Here are some quotes from Chapter 5 of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion entitled, “THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD CONSPICUOUS IN THE CREATION, AND CONTINUAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.”
Let each of us, therefore, in contemplating his own nature, remember that there is one God who governs all natures, and, in governing, wishes us to have respect to himself, to make him the object of our faith, worship, and adoration.
In regard to his power, how glorious the manifestations by which he urges us to the contemplation of himself; unless, indeed, we pretend not to know whose energy it is that by a word sustains the boundless fabric of the universe—at one time making heaven reverberate with thunder, sending forth the scorching lightning, and setting the whole atmosphere in a blaze; at another, causing the raging tempests to blow, and forthwith, in one moment, when it so pleases him, making a perfect calm; keeping the sea, which seems constantly threatening the earth with devastation, suspended as it were in air; at one time, lashing it into fury by the impetuosity of the winds; at another, appeasing its rage, and stilling all its waves. Here we might refer to those glowing descriptions of divine power, as illustrated by natural events, which occur throughout Scripture; but more especially in the book of Job, and the prophecies of Isaiah.
By the knowledge thus acquired, we ought not only to be stimulated to worship God, but also aroused and elevated to the hope of future life. For, observing that the manifestations which the Lord gives both of his mercy and severity are only begun and incomplete, we ought to infer that these are doubtless only a prelude to higher manifestations, of which the full display is reserved for another state. Conversely, when we see the righteous brought into affliction by the ungodly, assailed with injuries, overwhelmed with calumnies, and lacerated by insult and contumely, while, on the contrary, the wicked flourish, prosper, acquire ease and honour, and all these with impunity, we ought forthwith to infer, that there will be a future life in which iniquity shall receive its punishment, and righteousness its reward.
For in regard to the fabric and admirable arrangement of the universe, how few of us are there who, in lifting our eyes to the heavens, or looking abroad on the various regions of the earth, ever think of the Creator? Do we not rather overlook Him, and sluggishly content ourselves with a view of his works? And then in regard to supernatural events, though these are occurring every day, how few are there who ascribe them to the ruling providence of God—how many who imagine that they are casual results produced by the blind evolutions of the wheel of chance?
Twelve hours after the final session of Resolved 2009 had ended, when Enfield had performed its final song of worship, I contemplated why the conference is able to have such a mighty impact upon my soul. Why do I feel more alive and more whole? And then I realized it, I realized why a simple four day conference is able to have a lasting effect upon my heart. Because for moments, sometimes fleeting, my faith becomes sight. For moments I experience God, not just emotionally, not just spiritually, mentally or physically, but all of them and more. As I sing praises to the Lord a joy fills me that could only be of His doing. When one of the speakers says something profound my heart and mind scream out in overload as they are unable to comprehend the simple touch of an understanding of who God is. At Resolved my soul is lifted up into the heavens before I have been called home.
Why does Resolved have this effect on me? Because of the sovereignty of God, because of the glory of God taught, breathed and lived at the conference. The gloriousness of God’s sovereignty is made clear and my heart cries out “Holy is the Lord!” As I wrote in my notes after John Piper spoke on God’s Sovereignty Over Satan’s Fall, “I Love God so so Much!” And All to His Glory.
Now to my recap:
Resolved 2009 focused on sin. Yes, nearly 4,000 college-aged students (with a smidgen of older and younger) went to a conference on sin, and not just an American Christian view of sin, but a Puritan Calvinist version of sin. Think about that for a moment. In the culture we live in, such a number should cause one to drop to their knees in worship for it is only by God’s grace.
Going in I expected to be hit over the head with a holy baseball bat Jonathan Edwards style, but instead the speakers focused on equipping us to battle sin.
After Rick Holland started the conference off Friday night with an introduction, Steve Lawson dived right into the topic, preaching out of Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Using an illustration of the great depression, with days nicknamed as black, Lawson declared that the great depression is nothing compared to the black day when Adam sinned against God.
We are spiritual beggars, spiritually homeless, before God said Lawson, and we must file for spiritual bankruptcy in heaven. Connecting verse three with verse six, Lawson said, “you will never hunger for righteousness, you will never thirst for righteousness, without being poor in spirit first.” Quoting Alexander Maclaren, Lawson said, “All that the world commends and pats on the back, Christ condemns, and all that the world shrinks from and dreads, Christ bids us make our own, and assures us that in it we shall find our true blessing.”
Poor in spirit does not mean poverty of money, nor personality. It does not say blessed are the bland. Poor in spirit is “to recognize one’s own spiritual state before [a holy God].”
Later that night C.J. Mahaney unpacked Philippians 2:12-13, calling us to stop praying to God to do all the work and “stir what we got.” We must be active in our sanctification even though we are ultimately passive because, as verse 13 states, it is God who is really at work.
I unfortunately missed Lawson’s sermon on Sunday morning, but having listened to the mp3 I can agree with what my friends and Holland said, that this was the greatest sermon Lawson has ever preached. Speaking on Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” Lawson authoritatively instructed us to focus on our hearts, for sin begins and ends at the desire of the heart.
I also missed John MacArthur’s sermon on Sunday night, though from what I have heard it was nearly identical to his sermon on creation, evolution and global warming at the Shepherd’s Conference.
Sunday night John Piper took to the pulpit and did as he always does, left the attenders in awe of the sovereign majesty of God. Starting off, Piper made the assertion that “every time God does one thing to you He does a million.” The consequences of one act of God upon the universe, specifically to us, are countless, and God has perfectly calculated it all. From there Piper showed the sovereignty of God in Satan’s fall, declaring that God is sovereign over sin yet remains impeccably holy and that everything exists for Christ.
But the quote of his sermon was this, paraphrasing, God does not disarm Satan and destroy him now because by foregoing brute power and working through the death of His Son, Christ is more glorified.
Monday morning Holland gave six Biblical ways to assure purity.
1.Undertake the pursuit of Biblical instruction
(a)Your soul can be preached to by your mind
2.Undress the deception of sexual sin
3.Understand the value of safe distance
(a)It is not how far can I go but how holy can I be.
4.Unmask the regret of sin’s aftermath
(a)You cannot out sin God’s grace
5.Unlock the satisfaction of marital fidelity
(a)Psalm 84:11
6.Unleash the power of God’s omniscience
MacArthur followed with a sermon on the role of Pastors, asserting that Pastors are called to shepherd the flock, not forsake the people of God for the unbeliever, and that scripture is for the elect, the redeemed, and not for the unbeliever for the unbeliever cannot respond to Christ unless regenerated. Therefore, churches who do not preach scripture because they fear it will drive away non-believers are sinning.
In the first of Monday’s night sessions, Mahaney returned to preach about spiritual depression focussing on Psalm 42. Mahaney introduced his sermon by explaining how we talk to ourselves in our heads more than we do with anyone else and so it is crucial that we stop listening to our ourselves and start talking to ourselves.
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself rather than talking to yourself, talking truth to yourself, preaching the gospel to your soul.
Taking it back to the cross as he always does, Mahaney declared, “The psalmist felt forsaken by God, Jesus was forsaken by God.” And, “He was forsaken so we might be forgiven.”
Finishing the conference Piper used Genesis 50:20 to show how the second use of meant does not mean use, it does not say “but God [used] it for good.” Then going to 1 Samuel 12, Piper asked the question “Why give Israel a King,” and Piper answers: One, the kingship in Israel belongs to God, two, to place a line of kings who would fail, except Christ, and three, not only did the king have to be God, he had to die. Moving on Piper asked the question, “why does Satan enter Judas? Why is he leading Christ to Satan’s own end?” Because he saw after three years he could not stop Jesus and because sin is irrational and if you were rational, you wouldn’t sin rationally.
Piper made three profound statements.
God foresaw and did not prevent and therefore ordained that sin come to pass.
If God did not have a hand in the sin that led to the cross there is no gospel.
Paraphrasing: In ordaining the fall (Adam’s sin), Babel, and treason leading to human kings that leads to Christ, all that sin is in order that you might be conformed to Christ.
So that was Resolved 2009. You can download the mp3’s here.
Enfield’s new CD is available on Amazon here as well as this must own song from Sovereign Grace Ministries.
Just got back from Palm Springs, another amazing Resolved conference has come and gone and as always, my heart remains in the heavens praising the name of God in a far much greater intensity than before.
I am planning on posting later today recapping the conference with my favorite quotes, topics and thoughts. So check back tonight.
Take a look at your soul, it might just save you. Sit down, dig deep and stay long. Your soul may still be destined for wrath. Wrestle with the Lord, open your heart, examine its state, face the fear. Do you truly love God? Do you truly love holiness? Are you willing to give up everything, anything, all things, for Christ? Do you still struggle in continual sin? Are the sins of your past still weighing down your heart? Are you empty, broken, lost? Does it seem as if God isn’t there? Do you doubt? Does death frighten you? Is your faith in your mind or your heart?
Your salvation is secure and the above symptoms may just be a sign of trial, struggle or growth. But it is wise to be cautious. The symptoms may be a sign of a much larger problem. Set aside a day, an hour or two, to contemplate your heart’s state. Do it today, for this moment might be your last, and the next might be rejection.
Resolution Three.
Resolved, to contemplate the state of my heart daily so that I might live confidently in its destiny.
I subscribe to a variety of sermon podcasts, from John Piper to Francis Chan, and devote my times at the gym to catching up with my favorite preachers. Often times I find myself stretched by a certain sermon or greatly moved by a particular topic and believe others may greatly benefited from listening as well. So I figured my blog might be a great way to get the word out.
One of my favorite preachers of the day is Steven Lawson of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama. Lawson is a man of great passion for God and always challenges his church to truly live their faith without compromise. In his sermon on Matthew 5:6 (The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount), Lawson does a masterful job explaining what it means to truly hunger and thirst for righteouness.
You can download the sermon here and subscribe to his podcast here.
Every week this summer I plan to write a resolution in the likes of Edwards that I am resolved to do and pray over it each day that the Lord might empower me to be that resolved to be.
Resolution Two.
Resolved, to live as if each moment will be my last, and the next will be at His throne.
To live each moment for the glory of God, which is the first resolution, one is most helped by living with an understanding of the moment. Meaning, if we are to glorify God in all that we do, in every moment of our lives, we must understand and remind ourselves that the moment we are living may be our last, that the sin we may be committing could be our last act on this earth. To live each moment in the understanding of the shortness and unpredictability of life will allow us to fight against our desire to sin and further our desire of God.
Every week this summer I plan to write a resolution in the likes of Edwards that I am resolved to do and pray over it each day that the Lord might empower me to be that resolved to be.
Resolution One.
Resolved, to live every moment for the glory of God, never compromising for selfish motives, less risky endeavors, or a passive attitude.
One must first be resolved to do that which glorifies God because every resolution that follows is built upon it, merely explaining in more detail what the first has already stated.
We must be resolved to live every single moment of our lives for the glory of God. We cannot compromise. There is no excuse. There is no try. We must deny our selfish motives and ambitions. We must fight against the ease of life, doing that which is safe. We must fight against laziness, against passivity, for our life is not our own.
There is no joy outside of His glorification, and we must be willing to risk it all for that glory as Christ did on the cross.
One of my goals this summer is to read through John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. One, because I am an unashamed Calvinist, and two, in preparation for a course dedicated to it I am taking this fall at Talbot. My plan is to blog as much as possible offering quotes from the text and my thoughts.
In the prefatory address, Calvin writes:
… we are (if you will) the mere dregs and off—scourings of the world, or worse, if 6worse can be named: so that before God there remains nothing of which we can glory save only his mercy, by which, without any merit of our own, we are admitted to the hope of eternal salvation: and before men not even this much remains, since we can glory only in our infirmity, a thing which, in the estimation of men, it is the greatest ignominy even tacitly to confess. But our doctrine must stand sublime above all the glory of the world, and invincible by all its power, because it is not ours, but that of the living God and his Anointed, whom the Father has appointed King, that he may rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the ends of the earth; and so rule as to smite the whole earth and its strength of iron and brass, its splendour of gold and silver, with the mere rod of his mouth, and break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel; according to the magnificent predictions of the prophets respecting his kingdom (Dan. 2:34; Isaiah 11:4; Psalm 2:9).
What beautiful words. This is crucial to our lives, that the glory of God reigns above all. And not just reigns, for there is no glory to be found in us apart from the hand of God.
Later Calvin writes of the Catholic church,
Why, then, do they war for the mass, purgatory, pilgrimage, and similar follies, with such fierceness and acerbity, that though they cannot prove one of them from the word of God, they deny godliness can be safe without faith in these things …
We must be ever watchful that we do not allow that which is not found in scripture to rule our lives and our hearts, that we would deny godliness because of acts of man.
Our gospel is not new.
In demanding miracles from us, they act dishonestly; for we have not coined some new gospel, but retain the very one the truth of which is confirmed by all the miracles which Christ and the apostles ever wrought.
So my lack of posts are due to 1. Finals and 2. This Jonathan Edwards paper that is continually kicking my butt. Yet, as I write it, reading over sermon upon sermon of his I cannot complain because my heart is being moved in ways that can only be attributed to the glory of God.
As I was reading one sermon in particular it was as if my heart was being lifted from the body which contains it, into the heavens as the greatness and glory of God became ever more evident in its sight, tears dripping from where there are no eyes, pouring down at the feet of my Lord for His most wonderous nature gloriously present in the work of redemption.
Tedashii’s sophomore album has been pushed back seven days to May 26th, but don’t worry, Reach Records has made it worth the wait by offering two b-sides for free.
Also, for those who don’t know, Noise Trade has a plethora of great music for free, or if you want to support the artists, whatever price you choose. The service, co-founded by Derek Webb, breaks the barriers of the music industry for artists as they get to keep 90 percent of what people pay for their music, compared to the normal 10 percent or below. I recommend The Glorious Unseen, Esterlyn, and Covenant Life Church’s “How Sweet the Sound.”
Sunday night John Piper took to the pulpit and did as he always does, left the attenders in awe of the sovereign majesty of God. Starting off, Piper made the assertion that “every time God does one thing to you He does a million.” The consequences of one act of God upon the universe, specifically to us, are countless, and God has perfectly calculated it all. From there Piper showed the sovereignty of God in Satan’s fall, declaring that God is sovereign over sin yet remains impeccably holy and that everything exists for Christ.