John the Baptist a cause of rejoicing

 

The second of my Advent Devotions for the Christmas season.  

Reading: Luke 1:14-17.

 

'And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.'

 

John the Baptist, is rightly overshadowed by his infinitely greater relative but what an honour he had, for Gabriel tells his father, that John would be the cause of much rejoicing. Why would the Baptist be a cause of rejoicing? It is because he had the tremendous privilege of calling people to repentance. John’s ministry seemed like fire and brimstone, and it may appear there is no rejoicing in that. Yet, see the result, many within Judea were turned back to a relationship with God through John’s ministry, reconciled not only to God also but to each other.

 

The greatest privilege John had was to physically point away from himself to Jesus with those beautiful words, ‘behold the Lamb of God’. We too have that same privilege to not only behold but also to point to our Lord Jesus, who as Spurgeon said, ‘was always the sinner’s friend.’

 

Stephen <><

Humble Glory

We are doing a 150 word advent devotion at church here is my contribution for today:

Reading: Malachi 3:1-6.

‘the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple’

Malachi looks forward to a day when prophetic hope would be fulfilled. In the midst of a passage about the LORD coming in judgement, we find that the Messiah’s coming that the prophet’s all point to is the LORD Himself, the LORD you seek is going to come, and He is going to come suddenly. He is coming to the Temple, God coming to deal with human sin, and our brokenness. Yet do you see how God works in surprising ways?  He the all powerful God is going to fulfil this visitation as a King in humble glory, glory but veiled in flesh, He doesn’t walk in, He is carried in the arms of His mother.  As one modern hymn writer puts it, ‘The hands that created the world, created the hands that are now holding Him.’ One of the wonders of Christmas is the humble glory of Christ.

Stephen <>< 

James White- John 8:24 and Islam.

I had the privilege to hear Dr James White speak in Inverness last night at Inverness Reformed Baptist Church. I was shocked that there was only 20 or so of us. 

Dr White opened with a reading from John chapter 8, concentrating on v24. Unless you believe that I AM (he) you will die in your sins. Dr White pointed out that translations with 'I am he' have added the he and missed the point. John's Gospel is full of references to Jesus as the I AM. Dr White went on to point out that the I AM statements are linked to the Old Testament not just to Exodus but especially to Isaiah. Isaiah 43:10 in the Greek Translation says;

You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,

    “and my servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

    and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

    nor shall there be any after me. ESV

Dr White pointed out that the wording is the same, and is thus Jesus is claiming that unless we believe that He is the I AM we will die in our sins.
He pointed out that there is a certain irony that the favourite verse of the Watchtower and Tract society is a verse that is clear on the deity of Christ.

Dr White says that this has big implications for our relationship with our Muslim neighbours.  Muslims of all different stripes are only too willing to talk to people about faith, they as a whole are people who like to dialogue.

He said he is often told by westernised Muslims ‘we are the second largest religion in the world that loves Jesus’ but and it’s a big but, which Jesus. The problem for Islam is that they get Jesus wrong, as he often says, the Qu’ran was written 700 years after the events in the New Testament take place and almost 600 miles away. The author of the Qu’ran doesn’t interact with the New Testament and the stories it tells of Jesus are stories that are found in the Gnostic Gospels and from oral tradition. The author of the Qu’ran seemed to be completely ignorant of the Jesus presented in the prologue of John, Colossians 1, Hebrews chapter 1 and the I AM sayings. Muslims believe Christians are committing shirk, that they had added to revelation and are now worshipping a creature as creator. Dr White pointed out that actually it is the Muslims who have withdrawn from revelation through ignorance rather than Christians changing revelation. According to Muslims all the scriptures are from God, they recognise the Old Testament and the Gospels but they believe they have been corrupted. Dr White said from reading the Qu’ran it’s clear that it’s author didn’t hold to this, but it’s also clear that the author had never read the Bible, there is too much confusion.

 We Need to Evangelise our Muslim Neighbour.

There are a couple of stumbling blocks 1) Fear of violence and 2) Don’t want to cause offence due to our ignorance.

Dr White said as Reformed Baptists we are in a good place because of our desire to be Biblical and theological and because of our uncompromising upholding Sola Scriptura.

We are well placed to provide thoughtful answers to our Muslim neighbours.

Dr White said Muslims know the difference between Liberal/Nominal Christians and Conservative Evangelical Christians. Following a couple of debates he was told by his Muslim friend and opponent, we need to debate more conservatives, the liberals are willing but have nothing to say.

Dr White said this is a big problem, we have the great commission, we have the tools but in the States any interaction between a Conservative Evangelical and Muslims tends to unkind and based on false assumptions. The majority of western Muslims would love the dialogue in a friendly but robust way. We believed we would fear Muslim neighbours more than we would Mormon neighbours but we should take the challenge either way.

Dr White encouraged us take the time to study up on Islam, this will open the door in the dialogue. I asked him if we could engage with them if all we knew was the Bible and he said of course, but if you can study.

It was humbling to have Doctor White speak to so few of us, made me feel better about when I speak to a small group of people in rural churches. 

God Bless

Stephen <><

The Gospel on Display

I watched the Royal Wedding yesterday a wonderful event, on BBC the presenters were from every part of the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Also the presenters represented modern Britain with people from various ethnic groups celebrating a very British event. It was also wonderful to see people from all over the Commonwealth and elsewhere in the world all celebrating together. This reminds me of the beautiful picture we see in Revelation 6 people from every tribe, tongue and people group.  The event itself reminded me very much of the Gospel, firstly we know that the bride Meghan Markle (now Windsor) was a divorcee and that had been living with her boyfriend the Prince for several months. Yet she was dressed in a beautiful spotless white dress, rather than wearing cream or off white of some sort, and she looked absolutely stunning.  It reminded me of the fact that in the Gospel we have a past but that it is done away because as Ephesians 5 says, Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, (dying on the cross, to save us from our sins) so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, to present her spotless and without blemish to Himself.

I was reminded of the Gospel in that she as an American is a citizen of a different country, also her ancestor was put to death for treason by Harry's ancestor Henry the 8th. At the start of the walk down the aisle she was an outsider but the heir to the throne son of the Monarch went and collected her to deliver her to her spouse, no longer an outsider, and she becomes more than a citizen as she joins the Royal family going from an outsider to a member of the establishment. Col 1:13 says that the Father takes us and transfers us from the domain of darkness into the Kingdom of his beloved Son. 

Then the words that Henry, 5th in line for the throne said to his bride, all that I am I give to you, all that I have I share with you  also reminded of the Gospel, for as Paul says in v 12 of that same chapter, God the Father has qualified us to share in an inheritance of the saints in light. To share in His holiness- that's what saints means. Our inheritance as Christians is to be made holy and to dwell with God in His Kingdom as His family. 

Holiness- Steven Lawson at the Scottish Reformed Conference -part 1

I had the privilege of hearing Steven Lawson today in Hamilton, he was one of the speakers for the Scottish Reformed Conference 2018 . His subject was the Holiness of God and he walked us through some of the passages in the Old Testament in the morning and in the afternoon he unpacked holiness in parts of the New Testament. 

 He started with an A W Tozer quote, 'The most important thing about you is what you think about God'. Lawson went on to say we cannot have too high a view of God, and His holiness is the most important aspect of who and what God is. The radiance of His perfection is made manifest not in that He is love (though He is love) not in his power (though He is omnipotent) but in his absolute holiness. The holy Seraphim cry not love, love, love but Holy, Holy, Holy, every revival begins with a fresh awareness of God's holiness.  We need to be gripped by it, we cannot enter into His presence casually, or laid back we need a reverential fear of God.  

What does the holiness of God mean- He is not on our level, He is wholly other, He is High and exalted, far above anyone and anything else- distinct  from everything.

But He is also morally pure, perfect in thought, in word, in deed, motive, flawless and sinless, completely separate from sin. He judges and condemns all that doesn't square with His Holiness and He must- for His own Righteousness sake. 

When Moses meets with God, we hear of holiness for the first time, Moses is commanded not to come near- for the ground is holy- consecrated by God's holiness and Moses is not. He encounters God and he experiences, soul crushing, jaw dropping, knee bowing holiness. 

Exodus 15- God is greater than all the so called gods, carnal minds cannot create a God like this one, The Holy One.

God called Israel to be a nation to be distinct from all those around them. in Exodus 19 v 9 God urges them to cleanse themselves before they could come remotely near to Mount Sinai before giving them the Ten Commandments which not only reveal how God wants His covenant people to live but reveals His own Holiness.

One Blood

Acts 17:26 tells us that God made all the nations- (or ethnic groups) from one blood. I love that verse, it tells me that everyone I walk by in the street is a relation, no matter what skin colour they have. I often naively think this is the opinion of every Christian so it always pains me to see otherwise. Yet I know that I have my own prejudices too, when I discover these I am horrified and desire to do something about it.

One of the most beautiful things I ever saw was three Indian men singing a Gospel song in Hindi. They were the same shade of brown- if you didn't know their background you would think there was nothing special about this moment, but it was divine moment, a glimpse into heaven. You see despite their common shade of melanin one was from a Hindu background, one from a Christian background and the other from a Sikh background, they were naturally enemies but in the Gospel these one enemies were now brothers, they were able to sing a song that means in English, 'Salvation comes in Jesus Name'.

David Platt in his Together For the Gospel 2018 conference address pointed out that in Amos, God says to His covenant people that they shouldn't look to the Day of the LORD as a good thing because though they are doing the outward forms of worship they are neglecting justice- Amos 5: 24 'But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everlasting stream'. Platt rightly identified the positive changes that have happened in America with regard to racism but he also rightly pointed out there is much to be done.  He was preaching in the States to an American issue, I have seen it's been widely criticized on social media but I have no idea why. It's both faithful to the text and crosses the bridge nicely into a culturally relevant equivalent. In using the text that Martin Luther King used and even citing him he isn't affirming King's theology but his campaign for social justice, King was right to fight this, Platt was right to raise it as issue today. I again naively thought Britain is different to that, certainly we didn't have segregation in the C20th. Yet I was visiting a church a few months ago that was beautifully diverse to a newcomer like me but the minister dismissed the black families within his flock as 'cultural Christians who don't stay long' (I wonder why they don't stay????) . He also pointed out a street you wouldn't like to go down because 'it's full of immigrants and the underclass'. Though this is an extreme example I still often see racist things coming from Christian friends on social media, especially people just reposting stuff from Britain First a racist organisation. Their inner most thoughts laid bare and they are not pretty, and not part of God's plan- remember when Abraham was called out from among the Nations to enter into a covenant with the living God he was called out from the Nations to be a blessing to the nations. This we see fulfilled in Revelation when gathered around the throne of God are an untold number from every tribe, every tongue and every people group. Brothers and sisters of all shades worshipping their God together. I believe the Gospel is powerful to change lives, I've seen it in my own life and as I said above I could see it worked out in a multi-ethnic church where former enemies become not only friends but brothers. 

May God extend His Grace to You.

Stephen 

The Devil's Delusion

I recently heard Ravi Zacharias on youtube quoting from this book, it was an excellent quote and from the Dust Sleeve. I ordered a copy on that basis, however it was the paperback and didn't have the quote in its pages. 

Nonetheless this is an excellent book, written by a secular Jewish man who tells us early on he tried religion but it wouldn't take. It's surprising then that this book should even be written by such a man. It's clear from the end chapter that he hasn't thrown his hat in any ring regarding any world religion, yet he clearly understands that the new Atheist have built their house on a stack of cards that will blow over in the wind and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. 

Here a couple of my favourites from the book.

'If the laws of nature are neither necessary or simple, why, then, are they true?
Questions about the parameters and laws of physics form a single insistent question in thought: Why are things as they are when what they are seems anything but arbitrary?
One answer is obvious. It is the one that theologians have always offered: The universe looks like a put-up job because it is a put-up job. That this answer is obvious is no reason to think it false. nonetheless, the answer that common sense might suggest is deficient in one respect: It is emotionally unacceptable because a universe that looks like a put-up job puts off a great many physicists.
They have thus made every effort to find an alternative.
Did you imagine that science was a disinterested pursuit of the truth?
Well, you were wrong'  p112

See even this secular guy recognises what Paul says, they surpress the truth in unrighteousness. 

He quotes the new atheists at length when they dismiss the idea of the soul or mind. Here is his conclusion at the end of that section. 

We do not have a serious scientific theory explaining the powers and properties of the human mind.
The claim that the human mind is the product of evolution is not unassailable fact. It is barely coherent.
The idea that main is created in the image of God remains what is has always been: and that is the instinctive default position of the human race.'

I would commend this book to you.

Shalom

Stephen