12 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

The Old Testament of Grace

Author: Elijah Layfield

“The central theme of the Old Testament is redemption by grace. But incredibly, the Pharisees entirely missed it. In their rigid emphasis on religious works, they deemphasized the truth of God’s grace and forgiveness to sinners, evident throughout the Old Testament. They stressed obedience to law, not conversion to the Lord, as the way to gain eternal life. They were so busy trying to earn righteousness that they neglected the marvelous truth of Habakkuk 2.4: ‘The righteous will live by his faith.’ They looked to Abraham as their father but overlooked the key lesson of his life: ‘He believed in the Lord; and [the Lord] reckoned it to him as righteousness’ (Gen 15.6). They scoured the psalms for laws they could add to their list, but they ignored the most sublime truth of all-that God forgives sins, covers transgressions, and refuses to impute iniquity to sinners who turn to Him (Ps. 32.1-2).  They anticipated the coming of their Messiah but closed their eyes to the fact that He would come to die as a sacrifice for sin (Isa. 53.4-9). They were confident that they were guides to the blind, lights to those in darkness, correctors of the foolish, and teachers of the  immature (cf. Rom. 2.19-20), but they missed the most basic lesson of God’s law: that they themselves were sinners in need of redemption” (John MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus, 56).

10 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

The Sermon of a Lifetime

Author: Elijah Layfield

“If the process of preparing sermons is so elaborate, I have sometimes been asked by ordination candidates and young preachers, how long does it take to prepare a single sermon? The question has always flummoxed me, because it is impossible to give a simple reply. Probably the best answer is ‘your whole lifetime’, because every sermon is, in a way, a distillation of everything one has learned hitherto; and is a reflection of the kind of person one has become over the years” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, 258).

8 Mar 2010, Comments (0)

The Dangers of Mixing Theology and Sin

Author: Elijah Layfield

“No matter how intelligent, if the student does not continue to pray for God to give him or her an understanding mind and a believing and humble heart, and the student does not maintain a personal walk with the Lord, then the teachings of Scripture will be misunderstood and disbelieved, doctrinal error will result, and the mind and heart of the student will not be changed for the better but for the worse” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 33).

4 Mar 2010, Comments (3)

Holiness is Hard

Author: Brian

Holiness is hard. Or, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that growing in holiness is hard. No. What I mean to say is that when God breaks my pride and reveals my depravity, it hurts. The pain can be strong and the wound may run deep.

I love the passage in Philippians 2 which exhorts us to:

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Phil 2:5-8 NKJV)

What a beautiful picture of humility! I have long loved that passage and have set it before my eyes as a goal for humility in my own life. In the midst of a recent period of prayer and fasting, God made my lack of humilty and the strength of the “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16 NKJV) in my own life very real. He was gracious in making me aware of this and merciful in granting me repentance. For that I am grateful, but though the surgeon’s scalpel cuts for the purpose of healing, the cut produces pain nonetheless.

Jerry Bridges’ book, The Pursuit of Holiness, speaks in chapter 13 of the role our desires play to influence our will:

“God most often appeals to our wills through our reason, sin and Satan usually appeal to us through our desires… Knowing that Satan attacks primarily through our desires, we should watch over them diligently and bring the Word of God to bear on them constantly. This is not ascetism; it is spiritual prudence.” (ch 13, pp 127)

Here are some scriptures to which Bridges directs the reader to guide our process in “watch(ing) over them (our desires) diligenty”:

“flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness” 2 Timothy 2:22 ESV

“be transformed by the renewal of your mind” Romans 12:2 ESV

“seek the things that are above” Colossians 3:1 ESV

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 ESV

Though the process is painful, the pursuit of holiness and the pursuit of God is well worth the effort. Brothers, let us not grow weary and continue to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14 NKJV).

2 Mar 2010, Comments (1)

A Cheap Formula for Selfish Gratification

Author: Elijah Layfield

“If we look upon worship only as a means of getting something from God, rather than giving something to God, then we make God our servant instead of our Lord, and the elements of worship become a cheap formula for selfish” (Warren Wiersbe, Real Worship, 28).

The key to this quote is in the word only.  If we only worship as a means to get something. In fact, we are receiving when we worship.  Our aim in receiving should be God himself, not the things he gives.  We can worship through the things that he gives be delighting in the One who has given them.  But, it is never selfish to worship God to receive God.  That’s the reason you were created.  He is glorified when we indulge in him.

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