Sermon Notes (091129 AM Service)

“Fruit of the Spirit—The Joy of Christ” 

 Galatians 5:22

Dan Brooks, Pastor

 

Introduction: Read Galatians 5:22-23

I.       The Joy of God

A.     Creation causes God to rejoice. 

1.      Ps 104:31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works

B.     The Servant causes God to rejoice

1.      Is 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

2.      In Christ, God finds His pleasure.

C.     The Son causes God to rejoice.

1.      See Matt 3:17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

2.      What does God see in Christ that gives Him such unparalleled pleasure?

a.       Col 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily

b.      Heb 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

II.    The Joy of Christ

A.     Jesus Christ rejoices in the successful work of His Father.

1.      Lk 10:21-23 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see!

2.      rejoiced in the Holy Spirit: (ἠγαλλιάσατο)

a.       “From ágan (n.f.), much, and hállomai (242), to leap. To exult, leap for joy, to show one’s joy by leaping and skipping denoting excessive or ecstatic joy and delight. Hence in the NT to rejoice, exult. Often spoken of rejoicing with song and dance”^[1]

b.      So the Lord is “full of joy” as the KJV has it.

3.      What makes Him full of joy?

a.       The success of the Father in overthrowing darkness.

i.      The disciples saw demons subject to His authority (17).

ii.      I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

iii.      Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

iv.      Many of these disciples would suffer and give their lives in future ministries!

v.      Jesus sees beyond the immediate day when demons are cast out. He sees to the day that as Col 2:15 describes He will disarm the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him [or in it, the cross].

vi.      He sees beyond the cross to a day that has not yet come, but is predicted in Revelation 12:8-12

vii.      Re 12:7-12 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!”

viii.      Jesus sees beyond the short-term success the seventy have just experienced and sees the successful establishment of his kingdom.

b.      The success of the Father in growing disciples.

i.      In the same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit (21)

ii.      He expresses gratitude to His Father, who is the Lord of heaven and earth, that He has hidden these things [particular truth] from the wise and understanding and revealed it to little children.

iii.      He is rejoicing in things hidden and things revealed!

iv.      He sees the perfect will of the Father unfolding in the lives of these disciples whom he likens to children!

v.      They are discovering the true identity of Jesus Christ.

vi.      Many of us take this for granted because we have known the identity of Jesus Christ since our childhood. But that is a testimony to the fact that you would not have known unless the Son had chosen to reveal Himself to you.

vii.      At the moment they are enamored with spiritual power, but they recognize the source of that power: the demons are subject to us in your name.

viii.      23-24 “Blessed (happy) are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

4.      Point: Seeing the successful plan of the Father to reveal His identity to disciples and to delegate His authority to them so that they might be successful in their ministry is the great joy of Christ’s heart.

a.       What a thought!

b.      Question: How do you think Jesus Christ feels when in your quiet time early in the morning you grasp something of what God is doing in the world to advance His kingdom and you get really charged out of it?

c.       Don’t you think His joy is just as full?

d.      Don’t you believe that He continues to pray things just like Luke 10:21-23 over you and me and every other believer on planet earth this morning?

B.     Jesus Christ rejoices in the successful work of salvation.

1.      Heb 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

a.       Looking to Jesus: (ἀφοραο) “The word ‘looking’ is aphorao (ἀφοραο) ‘to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something.’ The word also means ‘to turn one’s mind to a certain thing.’”^[2]

b.      What do we see in Jesus as we look at Him?

i.      Founder:

ii.      Perfecter:

iii.      Endured the cross:

iv.      Despising the shame:

v.      Seated at the right hand of the throne of God

vi.      . . . We’ve left out a most important part . . .

vii.      Who for the joy that was set before Him

2.      Joy served as one of the great motivations of Christ through His suffering at the cross.

a.       Ill.: I am always amazed at the human capacity for seeking moments of joy. Perhaps nothing illustrates this better than the endless pursuit of sports trophies. Athletes will train for years, disciplining themselves in diet and exercise for a moment of joy.

i.      Most of us are content to watch as spectators and from a distance share in their joy.

ii.      Who here did not watch with fascination as Michael Phelps swam his way into Olympic history in Beijing. The particular moment that stands out in my mind is the 100 meter fly when he nipped Milorad Cavic of Serbia at the wall, beating him by 1/100 of a second.

iii.      Do you remember the look on his face when he realized he had won? And how many of you, like me, jumped from your seat in front of the television and shouted with astonishment and amazement and joy at what you had just witnessed?

b.      Ill.: The mother who gives birth to a child.

i.      After nine months of pregnancy, during which her body undergoes physical changes and intense strain, her life and likely her health will never be the same. And were men to survive the physical pain of child-birth and recovery that women endure, there would be far fewer children born than there are.

ii.      Jn 16:21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

iii.      I am amazed at how many mothers say, “I would do it again if I could.”

3.      χαρᾶς: joy, gladness, great happiness

a.       Something was set before Him which moved Him to endure the excruciating agony of the cross.

b.      A prospect of such weight and substance was set before Him that in comparison the temporary shame and dishonor of false accusations and execution on a Romans cross were things to be held as worthy only of contempt.

c.       Joy was set before Him, but not joy of a trivial or fleeting kind. Joy that could never be diminished, never replaced by something of superior substance or value.

4.      What joy was set before Him?

a.       Certainly there was the joy of healing hundreds and hundreds of sick and infirmed people during His ministry.

b.      Certainly there was the joy of miraculously feeding thousands of hungry people.

c.       Certainly there was the joy of exorcising demons in demonstration of His sovereign authority in the spirit realm.

d.      Certainly there was the joy of watching his disciples grow, of seeing people like Mary Magdalene, Matthew, and Zacchaeus transformed.

e.       There was the joy of preaching the Gospel of the kingdom wherever he went.

f.        But the joy set before Him was not limited to the earthly ministry because it was something that stood on the other side of the cross.

5.      Jud 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

a.       Jesus Christ the great champion of redemption, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Lamb who was slain, will assemble a host of people from the nations. Their number will be so large that no man can number them, people from every tongue, tribe and family of the earth.

b.      The unparalleled joy of our Savior will be to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.

c.       And as the assembly is presented, one thing will be overwhelmingly apparent: every single one of these  people is blameless!

i.      ἀμώμους: spotless, without blemish

ii.      The Lamb without blemish has saved and preserved a people without blemish.

d.      Point: This particular moment is what was always in view!

i.      Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

ii.      See also Eph. 1:4; 5:27; Col. 1:22; Heb. 9:14; Jude 1:24; Rev. 14:5.

e.       What does Christ’s joy look like?

i.      Is 62:5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

ii.      Zep 3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

 

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^[1]Zodhiates, S. (2000, c1992, c1993). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.) (G21). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

^[2]Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1984). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader (Heb 12:2). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Dr. John Dreisbach

Our office just received word that one of our missionaries, Dr. John Dreisbach, went home to be with the Lord yesterday evening. Dr. Dreisbach served as a medical missionary to Africa for years before retuning to the States to serve in an administrative capacity. In all, he was in active missionary service for over sixty years. The film Beyond the Night told the story of the work that he and his wife Bettie carried on.

Even as he advanced in years, Dr. Dreisbach continued to take trips to northern Cameroon to take the gospel to tribes who’d never heard, although his health sometimes prevented him. In an e-mail exchange I had with him almost one year ago, he wrote the following:

I had been tentatively planning a return trip to the Extreme North of Cameroon.  I had hoped that I could go early in ’09; but I was advised, in view of [a recent severe angial attack], to postpone that trip for the time being.  I do trust, if it is the Lord’s will, He will permit me to return to Cameroon sometime in ’09.  I [am one of few missionaries] in the north of Cameroon who speaks the Hausa language; and many of the people in that area, although Hausa may not be their first language, are fluent in that tongue; and I want to be used of the Lord to give them the Good News as long as I possibly can.  Please pray that I will have the mind of the Lord in knowing when and where I should go and that the Lord will direct my paths.  Pray for our GFA [Gospel Fellowship Association] team in the Extreme North of Cameroon as well as another team about 700 miles south by road where there is also a large pocket of Hausa-speaking people.

That is an unwasted life!

In his e-mail to the church office, Mark Batory, director of GFA, writes, “Although we will greatly miss our hero, coworker, and friend, we know that he has great joy in being with his Savior, his beloved wife, and a multitude that he pointed to Him.”

Update from Turkey

Here’s an update on Pastor Carlos and his evangelistic opportunity in Turkey. The following was forwarded to us by one of our missionaries:

Thanks for your prayers so critical helping me yesterday. . . . I’m adding one of the comments from the people who could watch and understand it in Turkish:

“You did a great job Carlos! You were very clear and all your points were very well made. The Holy Spirit spoke through you with power. You were calm, relaxed and friendly! I believe this TV program challenged many and they will be drawn to find out the truth for themselves!”

In the program there were three more attendees, all Muslims, but they didn’t have an aggressive attitude. Of course their approach was full of the typical prejudices. However I believe that it was a great opportunity to show basically three things:

1) I believe that Jesus shined with His uniqueness, both in the Muslims debaters’ words and in my own words.

2) It was clearly demonstrated that Christians are not as ignorant as they thought (believing in the Gospel “without arguments”) and that Muslim scholars’ arguments are filled with prejudices.

3) It was an opportunity to advertise my new book (and the speaker showed it and pointed to it clearly) which is useful to prove arguments against both the liberal theologians and the Islamic scholars attacks to the N.T. (the book is only in Turkish at the moment).

Thanks again for your prayers and support. I’m so thankful to the Lord and to all of you for this opportunity and How He protected me through all your prayers.

As our missionary wrote, “Let us continue to pray for Turks, and of course Albanians, to take the next step and read that dangerous and life-shaking Book.”

Thanks for your prayers!

Sermon Notes (091122 AM & PM Services)

Part 1: Examining the Fruit of Our Lives

Part 2: Love

Galatians 5:22

Dan Brooks, Pastor

Introduction: The word “fruit” brings many thoughts and responses to mind. We think of words like sweet, juicy, tangy, colorful, and satisfying. We begin to think of varieties like berries, melons, citrus, and tropical fruits. They grow on vines, bushes, trees and small plants. They grow low to the ground, high in the trees, in groves, in patches, on plantations and in the wild.

Fruit is the result of a healthy plant, in particular a healthy root system. Spiritually speaking the Lord Jesus himself taught us that we may recognize [others] by their fruits (Matt 7:16).

In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul teaches us that the Spirit of God, the One dwelling in every believer, produces fruit. There are nine characteristics which Paul describes to us, all of which comprise the fruit. One author has written that the fruit of the Spirit “is a nine-point profile of Christ-likeness.”[1] That is certainly consistent with what the Scripture teaches us concerning the work of the Spirit. He is given to us not as Comforter, but as the One who grows us and matures us in Christ-likeness.

Another writes, “The fruit of the Spirit is not a matter of temperament; it is the result of the individual Christian seeking to grow, under the direction and aid of the Spirit, in every area of Christian character.”[2]

One of the reasons that this brief series on the Fruit of the Spirit is so important to us at this time is that we need to be reminded not only that the Spirit is at work in our hearts, but of our responsibility to seek that work and growth.

The Christian life is a life of change. Whether you are six or sixty, the life God desires to see in you is the life of change and growth, of maturity and fruitfulness in the likeness of Christ.

I.       The Fruit of the Spirit

A.  Fruit born in the life of every believer. 

                  1.  Fruit is the product of roots. 

a.  Fruit is the undeniable proof of a plant’s identity.

b.  No one would go to Skytop Orchards and argue that despite the presence of apples in their trees, the trees were actually lemon trees.

c.  There may be different varieties of apples, but there are no lemons at Skytop because there are no lemon trees.

                  2.   The fruit of one’s life is the product of his heart.

a.  Mt 7:16-17 You will recognize them [false prophets] by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

b.  Lk 6:43-45 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

c.  The Lord calls us to examine the fruit of our lives so that we may know what is in our hearts.

3.  In Galatians 5 there is a contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

a.  The fruit stands in contrast to works of the flesh (v. 19-21).

b.  Though the works of the flesh are not described as fruit, there is nonetheless a strong point being made that lives which produce works or fruit like these are not regenerate, born again lives.

c.  Diseased trees bear bad fruit; spiritually diseased hearts bear bad fruit.

4.  The fruit described in Gal 5:22-23 is a unity.

a.  Such fruit is evidence of the new birth and the Spirit-controlled life.

b.  “The word fruit is singular, which fact serves to show that all of the elements of character spoken of in these verses are a unity, making for a well-rounded and complete Christian life.”^[3]

c.  The gifts of the Spirit are many, but no individual seems to possess them all.

d.  1 Co 12:7-11 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

e.  Contrary to this kind of distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is something common to all. The fruit of the Spirit is something to which every believer can and must aspire.

f.  It is not enough to be content with one or two of the nine. As a matter of fact, the nine do not seem to represent an exhaustive list, but rather stand as suggestive of the variety of fruit the Spirit bears in the life of the believer.

g.  Point: We should desire to be a veritable fruit cocktail of the Spirit.

B.  Fruit born by the Spirit: The third Person of the Trinity!

1.  There is something in this passage reminiscent of the words of Christ, Jn 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

2.  Here the Spirit of God is described as the root system of our lives, the Divine presence sent at the departure of Christ so that His people might continue to bear much fruit.

3.   Ga 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. That is, we have life in Him and draw our life from Him. At salvation there is a principle of life that is planted within us. It is God’s intention to grow that principle of life until Christ is perfectly formed in us (Gal 4:19).

4.  What great hope this gives to people who struggle to be what God desires them to be! What hope is here for those who know that their lives are far from being perfectly aligned to the will of God, to those who know that their natural temperaments are nothing close to what is described in this passage.

a.  Every ethnic group has its negative stereotype.

b.  I am of Scotch-Irish, English-German descent.

c.  Here is hope for the pugnacious Scotch in me.

d.  Here is hope for the fighting Irish in me.

e.  Here is hope for the stodgy English in me.

f.  Here is hope for the dominating German in me.

C.  Point: “The fruit of the Spirit is not a matter of temperament; it is the result of the individual Christian seeking to grow, under the direction and aid of the Spirit, in every area of Christian character.”

II.    The Love of the Spirit

A.  Love defined: (ἀγαπη) love, affection, good will

1.  With reference to God, it is His willful choice to actively and personally love mankind.

a.  Seen in God’s intentional choice to love sinners.

i.  Ro 5:8 God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

b.  Seen in God’s intentional choice to love the unloved.

i.  Ro 9:25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”

c.  Seen in God’s intentional choice to love the guilty.

i.  1 Jn 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

ii.  Propitiation is that work of God whereby He makes Christ to be the sacrifice for our sins and turns His wrath fully upon Christ. God exhausts His wrath, fulfills justice and becomes favorably disposed toward us.

iii.  God the Father sends God the Son, the Perfect One who existed in perfect fellowship, no spot of sin, no trace of iniquity in Him, and made Him to be both sin and sacrifice for us that all the righteous demands of the law might be met.

2.  With reference to people, it is our willful choice to actively and personally love others.

a.  Jn 13:34-35 Jesus commands us to “love one another.”

i.  Our culture speaks often about falling in love, as if we had no choice but to love the person who stepped into our path and tripped us, putting us flat on our faces.

ii.  That is not the kind of love that the Spirit produces in us.

iii.  He produces the same kind of Christ-like love that chooses to love others.

iv.  Ga 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

3.  Point: Love is the intentional act of my will to actively and personally love others.

4.  Question: What does that look like?

B.  Love described.

1.  Love is the genuine mark of a believer.

a.  1 Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

b.  Likewise, to hate is a sure mark of death.

i.  1 Jn 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

ii.  1 Jn 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

2.  Love is the personal affection of a believer.

a.  1 Jn 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

b.  People are always the object of this kind of love.

c.  We may love a job, a ministry of service, a recreational activity like football, but things and events are never the objects of this kind of love.

d.  The Spirit bears the fruit of love for people.

e.  The Spirit grows us in personal affection for others.

f.  Application Question: Can a Spirit-filled believer willfully be a hermit? A hermit has no one upon whom he may lavish this kind of love.

g.  Application Question: Does a Spirit-filled believer like being alone more than he likes being with others?

i.  No.

ii.  Who are you personally and actively pursuing?

h.  Application Question: Could your personal loneliness be an indication, not so much that others have rejected you, but that you are not actively seeking the Spirit’s filling and direction so that He works in you He bears the fruit of love for others?

i.  Remember, this is not a matter of natural-born temperament.

j.  Love is the personal affection of the new birth.

3.  Love is the active service of a believer.

a.  Ga 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

i.    Serve: (δουλεύετε) to be in the position of a servant; used of voluntary service.

ii.    The measure of your spiritual freedom, of your Christian liberty is not measured by the length to which you go exercising your freedom of self-indulgence, but rather the length to which you go in order to serve others.

iii.    Mature Christians aren’t bragging about all the stuff they can do.

iv.    We sometimes talk about how much we give up for weaker brothers as a badge of honor, but it’s really frustration and bitterness that we’re venting.

v.    Illustration: Mature parents don’t gripe about how much they give up for their children.

1.)  Everyone knows that parents give up sleep.

2.)  Comfort

3.)  Money

4.)  The cost of education, music lessons, sports teams.

vi.  Point: Our love for our children makes such service a joy.

vii.    The goal of love “is that the man who is called [by God unto salvation] should place his life in love and freedom in the service of his neighbor.”^[4]

b.  Do you want a good read on how free you actually are? Measure the length to which you presently go in order to serve others.

c.  1 Th 2:8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

d.  Point: A Spirit-filled believer doesn’t stand aloof from others, but looks to serve in a way that brings blessing and benefit to them.

e.  Examples of gratitude for HBC servants:

i.  Children’s workers

ii.  Youth sponsors

iii.  Shepherd Group hosts and hostesses.

4.  Love is the sacrificial ministry of a believer.

a.  1 Jn 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

b.  1 Jn 3:17-18 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

c.  Gratitude for HBC’s generosity:

d.  Point: A Spirit-filled believer does not hoard his possessions.

i.  Consider the opportunities for giving right in front of you.

ii.  Giving to your church family is the first and most basic act of Christian love. Giving to individual needs as they rise before you is an elementary act of love.

iii.  God makes you aware of something so that you can act!

iv.  Giving to something like the Holiday Offering.

C.  Application Questions:

1.  Who are you presently serving or sacrificing for?

2.  Think through the relationships that God has given you.

a.  Are you laying down your life for the brothers?

b.  Are you aware of the needs of others and are you actively seeking to meet those needs with an open heart?

3.  “Brotherly love is the only relevant and forward-looking attitude in this time of decision between the cross and the τέλος. It stands under the sign of the cross. It is a readiness for service and sacrifice, for forgiveness and consideration, for help and sympathy, for lifting up the fallen and restoring the broken, in a fellowship which owes its very existence to the mercy of God and the sacrificial death of Christ.”^[5]

III.  Benediction: 1 Th 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. (NIV)

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[1]Packer, J. I., Keep in Step With the Spirit, Revell, 72.

[2]Bridges, Jerry, The Fruitful Life, NavPress, 21.

^[3]Wuest, K. S. (1997, c1984). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader (Ga 5:22). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

^[4]Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (1:50). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

^[5]TDNT, (1:51).

Book Review: The Disciplines of Grace by Jerry Bridges

Title: The Disciplines of Grace

Author: Jerry Bridges

Publisher: NavPress

ISBN: 978-1-57683-9898

Pages: 238

Reviewer: Brad Baugham

What’s the Book About?

Jerry Bridges has been around for a long time. His writings will be around even longer. In the late ‘70s Bridges wrote a book that would soon become a Christian classic: The Pursuit of Holiness. But Bridges was also aware that something in that volume was missing, i.e., the gospel. He took the opportunity to highlight that missing element when he was invited to give a series of lectures on The Pursuit of Holiness. He called one of his lectures: “That Chapter I Wish I Had Written.” Bridges summarizes his theme from that talk: “The nature of that message was that the pursuit of holiness must be motivated by an ever-increasing understanding of the grace of God; else it can become oppressive and joyless” (p. 7). Such thinking on Bridges’ part led him to write another helpful book entitled Transforming Grace. It is here that The Discipline of Grace comes into play.

In The Discipline of Grace Jerry Bridges seeks to wed the need for living by grace (Transforming Grace) with the need for personal discipline (The Pursuit of Holiness). (The full title of the book really brings out this combination of ideas: The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness.) To put it sharply, his point in this book is that “the pursuit of holiness must be anchored in the grace of God (the gospel); otherwise it is doomed to failure” (p. 12). Yes, long before it was cool to talk about being “gospel-centered,” Jerry Bridges was doing it.

What’s in the Book?

The book covers thirteen chapters in 238 pages. The first six chapters emphasize our need for grace. Bridges comes at this in some clever ways, and this is seen clearly in the chapter titles:

Chapter One: How Good Is Good Enough?

Chapter Two: The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Chapter Three: Preach the Gospel to Yourself

Chapter Four: For We Died to Sin

Chapter Five: Disciplined by Grace

Chapter Six: Transformed into His Likeness

Thought not explicitly structured so, the next two chapters (Chapter Seven: Obeying the Great Commandment and Chapter Eight: Dependent Discipline) serve as a transition in the book: Just how are we to live in light of such grace? Helpfully he says it’s not about doing something, so much as responding to something.

The last five chapters flesh out for us in practical ways just how we are to live in light of such grace.

Chapter Nine: The Discipline of Commitment

Chapter Ten: The Discipline of Convictions

Chapter Eleven: The Discipline of Choices

Chapter Twelve: The Discipline of Watching

Chapter Thirteen: The Discipline of Adversity

Highlights

Here are three quotes that should make you sell your Wii and use the money to buy books like this one.

• “The great difficulty with many Christians is that they cannot persuade themselves that Christ (or God) loves them” (qtd. from Charles Hodge, p. 122).

• “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace” (p. 18).

• “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you” (qtd. from John Owen, p. 124).

Why Should You Read This Book?

I can point to three books in my life that fundamentally altered my enjoyment of all God is for me in Christ. The Discipline of Grace is one of them. The first time I ever heard someone talk about the need to “preach the gospel to yourself everyday” was in this book (see p. 8; Ch. 3). The first several chapters may leave you thinking just like the Roman believers did in Romans 6:1: “What?? If all this is really true, then we should sin that grace may abound?” The last several chapters will leave you thinking just like Paul did in Romans 11: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and the knowledge of God.” In the kind providence of God my brother recommend The Discipline of Grace to me, and now in the kind providence of God I recommend it to you. Savor it like you would one of Willy Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstoppers and it just may help you enjoy your Everlasting Life now.

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Purchase The Discipline of Grace and/or its companion Study Guide.

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Brad Baugham pastors Emmanuel Bible Church in Mauldin, SC, Heritage’s third Upstate church plant.

Pray for Turkey

One of our missionaries sent us the following e-mail from “Pastor Carlos” in Turkey. Read below and pray.

Dear brothers and sisters,

I’m writing this update to ask you for some URGENT prayer. As you know my Apologetics book of about 800 pages is being published; it answers Islamic objections from a well-known Muslim writer against the Bible.

Today a National TV channel (HaberTürk) called me to ask me to appear at a live TV debate program this Friday November 20th at 8:00pm local time [1pm eastern standard time]. The program is about the reliability of the New Testament, and will last 2 hours. I will be debating with an Islamic Scholar and a journalist.

Many times in these types of programs awkward and uncomfortable questions may be brought up. So please pray for wisdom and the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to give good answers and an effective witness. I can’t emphasize enough what an important witnessing tool this program will be because it will reach to millions of living rooms.

This will also be an opportunity to advertise the book which is a solid document on the reliability of the Bible. Don’t forget that many souls are looking for Jesus in Turkey but they don’t know if they can trust in His words.

Please pray as well that this won’t have an adverse effect for obtaining my work permit which is being processed right now after our application last month.

I would appreciate it if you could forward this letter to any prayer partners or prayer chains that you may have.  Thank you in advance.

Glorification: The Expected Splendor of the Believer

This week’s two-minute clip comes from the sermon “Glorification: The Expected Splendor of the Believer,” and was preached April 28, 2002. It is the eighth and final sermon in Danny’s series, “The Gospel for Daily Living.” The text is Ephesians 5:26-28:

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Here is this week’s Taste of His Grace: 091118 – Glorification (1 minute, 39 seconds).

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The full sermon is available here.

What is A Taste of His Grace? Read more here.

HT: Mel Friesen and Dave Gerdt.

Sermons (091115 AM Service)

“Delight Yourself In The Lord”

Psalm 37:4

Eric Sipe, Pastor of Evangelism

Introduction

What a year 2009 has been. It is now very quickly drawing to an end. For some of us it was a memorable year—full of many surprises. God was so good to bring into our church family a number of brand new people from around the community. This increase has been a real blessing in so many ways. We have new friends—but more importantly, we have found new glimpses of the glory of God as we each are created in His image and bear witness of that image to all we come in contact with. So, when new folks come and join in with us, we catch a greater vision of God and all of His glory. This is a thrill!

Psa 34:8 says, “Taste and see, that the Lord is good!” In this command there is a purposeful reaching out to God—a pursuing of Him that is on purpose, and for a purpose. This purpose is to ingest all of God and take a personal part of sensing God and savoring God as we would savor a delicious, succulent roast beef and potatoes. It is a plunging yourself into the very hands of God and then “seeing” Him who is invisible. This seeing is proving God—it is putting God to the test, so to speak—recognizing God’s promises and putting them to the test. Is God really God? Yes, of course, that is understood—no, no, my friend, God doesn’t like to be merely ‘understood.’

Taste Him, See Him, and notice, recognize, and become cognizant of that God not only IS, but He IS GOOD! To the self-centered, unbeliever, God can’t be good. Someone who ‘ordains’ suffering can’t be good. This is because self-centered living, unbelief, is shortsighted. People who don’t trust are people who have very few taste buds. They are picky eaters—not in a good sense that they will only eat what is good for them, but they will only eat what they like, not knowing that they are missing out on a whole array of food at God’s banquet table. These people will not enjoy the bittersweet taste of having to trust God because of suffering. They will not grasp the delicacies of answered supplications because of the sorrows of life that have been earnestly prayed over and God has graciously answered with His perfect will.

Our God is nothing, if He is not good! Has this been your experience with our Great God this year? God wants us to know Him—34 times in the OT He says this. But now, we see another level to this knowledge – delighting in the Lord. (READ Psalm 37:4) There are two observations that I would like to make before we get into the text.

1. God and all of His glory impacts us emotionally! This is a bit of surprise to many perhaps today. To many, church, religion, and Bible is a very morose, heavy thing that is a mere duty—and so they do not find delight in it. It is something that is endured, it is a weariness, a necessary evil—let’s just go and get it over with – let’s just do church. This is how they approach church, prayer, Christian friends, and holy living. God certainly is not what life is all about–He is not the end, He is merely a means to an end. The end or goal of life is my own happiness and success, and church, God, religion, is simply one of the many things I do for my own goal of happiness and success. However, this is not the way God has designed it. God wants us to find our greatest delight in Him. Our emotions should burst forth from within with delight when we see Him. To delight means ‘to take pleasure in’ or ‘to bend (Job 40:17—‘He bends His tail like a cedar’—speaking of the Behemoth) or ‘to incline’—to bend toward like a dog toward his master. It is an emotionally packed word that deals with what is going on within a man. God and all of His glory must have impact on us emotionally—it is delight.

2.   God lavishes His desires on those who delight in Him. There are some tensions in Scripture that we must learn to live within and this is one of them. We are to be people of self-denial and willing to be abased and become a servant. And yet, at the same time we are to pursue our desires in Christ through our delight in Him. John Piper calls this Christian Hedonism—(lovers of pleasure). We are to pursue our pleasure and fill all of our pleasure in loving, adoring, honoring and worshipping Christ and God will fill our hearts with His desires! You see, Christianity is not some woeful, drudgery-filled, chain-up-and-fettered religion. Instead, it is a life that does as he desires and pursues his desires passionately because when we have our delight in God, He fills us with His desires and when we live for God we do then what we desire! Our desires are holy, heavenward, and divine and we are free to pursue them passionately. We, of all people are to be passionate people about God and all of His glory.

I want now to ask several questions then about these two observations. Notice with me….

I.    What is this delight? This is not a word that is easily explained—I have tried to give it shape in our first observation, but let’s look a little closer. One writer says this of delight: It is joy, yet is it more, it is joy running over; it is rest, but such a rest as allows of the utmost activity of every passion of the soul. Delight! it is mirth without its froth. Delight! it is peace, yet it is more than that: it is peace celebrated with festivity, with all the streamers hanging in the streets and all the music playing in the soul. Delight! Whereunto shall I compare it? It is a stray word that belongs to the language of Paradise, and when the holy words of Eden flew away to heaven at the fall, this one being entangled in the silken meshes of the net of the first promise, was retained on earth to sing in believers’ ears. This is what delight is—this is how we should find our relationship with our Lord—To be in His presence, to be with His people, to be in fellowship with Him, to read His book, to earnestly pray and commune with Him and to do so in a way that is not like anything else that we think or do. We should come to worship because we delight in doing so! C.S. Lewis made the comment one time, “We are far too easily pleased.” In other words, we have allowed ourselves to find our greatest pleasures in small, mundane, earthy things, rather than the glories of a transcendent, omniscient, eternal God who created these earthy and mundane things. Something is wrong—we are like little children who prefer a matchbox rather than driving a new Porsche. Delight is simply not delight if it is out of duty. One writer wrote this, “Suppose a husband asks his wife if he must kiss her good night. Her answer is, ‘You must, but not that kind of must.’ What she means is this: ‘Unless a spontaneous affection for my person motivates you, your overtures are stripped of all moral value.’” What this writer is saying is that if it is a duty to kiss than there has been no delight in it. This is the way our lives should reflect our love for our Lord! Listen to passages that deal with this delight and describe it: Deut. 28:47-48 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; 48Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. Psalm 43:4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. Psalm 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Psalm 90:14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Our greatest delight, our greatest joy, our greatest emotional charge is not in man or in man-concocted thrills—it is in Christ alone!

II.        What is the object of this delight? It is ‘in the Lord.’ Delight that God is! He is the self-existing God! He is the one who is not dependent upon any other being—for God is! He is the One who does not change—for God is!—not was, nor will be! He is the One then that is past finding out. We will not come to the full knowledge of Him as we are infinite beings. Job 26:14 “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” Just as He is unchangeable in His character, He is also unchangeable in His Word. His promises are sure, for He is sure! It is this same God who said to Moses—“I AM” who then followed that statement with, “I am the God of your fathers.” In other words, I am the infinite transcendent God who has not remained past finding out, but I have revealed myself to generations before you and will continue generations after you—for I AM! Every attribute of God Himself should begin to add delight upon delight. Since He is wise, we should delight in being taught by Him; since He is omnipotent, we should never do things in our own strength but delight to rest in His power and might; since He is holy we should delight in pursuing a lifestyle that despises sin and forsakes our propensity to indulge our flesh. The object our delight is the God of all Ages! Coming to know Him, and coming to explore all of who He is makes our delight in Him all the more worthy of its passion. We indeed are far too easily impressed—and that means that we have such a small view of God. The fact that God forgives opens such a wide view of Him as God promises the repentant person, “None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him” (Ezek. 18:22). Does this not foster delight in a God who has the power not to remember sin against us? Our delight in the Lord or lack of delight in Him and corresponding delight in earthy things demonstrates our lack of understanding, knowledge, trust in, and ultimately love for God!

III.     What promise is there to the one who delights in the LORD? They will get new desires—God’s desires. There is first of all a qualification met here. For those people who find their greatest delight in the LORD, they will get the Lord’s desires. It is not good for God to give us our desires. We should not want our own way! Our own personal desires are so bent on us, on our good, on our passions, based alone on what we think. How far from reality would we be, if we had our thinking alone. Our hearts are so corrupt, that even if we had right desires, we would use them in a wrong way. Genesis 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Notice that in wickedness, even the intents of the thoughts of our hearts have this evil. But, when we begin to delight in the LORD, He changes our very desires. This is indeed where the change needs to begin. When we find our greatest delight in God’s glory alone, there is a corresponding change that begins to take place in the very desires of our heart. This year, our hearts are in desperate need to be changed. It only comes as we find our greatest thrill in God Himself! Spurgeon wrote, When it becomes my duty to be happy, when I have an express command to be glad, then indeed I must be a sinner if I refuse my own joys, and turn aside from my own bliss. Oh, what a God we have, who has made it our duty to be happy! What a gracious God, who accounts no obedience to be so worthy of his acceptance as a gladsome obedience rendered by a joyous heart.” Delight thyself in the Lord.”

Meditation for PM Worship

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

–Acts 2:46-47 ESV

Meditation for AM Worship

We are far too easily pleased.

–C. S. Lewis