This week I heard a preacher say, “If you are going to get clean, someone has to get dirty.” God says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2Cor. 5:21).
If you are a Christian, you have more blessings than you could rightly expect or deserve – eternal election, adoption, redemption, and the forgiveness of sin (Eph. 1:3-11).
This morning I was reading through a section of the Psalms. I came to Psalm 19 where David pleads: “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.” This verse has frequently grabbed my attention, but this morning it was particularly weighing on my mind. I thought I would meditate on it a little further and consider the nature of these sins. I found these words from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Presumptuous Sins:
ALL SINS are great sins, but yet some sins are greater than others. Every sin has in it the very venom of rebellion, and is full of the essential marrow of traitorous rejection of God. But there be some sins which have in them a greater development of the essential mischief of rebellion, and which wear upon their faces more of the brazen pride which defies the Most High. It is wrong to suppose that because all sins will condemn us, that therefore one sin is not greater than another. The fact is, that while all transgression is a greatly grievous sinful thing, yet there are some transgressions which have a deeper shade of blackness, and a more double scarlet-dyed hue of criminality than others. Now the presumptuous sins of our text are just the chief of all sins: they rank head and foremost in the list of iniquities.
Spurgeon then goes on to list what he considers to be the characteristics of presumptuous sins:
1. A sin that is committed willfully against manifest light and knowledge is a presumptuous sin.
2. A sin that is committed with deliberation is a presumptuous sin.
3. A sin that is a matter of design and has been committed with the intention of sin is a presumptuous sin.
4. A sin that is committed through a hardihood of fancied strength of mind. Says one, “I intend to-morrow to go into such-and-such a society, because I believe, though it hurts other people, it does me no hurt.”
After I had meditated on these truths for a time, I opened the morning newspaper and found the story of a man who broke into a local church, stole some valuable property, and left the following note sprawled on the wall, “Sorry but I’m poor. Forgive me Lord.”
As I read his words, I was reminded of Prov. 30:8-9: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Reading the man’s note I could not help but connect the man’s words with the words of the Psalm 19 and not only prayed for him and the church, but also for myself. Unless I think that I am not capable of committing such sins, I prayed, “Lord keep me from presumptuous sin.”
In our generation it is almost possible to read a book without reading it. With such easy access to information and opinion, if there is a book that is popular you will find a gluttony of reviews, excerpts and opinions of the book. Subsequently, it becomes possible to talk about books you haven’t read. For me, Crazy Love by Francis Chan (with Danae Yankoski) was such a book. While many were talking and writing about the book, I was reading and listening to the views and reviews. It was as if I had read it myself – that was until I actually read it.
I just finished reading Crazy Love and must say that the book more than met my expectation, especially chapter eight. Crazy Love is a good book. Chapter eight is clearly my favorite chapter. The chapter is titled Profiles of the Obsessed. Obsessed is defined as: to have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic. In the chapter, the authors give 14 characteristics of a person obsessed with Jesus. While I won’t relate all 14 and thus make you think you can talk about the chapter without reading it, I will give you an example of the type of insights that continue to challenge me. For example, the authors write:
A person who is obsessed with Jesus know that the sin of pride is always a battle. Obsessed people know that you can never be humble enough and so they seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known (Matt. 5:16).
also,
People who are obsessed with Jesus do not consider service a burden. Obsessed people take joy in loving God by loving His people (Matt. 13:44; John 15:8).
The book has much to commend itself to us – chapter eight being my favorite with its lingering thoughts in my mind. If you are among the few, the stubborn, or late like me then I would recommend you read it. Nothing could be more worthy of our remembrance than the fact that God has loved us in Christ, and we are to respond to the His love with lives of faith and devotion.
Lately Pastor Mike had grown weary from the demands of his growing church. He was getting very little sleep and a couple of deacons had really been putting him to the test.
So, one beautiful Spring Sunday morning he decides that he would feel better with a relaxing round of golf. Pretending to be sick, he calls the deacons and informs them that he is sick and will not be able to make it that day. He scheduled in a guest speaker so everything was under control without him.
As Pastor Mike was preparing to tee off on the first hole, the Archangel Michael looked over at God and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but what are you going to do? Pastor Mike called in to his deacons and said he was sick. He lied to them and to the church. And, he is skipping church all together. Shouldn’t you punish him somehow for his behavior?”
“Sure,” said the Father. “I’m going to make him hit a hole-in-one on every hole.” “A hole-in-one on every hole?!” said Michael. “That’s not punishment. That’s a blessing. No one has ever done that and you’re going to help this lazy, lying pastor score a hole-in-one on every hole? How is that punishment?!” “Who’s he gonna tell?”
Maybe you have heard the phrase, “Pray like a Calvinist, Work like an Arminian.” Such a statement, while seeking to reconcile these two schools of thought, actually does violence to both. This was brought home to me again, as I concluded a re-read of When Grace Comes Home by Terry Johnson.
If I am a Calvinist or an Arminian I am so because I have the conviction that the Scriptures reveal a certain understanding of God, humanity, salvation, and life. This understanding is based in the preponderance of the biblical text and is to be applied to all of life. Therefore, if I am a Calvinist when I pray, I must also be a Calvinist when I work. If I am a Calvinist when I preach, I must also be an Calvinist when I evangelize. If I believe that Calvinism is nothing more than a consistent expression of the Christian faith (or as Spurgeon said, “a nickname for biblical Christianity”) then there is not one area of life where I am not to seek a consistent outworking of my Christian faith (aka Calvinism).
While I do not hold to Arminian teachings, if I did I would be offended if someone told me that my Arminianism is good to work by but not good enough to pray by. Furthermore, when someone says that I should evangelize like an Arminian, they are saying that Calvinism is not consistent with biblical evangelism. Huh?
No offense to my Arminian brothers and sisters, but as a committed Calvinist, I am not seeking to be Arminian in any of my approaches to the Christian life. I would expect them to say the same thing. I not only pray as a Calvinist, but I also preach as one. I not only raise my children as a Calvinist, but I evangelize as one as well. In summing up this idea, Terry Johnson quotes B. B. Warfield as saying:
“The Calvinist is the man who is determined to preserve the attitude he takes in prayer in all of his thinking, in all his feeling, in all his doing… Other men are Calvinists on their knees; the Calvinist is the man who is determined that his intellect, and heart, and will shall remain on their knees continually, and only from this attitude think, and feel and act.”
Right! To say that we pray like Calvinists is to say that we pray with total dependence upon God. I not only want to pray like that, but I want to live like that at all times. I want to preach like that. I want to share the Gospel like that. I want to disciple like that. I want to love my wife and raise my children like that. I want to be a Calvinist at all times because I want to be a Christian at all times.
Paul David Tripp gives the following answer:
“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.”
From Broken Down House: Living Productively in a World God Bad
For those inclined to be interested, here is a link to an interview I did today with Moody Radio on the subject of A Call to Christian Unity.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs (1Tim. 6:9-10).
It would seem that another Reformation is order. The church once again is exchanging money for influence and building cathedrals on the giving of its parishioners. Seems we been down this road before. Apparently the old adage is true, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” One of the effects of not having a 
biblical and historical theology is that you don’t recognize the recycled heresies and distortions when they appear. One of the impacts of embracing Reformed theology is that its historical elements help us to recognize the excesses that once corrupted and ruined the Church of God. Unfortunately, it would seem that these corruptions are alive and well in too many quarters of the church.
Beloved, the witness of the church is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The snare of the world is that there is power, significance, and influence for the church apart from the gospel. When the church falls into this snare, not only is our witness destroyed, but so too are we.
May we heed the warnings of the Scriptures and the unfortunate examples that the world is all too eager to plaster before us.
Today I had the awesome privilege of participating in the wedding of two dear members of our church. Avery and Shanika publicly proclaimed their life, love, and worship together as they entered into the covenant of marriage on this day. It was a wonderfully encouraging and challenging time. I was reminded of the beautiful way in which God has ordained for man not to be alone but that he is to have a woman at his side to live and love with for all time. Yet, I was also reminded that the long hours of counseling and preparation, though at times seem to be a grind, when the wedding day comes you see that it was more than worth it.
So to Avery and Shanika I say congratulations! And to Avery in particular, I know you are realizing that the wait was worth it, but keep that in mind as you continue to serve your wife in years to come. Things will not always be according to your plans or design. She will take her time, but I hope you learn not to mind (too much), because you see that in the end she’s worth it.
I like the way Brad Paisley sings about it in this video, Waitin on a Woman. One of my favorite songs and videos in recent years. Again, congratulations. We love you. Enjoy!
Sittin’ on a bench at West Town Mall
He sat down in his overalls and asked me
You waitin’ on a woman
I nodded yeah and said how ’bout you
He said son since nineteen fifty-two I’ve been
Waitin’ on a woman
When I picked her up for our first date
I told her I’d be there at eight
And she came down the stairs at eight-thirty
She said I’m sorry that I took so long
Didn’t like a thing that I tried on
But let me tell you son she sure looked pretty
Yeah she’ll take her time but I don’t mind
Waitin’ on a woman
He said the wedding took a year to plan
You talk about an anxious man, I was nervous
Waitin’ on a woman
And then he nudged my arm like old men do
And said, I’ll say this about the honeymoon, it was worth it
Waitin’ on a woman
And I don’t guess we’ve been anywhere
She hasn’t made us late I swear
Sometimes she does it just ’cause she can do it
Boy it’s just a fact of life
It’ll be the same with your young wife
Might as well go on and get used to it
She’ll take her time ’cause you don’t mind
Waitin’ on a woman
I’ve read somewhere statistics show
The man’s always the first to go
And that makes sense ’cause I know she won’t be ready
So when it finally comes my time
And I get to the other side
I’ll find myself a bench, if they’ve got any
I hope she takes her time, ’cause I don’t mind
Waitin’ on a woman
Honey, take your time, cause I don’t mind
Waitin’ on a woman
