When I was a kid one of the television shows I watched regularly was called,  Lost in Space.  The show followed the adventures of the Robinson family, a crew member and a stowaway saboteur named Dr. Smith.  My favorite character was the Robot.   The Robot’s most famous line was ‘Warning!  Danger, Will Robinson, danger!’  There are times when I want to imitate my old robotic hero when I am about to preach the word of God.  The danger which I have in mind is the danger of knowledge without action.   I’m sure you are aware of the sobering words of  Luke 12:47-48.

There our Lord says,    ⁴⁷ “…that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.  ⁴⁸ “But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

The issue is put even more starkly at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has warned that the only one who will enter the Kingdom is the one who ‘does the will of My Father in heaven’.  He then follows up with the stunning parable of the two builders.   One is wise and one is foolish.  One builds their house upon a rock and the other builds upon sand.  When the storm comes and the wind blows and the flood water rise, one house stands and the other collapses.  Both ‘builders’ were hearers of the word, but only one was a ‘doer’ of the word.

A few weeks ago I fellowshiped with a brother who had heard some of my preaching online.  He asked me about the effect of a particular series of sermons on the life of the congregation.   He said to me, ‘Did people change as a result of what they heard?’   That is, did they do more than hear.

There is great blessing in knowing more and more of the will and ways of God.  But if that knowledge is not accompanied by the heart which is inclined and empowered to do, it is dangerous.  It can prove spiritually fatal.

Sermons are like medicine, they only work if you take them, they are like food, they only benefit if you actually eat them, they are like exercise equipment, they only profit if they are used.

There are certain events that are so wonderful and memorable (or at time tragic) that we dedicate one day every year to remembering them.   There are historical figures who are likewise deemed worthy of annual remembrance with a national holiday (individually or collectively).   In our own homes we ‘memorialize’ certain great events–the anniversary of mom and dad and the birthdays of our children.  But there is only one event in all of human history that has been deemed worthy of remembrance every single week.  That event is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.   In honor of that event God has given His Son one day in seven to serve as a distinct memorial, separate and distinct from all other days.  The Lord’s Day has been regarded in the past by such honored titles as the “Queen of Days” and the “Market Place of the Soul”.    The average Christian in our day, however, seems to be more of the spirit expressed in Amos 8:5   “When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat?”

Some years ago a man who had attended our church announced to me that he thought it was legalistic to have and to ‘require’ an evening service.  I said to him, “Well, let me tell you what we will be doing Sunday night.  We will gather together with the saints, who are the excellent one in the earth in whom is all my delight (Psalm 16:3).  We will gather as living stones to form a spiritual temple in which the Spirit of God will come and inhabit.   We will have the words of the living God read and expounded to our needy hearts.  We will sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs.  We will have our hearts and our minds lifted toward heaven and be reminded of that eternal Sabbath Day.”

I then asked a simple question, “Are your plans for the day better than that?”    I am not saying that the Bible commands an evening worship service, but when one is available and those dynamics are in play–what is better?

Charles Spurgeon speaks to this issue in today’s  Morning section of  Morning and Evening.  His text was Romans 11:26, All Israel Shall Be Saved.

When Moses sang at the Red Sea, it was his joy to know that all Israel were safe. Not a drop of spray fell from that solid wall until the last of God’s Israel had safely planted his foot on the other side the flood. That done, immediately the floods dissolved into their proper place again, but not till then. Part of that song was, “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed.” In the last time, when the elect shall sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb, it shall be the boast of Jesus, “Of all whom thou hast given me, I have lost none.” In heaven there shall not be a vacant throne.

“For all the chosen race
Shall meet around the throne,
Shall bless the conduct of His grace,
And make His glories known.”

As many as God hath chosen, as many as Christ hath redeemed, as many as the Spirit hath called, as many as believe in Jesus, shall safely cross the dividing sea. We are not all safely landed yet:

“Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.”

The vanguard of the army has already reached the shore. We are marching through the depths; we are at this day following hard after our Leader into the heart of the sea. Let us be of good cheer: the rear-guard shall soon be where the vanguard already is; the last of the chosen ones shall soon have crossed the sea, and then shall be heard the song of triumph, when all are secure. But oh! if one were absent—oh! if one of His chosen family should be cast away—it would make an everlasting discord in the song of the redeemed, and cut the strings of the harps of paradise, so that music could never be extorted from them

What a veil is lifted up by these words, and what a disclosure is made! It will be humbling and profitable for us to pause awhile and see this sad sight. The iniquities of our public worship, its hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, irreverence, wandering of heart and forgetfulness of God, what a full measure have we there! Our work for the Lord, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief, what a mass of defilement is there! Our private devotions, their laxity, coldness, neglect, sleepiness, and vanity, what a mountain of dead earth is there! If we looked more carefully we should find this iniquity to be far greater than appears at first sight. Dr. Payson, writing to his brother, says, “My parish, as well as my heart, very much resembles the garden of the sluggard; and what is worse, I find that very many of my desires for the melioration of both, proceed either from pride or vanity or indolence. I look at the weeds which overspread my garden, and breathe out an earnest wish that they were eradicated. But why? What prompts the wish? It may be that I may walk out and say to myself, ‘In what fine order is my garden kept!’ This is pride. Or, it may be that my neighbours may look over the wall and say, ‘How finely your garden flourishes!’ This is vanity. Or I may wish for the destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of pulling them up. This is indolence.” So that even our desires after holiness may be polluted by ill motives. Under the greenest sods worms hide themselves; we need not look long to discover them. How cheering is the thought, that when the High Priest bore the iniquity of the holy things he wore upon his brow the words, “HOLINESS TO THE LORD:” and even so while Jesus bears our sin, He presents before His Father’s face not our unholiness, but his own holiness. O for grace to view our great High Priest by the eye of faith!

I read an article this morning by Dr. Carl Trueman which stirred up a good many memories.   He wrote of the blessing that came to him as a young Christian through the writings of Packer and Lloyd-Jones.  I  too was converted as a young man from a completely pagan background.  God began to surround me with good, godly and stable older men.  Many of these men are still living and still a part of  my life.  Their stabilty and maturity challenged me and changed me.  Though I still enjoy a good laugh, I  have not made my Chrisitian life about ‘fun’ nor have I sought to shape my public ministry around my native personality.   If  I had been left to my devices and my own inclinations I would have preached often with a clown’s nose upon my face.  I would have gravitated toward the silly and the sensational.    I am thankful for the influence through the years of mentors who labored and preached in the full confidence and joy of  redemptive realities but also in the fear of God.  I am thankful for the stablity of a confessional heritage.  I am thankful to have  the Reformers and the Purtians and their true heirs under my feet as I strive to minister faithfully in my generation.

Trueman puts it this way in his article:

Looking back, I now realize how much of my thinking on everything was decisively and permanently shaped by these early influences.  There are things in one’s youth that one remembers and which later seem something like Houseman’s blue remembered hills: the happy highways where I went but cannot come again.  Not in this case: all the theology I have is basically an elaboration of what I learned from reading these two giants; my cares and concerns, my core understanding of the gospel, is what I received from them.  The authoritative revelation of God in the scriptures; the fall, the incarnation, above all the cross and resurrection and the hope of the life to come. These are still foundational to my understanding of the gospel and I hope they are still my priorities. 
Someone asked me recently why I seem so alienated from what appears to be the cutting edge in American conservative evangelicalism.Frankly, I have stopped regarding myself as an evangelical over here, in a way that I do back home.  Why?  Well, at a time when Christian leaders in the USA are apparently writing explicit sex books, when there are confused signals on the Trinity, when art and cultural transformation and social justice are increasingly the talking points and the kind of themes and priorities I learned from Drs. Packer and Lloyd-Jones are at best assumed, at worst eclipsed by such things – frankly, it is very hard not to feel alienated, and an alien, in such circumstances.

Amen.

You can read the full article here: http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2012/01/charlie-kane-and-the-blue-reme.php

I do not know that I have ever met a true Christian who does not want to grow.  But not all do grow as they should.  What makes the difference?   Labor.  Effort.  Striving.   What makes the difference between the man who wants to be fit and the one who is fit?  Their desire has turned to action.

In his, Morning and Evening,  Spurgeon addresses the text of  2 Peter 3:18 where we are commanded to grow in grace and knowledge:

“GROW in grace”—not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward—having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.” He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know Him is “life eternal,” and to advance in the knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus—as the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.” Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, and in His future royal advent. Abide hard by the Cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.

Walk more closely with God, get nearer to Christ and seek to exchange hope for assurance. Seek to feel the witness of the Spirit more closely and distinctly every year. Lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily besets you. Press towards the mark more earnestly. Fight a better fight, and war a better warfare every year you live. Pray more, read more, mortify self more, love the brethren more. Oh that you may endeavor so to grow in grace every year, that your last things may be far more than your first, and the end of your Christian course far better than the beginning!

HT:http://jcrylequotes.com/

As 2012 dawns many believers are thinking about what they will do in regard to their daily intake of God’s Word.   I have noted in recent years that there has been some degree of push back in evangelical and Reformed circles to what has traditionally been called ‘devotions’ or a ‘quiet time’. It is argued that you do not have to read your Bible every day.  The Bible nowhere commands believers to read their Bible every day and,  hence,  any exhortation to do so is legalism and a form of guilt manipulation.   It is true that the Bible doe not command believers to read their Bible every day. That for one simple reason–first century Christians  did not own a personal  Bible. While the Bible does not command us to read every day, it does command that we want to read every day!

Peter commands believers in 1 Peter 2:2 to ‘desire’ or ‘long for’ the pure milk of the Word that they might grow thereby. Are you hungry for God’s word?  You need to be!

Below is a link to a multitude of resources which will aid you in growing in the New Year. Dig in!!

Every few years Christmas Day happens to fall on the Lord’s Day. Such is the case with 2011. This has caused a dilemma for some pastors and their churches. What to do? Should we cancel services so that families can spend time together? How many will show up and how many will choose to ‘opt’ out because of the holiday. Some people face the same pressure when a birthday, an anniversary, or a family reunion happens to conflict with the Lord’s Day. How are we to think? Perhaps I am simplistic, but it seems obvious to me. Christmas (for all its fun) is a day of man’s invention. There is nothing in the Bible that commands us to celebrate Christmas as a church or as families. There is nothing that commands us to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. However, we are commanded to keep one day in seven as to the Lord. We are commanded not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We are told that the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. How odd it would be to ‘honor’ Christmas Day by forsaking the worship of the One whose coming into the world we are celebrating!

That the ancient of Days should be born.
that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle….
that he who rules the stars should suck the breast;
that a virgin should conceive;
that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which himself made,
that the branch should bear the vine,
that the mother should be younger than the child she bare,
and the child in the womb bigger than the mother;
that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God

Christ taking flesh is a mystery we shall never fully understand till we come to heaven

If our hearts be not rocks, this love of Christ should affect us . Behold love that passeth knowledge! Eph 3:19”

Taken from Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, pages 196 and 198

http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2011/12/preach-the-incarnation.php