Author Archives: Dan Nelson

Psalm 2 (Part 1 of 3): Depravity, Freedom, and Sin

11 Wednesday Aug 2010

Posted by in Bible Study, Christianity, Sermon

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This is Part One of the sermon that I preached last Sunday.  I have the awesome opportunity to give a lesson each week, but rarely do I get to preach, so I am thankful for the opportunity.  In order to keep me on task (and not pick “whatever I want to talk about”, I am preaching through the book of Psalms.  I went over Psalm One back in March, so I should be completed with Psalms by about 2085.

This text is over Psalm Two.  Psalm Two is commonly referred to as a “Royal Psalm” because it refers to David’s reign, but it also referred to as a “Messianic Psalm” because it describe Jesus.  We will focus on the Messianic meaning OF the Psalm here.

The Psalm itself is very evangelistic.  It is essentially a description of humanity, what God does in response, and a warning-with instructions- of what to do.  I am going to use the following Four points in my discussion:

  • Humanity’s Condition
  • God’s Response
  • God’s Conversation
  • Human Submission

I will focus on two important things as I go through this, two things that I don’t think are dwelt upon nearly enough, but are of great importance in understanding our Christian walk.  I will dwell on those two things, depravity and discernment, as we come to them.

Let’s Examine the Text:

Psalm 2

(1)  Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?
(2)  The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
(3)  “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”
(4)  He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
(5)  Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying,
(6)  “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”
(7)  “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
(8)  ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
(9)  ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'”
(10)  Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth.
(11)  Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.
(12)  Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Humanity’s Condition

So we begin, in Verses one through three, with Humanity’s Condition.  Notice that we start with a question.  Why are the nations in an uproar?  Why are the peoples devising a vain thing?  With these questions David, the Psalm writer, is building suspense.  We ask, “What are you talking about, David?  The nations are in an uproar?  What could possibly be so important that the nations are in an uproar?  What is this vain thing that the people are devising?  Okay, David, you have our attention.”

This isn’t some minor thought that the rulers and kings have been thinking about.  He gives us the answer to the questions Verse two: The kings take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and His Anointed, saying “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast their cords from us!”  This is why they are in an uproar.  So we have some important dialog that David uses to describe.  This is not a minor event, this is a large-scale coordinated effort to “tear their fetters apart.”

Notice first WHO is taking part in this:

  • The Kings of the Earth
  • The Rulers

Notice next WHAT they are doing:

  • The Kings are TAKING A STAND.  Not a passing thought.  They are “digging in”.  When we say people are “taking a stand,” they have no intention of backing down.
  • The Rulers are taking counsel together.  They are discussing among themselves, trying to determine how they can get away from Him.  “How are we going to go against the Lord and His anointed?”  It is concerning them, and they are seeking among one another.  The most brilliant minds coming together to get away from Him.

Now Notice what is NOT SAID, that is, what is already assumed by the reading of the text:

  • They are in fetters.  They are in bondage to the LORD and His Anointed.  They must flee from God and His Anointed.  Fetters are shackles;  they are put on prisoners so that they may not run very far, or at least, not very fast.

Now we know, of course, that when the LORD and His Anointed puts us in bondage- and for those of us in that bondage, it is wonderful.  It is much better to be a slave of Christ than a slave to sin, but these kings and rulers just don’t see it that way.  They don’t see their fetters and freedom, only bondage.  Freedom is not the ability to do “whatever you want.”  If that were the case, then we would be far more free than God, who cannot sin.  But we can, so we have more options than Him.  No, God is more free because he cannot sin.  But the kings and rulers and their people only see their side, and therefore, they must break away from Him.

But listen to their plan.  What is it they come up with?  They devise-they strategize, they coordinate, they from a brain-trust.  But it is a VAIN THING.  What is a vain thing?  Something that is worthless, something that is ineffectual.  So the things they are doing have nothing worthwhile in them.  They are in an uproar, make plans to go against the LORD, and their solution is described as WORTHLESS.  Whatever they come up with simply won’t work.  Consider this passage from 1 Corinthians:

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”;  (20)  and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.

I want to make this point VERY CLEAR.

It is important for us to note this.

It is often not taught, or if it is taught it is taught poorly.

We always assume this passage, verse 1-3, refers to SOMEONE ELSE.  But it does not.

It refers to you, and to me.

This is our DEFAULT condition.

This is the camp into which we fall, unless we are brought over to the other side.  When God is describing these things to David, he is referring to everyone not a part of the promise.  Now, you may argue, but I am part of the Promise.  I have been adopted as a son by the work of Christ, as Paul describes in Ephesians One.  I won’t argue that, but the point is that in order for you to be a part of the Promise, YOU HAD TO BE ADOPTED.  This is described brilliantly in Ephesians Two.

So we want to usurp God from His place, kick Him out of his place of authority and put ourselves in His place.

Every problem that you have is caused by you or someone around you trying to put you or themselves in the place of God.   Every sin we commit is against whom?  David cries out in Psalm 51, which is his repentance prayer after committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah.  He says, “Against you, and you alone have I sinned!”  Why does he not say against You and Bathsheba?  Or You and Uriah?  Or You and Israel?  Or You and my wife?  Because sin is an offense against God.

We commit sin when we try to glorify ourselves and not God, when we try to worship anything that is not God.

As John Piper said, “If God directed our attention at anything other than Himself, it would be proof that he hated us.”  These things are sin because God ALONE is worthy.

Now, we don’t literally say, “Let us tear their fetters from us…”  No, sin is far more deceptive than that.  But we will do things for our own glory, to serve our own purposes.  John calls it “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 Jo 1:16).  Paul calls it “living in the passions  of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” (Eph 2:3)

But we have mankind against God, and the Vanity of Men’s plans.  That brings us to our second point, which I will post tomorrow.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Spurgeon

08 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by in Books, Reading Classics Together

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I have been reading through Surgeon: A New Biography by Arnold Dallimore with the gang over at challies.com.  (And as last time, I have fallen behind!) I have heard many great things said about the man, but have read relatively little apart from a quote here or there (or Pyromaniacs’ weekly dose of Spurgeon.)  So to sit and read what makes him the “Prince of Preachers” is helpful and inspiring.

Spurgeon came from a line of Pastors, and so learned mightily from just having been around when people would ask his father or grandfather (whom he lived with for some time) theological questions or debate them on different areas of theology. I think there is a lesson for me to learn in this, as I raise my children.  I need to include them.  We have lost so much when it comes to raising our children. We look to others far too often to do things for us.  We just assume that if we send them in the direction of a Sunday school class and a nice public education and college that they will be perfectly all right.  But that isn’t the way God describes how it should be done.  Fathers are responsible for the raising of their children. Because let’s face it, if we send our kids off to school and Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and Youth group they will learn. But learn what? If we don’t deliberately teach them to be responsible then we will create (have created, actually) a wonderful society of adults who don’t know how to do anything but play.

But back to Spurgeon.

I may be the only Baptist who had never actually heard the story of his conversion.  I’d heard many references to it, and knew some vague references (many which were wrong), so to read it was really a blessing. Hearing anyone’s testimony of how they became saved is a worthy way of passing time.  A couple of things struck me about his story. Firstly, it was his spiritual condition leading up to it.  We so often do not see struggle and agony over sin.  By all outward appearances we would, by the standards of most modern American churches, he looked saved. We would have chalked him up as being a believer and moved on with our lives.  But he wasn’t saved yet.

The second thing that amazes me is that once this happened just how young he was.  He had grown up learning of theology, of the things of God. He learned to read by reading through likes John Bunyan and John Owens. When he was three he would look through the pages of Pilgrim’s Progress examine the illustrations in the same way I may have looked through my Casper comics or my own child would have watched Dora the Explorer. (So we can teach them to yell random things in Spanish!) Once he was saved, his theology was sound and in place. There was no groping in the dark as I did for a decade before coming to saving belief. Not only that, he had a gift for speaking that was far beyond expectation.

So far I’ve made it through chapter 8- his childhood and early career, from being the “boy preacher” to being the forefront figure in a great revival in London.  I’m looking forward to seeing how he continued to affect the lives of those around him.

The Bruised Reed

02 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by in Book Review, Christianity

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I was reading The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes with the “Reading Classics Together” group over at Tim Challies’ blog but I fell behind! So even though it’s a little bit late (okay, a few weeks late), here are my thoughts about the book.
This really just an excellent book. I can see why it is being printed 380 years after it was originally published. I know that many have recommended reading books by the “old dead theologians,” and I’m beginning to see just why that is, after recently finishing Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and now Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed.
The book offers solid encouragement, describes the Christian walk and growth (or lack thereof) in some of the easiest to understand imagery I have encountered. It was as though it put all of these thoughts that I had been gathering over the past couple of years and describing them in a way that I could not put to words. I kept finding myself saying, “Yes! That’s exactly what I thought!” or “That makes so much more sense now!” (With the exclamation points).
I have used his descriptions of the bruised reed and smoking flax and Christ’s use of judgment in his government which reigns over individuals repeatedly over the past two months in my lessons at church and in conversation. I have underlined more of this book than probably any other I own, and I intend to reread it.

The chapters are:
1.The Reed and the Bruising
2. Christ Will Not Break the Bruised Reed
3. The Smoking Flax
4. Christ Will Not Quench the Smoking Flax
5. The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Us
6. Marks of the Smoking Flax
7. Help for the Weak
8. Duties and Discouragements
9. Believe Christ, Not Satan
10. Quench Not the Spirit
11. Christ’s Judgment and Victory
12. Christ’s Wise Government
13. Grace Shall Reign
14. Means to Make Grace Victorious
15. Christ’s Public Triumph
16. Through Conflict to Victory

Sibbes describes the Christian as a “bruised reed” and the presence of the Spirit within us as the “smoking flax,” taken from Isa 42:1-3: “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”
He offers why we are bruised but not broken and why the smoking flax, though perhaps only a smoldering ember rather than a great flame, will never be quenched. He explains how Christ displays his knowledge leading to proper judgment by those he raises up to establish his government within them. He also describes hallmarks of a Christian as the bible describes, not as the modern American church describes. (Which I’ve written about in the past). He also illustrates the struggles that come with it and how to deal with those doubts and discouragements. Some of my favorite quotes about this:

“It takes much trouble to bring Christ into the heart, and to set up a tribunal for him to judge there. There is an army of lusts in mutiny against him. The utmost strength of most men’s endeavors and abilities is directed to keeping Christ from ruling in the soul.”

“…the desperate madness of men is laid open, that they would rather be under the guidance of their own lusts, and in consequence of Satan himself, to their endless destruction, than put their feet into Christ’s fetters and their necks under his yoke; though, indeed, Christ’s service is the only true liberty.”

“Since there is such comfort where there is little truth of grace, that it will be so victorious, let us often try what God has wrought in us, search our good as well as our ill, and be thankful to God for the least measure of grace, more than any outward thing. It will be of more use and comfort than all this world which passes away and comes to nothing… See a flame in a spark, a tree in a seed. See great things in little beginnings. Look not so much to the beginning as to the perfection, and so we shall be, in some degree, joyful in ourselves, and thankful to Christ.”

I also love his description of how Christ changes us and conforms us better to His image-how he does it, why we mess it up, and why it is important to know:

“…Christ brings about all that is good in the should through judgment, and that so sweetly that many, by a dangerous error, think that good which is in them and issues from them is from themselves, and not from the powerful work of grace. So it is in evil, where the devil so subtly leads us according to the stream of our own nature that men think that Satan had no hand in their sin; but here a mistake is with little peril, because we are evil of ourselves , and the devil only promotes ill he finds in us. … Now when he clearly reveals what is good in particular, we are attracted to it; and when he shows us convincingly what is evil we abhor it as freely as we embraced it before. From this we may know whether we work as we should or not.”

If you have the opportunity to read this, I highly recommend it. You can purchase it through Westminster Books  or Monergism Books.  Both sell it for under $5.
If you like you may read it online at monergism.com.

Urgent Prayer Requests and Updates

10 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by in Adoption

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Okay, update on the process, and the uncertainties.

First off, read this article on just how thoughtless and selfish people can be.  How could you just send a child back?  What adult fears a seven year old?  It isn’t possible that they couldn’t have known this was a possibility.  You can’t give back an adopted child any more than you could give back a biological child. 

So what this means, I just don’t know yet.   Russia’s foreign minister has called for the suspension of all US adoptions.  That would be an extremely bad for our family.  We’ve drained finances.  Pooled resources.  We’ve jumped through every hoop they’ve asked.  Flown 20,000 miles.  Spent a week apart from our children.  And the worst of the worst, we’ve promised two boys in orphanages that we would come back for them.

So pray for us, pray for the boys, pray for the wisdom of those making the decisions, pray for those who are worried both in the US and Russia that their livelihoods are at stake, pray for those who sent their unaccompanied seven-year-old child to another country.  I suspect they have more pending problems than an unruly child.

What we do know is that God is in control.  He is sovereign over kings and leaders.  He is sovereign over adoptions, too. 

As for where we are in the process, at this point we are going to continue as we have been.  We have everything completed except mailing one letter and the second part of our psychiatric evaluation.  Yes.  In six days we will have every document sent that we need to request a court day.  Six days. 

As for the new round of paperwork, it was really overwhelming at first. I’m sort of surprised they didn’t want to know the dimensions of individual rooms of my house.  Oh wait… they did!

The thing about the new portion of paperwork is not that we had more paperwork to do, but that we had already done most of it.  And had it notorized. This year. 

Some things we got to do were: have the children already in the house have a medical exam, give information about our finances (already done once), have a criminal background check (already done three times- with the city and two states), information about our house (including a copy of the deed), letter from our employers stating that we are employed (already done), and psychiatric evaluations (which, I admit, we hadn’t done yet).

We are gettinIMG_0559g a bedroom ready!  We got Erin moved downstairs so the boys can have her old room- the biggest one. We are almost finished painting it.  Each wall is a different color.  It is going to be the most awesom est room ever.  We are going to paint Sam’s room and give his old bed to one of the boys and give my old futon to him.  So that means the only furniture we have to get is one toddler bed and one (or two!) chest of drawers.  So if you know anyone who has a chest of drawers who wants to get rid of it (and, you know, actually know me outside of the blog…) then let me know. 

Other prayer requests are that all of the paperwork gets filled out correctly and quickly.  For finances to work out-we still don’t know where all of the money is going to come from, but it has all worked out so far and trust God that it will continue to work out.  For all of our children- for the adjustments our first two will have to make and for the changes coming to the two in Russia right now. 

We are not giving up hope.

Book Review: So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore

07 Wednesday Apr 2010

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Someone gave this book to my wife a few months ago, and said that we just had to read it. He said that what we are describing in our own spiritual journey sounds a lot like what is in the book So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman. My immediate reaction was, “But I do want to go to church- I really want to go to church.” I had apprehensions about the book for a couple of reasons besides the title. First it contains an advertisement for The Shack. Lots of red flags go up in my mind- The Shack was the most painful thing I’ve ever read.  Secondly, the pages of “What others are saying about” the book are just not very helpful.  They are random statements from people I have no idea if I can trust, and some I know I can’t trust just by what they say.  One stated “These writings are more than a book. They are a living two-edge sword, God revealing himself…” which is a sure sign of someone who doesn’t know the difference between scripture and a fictional story. Yet I trusted my friend and read the book.
So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore tells the fictional story of Jake, a burned out pastor who wants more out of his relationship with Christ. In the middle of some tough times a man named John, who just might be the actual apostle John (wink), enters Jake’s life and starts giving him some direction. The story follows snapshots of Jake’s life as he encounters John over the course of a few years and Jake follows his spiritual journey.

I have mixed feelings about the book. The dialog is a bit choppy and sometimes forced at times. The flow of the book isn’t difficult to follow, but doesn’t really flow well. It starts at the time of a crisis with his daughter, and implies that he is looking back at the events, but the crisis shows up in the middle rather than the end of the story.

Those minor issues aside, the book provides some very provocative thoughts about following Christ and why it can’t be done (or at least can’t be done very well) in the institutionalized church.  There is much they have to say that I had to fully agree with, but they took it to such an extreme that I can’t agree with a lot of what they have to say.  They simply take it too far.  The theme of the story is that serving Christ isn’t the same as serving the church, and serving the church actually hinders or entirely prevents the ability to truly follow Christ.  When we serve the church as an institution, it becomes a burden and ties us to the institution and restrains us from serving Christ as He leads us.   They use examples of Sunday School as rewarding those who follow the system rather than Christ, recurring broken relationships between those in the church fighting to keep their particular program in place or the facade of themselves looking good or the facade of the church looking as being a hindrance.  And I agree that all these things exist.  Yet the authors attack not just the problems that churches experience, but any kind of structure or organization of a church, even to the point of a church body actually meeting.

They picture the church as a free-floating, come-as-you-go spiritual journey with absolutely no structure, no accountability (the thought of being accountable to others they claim is unbiblical), and no set meeting.  The church to them would be a group of always changing relationships with no obligations to one another, except as they are led by the Spirit.

I don’t believe this is the biblical model of the church.  Yes, there is organization to the church.  No, it doesn’t need to have a staff of dozens to operate.  Might it?  Yes, but their argument is that when you get to a certain point you begin to defend the institution and programs rather than what Christ says you should do.  This may happen, but just because it might happen and sometimes does happen doesn’t mean that it will.  If God did not intend for us to gather, why would we be given instructions as to how to organize the church and defend doctrine?  Isn’t that the main focus of the letters to Timothy?  Why would Paul tell him to appoint overseers?

I think what the book does a good job of pointing out that in our endless committee meetings and programs we spend so much time and effort bogged down with sustaining them we lose sight of our first love.  What it fails to address with the institutionalized church is that it is often being run by those who have no idea what they are doing.  (Not usually the pastors, but many of the church members).  In this they are seeing a problem, but trying to fix it in the wrong way.  They touch on this issue,  as in this example during a conversation between Bryce, a friend of Jake, and John:

[Bryce says] “…The people whose spiritual maturity I respect most seem to gravitate away from helping us run this thing [the church].  I’ve been very disappointed that they won’t join our leadership teams.  It means we have people in leadership positions who don’t know God very well, but who have strong opinions about the way things should be.”

“That should tell you something.” [John responds]

“It tells me that maybe the ones I thought were mature aren’t, since they were so unwilling to serve us.”

“Okay, that’s one possibility, or maybe they wanted to invest their time serving people instead of attending an endless supply of committee meetings.”

The implication of the dialog is that whoever becomes mature leaves the “organization” of the church, as though becoming wiser in Christ will make them break free from the chains of oppression that the church places on people, to which I disagree.  And yet they make a good point-“there are people in leadership positions who don’t know God very well,” but come to the wrong conclusion that everything about the church and its organization and structure must be thrown out.

I think the problem they are overlooking is that our churches are filled with the unregenerated.  People who think they are Christians but are not.  I don’t think it is the fault of any “structure” but that we accept anybody with a pulse who says “I believe” as an active voting member of the church with no attempts made to explain doctrine or to discern if they are saved or help them discern if they really are Christians.  (Even demons are “believers.”)  Our church buildings are full of people such as this (and I will add that I was one of them for a long time).  The problem the authors are trying to address throws out the baby with the bath water in a sense.  The problem isn’t the church, the problem is what we call the church.

The longer I type the more I realize how deep this hole goes!  To wrap things up, these are the things I like about this book:

  • It makes you consider how much time you are spending tied down to responsibilities (i.e. programs/church meetings) rather than following Christ.
  • Because the main character is a pastor who struggles with keeping his job and appeasing the masses versus following what God says, it makes you look at what flaws may exist in our churches and the dangers to those pastors we highly regard.
  • It truly makes you question if what you are doing is because it is comfortable, because you are trying to control your own life, or if you are really honestly allowing God to take over.
  • It does a great job of pointing out that those who leave the church to join the house church movement, or to form a church of their own often fall back into the old problems of being tied to programs and meetings because they are focused on the church and have lost sight of Christ.  It is a great warning for those who are considering moving in that direction.
  • It is entertaining and easy to read. (I read it in a day).

And what I don’t care for about the book:

  • It simply goes too far in trying to abolish any sense of a church outside of “conversations” or friendships.  Those things are deeply important, but they aren’t the only things that are important.
  • It attacks the problems seen in our church buildings today (which is good) but comes to the conclusion that churches should not exist in any (that’s A-N-Y) structure rather than seeking to correct why the problems exist.

Overall, do I recommend you read it?  It depends.  I recommend it to a mature Christian who isn’t going to be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph 4:14).  It does help show flaws in the church that should be addressed, and really does help shed light on how God changes lives differently in everyone, even though we can’t see Him working until much later.  I recommend that a new believer not read it, because I fear it may be difficult to discern truth and simply be too confusing for them.  If someone who is just coming to Christ they could (at worst) look at it and actually forsake the assembling of the saints, which I fear would lead them further from Him.