Well Pastor Tim Challies has released another info-graphic. This time its on the Fruit of the Spirit. I love this series because of the opportunity for visual learning. It’s been said that the more sense you use to learn, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to remember what you’re learning.
Here’s the latest Visual Theology:
I mentioned in class last week that I’ve been reading J.C. Ryle’s famous work ‘Holiness’, and I thought you might enjoy a few of his best quotes here and there as I make progress through the book.
To learn more about J.C. Ryle, you can find more quotes from him here at a website devoted to sharing these gems with us.
Ryle on Sin
“Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption.”
“…a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity.”
“Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies and false doctrines of the present day.”
“…the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within.”
“It is a family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve.”
“The fairest babe, that has entered life this year and become the sunbeam of a family, is not, as its mother perhaps fondly calls it, a little ‘angel’, or a little ‘innocent’, but a little ‘sinner’. Alas! As it lies smiling and crowing in its cradle, that little creature carries in its heart the seeds of every kind of wickedness!”
“…even after we are born again, renewed, washed, sanctified, justified, and made living members of Christ, these roots remain alive in the bottom of our hearts and, like the leprosy in the walls of the house, we never get rid of them until the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved.”
“I do not think, in the nature of things, that mortal man can at all realize the exceeding sinfulness of the sin in the sight of that holy and perfect One with whom we have to do.”
“And man, fallen man, I believe, can have no just idea what a vile thing sin is in the sight of that God whose handiwork is absolutely perfect – perfect whether we look through telescope or microscope; perfect in the formation of a mighty planet like Jupiter, with his satellites, keeping time to a second as he rolls round the sun; perfect in the formation of the smallest insect that crawls over a foot of ground.”
“Terribly black must that guilt be for which nothing but the blood of the Son of God could make satisfaction.”
“…men try to cheat themselves into the belief that sin is not quite so sinful as God says it is, and that they are not so bad as they really are. You may see it in the tendency even of believers to indulge their children in questionable practices, and to blind their own eyes to the inevitable result of the love of money, of tampering with temptation and sanctioning a low standard of family religion. I fear we do not sufficiently realize the extreme subtlety of the soul’s disease. We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself to us in its true colors, say, ‘I am your deadly enemy and I want to ruin you for ever in hell.’”
“Sin rarely seems sin at its first beginnings.”
“…the holiest saint is in himself a miserable sinner and a debtor to mercy and grace to the last moment of his existence!”
“…when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted! How little reverence do we show unto the grand majesty of God unto whom we speak!”
“For my part I am persuaded the more light we have, the more we see our own sinfulness; the nearer we get to heaven, the more we are clothed with humility.”
“Though sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded.”
“People will never set their faces decidedly toward heaven and live like pilgrims, until they really feel that they are in danger of hell.”
“Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin. Without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world.”
“We have too often been content with zeal for orthodoxy and have neglected the sober realities of daily practical godliness.”
“The cure for evangelical churchmen, I am convinced, is to be found in the clearer apprehension of the nature and sinfulness of sin. We need not go back to Egypt, and borrow semi-Romish practices in order to revive our spiritual life. We need not restore the confessional, or return to the monasticism or asceticism. Nothing of the kind! We must simply repent and do our first works.”
“I am convinced that the first step towards attaining a higher standard of holiness is to realize more fully the amazing sinfulness of sin.”
Here are a few great articles that I think many in our class would find interesting and helpful.
GALLOP SURVEY – there’s a lot of evangelism we need to do right here in our backyard!
How Eternity Shapes our Mundane – great post on Desiring God’s site for moms who are tired and face difficult times at home, while trying to keep an eternal perspective.
Watch Your Conjunctions in Parenting – Parris sent this along and its a good read on how we need to be careful with our words as parents.
As we talked about in class today, the temple had many sections to it. That’s why it was called a “complex.” The outer court/court of the gentiles, was where the money changers and sacrificial vendors (so to speak) were selling their wares when Jesus cleansed the temple.
Below is a reproduction of the complex from the ESV Study Bible. The descriptions here are sort of difficult to read without zooming up a bit, but hopefully this at least gives you a taste for what the building looked like.
Join men from Christ Redeemer Church and Dublin Baptist Church as we gather at the home of Matt Parker, 638 Granville Road, Newark, OH 43055 to study God’s Word with the Secret Church Simulcast with Pastor David Platt, author of Radical. Dinner will be provided starting at 6pm and the Bible Study will continue until 1am. Please RSVP to Matt at matt@christredeemer.us or PJ at pjwenzel@gmail.com.
“The Cross and Suffering”
Suffering is a sobering reality in a fallen world. Followers of Christ are not immune to adversity and affliction. On the contrary, there is a real sense in which following Christ means that trials and tribulations are more likely to come our way. As a result, whether walking through sickness, sorrow, pain, or persecution, the questions abound: Why am I suffering? Where is God when I suffer? How can I suffer well? When will my suffering end? How can God be good and allow such evil in the world? How can God be gracious and ordain such suffering in my life? During this Secret Church on Good Friday, we will explore these extremely profound yet deeply personal questions through the lens of Christ’s sufferings on the cross. In the process, we will come to a surprising discovery of how the gospel strengthens, sustains, supports, and ultimately satisfies us in the middle of suffering.
This week we’ll be learning about Jacob’s Ladder, and how Christ fulfilled the dream that Jacob had had hundreds of years before He stepped foot on earth. The man who probably best described this vision and its full meaning, was Jonathan Edwards.
Most modern Christians have never studied much of what Edwards had to say, or who he was. So I thought it would be helpful to provide a brief sketch of who this brilliant man was, so that you may more fully appreciate what he has to teach us in our study through the book of John. To do this, I’m going to post below some excerpts from a few sources, but mostly from John Piper’s short Biography of the man which can be found by clicking here.
Chuck Colson says this about Edwards, “The western church – much of it drifting, enculturated, and infected with cheap grace – desperately needs to hear Edwards’ challenge. . . . It is my belief that the prayers and work of those who love and obey Christ in our world may yet prevail as they keep the message of such a man as Jonathan Edwards.”
Edwards was an 18th Century puritan preacher who is perhaps best known for his sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” Many of you were probably made to read this sermon in high school – even if you went to a secular school. Edwards is often demonized as a puritan who was himself angry at sinners, and concentrated most of his preaching powers on scaring people into the kingdom of heaven. The truth, as is often the case, couldn’t be further from this ill-conceived caricature.
As John Piper says, “Most of us don’t know that he is considered now by secular and evangelical historians alike to be the greatest Protestant thinker America has ever produced. Scarcely has anything more insightful been written on the problem of God’s sovereignty and man’s accountability than his book, The Freedom of the Will.”
In his book, ‘The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards’, Steven Lawson notes that, “All Christian writing is influenced, to one extent or another, by the theological foundations upon which the author stands. Edwards’ writings, including his ‘Resolutions,’ rested squarely upon ‘Reformed theology in its English Puritan form.’ This theological system, which emphasized God’s glory and absolute sovereignty,’ provided a structural framework for Edwards’ thought.’ In short, Edwards was a ‘convinced Calvinist’; he had drunk deeply from the wells of Scripture and had tasted the supreme authority of God to his soul’s satisfaction.”
The influence that Edwards had on America, and the cause of Christ here in the relatively young colonies was profound. As Piper says, “Does any of us know what an incredible thing it is that this man, who was a small-town pastor for 23 years in a church of 600 people, a missionary to Indians for 7 years, who reared 11 faithful children, who worked without the help of electric light, or word-processors or quick correspondence, or even sufficient paper to write on, who lived only until he was 54, and who died with a library of 300 books – that this man led one of the greatest awakenings of modern times, wrote theological books that have ministered for 200 years and did more for the modern missionary movement than anyone of his generation?”
For current leaders like Piper, Edwards has been a great source of inspiration. “Alongside the Bible, Edwards became the compass of my theological studies. Not that he has anything like the authority of Scripture, but that he is a master of that Scripture, and a precious friend and teacher”, Piper says.
Piper describes the balance between studying the Bible and practical living as portayed by Edwards:
Edwards did not pursue a passion for God because it was icing on the cake of faith. For him faith was grounded in a sense of God which was more than what reason alone could deliver. He said,
A true sense of the glory of God is that which can never be obtained by speculative [reasoning]; and if men convince themselves by argument that God is holy, that never will give a sense of his amiable and glorious holiness. If they argue that he is very merciful, that will not give a sense of his glorious grace and mercy. It must be a more immediate, sensible discovery that must give the mind a real sense of the excellency and beauty of God. (Works, II, 906)
In other words, it is to no avail merely to believe that God is holy and merciful. For that belief to be of any saving value, we must “sense” God’s holiness and mercy. That is, we must have a true delight in it for what it is in itself. Otherwise the knowledge is no different than what the devils have.
Does this mean that all his study and thinking was in vain? No indeed. Why? Because he says, “The more you have of a rational knowledge of divine things, the more opportunity will there be, when the Spirit shall be breathed into your heart, to see the excellency of these things, and to taste the sweetness of them.” (Works, II, 162, see p.16)
But the goal of all is this spiritual taste, not just knowing God but delighting in him, savoring him, relishing him. And so for all his intellectual might, Edwards was the farthest thing from a cool, detached, neutral, disinterested academician.
As we continue to learn and to study together, I hope you will continue to grow by reading and meditating upon the Word of God, but will also take some time to reflect upon the great lessons we’ve learned from men like Jonathan Edwards.
To ready more about this great Godly man, see below for some resources:
‘The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards’ – Steve Lawson’s short Edwards Biography
‘Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography’ – Biography by Ian Murray
‘The Freedom of the Will’ – Edwards’ most famous book on Election
‘Religious Affections’ – The book that probably most influenced Piper’s view of God and what it means to be joyful in God.
‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ – famous sermon by Edwards on the need for repentance and salvation by Jesus Christ
‘The Spirit of Revival’ – Longish article by RC Sproul on the marks that identified the revival that Edwards lead in the 18th Century.
Last Sunday morning I mentioned that we have been teaching our children a shortened/adapted version of the WSC (Westminster Shorter Catechism). I wanted to provide you parents with some reasons why we do this, along with some resources for teaching your children a catechism as well.
The reasons for doing this are simple: everyone needs to learn to think correctly about God through a right understanding of doctrine…even kids! Catechisms were created to summarize the doctrines of Christianity in small, easy to learn sections. With scriptural proofs and scholarly research behind each “question and answer” segment, the catechism has been the learning tool of millions of Christians (young and old) for hundreds of years. It’s only been in the last few decades (from what I can tell) that the evangelical church has stopped emphasizing the need for this kind of teaching. The result has been profound. Children don’t know what their purpose is for living, what God’s purpose was in creation, what Jesus wants for/from their lives, or why we believe in the core truths of Christianity.
I would strongly urge you to start teaching your children a solid catechism – and start reviewing the answers and questions yourselves!
The fruit of our work in this area usually comes at times when Chloe wonders about her purpose in life or why God made this or that. A typical conversation sounds like this:
ME: Chloe, isn’t that flower beautiful!
CHLOE: Yes, it sure is!
ME: Who made that flower?
Chloe: God did
ME: That’s right! Why do you think He made that flower though?
Chloe: For His own glory!
ME: What else did God make?
Chloe: All things!
You get the idea – the catechism helps children know the correct response to questions about life and matches it up with what they are learning in the Bible – it creates a framework from which they can piece together, at a young age, God’s sovereignty and attributes, and learn to give Him glory.
Here are some links to the catechisms that I know to be doctrinally solid – some might be for older children or adults.
Small Children’s Catechism (this is what we use with Chloe – there’s a Young Children’s Catechism as well, but after this one, you might as well just to straight to the WSC)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (this is what I memorized in high school and is great for young adults on up)
The Heidelberg Catechism (terrific catechism for young adults on up)
As we talked about in class this week, it seems that the more archaeologists dig, the more their findings confirm the truths of the Bible. This weekend a huge story was published in the UK Guardian about how archaeologists might have just discovered the gold mines of the Queen of Sheba.
Click here for the story – enjoy!
PJW
Coming up on March 15-17 Ligonier Ministries will be hosting their national conference in Orlando. If this is something that interests you, please let me know and I’ll make sure you get a ticket (I’ll take care of the tickets – you just take care of getting to Orlando!).
Ligionier Ministries was founded by Dr. R.C. Sproul, and has been greatly influential in my life, and the lives of many members here at Dublin Baptist. Check out the video below for more information on the conference.
PJW
Ligonier Ministries 2012 National Conference (March 15-17 in Orlando) from Ligonier on Vimeo.
Register & Learn more: http://www.Ligonier.org/events/2012-national-conference/
Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.
One of the things most alarming about today’s culture is the way in which evangelicals are responding to attacks. Many have bought into the idea that having one’s heart in the right place is all that matters—that a passion for Jesus and the life of the mind are mutually exclusive. What this view misses is that burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads. We must develop our minds if we are to sustain our passion for the Savior and deal with the bias against us.
At Ligonier Ministries’ 2012 National Conference, we will be addressing this problem as we consider the theme of “The Christian Mind.” From March 15-17, 2012, R.C. Sproul will be joined by Sinclair Ferguson, Robert Godfrey, Michael Horton, Steven J. Lawson, Albert Mohler, Stephen Meyer, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Del Tackett to consider the importance of building a Christian worldview, the role of education in the Christian life, science and God’s natural revelation, defending the faith, and many other topics.
The Frazzled Female by Cindy Wood is designed for women to be able to deal with essential issues like managing their time, getting along with difficult people, and taking time for themselves by sitting at the feet of Jesus and absorbing His teaching. Class starts Feb. 19 @ 6pm Room 211. It will be 7 weeks and the book is $10. Lead by Liz Flurry. Find out more on Cindi’s Blog http://www.frazzledfemale.com/
PJ Wenzel 
