John Stott on Worship

I've started reading a little book by John Stott called The Living Church. From what I've read so far, I would have no hesitation recommending it. Here is a quote I'd like to post regarding the topic of "worship" (from pages 44-46)...

The vocation of the church to offer God spiritual worship is of special importance today. For even in the 'secular' west there is a widespread hunger for 'spirituality'.

The most striking of all recent religious trends is the rise of the New Age movement... In sum, it is a recognition that materialism cannot satisfy the human spirit, and a search for another, transcendent reality. People are seeking it everywhere.

This quest for transcendence is a challenge to us and to the quality of our public worship. Does it offer what people are craving - the element of mystery, the 'sens of the numenous'; in biblical language 'the fear of God', in modern language 'transcendence'? My answer to my own question is 'Not often'. The church is not always conspicuous for the profound reality of its worship. In particular, we who call ourselves 'evangelical' do not know much how to worship. Evangelism is our speciality, not worship. We seem to have little sense of the greatness and glory of Almighty God. We do not bow down before him in awe and wonder. Our tendency is to be cocky, flippant and proud. We take little trouble to prepare our worship services. In consequence, they are sometimes slovenly, mechanical, perfunctory and dull. At other times they are frivolous, to the point of irreverence. No wonder those seeking reality often pass us by!
...
In brief, it is a great tragedy that many of our contemporaries, who are seeking transcendence, turn to drugs, sex, yoga, cults, mysticism, the New Age and science fiction, instead of to the church, in whose worship services true transcendence should always be experienced, and a close encounter with the living God enjoyed.

WCF compared to Savoy Declaration and LBCF

Here is a link to a paper I did last year, comparing the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) with the Savoy Declaration (1658) and the London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689):

The Westminster Confession of Faith as compared to the Savoy Declaration and the London Baptist Confession of Faith

Hebrews 12:2-3 and the Need for Hope

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." (Hebrews 12:1-3; NKJV)

I was thinking about Hebrews 12:2-3 recently, prompted by a sermon I listened to on Isaiah 60. It is amazing to realise that Jesus needed hope. It was because of the "joy that was set before him" that Jesus was able to endure the cross and all the hostility from sinners that he suffered. At times we can get so familiar with the idea that Jesus is 100% God, that we forget that he is also 100% human. In his perfect humanity, Jesus needed hope to enable him to endure all the adversity that he experienced. Sometimes some of us might think that we don't really need that thing called "hope". We might say that "duty" is enough, that God's "bare command" is enough. We can and should just keep on keeping on, just because we should. But God doesn't think it is enough. Jesus needed hope and so do we. To hope is to be human. I'm sure we can always benefit from a fresh recovery of the Biblical concept of hope, of looking forward to the good things God has in store for us in the future, so that we can endure the various tough times we experience in the here and now. The NT abounds with expressions of hope, especially of that day when Jesus returns, all are resurrection, and there is a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. No more sin, and perfect dwelling with God forever. This is not just pie in the sky wishful thinking, but Biblical reality. Thank God for the perfect hope we have in Christ, who is "our hope" (1 Timothy 1:1)!

Phillip Jensen on Systematic Theology and Preaching

Amongst many Evangelicals today there seems too little an appreciation of Systematic Theology. You can easily imagine people saying, "Let's not talk about doctrine, I just teach the Bible" Granted, there is a big danger for our theologizing to be too speculative, or too much about what other people think, rather than a proper consideration of what God tells us as we consider the whole of the Scriptures. Nonetheless, as they say, we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. In an essay I was reading by Phillip Jensen, he provides a helpful corrective for those who try to avoid doing Systematic Theology in relation to preaching. His words come under the heading of "Preaching God's Word Depends on Systematic Theology":

Again, because the Word of God is unitary, preaching God's Word will always display our systematic theology. Expository preaching is sometimes put in opposition to systematic theology. This is a sad mistake. Expository preaching in particular will reveal our competence or incompetence as systematic theologians.

The preacher who prides himself on being "a simple Bible man" does not understand himself. He may claim to just "preach the passage" in front of him without being bogged down by theology or doctrine or systems. yet he rarely preaches the passage in front of him. Rather, he will unconsciously preach the church tradition from which he comes. Or worse, he will preach his own hobbyhorses and ideas. For without a consciously self-aware and well-considered theology that is open to being framed, corrected, and developed by the text of Scripture, the preacher's own frame of reference will overwhelm the text. That frame of reference may be his church's tradition or maybe his own personal experience, but it will not be the Bible.

(This excerpt has been taken from "Preaching the Word Today" in Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching in Honor of R. Kent Hughes, p.163.)

Noah as a new Adam: Creation Redemption and Renewal

I was just reading the account of Noah again (see Genesis 6-9). The echoes of Adam and the creation account are very strong. Once again there is only water, a great deep over the face of the whole earth. Out of that water God brings a new beginning to life, to repopulate the world. God's covenant with Noah has the familiar words "be fruitful and multiply" as well as the familiar idea of dominion.

But there are also some striking differences.

In the case of Noah there is a new sense of hope. Never again will God send a flood to destroy the earth, or curse the ground for man's sake, even though the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21-22, 9:11-16). The first creation account carried the gloomy shadow of the curse. At the very beginning of this renewed creation, the LORD covenants not to curse. This is a better covenent!

After the first creation account, the reign of death also begins, and there is a marring of the whole scene by the black marks of Cain killing Abel (Gen. 4:1-15), and Lamech's murderous boastings (Gen. 4:23-24). This culminates in God sending the flood to purge a world filled with violence (Gen. 6:11-13). And significantly, in this new creation account, from the beginning God pre-empts murder and violence with strong explicit law, not present in the first creation account (Gen. 9:5-7). The prospect of a better creation!

But at the end of this new creation account, there is failure again, as the creation is disfigured by th shame of sin and curse (Gen. 9:20-25). While there are clear pictures in this account of redemption and renewal, of God healing the creation he loves, rather than completely abandoning it, Noah is not the true answer to problems of humanity. The continuing presence of sin in the world after Noah tells use that something even better is still to come. The account of Noah is not the end of God's work of redemption, but only the beginnings of showing us what really needs to happen.

Now in our age we have the privilege of seeing more fully what God had in store the whole time, of what is and will be perfectly accomplished in Christ. And so we look for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, as we say "Come, Lord Jesus!"

Love as a Response of Gratitude

"I love the LORD, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live." [Psalm
116:1-2; NKJV]

Sometimes we talk of love as needing to be unconditional, of loving not conditioned on anything in the other, but just because we choose to love. It is totally voluntary, an act of grace, a free gift with no strings attached. Certainly God loves us in that way, he loved us while we were his enemies, while we were unattractive and otherwise unlovable (cf. Romans 5:6-10). But God makes it a lot easier for us to love him. He doesn't ask us to love him simply out of our own virtuousness. The psalmist reminds us that God makes it very easy to love him. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). In this case it is because God hears us and answers our prayers, that we are so full of gratitude and thankfulness, that we don't feel like anything except loving him. And how many other blessings could we count to remind us of God's goodness towards us, especially in Christ Jesus? May we meditate on his love towards us often, so that a love for him would well up inside of us. And may it drive us to pray and keep praying, calling upon the LORD as long as we live.