Welcome to A Glorious Revolution!

Welcome to A Glorious Revolution!  This blog is a tool for the Senior Pastor at Trinity Church Myrtle Beach to hold forth the Gospel in Myrtle Beach and beyond.  The Glorious Revolution happened in England in 1688, when James II was overthrown and William of Orange ascended to throne in his place.  This event had particular significance for the Church of England because the King of England existed as the head of the Church.  The Glorious Revolution not only returned a Protestant to the throne, but ensured that only Protestants could serve as monarch in England and thus as head of the church of England.  The purpose of calling upon that history for this blog is not to start a holy war against catholics, but to articulate my deep wish for the Anglican Communion.  My wish is that a glorious revolution in the Anglican Communion and the wider Body of Christh, where tertiary issues take their rightful place, and the Gospel reassumes center stage.  This blog seeks to serve as a means to that end.  So, you will find posted here in the future, thoughtful articles about church life, leadership, preaching, culture, current events, and movies as well as links to other contemporary revolutionaries!

Please take time to peruse our pages and see how we’ve updated the site a bit!

If you are coming back from a lengthy trip and haven’t seen Rob’s last post that he’s moving Awakening Grace, then you need to know that Rob has moved Awakening Grace to here.  Please be sure to stop over and say hi!

Being “in Christ Jesus”

by John Piper from here

 

Being “in Christ Jesus” is a stupendous reality. It is breathtaking what it means to be in Christ. United to Christ. Bound to Christ. If you are “in Christ” listen to what it means for you:

1. In Christ Jesus you were given grace before the world was created. 2 Timothy 1:9, “He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”
2. In Christ Jesus you were chosen by God before creation. Ephesians 1:4, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.”
3. In Christ Jesus you are loved by God with an inseparable love. Romans 8:38–39, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
4. In Christ Jesus you were redeemed and forgiven for all your sins. Ephesians 1:7, “In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
5. In Christ Jesus you are justified before God and the righteousness of God in Christ is imputed to you. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
6. In Christ Jesus you have become a new creation and a son of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Galatians 3:26, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
7. In Christ Jesus you have been seated in the heavenly places even while he lived on earth. Ephesians 2:6, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
8. In Christ Jesus all the promises of God are Yes for you. 2 Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.”
9. In Christ Jesus you are being sanctified and made holy. 1 Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.”
10. In Christ Jesus everything you really needed will be supplied. Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
11. In Christ Jesus the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
12. In Christ Jesus you have eternal life. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
13. And in Christ Jesus you will be raised from the dead at the coming of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” All those united to Adam in the first humanity die. All those united to Christ in the new humanity rise to live again

How do we get into Christ?

At the unconscious and decisive level it is God’s sovereign work: “From God are you in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

But at the conscious level of our own action, it is through faith. Christ dwells in our hearts “through faith” (Ephesians 3:17). The life we live in union with his death and life “we live by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). We are united in his death and resurrection “through faith” (Colossians 2:12).

This is a wonderful truth. Union with Christ is the ground of everlasting joy, and it is free.

 

 

Profitable Ways to Read the Bible

1. Begin reading your Bible this very day. The way to do a thing — is to do it; and the way to read the Bible — is actually to read it! It is not merely meaning, or wishing, or resolving, or intending, or thinking about it — which will advance you one step. You must positively read. There is no royal road in this matter, any more than in the matter of prayer. If you cannot read yourself, you must persuade somebody else to read it to you. But one way or another, through eyes or ears — the words of Scripture must actually pass before your mind.

2. Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it. Do not think for a moment, that the great object is to turn over a certain quantity of printed paper, and that it matters nothing whether you understand it or not. Some ignorant people seem to imagine, that all is done if they advance so many chapters every day, though they may not have a notion what they are all about, and only know that they have pushed on their bookmark ahead so many pages. This is turning Bible reading into a mere ritual form. Settle it down in your mind as a general principle, that a Bible not understood — is a Bible that does no good! Say to yourself often as you read, “What is this all about?” Dig for the meaning like a man digging for gold.

3. Read the Bible with child-like faith and humility. Open your heart — as you open God’s book, and say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!” Resolve to believe implicitly whatever you find there, however much it may run counter to your own desires and prejudices. Resolve to receive heartily every statement of truth — whether you like it or not. Beware of that miserable habit into which some readers of the Bible fall — they receive some doctrines because they like them; and they reject others because they are condemning to themselves, or to some relation, or friend. At this rate, the Bible is useless! Are we to be judges of what ought to be in God’s Word? Do we know better than God? Settle it down in your mind — that you will receive all and believe all, and that what you cannot understand — you will take on trust. Remember, when you pray — that you are speaking to God, and God hears you. But, remember, when you read Scripture — that God is speaking to you, and you are not to “dictate,” but to listen!

4. Read the Bible in a spirit of obedience and self-application. Sit down to the study of it with a daily determination that you will live by its rules, rest on its statements, and act on its commands. Consider, as you travel through every chapter, “How does this affect my thinking and daily conduct? What does this teach me?” It is poor work to read the Bible from mere curiosity, and for speculative purposes — in order to fill your head and store your mind with mere opinions; while you do not allow the book to influence your heart and life. That Bible is read best — which is practiced most!

5. Read the Bible daily. Make it a part of every day’s business to read and meditate on some portion of God’s Word. Private means of grace are just as needful every day for our souls — as food and clothing are for our bodies. Yesterday’s food will not feed the laborer today; and today’s food will not feed the laborer tomorrow. Do as the Israelites did in the wilderness. Gather your manna fresh every morning. Choose your own seasons and hours. Do not scramble over and hurry your reading. Give your Bible the best, and not the worst part of your time! But whatever plan you pursue, let it be a rule of your life to visit the throne of grace and God’s Word every day.

6. Read all of the Bible — and read it in an orderly way. I fear there are many parts of the Word which some people never read at all. This is to say at the least, a very presumptuous habit. “All Scripture is profitable.” [2 Timothy 3:16]. To this habit may be traced that lack of well-proportioned views of truth, which is so common in this day. Some people’s Bible-reading is a system of perpetual ‘dipping and picking’. They do not seem to have an idea of regularly going through the whole book.

7. Read the Bible fairly and honestly. Determine to take everything in its plain, obvious meaning — and regard all forced interpretations with great suspicion. As a general rule, whatever a verse of the Bible seems to mean — it does mean! Cecil’s rule is a very valuable one, “The right way of interpreting Scripture is to take it as we find it, without any attempt to force it into any particular theological system.”

8. Read the Bible with Christ continually in view. The grand primary object of all Scripture, is to testify of Jesus! Old Testament ceremonies are shadows of Christ. Old Testament judges are types of Christ. Old Testament prophecies are full of Christ’s sufferings, and of Christ’s glory yet to come. The first coming and the second; the Lord’s humiliation and His glorious kingdom; His cross and the crown shine forth everywhere in the Bible. Keep fast hold on this clue, if you would read the Bible aright!

I might easily add to these hints, if space permitted. Few and short as they are — you will find them most profitable when implemented.

~ J.C. Ryle

Practical Religion, “Bible Reading”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 131-134.

“Led by the Spirit”

A helpful little thought on the phrase “led by the Spirit”. It comes from a Pastor out in Arizona who had this passed on to him, so in like fashion I am passing it on to you.

Have you ever heard somebody say that the Spirit “led” them to do something? Or something like, “I felt led to” do such and such? I’ve heard those kinds of statements. I’ve said those kinds of things, too. But what do people mean when they say that? And, more importantly, is that a Biblical way of understanding and speaking about the Spirit’s ministry among believers?

It might surprise you, as it did me, to learn that the phrase “led by the Spirit” occurs only twice in the New Testament:

Romans 8:13-14 – For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

Galatians 5:16-18 – But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

You’ll notice that both occurrences of “led by the Spirit” come in the context of the mortification of sin. The Holy Spirit’s testimony about His own role in “leading” believers is specifically set alongside the putting away of the desires and deeds of the flesh. To do that is to walk by the Spirit; that is, to walk by means of Him: to be led by Him. And so if we are going to be relentlessly Biblical, this has to be the way we primarily understand and use that phrase: being led by the Spirit. “The Spirit led me to put off my anger and bitterness.” “The Spirit led me to mortify my lust for attention and recognition.” And so on.

(HT:JohnSamson)

“All things come from you, and of your own have we given you.”

Here is just a snippet from the article;

Who Owns Greatness?

By Fred G. Zaspel –

Everything that is, belongs to God. Why? Because he made it! This is a frequent theme in Scripture — because God is creator of all that is, he is free to do with it as he pleases. It is all his.

This, in turn, has direct bearing on this occasion of David’s worship. He and the people of Israel had given generously to God for the building of his Temple. But what they gave was already his! Indeed, if all greatness comes from God, then their very willingness to give came from him also: “And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?”

We need to learn this well. It is a massively humbling truth: the more we do for God the more we are indebted to God for the honor of it. I can take no credit for any measure of greatness or goodness I may possess, for it is all a gift from God. “All things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” For every good deed, for every act of worship, we are indebted to God for the privilege of it.

Having recognized all this David takes the inevitable next step of worship. He prays that God will continue to show this favor to his people, and keep their hearts for himself.

O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you. Grant to Solomon my son a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision (vv. 18-19).

The whole article is worth your time. Read it here.

Communion

J. I. Packer:

I don’t think we can ever say too much about the importance of an active exercise of mind and heart at the communion service. . . .

Holy Communion demands us of private preparation of heart before the Lord before we come to the table. We need to prepare ourselves for fellowship with Jesus Christ the Lord, who meets us in this ceremony. We should think of him both as the host of the communion table and as enthroned on the true Mount Zion referred to in Hebrews 12, the city of the living God where the glorified saints and the angels are.

Hungering souls…. go to Jesus

“There is but One to whom hungering souls must go, if they would not perish forever: they must go to Christ.”

— J. C. Ryle

Worship is the fuel & goal of missions

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

So worship is the fuel and goal of missions.”

— John Piper

Union & Imitation

 

“Why can’t you be like your brother?” We all know intuitively that guilt-driven comparisons like this don’t actually work, but sometimes our frustration gets the better of us as parents. We hear, and sometimes say, the same thing in church. Frustrated with the lack of serious discipleship, we turn more easily and naturally to threats. In sharp contrast, Jesus spoke of our being his younger siblings, living branches of his vine. “You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit that would last” (Jn 15:16). As I point out below, Paul’s horizon was much deeper, richer, and broader than imitation of Jesus. Being like Jesus Christ has its place only if we are in Christ to begin with.

 

 

 

read it all here

Resolutions, an encouragement for you

from The Cripplegate:

As we discussed last week, the seventy Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards exemplify an eternal and God-glorifying perspective that all believers ought to emulate.

But let’s be honest. A list of spiritual goals compiled by one of church history’s greatest heroes can be a bit intimidating, especially when there are seventy of them. When we make similar resolutions — and later fail to keep them — it can be downright discouraging to compare ourselves to someone like Jonathan Edwards.

Well, here’s a nugget of encouragement for you.Even a notable Puritan theologian like Edwards struggled to keep his resolutions.

As historian George Marsden explains about Edwards:

It was one thing to make such a thorough and impressive list of resolutions; it was another to keep them. This we know from his diary, in which he reported his efforts fairly regularly for the next year or two. Although he noted the spiritual highs that he later recalled, his diary also records many days of lows, “decays,” and lengthy times of inability to focus on spiritual things.  (A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards, 24)

Here is one such example from Edwards’s Diary:

The last week I was sunk so low, that I fear it will be a long time before I am recovered. I fell exceedingly low in the weekly account [regarding keeping my resolutions]. I find my heart so deceitful, that I am almost discouraged from making any more resolutions. — Wherein have I been negligent in the week past; and how could I have done better, to help the dreadful low estate in which I am sunk?

Sound familiar?

Like all believers, Jonathan Edwards experienced times of temptation, defeat, and discouragement. His ongoing fight against the flesh is reminiscent of the struggle Paul described in Romans 7. Edwards’s battle resonates with us because we wage that same war each and every day.

So, how did he overcome those times? Even after periods of failure and fatigue, what was the key to renewing his resolve?

The answer is as simple as it is profound. Jonathan Edwards realized that his resolutions failed when he tried to accomplish them in his own strength. They could not succeed unless he relied on God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit for their accomplishment.

In his Diary, Edwards explained that the key to his spiritual vitality was not the mere making of resolutions, but rather a full dependence on the Spirit and grace of God.

Here’s what he wrote:

I find, by experience, that, let me make resolutions, and do what I will, with never so many inventions, it is all nothing, and to no purpose at all, without the motions of the Spirit of God.  . . . There [must be] no dependence on myself. Our resolutions may be at the highest one day, and yet, the next day, we may be in a miserable dead condition, not at all like the same person who resolved. So that it is to no purpose to resolve, except we depend on the grace of God. For, if it were not for his mere grace, one might be a very good man one day, and a very wicked one the next.  (January 2, 1722)

read the rest here

“Keep Christ in Christmas Guy Christmas”

Christ the Priest

“Christ is now carrying on in heaven the work of a priest, which He began upon earth.He took our nature on Him in the fullness of time and became a man, that He might be perfectly fitted to be the Priest that our case required. As a priest, He offered up His body and soul as a sacrifice for sin upon the cross, and made a complete atonement for us with His own blood. As a priest, He ascended up on high, passed within the veil, and entered into the presence of God. As a priest, He is now sitting on our behalf at the right hand of God; and what He began actively on earth, He is carrying on actively in heaven. This is what Christ is doing.”

— J. C. Ryle
Knots Untied

(HT:OFI)

THE REST OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

“Rest in the Lord.”
Psalm 37:7

 

I desire for each of you, and for myself, also, that all of us who are in Christ may this night have perfect “rest in the Lord.”

 

Was it not said of Boaz, by the mother-in-law of Ruth, “The man will not be in rest until he has finished the thing
this day”? Some Christians never have any rest, or they have but very little, because they do not understand the doctrine
of a finished salvation. If you and I are only half-saved, why, of course, we can never be really restful till the work is finished. No, if we are only three-quarters saved, we shall never have any true rest till the other quarter of the work is done!
If there is one stone for us to lay in order to complete the edifice, we must not give sleep to our eyes, nor slumber to our
eyelids, till it is fixed in its place.

But here is the joy, here is the peace of Christians, that our salvation is a finished one! We have not a farthing to pay
to complete the ransom of our souls. We have not a stitch to set to finish the robe of our salvation. We have not an act to
perform, a prayer to offer, a tear to weep, a thought to think in order to finish the work of our redemption! I know that all these things shall be worked in us and, that by the Spirit of God we shall be made to do them—but all that shall not be with any view to the completion of our salvation—that was finished in the Person of the bleeding Lamb of Calvary!
There are a great many people who imagine that they will be saved because they regularly go to Church—they might go to Church as long as Methuselah lived, but not get an inch nearer to Heaven by doing so! Others of you may suppose that you will go to Glory through constantly coming here. We will soon drive that delusion out of your minds if you are indulging any such notion!

Still, there it is—you think that if you are kind, moral, upright, if you do good to your neighbors, if you bring up your families well—in some way Jesus Christ will mysteriously come in to make up your deficiencies and then when you get to Glory, of course, you intend to have a song all to yourself! You will say, “Praise and glory and honor be to myself! I did my part and Christ’s assistance made the matter all right.” The man who thinks that the work of salvation is partly his own does not understand the finished work of Christ!

Either Christ completed all that was necessary for your salvation, or He did not! If He did finish it, then rest in Him and be glad, and say, “I am secure forever because my salvation is finished. I have nothing to do but to live to the honor of Him who has completely saved me by His Grace, His blood, His righteousness.”
But if Christ did not finish the work, you cannot complete it! If He has left a stitch unsewn or a stone unlaid, you cannot supply the deficiency. What? The human and the Divine joined together as equals? What? Yoke your little, insignificant, insect-like power with the Omnipotent strength of the Divine Redeemer? God forbid! What? Shall the dross and scum of human merit come and be reckoned with the pure gold of Christ’s atoning Sacrifice? No! That can never be!
Grace reigns, and Grace, alone, reigns! It reigns in this, that there is a finished work! Therefore, Christian, rest—“rest in the Lord,” for the work is done! Be of good cheer, take your ease in Christ. Eat of Him, drink of Him and be merry, for you have much goods laid up for many years. Your feasting will never bring to you the censure of being a fool, but you will be as foolish as a thousand fools if you do not rest in Jesus!

 A Comforting Message for the Closing Year  – by C.H. Spurgeon ,

(paragraphing mine)

His Image

“I have put my soul, as a blank, into the hands of Jesus Christ my Redeemer, and desired him to write upon it what he pleases. I know it will be his own image.”

George Whitefield, quoted in Christian History, Issue 38, page 28.

(HT:Ray Ortlund)

Thinking of the Trinity

Gregory Nazianzen:

No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One.

When I think of any One of the Three I think of Him as the Whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking of escapes me.

I cannot grasp the greatness of That One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the Rest.

When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the Undivided Light.

—Gregory of Nazianzen, Orationes, 40:41

(HT:JustinTaylor)