The Gospel

The Kindness And Severity Of God

Continuing in my reading of Matt Chandler's book The Explicit Gospel I came across this section on the kindness and severity of God, 

Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

 Romans 11:22

Pastor Chandler rightly points out that we do not talk nearly enough about the severity of God, he writes:

God's responses of kindness and severity both come from His perfect and holy self-sufficiency, they are both extended justly to His creation, but the chief difference between them - and the reason we don't talk about it as much - is that only severity is deserved.

He also notes that the severity of God is not taught today because it does not present God as warm and fuzzy, he says:

Paul says to note God's severity. Mark it down. Remember it. Consider it. But we are disobedient. Because God's severity is not as warm and fuzzy as God's kindness, we not only don't study or contemplate it, but we don't even note it. We live in a day and age when, from pre-seminary all the way through seminary, prospective pastors are fed pablum about church growth. Then once the hit the playing field of ministry they are fed it more and more. From books to classes to seminars to conferences, the church is absolutely consumed with growing at all costs.Forget whether the members of our churches have any real depth or substance to them; we just want to be able to measure and count the three Bs: buildings, budgets, and butts in the seat. The Bible does say a few things about churches growing in those ways, but today this has become the prevailing mind-set of ministry in evangelicalism, and it is a bibically perverted, missionally distorted mind-set.

He then goes on to say:

The avoidance of the difficult thins of Scripture - of sinfulness and hell and God's severity - is idolatrous and cowardly. If a man or woman who teaches the Scripture is afraid to explain to you the severity of God, they have betrayed you. In the same way that it is not loving or kind not to coach your children on the dangers of the street and the dangers of the swimming pool, so it is not loving not to warn men and women about the severity of God. 

He then goes on the illustrate how we can address this topic by quoting Matthew 3:11-12 and showing how John the Baptist addressed it:

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” 

Matthew 3:11-12

Then Pastor Chandler writes this:

We get the impression from the Old Testament that the universe is God's threshing floor. John is warning his hearers that Jesus is going to get to work on the universe, and He's going to gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will He will burn in unquenchable fire. This is the purpose of Jesus's arrival. (Note in this passage both the kindness and the severity of God.)

Pastor Chandler goes on to give a description of Jesus' use of the word Gehenna, which is translated hell in our English Bibles; he talks about how Gehenna was a refuse dump on the south side of Jerusalem and how Jesus used this to illustrate the severity of God toward those who reject Him (the chaff in the verses above). He writes:

When Jesus used the word Gehenna, He's saying, "It's like this ravine, the valley of Haman; this is what I am talking to you about." The image to hold in our mind is putrid and repulsive, it is dead and deadly; it is smoldering when not blazing. It is utterly desolate, spiritually dark, and endlessly oppressive, and it is the established picture even in these extremes of the slightest falling short of God's glory.

So I want to leave you today with two verses:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23

For our God is a consuming fire. 

Hebrews 12:29

Spend some time today meditating on these two verses and think about the kindness and severity of God, and how both are related to the Gospel.

The Explicit Gospel

I just started reading Matt Chandler's book The Explicit Gospel; here is the description from the flyleaf:

Even if you go to church, it doesn’t mean that you are being exposed (or exposing others) to the gospel explicitly. Sure, most people talk about Jesus, and about being good and avoiding bad, but the gospel message simply isn’t there—at least not in its specificity and its fullness.

Inspired by the needs of both the overchurched and the unchurched, and bolstered by the common neglect of the explicit gospel within Christianity, popular pastor Matt Chandler writes this punchy treatise to remind us what is of first and utmost importance—the gospel.

Here is a call to true Christianity, to know the gospel explicitly, and to unite the church on the amazing grounds of the good news of Jesus!

As I read through this book I hope to do a series of posts based on what I am learning and on what God is teaching me through what Matt has written. Let me begin today with a brief quote from the introduction: 

Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death.My sin in the past: forgiven. My current struggles: covered. My future failures: paid in full all by the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace found in the atoning work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Now that is good news! Because of the gospel I don't have to worry about my past sin, my current struggles, or my future failures - they are all covered by the blood of Jesus, and I am forgiven not because of anything I have done or will do, but because of what He did for me.

I have been looking forward to reading this book for a while, and I hope that you will pick up a copy and join me. Let's be amazed again by the grace and mercy of our God expressed in the gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Calvinism Is The Gospel

Michael Horton On Eternal Security

Here is another quote from Michael Horton's book Putting Amazing Back Into Grace:

"Those whose hearts and minds have been (and are being) renewed by God's grace should not be obsessed with worry about falling away because, although we will always have periods of  wondering around in the wilderness and falling into various temptations and sins, we really are becoming new persons, The ugly duckling is turning into the beautiful swan, to our surprise!

"God never plants trees that do  not bear fruit: [Jesus said] 'You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last' (John 15:16)...

"Since God initially gives us the grace to believe in him and to turn from self, why would he not give us the grace to keep on trusting him? One simply cannot believe in the possibility of loosing through moral failure and salvation by grace at that same time.

"If we expect ourselves to maintain our faith and keep everything going, we fall under the reprimand of the apostle Paul, as he confronted the Galatian church: 'You foolish Galatian's! Who has bewitched you?... I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?' (Galatians 3:1-3).

"We always approach God on his terms. Admittedly this fact does serious injury to our pride because it tells us that we are saved in spite of rather than because of ourselves."

Michael Horton

I am thoroughly enjoying this book and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father.

The Wrath Of God

Savior But Not Lord?

"We are justified solely by knowledge of, ascent to, and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And yet, anyone who is justified has been regenerated, grafted into the life of Christ, and fruits of gratitude will inevitably follow. Without an interest in the Savior and his Word and sacraments and the fellowship of his people there is no life. Christ's lordship is not an option for the first-class Christians but an inevitability for all who share his life. At the same time, we will always be perfectly righteous before God's judgment even though we struggle with indwelling sin throughout our life."

Michael Horton

Putting Amazing Back Into Grace

The Gospel In Psalm 1

Here is the first message in R.W. Glenn's new series The Psalms of Jesus:

A Tale Of Two Sons: John MacArthur

Nebuchadnezzar and His Conversion

Daniel chapter 4 reminds us that God is sovereign in salvation. In this sermon Voddie Baucham does a great job of showing us just exactly what that means and why this is an important message for the modern church to hear. I encourage you to take the time to listen.

The Gospel: The Most Terrifying Truth Of Scripture

The Resurrection Changes Everything

Does Repetitive Sin Mean We Aren't Saved?

In this short video Hank Hanegraaff, The Bible Answer Man, explains the Gospel, talks about the difference between justification and sanctification, and explains how we can overcome sin and experience security in our salvation. Take a few minutes to watch...

The Wrath Of God

The Doctrine Of Propitiation

The Depth Of The Gospel

Here is another must hear sermon series by Paul Washer:

Here is the excerpt from John Flavel that he reads in part two:

Father. My son, here is a company of poor miserable souls, that have utterly undone themselves, and now lie open to my justice! Justice demands satisfaction for them, or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them: What shall be done for these souls And thus Christ returns.

Son. O my Father, such is my love to, and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their Surety; bring in all your bills, that I may see what they owe you; Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after-reckonings with them; at my hand shall you require it. I will rather choose to suffer your wrath than they should suffer it: upon me, my Father, upon me be all their debt.

Father. But, my Son, if you undertake for them, you must reckon to pay the last mite, expect no abatements; if I spare them, I will not spare you.

Son. Content, Father, let it be so; charge it all upon me, I am able to discharge it: and though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, (for so indeed it did, 2 Cor. 8:9. "Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor") yet I am content to undertake it. Blush, ungrateful believers, O let shame cover your faces; judge in yourselves now, has Christ deserved that you should stand with him for trifles, that you should shrink at a few petty difficulties, and complain, this is hard, and that is harsh? O if you knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this his wonderful condescension for you, you could not do it.

And if you want to read the entire book on line it is available here: The Fountain of Life by John Flavel

The Atoning Death Of Christ

As I was reading this morning I came across another quote by J.C, Ryle on the Atonement; this time from Matthew 20:28. In this verse Jesus makes the statement, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Of this statement Bishop Ryle wrote:

Christ's death was an atonement for sin. What says the Scripture? "The Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many."

This is the mightiest truth in the Bible. Let us take care that we grasp it firmly, and never let it go. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not die merely as a martyr, or as a splendid example of self-sacrifice and self-denial. Those who can see no more than that in His death, fall infinitely short of the truth. They lose sight of the very foundation-stone of Christianity, and miss the whole comfort of the Gospel. Christ died as a sacrifice for man's sin. He died to make reconciliation for man's iniquity. He died to purge our sins by the offering of Himself. He died to redeem us from the curse which we all deserved, and to make satisfaction to the justice of God, which must otherwise have condemned us. Never let us forget this!

We are all by nature debtors. We owe to our holy Maker ten thousand talents, and are not able to pay. We cannot atone for our own transgressions, for we are weak and frail, and only adding to our debts every day. But, blessed be God! What we could not do, Christ came into the world to do for us. What we could not pay, He undertook to pay for us. To pay it He died for us upon the cross. "He offered himself to God." (Heb. 9:14.) "He suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3:18.) Once more, never let us forget this!

J.C.Ryle

Expository Thoughts On The Gospels, Vol 1, Pg 258

We need to keep this in mind; this is the Gospel! Jesus came into the world to give His life as a ransom. He paid to God the debt we could not pay. His death was not to give us an example, it was to pay our debt; He was our sin offering, our propitiation.

Spend a few minutes today thanking Him for the price He paid so your sin could be forgiven.

What Is The Gospel?

Here is the next sermon in Voddie Baucham's series on Romans, this time covering verses 30-33 of chapter 9.

What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 9:30-33

The Gospel Matters

Hell Was Made To Protect Us

There has been a lot of talk over the last few weeks about the reality of Hell, of whether Hell is eternal, and if anyone will actually go there; or since God is love will we all just end up in Heaven?

Well the Bible tells us that Hell is a real place and that there are many who will end up there. But Hell was not created for people. As Mark Driscoll points out in this clip, Hell was created for the devil and his angels, at its purpose it to protect us.

God loves us, but God is also holy and He is just. Therefore sin must be paid for. We can either pay for it ourselves in Hell, or we can humbly come to Jesus in repentance and faith accepting the payment that He made on the cross. My prayer is that you do the latter.