Jesus Is LORD
Eternity Bible College
Note for my Readers:
If thou findest me short in things, impute that to my love of brevity.
If thou findest me besides the truth in aught [any respect], impute that to my infirmity.
But if thou findest anything here that serves to your furtherance and joy of the faith, impute that to the mercy of God bestowed on thee and me.
Yours to serve you with what little I have.
- John Bunyan
The Gospel is not moral conformity, religion, neither is it self discovery, secularism. The Gospel brings restructure of the heart, removal of our sin, and reversal of our values.
- Tim Keller
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Showing posts tagged Crossway
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Who is Righteous?
There is an irony in answering the question, ‘who is righteous?’ The question itself is and can be very misleading. For us as Christians, believers and followers of Jesus Christ having faith by grace, it is written,
None is righteous, no, not one
Romans 3:10[1]
So to ask the question, ‘who is righteous?’ And to follow the question with, NONE! Simply is juxtaposition, as it is from the relation of laying out the differences of black-and-white photos. It then seems paradoxical to ask the very question of, ‘who is righteous?’ because it is rather inconsistent and illogical. In fact, righteous, properly defined will incorporate an objection to, “‘If no one is righteous, no, not one’[2], how is God’s righteousness upheld?” Righteous, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, interprets, acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin.[3] So to practical speak, a righteous living is; good, virtuous, upright, ethical, principled, law-abiding, honest, honorable, and blameless. And though this opposition makes some logical sense, it is not Biblical logic. The short answer (to the title of this paper) is: everyone is righteous. Everyone that,
‘have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.’[4]
Romans 3:23-26
[1] English Standard Bible, Letter of Paul to the Romans, 3:10
[2] Crossway, English Standard Bible, 941
[3] Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Righteous
[4] Crossway, English Standard Bible, 941
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00:00—3:35 // Trip’s testimony
3:35—9:00 // Lecrae’s testimony
9:00—12:35 // Trip’s path from conversion to today
12:35—16:20 // Lecrae’s path from conversion to today
16:20—17:45 // Lecrae on Reach Records and Reach Life as soundtrack and resources for the movement
17:45—21:35 // Trip on hip-hop as an in-your-face content-heavy art form
21:35—25:11 // Lecrae gives an example of content-packing from “Don’t Waste Your Life”
25:11—27:15 // Lecrae on the origins of Christian rap
27:15—28:57 // Lecrae on the poetical elements of the genre
28:57—30:00 // Trip gives an example from his songs
30:00—32:50 // Lecrae on Reformed theology and race relations
32:50—33:55 // Trip on the diversity of their audience
33:55—36:40 // Lecrae and Trip on being an indigenous missionaries to the urban culture and Reformed theology
36:40—38:00 // Trip on what’s next for him in the next five years
38:00—41:55 // Lecrae on what’s next for him and the opportunities ahead in the cities
41:55—46:20 // Trip and Lecrae on the need to deflect adulation from fans
46:20—47:15 // Trip on Christian hip-hop as one stream of the Reformed resurgence
47:15—49:05 // Lecrae on how folks can be praying for themAn Interview with Lecrae and Trip Lee
A couple of months ago (November 8, 2010) I had the privilege of sitting down with Lecrae and Trip Lee of Reach Records to talk about their stories, their music, their theology, and their future. I’ve written more about these guys here.
We talked for about 50 minutes. You can watch the video below. (Many thanks to Jon Marshall and Josh Dennis for doing all the video and editing work for us!) Below that I’ve included a “table of contents.”
For those interested, Lecrae’s new album, The Overdose, becomes available January 11. And here’s a blog post from Trip explaining that he’s taking a break from music to become an intern at Capitol Hill Baptist Church.
- Justin Taylor
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How the Gospel Can Transform a Marriage
Gary and Betsy Ricuchi, Love That Lasts: When Marriage Meets Grace (Crossway, 2006), pp. 22-23:
- Because of the gospel, Christians have become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Therefore, in our marriage, our past does not define us, confine us, or determine our future.
- Because of the gospel, we are forgiven (Ephesians 1:7). Therefore we can live free of all guilt and condemnation for every sin, and we can trust that God, in his mercy, will be gracious to us.
- Because of the gospel, we can forgive, just as Christ forgave us (Ephesians 4:32). Nothing done against us compares to our sin against God. Therefore all offenses, hostility, and bitterness between Christians can be completely forgiven and removed.
- Because of the gospel, we are accepted by God (Romans 15:7). Therefore we are not dependent on a spouse for who we are or what we need.
- Because of the gospel, sin’s ruling power over us is broken (Romans 6:6, 14). Therefore we can truly obey all that God calls us to do in our marriage, regardless of any circumstance or situation.
- Because of the gospel, we have access to God through Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16). Therefore we can at any time take any need in our marriage to the One who can do all things.
- Because of the gospel, we have hope (Romans 5:1-4). Therefore we can endure any marital difficulty, hardship, or suffering, with the assurance that God is working all to our greatest good (Romans 8:28).
- Because of the gospel, Christ dwells in us by his Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:13-14). Therefore we are confident that God is always with us and is always at work in our marriage, even when progress is imperceptible (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
- Because of the gospel, we have power to fight and overcome remaining sin, which continues to dwell and war within us (Romans 7:19-21, 24-25; Galatians 5:16-17). This indwelling enemy represents the essence of what is called the doctrine of sin.
These are just a few of the ways the gospel can transform a marriage. Sometimes it’s not easy to live in the reality of these truths. But it is always possible—and not because of our strength or determination, but because of God’s empowering and enabling grace.
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Two Kinds of Rest
‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.’ —John 14:1
Lloyd-Jones, preaching on this text:The trouble I find with psychology is that it is simply an attempt to give you quiet nerves instead of giving you a quiet heart. I want to be fair to psychology. It can give us, up to a point, quiet nerves, but that is not what we need—we need a quiet heart. Thank God for something that, as far as it goes, can give us quiet nerves, but do you want to be at rest on the surface or do you want to be at rest in the very depths and vitals of your being?
It is at this point that the gospel claims that it, and it alone, can meet and satisfy our deepest need, and here in John 14 we are told exactly how it does that.—Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled (Crossway, 2009), 23
Blessings,
David Jee [Eternity Bible College] -
What Does It Mean to Preach the Whole Counsel of God?
“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
—The Apostle Paul to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20:27
D. A. Carson explains what he meant:
When Paul attests that this is what he proclaimed to the believers in Ephesus, the Ephesian elders to whom he makes this bold asseveration know full well that he had managed this remarkable feat in only two and a half years.
In other words, whatever else Paul did, he certainly did not manage to go through every verse of the Old Testament, line by line, with full-bore explanation. He simply did not have time.
What he must mean is that he taught the burden of the whole of God’s revelation, the balance of things, leaving nothing out that was of primary importance, never ducking the hard bits, helping believers to grasp the whole counsel of God that they themselves would become better equipped to read their Bibles intelligently, comprehensively.
It embraced
- God’s purposes in the history of redemption (truths to be believed and a God to be worshiped),
- an unpacking of human origin, fall, redemption, and destiny (a worldview that shapes all human understanding and a Savior without whom there is no hope),
- the conduct expected of God’s people (commandments to be obeyed and wisdom to be pursued, both in our individual existence and in the community of the people of God), and
- the pledges of transforming power both in this life and in the life to come (promises to be trusted and hope to be anticipated).
—D. A. Carson, “Challenges for the Twenty-first-century Pulpit,” in Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching: In Honor of R. Kent Hughes, ed. Leland Ryken and Todd Wilson [Crossway, 2007], pp. 177-178; bullets and italics added.
Blessings,
David Jee [Eternity Bible College] -
”
We must use the assurance of faith in applying the blood of Christ; we must labour to purge and cleanse our consciences with it.
If we find that we have sinned, we must run at once to the blood of Christ to wash away our sin. We must not let the wound fester or exulcerate, but immediately get it healed… . As we sin daily, so he justifies daily, and we must daily go to him for it… . We must every day eye the brazen serpent. Justification is an ever-running fountain, and therefore we cannot look to have all the water at once… .
O let us sue out every day a daily pardon… . Let us not sleep one night without a new pardon. Better to sleep in a house full of adders and venomous beasts than sleep in one sin.
William Fenner, A Treatise of Conscience, in Works, 108f.; quoted in J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Crossway, 2010; repr.), 115
Blessings,
David Jee [Eternity Bible College]
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