No One Can Preach a Better Gospel

In reading through Spurgeon's, Lectures to My Students, I came across this unforgettable story that the Prince of Preachers relayed about the value of impromptu speech:

"I remember to have been tried rather sharply on one occasion, and had I not been be versed in impromptu address, I know not how it would have sped with me. I was expected to preach in a certain chapel, and there was a crowded congregation, but I was not in time, being delayed by some blockade upon the railroad; so another minister went on with the service, and when I reached the place, all breathless with running, he was already preaching a sermon. Seeing me appear at the front door and pass up the aisle, he stopped and said, 'There he is', and looking at me, he added, 'I'll make way for you; come up and finish the sermon.' 

I asked him what was the text and how far he had gone with it. He told me what the text was, and said he had just passed through the first head; without hesitation I took up the discourse at that point and finished the sermon, and I should be ashamed of any man here who could not have done the same, the circumstances being such as to make the task a remarkably easy one.

In the first place the minister was my grandfather, and, in the second place, the text was, 'By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' He must have been a more foolish animal than that which Balaam rode if, at such a juncture, he had not found a tongue.

'By grace are ye saved' had been spoken of as indicating the source of salvation; who could not follow by describing the next clause, 'through faith', as the channel? One did not need to study much to show that salvation is received by us through faith.

Yet, on that occasion, I had a further trial; for when I had proceeded a little, and was warming to my work, a hand patted by back approvingly, and a voice said, 'That's right- that's right; tell them that again, for fear they should forget it.' Thereupon I repeated the truth, and a little further on,when I was becoming rather deeply experimental I was gently pulled by my coat-tail, and the old gentleman stood up in front and said, 'Now, my grandson can tell you this as a theory, but I am here to bear witness to it as a matter of practical experience: I am older than he is, and I must give you my testimony as an old man.' 

Then after having given us his personal experience, he said, 'There, now, my grandson can preach the gospel a great deal better than I can, but he cannot preach a better gospel, can he?'"

No he can't! And nobody can! Taken from Lectures to My Students (pgs. 171,172), which is available here.

 

Gospel Fail

One of the most disgusting and sad things that you could ever see is when a church or pastor completely forgets the Gospel message that they are charged to proclaim and protect.


One such clear example of that recently took place in a North Carolina pulpit. This incident centered on the controversial topic of homosexuality. This message is disturbing and sad. This pastor should be removed from his pulpit.

Why is it so hard for Christians to remain faithful to the Gospel of Jesus when it comes to these issues. It seems that people only swing from extreme to the other. But if we remain faithful to the Gospel, we can confidently affirm the fact that, yes, homosexuality is a sin. But so is adultery, pornography, and self-righteousness (just to name a few). All sins and sinners need the healing forgiveness of Jesus. Only Jesus never leaves people in their sin, or comfortable in their sinning (John 8:11).


Gospel Truth
In order to get the bad taste of the first video out of your mouth, please watch this powerful video of Matt Chandler who gets the Gospel right.

Seeing the Gospel in Marriage

This video is so powerful. Marriage is a living, breathing picture of the Gospel of Jesus. As Jesus loves, serves, and sanctifies the church, those same principles are seen in the marriage relationship. Christian marriage should ultimately model the good news and glorify God.
This video has rattled me and it is a beautiful picture of the Gospel.

This video of Ian and Larissa comes from Desiring God ministries. In honor of this video, Westminster Books is offering the hardcover of John Piper's Book "This Momentary Marriage" for $8. That is a great deal on an important book.

The *Forever* Wonder of the Gospel

Things get old fast. We get so excited about things in this world, but nothing ever really seems to hold our wonder or excitement. We crave gadgets, cars, houses, spouses, children, and all manner of other things. These are good things that do satisfy for a time, but they all eventually lose that same awe and wonder that they once created in our hearts.


I have found there is an exemption to this common reality. The exception is the Gospel of Jesus.  The gospel never gets old to me. The more I ponder the truth of what God has done for me in Jesus, the more amazed and "awed", I find myself to be.


I think this corresponds to Jared Wilson's writing about "Gospel Wakefulness", or as I like to think of it, getting hit over the head with the *Gospel Hammer*.


 I got hit by that hammer again tonight. I was reading Tim Keller's book "Counterfeit Gods", which brought a gospel thought to my mind.  The fall of mankind in Genesis 3 came as a result of Adam and Eve desiring to become God (Genesis 3:5). Because Adam and Eve desired to become God, all humans have suffered the consequence of being born in sin and must suffer the consequences of our sins. 
The Gospel Hammer hit me when I realized that the solution to our sin problem was for God to lower Himself to become man. In Jesus' humility, He came to earth, He condescended to our space and died for us (Philippians 2:6-10). 


The problem: Man wanting to become God. 
The solution: God becoming man.
Maybe that is not all that insightful, but it made me stop and wonder.  The Gospel never gets old.

Cosmic Treason

I have been reading through R.C. Sproul's classic work "The Holiness of God". In it, he underscores how understanding the nature of God, in particular His "set apartness", is necessary in understanding who God is, and how we should act towards Him.
At one point, Dr. Sproul talks about how every sin is an act of cosmic treason. Our sin is a crime against God Himself. This is true because when we sin, we are guilty of bearing false witness against God. Here are his thoughts:

The slightest sin....is an insult to His holiness.  We become false witnesses to God.  When we sin as the image bearers of God, we are saying to the whole of creation, to all of nature under our dominion, to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field: "This is how God is. This is how your Creator behaves. Look in the mirror; look at us, and you will see the character of the Almighty." We say to the world,  "God is covetousness; God is ruthless; God is bitter; God is a murderer, a thief, a slanderer, an adulterer. God is all those things that we are doing.

Now, that is a sobering thought.  Our lives reflect our God. Our sin is an affront to God's character. We are sending a message about God to all of creation through our lives. 
I don't know about you, but the thought of this truth lays a tremendous burden on my soul. It is a burden because I know just how how much I have failed to properly reflect God in my life.
But this knowledge is not meant to emotionally cripple us and leave us wallowing in our sin, guilt, and shame. This knowledge should only drive us to the cross each day. It should drive us to revel in the matchless, incomprehensible grace that Jesus provides for us. It should cause us to rejoice that Jesus perfectly represented God in His purity and holiness on earth for us. Praise the Lord!


If you have never checked this classic out by Dr. Sproul, it is a great work.

Gospel Wakefulness... in tweets

I have really grown to enjoyed Twitter.  I also really loved Jared Wilson's book "Gospel Wakefulness".  I found myself constantly tweeting quotes from the book and figured instead of writing a formal review of it, I would just post the quotes that I tweeted.

"For one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ." -M'Cheyne quoted in #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 22, 2012

"Proverbs 29:18 may be one of the most misapplied verses in all the evangelical church." @jaredcwilson #gospelwakefulness // yes and amen!!!
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 22, 2012

"The concept of self-help is like putting your broken hand in a garbage disposal, flipping the switch, and expecting it to be healed."
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 22, 2012

"The only reason not to preach God's word is if you think your own words are better" @jaredcwilson #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 21, 2012

"The work is not yours. Be faithful,be diligent, be holy. But let the results to the Holy Spirit."- to pastors in #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 21, 2012

"An implied gospel is a gospel FAIL." @jaredcwilson #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 21, 2012

If the gospel is the power to save, shouldn't it be the meat of the message, not reserved for the add-on invitation or for a special service
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 21, 2012

"When we assume the gospel in our churches, we assume we only needed it once." @jaredcwilson #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 21, 2012

"A Christian can't be stopped, even if you kill him." - @jaredcwilson#gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 20, 2012

"I wish to want only God. I don't want his promises; I don't want his abundant life. I wish to want God and God alone." #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 15, 2012

"The cross is proof that God loves sinners." - @jaredcwilson#gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 14, 2012

"Those captured by grace find sin more and more bitter and obedience more and more sweet" @jaredcwilson #gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 12, 2012

"We cant continue to treat the gospel as if it is the power of God for conversion...but not for total life transformation." @jaredcwilson
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 12, 2012

"When the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, we read the Bible not for reference tips, but for water." - @jaredcwilson#gospelwakefulness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 10, 2012

"We don't obey to be free; we obey because we are free." - @jaredcwilsonin Gospel Wakefulness... Pure Gospel goodness
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 10, 2012

"Jesus did not die and rise for you so that you would stress out about whether you're being spiritual enough. So take a nap." @jaredcwilson
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 6, 2012

"When the heart treasures Christ and savors his power, sin grows bitter." @jaredcwilson in Gospel Wakefulness. The book is Gospeltacular
— Jesse Benack (@benack19) February 1, 2012

A Dangerous Message

"If we do not preach and represent the Gospel in a way that sounds dangerous at first, we are not preaching it truly."-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones


     The above quote was taken by Lloyd-Jones' commentary on Romans.  He wrote this phrase in connection with Romans 8:1 which says: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  The Doctor was speaking about the radical nature of the Gospel of Jesus. Specifically, how our union with Christ promises us that all of our sins past, present, and future, have been dealt with once and for all. 


     But how could a Gospel message about grace and forgiveness sound dangerous to people?  It sounds dangerous because when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, the grace of God is put on full display, and that makes people uncomfortable.  This message tells us that we bring nothing...zero...nada to our own salvation.  Our sins have been completely dealt with forever, and we have no part of it.  All we can do is trust Jesus with a helpless dependence, looking to receive the kingdom of God like infant receives their food and care.


      Is that a dangerous message?  It is to religious people who are banking on their good works to merit God's favor.  Its a dangerous message to all the "pretty good" people out there who have done more good  in their lives than bad. These are the people who are banking on the fact that God grants admission into Heaven based on a divine system of weights and measurements. You know the thought...if your good outweighs your bad, then your in, because God must grade on the curve. This way of thinking does not understand what the Bible says about God's holiness and man's depravity.  There is no "pretty good" when it comes to a holy and righteous God.

   Both Christians and non-Christians need the constant reminder of the Gospel message.  We need to know and understand that the Gospel is not about what we can do for God, but instead,  what God has done for us through His Son.


     It is so easy for the church to lose the dangerous nature of the Gospel message. It is so easy for the church to become simply a social club where life lessons are taught.... a place where Christless moralism is extolled...and a place where you  learn how to conquer and cope in life.


      No, the church must be the home of the Gospel of Jesus.  The church must be the place where  the message of God's unmerited favor is proclaimed. It must be a place where God's amazing love is seen on display.  It must be the place where the great narrative of the Bible,  the Divine search and rescue mission, is taught, embodied, and lived.  The Gospel message makes Christianity distinct.  Other religions and cults have moralism and good deeds (we certainly need these too), but we have Jesus and His cross, which is the dangerous message we must never forget.

The Gospel at Babel

     The Bible is all about Jesus and His gospel. It contains many stories and accounts and each story and account is a line, or a trajectory.  Each line and each trajectory finds it fulfillment at the cross of Calvary and in the person of Jesus. Jesus Himself teaches us about the Christocentric nature of the Scriptures (Luke 24:27,44; John 5:46). So how does the Gospel of Jesus apply to a biblical account like the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11?
     Well the incident at Babel is very interesting. There, you have people gathering together in the plain of Shinar.  These were the not-too distant descendants of Noah.  Noah and his family were given the same command that Adam and Eve were given, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the whole earth" (Genesis 9:11). In obedience, the people were being fruitful and they were multiplying, but they weren't exactly filling the whole earth. Instead, they settled into one place.  And it was in this one place that they decided to make a declaration of independence. They had the technology,  the man power, and the know-how to do great things. They were going to build a tower whose top would be in the the heavens. This construction project would be their crowing achievement, which showed off their autonomy and self-sufficiency.  And in a sense, they were going to build themselves up to God.  The irony is that they were trying to get to God in order to show Him, that they didn't need Him.
     What were the results?  God intervened, confused their language, and dispersed them throughout the whole earth.            
     Where is the Gospel in all of this? Well, the Gospel of Jesus tells us that we could never get to God in our own power, wisdom, technology, and good works. Instead of us climbing and building up to God, God had to come down to us and do all that we were powerless to do for ourselves. Jesus' life and death on the cross is a constant reminder of our own desperate dependence on His works, righteousness, and  blood.  We need Christ's righteousness to be applied to our accounts.  Our striving and good works are stained with the sin of pride and self-righteousness. Our dependence upon our own wisdom and technology is a dangerous form of idolatry. We can't ever get up to God, we need Him to come down to us.
     And I find it very interesting that here at Babel, you have the whole earth together, speaking one language, trying desperately to show that they don't God. Yet, in the New Testament, we have many people, gathered from many nations, who speak many different languages (Acts 2:5). And yet, it was at Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit was poured out in great power and all the people were essentially speaking the same language.  That language was the language of the good news that Jesus had died to reconcile men unto God. One event reminds men of his inability to reach God on their own, the other reminds men of how God reached down to us through Jesus.

     

He's Been There

I think that it is true that we, as humans, usually have more sympathy for those who struggle with the same issues we struggle with.We have an easier time overlooking a person's failure if we have experienced failure in the same area. Someone who struggles with their temper knows how hard it is to stay calm and is a sympathetic soul to those who share that same struggle.
I believe it is also true that we tend to look down on others who struggle with issues that we don't struggle with, or in areas that are foreign to us. Someone who does not struggle with something like lust will often fail to realize how difficult and powerful that struggle might be for another person. And in many cases we look down on people with different struggles, while sympathizing with those with similar problems.
Thankfully Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest. The author of Hebrews writes:

 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."-Hebrews 4:15

Jesus is a High Priest who can identify with our struggles. He was sinless, yet He knows how hard it is to seek righteousness in a fallen world. Take note that we are told that Christ was tempted in every respect that we are.   This gives us confidence to go to Him as someone who can identify with our individual struggles, and seek His help. Jesus is  a priest who knows how difficult your temptations are.  He understands and tells us to come to Him with bold confidence. As the next verse makes clear:

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."-Hebrews 4:16

It is comforting to know that after we fail Him, we can approach our Great High Priest looking for mercy and grace in our time of need.  We can do that, because He has been there. He knows our struggles. He can identify with our weakness. Yet better still He was victorious over these struggles and gives us the power, grace, and forgiveness to overcome them as well.