Instead of Working for Wages, We Now Run for a Crown

A portion of a prayer from Scotty Smith:

The gospel sets us free from working for wages. We now run for a crown. Ultimately, every crown will be laid at your feet, Jesus, for you have earned our salvation for us. Our obedience merits nothing, but it does show that we love you (John 14:15). How can we honestly say we love you if we disregard what you say?

The gospel sets us free from running aimlessly and beating the air. We now live in a story of redemption and restoration. All of history is bound up with your commitment to redeem your people from the nations and to make all things new. We praise you for rescuing us from a little narrative of self-fulfillment for a life of kingdom advancement. There is grace for the whole race. We can make no excuses.

The gospel sets us free from beating ourselves up because of shame and pride. We now train ourselves for godliness. We are to bring our appetites and bodies in submission to the gospel (1 Timothy 4:7-8). Forgive us when we are more disciplined out of vanity than out of a commitment to grow as your disciples. Fitting into our pants is not as important as revealing your beauty.

Jesus, you are the one who has “won the prize” for all of us. Only the gospel qualifies us to “share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” (Col. 1:12). We do not fear losing our salvation. But do let us fear, and grieve, misrepresenting you and “frittering away” this one short life you’ve given us. Show us how to do all things for the sake of the gospel… by the grace and truth of the gospel. So very Amen, we pray, in your most loving name.

Truth Never Excuses Sin

But I have a few things against you:

you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam

~ Revelation 2:14

I had the privilege of teaching God's precious Word to the saints at Meadow Ridge Bible Chapel this evening. We learned about the teaching of Balaam.

I appreciated G. Campbell Morgan's insights into this particular passage of scripture and thought I'd pass along his conclusion.

The central lesson of the study [on the church at Pergamum] is a very solemn one. The church of Jesus Christ must not tolerate within her borders those who lower the standard of truth's requirements. This is not a question of holding the truth. The church at Pergamum was orthodox. It is a question of the right application of truth.

The error of theses men is one that in subtle form, threatens all churches even until this hour. It is that if a man's creed be right, his conduct does not so much matter.

Truth never excuses sin. All forms of sin are to be treated with ruthless and pitiless severity, and if a man holding any form of teaching, should attempt to excuse sin, he is to be excluded from the fellowship of the saints.

The test of doctrine is purity of conduct and character.

The seal of the Master has two sides, on each an inscription. On the one side the words are graven, "The Lord knoweth them that are His." on the other side these other words. "Let him that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." Any attempt to efface this second side of the seal is blasphemy, an error to be banished with exclusion from the fellowship of the Church. God's order is the order of peace, but it is always peace based upon purity, for the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable.

False Doctrine is Satan's Currency - God Deals in Truth

I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.

~ Revelation 2:13

I'm spending some time this evening studying the letter of the risen Christ to the church at Pergamum. It is interesting to note that He knows that they are living in a danger zone.

“That old enemy of mankind, the devil, has no more subtle device for ruining souls than that of spreading false doctrine. Outside the church he is ever persuading men to maintain destructive superstitions. Like a pirate, his object is to ’sink, burn and destroy.’

“Inside the church he is ever laboring to sow heresies, to propagate errors, to foster departures from the faith. If he cannot prevent the waters flowing from the Fountain of Life, he tries hard to poison them. If he cannot destroy the medicine of the Gospel, he strives to adulterate and corrupt it.”

~ J.C. Ryle via J.C. Ryle Quotes

False doctrine is satan's currency.

God deals in truth.

Had a Vision of the Massive Holiness And Righteousness and Wisdom of God?

Let no one deceive himself. 

If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, 

let him become a fool that he may become wise. 

~1 Corinthians 3:18

Dan Phillips writes on the Pyromaniacs blog:

The Christian position is radically different, by definition. It is a chastened epistemology specifically in that it is the way a man will think when God has broken his pride through conviction of sin, through a vision of the massive holiness and rightness and wisdom of God, over against the pervasive moral, spiritual, and noetic effects of human sin. It is the thinking of a man who has come to see that Jesus is Lord, and he isn't; who has come to the cross for life and light and wisdom; who has yoked himself to Jesus and confessed, "I can't see anything rightly unless I see it as You see it, which I learn from Your Word alone."

Soaking in the Sun

Psalm 22

via challies.com

True Christianity

Fight the good fight of the faith. 

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called 

and about which you made the good confession 

in the presence of many witnesses. 

~ 1 Timothy 6:12

There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. Of spiritual strife, warring, some know literally nothing at all. Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded, and His Apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is a fight.

~J.C. Ryle (Holiness, 52)