Radical Christianity Q&A

Last week I posted eight sermons by David Platt which I dared you to listen to. Yesterday when I finished listening to them myself, I begged you to listen. I'm still begging, daring, urging professing Christians in affluent America to listen and seriously consider Jesus's teachings about money, urgency, the lost, and the poor. These sermons raise a lot of questions about practical daily living, which Bro. David was sensitive to address in two open-mic Q&A sessions.

• How do these commands relate to legalism and Christian liberty?
• What should a young person do when their parents forbid them to pursue the potentially dangerous call of God to international missions?
• How does a middle school, high school, or college student live out the urgent call of radical abandonment to God?
• How do we think biblically about college in light of these things?
• How do we understand our responsibility to our young children alongside our responsibility to the nations?
• Isn't this teaching a works-based salvation? Is that the same thing as "Lordship salvation"?

Much more is addressed, and you may not agree with every answer given (as I don't), but I trust these Q&A sessions will help you deal seriously and practically with the radical demands of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on your life. Please listen to the sermons first!!! It's critical that we don't bypass the biblical principles and skip straight to the practical applications, though that is the tendency we all have. We don't need an upgraded list of do's and dont's to legalistically obey! We need radically changed hearts toward God and toward all people, from which will freely flow actively obedient love.

So if you've already listened to the sermons, I submit for your further edification, these Q&A sessions from the Church of Brook Hills website.

Q&A Session 1, October 15, 2008: Audio
Q&A Session 1, October 15, 2008: Video

Q&A Session 2, October 26, 2008: Audio
Q&A Session 2, October 26, 2008: Video

I Can't Urge You Strongly Enough...

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. - James 1:27

Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard. - Proverbs 21:13

Last Friday I dared you, my readers, to listen to these sermons by David Platt. I posted links to all eight sermons, though at the time I'd only heard the first two and part of the third. Yesterday I finished listening to all of them, and I've changed my mind. I'm no longer daring you to listen to them.

Now I'm begging you.

I've never heard a sermon series like this before in my life. And though Bro. David entitled the series "Radical," (because their message truly is radical to our society,) yet in a greater sense, they're not radical... they're simply biblical.

Please. I'm really begging you. I don't remember the last time I've begged anyone for anything but to repent and believe the Gospel. (And in a way, that's what I'm begging for now.) Please please please. We need to hear this. The Church should never be afraid of hearing what God's Word actually says, because we know that by obeying God we draw closer to Him in fellowship, are more conformed to the image of His Son, and store up greater treasures in heaven. Christian sacrifice is not sacrifice at all. It's all gain. You have nothing to lose.

I've been encouraging everyone I talk to listen to this. When you've listened to some or all of it (though I encourage you to listen to each sermon, because questions and/or objections you may raise in response to some of the earlier sermons are answered in later ones,) I'd love to hear from you. Your comments are most welcome. May God be glorified in ways we never imagined.

In The Way He Should Go

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." - Deuteronomy 6:6-7

This weekend I went out of town to visit some friends, including my dear brother in Christ, Zach Snow. Zach and his wife Jessica have three children: a four-year-old boy, a two-year-old girl, and a baby girl. As part of their regular family worship times around the reading of the Word of God, they're also teaching their two oldest children the "Catechism for Young Children: An Introduction to the Shorter Catechism." Yes, that one. Yes, it's 145 questions long. And yes, they plan to follow it up by teaching them The Westminster Shorter Catechism.

And lest you think that's an unrealistic goal of young, idealistic parents, their four-year-old son gladly and correctly answered each of the first fifty-six or so questions I asked him. Fifty. Six. Questions. Answered rightly by a four-year-old boy. And these are not the typical modern-day Sunday School questions and answers. For example:

Q. 33. What befell our first parents when they had sinned?
A. Instead of being holy and happy, they became sinful and miserable.

Q. 34. Did Adam act for himself alone in the covenant of works?
A. No; he represented all his posterity.

Q. 35. What effect had the sin of Adam on all mankind?
A. All mankind are born in a state of sin and misery.

Q. 45. What did Christ undertake in the covenant of grace?
A. To keep the whole law for his people, and to suffer the punishment due to their sins.

Q. 48. What is meant by the Atonement?
A. Christ's satisfying divine justice, by his sufferings and death, in the place of sinners.

Oh, and their two-year-old daughter can answer the first 20 or so questions. Yeah.

Zach has planned ahead and changed questions 129 and 130 as follows:

Q. 129. Who are to be baptized?
A. Believers. [not "Believers and their children"]

Q. 130. Should infants be baptized? [not "why should infants be baptized?"]
A. No, because they have not repented of their sins. [Rather than, "Because they have a sinful nature and need a Savior."]

These corrections actually make the catechism more consistent with itself (and Scripture!), as question 127 asks, "What does this [water baptism] signify?" and answers, "That we are cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ."

Do the children understand the words they're reciting? Not yet. And mere recitation of facts is not evidence of biblical conversion, though you wouldn't learn that from most modern pulpits. Yet these faithful parents are carefully laying a massively solid foundation of truth in the young minds of their children, that God may, in His time and by His sovereign grace, move through that biblical truth and regenerate their souls. I praise God for their faithful refusal to lead their children through an empty "sinner's prayer," but are teaching them to desire and seek biblical salvation, marked by true repentance of sin and faith in Christ through the cross.

To paraphrase my brother Zach, "Why are we [Christians] John Piper to the world and Joel Osteen to our children?" Your children are capable of much more than you may think. Are you being diligent to teach them?

The Radical Demands of the Gospel

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple... So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple." -Luke 14:25-27, 33

I DARE you to listen to this sermon by David Platt, pastor of the Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. I don't say that to be cute or catchy. I dare you to listen because I know how easy it is to not click on a link and listen to a sermon, especially when you see a passage like the one quoted above associated with it. I dare you because I know that our sinful flesh recoils at the thought of self-denial, earthly sacrifice, dangerous risk, and complete abandonment to God. I dare you because the absolutely necessary prerequisites of salvation which Jesus commands are all but totally ignored in American Christendom, yet YOUR ETERNAL SOUL will experience either eternal joy in God's presence or eternal torment under God's wrath, depending on whether or not you accept Jesus on His terms!

Jesus is worthy of reckless abandonment to Him! God is supremely satisfying to those who have left all for the treasure of Him! We dare not settle for risk-less, heartless, safe, empty Christianity! If we do, we will miss out on Jesus!

If you can stomach the first sermon, What the Gospel Demands, here's the rest of the series. (I'm listening to the third sermon now.)
2: The Gospel Demands Radical Sacrifice
3: The Gospel Demands Radical Compassion
4: The Gospel Demands Radical Urgency
5: The Gospel Demands Radical Giving
6: The Gospel Demands Radical Abandonment (Part 1)
7: The Gospel Demands Radical Abandonment (Part 2)
8: The Gospel Demands Radical Abandonment (Part 3)

Update: Follow-up blog post here.
Update 2: Another follow-up post here.

You can also download the videos, audios, sermon notes, and small group study guides of these sermons here.

A Prayer Request

This weekend I had the distinct privilege of hanging out with the staff of Heartcry Missionary Society, including Bro. Paul Washer who also preached at my church, (rather, the Lord's church, of which I am a member - New Life Baptist in Harvest, Alabama.) This was a great time of fellowship and encouragement for me, just discussing missions, preaching, the Word of God, and what God is doing in our lives. It's my understanding that the staff is travelling today to a location which may become the home of their new church plant and the new Heartcry base of operations. I invite any Christian brothers and sisters who will to pray with me that God would give them clear direction, abundant provision, and wide open doors for ministry.

Also, Bro. Paul's message Sunday morning on the cross of Christ was absolutely tremendous. I plan to post it here as soon as it's available.

Cling to Christ for Sanctification

"...In [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge... For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him..." -Colossians 2:3, 9-10

As I stepped down from the pulpit this past Wednesday after preaching the sixth sermon of a series through the book of Colossians entitled "Christ Our Sanctification," I was met by a dear sister in Christ who wanted to speak to me. Her eyes filled with tears as she shared with me that the teaching she'd received about sanctification for most of her Christian life has been works-based, man-centered externalism. She was not taught to rest by faith in Christ unto sanctification, although that is how she was taught to receive Him for salvation.

"As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." -Colossians 2:6-7

She was deeply moved with both sorrow and joy as we talked about abiding in Christ to bear spiritual fruit (John 15:5) and how God produces sanctification in us through faith in the Gospel of His Son. She sorrowed that she hadn't seen the Gospel as full provision for her sanctification sooner. She rejoiced because God was setting her free to truly find continued rest in Christ.

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." -Matthew 11:28-30

I pray that this biblical truth will prove liberating for many more Christians, as it certainly has for me.

"No, Mr. President" - Piper to Obama on Abortion

Suffering and Gospel Sanctification

"I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church..." - Colossians 1:24 (see also 2:1-3)

In this fifth sermon* in the ongoing series through Colossians, "Christ Our Sanctification," we see something about the role of joyful Christian suffering for the Gospel that is both obvious and yet almost shocking. The Holy Spirit through Paul says that the joyful suffering of one Christian for the Gospel is a catalyst both for the salvation of the lost and for the sanctification of other Christians. Are you making use of this great benefit which God has given you in the sufferings of His saints from the first century until now? Have you considered how God would have you glorify Him in your sufferings, both to bring in the lost and to edify the saints?

God certainly uses our sufferings for our own spiritual benefit, so to avoid suffering for the Gospel is to cause one's self spiritual harm. But if God also uses our sufferings for the Gospel for the spiritual benefit of others, then to avoid that suffering is unloving.

"I'm trading comfort for human life, and that's not just murder, it's suicide." - Derek Webb

*I'm deeply indebted to Pastor John Piper, whose clear exposition of Colossians 1:24 in his book "Desiring God" has proven invaluable to me. Much of the content of this sermon I learned from him in that book.

Worshipping or Parroting?

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." -John 4:23

Just a quick thought for the day, a quote from last week's sermon: "God is seeking worshipers in spirit and in truth, not parrots of sound theology in word and in hypocrisy."

Sound doctrine is essential to worship, but you can be orthodox without truly worshipping God. Are you enamored with the beauty of Christ today? Are you rejoicing in the glory of your Creator and Redeemer? Are you truly worshipping Him, or are you content merely to believe true things about Him?

Faith, Hope, Love, and Martyrdom

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13

"And they overcame [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." -Revelation 12:11

A few weeks ago I was thinking about faith, hope, and love. All three are mentioned in Colossians 1:4-5, which got me thinking about 1 Cor. 13:13 and why it is that Paul says that love is greater than faith and hope. We as Christians are saved by faith and we live by faith; we'll be saved if we're not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which we heard (Col. 1:23); and we glorify God and fulfill the whole Law by loving God and loving our neighbor as our self. How can you rank these three things, Paul?

Then it occurred to me that One Day our faith will become sight and our hope will become experience, but love will only increase for eternity. (I can't imagine that our love for God will remain static while we spend an eternity learning more of His breathtaking beauty and seeing more of the glories of the Gospel of Jesus by which we were saved.) That was a few weeks ago. Fast forward to last night.

Actually, rewind to 1557 in Colchester, England. That's the setting of one short account of Christian martyrdom among several I read last night in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. I love these people. So many of them died singing hymns of praise to Jesus, or preaching the Gospel to the crowd who gathered to watch the "heretic" burn, or praying joyfully to God while lifting fiery hands toward heaven, asking Him to save their murderers. Many kissed the stake at which they would soon burn, and were overwhelmed with joy, speaking of their impending deaths as their "marriage" to Christ.

Enter Elizabeth Folkes, one of six Protestant "heretics" who that day demonstrated the earth-shattering power of the Gospel of the infinitely satisfying Christ--by fire. This is how He glorified Himself in her joyful, horrible, beautiful death:

"But the wicked there attending would not suffer her to give [her petticoat to her mother, who had come and kissed her at the stake, and exhorted her to be strong in the Lord]. Therefore, taking the said petticoat in her hand, she threw it away from her, saying 'Farewell, all the world! farewell Faith! farewell Hope!' and so taking the stake in her arms, said, 'Welcome love!'

"...When all the six were also nailed likewise at their stakes, and the fire about them, they clapped their hands for joy in the fire, that the standers-by, which were, by estimation, thousands, cried 'The Lord strengthen them; the Lord comfort them; the Lord pour His mercies upon them;' with such words, as was wonderful to hear."

Unshakable Faith in the crucified and risen Messiah. Unquenchable Hope in the glories to come. Unashamed Love for Jesus that defies any earthly explanation. This is the power of God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"...In nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." -Philippians 1:20-21

The Ministry of the Mystery of God

I've been preaching a series of sermons through Colossians entitled, "Christ Our Sanctification." The fourth sermon, "The Ministry of the Mystery of God," is now online (Col. 1:24-29). Are you seeking daily to express your love for Christ by ministering His Gospel to both the lost and the saved where He has you?