John MacArthur is a great man, but he needs to simmer down a tad.
Instead of pulling out-of-context quotes, start at the beginning of the book: It’s not about you.
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness, It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know what you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God . You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point – ourselves. We ask self-centered questions life: What do I want to do with my life? What are my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures, everyone’s life is in his power.”
You were made by God and for God – and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. … You were made for God, not vice verse, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.
Andre Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under and atheistic Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating this in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro, and walked into God’s light.” - The Purpose Driven Life, pp 17, 18, 21
OK, it’s true; the word “repent” doesn’t appear there. Nor does it appear here:
True worship … happens when you give yourself completely to God … God wants your life -- all of it. (p. 78)
But then, the word “repent” does not appear in the call of Simon Peter, Andrew and Zebedee (Mk 1:14-20), or Levi (Mk 2:13-14), or Philip and Nathaniel (Jn 1:43-50). It doesn’t appear when he evangelized Nicodemus (John 3:1-21).
When we speak to others of Christ and invite them into a life centered on Him, we need to do as Jesus did with Peter, Andrew and Zebedee, and invite them simply to drop the things they hold on to for their security, and follow Him, alone.
Or, we need to speak to them as Jesus did to Philip, and simply say, “Come and see!” That’s what Andrew did for Nathaniel.
Or, we must do what Jesus did for Nicodemus, and speak of inner, compete change, but concentrate on raising up Christ that He may draw them to Himself (v. 14-15). We need to not condemn (v. 17), but shed the light of Christ that either overcomes the darkness as people let it in, or reveals the sin when they reinforce the walls that keep it out.
The problem is not that we speak too little of sin, but that we make following Him a part-time, all-about-me, when-it’s-convenient hobby. Or we invite people to come and see, but what they see is our performances, not our passion for God’s wonder and beauty. Or we hold up the Devil so we can shoot him down, rather than hold up Jesus who has already, and will continue to, shoot him down for us. Rather than concentrate on the light, we concentrate on the darkness. We give the Devil too much press in an effort to balance those who give him too little.
Sure, we need to speak of sin. But we need to pay attention to the way Jesus spoke of sin, and the times when he didn’t. It seems that, to Him, it was more important to talk about surrender than it was to talk about sin. He spoke more about the goodness of the Kingdom than the evil of the world.
Yes, we need to speak of sin, but we must not make ourselves parodies by standing on the street corner, pointing our boney fingers, and yelling, “SINNUH!! Thou shalt repent, or die!”
Rather, let’s echo Jesus,: “Come to me.” And let’s teach what it really means to come. And what it really means to come to Jesus.
I invite the reader to visit my new blog, www.soledelight.blogspot.com, or follow this link to The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, a sermon by Thomas Chalmers, which explains this concept better than I can.
I wanted to send you a video that Rick Warren did when he was on "comedy Central" I don't want to read anything by someone who is on comedy central defaming our God and great Savior Jesus Christ....
Jesus said in Matthew 4:17 "Repent" He told the apostles in Luke 24:47 told them to preach repentance. We have to take scripture into context...if Jesus told the apostles to preach repentance, they had to repent to be His disciples. Without repentance, there is no salvation. Repentance and faith...that's it. And about not wanting to condemn sinners, God the Father condemned His own Son for my sins, but we shouldn't tell sinners of their condemation and guilt before a Holy God? We are all guilty before God and unless we repent, we will not see the kingdom of God. Jesus Himself said in Luke 13:3 'unless you repent you will all likewise perish"....We must use the law of God and show God's holiness so that we will be crushed just like Isaiah was when he saw himself before God's holiness..."Unclean! Undone!" Before anyone can be saved, they must realize they're lost. I do believe in gentleness and love, but I do believe in truth as well. What should the judge do to a guilty criminal who has just murdered your family? Should he say, "Well, I'm full of love today...I forgive you...you may go." We're guilty before a Holy God. We have transgressed His law. He is holy and we're not. We're undone without Him. He does say Come to Him and I'm so thankful for that, but unless we repent, we'll perish. John the Baptist told them in John 3:36, if you don't believe, the wrath of God abides on you....sounds condemning to me. Condemnation is good, it leads to contrition and repentance and being poor in spirit....God is an angry God and He is a loving God. He's both. Read Psalm 5:5 and Psalm 7:11...He's angry with the wicked everyday...God is a God of love and a God of wrath. How does that work? God looks down on the evil of men and He is angered with a righteous anger, and ready to pour forth His wrath, justice and condemnation but the love of God restrains and holds back the justice of God. Love restrains. He’s both. That’s the thing that makes His love so amazing, that His wrath does burn against impenitent sinners. It is only against the backdrop of divine wrath that the full significance of God’s love can be truly understood. Only those who see themselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God can fully appreciate the magnitude and wonder of His love...
Well, this is a bit late in coming. But I guess that's better than never.
I think you need to make up your mind. Do we need to repent first, after which Christ will accept us? That is, is repentance the PREREQUISITE for salvation?
Or, do we come to Christ because we find Him infinitely more lovely than the world (materialism), the flesh (including our own breath) and the Devil (all of sin), and being found in Him, are declared righteous and empowered by Him to turn from sin? In other words, is repentance the RESULT and sign of saving faith?
Ultimately, is ours a gospel of works, or a Gospel of Grace?
This is absolutely critical, and I can't believe it has take me 16 months to ask it.
Our Salvation is not so easy that a caveman can do it. Our salvation is so difficult that only God can do it! Paul Washer
Does this world satisfy thee? Then thou has thou reward and portion in this life. Make much of it, for thou shalt know no other joy. Martin Luther
"Lord I submit to my sentence, and if you bid me to be punished, I can't complain because I deserve it, but for Christ's sake, for His blood's sake, have mercy upon me." Charles Spurgeon
"The first step towards being really good, is to feel bad. The first preparation for heaven, is to know that we deserve nothing but hell. Before we can be counted righteous we must know ourselves to be miserable sinners. Before we can have inward happiness and peace with God, we must learn to be ashamed and confounded because of our manifold transgressions. Before we can rejoice in a well-grounded hope, we must be taught to say, “Unclean! unclean! God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Charles Spurgeon
I don’t care how strong your religion is, or how strong your church life is, I don’t care how strong your morality is. On that day of judgment God will tear it down and it will wilt. Whenever humans declare themselves to be righteous they are doing it by contrasting themselves with other humans who are worse. And you can get away with that, but when your righteousness is contrasted with the righteousness of God there is nothing but to throw yourself down and declare your morality to be dung. Paul Washer
3 comments:
John MacArthur is a great man, but he needs to simmer down a tad.
Instead of pulling out-of-context quotes, start at the beginning of the book:
It’s not about you.
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness, It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know what you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God . You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.
The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point – ourselves. We ask self-centered questions life: What do I want to do with my life? What are my ambitions, my dreams for my future? But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures, everyone’s life is in his power.”
You were made by God and for God – and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. … You were made for God, not vice verse, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.
Andre Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under and atheistic Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating this in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro, and walked into God’s light.”
- The Purpose Driven Life, pp 17, 18, 21
OK, it’s true; the word “repent” doesn’t appear there. Nor does it appear here:
True worship … happens when you give yourself completely to God … God wants your life -- all of it. (p. 78)
But then, the word “repent” does not appear in the call of Simon Peter, Andrew and Zebedee (Mk 1:14-20), or Levi (Mk 2:13-14), or Philip and Nathaniel (Jn 1:43-50). It doesn’t appear when he evangelized Nicodemus (John 3:1-21).
When we speak to others of Christ and invite them into a life centered on Him, we need to do as Jesus did with Peter, Andrew and Zebedee, and invite them simply to drop the things they hold on to for their security, and follow Him, alone.
Or, we need to speak to them as Jesus did to Philip, and simply say, “Come and see!” That’s what Andrew did for Nathaniel.
Or, we must do what Jesus did for Nicodemus, and speak of inner, compete change, but concentrate on raising up Christ that He may draw them to Himself (v. 14-15). We need to not condemn (v. 17), but shed the light of Christ that either overcomes the darkness as people let it in, or reveals the sin when they reinforce the walls that keep it out.
The problem is not that we speak too little of sin, but that we make following Him a part-time, all-about-me, when-it’s-convenient hobby. Or we invite people to come and see, but what they see is our performances, not our passion for God’s wonder and beauty. Or we hold up the Devil so we can shoot him down, rather than hold up Jesus who has already, and will continue to, shoot him down for us. Rather than concentrate on the light, we concentrate on the darkness. We give the Devil too much press in an effort to balance those who give him too little.
Sure, we need to speak of sin. But we need to pay attention to the way Jesus spoke of sin, and the times when he didn’t. It seems that, to Him, it was more important to talk about surrender than it was to talk about sin. He spoke more about the goodness of the Kingdom than the evil of the world.
Yes, we need to speak of sin, but we must not make ourselves parodies by standing on the street corner, pointing our boney fingers, and yelling, “SINNUH!! Thou shalt repent, or die!”
Rather, let’s echo Jesus,: “Come to me.” And let’s teach what it really means to come. And what it really means to come to Jesus.
I invite the reader to visit my new blog, www.soledelight.blogspot.com, or follow this link to The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, a sermon by Thomas Chalmers, which explains this concept better than I can.
For our Sole Delight in God!
I wanted to send you a video that Rick Warren did when he was on "comedy Central" I don't want to read anything by someone who is on comedy central defaming our God and great Savior Jesus Christ....
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=148506
Jesus said in Matthew 4:17 "Repent"
He told the apostles in Luke 24:47 told them to preach repentance. We have to take scripture into context...if Jesus told the apostles to preach repentance, they had to repent to be His disciples. Without repentance, there is no salvation. Repentance and faith...that's it. And about not wanting to condemn sinners, God the Father condemned His own Son for my sins, but we shouldn't tell sinners of their condemation and guilt before a Holy God? We are all guilty before God and unless we repent, we will not see the kingdom of God. Jesus Himself said in Luke 13:3 'unless you repent you will all likewise perish"....We must use the law of God and show God's holiness so that we will be crushed just like Isaiah was when he saw himself before God's holiness..."Unclean! Undone!" Before anyone can be saved, they must realize they're lost. I do believe in gentleness and love, but I do believe in truth as well. What should the judge do to a guilty criminal who has just murdered your family? Should he say, "Well, I'm full of love today...I forgive you...you may go." We're guilty before a Holy God. We have transgressed His law. He is holy and we're not. We're undone without Him. He does say Come to Him and I'm so thankful for that, but unless we repent, we'll perish. John the Baptist told them in John 3:36, if you don't believe, the wrath of God abides on you....sounds condemning to me. Condemnation is good, it leads to contrition and repentance and being poor in spirit....God is an angry God and He is a loving God. He's both. Read Psalm 5:5 and Psalm 7:11...He's angry with the wicked everyday...God is a God of love and a God of wrath. How does that work? God looks down on the evil of men and He is angered with a righteous anger, and ready to pour forth His wrath, justice and condemnation but the love of God restrains and holds back the justice of God. Love restrains. He’s both. That’s the thing that makes His love so amazing, that His wrath does burn against impenitent sinners. It is only against the backdrop of divine wrath that the full significance of God’s love can be truly understood. Only those who see themselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God can fully appreciate the magnitude and wonder of His love...
Well, this is a bit late in coming. But I guess that's better than never.
I think you need to make up your mind. Do we need to repent first, after which Christ will accept us? That is, is repentance the PREREQUISITE for salvation?
Or, do we come to Christ because we find Him infinitely more lovely than the world (materialism), the flesh (including our own breath) and the Devil (all of sin), and being found in Him, are declared righteous and empowered by Him to turn from sin? In other words, is repentance the RESULT and sign of saving faith?
Ultimately, is ours a gospel of works, or a Gospel of Grace?
This is absolutely critical, and I can't believe it has take me 16 months to ask it.
Post a Comment