Make the pulpit great again

"[THE GOSPEL] IS THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION" ROMANS 1:16

This is a plea to preachers.

Your sermon matters. It matters more than you know, and more than anyone in your congregation is going to tell you. It is your chief task. Without it all your successes will be compromised.

Is God worth excellent preaching? What does a superheated soul poured out before sinners in holy exertion say about the living God? It says he's real. It says he means business with sinners today and calls them now. It says he loves his children with an everlasting love and will never ever forsake them.

Your people need the old fashioned gospel, and they need it every week. Do you give it to them? Or do you obscure it with the latest theological trend? Do you take away its gravitas by diminishing God's absolute standard of holiness expressed in his law? Do you place emphasis on what Christ did or what Christians must do? Both must be there but there's a priority here.

Are you afraid that preaching the free gospel will create antinomians? It will only expose them for what they already are. Do you fear it will make lazy Christians? Some will be tempted that way, but this I tell you: you don't have a chance of forming a single joyfully obedient believer without it.

So agonize over your sermon. You need the Lord not only to crack open the meaning of the text, but to help you organize the material and craft helpful illustrations for the people. Don't speak for the text, let the text speak for itself through you. Be succinct. Fast moving and hard hitting is the way to preach the gospel to this generation. What the world needs most is a fresh demonstration of God's power from the pulpit. So point the gospel in the right direction and get out of the way.

YOUR WORK IS NOT FINISHED UNTIL YOU PREACH THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT.

Thoughts of a 32 year old

THE GRASS WITHERS, THE FLOWER FADES, BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD WILL STAND FOREVER. ISAIAH 40:8

Today is the last day of my 32nd year. They say I'm in the flower of life, the very prime of it. Well I don't feel old, but I feel older. I'd like to take this opportunity to exhort you in the Lord, especially those of you who are young.

Serve God with the strength of your youth, my friend. Get right with God. Repent and trust in Jesus. Devour Scripture. Cry out to God for more of his power on your life. Study classic books. Serve your local church. Tell people about Jesus. Enjoy health and happiness and friends and family, the spouse of your youth and your little ones. Work hard and laugh harder. Acquaint yourself with Christ with everything you've got while you've got it! For there's

ONLY ONE LIFE, TWILL SOON BE PAST,
ONLY WHAT’S DONE FOR CHRIST WILL LAST.

Mercy secured

IN YOUR FAITHFULNESS ANSWER ME, IN YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! ENTER NOT INTO JUDGMENT WITH YOUR SERVANT, FOR NO ONE LIVING IS RIGHTEOUS BEFORE YOU. PSALM 143:1-2

David called on God's righteousness to show him mercy. What a strange righteousness this is! In the very next verse David admits that he's not righteous, that he is in fact liable to God's righteous judgment. In other words, David doesn't deserve God's mercy at all. He deserves God's righteous condemnation.

You would think a sinner like David, conscious of his own unrighteousness, would stay as far away from God's righteousness as he could. But David knew better. He knew that because he had no righteousness of his own, God's own righteousness was his only hope. Only God can satisfy his own demands in the place of sinners, in other words justify us—the very thing he has done though his Son.

But there's something even deeper here, and here David shows us what a massive grasp he had on the gospel. Once you are justified in Christ, God's righteousness then calls out, not for the judgment you deserve, but for the mercy you don't, which Christ earned for you. If there's any doubt, I will call an Apostle to the witness stand: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).

When sinners trust in Jesus, it's a matter of God's strict justice that he forgive them and cleanse them and count them righteous and keep them in his mercy forever. God's righteousness, the very thing that secured our condemnation, now secures his eternal faithfulness to us. In a manner of speaking, in the gospel his righteousness becomes his faithfulness to us. If you trust in Jesus, it would be unrighteous for God to deny his mercy to you. In other words, perish the thought!

BELIEVER, PLEAD GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS TO SHOW YOU MERCY TODAY. YOU DON'T DESERVE IT, BUT JESUS DOES.

The day of small things

"WHOEVER HAS DESPISED THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS SHALL REJOICE" ZECHARIAH 4:10

The "small things" here were the laying of the foundation of God's house after the exile, which was not comparable to the first temple but was to be completed spiritually by Christ with shouts of great glory. God promised that the day would come when all who thought very little of this puny foundation would rejoice in the glory it had become.

He who despises the day of small things never stood with Elijah's servant and saw the cloud no bigger than a man's hand coming up from the sea. That same cloud became the rainstorm that put an end to the years of drought (1 Kings 18:41-45).

Don't despise the day of small things! Is a foundation being laid by God in your life, or is it not? If it is, don't despise it! God founded the entire structure of our redemption upon a very small word spoken to Adam and Eve and the serpent in the Garden. It seemed perhaps a small word of prophecy, but we have since learned not to despise such prophecy. That very word, that gospel, has since grown into a global spiritual structure called the church.

You may see the Lord's work in your life by small increments only—do not despise such a work. Your trust in Christ may be small as a mustard seed. The fruit of the Spirit may be barely visible in your heart at times. Your local church appears contemptible. Your Bible reading seems small and your prayers little. Your family worship is weak and without momentum. Your evangelism is quiet and awkward. Your resolve itself may be puny, but if you have it do not despise it. God put it there, and God is able to transform it all as he makes you more and more into a living stone in his glorious house.

BELIEVER, TRUST GOD TO DO HIS SLOW BUT SURE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION IN YOUR LIFE, BUILT ON THE FOUNDATION OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED FOR YOU.

A cheerful heart

"I WILL SING OF STEADFAST LOVE AND JUSTICE; TO YOU, O LORD, I WILL MAKE MUSIC." PSALM 101:1

David is here the lord of his own house (v 2). He has in mind not only his kingship, but the quietness of his own home and how he carries himself there. And he begins with singing.

Let a man cheerfully go about his business, with a song in his heart. "Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous" (Psalm 118:15). May the Christian heart and the Christian home be seasoned with songs of the Lamb's triumph.

A Christian's life is a song sung unto God. May he grant you to see your life this way, beloved. In the quiet (or hectic!) affairs of today, offer to God a cheerful heart as you go about your business. It will be music to his ears and peace to your soul.

Telling our troubles to God

"I TELL MY TROUBLE BEFORE HIM." PSALM 142:2

David was a spiritual man. He enjoyed great intimacy with God. He didn't need to be driven off into a cave (as he was here) before he told God what was bothering him. But maybe this Psalm was written to help those of us who nearly do.

Christian, have you forgotten that the Lord wants to hear your troubles? Yes, yours. He desires for you to open up to him. When you don't, you act as if he didn't really care about you. And as the old theologian John Owen said, "The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you."

If we really believed God's love for sinners in Christ, we would run into his arms and sob on his strong shoulders and tell him how we feel more often. Instead, we go to other people first; or worse, we take to social media! No, tell your troubles to your Father who loves you and he will see to all of them.

The God who passes through

"THERE SHALL BE WAILING, FOR I WILL PASS THROUGH YOUR MIDST," SAYS THE LORD. AMOS 5:17

Just as he passed through Egypt and struck down the firstborn of every house without the blood on the door posts, the fierce judgment of God would pass through the midst of sinners once again.

Israel had become a spiritual Egypt (Revelation 11:8). No matter how many outward Passovers they observed, they would face God's wrath for their many sins if they didn't repent and apply the blood of the greater Lamb to their souls. The LORD would pass through their midst in fury for their godless deeds.

When the disaster struck, God wanted them to know, "That was me." He is the living God with whom we all must deal. And when it comes to God's dealings with sinners, there is an eternal chasm between those words: pass over or pass through. If he passes over our sins we are safe. But if he passes through, we are ruined.

PRAISE GOD FOR THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!

Welcoming rebukes

"LET A RIGHTEOUS MAN STRIKE ME—IT IS A KINDNESS; LET HIM REBUKE ME—IT IS OIL FOR MY HEAD; LET MY HEAD NOT REFUSE IT." PSALM 141:5

David loved the community of believers. When he was stranded in the wilderness he treasured sweet memories of corporate worship and longed to be with God's people again (Psalm 42:4).

Here David celebrates what the New Testament calls "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), a crucial ingredient in real spiritual maturity. He saw the dangers of spiritual isolation, and he saw the safety and joy of righteous correction.

Rebuke hurts, no mistake about it. David knew that, and stirred up his own soul to see it for what it really is: kindness and refreshment.

Do you long for the rebukes of the righteous people in your life? Do you know how much you need them? Do you invite them and embrace them when they come your way? Or do you hate godly correction?

This is just another reason to be an active member of a solid local church where believers speak the truth to one another in love, and where those same believers celebrate the truth when it comes their way, even when it hurts.

GODLY CORRECTION IS, AFTER ALL, PROOF THAT GOD LOVES US (HEBREWS 12:6).

Learn more about small groups at Redeeming Cross. 

God of the impossible

"YOU SHALL...PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO HAS DEALT WONDROUSLY WITH YOU." JOEL 2:26

OUR GOD IS THE GOD OF WONDERS - THE GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE.

In Joel's day, God's people had sunken so low into sin that no one thought there was any hope left for them. But when judgment was at their very doorstep, the God of wonderful mercy said, "Yet even now, return to me" (Joel 2:12).

He is the God of impossible mercy. If you've fallen into sin as a Christian, God's words to you are the same: "Yet even now, return to me." If you are in a lost condition, even on the very edge of eternal judgment, his words to you are the very same: "Yet even now return to me."

What will you do for eternity? If you're a Christian, you will praise the God of wondrous dealings for all eternity. You were a lost, hopeless rebel, without God in the world, sunken under a weight of eternal guilt, and the God of wonders singled you out for mercy. He washed you in the blood of his Son and made you his heir. You were an impossible case - no one could take away your guilt, no one could change you, least of all yourself. But God did.

START ETERNITY EARLY BY REFLECTING ON GOD'S WONDROUS DEALINGS WITH YOU TODAY.

Blog Post Title One

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

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