Donald Sterling and Selective Outrage

Racism is sin. It is a denial of the dignity of all peoples as image-bearers of God. Racism is antithetical to the character of God, to the gospel, and to the mission of the church which anticipates the day when men and women from every nation and race will gather before the throne of the Lamb. On this, there should be no waffling among Christians but only clarity. Racism is an ugly remnant of the fall and should be treated as such.

Racism is front and center in the American consciousness once again thanks to one Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers whose racially insensitive words were secretly recorded by his girlfriend. The outrage was swift and strong. He was banned from basketball, for life. He will be forced to sell his team. He will never again be able to show his face in public without hearing the jeers of others (and perhaps worse). One member of Congress called Sterling's words, "the most intolerant thing" he had "ever heard." There are some Christians in Syria I'd like him to meet, but that is another topic. The fact is, more Americans know the name Donald Sterling than they do the names of the four Americans murdered in Benghazi. I have not yet heard a call to have Sterling drawn and quartered, but there is still time.

As others have pointed  out, Donald Sterling's racism is not a new revelation. He has a history of bad behavior in this area much worse than private conversations with his girlfriend. It has been overlooked however for his willingness to give large sums of money to the groups able to provide absolution.

This morning in my car the familiar voice of Tom Brokaw took to the air to denounce Sterling as a "jerk." Not the most imaginative descriptor to come from the lips of a veteran news anchor but true nonetheless. He also encouraged parents to "place Sterling on the dinner table" so as to discuss his wrongdoing with their children. Fair enough. Dinner time is a great place for catechesis. It would also be a great opportunity for parents to instruct their children about the destructive sin of adultery. Of course, Brokaw and, as far as I know, none of the other pundits have yet to even raise an eyebrow at the fact that Sterling is an adulterer.

And herein is my problem with the public outrage over Donald Sterling's sin of racism. It is highly selective outrage. Adultery? No problem. Who doesn't have a few girlfriends on the side? But racism? Why, I never! Suddenly, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a fierce display of public piety has risen among celebrities, politicians, and various other public figures the likes of which we rarely witness. It's quite blinding really. In this one narrow instance, right is right and wrong is wrong. In this one particular moment, sin has made a comeback. And now the wrong must be punished ruthlessly. The racism, that is. Not the adultery. That part's fine.

Donald Sterling is a married man who makes no effort to hide his vastly younger girlfriend. So sure is Sterling of the rightness of adultery that he has no fear of deportation to the Isle of Sinners. And Sterling's critics seem to agree. After all, I'm sure they do not want to judge. "Judge not, lest you be judged," and all that. And yet the judgment upon Sterling has been swift and merciless. He is a moral leper who must be put away lest we behold his hideous condition and thus be corrupted ourselves.

On what basis does a society which winks at adultery and dishonesty and gives whole-hearted approval to homosexuality and abortion now make moral judgments? Particularly odd is the fact that, in Sterling's case, the sin committed was an attitude given voice in a private conversation. It's a sin to be sure (see the first paragraph). I'm just not sure why Sterling's attitudes about Magic Johnson is worse than his public adultery. Certainly it's not because some sins are more popular than others. It couldn't be that.

If you choose to talk to your children about Donald Sterling and the sin of racism (which is a good idea) do not neglect to talk to them also about the sin of adultery. Tell them about broken families and abandoned spouses. Tell them about terrified and angry children. Tell them about the power of promises and the blessings of purity. Tell them about a God who hates divorce but hates adultery even more (Matt 5:32; 19:9). Teach them to honor the promises they may one day make as their lives are joined till death to another. Point out that the bond of marriage is much like the bond between Christ and his church, his beloved bride. Tell them that one day they will likely marry and that marriage will, like all the others, be intended to give witness to the sacrificial love of Jesus. Be sure they know that the sacrifice made near a garbage heap outside Jerusalem was sufficient to cleanse all sinners be they racists or adulterers or hypocrites.

Take heed lest you fall

Sad news has come from Vision Forum in recent days. But, as David Murray points out, the resignation of Doug Phillips carries with it a sobering lesson for all of us.

The Pastor As Chief Sinner

I have been thinking lately about how difficult it must be to serve actively in a church as a layperson. It isn’t the demand on one’s time that is the hardest thing but the more challenging demand on one’s heart. To serve a local body of believers is to inevitably be exposed to both the best and the worst in others. The layperson actively involved in ministry to the Body of Christ will see extraordinary acts of kindness and even self-sacrifice. But often, perhaps more often, what is observed is pettiness, gossip, and appalling acts of selfishness. Adding insult to injury the layperson soon realizes that their pastors are sinners as well.

Of course everyone knows that pastors are sinners. What is difficult, however, is to actually see the sins of your own pastor on full display. Perhaps he is jealous or insecure. Maybe he struggles with anger, pride, depression, or a critical spirit. Seeing these things in one’s pastor can be a heavy burden to bear. As a pastor I know what it is to disappoint people that I care about. I know what it is to go home feeling miserable because some of the ugliness in my heart escaped in the site of people I am called to shepherd. In those times I say with Paul, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15).

This is not false humility on the part of the apostle. Neither are we to surmise that Paul committed more heinous sins than anyone who ever walked the face of the earth. I am pretty sure that the point Paul is making is that he is the worst sinner he knows. This displays the default position that all Christians should embrace: “Knowing the condition of my heart in a way that I cannot know yours, I can only safely conclude that I am in worse shape than you.” This doesn’t mean we turn a blind eye to our brother’s sin. Indeed, we are to hold each other accountable in a loving, but if necessary, firm way. However, the wickedness in my own heart ought to always be a greater source of concern to me than the wickedness present in anyone else.

So, I am a sinful pastor. I sometimes wear my sins and flaws on my sleeve for all to see. Very often, perhaps more often than not, I fail to live up to my confession. As far as I know, my heart is in worse condition than that of any of my brothers and sisters. So I will endeavor to take my own sin more seriously than yours. I will try to be more offended by my own sin than by yours. I will, by God’s grace, always be ready to receive the loving correction of my fellows in Christ. This, I believe will guard me from the pessimism and cynicism that so easily accompany service to the church.

Sermon Audio - Savior of Lost Causes (1 Timothy 1:12-17)

All sins are not created equal

Growing up in American evangelicalism I know a thing or two about sentimentality. Statements like, "God loves everyone the same" and "God's love is unconditional" are just a part of the landscape. Another one of those phrases was something along the lines of "All sins are equal" or "No sin is worse than any other." In one respect that is true enough I suppose. After all, our sins are all a product of the corruption and deceitfulness of our hearts. Our sins without exception are expressions of the sinfulness which condemns us before a holy God.

However, there is a sense in which all sins are clearly not equal. And by "not equal" I mean that not all sins are as readily forgivable within the body of Christ. Forgiveness does not mean, nor should it mean immediate or easy restoration. For example, ask the average wife which of her husband's sins would be easier to forgive: harboring lust in his heart once or committing adultery once. I dare say the results would be overwhelmingly one-sided.

Carl Trueman, in a helpful article for Ref21 suggests that to deny sentimental ideas about forgiveness and restoration remain the one great heresy in the evangelical church.

Trueman writes:

I might speak disrespectfully to my wife at some point, and that is unacceptable; but if I do it repeatedly as a means of belittling her, or if I strike her with my hand, then a fundamental bond has been broken. Further, in the case of illicit sex, one who has joined his body to that of another who is not his wife has committed a sin of special heinousness; and that has permanent consequences, both in the marriage and the church. The sin does not put the person beyond the range of the forgiveness of God, but it disqualifies him from ever again meeting the criteria Paul sets forth for office-bearing in the church. I may be forgiven; but I will always be the man who beat his wife or cheated on her. My relationship with my wife is permanently changed; and my public reputation is permanently damaged.

That was essentially what underlay my criticism of the sudden reappearance of Haggard as a pastor -- and that not even as Pastor Nobody, quietly working away in Nowhereville, but as Pastor T.V. Celeb of the Parish of Satellite Channel. A simple, non-controversial point, I assumed; though apparently somewhat offensive and unbiblical in the context of a culture where the Great Heresy is to claim that forgiveness does not mean a limitless number of second chances at anything, as if the past had simply never happened.

Still, I want to suggest that the Great Heresy has more significance than simply ruling out of office certain men because of certain post-conversion actions. We might hate to acknowledge it, but Christian forgiveness should never be confused with the possibility of second chances. Forgiveness with God is absolute, and no matter how heinous the crime, God's grace is never withheld from those who look to him for mercy. Yet actions here on earth always have consequences. We do people no favours by pretending otherwise. The gospel is not about how you can beat your wife to a pulp on Tuesday and make love to her on Wednesday as if nothing had happened. That is teaching of a kind which is so ruthlessly propagated in a myriad of sitcoms and movies. In these, casual violence and illicit sex never seem to have any real or lasting impact on anybody, as if they were as inconsequential as one's choice of breakfast cereal or brand of coffee. On the contrary: God may forgive; but we must understand that part of the inherent tragedy of the fallen human condition is that we still live with the consequences of our sin.

Trueman also points out the important pastoral and theological implications of a proper understanding of sin and forgiveness.

It is vital that the gospel is not confused with sentimental second chances. This is important, both pastorally and theologically. Pastorally, it should make us compassionate towards those who struggle with the hangover of previous actions. It allows us to understand why the Christian who lived a homosexual lifestyle before conversion may continue to wrestle with such tendencies till the day he dies. Grace is not a wiping of the slate in the sense that one return to the start and begins all over again with a blank sheet. Rather, it is divine forgiveness despite who we have been and what we still are. That is very good news. Think of the church in Corinth, a small gathering of people, many of whom had probably worked in the sex trade. The amazing thing there was not that the church was being torn apart by immorality - that is what one would expect from a group of people wrestling with their past; rather, it was the fact that there was any church there in the first place.

On the other side of the balance sheet, however, this should lead us to have a high view of Christian behaviour. We must not confuse forgiveness with the idea of the past simply disappearing as if it had never happened. The gospel is not a magic bullet which continually returns us to Year Zero in every aspect of our lives. If I beat my wife, I am a wife beater, and there will be consequences. If, as a Christian, I beat my wife, I am a Christian wife beater and to be subject to the appropriate discipline and exclusions that apply. Sorry is not a magic formula which wipes the slate clean in every sense, and neither is God's grace. There is a difference between, on the one hand, forgiveness and restoration to fellowship, and, on the other, going back to the way things were. Some actions so fundamentally change relationships, reputations, and even personalities that there is no going back. We lie to our people if we tell them otherwise.

Theologically, the insidious sentimentality of the gospel-as-limitless-second-chances brigade is also subversive of a biblical understanding of exactly who God is and what salvation looks like. Remember: as Christ was hanging from the cross, the Disney redemptionists, the pragmatists, and the sentimental were out in force. Indeed, the religious leaders, the soldiers, and the first thief all called out to Christ and told him that, if he was truly king and messiah, he should immediately come down from the cross. They could only conceive of a gospel that simply wiped the slate clean and that ignored the consequences of human actions. Only the second thief understood the real point of what was happening that day: he saw clearly that Christ's kingdom was not be inaugurated in glorious and stubborn defiance of death, but rather by going through death and utterly subverting its power. Interestingly enough, he also rebuked his dying colleague, pointing out that, yes, he did deserve to die; that, humanly speaking, there was to be no second chance for him; and that this was only right and just. [emphasis mine]

Read the entire article HERE.

"Well Acts" and the Loss of Sin

Much armchair and professional psychoanalyzing has gone on about the Major Hasan's murderous rampage at Fort Hood. What seems to be lost in the hunt for a motive is the reality of human sin fueled by a wicked ideology.

Al Mohler writes:

Any civilization requires a stable, rational, and consensual moral framework in order to survive. Western civilization has been built on a framework of Christian morality, with the so-called "Judeo-Christian ethic" providing the moral principles that support laws, ethical reasoning, and moral impulses.

Over the past several decades, that framework has been under sustained attack by ideological opponents, subverted by a secular shift among the elites, and increasingly forgotten by the masses. In its place, the moral reasoning mustered by many Americans amounts to a mixture of moral intuitions, ideological threads, and cultural assumptions. In the main, these all add up to what Philip Rieff called the "triumph of the therapeutic." When morality collapses, all that remains is therapy.

This has been brought to our attention in the aftermath of the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, arrested for the shootings that killed 13 and wounded scores of others, is now known to have yelled "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as he was shooting, to have links to Islamic extremists in Yemen, and to have visited a mosque frequented by the September 11, 2001 terrorists. More details of his background and motivation have been revealed over the last few days. There is ample evidence that Major Hasan, a physician and psychiatrist, provided much evidence of his motivation.

The role his Muslim faith played in the shootings will require more time to unpack. There will be plenty of time for that consideration as his trial is conducted. In the meantime, we should note the extent to which some observers are doing their best to absolve Major Hasan, whatever the deepest sources of his motivation, of moral responsibility for the massacre.

Read the entire article HERE.

I am my biggest problem

From Paul Tripp:

I must face the fact that my greatest need is not environmental. My greatest need does not derive from the fact that the brokenness of the Fall fractures every situation, every relationship, and every context. Yes, all my relationships are flawed in some way. And no, the world around me does not operate as God intended. But this environmental brokenness is not my greatest, deepest, most abiding problem. No matter what I face in this fallen world, my greatest problem in life exist inside of me and not outside of me. Sure, I want to think that it is…

My spouse

My children

My neighbors

My extended family

My history

My church

My job

My friends

My boss

My community

My finances

The government

The traffic

The Internet

Society in general

And the list could go on and on.

But the Bible tells me something very different. Even though my environment has been broken by sin, my biggest problem is moral. There is something wrong inside of me, and in one way or another it influences everything I desire, think, choose, say, and do.

Reminder: Paul Tripp will be at Church of the Saviour January 10-12.

I am my biggest marriage problem

Not Home Yet

I have been reflecting a lot the last few days about the painful reality of being a sinful man living among other sinners. The weight of our collective fallenness often seems too hard to bear. When I am hurt or sinned against it is not long until I realize my own culpability in the events that caused my pain. It is an intricate web woven by my own sinful desires and motives. Calvin observed that the heart is a labyrinth. It is very difficult to sort out. We don't even understand ourselves.

One of the afflictions I see in my heart is the desire to be in control; to be sovereign. When things don't go my way then I fight hard to gain control. My style is often passive aggressive. But of course the notion of truly being in control is nothing more than an illusion and the desire to be in control nothing less than idolatry.

Through it all I am reminded once again that I am not home yet. I am still living east of Eden. As a result I will continue to disappoint be disappointed. I will continue to offend and be offended. But hope is not lost. In fact Christians are unapologetically future oriented. Hope, for us, is like air. We can't live without it and God does not intend for us to live without it.

I have been helped by the writing ministry of Paul Tripp. It's not that Tripp has stumbled upon brand new truth. He is refreshingly un-trendy. Tripp does what all good Bible teachers do. He takes the Scriptures and like a mirror holds them up in a way that helps me see my heart. Specifically Tripp takes me time and again back to the centrality of the Gospel as God's great means of transformation.

I was challenged this morning as I continued reading in his new book Broken-Down House. In particular I was confronted with my idolatry of control.

"[When] we encounter an area that we cannot control, we tend to see it as out of control! We need to understand that God's sense of order is very different from ours. What looks like utter confusion to us is actually a discrete piece of divine planning, every time. But in the finiteness of our understanding, wisdom, and experience, it is often hard to see the order...

When you question or lose sight of the good and perfect rule of the Lord, you can end up fearing the power of another. Whether a malevolent hidden terrorist, a very real and immoral relative, or a pure figment of your imagination, you will perceive someone as having character and intentions that tempt you to anxiety...

Only when you are comforted by the fact that God's ultimate, comprehensive, flawless, holy authority, can you stop being afraid of human authority. When you truly know that the 'king's heart is in the hand of the Lord' (Prov. 21:1), you can be freed from the anxiety of flawed human rule...

We simply need to accept that the reasons God does what He does in our lives, or how our life fits into the whole of his grand redemptive plan, will never be completely clear in this life. This is why real rest and peace is not found in knowing and understanding. It is only found in trust. Only when you have a quiet confidence in the Lord behind the plan and have come to know his love, wisdom, power, and grace, will you be able to rest in hope - even when you do not understand what God is doing in a particular moment in your life. This is exactly the experience expressed in Psalm 33:2021, 'We wait in hope for the Lord; his our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name.'

My own corruption and my only Hope

Let our hearts admit, "I am poor and weak. Satan is too subtle, too cunning, too powerful; he watches constantly for advantages over my soul. The world presses in upon me with all sorts of pressures, pleas, and pretences. My own corruption is violent, tumultuous, enticing, and entangling. As it conceives sin, it wars within me and against me. Occasions and opportunities for temptation are innumerable. No wonder I do not know how deeply involved I have been with sin. Therefore, on God alone will I rely for my keeping. I will continually look to Him...

If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession: "God, preserve my soul, and keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled." When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain free while others lie in bondage.

- John Owen

The Deceitfulness of Sin

"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

- Hebrews 3:12-13

It is rightly called the deceitfulness of sin because it deceives under the appearance of the good. This phrase "the deceitfulness of sin" ought to be understood in a much wider sense, so that the term includes even one's own righteousness and wisdom. For more than anything else one's own righteousness and wisdom deceive one one and work against faith in Christ, since we love the flesh and the sensations of the flesh and also riches and possessions, but we love nothing more ardently than our own feelings, judgment, purpose, and will, especially when they seem to be good. For the same reason Christ said, when he healed the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda, that it was impossible for such people to be able to believe: "How can you believe who receive glory from one another?" (John 5:44). Why are they not able to believe? Because the "deceitfulness of sin," that is, the love of their own righteousness, blinds them and hardens their heart. Yet at the same time they think it a good thing to glory in their own righteousness and be pleased with it, though that indeed is the very worst of all vices, the extreme antithesis of faith. Faith rejoices and glories in the righteousness of God alone, that is, in Christ himself.
- Martin Luther

I can relate disturbingly well with what Luther writes. As much as I don't like to think of myself in these terms, there is too much of the Pharisee in me. It is often times subtle. But pride in good behavior is an ugly thing. As much as my theology tells me the opposite and as much as I resist it I still see the snake of self-righteousness slither into my heart and mind. It's not that we should be uninterested in works of righteousness. Quite the opposite. Our lives ought to abound in good works. The problem however, at least in my own heart, is that those works can easily become an occasion for boasting. And by boasting I do not mean open braggadocio. The boasting takes the form of a kind of faith; faith that I am okay with God because of my good behavior; faith that so long as I am more well behaved than others then I am doing well.

To the untrained mind that may not sound nearly as bad as certain other sins. But to the God who sent His Son to be my subsitute; to cover my sinfulness with His righteousness, it is a particularly noxious kind of wickedness for it tramples on the very grace by which I am saved.

"Wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

- Romans 7:24-25a

I Still Need the Gospel

There is not a day that goes by that I do not need the Gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ. My daily failures confirm that reality all the more. I fail by doing and saying (and writing) things that I should not. What is more, I fail by NOT doing and saying (and writing) things that I should. At first I usually think that a little more discipline will fix the problem. And then I realize once again that my sins are too numerous and deep to fully address through my own efforts. What is more, it is not long before my heart begins to boast in the very efforts and disciplines I rely upon to mortify my sin. Pretty twisted huh?

As I think on this reality I come right up to the edge of despair until God brings me back to the Lord Jesus on the cross. It is His merit, His work, and His sacrifice that deal the death blow to my sin and guilt. I hear the words, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1) and realize that my sanctification depends as wholly upon God's grace as did my justification.

My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought

My sin, not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord oh my soul!

"O wretched man that I am!"

It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God's Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, "Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God's mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?" Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to His likeness. Endeavour to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which He constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did—"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death"? Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"? If we thus read God's Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, "Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be 'found wanting,' when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment." "Judge yourselves that ye be not judged."

- Charles Spurgeon from this morning's entry in Morning and Evening

I don't mean to sound morbid but the longer I serve in pastoral ministry the more necessary I find it to expose the ugliness of my own sin. It's too easy for me to be proud. I am blessed by many kind friends who say many kind things to me. That is a blessing that goes beyond my ability to offer adequate gratitude. But I know the deceitfulness of my own heart. I know my tendency to take good gifts from God and use them as an occasion for sin.

Thank God for his grace whereby He continually tethers my wandering heart to Himself. If it were not for this I would surely be lost. It is not a stretch for me to confess of myself: "the chief of sinners." Truly I am the worst sinner I know. Not because my crimes would be deemed most foul by the state but because the duplicity in my own heart reveals not only my appetite for sin but my ability to rationalize it.

One of the challenges I am presenting myself is to always take my own sin more seriously than I take the sin of anyone else; to consider my sin worse; to be offended more by sin than that of anyone else.

If this all sounds depressing please understand that there is something deeply liberating about honesty with oneself. It is a relief to name what those who know me best see in me. It keeps me dependent upon daily mercies and makes me thankful for grace received.

Dumbing Down Sin

Spencer Burke, author of the aptly titled "A Heretic's Guide to Eternity" writes in characteristic post-modern fashion:

"Although the link between grace and sin has driven Christianity for centuries, it just doesn’t resonate in our culture anymore. It repulses rather than attracts. People are becoming much less inclined to acknowledge themselves as ‘sinners in need of a Savior.’ It’s not that people view themselves as perfect; it’s that the language they use to describe themselves has changed. “Broken,” “fragmented,” and “lacking wholeness”—these are some of the new ways people describe their spiritual need. What resonates is a sense of disconnection."

Burke is not interested in what is true or biblical but in what "attracts" or "resonate[s] in our culture." In this way the typical pomo/emergent types are no different from the mega-church marketers that they criticize.

Notice the difference between Burke and his pomo/emergent fellows and the words of J. Gresham Machen, the great champion of evangelicalism in the early 20th century:
“If sin is so trifling a matter as the liberal Church supposes, then indeed the curse of God’s law can be taken very lightly, and God can easily let by-gones be by-gones.” But “If a man has once come under a true conviction of sin, he will have little difficulty with the doctrine of the Cross.”

Man's Inability

The great Puritan Thomas Boston on the doctrine of man's inability. This is worth reading.

Our Modern Aversion to "Sin"

USA Today on whether or not we have lost the notion of sin.

Noah for Grown-ups

This morning I preached from Genesis 6:9-22. It is the opening of the flood narrative. I prefer “flood narrative” to “Noah and the Ark” because the later has taken on the aura of a children’s fable. It has become the stuff of sappy movies and wallpaper borders. The church has taken a largely Mother Goose approach to the story of the flood conjuring images of cute polar bears boarding the ark. The fact is, however, that the story of Noah and the ark is one of the most terrifying in Scripture. It is the most extreme outpouring of God’s wrath upon the earth in human history. It may well remain so until the final judgment. Far from being a cuddly tale it is a sobering account of God’s awful justice.

I am struck by the description of the world in verse 11. It says that the world was full of corruption and violence. Corruption can be a pretty broad description of a culture in decay, particularly moral decay. Violence, however, is something with which we are all too familiar. We live in the most violent nation in the western world. We are the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet. We are also knee deep in blood. In Wichita we tolerate a notorious late term abortionist who celebrates the yearly anniversary of Roe vs. Wade by providing free abortions. This man plies his bloody trade under the protection of the same government that would close him down if he were killing kittens.

When I think about examples like the one above I cannot help but recall what Paul writes in Romans chapter one. He describes the unregenerate and their natural downward trajectory. It begins with the distortion of truth and ends with extremes of sexual degradation. These are the signs of a people that have been given over by God to their basest desires. This “giving over” is the sure sign of God’s judgment.

In his book Losing Our Virtue theologian David Wells quotes research from a fascinating study called The Day America Told the Truth. Wells writes:
“Americans stand alone in a way unknown to any previous generation. They are alone, not least because they are without any objective moral compass. ‘The religious figures and Scriptures that gave us rules for so many centuries, the political system which gave us laws, all have lost their meaning in our moral imagination.’ While the great majority of Americans believe that they actually keep the 10 Commandments, only 13% think that each of these commandments has moral validity. It is no surprise to learn that 74% said they will steal without compunction; 64% say they will lie if there is an advantage to be had in doing so; 53% say that given a chance they will commit adultery…What may be the clearest indication of the disappearance of a moral texture to society is the loss of guilt and embarrassment over moral lapses…Only 17% define sin as a violation of God’s will” (pp. 58-59).

Will we have "free will" in heaven?

I have often heard it said that God never violates man's free will. I'm not sure how that statement is squared with Scripture. These words from Jonathan Edwards help to shed light on that idea (http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/970_does_heaven_destroy_liberty/).

God Saves Sinners

More good stuff from John Ensor in “The Great Work of the Gospel”:

“Both the Pharisees and Jesus use the word “sinner,” but in slightly different ways. The use in either case is jarring to the modern ear, so highly trained are we never to think negatively of ourselves. Hopefully we are past that obstacle by now. Not only are we not offended by it, we are glad to number ourselves among the sinners. It means that Jesus has us in view in the rescuing work that he came to do. When he says he did not come to call the righteous, he means that he did not come to bring the self righteous into the grace and mercy of God. They admit to no wrongdoing that needs the cure of mercy. And when he says that he came to call sinners, he means he came to deliver self-confessing sinners in to the grace of God…

“Jesus is called Savior because ‘he will save his people from their sins’ (Matt 1:21). Jesus is our great Rescuer because he rescues us from the penalty of our sins and from the enslaving power of sin. What a cruel joke it would be for God to forgive sinners and leave them habitually sinning. Blaise Pascal wrote in his famous Pensees, ‘It is unworthy of God to unite himself to wretched man, yet it is not unworthy of God to lift man up out of his wretchedness.’ This is what Jesus does as our Rescuer. Jesus ‘saved us and called us to a holy calling’ (2 Timothy 1:9). To get a true and accurate vision of Christ as our Rescuer, we must see that he rescues us from the heartfelt desire to habitually sin.”

The Great Work Desired

If you do not attend Metro East Baptist I would encourage you to read John Ensor’s book The Great Work of the Gospel with us. If you are reading along I trust that you have made your way to the second chapter.

Our joy in the Gospel is directly proportional to our understanding of sin. In other words, how can we rightly revel in Christ’s redeeming work on the cross if we don’t think our sin was that big of a deal? In this, many contemporary evangelicals have not been well instructed. I have found not a few Christians who do not even know that outside of Christ we were enemies of God (Colossians 1:21). One brother told me not long ago, “I know we’re sinners but we were never God’s enemies.” Sadly, he is not alone in his assessment. People who think our situation outside of Christ was bad but not that bad will never rightly understand the cross. They will never fully appreciate salvation. They are like ones who have been raised from the dead but believe they were only cured of a bad flu. They are thankful to be sure but not enough to reorient their lives around this profound reality.

Ensor writes about as well as anyone on the subject of forgiveness. One of the reasons his writing on this subject is so affecting is because he spends ample time explaining from the Scriptures the tragic reality that necessitated our need for forgiveness. He writes, “So the prerequisite work of God in grace is an examination of guilt. God, the surgeon of our souls, cuts deep into our natural pride to convict us of the reality of our guilt. The desirability of God’s forgiveness can grow only as the deniability of our own sinfulness shrinks.”

But fallen humanity will always resist a full and accurate acknowledgement of sin. We are dodgers and twisters. We take what may be known about God and ourselves and distort the truth according to our own sinful lusts (Rom. 1). Confession of sin has fallen from David’s “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…” to “I’m not perfect. I’m only human.”

Ensor writes, “Even when we feel guilty, we do not believe it is because we are guilty.” He places much of the blame, and justifiably so, on humanistic trends in counseling and psychotherapy:
“The solution, many suggest, is to treat guilt as a psychological condition. We look to therapists to sift through our memories until they find the clinker that set off our guilt, so we can remove it. We achieve success when we hear, ‘Really, there is not justifiable reason for you to feel guilty – it’s not your fault.’ Plenty of books will tell us this, as will religious swamis. People spend thousands of dollars to confirm that the origin of their guilt is found in what somebody else did to hurt them” (p. 33).

Don’t misunderstand. There are godly men and women who labor at the art of biblical counseling. These are people who have worked hard at learning how to get under the layers of troubled hearts in order to get them to the wholeness that is discovered in Christ. But every good biblical counselor knows what anyone familiar with the Scriptures knows: that men and women outside of Christ cannot be relieved of their guilty conscience until they come to Christ and taste of His full forgiveness.

Interestingly, I have encountered many professing Christians who struggle with debilitating feelings of guilt and condemnation. Sometimes it is the result of an unhealthy preoccupation with self. Other times there is abuse in the past that left them so scared that feelings of condemnation overwhelm them. But for many others, their source of guilt feelings spring from the fact that they have never truly reckoned with the nature of their sin. They may have “prayed the prayer” when they were a child but they never understood their need for forgiveness. Now as adults they are burdened with a guilty conscience and all that the therapeutically minded church can do is teach them a baptized version of “I’m Okay. You’re Okay.”

These therapeutic approaches are offered in an effort to help. But the person with a guilty conscience will not be helped until him realize that his sin is worse than they can imagine. This seems counter-intuitive, even cruel in an age of “feel good” spirituality. But only after an honest confession of sin which is often preceded by mourning can there be a proper appreciation for the fact that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Forgiven!

Worthy thoughts from the venerable 19th century Anglican - J.C. Ryle.


“I find no balm for a sore conscience, and a troubled heart, like the sight of Jesus dying for me on the accursed tree.
There I see that a full payment has been made for all my enormous debts. The curse of that law which I have broken has come down on One who there suffered in my stead. The demands of that law are all satisfied. Payment has been made for me, even to the uttermost farthing. It will not be required twice over.
Ah! I might sometimes imagine I was too bad to be forgiven. My own heart sometimes whispers that I am too wicked to be saved. But I know in my better moments this is all my foolish unbelief. I read an answer to my doubts in the blood shed on Calvary. I feel sure that there is a way to heaven for the very vilest of men, when I look at the cross.”

- J.C. Ryle