effectual grace?

In my last post on grace, i compared grace to a battery. Now, there actually are many that would disagree with me.
There are many who believe that God's grace is the saving gift of Christ's work on the cross, and if we accept that gift, then we have partaken of grace. However, they would argue that grace is not actually "effectual". In other words, that grace doesn't "cause" anything. They may say that God "helps" people, but they wouldn't agree that God's grace "causes" people to do anything.

There are a couple of terms that we use often to describe "effectual" grace.

1. Regeneration - The supernatural work of God's grace that causes us to repent and believe. (2 Timothy 2:25 - God grants repentence)So regeneration precedes belief, which means we aren't technically justified (saved) until we are regenerated. (Titus 3:5-6 - We are saved BY regeneration - this verse is SO clear because it not only distinguishes between the two [justification [declared not-guilty] and regeneration], but it also gives the order!)

(also Romans 8:30 - "And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified") - the call precedes the justifying. This is really important because this verse also shows us that grace is irresistable. Those who he predestines HE WILL CALL. Those who he calls HE WILL JUSTIFY.

2. Sanctification - The supernatural work of God's grace that causes obedience. (John 17:17 -Jesus asks the Father to grant sanctification to his followers) (Philippians 1:6-7 - If God began a work in us then HE WILL COMPLETE IT) (Philippians 2:13 - It is God who causes us to desire to obey and causes us to obey)

NOW

with all that being said, I have always had trouble with Paul's closing statements in all of his epistles (except Romans). He always says, "grace be with you." It never really made sense because I used to take a take a different view of grace. But when you look at Paul's closing words with "effectual grace"-colored lenses, it makes complete sense.

Paul's closing sentences in the following letters:

1 Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you."

2 Corinthians: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

Galatians: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers, Amen"

Ephesians: "Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptable"

Philippians: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

Colossians: "Grace be with you."

1 Thessalonians: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."

2 Thessalonians: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all."

1 Timothy: "Grace be with you."

2 Timothy: "Grace be with you."

Titus: "Grace be with you all."

Philemon: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

Hebrews: "Grace be with all of you."

What kind of grace? The kind of grace that has the power to supernaturally transform people to deny sin, desire to do good, and obey.

Tips To Improve Your Teaching

Pain! That's a word that describes what it's like to dig through the archives of past sermons. What was once considered "my best sermon to date" is now looked down upon as "oh, I can't believe I used to teach like that." Those of us that have been teaching for some time know what it's like to be in an empty room cringing with dusty transcripts of old sermons in hand while hoping that nobody ever finds out that you once preached this raggedy old thing. Hopefully we feel that way because there has been improvement in one's preaching and teaching, not necessarily because the sermon was actually that bad. But chances are there were more than a few that were worthy of being stored at the local city dump.

In Alexander Strauch's book, Leading With Love, he presents a few helpful suggestions on how teachers and preachers of God's Word can improve. I was excited to see this in print because it affirmed a few things I was doing and gave me some other ideas to improve. As pastors we are held accountable to God for being teachers of His Word, therefore we must strive to improve in this area.

James 3:1 (NASB) Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.

Strauch suggests that we:



1. Lay out a clear biblical philosophy of teaching and preaching the Scripture.

He does not expound or give any examples on what a philosophy of teaching and preaching might look like, but I have some thoughts on what he may have been referring to. Philosophy may likely include the necessity of expository preaching, the necessity of sermons that center around Christ and the gospel, a mandate to preach both Old and New Testaments, a commitment to declare the whole counsel of God, a refusal to bow to the contemporary influences of psychology or postmodernism, etc.

2. Listen to the expository preaching of excellent preachers and teachers, and make their tapes or CD's available to others.

3. Always be building a library of Bible study tools to help you study the Scriptures.

These resources should include at least a good Bible, concordance, Bible dictionaries and quality commentaries. Strauch rightly notes that many of these resources are on the web for free.

4. Call a seminary or Bible college and ask the professor of homiletics for suggestions. Or take a homiletics course.

My thought is that most people won't do this, but there are many good books available on preaching as well as delivery.

5. Listen to yourself (audiotape or videotape).

Ouch! If you've ever done this it can be painful but good for those of us that struggle with pride. You might be surprised at the amount of UMs and UHs you dish out. What was said in 60 minutes may have been able to be said in 45 if those verbal pauses were eliminated. Then there's the distracting habits of playing with a wedding ring, raising and lowering/raising the microphone or moving the portable music stand back and forth. All these plus much more can be "caught on tape" and used as evidence to throw you in jail for being such a terrible preacher.

6. Have someone close to you evaluate your teaching and preaching.

I've done this before and was pleasantly surprised at how much better the teachers and preachers I mentored improved. It helped me too! Actually, an evaluation gives everyone a little mental process to walk through ahead of time to see if they have studied, prepared, organized, explained and applied scripture appropriately. On the evaluation I've used I had about 20 or so questions that we would walk through to help us improve. Questions range from delivery to content to clarity and then some. Each speaker was evaluated by his peers and then given feedback to in order to improve.

7. Abound in love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NASB) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. [3] And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

This is a great place to get started if you desire to improve in preaching and teaching. I would simply like to add a few more things that have helped me.

8. Study scripture like crazy.

The Bible is one giant revelation of Christ woven together by the Holy Spirit. The more you study it, the more you realize how it all ties together. As you build new sermons, you'll continue to grow and you'll have your own resources to draw from. As you study it all and teach it all, those that you shepherd will begin to see how it all fits together. But that won't happen if you don't study all of scripture.

9. Be well read.

Good Christian books are a great resource. Sometimes we get in a rut and will say the same things in the same way with same tone of voice with the same passion with the same whatever. Christian authors may declare an identical truth that you were attempting to say, but perhaps they've used a thesaurus and said the same truth with more power or color. Perhaps there was a truth about a certain doctrine or parable that you had not seen but through their writings they were able to disciple you and pass that on. Whatever the case, be well read.

It's said, but I've talked to teachers of God's word who have said, "Oh, I hate to read. It's so boring." I'm not sure what they were reading, but there are plenty of exciting, interesting and soundly biblical books out there that would serve them well if they would find them and read them.

10. Pray and ask God to help you grow.

Always depend upon the Lord. We live, move and breath because He sustains our live. Likewise, we can only grow in this areas with His help.

Perhaps by this time next year, if we've applied some of these tips, we'll look and and see that God has brought us along in some areas. And maybe in the future there'll be less of those lonely cringing moments when we're looking back on our old sermons in private.

To God be the glory.

Are We Raising Pharisees?

Have you ever wondered if you are raising Pharisees in your ministry? With current preaching philosophies that focus almost exclusively on being a moral person rather than preaching that exalts the Lord in all His splendor, you may very well be raising Pharisees. Our church members may ending up observing all the "do's" in scripture without ever coming to really know God and His image, Jesus Christ. The words of John Owen are rather penetrating and serve as a wake-up call to worldly philosophies that have invaded preaching.

"It is our duty and our privilege to behold the glory of Christ. But today, many who call themselves Christians are strangers to this duty. Our Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees that in spite of all their boasting, they did not know God. They had no real acquaintance with him, no spiritual view of his glory. And it is the same with us. In spite of so many claiming to know Christ, yet few behold his glory, few are transformed into his image and likeness.

Some talk much of imitating Christ and following his example. But no mall will ever become 'like him' by trying to imitate his behavior and life if they know nothing of the transforming power of beholding his glory. The truth is that most of us are woefully defective in this, and many are discouraged because thoughts of this glory of Christ seem too high or too hard. But is not the real cause our own lack of spirituality?

If we regularly beheld the glory of Christ our Christian walk with God would become more sweet and pleasant, our spiritual light and strength would grow daily stronger and our lives would more gloriously represent the glory of Christ. Death would be most welcome to us.

Is Christ, then, glorious in our eyes? Do we see the Father in him? Do we daily meditate on the wisdom, love, grace, goodness, holiness and righteousness of God as revealed to us in Christ? Do we realize that to see this glory in heaven will be our everlasting blessedness? Does the sight of his glory which we have here increaser our desire for that perfect sight of it we shall one day have of it above?"

We need to preach Christ. Take the Scripture and elevate Christ as best as you can. Help others in your church to see Christ as He is revealed in Scripture. Let them "taste and see that the Lord is good." Expound His wonderful attributes. In doing so, you will help your brothers and sisters in the Lord to be transformed into the likeness of Christ as they behold Him in His majesty.

But be forewarned. You may be criticized. You will be made out to be the "old school" or "irrelevant" church member because you stress doctrine and not practical living. The people will demand, "tell us what to do" not "tell us what has been done for us." Your may be told that this kind of thing does not grow a church, but in saying such a thing one only reveals their pragmatism, not his concern for the glory of Christ.

When these things happen, ask yourself: Who do I ultimately answer to? Is it not the glorious Savior Himself? Am I not ultimately His servant? So why not obey Him and proclaim Him? Do not the entire Scriptures testify of Him? Should I not do the same?

I encourage you to be faithful to the Lord and His Word. My prayer is that, while contemporary Christianity prides itself in becoming more and more moral by observing rules, we may be found spotless and blameless at the return of Christ because we have beheld His image and allowed the Spirit to transform us accordingly.

It's not what you do, but who you know...

6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

The Brotherhood

A while ago I posted this piece on a former blog of mine. I thought it'd be a good to reflect on where I was, where God has brought me...and His hand in it all.






BEGIN:
There are few things greater than having a "band of brothers" with whom to serve the Lord in student ministry. In the first church that I served I had "helpers" in student ministry. We all need helpers--those that help set up, clean up, make calls and so on. There's no denying the value of such people in ministry. Big wheels, small wheels, they all help with the inner-workings of church life. Those that served in my former student ministry were invaluable in this capacity. At the same time it seems necessary to have people serving in ministry that function on another level. It is this level of ministry partnership that God has blessed me with at the current church I serve.

I'm not sure how you might categorize such friends in ministry. But I'm not sure that this is most necessary. For discussion sake, I will borrow a term that I read in an article by Sinclair. B. Ferguson. Brotherhood.

There is a group of young men within our church that are very much a Brotherhood. No, we do not have any initiation practices. We do not have any special wardrobe or apparel that we don on special ocassions. On the outside, there's no distinguishing us from any other members in our church. But if you were to dive into our hearts you might see what draws us together. Though not perfect, we all have an intense hunger for God. We have a desire to keep the gospel pure that lost souls might come to know our all-surpassing Savior Jesus Christ. We have a passionate love for God's people. As scripture says of the early believers, we are of one accord. And because we are sons of God who have these common desires, we are drawn together. Now that doesn't mean that we agree on everything or that others in our church are not in accord with us or that we are a faction within our church. It simply means that God has used our friendships in such a way that we push each other towards God. We hold each other accountable. We share with each other what we are learning in order that we do not fall into doctrinal error. In fact, this bond in us is so intense that the thought of "doing" ministry apart is practically unbearable. Although any of us would have God's will over our own desires.

In discussing the "principles that recur in the annals of the expansion of the Christian church", Sinclair B. Ferguson writes in a Tabletalk article titled, "Columba: Missionary to Scotland,"

"The third principle is that God's way, customarily, is to advance His cause through spiritual brotherhoods (not meaning exclusively male societies). Herein lay part of the pwer of the monastic movement, and certainly of Columba's mission: he and his companions, bound together by their common vision, were prepared to risk all for the cause and for one another. This pattern goes back through Scripture to the schools of the prophets, to the Lord and the apostles, to the apostolic missions, to Augustine and his friends, to the great Reformers, and, perhaps most notably in our own history, to the Puritans and to the Great Awakening. Iron sharpens iron.

Columba's story thus serves to encourage us to pray that God would raise up laborers for His harvest, and bind them together to live, serve, and--if need be--give all for Christ and His cause. This so often, has been the instrument God has used to advance His kingdom into future generations."

As I read this portion of the article a few weeks ago for the first time, it resonated with me in such a way that my thoughts dwelt for some time on the goodness of God for giving me such brothers in student ministry. They are the men that are part of this group blog--although a few have yet to post anything! I imagine that they will eventually.

These men are crucial to my spiriutal health. John Piper, in his biography on David Brainerd, said that ministry partners are important becuase they keep up from becoming proud in ministry "success" and they keep us from being discouraged at what seems to be ministry "failure". Yes, they do this for me and so much more. My prayer is that God will use me in some small way to return to them what they have given to me.

I do not know what the future holds, but it would a most wonderful blessing if God allowed us to serve alongside each other til the Lord returns. And if you do not have a "brotherhood" or a "sisterhood", I pray that God brings you into such a fellowship with a group of godly believers.
:END

In being part of a church plant, one thing I have prayed for and desired is a new brotherhood. Slowly but surely God is answering that prayer. At the same time, I am still privileged to be close friends with those that have moved away or be directed by the Lord elsewhere. Joey, Jeremy, Matt, Ruben, Richie, Paul, Ernesto, Brian, BJ...I love you guys and miss serving together. Maybe one day God will allow us to serve together once again.

The Conscience

When you sin does your heart condemn you and say "You're not a child of God?" You see, our consciences are powerful and effective and keeping us from sinning, but sometimes they go beyond their duty and say untrue things about believers when they do sin. Every area of our lives is tainted by sin and depraved, even our "Jiminy Crickets"! In order to have them grow in holiness they, too, must submit to the word of God. So next time your conscience condemns you remember this passage of Scripture.

1 John 3:18-24 [18] Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. [19] By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; [20] for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. [21] Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; [22] and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. [23] And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. [24] Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

God knows who belong to him (2 Timothy 2:19). And He has not kept it entirely secret. We can have assurance of our salvation. The Apostle John points out several things that show that the Spirit of God dwells in us as God's children.

1. Love for others. John is not mentioning love for others in general. Specifically he is referring to love for other believers or the church.

2. Answered prayer. Obviously this would be according to the will of God.

3. Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, though, that belief in any imagination of Jesus Christ will not do. The Apostle has written the letter of 1 John to fight the gnostic/docetic heresy that said that Christ only appeared to be flesh and blood. Salvation is possible only by faith in the true Christ. He was God incarnate who came to earth, died and rose again for the forgiveness of the sins of His people.

Do you see these graces in your life? Be assured of your salvation. Although your heart condemns you for sinning, God the Father does not condemn His children. That's what the cross of Christ was all about. Christ took our condemnation. He bore the wrath of God for our sins and by faith we wear the righteousness of Christ and are counted as righteous even though we still sin.

So next time your heart condemns you, make it submit to the written word of God. Continue to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, love the church and continue to go to the Lord in prayer.

Space Invaders

Invaders always had a difficult time breaking in, stealing, and disrupting the peace within cities who put up massive walls. Armies often had to fight not against the citizens but against the walls to try and break them down. The armies often grew tiresome, fatigue, loose men, and eventually surrender and retreat.

Walls were put up to maintain the peace of the city.

It is in Gods word that


Like a city that is broken into and without walls is a man who has no control over his spirit. Proverbs 25:28

The temptations of lust, anger, pride and greed often attacks a Christian. They are without self control and these temptations rob them of the peace that they have inside.

Self Control is a virtue. In fact it is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It is not a trait native to the human body therefore it has to be put in by God through the Holy Spirit.

The problem is when we try and fight sin and temptations by our own flesh it is only a matter of time before we fail because man is fallible. But when we deeply root ourselves in the walls of Bible, Church, and personal worship of God we have the Spirit thriving in us and our decisions become led by Spirit leading us to strive to become more like Christ.

As a result, our direction changes and fighting temptations come naturally because the walls of the Bible, Church, and personal worship of God are doing the fighting for us therefore maintaining the peace within the believer.