6/27/19 

For a very long time I have not believed the Scriptures teach or require the Psalms to be the only hymns sung in worship.  I have taken this position for a number of reasons.  Let me give you a few of them.

1.       The people of God have always sung.  I say this without any attempt to prove it.  Go to the early chapters of Genesis and you will see the examples of songs there.  This being true there was singing before there was Psalms.

2.      We find different songs in Scripture which were given to be taught to the church such as the songs of Moses.  I do not find where the church is told to stop singing these songs when the Psalms were gathered.

3.      The Psalms did not come in a package of 150 but were written occasionally.  Israel was singing before, while, and after they were written.

4.      Habakkuk has a hymn that is noted as such and the instructions are that it is to be given to the choirmaster.

5.      Finally we have examples of what is sung in heaven and it is not Psalms.  We have a perfect worship hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.  It is not inspired, but its theology is perfect.

In a Reformed worship service you can both pray and preach extemporaneous.  You can read from both orthodox and heretical authors.  You can read poems and hymns, the same hymns that are in the hymnals but you cannot sing those hymns.  Now I want you to explain to me how it is fine to read these hymns but it is not fine to sing them.  Tell me, or show me in the Scripture, the prescription for this.

Singing is an expression of beauty or joy in praising God.  Nothing more, nothing less is done in singing good hymns.  To think and to prohibit this is without valid reason and denies the church both joy and the beauty of art in worship.

Holy, Holy, Holy

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee
perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.

4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Be aware there are no Psalms of Trinitarian worship, of the Resurrection, of the Holy Spirit, of Baptism, of Holy Communion, or of our Heavenly Hope.

6/26/19 

II Timothy 1:7

He gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and sobriety.

Paul was a wordsmith.  He was both conscious of this and very careful in doing it.

1.       He took ordinary words from everyday life and made them important technical terms.  One illustration is the word “redemption”, an important term in the doctrine of salvation.  But this was a very ordinary term of the marketplace.

2.      He would take words and practically change their meanings to fit them for the use he intended.

3.      He would use a word in different meanings according to the context  The two most important of these are “law” and “spirit”.  “Law most often means the ten commandments.  But it can mean any law, or law in general.  Or he uses it to mean the law of cause and effect, as in Romans 8:2.

In the verse for today is an illustration of one of the ways he used the word “spirit”.  Most often when Paul uses the word spirit he means the Holy Spirit.  But here it refers to the common rational spirit that we possess, quickened and educated by the Holy Spirit and the good word of God.  The spirit of knowledge which we have does not produce fear.  That has another origin.

6/25/19 

John 4:24

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The first mistake that is made about these words is to think they mean “God is spiritual”.  Their meaning is very straight-forward.  In I Timothy 2:5, Paul states “there is one God and one Mediator”, which is the plain statement there is not a plurality in the Godhead.  We worship one God in three persons and He is spirit.

What we are to understand is God is pure spirit.  He is invisible.  He has never been seen, is not visible, and never will be visible.  “No one has seen God at any time”,  John 1:18.  This being so, how can we know Him?  This is one of the most important questions there is for man.  The only rational answer is that He must reveal Himself.  And this He has done in three ways.

First is in the creation as a whole.  Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare ..”  But this is only adequate to show the being and glory of God.

Secondly is the Word of God which declares His glory and His grace.  II Timothy 3:15 “which are able to make you wise unto salvation.”

Thirdly is the whole, the full, the final revealing of God in Jesus, John 1:18.  There is nothing left.

6/21/19 

Hebrews 1:12; 13:8

like a robe you will roll them up,
    like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
    and your years will have no end.”

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The person of the Messiah has for many ages been the contemplation of those who expected Him, and those who had Him revealed.  In I Peter 1:11 it is said to be His “suffering and glory.”

In recounting the wonder of Messiah, both His person and His work, the writer of Hebrews places before us three great facts about the Savior.

First is His personal identity as God’s Son.  He gives Him this title based on the second Psalm.  In that Psalm God gives Him the relationship of Son and exalts Him to His kingly office.  That He was there, He is.

Second for His eternal position recognized in time as excelling all angels.  With their great and mighty power with its influence they were always servants in the house.  He is the Lord and Creator over the house.  There is really no comparison.

Third is His eternality.  He is in our Scripture above.  There are two truths worth noting here.

A.     Eternity has neither beginning nor ending.

B.     There has been and there will be, no change in Him.  Therein is our security.

6/20/19 

II Timothy 3:8

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

The New Testament is replete with warning about deceitful men in the Christian ministry.  Peter, in II Peter, gives this as a sign of the truth.

The qualifications for a true ministry are just as plain in I Timothy 3 and Titus.  Tried with the sure test of Scripture the Church is still filled with deceivers.

There are at least three levels of false ministers.

1.       There are those who do not have either a call or the gifts of the ministry and are ignorant of it. Their failure usually identifies them and disqualifies them.

2.      There are those who have no call but have enough natural gifts to survive.  They use the ministry merely as a job.  They have no love for the elect or zeal for Christ.  They have a job and may even do it well.  Men such as this may live all their lives in the ministry and others wonder why there is so little life in their efforts.  No Spirit, no life.

3.      This 3^rd category are those who are evil, enemies of Christ and set on the destruction of God’s people.  Peter describes their three failings:  greed, lying, and sensual conduct.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

6/19/19 

Psalm 37:25

I have been young, and now am old,
    yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
    or his children begging for bread.

The author of this Psalm is thought to be David.  David died at 70 years old.  And he had a wealth of experiences to remember as he wrote this statement.  The inspiration under which he wrote means more than his experience.  But still his experience is considerable.

He knew of the struggles of Saul, of Jonathan, of his three nephews, and of his sons.

So what does it mean for the righteous to not be forsaken?  It seems here he is particularly referring to food and shelter, the necessities of life.

The least we must claim from this, if we see it as a promise, is that in our particular providence, whether it be famine or plenty, the believer will do at least as good as his course in life indicates.

There will have to be a famine in the land for his family to be in need.  And at that time their confidence in God will be at such a level that they will not be among the beggars in the street.

Remember 37:19 they are not put to shame in evil times;
    in the days of famine they have abundance.

6/17/19 

I Peter 1:2

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

The word “foreknowledge” is in and of itself a very simple word.  It is a compound of the preposition “por” or “before” and the verb “ginozko”, “know”, to provide the word meaning to know before.

The problem begins here.  We know what the word is but what does it mean when it has a reference to God?  Some say it means simply that God knows what His creatures will do and makes His plans accordingly.  He knows who will have faith and they are chosen to receive salvation and all its benefits.  They say this qualifies salvation by faith because it is awarded strictly on the grounds of a person choosing to believe the gospel.

But faith to believe the gospel is the chief of our righteousness. Nothing is righteousness before faith and all after is qualified by faith.  And we must remember the Scripture very clearly says “not by works of righteousness which we have done He saved us.”  So if we believe this we must say it excludes our faith or anything we can contribute.

It can be said, and it is without doubt, that God is the “architect” of salvation.  As this He has His whole purpose or design of the structure He intends to build before He begins. He does not begin building and put pieces in as He needs them.

Every stone from the cornerstone to the completed building is foreknown and its use and usefulness is predestined to the final completion of the building. As in Romans 8:28 it is “according to His purpose” in 8:29 they are those who are “foreknown.”

As you look at these two verses the words are synonyms.  Make no mistake, a person can do nothing to gain inclusion here.  This is the purpose and work of God alone.

6/11/19 

Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

“In Christ Jesus”.  The “in” in this verse is the Greek preposition “en”.  This preposition is locative which means that it indicates location such as place, time, or an emotion such as “in love”.

But it also, and very frequently, means “in this sphere”, which is the meaning in Romans 8:1 and in places it is used to translate “in Christ”, “in the Spirit”, or “in God’s love”.

The meaning is the sphere of all that Christ Jesus has done for us.  In His holy life He accomplished a perfect obedience to the holy will of God.  For those “in Christ Jesus” that holiness is ours by imputation.  In His vicarious death all the debts of the elect’s sins are paid and we are given a “no bill”.

In His resurrection as the “first fruits” our resurrection is guaranteed.  In His reign at the Father’s right hand He subdues all our enemies, provides all our needs, and appears on the Judgment Seat to pronounce our welcome to His Kingdom.  That is as I understand it, what it means to be “in the sphere” of what Christ Jesus is and has done.

6/10/19 

Psalm 119:9 ESV

How can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word. 

We should look at this question very closely, for: 

1.       A young person has reason to question their purity.

2.      There is in the young a need for purity.

3.      By questioning his way a young person becomes serious about his purity.

4.      To question the purity of your conduct is to recognize the need for improvement.

5.      To form the habit of improvement when you are young will give you a continuing concern for your conduct into your old age.

6.      Though it is begun when you are young there should be a never-ending question of your purity.

7.      The question lends itself to the assumption that there is a way to cleanse your ways.

“By guarding it according to your word.”

1.       The answer to the question of purity is found God’s word.

2.      The answer is neither accidental nor casual.  It is “by guarding”, or “by taking heed.”

This is no less than a careful attention and applying the Scriptures to your life.

3.      “According to” is the ground of the instruction that is the certain rule for purity.  It is in and by God’s word.

6/8/19 

Romans 8:28 - 3

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 

There is in this verse no hope for humanity in general.  There is a specific identity for those who are guaranteed that “good” is their promise from this life.  And this good is experienced in their relationship with the Holy Spirit as explained in 8:13-14.

¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

This identity begins with the nature they received in their regeneration, the nature of a child of God.  It is the nature of a child to love his parent.

The nature and character which is described as loving God is found in believers alone.  This love is the same love which is the requirement of God’s Law.  So it is not strange that believers love God.  It is their nature and their discipline to have this identifying them.

There is a second part to this identity.  They are the elect according to the eternal counsels of God.  As it is stated here, this which is the “called according to His purpose”, is not a result but a cause.  If they love God, if all things are for their good, it is because it is the eternal purpose of God.

The good Father does not leave His child to wander and find his way willy-nilly.  He directs him in all his paths.  “As many as are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God”.  And all good is found under that leadership.­­

6/7/19 

Romans 8:28 - 2

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

The words “all things” are understood differently by very able commentators.  Charles Hodge writes that it refers back to 8:18 and the “suffering” referred to there.

He then explains that from 8:18 the Christian is given a view of a hostile world in which he must expect aggressive opposition with undesirable experiences.  This has a great deal to recommend it and nothing really to deny it.  Still it is only by understanding “all things” as limited to the context can this be accepted.

Then does the context make this demand?  It would seem that the paragraph beginning with 8:28 and following fits best in understanding our concern here.  This would recognize the suffering, but it would also recognize the security and blessing that accrue to the elect.  If we see the context following 8:28 as included, then “all things” would include the complex of both blessing and curse to make up the whole of the church’s experience.

As we experience both blessing and curse under the Providence of God, there is nothing that we, the Church, can experience that is not designed for our benefit and God’s glory.

6/4/19 

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 

I’ve begun a study of Romans 8:1ff. This is considered by most Bible students as one of the great chapters in Scripture.  Romans 8:28 is one of the high points of this highly theological chapter.  I plan to spend this writing and one more on the verse listed above.

Today my concern is in the words with which it begins, “We know.” From the emphasis which Scripture puts on the knowledge of God and His word it can easily be determined that there is a premium on this knowledge and there is little patience with ignorance.  There has to be a starting place.  But you do not rest at the starting line.  The track star comes to the starting line with such eagerness that he faces a disqualifying penalty for jumping the gun.

Paul in 8:28 makes a general and inclusive statement, “We know.”  He could not say this if what follows in this verse, through the remainder of this chapter and including chapter nine was not known and acknowledged.

A believer is supposed to have a certain amount of knowledge about himself, God, and Christ as Savior of Sinners.

There are two things about Christians that are extremely rare:  an ignorant Christian and a closet Christian.  Be aware!  Scripture expects you to know and to confess.

6/3/19 

Galatians 5:11

¹¹ But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

There are a number of explanations of what the offense of the cross is.  I have, for a great number of years, been convinced that it is the absolute singularity of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, John 14:6, Acts 4:12, and other such plain testimonies.

Gospel believers do not doubt the singularity of the way of salvation.  But they do not understand what offense this has always been.

All the heresies, cults, different and pseudo-religions cry mightily and make a great issue of anyone who publicly proclaims salvation in Jesus alone.  We are allowed to say “Justification by faith in Christ”.  We can say Christianity is by faith in Christ. But Christianity as one among many is never to be understood as unique.  A claim to God’s favor may be ever so accurate as long as it claims no uniqueness.  It must never claim to be exclusive.  

And this is exactly Paul’s point.  “If I allow circumcision to be included in this salvation I preach, I will not be persecuted.  But if I do that, the offense of the cross is ceased.  The blood-bought unique deliverance of the Lamb of God is wasted.” 

”May it never be!”

5/31/19 

Matthew 16:26

²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Any honest Bible reader must admit the importance of earthly wealth.  In this Scripture text Jesus contrasts the worth of a life contrasted with the value of the world.

There are questions which arise from Christ’s question.

1.       A man’s self-preservation is an overriding consideration for him.  He must have concern for his personal life, “his own soul”.  Though it is not his only concern, it is an important concern.  He must consider his own life as Jesus represents it here as more valuable than any object in the world of present reality.

2.      The concern that causes the contrast is the subject of the value of following Christ.  This is the object of infinite value. The question of commitment is the separating question of Christianity.  “For you cannot serve two masters.”  The value of this world or any object in it cannot be valued greater than following Jesus.  His unchanging command rings with the requirement and authority, “Take up your cross and follow me”.

5/28/19 

Judges 13:22-23

 ²² And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.” ²³ But his wife said to him, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

There are in Judges a number of unusual characters who bring with them unusual stories. 

The strangest character with one of, if not the most, unusual stories in the Bible is Samson.  With this account of the events leading to his birth everything about Samson is strange.  His birth, like that of Samuel, is pointed out as a special event, marked by signs and wonders.  Yet in the midst of these wonders, “the Angel of the Lord says his name is wonderful.”  The mother of Samson introduces this rational explanation for having confidence in God and His promise.

Take a look with me at her reasoning.

1.       “He has accepted our burnt offering.”  It is a principle of Scripture that God’s acceptance of a person’s offering is a guarantee of the person being accepted.  Genesis 4:4.  Surely that the believer’s greatest confidence his offering is accepted.  And I know because He is raised from the dead.

2.      He has revealed Himself to us.  We also have the more sure Word of God which Peter tells us is better than having seen the wonders.

3.      “He has announced to us such things as these.”  We all have exceeding great and precious promises” made more sure by the victories of God’s Church.  cf I Corinthians 15:24-28.

²⁴ Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. ²⁸ When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.