Winter 2010

Apologetics 2:
The Reason for God by: Timothy Keller
Led by T.J. Weaver
Location:  Room #304
Cost for book:  $15

Overview:  How do you ‘contend for the faith’ in our skeptical culture?  Tim Keller gives us the reasons for believing in our Almighty God and how to defend your faith in Him.  This class will strengthen your resolve and your love for God while equipping you to give a defense for Him.  You’ll enjoy understanding the ‘reasons for God’ for yourself and to share with your circle of influence.

Theology 2:
Christian Beliefs: Twenty basics every Christian should know
by: Wayne Grudem
Led by Randy Breedlove
Location:  Room #302
Cost for book: $9

Overview:  This guide to twenty key Christian beliefs is a condensed version of Grudem’s larger volume on systematic theology.  You will learn about the Bible,
characteristics of God, the purpose of the church, election, what will happen when Christ returns, angels/Satan and demons, and much more.  This class is a must for
every Christian serious about deepening their understanding of their faith.

Christian Worldview
Book:  Total Truth by: Nancy Pearcey
Led by Ben Robinson
Location:  Room #329 (Adult 3)
COst for book:  $15

Overview:  A Christian worldview is necessary for any person who wants to live a Christ-honoring life in a secular society.  This course will apply biblical truth to many areas of public life (law, education, business) that many in the culture consider ‘off limits’ to the church.  The benefit of cultivating a Christian worldview is that believers can know Jesus more intimately as Lord over every aspect of their lives.

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

In answering this question, we must consider two different aspects of time and link them to the biblical perspective of God’s sovereignty.  First, in the moment or in the short-term, we must acknowledge that all men (unsaved or saved) continuously fall short of the glory of God.  We sin, and therefore we continually fail to fulfill our purpose of bringing God the glory that He deserves and requires.  When we are saved and the grace of Christ is operative within us, we recover our purpose and our ability to glorify God as His image-bearers, but on this side of heaven, we will often still fall short.

Because sin is an ever-present reality in this world, we must concede that in the short-term or in the moment, God is often not being glorified as He should be.  However, that does not mean that God’s ultimate glory is ever ultimately in question or is ever ultimately diminished.  Our God is sovereign, and therefore He continually operates in the short-term to guide the course of human history toward the accomplishment of His long-term purpose which is His greatest glory.  How does He operate?  By causing all things, whether good or bad from our human perspective, to serve His glory.

Consider the words of Isaiah 46:9-10: “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.”  Also Lamentations 3:37-39: “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it; Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?”  Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?

What this means is that where we obediently manifest acts of righteousness for the glory of God, we should give thanks to God in Christ who is at work in us to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:12-13)  We are responsible to labor for His glory (verse 12), and it is our delight to reap the blessings and rewards of obedience (1 Cor 3:14), but any good in us originates with Him.

In regards to sin, we are certainly responsible for our own disobedience and the consequences thereof, and we will definitely be held accountable by God for how we failed to glorify Him.  Yet God will still be glorified in how He orchestrates and redeems even our sin and its consequences to serve His sovereign purpose.  Remember, He works ALL THINGS together for good to those who love Him (Rom 8:28) because He is constantly working all things together for His own glory (Isa 48:11); His greatest glory IS our greatest good.

Even as the religious leaders were committing their most heinous sin – the crucifixion of Christ – God was accomplishing through them His most glorious victory.  In Acts 4:27-28, Peter said, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur.”  As Joseph acknowledged before his brothers, what men meant for evil, God used for good. (Gen 50:20).

In theological terms, this means we live in the best-of-all-possible worlds.  At any given time, the choices of 6+ billion people and the circumstances of an infinite number of variables could result in an infinite number of different outcomes and realities.  But our God, who is the Alpha and the Omega, governs the course of history so that He will ultimately receive the greatest glory.  He constantly orchestrates the function of His creation and the free expression of men’s wills to bring about the best-of-all-possible worlds where He receives ultimate glory.

This reality should by no means lead us to a fatalistic sense of irresponsibility in terms of our actions and choices.  On the contrary, it should lead us to rejoice in the glorious purpose of our Father.  We are privileged to know the blessings of His work in us and all around us.  When the harvest of righteousness bursts forth, praise Him.  When we falter and fail, run to Him for forgiveness and praise Him, for His glory is assured!  I love you all.

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

All of us have had difficulty forgiving someone at some point in our lives.  Perhaps we suffered injury over something small; maybe we have held a grudge against someone because of a perceived slight, an unkind word, or a harsh action.  For others, the issues are much, much greater.  Some have suffered incredible forms of abuse, been neglected or abandoned, severely taken advantage of, personally degraded, professionally shunned, or financially ruined.

Regardless of the circumstances or the degree to which we have been injured, the command and call of God upon our lives is to forgive those who have sinned against us.   But forgiveness is not easy; to battle against our fleshly tendencies and extend forgiveness is a struggle common to all believers.  As with every other struggle we face, it is important for us to look to God and His Word for His guidance to meet this challenge.  Thus, I wanted to recap Sunday’s sermon by reiterating some of the practical biblical directives on the subject of forgiveness.

1.  We must forgive because our God is a forgiving God.  As God’s children through faith in Christ, we are called to reflect God’s Person, and because He is a forgiving God, His people must also be characterized by a willingness to forgive.  There is nothing that could ever be done to us that compares to the innumerable number of heinous sins we have committed against God.  Every one of us has blasphemed His name, spit on His grace, and trampled His holiness.  Yet He has forgiven us, though we do not deserve it; so we must likewise extend this same grace to those who have sinned against us.  To harbor bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness against another after being forgiven so much is to act like a lost person, not a saved person.  (Matt 18:23-35, Eph 4:32)

2.  Forgiveness is the clear command of Scripture.  In Matthew 18:21-22, Christ taught Peter that there was no limit to how many times he should forgive the brother who sinned against him.  God has furthermore told us that we are to love our enemies.  He has commanded us to be merciful, kind, and loving.  To withhold forgiveness is to directly disobey God’s Word and to quench His Holy Spirit. To continue unrepentantly in unforgiveness and bitterness invites God’s discipline, and it may mean that you were never truly saved.  On the other hand, to grant forgiveness embodies the very person of Christ who even prayed on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

3.  Unforgiveness does more harm to us than the one who has hurt us.  Some people hurt us without knowing it.  Those who hurt us intentionally and maliciously often don’t care.  In both situations, we can end up harboring a bitterness that literally rots our souls and that even spills over to those around us.  Withholding forgiveness does more harm to us than to our adversaries, so we need to release our bitterness and trust that vengeance belongs to God and that He will protect His children.  Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.”

4.  Forgiveness reflects trust in God’s good sovereignty.  In the last chapters of Genesis, we find the story of Joseph, a young man who was beaten and sold into slavery by his family, falsely accused of rape, imprisoned for years in an Egyptian dungeon, and finally risen to a position of prominence second only to Pharaoh.  After Joseph’s father died, his brothers fear his vengeance, but Joseph expressed to them again his forgiveness and trust in God:  “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.  So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.  So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” (Gen 50:20-21)

It is very difficult for us to think that our experiences of suffering and pain are ordained by God to fulfill His purpose, but that is exactly what Scripture teaches us.  Thus, what right do we have to hold a grudge or to be unforgiving when God has ordained our experiences to glorify His name?  Letting our hearts rest in this reality of His sovereign goodness releases us from the bondage of worry and regret and bitterness.  So heed His call and His command, and walk in the freedom of forgiveness!

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

Christians have three great enemies: (1) their own sinful natures, (2) this wicked world-system, (3) Satan and his demons.  Satan uses our sinful natures and this wicked world as the means to tempt us to believe his well-crafted lies and to live in both subtle and open rebellion against God’s good commandments.  Of these three enemies, Satan is the only super-intelligent one.  He is brilliantly crafty and masterfully strategic in all his efforts to deceive us.  Therefore, we must be on guard!

There are two deadly mistakes, however, that Christians make about Satan and his evil forces.  Some Christians overestimate the devil, while others underestimate him.  Christians who overestimate Satan end up putting him at the center of their thoughts and theology, rather than Christ.  Overestimating Satan is actually a form of Satan worship, which we must studiously avoid!  But, underestimating him is an equally perilous danger.  Christians who underestimate Satan run the risk of being ensnared by his deceitful schemes.  We must therefore avoid both overestimating him and underestimating him through rigorous Biblicism.  We must know and understand what the Word of God tells us about our enemy.

In order to fight Satan, you have to understand his goals.  Just as Satan’s original goal was to destroy the work of creation, his goal is also to destroy God’s gracious work of redemption.  Satan tries totally to reclaim believers.  He thinks of believers as defectors from his army and that we should be chased down, caught, and reconscripted into his forces.  Even though Satan knows he can never finally succeed in this goal, his impulsively wicked nature is such that he will never stop trying, and because of his relentless efforts, he does achieve certain levels of success.  Satan attacks believers by trying to deceive them, by obscuring their vision of God, by causing them to misunderstand themselves and by blinding their understanding of how sin is at work within them.  Satan tries to get Christians to surrender to their temptations and to lead them into all kinds of lawlessness.  He tries to convince Christians that their sin and guilt make them too bad to drink from the delicious springs of divine grace, that they must clean themselves up before they bathe in Christ’s blood and before they warm themselves under the garment of Christ’s righteousness.  The devil makes us think that our repeated sins disqualify us to receive forgiveness and that we should look away from the gospel to some other idolatrous motive in order to achieve outward obedience.  Satan does all of this under the cloak of darkness and secrecy, working hard not to be detected.  The only way to fight this cunning attack is to feed on God’s Word, flee from sin, be satisfied with and nourished on the grace of Christ, commune with Christ in prayer, and to understand the gospel deeply and never move beyond it.  We must be satiated with Christ himself, realizing that God is not against our pleasure, but that he is for our pleasure in Christ through His glorious gospel of grace!

The weapons God gives us to fight the attacks of Satan are described in Ephesians 6:10-20.  God gives the Christian powerful and effective weaponry.  He gives believers the belt of truth.  Believers must not merely hold the truth of Scripture; rather, they must be held by the truth of Scripture.  Divine truth must “grip” believers, such that they have deep and earnest conviction of it.  God complements the belt of truth with the breastplate of righteousness.  This righteousness is the righteousness of Christ, which alone protects our vital spiritual organs from destruction.  Only the righteousness of Christ can protect us from the devil’s accusations.  The believer’s personal inherent righteousness could never stand against Satan’s charges because it falls far short of the righteousness God requires.  But the believer is protected from being cut to pieces by Satan’s accusations because of the righteousness of Christ, which alone fills up the standard of God’s justice.  God further gives us the shoes of the gospel of peace.  Believers must stand on the gospel, and walk in the gospel, just as we walk in our own shoes.  Unless the gospel undergirds and directs our every step, then we walk in futility.  We must set our minds and hearts firmly on the gospel of Jesus Christ and resolve never to move beyond it, since doing so would strip us of God’s own protection and open us to Satan’s attack.  The gospel, and nothing else, must fill and form the very center of the church’s proclamation and life.  God also provides believers with the mighty shield of faith.  The shield of faith protects us from the fiery deceptive darts of the devil.  When we trust the promises of God in Christ, we are shielded against Satanic deception.  God further supplies us with the helmet of future salvation.  We put on the helmet of salvation by living in light of the hope of future glory!  Satan wants us to think that this fallen world is all important, but God calls us to live in the light of the hope of our inheritance on the last day.  Finally, God gives us the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon in the Christian’s armory.  The word for “sword” here refers to a small sword, which must be wielded with deftness and acute precision.  Believers must study diligently the Word of God to know how to apply it with surgical accuracy such that Satan’s dark kingdom must fall back in defeat.

By: Tom Hicks, Jr.

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church

Rarely do we rightly capture the boundlessness of God’s love in this way anymore.  In our modern Christian sub-culture, we have reduced God’s love to a self-serving sentimentality that makes us the center of God’s universe and diminishes the reality of His holy transcendence.  In the end, we are self-assured of His love for us, but we have completely abandoned the force of its biblical meaning and expression.

It is that reality that I sought to bring us back to as I preached on the love of God this past Sunday.  In the hopes of inviting further meditation on the wonder of His love, I am going to reiterate some of those truths here this week. First, how we define love is critical.  A good starting place is 1 John 4:15-16 which says, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

Notice the heart of those verses:  GOD IS LOVE.  He is not just the Creator of love, not just the Source of love, not just the One who teaches us about love – He Himself IS LOVE.  His divine essence and being is love.  Our triune God has existed for all eternity in the perfect loving community of Father, Son, and Spirit.  This joyful love is a central aspect of His being, and thus it is a relational force overflowing from the Trinity itself, not some mere human emotion brought about in creation.

Secondly, 1 John 4:15 tells us that the only way for any human being to truly know what love is is by abiding in God and by having God abide in him.  Unbelievers may know and enjoy love in its human expressions, but apart from God, they will never know its divine, eternal fullness.  True biblical love, divine love, can never be fully understood or realized apart from confessing that Jesus is the Son of God.  IN HIM, we come to know what love is, for “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)

This verse captures the sacrificial dynamic of love.  God loves and enjoys Himself in all of His triune splendor.  That love overflowed into the act of creation wherein God created a people, made in His image (with the capacity to relate to Him), to join Him in enjoying His loving splendor for all eternity.  But instead of loving God, we sinned.  We traded the truth of God for a lie; we traded the splendor of His love for idolatry and self-love.  But God laid down His life, He sent His Son as the perfect sacrifice, to reconcile us back to Himself and restore us to the perfect joy of His glorious presence.  THAT IS LOVE!

And that brings us to the definition of love:  Love is the positive expression of sacrificial affection which desires supreme joy for the beloved.  God’s love delights in dying to self to accomplish the supreme joy of the beloved.  AND WHAT IS SUPREME JOY?  God Himself.  God loves us so much that He gives us Himself, for He Himself is the most supreme joy imaginable.  He sacrificed Himself to insure that we would enjoy the glory of His splendor forevermore.

John Piper said, “The love of God is not God’s making much of us, but God’s saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy.”

SOURCE: Morningview Baptist Church