Thoughts on the nature of the Trinity...

"This I suppose to be the blessed Trinity that we read of in the Holy Scriptures.  The Father is the deity subsisting in the prime, unoriginated and most absolute manner, or the deity in its direct existence.  The Son is the deity generated by God's understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea.  The Holy Ghost is the deity subsisting in act, or the divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God's infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are properly distinct persons."  -- Jonathan Edwards in An Essay on the Trinity as quoted in Think by John Piper

What does God think of our "Good deeds"?

One argument we often hear when witnessing to unbelievers is that they are a "good person", so it would be unfair for God to condemn them to Hell.  Aside from the fact that they are purporting to be able to define their own standard of righteousness, we all are familiar either directly or indirectly, with the stories of people who are not saved, but who do really good things.  Some of these people give vast amounts of money to the poor and needy or give of their time etc.  Many times, they can appear even more compassionate and altruistic than most Christians.

So how do we explain why God would condemn the work of such people, their human righteousness, as filthy rags (Isa 64:6)?  These things are good, aren't they?  Why don't they please God?

The answer lies not in the act itself, but in the what the act accomplishes and the motive behind it.  It should be pretty obvious that if our motives are wrong before God (or people for that matter), then it makes the act sinful and brings 0 credit to our account.  So if, like the Pharisees in the Gospels, we give money to the poor so that we will be noticed doing so, we might receive the praise of men, but we obtain no credit from God, because our motives were selfish.

The harder answer to see is the one where the unbeliever truly has a heart to serve those in need and gives their life to that task, regardless of whether they are noticed or receive any recognition.  Why does this not please God?  God hates their "good" deeds and considers it sinful because every one of those deeds has the effect of reinforcing to that person that they do not need God, they can make it on their own.  Every one of those deeds is another iron bar on the cage around them that will prevent them from acknowledging God and their utter need for Him and is therefore sinful in itself.  That cage will ultimately drown them in the depths of Hell.

"The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins." - Eze 33:12

How do we show God's love to the world?

Thoughts after listening to John MacArthur speak on this topic.


The text is Luke 6:27-38.  We are told to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us.  This of course goes contrary to the way that the world thinks and behaves.  Verses 29 and 30 deal with humiliation (striking the cheek, a form of humiliation during unsynagoging), persecution (taking the cloak, a cruel thing to do in the cold Judean winters) and creating unfair obligations (loaning to someone so that you can hold it over them and force them to do you a favor later).


This then is summarized in verse 31, "as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."  Many other religions teach what sounds like a form of the Golden rule.  However, it is always taught in the negative, such as "Don't do bad things to other people so they will not do bad things to you".  These are not the same concepts at all.


Verse 32 explains why.  "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them".  For the sinner, this is essentially the same concept as "don't do bad things to them so they don't do bad things to you".  As Christians however, we are called to love those who do bad things to us.  This means that we are kind to them.  We do not humiliate in return when we are humiliated.  We do not seek revenge when we are persecuted.  We lend to anyone who asks of us because of their need, not because then they will be under obligation to help us out in the future (verse 34).


We are told to be merciful in verse 36, even as our Father is merciful.  This flows in verses 36 and 37, which are very often misunderstood.  From the NASB, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon and you will be pardoned.  Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure -- pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."


What does this mean in context?  This is the key.  If we show love to our enemies continuously, they will eventually come to recognize that we are different, that we treat them the way that God treats them.  Then they will say of us, that we are "sons of the Most High" (v.35).  When that happens, as sinners, they will then be true to form, namely (v.32) they will come to love us because we love them.  They are the ones who are performing the acts described in v.36 and 37.


So what does this accomplish?  Just so we can have some peace in our lives? No!  When this occurs, it means that we now have a relationship established that will let us witness to them about their need for salvation and they will be open to hearing, because of what they have come to recognize is different in our lives.

Chapter 6: “Summary and Application: God’s Self-Attesting Authority” or God doesn’t need anyone to agree with Him in order to be Right.

• All knowledge is through Christ.  Therefore our knowledge of the truth depends on God having known it first.  The only way we can know it is by beginning with the fear of the Lord and submission to Him
• Any Philosophy that does not presuppose God and the truth of His word is vain, empty, useless deception.  By suppressing the truth and instead choosing to rely upon created man’s reasoning, the mind is darkened and can only reach futile conclusions.  God will make such wisdom to be foolishness.
• Trying to be neutral between assuming God to be true and not assuming him to be true is the same as trying to serve two masters and is sin.
• Neutrality would fill the Grand Canyon to God’s truth that separates a Christian from a non-christian.  Anyone believing this actually is believing something that is hostile to his faith.
• The Christian is a “new man”, therefore his thinking is also renewed.  His thought is therefore to be maintained in subjection to his Lord Jesus and what He said, rather than the thinking of the world.  The Christian rejects the myth of self-sufficiency and seeks to love God with all his mind and to bring Him glory.
• Two choices, either to ground your thought in Christ’s word and receive the treasures of wisdom that are promised, or to follow the thoughts of men and be deluded and robbed of those treasures.
• Therefore God, through His word has absolute authority and is the final criterion of truth.
• When Jesus taught, he taught with self-attesting authority, meaning he did not need to appeal to any higher authority to validate what He said (Matt 7:29)
• The Word of God must be the standard to which all other ideas are compared
• False ideas are a test to know whether we truly love God (Deut 13:1-4)

• “To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this Word, surely it is because there is no light for them.” (Is 8:20)
• We must hold fast to our faith (Heb 10:23)
• “I the LORD speak the truth; I declare what is right.” (Is. 45:19)
• “Let God be true though everyone else were a liar” (Rom 3:4)
• God’s word is the foundation of our life (Mt 7:24-25)
• We are not in a position to question God’s truth (Rom 9:20)

Chapter 5: “Revelation as the Foundation of Knowledge” or You didn’t figure this out on your own

We must apply our hearts to God’s knowledge if we are to know the certainty of His truth (Pr 22:17-21)

• Philosophers deny that there is absolute truth, but the God says that the Bible can make us “know the certainty of the words of truth) (Pr 22:20-21)
• To grasp it, we must “apply your mind to My knowledge)  (Pr 22:17b)

Because God’s knowledge is came first and is ultimate, man can only know what God already knows.  Therefore we must think God’s thoughts after him so that “in your light do we see light” (Ps 36:9)

Understanding and knowledge of the truth are the promised results when we make God’s word the basis of our presuppositions, our starting point for all intellectual activity

•  “The LORD my God lightens my darkness” (Ps 18:28)
• “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Ps 119:130)
• “Attend unto my wisdom, incline your ear to My understanding in order that you may preserve discretion and in order that your lips may keep knowledge” (Pr 5:1-2)

Christians who pursue knowledge from a worldly perspective think they are smart because through their own efforts they have “figured out” a lot of stuff and understand to a large degree a lot of the teachings of the Bible.  They are actually deluded.

• Self-sufficiency is false.  Without Christ, we can do nothing.  (John 15:5)
•  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge”.  All knowledge, even scientific knowledge (Pr 1:7)
• “Talk no more proudly: let not arrogance come from your mouth, for Jehovah is a God of knowledge” (1 Sam 2:3)
• “He who teaches man knowledge – the LORD – knows the thoughts of man” (Ps 94:10)
• “What do you have that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7)

When men are not proper stewards of what God has given them (such as scholarly ability), then God will take away even what they previously possessed (by making that ability useless, empty)

Chapter 4: “The Mind of the New Man Rooted in Christ” or How is the Christian’s thinking to be different?

Since neutrality is actually unbelief, Paul instructs Christians to be rooted in Christ and to avoid the assumptions of unchristian thinking (Col 2:8)

When Col 2:6 says “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him”, what does this actually mean?

• We did not become Christians through our own intellectual understanding because
• The world in it’s wisdom does not know God (1 Cor 1:21)
• The world considers the cross to be foolishness (1 Cor 1:18, 21)
• Therefore we received Christ through faith that was given to us by the Holy Spirit
• We now have the mind of Christ through the Spirit ( 1 Cor 2:12-16)
•  We can now understand things freely given us by God (1 Cor 2:12)
• Our faith rests not on the wisdom of men but the power of God (1 Cor 2:5)
• As a Christian, Jesus is now LORD over all things in our life, therefore
• We must love him with all things, including his mind (Matt 22:37)
• All thoughts are to be brought captive or in subjection to him ( 2 Cor 10:5)

• Therefore, the Christian’s walk will not honor the thought patterns of worldly wisdom, but will instead submit to the authority of Christ in all areas of thought and knowledge.
• This means our presuppositions are that the Word of God is true, God is true and God is supreme and we are none of those things.
• If we believe these things we will be rooted in Him and will be able to hold steadfast in the faith

God speaks through the Bible.  Therefore, the Bible does not admit that man has any ability or authority to judge what it says.  Instead it speaks with absolute authority.  It expects us to understand that we, along with our intellect, were created by God and are therefore inferior to God and must be subject to the authority of God.

As a result, the Christian and non-Christian systems of thinking cannot co-exist, because one assumes that God exists and the other does not.  Neutrality is not possible.

Just ask...

Key thoughts from various messages on prayer...

God wants us to ask Him for whatever we need.

"Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. " (John 14:13-14)


"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." (John 15:16)


"In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."  (John 16:23-24)


So does Jesus really mean anything?  Like as in ANYTHING?  No, of course not.  You may pray that you would be more powerful than God.  Denied.  You may ask that a certain sin would be okay just one day a week. Denied.  Obviously, the "whatever" that is underlined in the verses above are qualified by those parts of the verses that are bolded.


If the request will bring glory to God, fruit in our lives and joy to us through increasing the glory of God, then anything that meets those criteria will be answered.


However, there is an interesting link in these prayers with the purposes of God...


"In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'" (Zechariah 13:8-9)


Ignore for the moment the specific context of which historical even this is referring to and focus on what God is saying.  The third that is saved, these are already His people.  They are the remnant.  They have just seen everyone else destroyed.  Yay for being saved right?  But then God immediately puts THEM into the fire, on purpose, to refine them and test them.  Why?  So that they will call upon God.  Why? So that He can answer them!


How important is it to God that we pray to Him, and not just pray to Him, but ask Him for help in our lives?  Very important!


Psalms 107 gives four illustrations of God's great lovingkindess towards His people.  In each of the four scenarios in the psalm, there are four stages: predicament, plea, deliverance, and thanksgiving.  The scenarios may simultaneously represent specific events, symbolic events in the life of Israel, and the situation that every sinner finds themselves in.  In every case, they did the same thing, 


"Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress." (Psalm 107:6,13,19,28)


In each case, nothing had changed in their circumstances.  They didn't try to "get it all worked out" first.  They just cried out to God where they were and He answered them.  How great is our God? He is incredibly great and marvelous!  In the words of verse 2 in Psalms 107,

"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble." (Psalms 107:2)
Amen!  Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

Chapter 3: “The Nature of Unbelieving Thought” or What is neutral thinking really like?

• The intellectual thinking of those who are not saved is characterized by:
• A vain mind and darkened understanding (Eph 4:17-18)
• God makes their reasoning useless (Rom 1:21)
• Treating the commandments of God as idle, empty words (Deut 32:47)
• Engaging in fruitless philosophical discussions (1 Tim 1:6)
• Speak in irreverent babble, contradictions and empty chatter (1 Tim 6:20) which leads to ungodliness and spreads like gangrene (2 Tim 2:15-18)
• God has purposely made their thoughts and reasonings useless (1 Cor 3:20) therefore the things they design, systems of thought, ways of living, etc, are futile (Acts 4:25)
• Have an evil, unbelieving heart as a result of the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:12-15)
• As a result of their choice not to believe the truth, God sent a strong deluding influence upon them so that they would believe what is false (2Thess 2:10-12), therefore they enjoy their deception and try to entice others to join them (2 Pet 2:13)

• Paul characterizes their philosophy as being according to the traditions of men and based on the fundamental principles of the world (Col 2:8)
• This sets aside God’s word and considers it useless (Mark 7:8-13)
• This way of thinking follows the presuppositions or elementary assumptions of the world and therefore is not according to Christ

• Therefore, a Christian that tries to be neutral with respect to philosophy is
• Not neutral after all and
• In danger of unknowingly encouraging ideas and assumptions in his own life that are actually hostile and in opposition to faith in Christ.

"Secularism and Religion conform people to behavioral norms through fear (of consequences) and pride (a desire for self-aggrandizement). The gospel moves people to holiness and service out of grateful joy for grace and out of love of the glory of God for who He is in Himself." (The Gospel Coalition, Theological Vision for Ministry)

Twenty Miles Short

Notes from a sermon by Dr. David Platt in December 2007



The text is from Genesis 28, 31:3, 33:18-20, 34, 35

Is half-hearted commitment to God acceptable to God?  According to Barna polls, up to 50% of people claiming to be Christians say that they are moderately or less committed to Christ.  Is this really okay?  What would people say if you told them that you were 95% committed to your wife and 5% committed to someone else?  Does God deserve any less?

The text of the message is about the story of Jacob after he had stolen the blessing of Isaac from Esau.  He decided it would be a good idea to get out of town for awhile, so he left to go to Paddan-aram.

After one day's journey, he stopped for the night and had a vision from God in which God told him that he would give him the land that he was sleeping on and that his offspring would be numerous as the dust.  When Jacob woke up, he made a vow to God that if God would go with him, that he would one day return to Bethel and live there and worship God there.

Fast forward 14 years.  God calls Jacob to return home.  By this time he has a large family, wives, sons, servants, wealth, etc.  So he goes back from Paddan-aram to Bethel, where he had promised God to return to.  Except he didn't quite make it.  Gen 33:18 says


"And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.  And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he pitched his tent.  There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel (God, the God of Israel)".  


Shechem is only 20 miles from Bethel.   After traveling almost 1000 miles, he stopped 20 miles short.


Sin is very subtle.  
It wasn't like he abandoned the plan of God, he came close, 99.9% there.  This is devil's plan, not to get us to abandon the plan of God, but to stop just short.  If we do it once, we will be tempted to do it again and again.  We think that as long as we are close to where God wants us to be, it is good enough.


We compare ourselves to others, rather than to God's holiness.  "I only look at a few porn sites, not like other people who do much worse".  Maybe they are not things we do, but rather things we don't do.  If we don't drink, party, have promiscuous sex, we can be perceived as a great Christian.  But could be weeks since we have last prayed or read the Bible.  Sin is subtle.


What is the first thing Jacob did when he stopped at Shechem in disobedience?  He set up an altar.  Religion is the biggest cover-up for disobedience in our lives.


Compromise is costly
The very next verse after Jacob stopped at Shechem (Gen 34:1), Jacob's only daughter Dinah is raped by the town leader's son.  The people of the town tried to make peace with the men of Jacob's household and agreed to be circumcised so that they could do business together.  Three days later, while they were still in pain recovering, two of Jacob's sons went into town with their swords and killed every single man that was there, taking all the women and children captive and looting the place completely.  Jacob was afraid that this would cause the surrounding nations to rise up against them, but his sons answered "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?".

Anger and rage fill the passage, his two sons are now murderers, all-out war is now a possibility and in Jacob's house, it is filled with idols.  Jacob had no idea what the cost of his compromise would be not only to him, but to the people around him.  The cost is great.  Sin does not just affect us, it affects our families, our children, the church and the unreached people around us.  People whose lives are at stake for eternity because they need to see the power of God in our lives.

God is gracious
In chapter 35, God comes to Jacob and tells him to go to Bethel and build an altar.  Jacob responds by calling his household together and making them cleanse all of the idols and idolatrous things from among themselves, saying "let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone".  God does not leave His people in their sin.  He did not leave him in Shechem.  Also, the purity of grace is demonstrated, as Jacob was commanded to purify his house of idols and move on to Bethel.

This grace is available to all of us.  1 John 1:9 says the same thing: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".  It is time that the church got serious and stop covering over sin and being satisfied with less than complete obedience.  When we see Jacob get to Bethel again, God appeared to him again and this time changed his name to Israel.  And He gave him a new promise, this time He said that kings shall come from your body.  One of Jacob's sons was Judah, from whom eventually came King David, through whom finally came King Jesus.  Although he probably did not realize it at the time, he came within 20 miles of missing being part of the greatest blessings God has given to man.

Chapter 2: “The Immorality of Neutrality” or Why is neutrality really sin?

• Trying to be neutral in the way we think is the same thing as trying to fill in the Grand Canyon that exists between a Christian and a non-believer
• Jesus said this canyon was the truth of God’s word.  Jn 17:17
• If we try to gain the respect of the worldly intellectuals through neutrality, we can only do that by filling in the Grand Canyon.  This buries God’s truth and erases the separation that exists between the Christian and the non-Christian.
• Paul commands believers not to behave or live in a way which copies those who are unsaved, calling the way of the unbeliever that of the “vanity of the mind” which is a result of a hardened heart (Eph 4:17-18).
• That command creates a choice for the Christian, whether to be separated from unbelievers by the Grand Canyon of God’s truth or to be separated from God by a hardened heart.  You are going to have to be separated from someone:

1. Either the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16) or the “vain mind of the Gentiles” (Eph 4:17)
2. Either “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:5) or continue as “enemies in your mind” (Col 1:21)

• The unbelieving, and those who follow them, have become futile in their thinking and their minds are darkened (Rom 1:21).  Claiming to be wise, they have become fools (Rom 1:22) and are alienated from God (Eph 4:18).
• For the Christian however, the truth is in Jesus (Eph 4:21).  We are commanded to be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Eph 4:23) which has access to the holiness of the truth (Eph 4:24).
• It is not possible to compromise this point, since we know:

1. No man can serve two masters (Matt 6:24)
2. All things have been created by Christ (Col 1:16)
3. Everything is sustained by the word of His power (Heb 1:3)
4. All wisdom and knowledge is deposited in Christ (Col 2:3)
5. Christ is Truth (John 14:6)
6. Christ is to be Lord over every thought (2 Cor.10:5)

Therefore, to compromise on neutrality is sin, because

• “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jam 4:4)

Social media and Digital Discernment

John MacArthur has posted a very useful sermon on the Grace to You Blog about how Christians should respond to social media, including blogs like this.  The focus of this blog is not intended to be ourselves, but to glorify Christ alone.  May God make it so.

See the full MacArthur message here

Chapter 1: “The Robbery of Neutrality” or Don’t tie your hands behind your back in a fight.

From time to time, I will post summaries of notes I have made on the book "Always Ready" by Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen.  I am reading through this book with a group of men from the church.  The subject is Apologetics.  The material is very good, but very deep and technical.  I write these notes for the group in an attempt to make the material more accessible.  Hopefully it will be of use to someone.

Chapter 1: “The Robbery of Neutrality” or Don’t tie your hands behind your back in a fight.

Neutrality = We cannot assume the Bible is true

If we accept this then:

• The Bible and God have no place in a discussion of history, science, art, etc because it is not truth and not provable
• We must approach any debate with unbelievers on the same level they are, by assuming with them that the Bible is not necessarily true
• Our witness is ineffective and our walk is aimless, with no clear purpose.

God disagrees:

• All wisdom and knowledge is in the person of Christ.  Col 2:3-8
• Christ is truth, therefore if Christ is absent, there is no truth and you will be misled.  Jn 14:6
• We don’t find God at the end of a search for knowledge.  Knowing Him is the beginning of all knowledge.  Pr 1:7,9:10

• If we do not presuppose that Christ is true, then we will not be firm in our beliefs and we will be convinced by their arguments rather than convincing them.  Col 2:7,8
• If we are robbed of the treasures of the knowledge of God by the arguments of men, we are at risk of losing our salvation with Christ by turning away from him and denying His reality.  Col2:8

Counting it all joy...

Trials cannot ever destroy true faith.  It can only test it.  That is the intention of trials.  It will either affirm the legitimacy of our faith if we endure, or it will show that our faith was not real to begin with if we abandon God in the midst of trial.  This is why James 1:2-3 says

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  An let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing"

Trials should never drive us to others for advice they drive us to God for wisdom.