atonement, just remember the triple practicality of it – (1) he’s not only teaching you about the love of God, a love so deep you’ll never see to the bottom of it in all eternity, (2) he’s not only teaching you about the glorious work of redemption by penal substitution, a work without which you would not and could not have been saved from an eternity in hell, (3) he’s teaching you as a Christian husband how to love your wife – Christ lived, suffered and died for his bride; you live, and if necessary suffer and die for your wife’s good.