Psalm 2

1 Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6 “As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.”

7 I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11 Serve the Lord with fear,

and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
–Psalms 2:1-12

I enjoyed this iTunes podcast from R.C. Sproul about this Psalm and the Davidic Covenant. Very good listening and reading for a Sunday.

Preaching repentance for judgment

The Lost Art of Listening, Luke 8:4-15 (Here’s the iTunes link)

Here’s an Oklahoma boy preaching the gospel at Southern Seminary. Listen to the whole thing but at about 18 minutes, the Disciples get taken down a notch or two. A great discussion of God’s sovereignty and why Christians understand the Bible. Perspicuity folks–its a gift. Sometimes we preach repentance to justify judgment. Check it.

COD Blogroll: The Sovereign Grace Blog

I’m blogrolling C.J. Mahaney’s Sovereign Grace Blog because every post so far has been fantastic. Plus, he blogs about hockey. HOCKEY people.

Biblical Manhood On Ice I love that.

Stop what you’re doing

…and go read this.

I think I wept twice.

Faith in Christ

“Faith in Christ, is faith in the declarations of the Gospel concerning Christ; and it is faith in these as coming from God. It is the receiving of God’s testimony concerning his Son; and, in this view of it, we see the great sinfulness of unbelief; for he who believeth not, hath made God a liar. We see, also, how firm a foundation is laid for strong faith. The Gospel is the Word God that can not lie. Our senses may deceive us; and the deductions of our reason may be false. Relying on these, we may err, in things pertaining to the present life; but, in laying hold on life eternal, we may believe the truth of God with unwavering confidence. His word cannot fail.”
–from, Doctrine Concerning Jesus Christ, Manual of Theology, J.L. Dagg

Mark 2:1-12 (part 2) The Answer

Note: This Post is part of the series “Studies in Mark” see the Series Index for other posts in this series.

1And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. 3 And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. 4And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. 5And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” 6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? 9Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—11“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” 12And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”– Mark 2:1 – 12 (ESV)

So we made it to verse five and had to break it off. Jesus forgave the paralytic and then healed him, I stated, for one purpose: to Glorify God the Father. Here’s what I mean…. The scribes have shown up too. We aren’t told this until v.6 and we are told that they were ‘sitting there, questioning in their hearts.’ There are a lot of people I have met who know the Bible well. They are quite familiar with it in fact, but they always question it. They always attempt to bend it to their agenda. They come to it with something they want to support from scripture and then would like to shape it rather than be shaped by it.

But they got it right. The scribes are generally cast in a negative light because they were so stiff necked but they get the question right here: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

And that is the question we all must answer. Everyone who is honest knows they do things that are wrong. I know that the world allows us to adjust our morals as the situation requires but the reality is that no one is perfect. The Bible says “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” it’s in the Book of Romans in the Bible and it’s your homework. Look it up.

And now we come to the reason for it all in v.10. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—and he heals the man. And because of the ruckus of this fellow coming in through the roof and ‘cutting in line’ you can be sure that everyone knew he had arrived and had seen Jesus. There was no doubt about it as he walked out. See? The miracles have a purpose. They’re not just flash in the pan or just for show or to drive up your offerings. They drive his points home that he was something special, something different and all they had to do was have ‘ears to hear’. And he even tells them that he was the ‘Son of Man’ something that the scribes had to pick up on almost immediately.

But I don’t think these folks did. They were so focused on the show that they missed the hearing part. In v.12 they prove it “We never SAW anything like this!” [caps mine]

And here’s the other thing that we miss a lot today. The miracle wasn’t focused on the man who was healed. Jesus didn’t say, “Here’s how you know that you’re saved” when he healed him. Jesus wasn’t giving him evidence of his faith, OK? In v.10 and 11 Jesus says “10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—11“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” The focus was on ‘the Son of Man’. Jesus was answering the question the real question they had in their hearts: “Who is this guy?” He was God. Who can forgive sins but God alone?

No one can. That’s the answer you should be looking for

Other posts in this series.

Click-Clack-Moo: Baptists That Type

This post is marginal. I don’t care if they have to use Champagne evangelism at Mars Hill Church. Have you ever been to Seattle? Someone needs to preach there…

The real meat of this thing is in the Meta where Frank says he is looking for dialog about the same and warns about the IDV (Internet Doctrine Vigilantes). Read it and learn something about blogging you wish you didn’t know.

Bondage

Here I read this today and thought it fit in pretty well with the post I made earlier:

“That is to say: a man without the Spirit of God does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it, like a thief or footpad being dragged off against his will to punishment; but he does it spontaneously and voluntarily. And this willingness or volition is something which he cannot in his own strength eliminate, restrain or alter. He goes on willing and desiring to do evil; and if external pressure forces him to act otherwise, nevertheless his will within remains averse to so doing and chafes under such constraint and opposition. But it would not thus chafe were it being changed, and were it yielding to constraint willingly.”
–Martin Luther, Bondage of the Will

(This is partially for Cent if he ever shows up here again. Read this and the comments too.)

Terminal

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10:17-22

Jesus is getting ready to go. Literally. I mean he is heading for Jerusalem for the last time. It will be the last city he visits on Earth. Weighty matters are at hand. He is about to fulfill that which his Father has sent him: the atonement by way of Calvary and his glorious resurrection. The firstborn among many…

But he is, again, interrupted.

v.17 tells us that ‘as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

I don’t know many people who, at one time or another, haven’t been preoccupied with the concept of dying. Someone, probably a comedian, once said, “Everyone is terminal.” And that’s true as far as it goes. Yet another side benefit of Sin, our bodies labor under it until they give out. As long as we’re here day by day, each step we take is taken knowing full well that it might be our last. Death is part of the curse.

And this young man asks probably the most important question ever asked. It is the thing we wonder about in those dark hours when we are alone or waiting by the beside of a very sick child or caring for an aged parent. The question we all answer in one way or another, the true question of Life the Universe and Everything—the answer to which is not forty-two for those who have ever read Douglas Adams—“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” We are told in John 17:1-3 what eternal life is, knowing God and Jesus Christ. We are also told that this eternal life is given to all those God gave to Christ. (Seriously, its that simple. Look it up for yourself.)

Now at this point Jesus, who is arguably the busiest person on the planet at this point—not only is he moving things along according to his Father’s Sovereign will with regard to the atonement but he is maintaining the cosmos and several other things all while trying to teach twelve human males all what they will need to know to establish the Church; arguably his most difficult task—does something radical right here. He takes time to speak to this young man. The startling thing is that he doesn’t address his question, he hits all the points around it.

First in v.18 he addresses his concept of sin. ‘No one is good except God alone.’ No, he is telling him, you can’t really get into heaven by upholding the law. It’s not possible to ‘earn’ your ticket. God is good. You are not. Second, he addresses his knowledge of those commandments, “You know the commandments” he tells the young man in v.19. You have studied them all, you know your Bible, you know your doctrine. You’ve been a good boy. “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth” the young man replies. We can only take his word for it. He was probably right, though, because in v.21 we are told Jesus looked at him and ‘loved him. “You lack one thing” Jesus tells him.

What was that one thing?

Why bother?

I wanted to continue with my study of Mark 10 today, but my first post dealing with divorce and its cause—hardness of heart—has left me with some issues of my own to deal with. It appears that God’s Word, as it always does, is working on to conform me to it—which is as it should be. While my purpose here isn’t to write a thesis on the characteristics of God’s word or its perspicuity (I love that word) I think its important to note that Gods word should change you when you read it and not the other way around. The concept of coming to the Bible and evaluating it in the same fashion as you would Huckleberry Finn or Stranger in a Strange Land is ludicrous. It’s possible to perform those literary gymnastics with Twain and Heinlein I propose that the author of the Bible is quite a bit more difficult to figure out. Can one apply literary standards to the written words of a Holy God? As a reader one must. As a Christian one must be careful. God revealed to man—or rather as much as he can stand—is not the same as Valentine Michael Smith revealed as a SciFi character. To bend the Word even a little to subject it to our own standards is foolhardy as best.

So as the Word does it has bent some of my suppositions and left me in awe of God’s power to change those He calls his own. How, I have to ask myself, have my prayers—weak and pitiful though they are, caused me to draw nearer to God rather than push me further away? Why is it that I pray and go unanswered but still insist that this great God and creator of all things is real? Rather, why do I bother when it seems to do no good?

Unless you suspect me of being bitter about this let me just say up front that I’m not. And that’s not even the comic’s ‘I’m not bitter!’ when it’s plain that he is. Akin to the weeping toddlers ‘I’m not tired’ wailed in a pool of tears and drool and eye-rubs. No it’s the serious I’m not bitter because I think I am beginning to understand some of it, so I rejoice that God sees fit to reveal some of Himself to His children by His Word.